"...After playing dead for so long, have some restless fellows finally begun to show their heads...?"
Forces resisting the Mind Flayer Empire.
They had always existed in this world.
It was just that, most of the time, they were merely rats in the gutter.
They simply lacked the strength to challenge the entire Mind Flayer Empire and would die the moment they came into the light.
In the past.
The greatest things they had done were merely raiding a few mines or attacking scattered Mind Flayers in areas far from the cities.
As for their actual threat level.
Compared against one another, they might not even have been more dangerous than some packs of Magic Beasts bold enough to attack frontier cities head-on...
It could be said.
That pack of trash was utterly incapable of accomplishing anything major...
Thus, the Mind Flayer Empire had never really regarded them as anything worth noting.
It merely treated those unruly rebels as free-range livestock.
Whenever it had a need or wished to change its palate, it would harvest them once.
But now, gazing at that distant city which had directly lost contact.
The Mind Flayer King understood very well.
Since the other side had chosen to act, they must either already possess the confidence to stand against the Mind Flayer Empire, or possess some trump card that would let them escape even if they were surrounded and exterminated.
Their level was completely different from those insignificant fish who only knew how to strike opportunistic blows. They were a big fish that had lurked in hiding for a long time!
And between those two possibilities, the latter was far more likely than the former.
Because a force capable of confronting the Mind Flayer Empire head-on.
Should not exist in the world as it currently