He felt his blood boiling. Sharing a glance with the other guards, he could see the excitement in their eyes. It had been too long since they had been in a true life-or-death fight. At their level, such a thing was hard to find. The kind of buzz it gave wasn’t something that drugs or drink could hope to imitate.
***
Tabur made sure that everyone knew their orders and that all of their weapons were ready.
“Advance!” he yelled, using a sound amplification spell. All of his soldiers heard him and they started their advance.
They had a frontage of ten thousand soldiers, with fifteen ranks behind them. In the middle, there were the arrow towers; at the rear, the catapults.
“Once we close the range, have the catapults fire immediately. That will be the signal for the army to charge,” Tabur said.
“Yes, General,” one of the aides said. The information had already been relayed to the troops countless times, their officers and sergeants drilling it into them. They hoped to use the cover of the catapults to stun the defenders, making them go for cover instead of fighting back with ranged weaponry.
***
“Lord, they’re within range,” Pan Kun said.
“Let them get a bit closer. They’re fast, anyway,” Aditya said.
Pan Kun let out a half laugh.
Aditya looked at him with a reproachful look on his face as a grin appeared. He looked back at the battlefield lazily. “It is a good thing that we got those catapults to deal with beast hordes,” he said after some time.
Pan Kun made a noise of agreement.
“Fine. You may use the catapults.” Aditya sighed.
“Catapults, ready!” Pan Kun’s voice snapped through dozens of guards’ communication devices.
Suddenly, on the unadorned wall, twenty catapults appeared. They clipped perfectly into hidden support points as guards on the ground behind the catapults pulled out rocks.
Seeing all of the catapults ready, Pan Kun nodded. “Target their catapults!” He gave them a few more moments as he looked at the approaching enemy lines. The catapults were already loaded; as such, their arms were hard to spot on the walls as they were above the approaching army.
He took some more time as he saw the catapults stop moving. The mercenaries looked at them with new respect as the guards grinned proudly.
“Fire!”
The catapults whirred with the released tension, snapping forward as twenty payloads were hurled forward.
People yelled out at the surprise attack, trying to dodge the scattering rocks and pots that landed among the army, opening up holes in their formations.
“Reload!” Pan Kun barked as the guards were already cranking on the wheels to pull the catapults back.
The fixed catapults had been zeroed in on all of the walls and they were much larger than the mobile versions of the Zatan Confederation army, allowing them greater range and the ability to fire more in one shot.
Three of the catapult crews were taken down; one of the arrow towers was peppered and collapsed. One of the jars struck it and was ignited, turning it into a blazing pylon in the middle of the Zatan army.
The Zatan were left in shock as their plan had already been ruined by Vermire’s first attack.
The people on the wall cheered as they looked at the Zatan.
Some of the Zatan charged forward as others looked for orders. They were used to being the ones attacking and having the upper hand. They fought in the forests and in the streets. Now that they were being attacked from above, they were rushing to find cover, or close with the enemy and make them pay for killing their fellows.
Aditya pulled out a medallion in his hands and started to play with it in his fingers absentmindedly.
Pan Kun knew he had asked for something from a man called Chen and had gotten this medallion in response. He didn’t know what it was for but the way Aditya looked at it, it had to be important.
***
Tabur gritted his teeth as he heard the noises of the catapults and the rain of shrapnel that smashed into their lines.
“Sir, the right flank has started to charge forward,” one of the aides said.
Tabur frowned, they might look powerful and like an army, but at the end of the day, they were a bunch of nomad tribes that had banded together for a common goal.
They were still people who fought according to their tribe instead of military order.
“Sound the charge!” Tabur said.
If they were being out-ranged by their catapults, moving forward would only bleed them slowly.
The orders were passed and the leading edge of the army started to step out. Their lines turned into a mass of scattered people. Still, they were an army of one hundred and fifty thousand. Such a massive force against just Vermire. Tabur could only grimace at their cunning. He would take this battle in the end.
“Watch the flanks to make sure that there are no sneak attacks!” he said to another aide, looking at him.
“Yes, General!”
In the first round, they had already been shown that they shouldn’t look down on Vermire.
He heard the catapults fire again. With the strength of the guards, they were able to arm and fire the catapults much faster than a normal crew, nearly all of them focused on melee fighting, leading to explosive strength.
***
Chen shook his head as he stood in a tree looking over the battlefield.
The first problem with Tabur’s army was that they were made from so many different groups. Calling them an army was inappropriate. They might be able to march, but they looked out for their own interests. It was only the threat of getting their asses kicked by their superiors that kept them in check. They had not been trained to the same standard; they worked well with their tribes but not with others.
Tabur’s idea had been a good one, but it would have been better to send probing attacks. He had the men to do so, but again the first problem rose up: if the different groups thought that he was looking on others more favorably, then there would be a problem in the ranks and it could turn to issues.
So Tabur could only devote all of his forces in one shot or lose command of them.
The others from Alva Dungeon’s forces could only see the result that came from not listening to orders and thinking they were above them all.
It threw cold water down their backs as they, unlike the people in Tabur’s army, knew what would come next.
***
“Prepare the fire arrows. See if the catapult crews can speed it up. Have the crews on the opposite wall start firing once the enemy get into range.”
He looked at the ground as it was churned up. He continued to play with the medallion, looking for the opportunity they needed.
On the wall facing the Beast Mountain Range, guards pulled out catapults and started to fire, clearing the opposite wall and landing on the Zatan army. Rocks and jars slammed into people, killing or wounding them gravely.
The Zatan catapults had been targeted, but there were nearly ten times the number of catapults than on the walls of Vermire.
“It’s not about who has the greater numbers; it is about the strength of those numbers,” Aditya said, reciting something he had once read from a tactician from the Ten Realms.
“It would be weird if we were all matched evenly, like those places beyond the Ten Realms. What a boring place that must be.”
The catapults from the army started to fire, sending their large payloads at the walls. Some missed and fell into the trading outpost’s buildings, making Aditya’s eyes thin. Others hit the walls; the walls held but shook. The unlucky ones were cleared off the walls by the massive stones, leaving openings on the walls.
The attacking catapults were able to suppress the defenders and even hit one of the catapults on Aditya’s side.
“Get a new crew to replace them. Make sure the wounded are getting to the healing house,” Aditya said.
“A few of the healers are among the fighters acting as medi
cs to stabilize the wounded and transport the worst cases to the healing house,” Pan Kun said.
Aditya froze, his gut clenching before he relaxed. It would allow more of his people to survive, but it would put the healers in danger.
Thankfully, it was a decision that they had made and not one he made for them.
“Ranged!” Aditya barked. Archers and mages appeared, readying themselves as the army entered their range scattered.
“Fire!” Ranged spells in the First Realm didn’t have much of a higher range than the weapons that one could find in the First Realm.
Among them there were fire spells and fire arrows.
***
Tabur looked at the arrows and his eyes tracked to the pots and stones that were coming down on his army.
The pots! Tabur thought in panic. He had seen the arrow tower go up in flames and he had seen the ceramic pots among the rocks that were being tossed out by the catapults, but then he had needed to deal with his forces starting to rush forward and the possibility of losing control.
His eyes widened in horror as the fire arrows and fire spells ignited the tar-like slurry that had filled the pots. People had run through there or been covered in it as they charged forward, spreading it across the army.
The fire spread across the ground, setting the soldiers’ clothes and feet on fire. With burned feet, how could soldiers fight?
Thousands were knocked out of the fighting in just moments as ranged arrows and spells continued to fall down. The army had to get closer as they fired back, reducing the ranged firepower of those on the walls.
The rocks and pots that made up the catapult payloads hit the ground. The pots spread their contents, causing flames to shoot up into the sky as people cried out.
The arrow towers got into range; they started to fire at the walls and targeted the catapults.
Even as the catapults on their side were suppressed, the catapults on the opposite side of the trading outpost fired their payloads overhead.
“Call them back! Now!” Tabur yelled to his aides.
Horns started to call out to the fighters as they turned and started to fall back.
Fire already covered the battlefield. By throwing more troops into this, Tabur would just lose them. Pulling them back, he could treat the people with burned feet, regain his strength and hit again.
He was even thinking of how he could use this as a lesson to pummel into the tribal leaders who had charged forward.
The soldiers all started to pull back, bringing the towers with them. The ranged attackers on the walls continued to fire. The catapults on the Zatan side continued to do heavy damage to the walls, opening it up in spots.
They fired their payloads and started to pull back as well. The entire army turned into a mess as the ranged on the walls and the catapults continued to fire down on them as they pulled back.
Tabur could only grit his teeth in anger as he looked at his disheveled troops and the lost catapults. The field of battle still burned as soldiers cried out in pain, with broken catapults and other war machines on the ground.
“Just an hour of fighting and it led to this.” Tabur let out a sigh. He had truly underestimated Vermire. “We rest for today. We will attack tomorrow. See that the wounded are treated quickly!”
“Yes, General,” the aides said, sitting straighter as they felt that anything might set off his seething anger.
Chapter: Creation and Destruction
Halfway through the third day, Erik looked over the plants in his growing area.
“I could hold out for a bit more but they’ve already reached maturity. If I wait longer, I don’t know the actual time I started so I could go over,” Erik said to himself.
He pulled out the basic harvesting tools he had and moved into the garden, collecting the ingredients into specialized containers.
He moved through with ease, taking the time to use his Simple Organic Scan to make sure that he was cutting at the right places, storing seedlings and cuttings from the plants away so that they could be used later.
Few others were as relaxed as him. Only a few people were left in the second trial area.
Many had already passed on to the third stage of the trial, or had failed out.
Others were using every last second to try to improve the quality of their ingredients.
Some who had harvested their plants early and ruined them were quickly trying to grow new ones and harvest them all over again so they wouldn’t fail.
Erik didn’t have a great skill in harvesting, but with the knowledge from the books and his Simple Organic Scan, he was able to pass through easily, moving at a slow walking pace through his garden.
Once he was finished, he took his medallion from the growing area and headed to a large counter. He placed his medallion in one of the counters and pulled out his ingredients.
As the ingredients were assessed, a noise sounded from the counter before he was able to take the ingredients back. He put down the cuttings as well.
==========
You have completed the second part of the trial. Head to the third stage: Pill-Scape.
==========
Erik looked around. No one told him to leave the ingredients so he slowly put away the last ingredient into his storage ring and kept walking up the Path of Alchemy to the next stage.
Better to ask for forgiveness than permission sometimes. Erik repeated an age-old military credo.
***
Khasar looked up at the screens. There had not been much movement from the second to the third trial in the last couple of days, with most people heading out of the third trial.
Finally, Erik’s name went from the second screen to the third screen, showing he had reached the next stage.
“Now we move to the last stage, preparation and formation,” Old Hei said. “I wonder just what kind of concoction he will have to pick from?”
Khasar could hear the interest in Old Hei’s voice. He stopped himself from sighing. It really looked as though Old Hei was invested in this other man’s path.
Khasar simply looked around for threats. I’ll know what kind of person he is once he comes out—if he comes out with the amount of time he’s been in there already!
A name reached the fourth square. There were already several there. Most of them showed a gray color, but this one appeared higher. The name was written in bronze as it appeared next to a bronze medallion at the side of the board with two lines running through it.
“Ah, mid-Apprentice. Looks like they will be getting admittance into the Alchemist Association right away!” someone in the stands commented.
A group jumped up and down in celebration as they saw the name appear on the fourth-ranked board.
***
The people of the Zatan Confederation were a rough and contentious people. If it hadn’t been for the Zatan Confederation’s iron-like will and their shared common goal, they would have continued to fight with one another, causing the occasional problem to passing trade caravans instead of being turned into a growing nation that could compete with kingdoms and empires.
Although their fighting ability was a strength, the tensions and anger at one another for past blood debts could be seen everywhere. The main city, Irdan, was split up into regions, regions that were filled with allied tribes. Those who were allied before the confederation or who had a close relationship with one another lived with each other, while those who had blood debts were separated. This was partly the tribes’ doing and partly the Zatan Confederation’s leadership’s orders.
Life-and-death duels were a normal thing. There were several stages where they could take place and trying to stop them would only lead to more problems.
In a way, they were good at raising the strength of the tribes fighters who would go and fight for the confederation. The troops from the other kingdoms and empires rarely fought, spending most of their time caring for their gear and practicing while the Zatan tasted blood, saw live fights, and even got into a few
of them as they were growing up, making them stronger fighters individually.
“Stronger apart than together.” Roska looked out at the rain coming down on the city.
“What was that, boss?” Tully asked.
“They’re a strong fighting force and they needed numbers, so coming together makes sense, but now that they have some breathing room, they’re starting to come apart. Good at fighting but too greedy in times of peace,” Roska said as the door to the warehouse opened.
“Gong Jin farts in his sleep.” A voice came through the door as the people inside lowered their weapons. Imani appeared with Yang Zan.
“Why did that have to be the password?” Gong Jin complained.
“’Cause it’s true and you woke yourself and everyone up from it last night!” Han Wu said from a corner, where he was working on a number of devices.
“What did you find out?” Roska asked.
They had entered the city easily enough. With the nomads having no identification, it was simplicity itself to get into the city. After hearing some passing information, they had gone to the warehouse district as most of the tribes kept their supplies in their own compounds and the leaders kept their items in the lord’s manor. This left the warehouse district largely untouched and a place where they could prepare and plan.
“Got maps of the outside of the manor and some information on the tension within the city,” Yang Zan said.
“You’ll never guess what is under the city,” Imani said in an excited voice.
“What?” Roska asked.
“The entire city had a plague awhile back—there is a massive catacomb network underneath us, creating a labyrinth underground!”
Roska’s eyes lit up and the corner of her mouth lifted up. “It gives us a way to move through the city. Do the guards or anyone watch it?”
The Third Realm Page 39