“The leader of the Adventurer’s Guild would mean more paperwork, but you could leave more and you would only have to listen to orders in times of war,” Erik said.
Blaze let out a dry laugh. “I was wondering why you were keeping that position open. Since you have thought on it this much, I will accept.”
“That fast?” Erik looked at Blaze.
“I trust you and you saved me and my village. You’ve created Alva Dungeon. Sure, you’re not around that much, but you gave us the power to do so and you could have easily not brought us back to Alva. Everything that we have is because of you and Rugrat. If you asked, I would have served in the military, but taking over the position of the Adventurer’s Guild head, I think it might be a lot more fun.” A light appeared in Blaze’s eyes as he grinned.
“Good. Then you and Elise can clear up that tension between you.” Erik kept on walking.
Blaze coughed, his face going red at Erik’s sudden words. “Elise?”
“You like each other. Friggin’ awkward when you two aren’t talking work, like you’re stepping around landmines.”
“Landmines?”
“Saying from back home. But with you two not in the same chain of command, you two can now date, or whatever,” Erik said.
“How can you know?”
“’Cause I ain’t blind and although I might be terrible at holding a relationship, I can still figure out when two people like each other. Guess it’s easier when you’re the one observing, instead of the one in the act? That sounds wrong, and a bit weird.” Erik shrugged. “It’ll work—you get the idea.”
Blaze fell quiet as they reached the square that the Blue Lotus was housed in.
Erik walked up to the front of the Blue Lotus, right to one of the guards. They looked at him warily as he flashed his Blue Lotus token.
They bowed deeply to Erik. “Greetings, valued customer. How can I help you today? Can I take you to meet the manager to help you better?”
“Is Head Xen in?” Erik asked.
The guard made an awkward expression and cupped his fists, bowing his head. “Head Xen left with his family for the Third Realm to take over management of a Blue Lotus there. Head Long now controls this Blue Lotus,” the guard said.
“Ah, very well.” Erik bowed his head to the guard and turned around, leaving the entrance of the Blue Lotus.
Now that his son is healed, he’s been able to focus on his abilities, increasing his standing in the Blue Lotus.
Instead of feeling sad, Erik was pleased for Hiao Xen and his family.
“Come on, let me give you the tour of the city. Not every day you get to head to the Second Realm. Also, there are plenty of jobs one can find here so it might be a good place for the Adventurer’s Guild to set up shop. In the Third Realm, it is all about being a bodyguard. But there are more kinds of missions here in the Second Realm as no single group rules over the entire realm, creating instability but also opportunity. And they’ve got some damn tasty food!”
Blaze smiled and followed Erik as they walked through the city without a care. With their levels and gear, there were few people in the Second Realm that could threaten them, allowing them to take time to look over the city.
***
Delilah was filled with emotion as she looked around the inn as she and Special Team One drank and ate their morning meal. Although it had been early morning in the First Realm, it was nearly midday in Taeman in the Second Realm.
She never thought that crossing through realms would be a casual thing.
Sitting back, she ate some of the local fruits. People looked over to the boisterous group as they were sitting around joking and eating, even as they kept watch over the area.
Storbon got a message and stood. “We’ve got our ride. Rugrat is waiting for us.”
With his words, everyone stood. Storbon paid the bill and they headed over to the stables.
Rugrat was there, patting a few sand gliders. They were expensive creatures due to their speed, their ability to sense water, and long endurance, making them perfect when moving through the desert.
Erik and Blaze appeared at the same time.
“Look what I found—sand rays!” Rugrat laughed.
“They do look like sting rays from back home,” Erik said.
“They use their wings to create a lift and then they have a high air attribute, allows them to glide across the desert,” Rugrat said.
George, who was wrapped around his shoulder, let out a displeased yowl, making Delilah smile at the little beast’s jealous actions.
“We’re burning daylight. From the map, it should take us two days to reach Delilah’s family.”
They mounted up, with George expanding to his full size as they headed out of Taeman. Erik looked back and then turned toward the desert, adjusting his goggles. George flapped his wings, flying up as the sand rays raced across the desert, following his shadow. Storbon and his special team scouted out to the sides as Rugrat scouted ahead on George.
***
Amelia Ryan bit her lip. Joseph Ryan let out a cry of pain through his teeth as she removed his bandage. It was covered in cloudy-looking blood.
The area around the cut was red and puffy and he was covered in sweat.
“How are the boys?” Joseph asked.
“They’re fine, worried about you,” Amelia said.
“I mean, how are they? The raiders are sure to come again.” Joseph grabbed her hand and held her eyes.
He wasn’t a large man or a strong man, but he was a determined man. He had worked hard his entire life in their simple village to make ends meet. They had just a few dozen families and a thousand people.
The raiders had been pushed back the first time, but the fields had been burned and the ground that they had cared for decades was ruined, their crops destroyed. The raiders were gathering more of their members; their original force of a thousand grew by the day.
“They’re just boys!” Amelia’s fists curled up.
“Yes and I hope they become men. We can only fight. The Hendricks are wrong. We can’t try to negotiate with raiders,” Joseph said. “The girls...” Joseph trailed off, not wanting to say anymore.
“We sent word to the local lord. Reinforcements will come.” Amelia put the new bandage on Joseph’s wound.
He closed his eyes and his cheeks twitched as he breathed through his teeth. “Just make sure that Hendricks doesn’t get his way.”
“I’ll do my best. Rest now, Joseph,” Amelia said.
His body relaxed back into the pillows, his face pale from the exhaustion piling up.
Amelia looked away, gritting her teeth and with tears in her eyes. She knew that his wounds were infected. She knew that there was little chance of them making it through the bandit attack.
She steadied herself and raised her head. It didn’t matter; she was the matriarch of this family and she would do everything she could to make sure that her family survived.
She left the bedroom and headed through the simple home. She put the bandages into the sink and washed her hands.
She exited the house. There were four other homes facing one another, creating the Ryan compound. A high wall ringed the compound. Made from straw and mud, it was thick and reliable.
She saw her youngest son John walking across the wall, looking for any threats.
Each of the families had walls around their compounds, creating a collection of compounds. They didn’t have a village wall, but they could help one another as they were all relatively close together.
Rope pulleys used for laundry connected them, allowing them to move supplies between the different families.
The green fields that had surrounded the compounds were now nothing more than churned mud. Their crops had been burned down to ash. One of the compounds still had black smoke coming from it. One of the buildings with a thatched roof had been set on fire, burning the building down.
Thankfully, most of the fire arrows didn’t find purchase on the ho
mes and just burned themselves out.
The villagers only had fairly weak bows for hunting rodents and a few more powerful bows to deal with wandering beasts that entered their territory.
Rachel and Suzy were also on the walls. Out here it didn’t matter whether someone was a girl or a boy; they had to learn how to work and how to look after themselves.
Nolan and Jamie, the oldest boys, were sleeping. They had taken watch that night. Kyle and Greg were also looking over the wall at the rough ground that surrounded their oasis.
Nolan, Greg, and John’s wives were looking after the children and making more arrows.
Amelia cracked a weak smile, seeing them all united. But she could see in her children’s eyes that they knew what was coming. Their eyes were steely. Kyle and Rachel had signs of tears on their faces.
Some of the grandchildren were crying or not sure what was going on, scared by the adults’ antics. They still didn’t understand fighting. Amelia’s heart ached at the sight.
She made to walk over to the grandchildren, to allow their fathers and mothers some time to sleep and carry out their tasks, when she heard a whistle cutting through the village.
She looked over to where the sound had come from.
“The enemy is coming from the west!” Suzy yelled out.
“Get the children into the houses! Kyle, wake up your brothers!” Amelia grabbed a bow and headed up the stairs on one of the houses, reaching the wall and looking out over the village. The compounds made an oval shape, grouped around the stream that ran through their land and fed their crops.
The Ryan compound was to the northwest, meaning that they were among one of the first families to meet with the rampaging raiders.
“On the wall! Get ready!” Amelia shouted. The rest of the family reacted.
Nolan and Jamie ran out of their rooms, pulling on their thickest jackets for some kind of protection and padding against the arrows and wagon wheels with wood boards secured to it for shields.
They also carried two of the five swords in the compound, the others given to Rachel, Greg, and John’s wife Zhiwei. They were the strongest and the best sword fighters.
“Get down!” John yelled as he got into cover.
Amelia got under an overhang of the wall. Seconds later, arrows fell from the sky, sticking into the ground and wooden windows.
People from other compounds cried out in pain as the arrows claimed their first victims. Their cries reached the villagers as they rushed forward, their archers firing the entire time.
As they closed with the village, their arrows lessened.
Amelia peeked out and ran up the wall. “Come on!”
The others got out from the cover they had found and moved to the walls. The villagers fired their arrows into the raiders that were breaking around the Cao household, moving to attack the other compounds.
They had brought ladders with them to climb the walls and were swarming the Cao household already.
Amelia thought she saw a hawk in the skies above as she strung her bow and released the arrow, striking a bandit.
They were able to kill tens of them, having to move every so often as the raiders started to fire back and more of them had a clear shot.
Suzy cried out in pain as she was struck with an arrow.
John grabbed her and pulled her back. Amelia could see the arrow sticking out of her stomach.
Amelia sealed her eyes shut, trying to remove the image of her baby, her daughter’s wounds.
She opened her eyes, unable to look at Suzy as she let out a yell and fired her arrow, striking a bandit.
Pulling her bow, finding a target, firing—she couldn’t think about the people she was hurting. She just wanted to protect her family. She heard Jamie call out in pain, but she couldn’t look. Her eyes made it hard for her to aim but the raiders were packed together, making it hard to miss as she fired blindly into them.
She ducked as she felt she was out of arrows.
She looked around and saw Kyle moving across the wall. He was covered in blood. He didn’t have a bow, so he had been bringing supplies and looking after the wounded.
He gave Amelia her arrows wordlessly.
She wanted to ask about the others, but her heart couldn’t take it. He was already moving on, to pass out more supplies and then return to his sister and brother.
She glanced over. Suzy was up against the wall; Zhiwei had her bow and was firing; Joanna was looking after the children, keeping them blocked inside.
Jamie had been hit in his shoulder or neck. Bandages covered in blood were on his shoulder. He cried out in pain with every pull of his bow string.
Gods, please save them! I will do anything! As always, the gods remained silent. She grabbed a new arrow; she strung it and stood, firing at the raiders that had made entry into the Wen compound. She could now make out the details of the armor and weapons of the raiders.
Her face was expressionless as she fired arrow after arrow into the raiders.
***
“Shit!” Rugrat turned George back and urged him on. George could contend with beasts in the Fourth Realm. With Erik and Rugrat’s help, he had been able to increase his strength by a large margin.
The sand rays, although they were fast, couldn’t compare with George.
Rugrat had looked through the desert and rough terrain they’d entered. He’d seen signs of a large number of people grouping up. He’d followed it to the closely packed compounds.
Raiders rushed out from the rock-covered landscape, rushing the western side of the village.
Rugrat raced toward the rest of the party. He arrived in only minutes. “Village under attack. Erik, jump on. Storbon, Blaze—George can grab you with his claws!”
Erik jumped off his sand ray and grabbed Rugrat’s hand, being pulled onto George’s back.
Storbon and Blaze moved forward; George grabbed them with his claws and they grabbed onto his claws.
George’s powerful wingbeats created a sandstorm as he took off. Their weight seemed to be inconsequential to him. He sensed Rugrat’s anxiousness. His lazy attitude disappeared and he used all of his strength, rapidly increasing their speed.
They shot out over the desert. George remembering the route allowed Rugrat to use his sound transmission to tell them just what they were walking into, as well as the rest of the party.
George dove to increase their speed.
“Come in from the north, Storbon. Blaze, get a large area of effect spell scroll ready. Once we’re on the ground, start activating. Rugrat and I will fire from long range. Once you are done with the spell scroll, support me and Rugrat. George will return to pick up Yuli, Yao Meng, and Setsuko—you will come in from the west. Storbon, Rugrat, Blaze, and I will be team one; you will be team two. You will come in behind the enemy, hitting them with long-range weaponry. I will either call out for team one to advance with team two in support or vice versa,” Erik said. “Understood?”
“Understood,” the others replied.
Erik had an uneasy feeling. He had plans to train up the Alva military force, but that time had not yet arrived. While Special Team Two was strong individually, he did not know how strong they were with group tactics.
He had to push it to the back of his mind as the group of compounds could be seen in the distance. Raiders were grouping up on the west side. There must have been a few thousand of them. They used the streets and moved through the compounds to have the greatest cover when attacking the other compounds.
“Start targeting as soon as possible. Don’t hit the compounds!” Erik told Storbon and Blaze. The two of them pulled out spell scrolls, taking their time.
They got closer in just seconds. Storbon started using his spell scroll, Blaze following after.
George flapped his wings, working to halt his forward momentum. Rugrat and Erik jumped off as Storbon and Blaze dropped to the ground, still channeling Mana into the spells.
George flapped his wings and took off toward the rest
of the party.
Rugrat and Erik had been scanning the landscape.
The raiders, so focused on the fighting, hadn’t seen George arrive or leave.
They moved to a rise that allowed them sight lines at the north side of the village and the western edge.
Rugrat and Erik pulled out repeating ballistas. Blaze and Storbon finished their activation of the spell scrolls. The scrolls were destroyed, being burned up by the magical power that created them combined with the power that had activated them.
They moved up to the rise as well, positioning themselves with their own repeating ballistas.
Erik pulled out jars and passed them to Storbon and Blaze. “It’s poison powder. Attach them to the arrowheads; the glass will shatter and affect them in an area.”
They quickly tied the glass containers to the loaded arrow.
“Ready?” Erik asked.
“Ready!” the others said back.
“Fire!” Erik yelled.
They moved and the bolts fired out. They kept on cranking, changing their point of aim. Rugrat cast Explosive Shot on his arrows.
Rugrat was pouring much more power into his Explosive Shot spell. Just what kind of destructive power could someone who had opened thirteen of his Mana gates, was just a half-step away from opening his fourteenth Mana gate, and compressing his Mana core and had reached level thirty have?
As his Explosive Shot landed, they cleared an area of nearly twenty meters around the point of impact, creating craters in the ground. Those fifty meters away were wounded by the explosive arrows’ blast.
With his Expert-level marksman, arrows fell among the enclosed hallways of the compounds the raiders had overrun, the walls serving to focus the blast.
Erik’s poison jars landed among the raiders, covering them in a deep green fog. They tried to get out of the three large fog zones, coughing and fighting to breathe; their eyes watered as they were rendered unable to fight.
Erik had created his own version of tear gas.
He didn’t even take the time to fire on those raiders. He used the geared wheels to change his point of aim, firing on the raiders that were cramming around the sides of the compounds. They had been protecting their front but their sides were left open.
The Third Realm Page 55