Glosil waved to the conference room.
They all entered and took their seats, staring at Roska, who was sitting down rubbing her face tiredly. She’d bypassed taking a shower to get debriefed.
“All right, let’s go through it,” Glosil said.
“We infiltrated the target city Leeto three days ago. We met up with the local intelligence agents. They gave us the itinerary of the target High Elder Dastan. We watched him the first day on his route through the city that he takes every two days. We used the information and planning from the intelligence agents to modify the plan. With such a short time window, we had to move quickly. I would have preferred more time to set up the attack—a week or two.”
“I understand. We have been rushing things to hit the Willful Institute as hard as possible,” Glosil said.
Roska nodded. “The night of the second day, we found a group of people from an opposing faction of High Elder Dastan. We set up the ambush in a short period of time. Honestly, the intelligence agents have been nothing but the best to work with. If not for them, this would have fallen apart. We’ve got a deep trust with them now.” Roska glanced over to Elan, who bowed his head in thanks.
“We attacked the scapegoats, killing them from behind. This way, their wounds would match with Dastan’s guards killing their attackers in the chase. We used weapons we received from a consignment of arms stolen by the Adventurer’s Guild. There shouldn’t be any flaws. Elan’s people had letters, plans, and information that we inserted into their storage rings. We matched people with the bodies and kept them stored, so their blood was still fresh and their bodies warm.” Roska coughed.
“Water?” Yui asked.
“Please.”
Yui grabbed a glass and filled it with water as Roska kept talking.
“Once that was done, we had three ambush locations set up across the city to hit the convoy. They bypassed route Alpha, and we moved to Bravo. Thanks.”
Yui passed her water, and she drank it quickly.
She quickly debriefed them on the operation, finishing it off with some large gulps of water.
“Based on what my people are hearing, Dastan knows who his attackers are. He’s in a rage, and he is going to the Willful Institute’s head to seek an explanation. It should stir things up in their command and control,” Elan said.
“It was a complex mission, and your team thought outside of the box and used all the resources at your disposal to carry it out flawlessly.” Glosil pressed his finger into the table. “You and your team should get some rest.”
“Sir, I wanted to ask about what is happening in the other operations?”
“Sorry. It has been a little crazy.” Glosil cleared his throat and organized his thoughts. “Operations in the Second Realm have hampered the Willful Institute to such a high degree that it is a matter of time until the locations there start to fall. The Willful Institute is consolidating its power in the Third and Fourth Realms. The Third Realm is on a tipping point, even if the Willful Institute doesn’t know it yet. The other sects that are against the Willful Institute are watching Reynir and Meokar closely. If we can pull off a win there, it will have a domino eff,ect and the other sects will pile in and work against the Willful Institute. Things in the Fourth Realm are trickier. The sects are all holding back. If the Willful Institute is cut off from traders and from the lower realms, they will die a slow death. Moving items in the higher realms costs more money; people are more expensive to hire and are more turbulent.
“Our aim is to win at Meokar and send the Willful Institute reeling. Once they are on their back foot, we’ll continue to put pressure on them in the Fourth Realm. They did lose a city in the Fourth Realm, but that is not unheard of. It is even recoverable, and some groups come back stronger. The other sects are waiting for a vicious counterattack or to see the Institute’s decline. Then we have two options: have Vuzgal lead other sects to take down the Willful Institute cities, thus inciting others to attack before the Willful Institute’s cities are all taken, or we commence operations in the Fifth Realm to remove any possibility of the Institute progressing, holding them down and pushing the other groups to destroy them from below,” Glosil said.
“Your mission adds to the instability of the faint alliance the different factions within the Willful Institute are forming. It will force Head Foster to divert his attention to rooting out those who want to use this to gain a higher position, focusing on internal threats instead of external ones, allowing us greater breathing room,” Elan added.
“What is our next move?” Roska asked.
“Defeat them at Meokar. With that and using the guise of the Adventurer’s Guild, we will support the taking down of the Willful Institute and recruit more people to the guild and to the Alva military. Then we will be ready to fight the Institute in the Fourth Realm as the Vuzgal Defense Force,” Glosil said. “You and your team have done well. Get some rest. The special teams are the tip of the spear. We’ll need you honed and sharp for the next mission.”
“Yes, Commander.” Roska stood and saluted. The others stood as well and saluted, other than Elan, who bowed his head.
“The Willful Institute’s days are numbered,” Yui said.
“Anyone who attacks Alvans can only count down the days they have left,” Roska said.
Glosil felt his jaw lock together, and he nodded.
42
Committed
Erik sat in his chair. Without moving his head, he glanced over to the side, watching the Willful Institute’s box. He returned his attention to the stages as Lin Lei, one of the three remaining branch heads in Vuzgal’s fighter’s competition, stepped up.
The fighting had been intense. The Adventurer’s Guild had their people steadily knocked out of the running. In the top twenty, there were three of them left, though Blaze didn’t look affected.
Erik stood and walked over to Chonglu.
Chonglu said goodbye to the few people he was talking to and joined Erik in a corner, watching as Lin Lei’s opponent—an armored knight with heavy armor and a single two-handed bastard sword—stepped up opposite.
Erik used a sound-canceling formation, silencing the crowds around them and stopping anything from leaking out. “Stiff competition this year. The Adventurer’s Guild isn’t doing so well.”
“Sixteen spots in the top one hundred, fourteen in the top fifty. Their rankings aren’t as high as last year, but there are more competitors out there. Also, most people might not have noticed, but the Adventurer’s Guild took one-third of the top five hundred spots. The branch heads are all wearing devices to hold their Mana and Body Cultivation in check. They’re fighting at two-thirds of their overall power.”
“Seems that Alvans are always keeping some secrets,” Erik muttered.
“You taught us well.” Chonglu laughed.
Lin Lei and the bastard sword fighter started their fight. Lin Lei had two daggers in her hand, making her look pitiful in front of the sword fighter.
He moved forward, neither too slow nor too fast. Lin Lei moved from side to side like a cat cornered, slipping out and away from him when one thought that she was pinned in.
She cast a spell. Smoke rose around her, and two Lin Lei’s appeared.
One of them moved the smoke when they left; that has to be her.
The man swung his sword at the fake Lin Lei as it closed on him with the real. He used the momentum of his swing to turn around, slicing at the real Lin Lei. The Wind shifted and turned into a Wind blade as it cut through Lin Lei.
Erik straightened, feeling the cut across his own body. Lin Lei’s body dissipated into grinning smoke. A foot kicked out, hitting the bastard sword user in the back of the knee. He dropped down, and the smoke turned to ice shackles, freezing his knee to the ground. Lin Lei jumped up, her attack pausing just a few centimeters from the bastard sword fighter’s neck, creating interference with the mana barrier medallion he was holding.
Erik’s heartbeat was just starting to come ba
ck to normal under the thrill of the fight and the fear of Lin Lei being killed with the bastard sword user’s reversing attack.
“Damn, she would have tricked me as well if I didn’t use my mana domain,” Erik muttered.
“Few things are how they appear on the surface.”
For several days, the forces of the Willful Institute had been attacking the Grey Peak sect’s city of Reynir. The once-orderly rows of ingredients had been turned into a wasteland filled with craters and turbulent magical energies. Siege weaponry on both sides had fired day and night, keeping members of both forces awake at all hours.
High Elder Mendes cursed as he stepped off the mage-maintained path and into the mud. “Damn, what are those mages doing?” Mendes hissed. Sleeping in a tent for several days was not what he had envisioned as his fate as the leader of Meokar.
The camps had grown out of the mud and storage rings. Solid stone walls surrounded the orderly tents. The main roads between the gates and around the solid buildings where the elders and leaders of the sect made their plans were maintained by mages—simple, broken stone shavings and sand mixed with the mud to stop one’s feet from sinking into the calf-high mud.
The plateau had been farmer’s lands for unknown years, being tilled constantly and watered. Now, with a few thousand Willful Institute guards and disciples walking on it, it had turned into a swill perfect for one to lose their shoe in.
People huddled around fires, covered up against the chillier climate. A few let out wet coughs. The cold, the lack of sleep, and the damp were getting to their lungs.
Mendes and his guards continued to the large command building. They had erected six camps in the same layout. Two supporting camps lay near the plateau’s entrances, and although they couldn’t reach one another in the large openings, anything that wanted to enter or leave would have to fight them.
The forward attacking camps were smaller than the supporting camps, with larger walls and stronger mana barriers. Providing a location, the Willful Institute could launch ranged siege attacks against Reynir.
Even now, attacks raged across the two forward camps and across Reynir’s barriers.
Mendes peered into the late-night darkness, seeing the flickering of Fire and the display of destructive forces.
A guard opened the door for him, and he walked into the warm headquarters. Others made room for him as he walked up to the command center.
Elder Xiao was there, staring at the map and talking to a scarred lady, who pointed to sections of wall surrounding Reynir.
“Elder Xiao,” Mendes announced his entrance.
Xiao looked up without moving his head before saying something to the woman beside him. She bowed and strode out of the room.
“Elder Mendes,” Xiao greeted and waved him forward. With their relative positions, he dropped the grand part of Mendes’s title.
“We found our leverage. The Grey Peak sect is digging their heels in. We heard that people from the Fourth Realm have come to support the battle. Unless we want to pay a massive fee, we need to apply more pressure and gain a better negotiating position. With our seemingly random attacks and golems, we have found our opening.”
Elder Xiao pointed to several positions. “Blind spots in Reynir’s defenses. They don’t have a good way to watch these areas and don’t have any weapons they can bring to bear on them. Now, these locations here… and here are right next to the defenses. If we can get in close enough, we can push through their lower defenses, taking some pressure off us.”
“This is great news, Elder Xiao.” Mendes studied the map. “I am just an administrator. Your words have opened my eyes to the realities of war.”
“My people are out, waking up different elders and officers to get their people ready. The forward camps will push forward, open the breaches, and hold them. Once they are secure, we will rush reinforcements forward. But we must wait until we have those openings, or our people will get stuck outside and be unable to push into the defenses. Then, we can send new demands to the leaders of Reynir, throwing them off their game and bringing them back down to reality.”
“Your words have opened up the truth to me,” Mendes praised. Anything to get out of these damn mountains and show those Grey Peak bastards what happens when they attack my city!
“Good. You will head to the other plateau entrance to stabilize things there and carry out the attack.”
“I understand, Elder Xiao.” Damn, you are just some guard leader, and you are ordering me, a sect leader, around? I will let it slide until you deal with these ants! “I will set off immediately.”
Gudriksson and Storgaard walked along the walls, showing their faces. The wall was sparse, but there was little room in any of Reynir’s buildings and storehouses as they were packed with men and women of the Grey Peak sect and the Adventurer’s Guild.
Storgaard was silent, digesting all that Gudriksson had told her. “What do you think?”
“I think we should never piss off the Adventurer’s Guild.”
Storgaard was surprised by how serious he sounded.
“I think we should follow their plan. If it fails, they are the ones leading the attack, so they will take the most losses. It’s clear they don’t want it messed up. They have a blood grudge with the Willful Institute.”
“Over a single group of guild members from the Third Realm?”
“Yeah, they might be a little crazy, especially taking on a power like Meokar and Mendes. Though they’re well organized, no discipline issues. They organized themselves, so they haven’t had any health issues. Brought all the essentials with them. Rotating their people in and out all the time to get them used to the large-scale battle. I have reports of the leaders talking to the lowest members, teaching them about the enemy, their positions, what their aim is, and numerous plans.”
“Those are closely guarded secrets!”
“Not in this guild. If anything happens, even the most basic soldier knows where to rally, who to follow in the fight. Also, they’re going to respect their leaders more if they take time to talk to them.”
“All right, we’ll follow their plan. Just be ready with the Ice Domain spell scrolls in case we need to push the Willful Institute out of Reynir.”
“Of course, Branch Head.”
“They agreed,” Jasper said to Domonos and Mister Yi. Domonos and Zukal were never in the same spot; in case something happened to one, the other was there to keep up command.
“Well, it looks like we’re committed.” Domonos glanced over to Mister Yi.
“The orders went out. They’re preparing to make a dawn assault. Mendes will be in the eastern support camp Charlie, while Xiao is commanding from the southern camp Bravo,” Yi said.
“The beast mounts are still located in the eastern camp Delta?”
From the southwest to the northeastern camp, they had named the support camps Alpha to Delta; the forward camps were called Sierra for the one to the south and Echo to the east.
“Correct,” Yi said.
“Delta will be our first target, followed by Bravo.”
“Why?” Jasper asked, curious.
“In the Third Realm, sound transmission devices, although not rare, are too expensive for most people. Mounted forces relay messages to most units. If we have the enemy running, the beasts will give them greater mobility, and they can shift their defense or attacks while pulling back. We remove that capability. Take Bravo, and it will take out Xiao and his closest associates. He is the only person with more power than Mendes. Command and control can fall apart. Nothing is for sure in war.”
“Here they come,” Bai Ping said.
Several mounted Willful Institute groups rushed out from Camp Sierra.
The attacks redoubled, making it hard to see through the mana barrier, which had turned into an opaque wall with the attacks.
Bai Ping was happy to not be attacking innocents.
He had been rescued at the gates of Vuzgal and accepted into the Vuzgal Defense Force
. His family thrived in Vuzgal as he learned of the monster behind the city. He trained in Alva and had tested out the new formation armor. After testing was complete, the close protection details were deployed across the Ten Realms, taking up the slack from the special teams, supporting intelligence agents, and leading attacks against the Willful Institute.
Bai Ping and his squad were one of the first to transfer over to Meokar.
They integrated themselves into the guild units. Having worked in various units and done different jobs in the army, they fit in well. There were Alvans among the adventurers who made things easier. All the CPD members had the same experience as veteran sergeants, allowing them to work well even when broken up.
“Remember the orders?” Bai Ping asked the men and women around him.
“Hold the enemy. Kill them if we can. Retreat to the broken shed if the wall is breached. Fall back unit by unit to the mid-wall,” the nineteen others repeated as one.
“Good. Now, let’s see if we can’t send some Willful bastards down to greet Robertson and his party.” Bai Ping’s voice was met with cheers and yells. “Load!”
Everyone grabbed their arrows and placed them on their bows.
He eyed the oncoming enemy. Feeling the wet cold of the mountains, he was unaffected.
“Draw!” The order came, and everyone pulled back on their bows and cast their spells upon their bow and arrows.
“Fire!” Across the wall, archers released their arrows. They dropped in the early morning light and people rang alarm bells, alerting Reynir that the enemy was sending an attack forward.
The noise had become all too familiar in the last few days.
“Load!” Bai Ping called again.
The first arrows peppered their target, meeting a mana barrier, and releasing their attacks.
An errant trebuchet boulder passed through a spotting in a Willful Institute barrier. It struck the ground, crushing soldiers, and skipped over the broken landscape, crashing through the golems that called this unnatural place filled with destructive magics their home.
Sixth Realm Part 2: A litRPG Fantasy series (The Ten Realms Book 7) Page 49