Sixth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  He flared power through his body, ready for combat. With a flush of healing power, one didn’t need to stretch.

  Everyone was watching closely as Rugrat had a wide grin on his face.

  “Right now all of the linking formations are active, hve you trained at this power level before Sergeant?”

  “Yes I have Lord Rodriguez.”

  “Good, then you shouldhave an advantage, though I would suggest you get ready, Erik’s a fucking ass if he gets you on the ground.”

  “That sounds weird man,” Erik muttered.

  “You know all those holds and wraps and crap, it freaking hurts! Anyway, get ready, three, two one, beat him up Bai!”

  Erik summoned power from the realms, it flowed through his mana channels, into his muscles. Bai Ping drew in power as well but it didn’t have the same effect as he charged Erik.

  Erik was in a boxer’s stance. He covered up as Bai threw a punch. Erik was pushed back, having to take a few steps to stabilize.

  Erik nodded while Bai Ping looked at him with wide eyes.

  It’s like punching a fucking shield!

  “Come on sergeant, if your enemy has an opening you take it!” Erik yelled, he advanced. Bai Ping punched out again, putting all of his power into the attacks but making sure to not leave openings to exploit.

  Erik moved to the side and samcked out with the back of his hand. He struck Bia’s forearm, pushing the punch wide.

  Bai Ping punched out again adn again, the shock of the punches shifted Erik’s hair with the breeze.

  Erik’s eyes never wavered. They seemed un focused as if he was focusing on another sense.

  Bai kicked out at Erik’s knee.

  Erik raised his leg, he took the hit and tilted.

  Bai advanced to take advantage, ready to punch as Erik was tilting.

  Erik pushed off of his foot on the ground, he threw himself away. Bai Ping lunged forward and punched.

  Erik shifted away, the attack missed, striking the ground, Bai left a crater, shattering the ground.

  Erik put his hand to the ground, fire appeared underneath, the small explosion gave Erik the force he needed to get back on his feet.

  The mana in his veins seemd to dim as his skin hardened, black veins traced his skin and he seemed to expel heat.

  Shit, he wasn’t using all his power.

  “Bang!” Rugrat said.

  Bai Ping lost a connection to one of his people. Erik advanced in a blur, he struck out at Bai.

  Bai lost his momentum, turning to the defensive.

  “Come on Sergeant, you should know some combat techniques, if you don’t pull them out its going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts me,” Erik still had the time to talk as he was jabbing at Bai.

  Blades of mana appeared in Bai’s hands as he jumped backwards, using a gliding technique, he threw the blades at Erik.

  “Bang, bang” Another teo people were disconnected.

  Bai had to struggle to maintain the spells as he needed to draw out more power from himself, to sustain the spell now he couldn’t rely on the formations.

  It paused him for a half second as Erik punched out, two fireballs hitting the mana blades. He sent fire balls out at Bai Ping. Bai Ping had to fight to get used to the power fluctuations and the fireballs aimed at him.

  Rugrat ‘killed’ three more people. Having to adjust to the new power balance and having different stats boosted at different amounts it all made it confusing for Bai Ping.

  He threw out mana blades, sent out trapping spells, imbuing the fire attribute into all of his attacks.

  The flames didn’t affect Erik in the slightest. He took the hits showing red marks from the point of impact one second and then returning to normal the next.

  Bai Ping forgot all about Erik being a lord as they were fighting it out.

  If I stop for a minute he will kick my ass. Shit!

  Erik kicked him, sending him backwards, Bai hit the ground and olled, coming back up he punched out sending mana blasts. Erik had been advancing, now he had to throw out a mana barrier to cover himself. Spears shot out fromt eh ground and Bai Ping had to cut them down with mana blades as he kicked out, his attack causing the stone spears to explode and melt.

  More people ‘died’ until there was just a squad left.

  Bai Ping was trying to adjust when Erik’s earth spell trapped his feet while he was trying to back up. He staggered. Erik punched him three times in the vest, each strike rattled Bai.

  It felt like he was being shot, not taking a few punches.

  He was holding back in his other punches, shit!

  Bai dropped to the ground and Erik backed up.

  “Thank you for going easy on me lord,” Bai cupped his fists, fighting for breath.

  “None of that, get your breath back,” Erik said. “Not bad Sergeant, training is doing well.”

  “On one side we see that Sergeant Bai Ping was getting fucked up with the power changes. On the other Erik was adjusting his power throughout. Going from seventy five percent to twenty five percent power and then back up to fifty percent to finish off Sergeant Bai. Right?” Rugrat looked at Erik.

  “Yeah, about.” Erik nodded.

  That was only seventy percent of his power? Bai Ping coughed as he got his breathing back under control as his body was recovering from the injuries he’d sustained.

  The others that were watching talked with their eyes before looking at the unassuming Erik.

  Shit he wasn’t even using armor, no damn formations and it felt like I was punching an armor plate. Body Cultivation is hell to go through just how much has he cultivated his body already?

  “Say we train to fight with two battalions, side by side, we can adjust to that power. Now we add in four of Miss Julilah’s mobile formations and ten of the stationary formations. All of the buffs, we will need to adjust, instead of assisting our forces, a part of their mind will be adjusting to the changes of their abilities. It will make them weaker instead of stronger. Take those two battalions, no extra formations. Say that we start losing people, as they die their armor goes offline. Think of the mental strain on our forces as they feel their power dropping as they lose allies. Think of how they will now need to adjust for every person we lose?” Glosil’s words were hard and brutal but Bai Ping stood straighter, it was the role of the Alva Army to defend the people of Alva.

  By defeating the enemy or laying down their lives if it was called for.

  The other military members had to deal with cold realities.

  “With the settings, we could adjust them so that at the basic it adjusts for a squad worth of buffing: moderate for a combat company, advanced for a Batallion, even make higher stages, if needed. As time goes on the basic buff will increase from a squad buffing power to a combat company and so on,” Rugrat said.

  “We could do it,” Julilah said, her voice was quieter than it had been before. The two women seemed to shut off as Glosil presented them with the cold truths of what their formations would be used for.

  “Sergeant Bai?” Erik asked.

  “Sir?” said, confused.

  “Do you think that the different levels of power would make it easier to manage?”

  “I think that it would, we can train to work on the higher levels of power,” he said after a moment’s thought.

  “It might be harder for others to adjust to the changes but it shouldn’t be too hard for us,” a woman’s voice called out.

  Erik grinned as he looked over.

  Bai Ping looked over, seeing members of the Special teams walking over.

  From the shadows behind the main group the Special team in charge of protecting Erik and Rugrat stepped out.

  The cold expressions turned into grins as people greeted one another quickly.

  The Special teams were a level beyond many others, but seeing them he felt as if they were beasts in human skin. There was a deadliness around them that chilled the air, to other hunters it raised their alarm, to others they would se
em just like humans.

  There was a certain air around the Special team members, even when completely relaxed they were a spring, ready to act and react in a moment.

  “What did you mean, Roska?” Erik asked.

  “The Special teams train on different floors dealing with all kinds of variables. There is no knowing if we will be working in the middle of an ocean, forest, jungle, mountain range or burning desert. We have to accommodate for all of those factors. Having training where our power is increasing and decreasing randomly would be good. Debuffs are a common weapon.”

  “You and the members of your Special team are really training maniacs,” Erik said.

  “You’re not?” Rugrat seemed to be talking in a quiet voice but everyone heard him.

  The two men looked at one another and started chuckling.

  “Yeah, well, fuck it!” Erik said.

  “Okay, anyone have any other points?” Erik asked.

  The questions moved from the leaders to the captains that were there.

  As the questions started to die down the leader of the Adventurer’s Guild raised his hand.

  “Will this gear be issued to the Adventurer’s Guild?”

  Erik looked to Glosil who stepped forward.

  “No, it will not.”

  “Why?” Blaze asked, he didn’t seem to be worried in the slightest and there was a smile on his lips.

  He is talking on behalf of his people, so that they know what is going on.

  “The army works in groupings of units. There are strict rules and all of our tactics are based on working together as a single force. The Adventurer’s Guild is a powerful force, with many more members than our army, but the guild does not control its members as the military does. You employ the ‘party’ strategy, where people group together specializing in one area, to make up for the other’s weaknesses. It is great in small group tactics, but when employing much larger groups then it becomes harder to control. Having to create units of just mages, just melee fighters, just archers and so on. To armor everyone, it would be a great expense and while an overall buff would work for the army, most of our people are at the same level of power so there won’t be too many changes, but you have people from the First to the Fourth realm in your organization,” Glosil trailed off.

  “Naturally, when fighting in large battles we would need to follow the examples of the sects and others, creating separate armies for people of different levels and capabilities. It makes it much harder to organize,” Blaze nodded as the other guild members seemed at greater ease.

  “The war against the Willful Institute is coming closer every day, the Army and the Guild will work together in the coming fights. The Guild will be the vanguard and the army will support you. Information, weapons, gear, supplies, there are a few people that have not only our trust but position to act,” Erik said, walking forward, his eyes looking to the men and women behind Blaze and Jasper.

  “Blaze and Jasper can’t do everything. They might be the head and shoulders of the Guild, but you are the blades. You will be the ones in the field leading the Guild forces,” Rugrat said.

  Blaze turned around to the group.

  “So for the next week you better open up your ears. You will be training and working alongside the Army and have the attention of the Special teams. We will continue our operations against the Institute, but you will learn how to properly train and command our Guild into a fighting force. The Guild and the Army are two sides of the same blade, do not forget that,” Blaze said.

  Bai Ping was caught by the image, Blaze and Glosil stood shoulder to shoulder while Erik and Rugrat stood behind them and to the side.

  “Captain, it will be an honor to fight beside you,” Glosil said.

  “Hah! The last time we had a real fight, I was a village head and you were the leader of the town guard,” Blaze let out a raucous laugh, the two men shook hands and hugged one another.

  They turned and looked to Erik and Rugrat.

  “Sergeants Storbon and Gong Jin, front and center!” Rugrat barked out, making all of the military members unconsciously straighten, pulled back to their days of basic training.

  Storbon and Gong Jin walked out from the Special team members

  They stopped in front of Erik and Rugrat and saluted.

  “Sirs!”

  Erik and Rugrat came to attention and saluted them back, their arms fell to their sides and their smiles appeared again.

  “It is a bit overdue, but I’d like to congratulate you two on becoming Captains. Both of you will lead your own sixteen-person squad of Special team members,” Erik and Rugrat pulled out rank tabs and handed them over to the two new Captains.

  They talked for a few seconds.

  “Do us, Alva, yourselves and your fellow soldiers proud,” Erik said.

  “The lives of your men and women lie heavy on your shoulders, though you will bear that weight and succeed. In the hottest fires the strongest metal is forged,” Rugrat said.

  “Return to your teams,” Erik said, they exchanged salutes again and the two men went back as the others ribbed them laughed and wanted to see their medals.

  “Sorry, needed to attend to a few things,” Erik said to everyone.

  “Please take a look at the gear. Examine it to your heart’s content. This gear will be key in the oncoming war.” Erik turned to the crafters. “Masters Qin, Julilah, Taran and Tan Xue, thank you.”

  Erik clasped his fist to them in traditional Ten Realms salute.

  All of them looked surprised and bowed back to Erik.

  “We ain’t much, but when we work together, nothing in the Ten Realms can stop us,” Rugrat said, his voice was sober but it created powerful ripples in everyone’s hearts.

  Chapter: Military Actions

  While Yui had been focused on preparing for capturing the water floor, Domonos had been formulating plans and gathering intelligence against the Willful Institute.

  Glosil had supervised but he had turned it into a test of the brothers’ abilities.

  The group were sitting in one of the barrack’s planning rooms.

  Domonos cleared his throat and people’s conversations came to a halt. He looked out at the members of the Adventurer’s Guild, The leadership of the Dragon and Tiger Battalions, Glosil, Erik, Rugrat as well as his father Elan and his trusted subordinates in the Second and Tird Realm.

  All of them were looking at him attentively.

  “The situation within the Willful Institute is fractitious. They are constantly competing against one another to get a better position. It is not unknown for people from the same region attacking one another. We even have information on some groups in different regions attacking one another in secret to steal their supplies and gear. They all stand under one banner but they are loose sand and rocks smashing into one another. We have scouted out all of the major cities controlled by the Institute and are working on plans to take each city. If we can make them distrustful of one another and shatter their command and control, then when the real attack is launched, they will be like isolated islands.” Domonos’ eyes swept the room.

  He pointed to a map of a city.

  “This will turn from a strategic trade war into a fighting war quickly, that is the nature of the Ten Realms. When it does it will happen fast. Once they see that they are losing their power they will not go quietly, they’ll lash out. In most places, they haven’t heard of the Adventurer’s Guild. Instead of attacking some unknown they’ll attack their rivals, seeing them thriving with the support of the Adventurer’s Guild and Trader’s Guild. Either they won’t have enough to pay their taxes and their administration will fall apart, or they will fight. I believe that they’ll choose the later.”

  Domonos saw the Adventurer’s Guild were bristling at his words.

  “In this situation the less the enemy knows the better. If we give them a single target it will be much harder to deal with, it could even unite them.”

  His words sunk in and he continued.<
br />
  “We have three operations that will happen, hidden operations. The first we will act on the periphery aiding those that are fighting the Willful Institute. Second, we will have the Adventurer’s Guild actively attacking the Institute locations, we pull in the support of the locals who are against the Institute. Hidden in the ranks we have Alva Army support. Third, we create a reason for Vuzgal to attack the Willful Institute, we deploy our fighting force beside the Adventurer’s Guilds and others that ally with us. We attack the enemy under the complete control of Vuzgal.”

  Domonos tapped the map again.

  “Those are methods of attack, but for the overall operation there are three stages, Infiltration, Destabilization, Attack.”

  “Infiltration has been handled by Director Silaz. Destabilization is ongoing by his forces, the Special teams as well as the Adventurer’s and Trader’s Guilds. When we attack it will combine all of the forces in this room and the allies that we can pull to our side, or just the people that hate, or want to take advantage of the Willful Institutes weakness.”

  “If you take a look at the files in front of you, there are plans for how we would coordinate all of these plans. There is also specific information on different cities and strongholds that we have gathered through different departments.”

  The meeting continued on with the different groups talking about tactics coming together and integrating with one another.

  In the darkness a hidden force was mobilizing, a wolf sneaking up on its unaware prey that could only see the tip of its tail.

  Chapter: From the Tiger’s Mouth

  Kanoa adjusted his hood in the rain, checking the rest of the people in the group as they all passed the guards at the gate.

  People were pushing forward into the outpost. Thankfully the main roads were fused stone instead of the sucking cold wet mud. Kanoa tried to scrape as much mud off of his feet as possible.

  He was soaked and feeling the chill of a cold coming on.

  The rest of the group gathered around him and they pushed on. Their eyes darted here and there.

  “Don’t worry, we’re in the Beast Mountain Range now, this place is all controlled by the King’s Hill Alliance, it will slow down King Ikku some,” Kanoa reassured them all as he led them to a tavern the guard had told them about.