"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 the Willful Institute, recruit more people to the guild and more people to the Alva military. Then we will be ready to fight the Institute in the Fourth Realm as the Vuzgal Defence 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, nodding his head.
Chapter: Committed
Erik sat in his chair, without moving his head he looked to the side, watching the Willful Institute's box. He brought his eyes back to the stages as Lin Lei, one of the three remaining Branch leaders in Vuzgal's fighting competition stepped up to the stage.
The fighting this year has been more intense than last year. The Adventurer's Guild has had their people steadily knocked out of the running, in the top twenty there are only three of them left. Though Blaze doesn't look affected.
Erik stood up from his seat 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 cancelling 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 too high compared to last year, but there are many more competitors out there. Also, most people might not have noticed, the Adventurer's Guild had taken one third of the top five hundred spots. The branch leaders 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 only 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 on the stage and two Lin Lei's appeared from the smoke.
Only 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.
Suddenly he used the momentum of his swing to turn around, slicing at the real Lin Lei, the wind shifting and turning into a wind blade as it cut through Lin Lei.
Erik straightened in alarm, feeling the cut across his own body. Lin Lei's body dissipated into grinning smoke as a foot kicked out of the smoke, hitting the bastard sword user in the back of the knee. He dropped down as the smoke turned to ice shackles, connecting his knee to the ground as 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 felt his heartbeat just starting to come back to normal under the thrill of the fight and the fear of Lin Lei being killed with the bastard sword users 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 waste land 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 of 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 envisioned would be 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 in the mud. 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 was turned into a swill perfect for one to lose their shoe in.
People huddled around fires, covered up against the chillier climate as a few let out wet coughs, the cold, the lack of sleep and the wet 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 that lay near the plateaus entrances, while they couldn't reach one another in the large openings, anything that wanted to enter or leave would have to fight them. Then there was the forward camp.
The forward camp was smaller than the supporting camps but its walls were larger and the mana barriers were stronger. From there the Willful Institute could launch their ranged siege attacks on Reynir. At the same time it remained in Reynir's range.
Even now attacks raged across the two forward attacking camps and across Reynir's barriers.
Mendes looked at the late night darkness, the flickering of fire and the display of destructive forces in the camps.
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, looking at the map and talking to a scarred lady who was pointing 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 her head 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' title.
"We found our leverage. The Grey Peak Sect are putting 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 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 they don't have any weapons that they can bring to bear on these positions. Now, at these locations, they are right next to the defenses. If we can get some people in close we can breach their defenses and push through their lower defenses, taking some pressure off of us."
"This is great news Elder Xiao," Mendes said looking at 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 and open up the breaches and hold them. Once they are secure then we will rush reinforcements from the rear support camps to reinforce the weakened forward camps and to exploit the breaches. We must wait until we have those openings or our people will just be stuck outside, 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 Meokar City!
"Good, you will head to the other plateau entrance to stabilize things there and to 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 once you deal with these ants!
"I will set off immediately."
***
Gudriksson and Storgaard were walking along the walls, showing their faces. The wall was sparse, but there was little room left in any of Reynir's buildings and storehouses, 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 that we should never piss of the Adventurer's Guild."
Storgaard was surprised by how serious he sounded.
"I think that 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 to get 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 out 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 different plans."
"Those are closely guarded secrets!"
"Not in this guild. If anything happens then even the most basic soldier knows several plans, places where to rally, who to follow in the fight. Also, they're going to respect their leaders more that take time to talk to them."
"Alright, we'll follow their plan. Just be ready with the Ice Domain spell scrolls in case we need to push the Willful Institute back out of Reynir."
"Of course, Branch Leader."
***
"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 looks like we're all committed," Domonos looked to Mister Yi.
"The orders went out and they're preparing to make a dawn assault. Mendes will be in the eastern support camp Charlie, while Xiao will be 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 Samantha for the one to the south and Emily 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 while not rare, they 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. Bravo, 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 as several mounted groups rushed out from Camp Samantha. They had used the locals to give them cover as they marched, but they weren’t going to send them into battle. They needed people to tend the land afterwards and people would turn on them if they pushed too far. Having unknowns in their fighting groups was a big risk. There was no knowing if one of them was a student of the sect and had a great big bomb in his storage ring.
Bai Ping was happy to not be attacking innocents.
The attacks redoubled, making it hard to see through the mana barrier that turned into an opaque wall with the attacks.
From the Fourth Realm he had been rescued at the gates of Vuzgal. He'd been 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 tested out the new formation armor. After testing was complete all of the close protection units were being deployed across the Ten Realms taking up the slack from the special teams, supporting intelligence agents and leading attacks against the Willful Institute.
As things started to heat up in Meokar, Bai Ping and his squad were one of the first transferred over.
They integrated themselves into the guild units. Having worked in all kinds of units and done different jobs in the army, they were able to fit in well. There were Alvans among the adventurer's that made things easier. All of 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 as everyone pulled back on their bows and cast their spells upon their bow and their arrows.
"Fire!" Across the wall, archers released their arrows. They dropped down in the early-morning light as people rang alarm bells, alerting Reynir that the enemy was sending an attack forward.
The noise had become all to familiar in the last few days.
"Load!" Bai Ping called again.
The first arrows peppered their target, meeting a mana barrier, releasing their attacks.
An unlucky group was hit by an errant trebuchet boulder, making their barrier fail for a half second.
They had to scuttle forward over the broken landscape, fighting through the golems that called this unnatural place filled with destructive magics their home.
Under the rain of arrows, powerful magics that sent lances of power hurtling towards them, trap spells that had been hidden in the depths of the night, the Willful Institute trudged on.
They might be bastards, but they are a strong enemy.
Mana barriers were broken and the mounted force could only break apart, fleeing back to camp Samantha and its promised safety, many didn't make it.
The majority pushed forward through it all; only a third got within two hundred meters. At this range, the density of spell traps rose and the defenders could attack directly with ease. Though the attackers were so close that the mid and inner walls couldn’t hit them anymore. The possibility of striking the wall was just too high.
Bai Ping didn't know how many times he had called out the instructions as the members on the wall sent another volley forward.
"Ready weapons!" He barked, the mounted beasts would close the few hundred meters quickly.
Everyone grabbed their melee weapons ready to repel attackers.
“They’re heading straight for the wall!” A spotter called out.
“Drop rocks!” Someone yelled as people kicked rocks down the slits in the wall, dropping onto the enemy below, creating ripples on their different mana barriers
Inside the mana barriers the Willful Institute riders started to attack the defenses, tearing into the walls.
Formations carved into the stone came to life, making it harder for the enemy to break through.
Bai Ping saw several people pull out formations and place them on the wall that drew in massive amounts of water and wind energy, creating a sideways whirlpool.
"Get off the wall!" Bai Ping's words were drowned out as the whirlpools condensed slamming into the wall one after an
other. They were like elemental drills, tearing through the walls, with the force of wind and water. Those on the wall couldn't hold their footing anymore and were tossed backwards as the wall exploded outwards.
Bai Ping hit the ground heavily and rolled.
Mana barrier!
The spell snapped into existence, covering him as he tasted dirt and blood in his mouth. Boulders from the wall smashed against his mana barrier, bouncing off.
Other sections of the wall were being opened up by different attack formations and spell scrolls. Even the mounted raiders were breaking through, using their beasts and combat techniques.
Bai Ping cancelled his mana barrier, getting covered in stones, he pushed himself up and pulled out his sword.
"Rally to me!" He yelled. "Adventurers Guild up and at them! Check on your buddies, pull the wounded back to the mid wall!" Bai Ping yelled as he saw the walls that were like broken teeth. Some people had kept their footing on the walls, others had been tossed free.
He saw legs sticking out from underneath a pile of rubble.
He spat out the dust and blood in his mouth as he heard a beast's roar. A man was just picking himself up off of the ground as a spear sprouted through his chest. Through the dust and smoke a mounted warrior appeared, he shifted his spear, shaking the dying man free.
Bai Ping ran forward, his speed increased as he jumped up onto a rock, then another pile of rubble.
More mounted members of the Willful Institute were coming out of the breach behind the man with his bloodied spear.
With the close in walls, the uneven terrain, they didn't have the protection of their mana barriers anymore.
The spear user turned towards Bai Ping, only to feel a cool breeze on his neck. Bai Ping jumped onto another section of wall, pulling three throwing blades, power flooded through his body, lighting up his arm and the daggers.
"Fly true!" He yelled, spells settled on the throwing blades as he followed their trajectory. The blades seemed to have eyes as they shifted their point of aim before sinking into the necks of three more mounted attackers.
Sixth Realm Page 100