The Fourth Realm (The Ten Realms Book 4)

by Michael Chatfield

  Hadard pulled out a map. They were in a mountain range. To the south, there were plains; to the east, there were swamplands that gave way to forests and then the Chaotic Lands.

  To the west were the mountain ranges, more of the Sanem-controlled lands and the Halberd Sect lands after that.

  The Chaotic Lands were hell but there was a chance of living. If he continued through the Sanem land, the trading caravan would be hunted every step.

  Hadard looked back at the goats that his guards were riding. They were good at both running along open areas and climbing mountains.

  “Turn for the Chaotic Lands.” Hadard checked his map, looking at the plotted routes. There was an old route, one that most had forgotten. He’d never heard of anyone who had been able to cross it.

  He looked at the riders who had joined them.

  “Tell them that the riders from the city are looking to take our goods for the defense. Say that we have a route,” Hadard said to one of the people in the caravan. That man nodded, waved his hand and a beast appeared.

  “Tell them that I’ll make an oath once we leave the guards behind,” Hadard added.

  “Understood, boss.” He jumped onto his beast with practiced ease and dropped back to the panther riders.

  If it’s a cursed land, then we have a few who we can sacrifice to ensure our escape.

  ***

  Erik was wondering what the traders might do. He’d already had everyone prepare to rush away if the traders turned on them after discovering they were getting chased by the guards.

  Looks like they really don’t like people showing up unannounced at their totem.

  A trader released a beast from a storage item and jumped on it, dropping back to the Alvans.

  The group stopped next to Tully, who relayed everything to Erik with her sound transmission device so the traders couldn’t pick up anything.

  “It looks like they want our goods but my boss has a path out of here,” the trader said.

  Seems that he thinks that they’re following after him. Erik wondered just who they were actually chasing.

  “We’ll follow. Once we shake the guards, my boss wants to make an oath with you,” the trader said.

  “Understood,” Erik said to Tully who was acting as his mouthpiece so the traders were none the wiser as to who was the leader of the soldiers.

  He didn’t know whether there was more to why the trader wanted to flee but as long as they got away from the guards, they could split up and work on their own.

  “I sensed a dungeon,” Rugrat transmitted.

  Erik checked his map, looking at the shared way point. “The first one but I think we’ll have to check it out later.”

  Rugrat made a noise of agreement.

  Their path changed sometime later, moving from the well-maintained highway to an older road. It was made with worn stones that had withstood the passage of time and led toward a large forest that appeared in the distance.

  They rode for the rest of the day, entering the forest as darkness descended.

  The guards charging after them kept on coming as they continued on the road that seemed to cut through the forest. Debris fell on the road but nothing grew through its stones. The large beasts of the caravan smashed through the trees or tossed them aside with their tusks. Nothing slowed their advance, these things were truly massive beasts.

  “Feral beasts are coming,” one of the outriders said.

  They had pushed scouts out into the forest. The panthers moved as easily in the forest as they did on the road. They changed out from time to time so that they didn’t get too tired and to share the duty.

  There was a roar off in the distance as a forest beast found people trespassing in its territory.

  “Roska,” Erik said.

  She nodded, rising up in her stirrups and Special Team Two rushed out to meet the noise. Special Team One became more alert.

  More beasts called out as they rushed forward to attack.

  The special teams led. They had all trained to shoot and ride at the same time. It wasn’t as accurate as when they were standing but Rugrat and Erik’s standards weren’t low so everyone was still proficient.

  The trading convoy continued, keeping up their pace, only pausing to clear the road and rushing on.

  The trader who had talked to them before appeared again. “My boss wonders if you are up for traveling through the night? With that, he is sure that those chasing us will be far behind by tomorrow night.”

  Tully looked around but didn’t make clear eye contact with Erik, giving him time to think.

  They all had strong constitutions. It would be rough but they could stay awake for up for two weeks.

  “That is fine by us,” Erik sent to Tully.

  The night didn’t become quieter. The types of beasts just changed to more predatory species.

  Erik moved with the group, watching as a mage turned the ground to quicksand, the beast she targeted unable to do anything as repeater bolts penetrated its sides.The soldiers landed five shots before the beast died from the potent poison on their bolts. They recovered its monster core and headed back toward the rest of the convoy.

  The beast would attract predators that wanted a simple meal instead of chasing after the convoy. Its body was already poisoned and would kill or greatly harm any creatures who ate it. It was better to leave it instead of filling their storage rings with useless meat. They already had high level meats stockpiled for the trip.

  The night was a long one but they made good time through the forest.

  ***

  Hadard had heard the noises from the beasts being killed but he hadn’t seen the fighting so he didn’t put it in his mind.

  “Maybe I was overthinking this all,” Hadard said to himself as he relaxed a bit. He had been scared of the path but it looked as though its dangers were exaggerated.

  The sun rose but a fog had covered the road and the trees, making it hard to see through. The mist was annoying but in the valleys and mountain ranges around this area, mist and fog was a normal occurrence.

  “It’ll be good to return to the south and the sun, boss. I can feel the sun on my skin already,” a new driver said with a laugh.

  Hadard smiled. He and the rest of the caravan had been able to sleep and change watch. The mercenaries were all still riding on their beasts and charging off to kill creatures that got too close.

  They must be tired. We could rest but then I would need to make an oath and I don’t know who they are. If we’re better rested than them, we can escape if we do run into danger.

  Hadard moved his heavy furs around, looking at the mercenaries, who didn’t seem to be affected by the wind. They had masks hooked to their helmets that covered their faces and protected their eyes.

  Watching them, he finally took in their identical appearance. Their gear was clearly functional, with any superfluous extras removed. They looked strong.

  Chapter: War Immortal

  They continued traveling for three more days with the fog only getting worse by the day.

  Erik had Tully ask to see the trader boss but she was denied.

  “Think that there is something strange going on?” Rugrat asked with his sound transmission.

  “Well you obviously think something strange is going on or else you wouldn’t contact me,” Erik replied.

  “Saying I can’t give you a social call now? That’s cold dude,” Rugrat complained.

  “You got a point there?”

  “They’re keeping the leader hidden, we’re doing the same. We don’t really know one another, think we should remind our people that these aren’t our traders,” Rugrat said his voice a few degrees colder.

  “Agreed. We’ll make camp soon, everyone is tired and we’ve only stopped once this entire trip. We’ll check on them, make sure that they’re good to go. We arrived and were just dropped in the shit, they might have their nerves up. Get them adjusted to it all and keep them focused,” Erik enthused.

  �
�They’ve done good though.” “Yeah, they aren’t bad coming right out of training,” Erik looked at them. They were hidden under their clothing but their eyes were sharp and they rode as if they had been born in the saddle.

  Without needing to say anything, the section leaders were getting them to cycle out watching and just riding. A human couldn’t be alert all the time and it showed how the leadership understood their soldiers enough to care for their needs so that they could carry out the tasks they needed to, when they had to.

  “You want to send out the scouts from Tiger Platoon and follow them?” Erik asked.

  “Sounds like a plan. Be good to make sure that they didn’t lose all of their training just because it’s the real thing now. I can organize that.”

  “Alright I’ll wait back here.”

  Erik shifted in his saddle and patted Lola.

  She shook herself, getting comfortable as they continued moving.

  “Tully, tell the traders that we’re sending out people to look for a place to rest up. We’ll camp tonight and move out in the morning,” Erik said through his sound transmission as Rugrat and the scouts headed out ahead.

  “Yes boss,” Tully responded as she sidled up to the traders, talking to them quickly before she moved off and used her sound transmission device to contact Erik again.

  “They want to push forward, said that they don’t need sleep.”

  “What did you say?”

  “Said that they might not but we do, up to them if they want to go ahead. They agreed that we need to rest,” Tully said dryly.

  “Good work,” Erik said, the corners of his mouth lifting up.

  “No worries boss.”

  Erik cut the sound transmission as he looked around. He moved his body around, tensing and untensing his muscles to get the blood flowing while regaining feeling back in his limbs. It was only barely working as he rubbed his gloves together, using his legs to keep him on Lola as he moved with her motions.

  Why is it you can rub your hands together for hours but they never get frigging warm?

  He let out an annoyed grunt and put one hand under his ass and grabbed the reins with the other.

  Could I use my fire body?

  Erik circulated his mana into his bones and muscles, his fire attribute body started to warm up rather nicely.

  He hid a smile on his face, not wanting to tell anyone his newfound ability.

  The road was well made and wide, big enough for four carriages to go side by side. There were even regular rest areas that had been carved out of the side of the road that reminded Erik of truck stops back on Earth.

  Though these had been long overrun with trees and shrubs, making them hard to find and a good challenge for the scouts.

  Where the hell does it lead though? There is no way a road that would be this expensive in time, labor, and resources to build, would be just left here if someone had a choice.

  Erik looked at the massive trees that closed them in on either side, seeming to loom overhead. Their size and the fog made it impossible to see more than a hundred meters to either side of the road, even with their magically enhanced vision.

  Down the road they could see around three hundred meters, a clear corridor in the darkness. Erik had a greater sensitivity to mana and this place just felt dead.

  Erik used his sound transmission device again.

  “Commander?” Yuli asked as he contacted her.

  “Have you got any new theories for why the mana in here is so still?” Erik asked.

  “Well, I have three theories. One, there is a kind of anomaly in the area that stops the mana from moving. Two, there is some anomaly that is drawing in the mana and the mana is more attracted in that direction. Out here the pull of the rest of the realm and the pull of that object are equal so it doesn’t move. Three, there isn’t enough things to move the mana in a large area so it has become stagnant.”

  “That last one sounds kind of awkward.” “So I think of mana like water in a lot of ways. It lies over everything equally but there are forces acting on it all the time to move it, whether it be the wind, tides, the moons, maybe temperature. If you removed those factors, then it would remain relatively still. Wherever we go, we stir up the mana, though it’s dense and hard to circulate as we move into it. Looking at the map, we’re in a large valley to either side which makes this area protected. We haven’t run into that many strong beasts, so the tide or temperature of the mana isn’t stirred up like when there are cities where the mana density is higher from people creating items, using resources and spreading out mana, circulating it.” Erik was impressed with her reasoning. She had incorporated a lot of information that Erik and Rugrat had shared with the people of Alva, allowing her to make an informed decision and not just accept the facts as they were as she tried to understand the situation.

  “What else?” Erik asked.

  “People haven’t come down here much, otherwise the mana wouldn’t be this way. They haven’t come down here for a long time and there is a city right next to this road. I’m not sure what happened here but it is enough to stop a sect with thousands of soldiers from pushing this way.” Yuli shivered as she finished postulating.

  Erik fell silent, checking his timepiece and using his dungeon sense. If there’s an anomaly, there is usually a dungeon close by or something really damn powerful.

  “Captain?” Yuli asked.

  “It makes sense,” Erik said.

  “You don’t think I’m overreacting?” Yuli sounded like she wanted to be proven wrong.

  “I don’t think so,” Erik said, with his higher sensitivity of mana that came with his title increase to Mana Emperor. He wasn’t that well versed in the intricacies of mana but now he heard Yuli’s hypothesis he didn’t think it was far from the truth.

  Rugrat sent Erik a sound transmission. Erik took the message immediately as it was to all of the command staff.

  “We were scouting ahead for somewhere to rest, we came to the end of the forest. There is a clear cut area that the road goes into, it’s hard to see through the fog,” Rugrat paused. “It looks like a battlefield. There are ancient siege weapons, broken weapons, armors and bodies. It must’ve been a long time ago as the bodies are nothing more than bones. I pulled the scouts back and we’re now just observing.”

  “Is there any movement?” Erik asked.

  “Nothing so far, don’t feel good about this. There is limited vision and there are signs of a fresh battle.”

  “We can’t turn back, we’ll be heading right into a siege. Check the map we have, can we skirt the battlefield?”“This place looks like France after World War One. There are craters all over the place, it’s rough and hilly. Moving the carriages around is going to be a pain. We can do it but we’ll lose a few of them and the faster we go, the more we’ll lose.” “I’ll get Tully to talk to the traders, see if they have any information and then tell them.”

  “Rog.” Erik sent Tully her orders as she went up to the carriages again. A map was brought out and she touched her map to it, adding the information to her map as she went back into the Alvan Army formation, passing the map around and it was shared across all of their maps.

  “They said that there is an abandoned city ahead. We can skirt around it, go north and then hit the eastern road and take that,” Tully suggested to those on the leadership channel.

  Erik was shared the map and then shared it on to others, trying not to bring attention on himself as he looked at the map. The map was rough, with the city lying to the south along the mountain walls of the valley. They were going down a road that cut from the east to west down the length of the valley and diverted into the southern city.

  “We’ll go straight down the east to west road. We’ll move fast but quiet, try and do it stealthily. We’ll have scouts up front. If we encounter an enemy force, the scouts will hold position and suppress the enemy forces, covering us as we move through. We’ll push out Special Team One to replace the scouts, then Special Team T
wo, then scouts from Dragon Platoon and back to the scouts from Tiger Platoon, rotating through to create a rolling barrage of fire and cover for our movements. At the same time, the convoy will speed up, going as fast as we can without our formations falling apart. Thoughts, questions?” Erik questioned.

  “What about the traders?” Glosil asked.

  “If anything breaks or is too slow, they have to get on their secondary mounts and keep up,” Erik replied. “If it comes down to it, we protect our own first.”

  “Understood,” Glosil said. “I’ll pass it on to the company.”

  The Alvan army all started to move around, becoming more alert as they shifted around the convoy.

  The traders passed messages to one another as they prepared for what was ahead.They kept going until the trees started to fall away.

  The scouts suddenly appeared out of the fog some twenty meters away. They were spread across the road looking out at the battlefield before them.

  The fog thinned a bit, allowing them to see forty meters away, the air: the smell of decay, rot, and of blood and iron.

  They looked to either side of the road and saw the fields had been turned into a battlefield. There were skeletons holding rusted and broken weapons along the ground. The ground was strewn with fragments from siege weapons that had been destroyed. The battlefield was old, layered with signs of fierce fighting over decades. There were bodies from people across different generations, their flesh in different stages of decay.

  “These skeletons…” Glosil said looking at a few of the older bones among the dead.

  “Not human,” Erik said.

  The traders were all looking around. Seeing the bodies, they all started to fidget and move around.

  “Stay in close with the traders, make sure that they can’t cause a problem. Push the scouts out ahead,” Erik ordered.

  The army moved like a fine tuned machine. There wasn’t even a slight pause in their actions. They were awake and alive, their eyes now sharp, the last few days of monotonous riding had dulled their reactions but now, thanks to their training, they were switched on once again.