The Fourth Realm (The Ten Realms Book 4)

by Michael Chatfield

  They lowered their weapons, Xue Lin paying no attention “The enemy has started to move,” she said.

  She wasn’t wearing her flowing clothes anymore; instead, she wore armor of the Blue Lotus. Erik could tell that it was a peak-Journeyman-level armor with a few pieces that had reached the Expert stage based on referencing other armor he had seen and conversations with Rugrat about armor and weapons.

  Erik looked at Storbon. He took off at a run, his speed impressive. Erik put away the report. “Communications?”

  “They’re blocking us and we’re blocking them.”

  “Hopefully that can give us some more time.”

  “The caravans are ready, we move within the hour.”

  “Understood,” Erik nodded he pulled his armor on and grabbed his helmet.

  “Once we break through the scouts, Daniels and his people will move with their guards and your people towards Vuzgal at their best speed to go through the totem. They can go to visit their higher-ups and pass the word to their people and to the people of the Blue Lotus in person. We know they won’t accept what you say without proof, so Daniels’ group will be our proof.”

  “Understood. I’ll hang back and command my people at the road to hold and slow the Blood Demon Sect,” Erik said.

  “Olivia will command the Tareng forces.”

  “Got it,” Erik finished with his gear as the rest of the special team were jogging out of their rooms and checking their gear.

  She also noticed that there was no fluctuation in his emotions, as if he were detached from it all. It was as though he were more machine than man. It was something she had seen in men and women who had been in the Fourth Realm for a long time and had seen too many of the horrors of war.

  ***

  The city started to move. The streets were filled with caravans; storage chests and items were stuffed to the brim as extra carriages that had been made just for this were hooked up to beasts.

  Some people didn’t want to leave; they weren’t forced to. Xue Lin didn’t waste her time with them but sent some of her people to investigate them in case they were spies.

  A few spies had been found and they were questioned. Some of them gave information, enough for them to determine the identity of their enemy.

  The Blood Demon Sect.

  The sect had been facing trouble recently, with two powerful forces creating an alliance for the purpose of tearing up their lands.

  By mid-afternoon, the convoys were ready to move. They moved out of every gate in the city and headed east. There was no attempt to hide their movements. Winged beasts took off into the sky as forces moved ahead of the caravan, taking the locations of the scouting outposts from the Blood Demon Sect. It would be their role to sneak up on the scouts and kill them.

  In a coordinated strike they cut down the scouts in the observation posts. Clearing a path through the Blood Demon Sect’s lines.

  Olivia and the others knew it wouldn’t be long until the Blood Demon Sect learned of the hole.

  Olivia didn’t allow anything to stop them as the stream of people left the capital, nearly Eighty thousand people. All of them were powerful. The members of the neutral cities were strong in their own right, be it in skills or in connections and wealth.

  The Blue Lotus and the Crafter’s Association were the overlords of the city, so no one dared to get in their way.

  Erik and his special team were in the middle of it all, the nerve center of everything. They were calm, sending out their orders. Olivia didn’t like being under command of someone who wasn’t from the Blue Lotus and had picked the guard detail around Erik. No matter what, if something went wrong and Erik betrayed them, they would lay down their lives to make sure that he didn’t survive.

  She had done the same with the group that was with the Crafter’s Association and had placed some of the hidden eyes and ears of the Blue Lotus with the guards. It would be valuable if they were able to observe where they were going and pass information back to the higher members of the Blue Lotus.

  They rushed across the desert, heading to the East.

  An advanced force had gone ahead with half of Erik’s group, Qiu Jun and the Master level Tareng fighters.

  Olivia rode up to Xue Lin’s carriage, the wind whipping at her armor.

  “The scouts and the Master level forces that we sent out killed the Blood Demon Sect people in the outposts, they’re not sure if they triggered alarm formations or not.”

  “Make sure no one falls behind. If a carriage is broken, leave it,” Xue Lin ordered.

  “Yes Head Xue!”

  They had punched a hole in the Blood Demon Sect’s ring of outposts and rode through it in a race to live.

  The sect would learn sooner or later of the hole in their screen but it would give the people of Tareng more time; the convoy looked like a black snake moving across the desert in the middle of the night, a large cloud of sand rising up behind them as they ran.

  ***

  As they were fleeing, an older, kind-looking woman stepped out of Tareng as if to see them off. She had tears in her eyes as she looked away at the desert and kneeled in the sand, touching it.

  Her sleeves touched the ground; a worm-like creature dropped to the desert ground. It burrowed into the sand and disappeared. With a wave of her sleeve, there was no sign of the disappearing worm on the sand’s surface.

  “Are you okay?” One of the people who had decided to stay in the city and had seen off the convoy moved to help the older woman.

  “I’m fine, thank you.” She gave them a warm smile as they helped her up.

  The younger man smiled as he nodded to her. “Do you need more help?”

  “No, I will be fine. Was just having a moment to take it in.”

  He nodded, none the wiser as he turned and headed back into Tareng.

  Different spies—those who were with the convoy or in the city—sent messages…or tried to. A number of people were killed in the convoy as they were sending their messages, the agents of the Crafter’s Association and the Blue Lotus finding them.

  Bodies were left behind and the sand covered them as is the deserts ancient right.

  ***

  Night arrived as Ulalas sat on her lizard mount, wearing her full armor. They were resting for the night but they only had a few fires built.

  One of her aides rushed over to her with a bloody note in his hand.

  “Tareng knew about the concoction. They’re still weakened and they’re fleeing because they’re not strong enough to repel us and they have no way to get support in time. They are heading to the east.” The aide lowered their head and offered the message with their hand.

  Ulalas opened the note and quickly scanned it. “Break camp. We will be heading to the east. Damel!”

  The minor general rode up.

  “You take your army and clear out Tareng city,” she said.

  “Yes, General.” He rode off to gather his army and ride for Tareng through the night.

  “It looks like that merchant wasn’t lying after all. The group that went to Tareng, they must have been the survivors he left behind. Though they’re heading to the east—is it a feint?” She spoke aloud, thinking. “It doesn’t matter. Contact our scouts to the east. We need to know how far the people of Tareng are.”

  Messages were sent before an aide, with a grave voice, reported, “We have lost contact with a number of our scouts to the east of Tareng. It looks like the people of Tareng have passed their positions.”

  “Get up some flyers. They know about us already. I want to know where they are!” she yelled.

  Flying creatures and their riders took off from the massive moving caravans that were moving with the army. Each of the various carriages was the size of a manor, hauled by dozens of large beasts. They were moving command posts, storing siege weapons, ammunition, and supplies. They also held beasts and acted as mobile launching platforms for flying creatures; large posts reached up into the skies on each of four points.
<
br />   ***

  Rugrat was working on shells for the M32s when he got a message.

  “Rugrat, we’re on the move toward Vuzgal. How are the preparations?” Erik asked.

  “Han Wu and I will move out with Special Team Two immediately to start planting the charges and prepare our first present for the enemy. I will have Dragon Platoon move out immediately to start to prepare following locations,” Rugrat said.

  “Understood. I want you to remain in the capital.”

  “Why do you want me to stay back?”

  “You can directly control the dungeon cores and the people of the Blue Lotus have a bit of information on you. They’ll respect you more. Also, you are one of our best smiths. With you making weapons and explosives, I’ll feel better,” Erik said.

  “Got it.” Rugrat was annoyed. He wanted to be there on the ground. He felt he was the best person for the job but he knew that Erik had thought it through.

  “Sorry, brother. Don’t worry—I’ll be with them,” Erik said.

  “Got it. They’re smart people but this will be their first time using the new weapons or seeing what they can do. I wanted at least one of us with them. The first time we hit the army will be when we can inflict the most casualties and once they have an idea of what to do, they can adapt from there with everything we’ve taught them.”

  “I was thinking the same. It’s going to be a tense few days, though,” Erik said.

  “Yeah,” Rugrat said. There was an army of what might be fifty thousand. On Earth, an army of that size would have been incredibly hard to support requiring massive amounts of food and water.

  In the ten realms mages could call down rain to make water, and a stamina potion could replace a day’s worth of meals. It was why the third realm’s greatest profits didn’t come from healing potions or transformative pills. It can from simple stamina recovery potions and powders.

  Chapter: Discovery

  The people from Tareng continued to travel through the night. As midday approached, they were in sight of the forest.

  Instead of rejoicing, people could only look with fear at the fast and evasive flying creatures above them that kept their distance. They were the scouts from the Blood Demon Sect. It was clear that they had been discovered. All they could do was race toward the forest.

  The enemy knew where they were but they didn’t know where the enemy was. They continued their pace. People started to panic but the leadership clamped down on it.

  They had already sent out their fastest creatures toward Vuzgal. It would take them three days to reach the capital. By that time, the people of Tareng would be in the forest, and either Erik and his people had slowed the Blood Demon Sect, or the Blood Demon sect had caught up with the people of Tareng.

  Erik told Xue Lin his plan of staying behind with a number of his people and creating a line to slow the Blood Demon sect army.

  “I will send a group of our strongest Blue Lotus guards and Crafter’s Association guards with you,” she said.

  “Okay but it would be best if they are skilled in stealth or if they have long-range abilities, and can hit a target from a kilometer away or so,” Erik said.

  Xue Lin looked over to Olivia, who was by her side.

  “I will gather those who are capable and I will stay to assist,” Olivia said.

  Erik felt that she didn’t trust him but he didn’t care as long as she listened to what he said. He could care less about what she thought about him when this was all over.

  Erik nodded. With their help, his plan would be more effective. The first attack they landed would give away a lot of their tactics, so they needed to make it as effective as possible.

  “It would be best if we have people who were capable of dealing damage to the strongest people in the Blood Demon Sect’s army. We can distract and hurt them. When the time comes, it will be up to your people to kill them. You’ve got powerful mages and ranged attackers which we can use to wear down their numbers if we concentrate that firepower in one location,” Erik said.

  Olivia looked at him in question Firepower, ranged? Doesn’t he know our main strength comes from attacking the enemy directly? She was frustrated being treated like some little girl who didn’t know how to fight. He should have been looking to her for advice. Is he looking down on me because this happened on my watch?

  It was a fear that had grown ever since they knew that the Blood Demon Sect was outside the city.

  I need to prove to him and to everyone else that I didn’t mess up.

  ***

  The tension in the people from Tareng increased as time went by, understandably so.

  Special Team Two were waiting for them as they entered the forest.

  Seeing them, the people of Tareng felt a little better. But they had no idea how just ten people would be useful in a battle against thousands.

  “Sir,” Roska said in greeting as Erik rode up on Gilly.

  Gilly nipped at Roska, who smiled and patted the big creature.

  “How are we looking?” Erik asked.

  Olivia was beside him, studying them all. She had a group of Blue Lotus guards behind her.

  “We have Tiger Platoon with twenty mortars pre-placed and ranged in on the main road. We’ve already pre picked some ambush locations and laid down mines. We used some formation traps on the first couple, just to see if they can sense them. If they do then we can try and catch them off guard with the mines, we’ll have to adjust that as we go. Also, Rugrat wanted me to show you this.” She pulled out a M32 grenade launcher.

  Erik took it and opened it up as if he were familiar with the weapon system. “Of course, a grenade launcher. I’m guessing this was the surprise that he was keeping from me. How many do we have?”

  “We have ten in total,” she said.

  “Okay, show me the locations that you’ve picked out,” Erik said.

  Roska pulled out a map that traced the road from the beginning of the forest all the way to Vuzgal. She had picked a switchback with two turns that would force whoever was going through it to slow down.

  There were also areas where the road was higher or lower than the rest of the forest; areas that had swamps or other challenging terrain on either side.

  Erik looked at them and picked out several locations. The first would be the switchback, which went up a hill.

  “Where is Han Wu?” Erik asked.

  “Working on more explosives,” Roska said.

  “Okay, let him continue working. I want the mortars zeroed in on this area here. Stagger them out at different locations. This location here, does it have good sight lines to the bottom of the switchback?” Erik pointed from the bottom of the switchback to an area off to the side.

  “One would need to get up in a tree,” Gong Jin said.

  Olivia listened to them and wondered what they were talking about. Explosives, grenades, mortars—she didn’t know what language they were even speaking in.

  Erik looked to Olivia. “What kind of range do your mages have?”

  “A kilometer,” she said.

  “Okay, we’ll have them targeting the bottom of the switchback. We’ll have the mortars hitting the rear of the army lines. They want to go forward—they go through a minefield; backward—they’re into mortar fire,” Erik said.

  Olivia saw the grim looks on the people Erik was talking to. She didn’t know what these items were but it seemed that they were powerful.

  “Okay, we’ll start digging into the road. I want IEDs underneath the road. I want sniper pairs here, here, and here.” Erik pointed to different locations. “We get them in the switchback, packed together and slow, blow the IEDs, let rip with ranged Blue Lotus and crafters, then with the mortars. Snipers hit the leadership and powerful-looking people, spell scrolls and call in a few batteries of mortars, only using rifles when necessary. Spotters on this location will guide mortars onto high-density targets.”

  The members of the special teams nodded but Olivia only understood a portion of i
t.

  “What are IEDs, mortars, and snipers?” she asked.

  “IEDs, improvised explosive devices, are like mechanical spell scrolls. Mortars are like long-range destructive spells, and snipers are people like rangers who use extreme range to create havoc in the enemy’s camp by hitting their leadership and valuable targets attempting to cause chaos and confusion,” Erik said.

  She nodded. With that, she could understand it a bit more.

  “All right, let’s get people in position and get ready. The second location will be here.” Erik picked a flat area at the bottom of the valley. “We’ll use mortars, IEDs, and mines. Niemm and Roska, you will be in charge of this area. Gong Jin, take three from your team and a section from Dragon Platoon to prep the next location.”

  Gong Jin headed off on his mount to gather his people as Yui, the leader of the platoon, Erik, Roska, and Niemm addressed any remaining questions.

  Olivia listened to their final plan. She hadn’t heard of these types of tactics before. They were cowardly and although they might be effective against the chaff forces, they weren’t made to kill the powerful forces of the enemy.

  What does it matter if we kill a lot of them? If we don’t kill the powerful Masters in their ranks, then this will all be for nothing.

  Chapter: Stage Is Set

  Taran looked up from the forges. The forges had been going twenty-four seven there was an area being run by Tan Xue with the Journeyman level smiths and formation masters that were working on the grenade launchers. The rest of the smithy was turned over to making ammunition, mortars, bullets and mortar rounds were cast here, then handed over to the formation master workshop, their edges smoothed, the formations cleaned up and inlaid, then it was off to the ammunition mill where the rounds and cartridges were mated together with the accelerants from the alchemist association where they would be packaged and readied to ship to the fourth realm.

  There was a similar assembly line for repeater bolts that was being carried out by the woodworking division. The spell scroll students were all working to make support spell scrolls, they cooking department were making meals for the soldiers. The medics were preparing supplies for the wounded as well as pills and resources to increase body and mana cultivation. Beast masters prepared meals and regiments for the beasts up there to increase their levels and care as they increased in level.