The Fourth Realm (The Ten Realms Book 4)

by Michael Chatfield

The explosions were getting more accurate, finding pockets of densely packed soldiers.

  With the carnage and flashes of light, her soldiers were in chaos.

  “Form up and move forward!” she yelled. She needed to get them moving. She was used to losing people; it was sudden and the effects were devastating but if they fell into despair then they wouldn’t be able to pull back together.

  Even as they ran to cover on either side of the road, the ground exploded, killing and maiming dozens who cried out in panic and pain.

  There was no direction that they could move in, they were boxed in with undetected traps around the road and the whistling thunder rain that cut them down from above.

  “General Divaz, move into the forest and find out where the attacks are coming from. General Hummel, find out where those mages are hiding and attack them! General Kalim, form Mana barriers to cover our people!”

  ***

  Olivia saw the attack. The switchback had simply disappeared in the explosion. There was nothing there anymore. The army was in chaos, trying to find their attacker, thrown out of rhythm but they were people from the Fourth Realm and used to seeing death. They were starting to reorganize themselves but the mortars continued to come down. It only took one round to clear out a hole in the road, leaving behind a crater and killing anyone who had been there.

  The mortars dropped on the command groups that the different spotters had identified.

  The shooting went on for five minutes. Olivia was shocked by the repeated explosions that overlapped one another, making it seem like the end of days had come to the Blood Demo9n Army. The fire was accurate anyone caught outside of a mana barrier could only last for a few seconds.

  Olivia started to feel more confident but the Blood Demon Army started to recover as officers regained control over their panicked troops.

  “Pull back. Mortars—five rounds and move to position two,” Erik said.

  The observation posts started to dissolve and pull back.

  We have the advantage—we need to push it! Olivia punched the ground. “Roi, do it!”

  ***

  The Wind Unit was the strongest group within the Tareng Blue Lotus, entirely comprised of people who came from the higher realms.

  They were people who were completely loyal to the Blue Lotus.

  Roi got the order and nodded to the others. They were surprised by the destruction but they had their orders.

  They drank the red and green potions.

  Roi felt a new surge of strength through his body. His power skyrocketed while he felt a strange tug on his body.

  He was one of the strongest from the Tareng Blue Lotus. Seeing the Blood Demon army coming after them, he felt a kind of rage that he hadn’t felt in a long time.

  The Blue Lotus had found him in the Second Realm, nurtured him to this point and given him opportunities he’d never thought possible. They had cared for him and his family. Without the Blue Lotus, he would have died in the Second Realm.

  The squad had twenty people in it. They rushed out of their cover, running through the tree line.

  Spells shot out. The defending soldiers who were looking outward were Elites but they were unable to stop the sudden attack. They had only just gotten into a defensive formation. A few Masters from the Blood Demon army fired at where the spells had come from, lighting up the forest.

  The Blood Demon army that hadn’t had a target before, now found it.

  Every bow that could be aimed or spell that could be targeted on the area fired almost at once. The Blood Demon sect army wanted to hit something.

  The Wind Unit appeared out of the tree line and slammed into the Elites. Destruction fell behind them. They were wounded by the incoming spells and attacks but they didn’t fall; their armor was all half-step Journeyman level or above.

  They smashed through the lines of Elites, turning it into a bloodbath as they charged toward the Masters who appeared for battle.

  They were like demons, stepping through the ranks of Elites, leaving only the dead lying behind them. The road turned into a bloody battlefield with the Blue Lotus guards showing the Blood Demon Sect what real demons looked like. The Elites could only hope to slow them.

  Roi let out a laugh. It was a grim and powerful thing. His body overflowed with power. He didn’t feel the arrow that cut the side of his leg, or the fireball that hit him in the side, sending him flying. He rolled on his shield and came up; his sword flowed through the gaps in the Elite’s attacks.

  Blood fell around him and madness filled his eyes. He cast buffs on himself, turning into a blur.

  A sword cut through the air, aimed at his back; he turned to face the attacker, a smile on his face. He had found a Master, his target!

  The two swords clashed. The power was enough to throw back the level thirty-seven Elites in a five-meter radius. The trees on the sides of the road bent back.

  Their weapons repulsed apart. The two rushed together again. They were no longer humans but monsters.

  Their speed accelerated, making it hard to follow them as their sword and shields met one another. Attacks rained down again and again.

  Others couldn’t get near due to their speed and the force of their attacks.

  Roi sensed something and used a movement technique, rushing away. An arrow hit where he had been, leaving a crater and burying itself into the ground. A sonic boom was heard afterward.

  “Rat! You think you can get away!” The Master fighting Roi laughed as he rushed forward, aiming to pin him down.

  Roi’s weapon glowed red as a red mist appeared around his body. The potion he had taken increased his power dramatically. He let out a laugh; the master had a cold look on his face as he rushed in. They clashed once again but the Blood Demon Master was thrown back with the attacks, struggling to contain Roi.

  Roi ducked; his shield deflected an arrow. He used his sword to push back the Master.

  Roi pulled out several darts from his storage ring on his shield arm. He threw them forward. The Master, even having just been pushed back, was able to stop two of them but three hit him—two in the armor and one in the neck.

  He grabbed his neck. His complexion changed as the poison overtook him.

  Roi activated the formation in the darts. Wind blades shot out of them, shredding anything in front of them. The Master fell down dead as Roi tossed darts at the archer in the forest and detonated the formations, clear-cutting trees in the forest. The archer was thrown off guard and a body fell from the trees, a tombstone overhead.

  Roi let out a laugh, seeing the other members of Wind Unit slaughtering their way through Elites and cutting down Masters.

  He ran into the Elites again.

  He could feel the powerful fluctuations in the air. The strength that came from Masters was easy for him to identify.

  His darts flew and cut down dozens. He collided with a woman with a spear. As he went, his strength only grew and the madness in his eye increased. He was willing to take wounds to kill; he knew that this was his last mission.

  “Lotus!” he yelled, taking a hit to the side of his body. He had reached Body Like Earth Iron, yet the weapon still cut through his armor and damaged him.

  They used a defensive scroll, stopping Roi’s attack and tossing him back.

  Roi was disorientated as the spear user and other Masters attacked him.

  “Lotus!” members of Wind Unit yelled back. Their voices filled with laughter as they rushed past Roi, killing the woman. A Wind Unit mage was exchanging magical fire and supporting the others.

  Roi got up and rushed forward, stepping over the dead spear-wielding Master.

  “Lotus!” The war cry of the Blue Lotus could be heard as Wind Unit left destruction in their wake. The Elites couldn’t match them, so the Masters were sent in. Although the Blue Lotus Wind Unit was strong, they weren’t invincible. Their powerful Body Cultivation could only help them recover from so much. Dealing with the powerful attacks of the other Masters, even with their power
ful strength, they were wounded like common mortals would be.

  With each attack that could kill an army of people from the First Realm, the Masters clashed with one another.

  It was a terrifying display of strength that destroyed the land around them.

  For every Wind Unit member’s death, the Blood Demon Sect had to pay with countless Elites and over ten Masters. The Wind Unit had taken berserk potions to increase their current Strength, at the cost of their long-term cultivation and power.

  The magical users, knowing that they would die, detonated the Mana within their bodies, clearing an area one hundred meters wide. Not even Masters could survive their final attacks.

  Roi was no longer a human but a beast in human skin, taking on anything that was within reach. He fought with all the power left in his body, which was covered in wounds. Even his Expert-level armor was unable to take it, breaking under the strain, and the damage was beyond his ability to heal himself anymore.

  He lost his sword arm; using his shield arm instead, he deployed spell scroll after spell scroll. More of the Wind Unit fell from devastating wounds.

  Roi lost track of where he was, who he was fighting.

  He was hit by a spell, sending him flying. He waved his shield, throwing back those in its path. The Elites were blown away with the power; their armor mangled by his strength.

  Attacks continued. He lost his other arm, and someone sealed his cultivation. His body was trying to repair itself as someone took his legs.

  He was unable to fight back anymore as he coughed up blood.

  There were ten Masters watching him. Around them was a land of death. He was the last Blue Lotus Master left.

  He’d taken down nearly thirty Masters on his own.

  A woman approached, wearing armor that didn’t lose out to his own. “What is the plan of the Tareng people?”

  “To destroy the Blood Demon Sect.” Roi laughed as he was stabbed. He cracked a tooth in his mouth, consuming the poison inside.

  “The Blue Lotus army comes for you.” Roi laughed, not seeing them anymore, instead remembering the days that he had trained within the combat groups of the Blue Lotus, how he had fought across the realms, and adventured across hostile lands. The massive training facility for Blue Lotus guards, the ranks and ranks of Blue Lotus warriors being trained.

  His path might end but his brothers and sisters from the Blue Lotus would wipe out the Blood Demon Sect and it would fall. He knew it with certainty.

  He saw that the Masters were shaken by his words, his understanding of who they were, and saying that the army was coming.

  “The Blue Lotus army is nothing but an urban myth.”

  “You’ll see soon.” With that, the potent poison caused Roi to take his last breath.

  One of the Masters saw a colored liquid in Roi’s mouth.

  “Poison!” she yelled, calling down a spell on Roi. They burned his body, to make sure that all of the poison was destroyed.

  ***

  General Ulalas snorted at the man’s last words and looked around at the battlefield. She had lost nearly three hundred Masters. Thankfully, few of them had been high-tier Masters between level fifty and sixty.

  Her eyes turned to the switchback. Craters covered the switchback and her army was split in two. It would take time for them to advance through the broken ground and transport the carriages. Still, they hadn’t been able to find out what spell created the whistling destruction.

  In just a few minutes, they had lost hundreds of her soldiers, with only this squad of twenty people attacking directly.

  This is not a low level fighting force. Instead of taking us head on to grind us down, they hit and ran, then launched a sneak attack. I have never heard of the Blue Lotus using this type of attack before. The Blue Lotus usually just hides in their walls, using their overwhelming weaponry to destroy any force that dares appear and then deploying forces from other cities to attack through the totem.

  For the first time in this campaign, General Ulalas frowned. She didn’t know where they were heading but she didn’t want to break up her army. There were only a few thousand ahead of the switchback. Sending them to attack the Tareng convoy would only lead to their deaths.

  “Get me a path through this rubble,” she said. It might take a few hours but with the Earth mages, they could slowly repair the road and continue on.

  Chapter: Making an Enemy

  The people from the Blue Lotus were quiet, with stiff expressions. They had lost twenty good people. Olivia was moving through them, reassuring them, as Erik’s killing intent locked onto her. She sneered, looking at him in disdain.

  “A word in private?” Erik said, his face stiff and his blue eyes frigid. Olivia could feel his power fluctuating, affecting his aura and pressuring those around him.

  Being a higher level and with more advanced body and mana cultivation it was no more than a mild irritation.

  She gave a stiff nod and walked off with Erik.

  They walked into the forest some more. Erik stopped, trying to control his breathing and emotions.

  He turned around, his composed expression twisted.

  “What in the fuck was that!” He demanded.

  “Are you or are you not under my command?” His voice barked as Olivia bit back her words, tightening her fists in indignation. Do you know who I am and what I’ve done! You are only a member of the Alchemist Association with a trade agreement with the Blue Lotus!

  “I am trying to run a damn stalling action here, to give the people of Tareng time to pull back and my people time to prepare Vuzgal to face the Blood Demon Sect. I need people that can follow orders, not people that are going to do their own thing and sacrifice people’s lives for,” Erik opened and closed his fist unable to find the words.

  “What was your goal in sending out those people?”

  “To send a message, to remind them just who they’re facing. To show that we’re withdrawing because we decided to, not because they forced us. Your weapons and attacks are effective in killing and stunning the enemy, but they need to know that they’re fighting an enemy!”

  Erik took a deep breath and let it out of your nose.

  “Here are two scenarios for you, you are chasing the enemy, you know that they’re there, just, just beyond reach, you know that you can defeat them if you get close enough. You can taste the blood, see the fear in their eyes.

  “This is an enemy that has looked down on you all your life, but now you’re the one with the power. Got it?”

  Olivia nodded, feeling frustrated and stifled.

  “So the first scenario, you’re chasing the enemy but then you keep on getting ambushed by them, they keep popping out of the road, you lose people, but you kill those ambushers, see their corpses, show off that you’ve defeated the enemy. Even if you lost two, three, even ten to one. That enemy that looked down on you all that time. You got them!”

  Erik paused.

  “How do you feel? Honestly.”

  Olivia shifted on her feet, not liking what her brain was coming up with.

  “I feel like I’m losing people,” She said, but her voice sounded weak.

  “How do you feel,” Erik’s voice snapped.

  “I feel vindicated, we can defeat the enemy,” She snapped back.

  “Now, what if you are advancing, night and day, there is whistling and explosions, there are explosions going under your feet, the sides of the road are a death trap, the forest a sure way to die. What are you thinking now?”

  “I’m protected under the shields!”

  “Oh, but are you?” Erik’s voice was conversational but it sent a shock through Olivia’s system as she started to play scenarios through her mind, sinking into thought.

  “If, after being attacked by an enemy you can’t see, the enemy now attacks you. Would you be scared stiff, or would that fear, change to anger and you go all out to kill those bastards that made you feel scared?” Erik crossed his arms.

  “When they
engage us in battle later then they’ll go all out anyway,” Olivia said.

  “Probably, though how much will they have slept, how alert will they be? Will they think that they are stronger than us? Will they think that we’re sheep? Oh they can think that we’re cowards all they want. Does it matter what they think, or does it matter if we win?”

  “We need to show our strength!” Olivia said.

  “We need to win, I don’t need a commander trying to prove herself. I need a commander that listens to my orders. Work with your people, make sure that they’re combat ready for Vuzgal. We won’t be able to stop the Blood Demon Army on this road, we can reduce their numbers and bleed them. Most importantly, we need to break their spirit.”

  He seemed older as Olivia looked at him she felt something had changed.

  Nothing changed but there’s a side of him that I didn’t see before. Did I keep thinking of him as a young upstart because of my own failings?

  Olivia had taken a sever blow to her confidence.

  “Go and speed up the people of Tareng, Olivia. Our job is to slow them, to break them before they reach Vuzgal. Don’t get in our way.” Erik took Gilly out of her storage area.

  The powerful aura covered Olivia.

  Gilly stood there proudly as Erik got on her back.

  “Do your job.”

  Erik’s words burned something fierce as she wanted to lash out, to prove to others this wasn’t her fault. She had been stuck in this situation and had to work with what she had been dealt with.

  A golden light appeared around her.

  ==========

  You have broken the oath between the Blue Lotus and Erik West. Losing his trust and going against an agreement between your two parties.

  ==========

  “Wait, what? How did the entire Blue Lotus make an oath with you?” Olivia yelled.

  Erik didn’t look back as he rode his mount over to the rest of his group and headed off into the forest.

  Olivia felt that she had more questions about Erik than ever before.