“Okay, we’ll coordinate weapons fire, keep it low unless we see an opening, hamper them but not waste rounds. Test with Gong Jin and see what we can do against those scouts in the trees.”
“Sir,” Gong Jin and Yui acknoweldged their orders.
“Then those not manning the mortars can stay on watch and use spell scrolls on any aerial assets,” Yui added in a questioning tone.
“You run it how you want, you know the situation with your people better than I do,” Erik said.
“Understood,” Yui said.
“Questions?” Erik asked, stretching in his armor, the middle of his back aching as he tried to loosen up.
No one responded.
“Good stuff. Gong Jin, report to me when the enemy is in our target zone.”
“Will do.” he confirmed.
Erik closed the channel. He sat against a rock, looking like unsleeping hell. He was covered in dirt and grime, his left leg raised up, with his helmet resting on his knee.
He took a deep breath, rubbed his face and pulled out some luke warm coffee he had been nursing focusing on the map in his other hand.
He checked his updated map and the different ambush points that were still marked out and the mortar positions and observation points that they had already checked out. There was a section from Yui’s Dragon Platoon and Han Wu with a group of people from the special team that had been withdrawing ahead of them, locating and preparing observation and firing positions as well as picking out ambush locations along the road.
The two groups had quickly become experts at their new roles.
Erik put the map away and opened up his notifications.
None of them had slept in two days, meaning that they had been unable to accept their new increase in levels. Erik knew that most of his men wouldn’t actually sleep until Vuzgal. All of the company were linked up as one massive group; most armies didn’t do this as the Experience would be so spread out that few people would increase their Strength. The Masters and more powerful people would revolt; the strong fought the strong and so it went.
The Alvan army was only one hundred and twenty or so people strong. When the fighting started, the average level in the company had been late thirties early forties; the special teams, had all been around level forty-five. The average soldiers in the Blood Demon army were level thirty-three as well. Their Elites, thirty-seven; their Masters, forty-three. The Blood Demon Army’s levels hadn’t increased, but the Alva Army’s had. As they counted as a group, even the members of the army that were working in Vuzgal increased their level.
With the deaths coming via tools instead of direct combat using their own Strength, the Experience was decreased by half. Still, the amount of Experience that they had earned was daunting.
The Experience that was required to advance past level fifty was even more so.
==========
You have reached Level 54
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When you sleep next, you will be able to increase your attributes by: 5 points.
==========
==========
7,189,530/30,600,000EXP till you reach Level 55
==========
It was an incredible amount of Experience and had raised everyone within the army to the level of low-level Masters in the Blood Demon Sect’s army. Instead of celebrating, they continued on. The fight wasn’t over.
Erik was proud of them. Combat could be trained for, but until they were in it, he didn’t know how they’d react. They had performed well, but still they had a long way to go. It would be another day or two until the people of Tareng reached Vuzgal.
“Wake me up in an hour,” He said to Gilly who was scratching her back against a tree. She let out a warble, before returning to her look of bliss as she scratched her back.
Erik had a light smile as he took a sleeping aid.
==========
You have 5 attribute points to use.
==========
Erik saw his character sheet and studied it.
Looking at it, his Stamina Regeneration was at 20 per second while his Mana recovered at 33.5 per second. With stalling the Blood Demon Sect, he really felt the effects of his Stamina Regeneration. It allowed him to need only a minimal amount of food and sleep to remain in functional condition. He put two more points into stamina regeneration, two into mana pool, he was still keeping an eye on advancing his mana cultivation. He took the last point and put it into Agility. Agility would give him a greater reaction time and make him deadly with fists, a rifle or a M32.
He was strong and his armor only increased that with the innate Strength buff. He had also been able to fill up his carrier with Mana, increasing the pool he could pull from to increase his defense and overclock his body. With pills and his Body Cultivation, he could deal with the resulting damage from him overclocking his body.
It was very rough, but for now it would work.
He accepted the changes and looked at his new character sheet.
==========
Name: Erik West
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Level: 54
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Race: Human
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Titles:
From the Grave II
Mana Emperor
Dungeon Master III
Reverse Alchemist
Poison Body
Fire Body
City Lord
==========
Strength: (Base 36) +41
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770
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Agility: (Base 29) +69
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539
==========
Stamina: (Base 39) +23
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930
==========
Mana: (Base 8) +73
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810
==========
Mana Regeneration (Base 10) +55
33.50/s
==========
Stamina Regeneration: (Base 41) +56
20.40/s
==========
Erik woke up with Gilly using her snout to push him. He nearly jumped up as he was instantly awake, he grabbed his helmet and saw that everyone was relaxed, eating drinking and taking care of their gear as the other group were working.
Roska came over and gave him a warm drink that one of the soldiers had made.
“Thanks,” Erik said.
“No problem,” Roska replied as she took out her own cup and drank her coffee beside him. “So what’s our next move?”
“We need to stall the Blood Demon army for another night. Then, the only way they could they catch up with the people from Tareng is if they made a run for it. What I’m thinking is we start having the people of Tareng and those in Vuzgal to dig out places for us to put down IEDs.
“For tonight and tomorrow, we spend all of our remaining ammunition and make the Blood Demon army’s lives hell: mines in the forest, mortars through the night, random one shots and barrages, IEDs all over the place. Use up our spell scrolls too. This will be our time to inflict as much damage as possible on them before they reach Vuzgal. They take a position; we back up. We can give ground here, we just have to be slow about it. They have to fight for every inch, we don’t,” Erik said.
“They’ve started scanning the ground for the explosives. They caught one of them this morning,” Roska reminded him.
“Yes but we still activated it—didn’t get as many though. We need to bury them deeper, or instead of in the road, we put them into hills around the army’s sides—this point here.” Erik pointed to a slight depression in front of them that the road went through. The sides of the road sloped down, only slightly, but the depressed area was nearly two kilometers long.
“Pack explosives and shrapnel into the sides. Hit them with mortars when they’re right in the middle; target the carriages there. It will be hard for them to move around and clear them. Get them to throw up their Mana barriers as the mortars are co
ming down. They’ll umbrella over the sides of the road. As they’re trying to find cover or relying on the shields, we blow the IEDs along the road that are still inside the shields,” Erik said.
“That is three ambush points ahead of where we are,” Roska commented.
“I’ll send Niemm and two sections of Dragon Platoon to prepare it,” Erik said. “They’ll focus on just that all night while the rest of us will be hitting the Blood Demon army.”
“It looks like our attacks are having an effect, with the reduced mortar attacks there are more lulls. When I was watching I saw a few people escaping into the forest. Looks like some people have figured out how to get around their oaths,” Roska murmured.
“The more that run, the less we have to fight,” Erik stretched as Gilly’s head appeared behind him and nudged his back.
“Hey girl,” Erik said with a bitter smile as he patted her head.
Roska smiled and released her panther mount. He stretched out and looked at Gilly, lowering his head in greeting before he went to rest beside Roska.
“Something calming about animals,” Roska said.
“Other than when we’re fighting them?” Erik snorted.
“Other than when we’re fighting them,” Roska agreed.
“Why do you think that the Blood Demon Sect are trying to wipe out the people of Tareng?”
“Riches? Some kind of blood feud? I don’t really know,” Erik shrugged.
They fell silent, just taking some moments away from command.
“How are you Roska?” Erik asked.
“Hmm?” Roska asked.
“It feels like yesterday I healed you, but also a lifetime ago. Then you joined the defense force at Alva, then the special teams and have led people across the realms, growing in strength, becoming a powerful leader respected by those that she leads and by the Alva Army. We have always been training or working on something but, how are you?”
“I’m good,” Roska shrugged.
“You enjoy being in the Army,” Erik asked. Roska looked at him making him smile. “Asking as a friend, not the guy running this. Trust me it is weird as hell to say that sentence.”
The corner of Roska’s mouth lifted as she sat back against her panther who opened his eye and then closed it, comfortable lying there.
Gilly turned her head to the side and made a noise then looked at Erik. He looked at her, feeling that she wanted to go hunting.
“Alright, just don’t alert anyone or anything.”
She let out a pleased noise, nudged his face with her snout and ran off.
Erik sat there, waiting for Roska’s answer she seemed to be pondering.
“I like my job, to some that might seem crazy, but I have a purpose here. When something needs to get done then it is done. There are challenges, times are hard but I like the challenges. The hard times bring people together and remove the weak from the strong. I’ve learned that being physically strong will only get you so far and the mental strength will push you further. I couldn’t let down the people around me here.”
Erik listened as she fell quiet.
“I’ve never had a family really, the one I did have left me as soon as I became a burden. The people in the Army, the people in Alva, they’re more of my family now than my family ever was,” Her eyes fell and looked at Erik, captivating him.
“If not for you then I would have never had this life, never been able to stand properly. I will follow you and Rugrat into the depths of hell if you ask me to. You gave me a second life.”
Erik was a bit stunned by the emotion behind her words.
Erik looked away, at the stars above.
“There is a saying, not really sure how it goes, but the gist is, live your life the best you can, that is the way to repay me for saving it,” Erik said and looked to Roska with a smile on his face. He felt that gritty tiredness that gave clarity but allowed one to see through emotions to the heart of the matter.
Roska looked at the ground, thinking on his words.
Erik saw her looking at the ground, one of his strongest commanders as she dealt with her own thoughts and emotions. She was only in her early twenties but she had the responsibility of ten lives on her back as well as Alva dungeon. Erik felt proud of her, he wanted to express just how astounded he was at her ability.
The silence stretched before Roska cleared her throat.
“So why do you think that the Blood Demons are doing this?”
“Who knows what motivates them. I was sure that we would break their morale but we’ve only seen a few people breaking away. Those Oaths are stronger than I thought,” Erik sighed, tired. “All we can do is try to thin them out as much as possible. The hill ambush will be our last big attack. The IEDs are forunately still effective at killing them, though.”
“What about the formation traps?” Roska said.
“They’re prepared for the formation traps, be useless for them,” Erik countered.
“Exactly,” A sly smile formed on Roska’s face. Erik tilted his head as she continued.
“They know how to detect trap formations, if we throw them down here and there, they’ll have to slow to deactivate it and then continue, maybe they’ll miss it a time or two. We only have a certain number of IEDs but if they have to slow or stop to clear the formations, we have plenty of mortar rounds, when they’re stopped we hit them with mortars. Get them used to fighting the formations and then throw in an IED to break their morale and take down as many of them as possible.”
“We do have plenty of trap formations, the more we can slow them down then the better. We could deploy them in the forest actuall,” Erik rubbed his face.
“You said that expect the unexpected, well if they’re expecting IED’s and we throw in formations it could throw them off balance,” Roska said.
“Sounds like a good plan to me, talk to the teams working on pre-placing the ambushes.”
“Yes sir,” Roska smiled and headed off with her new orders.
Erik grunted as he moved around in his armor, his back was tight and he’d long become numb to his own smell.
He took solace in his warm drink, looking at his people that were resting, but not really seeing them. He was plotting to kill thousands of people, but it was the only way that he could save the innocents from Tareng.
If the Blood Demon’s , he wouldn’t chase them. But they kept on moving toward his city and had planned to kill defenseless people to take their goods. He wasn’t going go let them continue without an even greater fight.
***
Glosil greeted the special team as they headed down a corridor. It was wide enough to fit five people across.They passed a few smithies that were long cold, armories that had been emptied and were in a state of disrepair.There were undead hauling out crates of weapons and armors. There weren’t many sets of gear left; most of them had been used to arm the people of the city as the last battle had arrived.
Glosil led them past the armories and then through a barracks area where people could don their armor and weapons.Then they went through an armored door. Inside was different. There was still plenty of room to move but there were private rooms for people to get armored up in.
Weapons and armor that had been left here looked as if it needed some care but it wasn’t falling apart like the gear in the other rooms.
They got to another, larger, armored door, where a number of Tiger Platoon examined the floors and walls.
Rugrat stepped forward and used his Simple Inorganic Scan and opened up his Mana sense.
“Back up, everyone!” Rugrat ordered loudly. Everyone moved away as Rugrat raised his hand. A large amount of Mana gathered in his hand, forming a Mana bolt. Instead of just wild Mana raging around, it was compressed. Barely any of it leaked out.
It shot forward from Rugrat’s hand and hit the door.
The door exploded. The noise made everyone grab their ears; a few started yelling, unable to hear anything.
The hall filled with dust. Rugrat
fired out a Mana bullet; the speed of the Mana bullet cleared the dust, blowing it out of the hall. A few people coughed on it all as Rugrat stepped forward. Glosil gritted his teeth, using a healing spell on his ears. He followed Rugrat, looking into a room with several chests. Even covered in dust, they were clearly higher quality storage chests.
There was a rack of swords at the rear of the room that Rugrat moved toward, his eyes shining. He took out a Mana blade and jammed it into the wall. A formation flashed into existence and then faded as Rugrat overloaded it with Mana, destroying the formation.
He reached out and grabbed a sword. Rugrat’s aura changed, making one feel a cold cutting wind by being around him.
“Damn! So that’s what an Expert-level weapon feels like,” Rugrat said with a touch of awe.
A shiver ran through Glosil’s body as he heard Rugrat’s words.
Rugrat crossed the sword in front of him lazily. The blade hummed, as if excited to be used.
Glosil moved to one of the crates and checked inside. There were only a few items inside. “Three Expert-level bows.” He reported as he moved to the next. Three spears were inside that crate; then armors—one full set, another only a partial.
“Take an inventory of everything here. Write up commendations for who should get what. This should give them an increase in Strength in the coming battle,” Rugrat said.
“I’ll see to it, First Sergeant,” Glosil said before coughing from the dust.
Rugrat touched the wall in the armory and smiled. There you are.
He put his hand in a hole that Glosil hadn’t seen and pressed something. There was a clicking noise. Glosil’s hand dropped to his weapon as a section of the wall turned to reveal another area beyond. It was in chaos, with pieces of paper flying everywhere.
The paper resonated with the Mana in the room.
“Spell scrolls?” Glosil asked.
“Seems that they used a bunch of them but not all of them.” Rugrat collected the ones off the floor and passed them to Glosil. He checked them over as Rugrat pressed his hand to the wall and opened another cubby hole.
“This is where the dungeon core was hiding,” Rugrat said as they looked at the open space.There were spell scrolls, formation designs, and other information pieces that the royal family must have kept hidden.
The Fourth Realm (The Ten Realms Book 4) Page 39