That night, the party’s large size meant they had to split across three rooms instead of the usual two to remain comfortable, but aside from that, they encountered little trouble falling asleep early. Although, it did become a slight problem that Raccelline had clearly grown too attached to Icy as she refused to sleep without him in the room.
Oh, not that him staying was the issue. They just didn’t want Raccelline to grow too attached in case… Anything happened to them.
But such things were way beyond their control. All they could do was keep up and hope their enemies never completely exceeded them. Unfortunately, the group should have really picked up on a small point of information throughout the night, as news of invasions became more and more apparent.
What guaranteed that the nation they’d made a short layover in, was at all safe?
Nothing.
* * *
The waxing moon rose high into the night sky, mostly illuminating the roads and streets while leaving the alleys pitch black… And the forests darker still.
In a single night, thousands of soldiers crossed the border and invaded another nation, knowing full well that they’d be killing fellow men whose minds may be no different from their own. But they fought for their families and loved ones, also knowing full well that in this worsening situation, they needed to be the breadwinners. Both literally and figuratively.
To common men and women, their status of Bronze ranks might seem weighty, warriors who could fight a hundred of those ordinary folk, but they could not help but compare themselves to their superiors, and then their superior’s superior, only to see how much higher the world went.
They understood what the sheer gulf between Gold and Mithril meant, let alone even further beyond.
Honour was dying. And they knew survival meant more than anything.
So, they charged from the confines of a blackened forest and began their attack. Not to merely loot and steal, but to claim and conquer! To wrest these lands as to support their own and bolster their lives! Food, ores, water, and wine! All such things are doubtlessly required to ensure some degree of prosperity, stability for those at the bottom, and in turn, the positions of those at the top.
Because that was the difference between those who’d toil and those who might succeed.
The first set of fortresses were upon them, their group simply one of many to attack. But with so much chaos, it was no surprise that many were on alert, before even reaching the walls, a loud horn swept across the fortress and out into the surroundings. Built on top of a hill, the stronghold was a crucial watchpoint and marker. But more importantly, the compound housed one of the stronger wizards, who launched a great ball of fire from the courtyard within the fortress and sent it high up into the sky, where it exploded.
The result? A massive flare across the landscape.
Even those watching from well over a hundred miles saw such a mark. Its red and white glow rallied others who too immediately prepared for battle.
However, it was not simply one place, as four more flares erupted, their bright light blinding those nearby who lacked any such protections, but more worrisomely, instantly alerting an entire kingdom to the immediate threat at their borders. But that didn’t trouble the invasion forces, as they continued forward, ignoring the danger of potential archers as sparkling points began to fly in an arc to each and every fortress…
Dozens of artillery strikes immediately sent those on the walls into a frenzy, and while they tried to hold strong to fire against the invading force on the ground…
It was clear just how well this invasion had been planned.
A barrier formed around the fortress as the sparkling arcs finally neared the walls from above, and on contact, the first few exploded on the boundary into balls of yellow flames. However, no one cheered.
The fourth light penetrated through, as though their barrier was nothing more than a sheet of paper against a sharpened pencil. Then came the fifth, and the sixth, and all the way up to the seventeenth, lights poking a hole through their primary defence and striking the fortress walls directly. From the moment a single light broke through, hundreds of soldiers broke their ranks to avoid the attacks, evading with whatever skills available to them. However, the barrage still came.
Great explosions of yellow fire swept out, but the spell barely ended there as the flames suddenly retreated back to the point of origin, concentrating into a ball so tightly compressed that…
They erupted with power completely unlike before!
A soaring pillar of yellow and blue engulfed a quarter of the fortress, incinerating hundreds and destroying any internal structures instantly. Only the walls remained intact there, and the soldiers in other parts finally watched as the walls lit up with arrays to form a new barrier around them. This one, a blue bubble, caused the further lights to ricochet off.
A battle between equally strong parties is never so quick, even if one takes advantage of darkness and inattentiveness.
Those charging below still existed as well, and once they approached the walls they’d likely place no small amount of explosives to utterly destroy this last line of defence. Which left few options for them, and with the likely fate of death if they holed up any longer, the hundreds within the fortress prepared to fight back.
However, it wasn’t the border fortresses who encountered the worst of things, but rather deeper within where hysteria and madness grew.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
* * *
From outside the inn, bright light constantly streamed in through the thin curtains as though it were already day-time, but from the tiredness many still felt, it didn’t at all seem to be morning yet.
Instead, as they woke up one by one, they noticed that sounds from outside weren’t at all silent or sneaky as one expected at night, and their senses realised just how serious the matter was. A crowd of hundreds with many holding lanterns, candles, or some magical lighting implement formed a massive congregation in the streets, calling out to the guards of the city who refused to acknowledge their will.
Rebecca was already up and alert, snapped to the edge of her senses, and already prowling the inn as a scout for any dangers. Meanwhile, Icy has awoken soon after, with Raccelline roused by the noises too, but tried to block out the noise with her hands to get more sleep right after waking.
However, as Mala too stood up and quickly changed into some equipment more suited for battle, Icy left Raccelline to her and used Instant Shift to check on the two rooms with further party members. Jaren had been in a room with Rebecca, and already switched into his leather and cloth gear, rather impressive given that it’d only been half a minute.
Meanwhile, Korridan and Darak in the last room were half-finished, in that one only had to throw on a robe to finish while the other put on several pieces of heavy armour to cover major muscles and his body as a whole. While not a set of armour with intricately placed plates to overlap and fully protect him, he could more or less ensure that nothing critical or fatal occurred, giving Darak enough time to heal him.
With all the adults awake, only Raccelline required additional coaxing to properly get out of a bed. And was then also changed by Mala into some clothes more appropriate for outside wear. Thankfully the child’s dimensional storage wasn’t bound to her soul, and soon enough the group of seven were outside the inn but behind the slowly moving group who filled the streets with light.
Icy had seen it already… But it wasn’t just a few hundred people upset at the guards but rather thousands all over the city amassing towards the gates.
His mana sense only allowed him to roughly tell that the number of people close to the western gate was far higher than the small crowd outside their inn… Which raised a question of how many were standing by the other four gates as well?
“Jump over?” Rebecca appeared as the group exited the inn and posed a question immediately, if that was her first thought then things really couldn’t have been good. Seeing no one object to the matter, Mala cast a silencing spell on them all to hide their voices as Icy used Sky Sight Barrier in an alleyway to search for an empty side of the city’s walls.
Unlike the disgusting place from before, this place actually took pride in its management and built up walls over twenty metres tall with guards stationed at regular intervals. Not to mention occasional watchtowers on top of this with arrays to better search for anything in the surroundings. However, one important factor about all this remained unmentioned.
All these things existed to stop things getting in… Not out.
“Merge. Roughly North-North-west, others want to escape too,” he said aloud, having yet to recast Soul Link as it dissipated sometime in the past few hours. And it simply wasn’t a good time to cast the spell however many times to link up the six together right now.
With his spirit’s power filling his body, and Raccelline holding on tight to his neck, they all kicked off in slightly different directions and quickly rushed towards the part of the city wall he’d pointed towards. Once there, they could regroup, but drawing attention was none of their goals for now. Raccelline remained silent in the matter but mostly because she almost fell asleep on his back. And might have if not for the sudden acceleration from every jump with the spirit.
His gradually increasing aura sack now stored around 30% more aura now, and he hadn’t even finished his growth phase! Of course, running out of life essence was to blame for that last part.
On the way to the wall, he noticed that some individuals made use of the chaos and lack of guards to break into the homes of some gentry or wealthier workers and robbed them blind, however, the richer houses remained untouched or even with corpses left right outside the door as a reminder of who owned them…
And such wealth could easily afford some trained warriors. Perhaps even Steel ranks if they were rich enough.
Once at the wall, Rebecca found it easiest to climb up… By literally running up it?
He almost wanted to ask since when she could do that, but shut his mouth to focus on jumping up onto a nearby roof and used a series of mid-air jumps with the spirit to easily reach the city wall, some guards were instantly alerted but barely had time to react as he launched himself past them with another kick.
Korridan simply took a giant as hell leap, instantly clearing the wall. Unfortunately, the other three lacked the strength or methods to replicate such feats so easily, and first jumped up the roof and then received assistance from Mala with a Launching spell.
It functioned extremely similarly to the seals Icy used, specifically Explosive Seal would be the best comparison. As long as the person pushed off against anything with the body part with that spell, it triggered and boosted their velocity in that direction.
In this case, easily clearing the wall and allowing them to jump down the other side with ease.
A steel tier had been alerted to their climbing, rushing forward with active skills to halt those passing by only to see them continue past without looking over. Any temptation to stop them went up in smoke now that he saw how easily they dismissed his strength…
Even if they bluffed, it really wasn’t worth fighting. The group had a priest, and as Darak threw out a simple healing spell to prove his faith to a good-natured god, no legitimate reasons for touching them remained any longer.
A group of Steel ranks with an equally powerful wizard? And a priest!
Keeping the nobles and merchants cooped up and safe was a far bigger concern than some adventurers or mercenaries trying to escape. They’d mostly anticipated such a thing the moment those flares were seen… But only securing criminals mattered here and now.
Besides, the hard part about escaping was never leaving the city.
“Captain, is it really fine to just let them leave? Their lizard-like pet was carrying a child,” spoke one of the nearby bronze ranks who happened to catch sight of Icy.
He’d seen the armoured captain receive that golden light, and while he recognised healing spells, it wasn’t impossible to mimic the appearance of one to actually harm a person.
“Leave them. Whether they want to escape or not doesn’t affect us, we just need them gone before securing the city. Our orders arrived. We prepare for the siege, identify those who will cause problems during it. What are you so confused about, soldier?” His eyes narrowed at the younger man who still rubbed his bare chin in thought, surely he wasn’t too focused on that child?
“Maybe just a crazy thought, but I swear those three looked a bit familiar.” Specifically, he felt as though he could recall the faces of that wizard, priest, and slim archer…
“Do you have any clue how much groups like that travel? Stop wasting time and–”
His subordinate shouted out as the face finally stuck and he remembered the occasion. “Mala! That was her name! And whatever the other four were called.”
However, his captain just rubbed his forehead and sighed. While not notorious by any amount, he’d certainly been around when that event happened in the city. Then again, who asked the lord’s son to fall for an adventuring wizard?
Well, the only real problem was them having to go rescue the schmuck after he left the city alone to follow…
Fuck, that kid couldn’t have been dumber.