The pair made their way to the teleporter they used to arrive. Although, they didn’t go back to Ashvale like Roberts expected them to. Instead, they arrived inside a city larger than anything Roberts had ever seen before.

He could tell the distance they traveled was quite far just by how much the trip affected him. He had thought he had gotten a handle on the teleportation effects but he was mistaken. He took a moment to recover as he looked around.

It was immediately clear this was a gron city by the sheer amount of short people he saw going about their business.

What surprised him was the utter blandness of the place. At least the outskirts. But as they passed through the teleporter stations, that acted like mass transit hubs, the city took on a more colorful look thanks to the graffiti and art plastered on the buildings. He even saw the taciturn older gron crack a smile at seeing this.

Eventually, their trip through the city's teleporters came to an end and he followed Grobert as the man made a beeline for a building.

The pair were greeted outside the official-looking building by another gron. A few things set this gron apart from the others. The first was his clothing. It was finely tailored, but it was more the assortment of bright colors that made up the attire that caught the General’s eye. The second thing that stood out was the man’s expression. He was openly wearing something other than a slight frown or bored look. Hell, the man looked positively happy.

It was something that had been missing from every other gron he had seen as they traveled through the city. The final thing that set this man apart from those around him was that he was a greykin. Roberts had seen enough of Lord Norman’s undead in his short stint in Ashvale that he could recognize the grey cast of their skin.

“Grobert!” The man shouted, holding his hands out wide for what looked like a hug as he walked down the steps toward them.

As soon as the strange gron went to hug Grobert, however, the man grunted and teleported behind him, giving him a swift kick to the ass that sent the unknown gron tumbling down the steps… laughing the whole way.

The whole interaction left Roberts baffled and frozen in shock.

Despite the nasty tumble, the man’s joyous tone didn’t stop even after he hit the bottom step. He simply popped back up like nothing had happened and brushed himself off. “It has been far too long, my friend. What brings you by? And who is your guest?”

Seeing as he was only a few feet away, Roberts held out his hand. “Major General Roberts. Retired. Formerly of the SAS.”

The man accepted his hand and shook it vigorously. “You’ll have to excuse Mr. Sourpuss over there. He was never loved as a child.” Grobert let out an annoyed grunt at that before the man continued. “You can call me President Barthus. Or Just Barthus.”

“…President… of the gron?”

“Indeed.”

Roberts glanced back and forth between the pair. He realized he was a bit out of his depth here and chose to remain quiet.

“He’s one of Norman’s people now,” Grobert cut in as he reached the bottom of the stairs. “Part of a country called Great Britain.”

“Ah!” the President exclaimed. “I thought your accent sounded familiar. We have a few refugees from that area. Afraid I don’t know much more about it though. You humans have far too many cities, states, and countries for one person to keep track of.”

“Quit pandering, ya old fart. I’m here on important business.”

The president elbowed Roberts in the side, hitting him hard enough to force the air from his lungs. The man either didn’t notice or chose to ignore that fact as he continued talking like everything was fine. “You hear this. He has no right to call anyone old. I’m pretty sure he was around before the stars were formed.” Barthus dodged a fist from Grobert with a laugh. “Fine fine. What’s got you in such a tizzy, hmm?”

“I have reason to believe some of our people are being held captive and being forced to make this.” He slapped a piece of the broken armor into the President’s hand.

The President’s jovial mood evaporated in an instant as he examined the piece in his hand. “You have a location?”

“I have a general area to search. But I need more eyes.”

“Will a squadron of guardians be sufficient?”

“Can you spare two? It’s a large area to search.”

The man pulled out a piece of clear plastic that looked like a smartphone and began tapping at it. He turned it to face Grobert. “Emergency orders have been approved. Good hunting General Grobert!”

Grobert pressed his thumb to the screen and it turned green. “You can drop the title, I haven’t been a general for over five hundred years.”

Roberts wanted to ask more about Grobert's status as a general and what a guardian was, but his questions died in his throat as metallic forms seemed to rise up from the ground around them. Like they were simply birthed from the street they were standing on. There were a total of twenty of the massive metallic golems. In unison, they all spoke. “Awaiting orders.”

“Follow.” Then Grobert turned and headed back toward the teleporter, forcing Roberts to keep pace or be left behind.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Only a few non-gron citizens stared at the procession. As for the gron, they barely even glanced up, simply moving aside as they made their way back to the outskirts of the city and Grobert’s teleporters.

***

Roberts felt like an outside observer after they teleported back to Britain, or at least the small portion of Britain he called home for the last decade.

The gnolls weren’t stupid, they had figured out where he and Grobert had vanished off to and lay in wait outside.

It was clear they weren’t expecting the guardians though. And the towering behemoths needed only a single command from Grobert to reduce the hundred or so gnolls arrayed around the old farmhouse into broken chunks.

The guardians were a terrifyingly effective weapon against… well anything. After the battle was over, they lined up, waiting for their next orders. Roberts couldn’t see a single scratch or blemish on the metallic monstrosities. Even after witnessing more than one take a direct strike or even multiple strikes from the gnoll magic users.

He felt a shiver run down his spine as the faceless automatons seemed to stare at him.

Grobert walked over and put a hand on him. “This is an ally, keep him safe. Kill anything else that gets in our way that looks like them,” he pointed to the corpses and the guardians turned as one before turning back toward Grobert. “Alright, let's get moving.”

And kill they did.

Their procession left a trail of destruction as they forged a path through the gnoll's lands. It was no wonder the creatures were trying to expand, they seemed to have taken up every inch of usable space within their own territory.

It wasn’t nearly as population-dense as the gron city, but it was still surprising to see. Especially since it hadn’t been like this when his people first encountered the gnolls.

“There are too many,” he muttered.

“Did you say something?” Grobert asked beside him.

“Huh? Oh, I was just thinking about the population of gnolls. It seems their population has expanded quite rapidly. Uncontrolled, almost.”

The shorter man grunted. “Some species do that when their natural barriers or predation is removed. Or when their environment improves.”

“You think something like that happened here?”

Grobert shrugged and looked at a corpse as they walked. “A simple lack of resources may have kept them in check before. The ones out here aren’t wearing much more than rags. Certainly not like the soldiers we fought before.”

He gave the corpse a good glance, seeing for the first time just how skinny the creature looked compared to the soldiers, or even the raiders that used to harass his people. Perhaps Grobert was right.

It took a few days but they eventually pushed through the rabble and into the center of the Gnoll province. There was a clear delineation of castes as they passed an invisible line. The land went from nearly barren dirt to well-cultivated fields and herds of animals. There were also far fewer gnolls.

That didn’t mean the attitudes of the gnolls shifted much. It just meant they were better armed and seemingly more intelligent.

Arrows and spears were the preferred weapon here. And the large bipeds packed a hell of a punch with those weapons. If it wasn’t for his armor, Roberts was sure he would have died half a dozen times. He wasn’t nearly fast enough to avoid the projectiles.

The guardians were quick to eliminate the threat though, and the group continued carving a bloody path to their destination.

He wasn’t surprised by the gnolls' violent tendencies, he had ten years to come to terms with that. What did surprise him was that not a single gnoll even attempted to approach them to communicate. Not one. And he knew they were intelligent and capable of speech.

It remained like this until they neared a city nestled into a group of small hills. He recognized the location as the one the captured gnoll had pointed to.

The walls were thick and high, anchored to the valley sides on either end. And even from the distance, Roberts could see it bristled with ballistae and other weapons of war. It was a daunting obstacle to overcome.

“What now?” he asked.

“Now? Now, the guardians get to show their worth.”

He turned to the shorter man with a look of surprise.

Grobert smiled darkly. “Locate any gron… or humans within the city and escort them safely here."

The twenty guardians started forward, their cannons firing out beams of pure destruction as they unhurriedly stomped toward the city and its fortifications.

He had to give the gnolls credit, they did their best to try and stop the metal giants, even sending an attack force around to try and kill him and Grobert. Yet nothing they did even slowed the constructs.

As for the force that attempted to attack them, Grobert showed just how dangerous he could be.

Roberts could only watch in awe as the man flickered through the enemy ranks, carving his own bloody path of death that only lasted a minute before he was back standing next to him as if nothing had even happened.

***

It took over six hours before the first guardian stomped back through the broken city wall. It was followed by a line of people that Roberts quickly recognized as gron. But they weren’t alone. There were at least five taller individuals in the group.

Roberts wanted to rush forward and confirm for himself, but he managed to hold himself back as the group approached.

They were some of his missing people. Although he could barely tell due to how skinny, dirty, and broken they looked. It was only the loose uniforms that told him they were SAS.

The former prisoners' eyes seemed to regain some of their sparks as they spotted him. A few tried to salute but were too weak to pull it off.

“None of that now,” he lightly admonished.

The gron seemed to be in better shape, likely due to the work they were required to perform.

A mangy-looking gron with greasy unkept hair approached and snorted. “Bout time. What the hell took Grothlosburg so long to come to get us? We’ve been pumping out these damn armors for nearly seven years.”

“You know how it is,” Grobert responded. “Besides, there weren’t even any gron in the area to come across the armor.”

“Suppose I should have expected that. So, we got a way out of here that doesn’t include walking back?” he jerked a thumb back at the humans. “I doubt that lot will make it far.”

It was true. His people could barely stand. And it seemed like the walk through the city to meet them had sucked away most if not all of their remaining energy.

Grobert pulled out a small orb and set it on the ground, earning a whistle of approval from the gron that had spoken.

“My first time seeing a long-range beacon. I guess I should feel flattered that the higher-ups cared about us enough to deploy it.”

Grobert grunted at this. “They didn’t. But I took it anyway.”

The group of gron stared at him blankly as a ring of light began to pulse around the sphere, slowly picking up speed.

Grobert turned toward the guardian. “Finish clearing the city and return to Grothlosburg.”

Without a word, the war machine turned back toward the city to continue its bloody work.

After a tense minute of silence, the orb was glowing almost pure white. There was a flash and when Roberts blinked enough to see, he found he was standing inside a building that looked much like a train terminal.

Without waiting, the rescued gron simply headed for a series of circles on the floor and vanished. Grobert led the humans over to the platform and Roberts followed. As he stepped inside the circle he heard pounding feet coming down a side hall.

“You can’t do that!” A shrill voice declared. “You need to register first!”

Grobert just chuckled. “Watch me.”

With another flash of light, they were gone, leaving behind an irate Clerk6657 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Migrant Services.