Harehill, Harehill Commonwealth

The explosive mine seemed to have done a couple of things. If killing Raphael’s Company was kicking a hornet’s nest, this was calling in an air strike on the king of all the fucking hornets. When Gabriel revealed the results to the council, we were all a little taken aback. We had killed around 58 of the soldiers. Only taking out around 1/6th of the battalion wasn’t as good as we were hoping, but it was probably a more realistic number in hindsight. This new form of warfare had a new condition that we hadn’t considered. If you blow or burn a man’s arm off, it regrows eventually. A healer, especially one who’s a high enough level, could fully restore an injured soldier. In the old wars, crippling a soldier is as good as a kill. In fact, it was slightly preferred. The government now had to pay for the man’s care and it was a drain on resources. Now, it was kill-shot or nothing.

In addition to the 58 killed in the explosion, Lincoln and the rest of the Hunter’s Alliance had taken out 16 of their better soldiers. That meant 76 dead out of 306. The numbers were not spectacular, but they were certainly significant. The only issue was that, if Pastor Gabriel could be trusted, two more battalions of men were on the way. Armistice himself was Level 33. That was scary enough. The two highest leveled fighters in the Commonwealth were behind by 8.

Cain had hit Level 25 just yesterday. He had chosen between becoming a Blood Knight, a Holy Knight, or a Blade Knight. Cain decided to go with Blade, thinking it would be more useful in the short term. With an infinite lifespan, I was worried about the longterm as well. That said, it’s not like I hadn’t used the same rational recently as well.

Cain’s Level 25 skill was one that he was a big fan of. I hadn’t gotten a chance to see it in action yet, but apparently [Titan Blade] allowed him to enchant his sword to cut through armor like butter at the cost of Energy over time. It also took a decent chunk of Energy to activate so it wasn’t like he could just switch it on before striking and then back off over and over again, although that would have been nice. Still, with heavily geared enemies like the Red Liberty, it was going to be a nice skill to have on deck.

Theresa and Graham were about halfway through Level 24. I wasn’t sure what a Priest and a Samurai would have for their sub-class options, I was also wondering why we hadn’t seen another Samurai since Graham. If the world had been split between 12 classes, you’d think 1/12th of the people would choose Samurai. Nope. We had almost 100 citizens in the Commonwealth as of now and not a single one was a Samurai besides Graham. Some things made sense, others didn’t.

Nick was a little behind the rest, like always, but he had just reached 24. He was catching up, but was spending considerable amount of time training the new recruits. Katrina was one of them. I loved my sister, and I was glad she was back. Still, anytime I tried to talk to her or bond with her or do anything with her, she gave me vague answers until I left her alone. Cain said Theresa said that Katrina just wants space. Part of me feels like I am in High School again with the odd drama going on, but if she wants space I’d give it to her.

The one person Katrina had been talking to was Nick. They seemed to have been getting along amazingly since he started training her. Katrina was already up to Level 13. She wanted a solid combat shift for her next one since her last two had been a cat and a bird. The bird shifts were useful for large groups. No one can deliver a message faster than an individual ‘airplane’. Combat shifts were useful for fighters though. Katrina had only been leveling through basic attacks with a sword, not using any active skills at all. The fact that she had managed to climb so far in such a short time was a testament to how strong-willed she was.

I tried to do the math again. If 2 more battalions showed up, we’d be facing about 840 soldiers against 100 humans and 500 or so rabbits. If every single human and rabbit in the Commonwealth was a combatant, we’d still be outnumbered considerably. Instead, only about 25% of the humans and 10% of the rabbits were fighters. Even with Lincoln’s group, we had about 35 fighters and 50 guard-rabbits. 85 to 840. We were outnumbered 10 to 1. On top of that, only a small portion of the fighters were over Level 20, which looked like the minimum for front-line Liberty soldiers. The Harehill guard-rabbits were all level 20, and they encompassed over a fifth of the total number of guard-rabbits.

The only bright side that I had to look forward to was that we had around 10-14 days to prepare. At least, that's what the current estimates were showing.

The numbers made my head spin, but every time I tried to work out a way to win, I’d fall short. We wouldn’t be able to pull off a mine like that again. They’d be on the lookout for it. Should we have waited? Should we have used more explosives to kill more of the battalion? We used every bit of enchanted and non-enchanted explosive materials as we could have for that. There wasn’t any more. Should I have bought more off the Market? Damn. Too late now. The first of the dice had been cast and we were on the losing end of it.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

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Eastland, TX

Danny heard the battalions before he saw them. The impact of the explosion on the mentality of the Liberty soldiers could not be understated. By all accounts, Jeremiah and his people had been responsible for the deaths of 130 or more of the Liberty soldiers. That was a massive number. According to the soldiers Danny had spoken too, that was more than any other group had done thus far. Abilene was focused on the health of their people and their king. When they received the vassalization offer, they surrendered. Most groups submitted willingly to Armistice’ control. They welcomed the order to the chaos.

Jeremiah had been the only one who had chosen to die on this hill, literally, and he was apparently giving it his all. The people of Harehill may have been outnumbered, but they had nowhere to go. The soldiers here were high levels and could have left at any time. Sure, desertion was punishable by death. However, how far was it really to Louisiana? It’s not like there were satellites to track people. There were tracking spells, but no one was going to chase a single man across the state.

The soldiers were demoralized. That was good for Harehill. If Jeremiah could have managed to land a few more shots like the ones he had already landed, there might not be any fight left among the Liberty. Unfortunately, it looked like it was a little too late. The gates to Eastland swung open and the army had arrived.

Logistically, it was a nightmare. Eastland was a town built for a maximum of a few hundred people. It had been a year since the majority of the small town had seen any prolonged signs of life. The twenty-five or so original remaining inhabitants had been crammed in a few small buildings. The arrival of 2nd Battalion was catastrophic. Streets were crowded, the one open bar was constantly overloaded, and there was nowhere to get any peace and quiet. The arrival of 600 more soldiers made this problem exponentially worse.

Armistice himself was setting up a command tent outside of the town in an area that was swiftly cleared by the soldiers. The marching columns of the Liberty’s 1st and 3rd battalions were spearheaded by their commanders and captains. Klein was old, cruel, and terrifying. The other commanders couldn’t have been more different. Danny immediately was able to match faces to previously heard descriptions.

Commander Adam of 1st Battalion was a Lt. Colonel in the National Guard prior to the Start. He was stationed in Lubbock and quickly became a star to Armistice in the first few months. He was handsome, charismatic, and a strong leader.

Commander Zachary of 3rd Battalion had been a top-level HR director in the old days. He was a decade older than Adam, but Zachary seemed similarly strong-willed. The best description Danny had gotten of the three was by Dr. Riley: Adam valued loyalty, Klein valued fear, Zachary valued organization. Together, the soldiers of the empire looked incredible.

Danny was amazed at how fast the armies had traveled. They had moved 220 miles in a little less than 10 days. That was an incredible pace. He wasn’t sure how soon before they marched to Harehill, but Danny was going to do his best to find out. He wasn’t a Liberty soldier and was incredibly far down the food chain in this situation. Still, he was friendly and could pull words out of people better than most. His dad had always told him he should have been a car salesman. Danny would have made a killing.

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Albany, TX

T’sk Tikan clicked quietly in the peace of his gymnasium. The humans had kept to their word and stayed away from Albany. They had cleared the crypts too. The Undead were gone and Tikan now had a home. The Termites were building more and more every day. They were digging more and more every day.

Tikan wasn’t sure why he had taken a liking to the young human Ranger. The man seemed small, thin, and weak. He had seen the human do impressive feats of weaponry, but Tikan was sure that without those toys the man would be useless. It was the same way with most creatures. They needed tools. They needed supplies. Tikan did not. Tikan just needed space and his colony would grow.

Space…

Tikan needed his space. Tikan had been slowly raising his colony. Dozens of Termites were hatched every hour. More and more and more and more and more. The tunnel network now spread for many miles in every direction. Tikan had claimed the below. The humans had claimed the above. That was fair. That was certain. The battle the humans were now facing had an outcome that would have results that were not certain.

The Termites in the tunnels had spoken to the Kobolds who had spoken to the Treekin who had spoken to the Ravens. The human had not lied. An army was on their way. That army was strong than every creature within Tikan’s sphere of influence. The humans here had made him the most powerful creature in the area, rivaled only with themselves. Tikan had control. He could spread. The humans could…shield…him.

Tikan clicked quietly as he stirred underneath the layers of slime and dirt on top of his body. Space….he needed his space. The army from the West has come to claim that space. The army has come to destroy. The humans would lose. Every creature from North to South has claimed the same. The war between creatures was nothing compared to the war between man. If a Termite killed a Kobold, the land remained. The explosions the rabbit-humans caused destroyed the land. More explosions would soon follow. Tikan needed this land. This was Tikan’s land.

Tikan may not be able to keep humans out of his land, but he could choose. Tikan could choose….

The devil you know…

Better than the one you don’t…

Tikan would not lose his space. This was his home. Humans would not…destroy it.