The last of those who’d come to fight with the subjugation force came in just as the morning sun rose high in the sky. Soon after their arrival, the marching orders for the group were finally given.
Bellowed out by several of Jelani’s higher ranked knights who went to all the places where the enlistees were stationed and waiting. Which was mainly all of Jelani’s ale houses and guild depots. The knights chose to visit the elite contractors in the Mayoral Office last.
Or rather that was the last place they were ordered to stop. Politely informing those who lounged within, that the time to act was nigh.
After taking a few hours to pull themselves into order, a force of fifty thousand filed out through the northern gates of the city. The procession was a tidy one, headed by knights and soldiers who marched in tight formation.
The mercenaries and adventurers and freelancer experts trailing from behind. Flying, walking, riding. Either using beasts or vehicles or special abilities to leisurely follow the main force.
Their migration was a necessary thing, fighting in the city would lead to widespread destruction. In fact for most major cities unrestrained use of one’s powers was generally censured and frowned upon. Trying to fly above a major city’s walls without special licensure or adequate social position would result in either being shot down or pursued and apprehended.
Which was usually followed by a summary execution. In any case this Campaign was one in which the fight taking place within Jelani’s walls would signify loss. It’d all be for nought if the subjugation force failed to turn the tide and keep the city from being swept away. It’d be missing the point for them to fight within the city walls.
*****
Edna was amongst the crowd that trailed behind the main army. For her, it felt wrong to be counted amongst the elite. In a city of Jelani’s scale being ruler-ranked wasn’t really anything to brag about.
Even the regular army would have a King and Queen Ranked officers amongst their ranks. Not to mention being a mere Jack Ranked. All the same here she was. Trailing them as they marched. Following along in the company carriage, feeling a bit like a fraud.
Once again, she reaffirmed her decision to fervently redouble her efforts in cultivation. Being a rabbit surrounded by direwolves was no fun at all. Especially when the wolf pack you’d inexplicably found yourself part of, was headed to go wage war against dragons.
It wouldn’t have been so bad, but apparently she was in this alone. She wasn’t sure when, but at some point, she’d dozed off. When she woke up again, she’d found Billy missing and in her lap was the very vaguest of memos,
“Went to do something…”
What he’d gone to do, or where he’d went, or how long he’d be gone or anything else that would be even remotely helpful, was naturally not included.
She assumed he’d meet up with her later, but assuming wasn’t knowing, and even if Billy “was” somewhat reliable, he could also be unpredictable. Or at least that was her current impression of him. In either case it was a cause for concern.
They marched for two days before reaching their destination. It was a few hundred miles from the city and somewhat deep into the Meallan deserts. A flat area of patchy scrub and sun burnt weeds that was surrounded by a sand sea.
The camp was set in next to no time. Either Jelani’s forces had prepared beforehand or the army was just that well disciplined. In any case it made Edna feel a little comforted to know that the people in charge seemed to know what they were doing.
******
“Now we’ll still go over things in depth later, but for now all we really need you guys to do is get prepared. The operation starts in the morning at oh-eight hundred hours and we’re expecting to have a lot on our hands.” said an older gentleman wearing a red coat that was adorned with metal pauldrons.
A second look would reveal that the red coat was made of scales. The ‘metal’ pauldrons were actually bone with a thick amount of metallic earth aether infusing the marrow. The man’s name was Carter Salvador, a veteran Adventurer, Dragon slayer, and a practitioner of the High Emperor Rank.
He was actually a little famous, famous enough for Edna to have heard of him at least. His name spreading far enough for even the folk in the lesser kingdoms to have heard it. Though she really couldn’t recall what he was famous ‘for’ at the moment.
He was the supervisor that the Mayor of Jelani had set at the head of the contractors. It was his responsibility to see that their efforts were effectively coordinated with the Jelani Military’s.
“Any Questions?” said Salvador.
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“Sir, how big are the projected numbers?” said a sharp-eyed, snake-kin woman.
A look of irritation and discomfort briefly flashed over Salvador’s face, but was quickly swallowed up by a staunch professionalism.
“Ah, well...The numbers ‘I’ was told were said to be anything within the range of ninety to a hundred thousand, but as I am sure we all know most of those will be non-threats of the lower material layer or lower. Y’know, garden snakes. Simple pest elimination.”
“Yes but I was actually asking about the actual threats. Targets ruler-layer or higher, sir.” said the Snake-Kin woman.
There was another look of discomfort from the old Dragon Slayer.
“Well….That’s a bit harder to say. See we generally don’t have concentrated numbers of snakes making it all the way out here. The boys on the coasts would have usually broken them up by now, but it seems that a large group still managed to make it through.
Taking that all into account I can’t help but assume that we’re talking about a lead group that’s at least ten maybe twenty thousand strong.” said Salvador.
There was an audible groan that traveled through the crowd of contractors. Sounds of depression, anxiety, irritation that came from people who were now rethinking their presence here.
The tides of demon-snakes and lesser draconics that made up each year’s festival of snakes were lead by stronger members of their species and their stronger cousins, the true dragons.
The dragons came from the dragon-continent and would first hit the northern and north-eastern coasts. The guilds and the kingdoms working together to kill off the leaders of the serpent tide before somewhere important was wiped out.
If you took out their leaders the groups would scatter. Turning into just another a problematic, profitable issue for the companies and guilds to handle.
“S-, So there’s a possibility that we’re going to be facing over twenty thousand dragons? True Dragons?” said the snake-kin woman. Looking visibly shaken.
Salvador sighed, expression stiff, shoulders tense.
“Aye….Possibly.”
This brought more moans and more grumbling, especially from the people who’d come in groups. There were other folk who glared at the complainers, looking tense and morose all the while.
Edna didn’t know a lot about the world of contractors, adventurers and mercenaries but she knew enough about business and people to know what it looked like when a whole bunch of people realized they’d just jumped into a bad situation.
She’d figured that there was something hinky about a job that paid high, and had little cost and no penalty fee. Now she knew what was wrong with it. This job was a death sentence.
The kind of job that was only accepted by the very desperate and the very stupid. Last she’d checked she and Billy were neither so she couldn’t imagine why he’d chosen this for their first gig.
The Grand festival of snakes that came with each fall usually involved a number of serpent-tides,. Each serpent-tide was usually lead by a single true dragon. A single true dragon of the ruler layer could wipe out a city like Garland with no problem.
Now they were apparently about to face a possible twenty thousand of them. With that information in mind, it was no wonder that the serpent-tide that was headed in Jelani’s direction had made it this far.
What was really amazing was that they hadn’t destroyed more major settlements on their way over. Somehow managing to just swallow up the usual small towns and villages.
In some strange string of unlikely events this one group had stayed whole, managing to make it through to the southern part of the continent. Fifty thousand soldiers and a few thousand practitioners wasn’t enough to face that. Same for a hundred thousand. In the eyes of Edna and everyone else who was present, Jelani was doomed.
A grim look sat on Salvador’s face, he tried to brighten it by faking a smile, but what came out looked more like a grimace.
In the end Salvador simply clapped his hands together and dismissed the group, leaving them to their own thoughts and preparations. By the time the morning came more than a few amongst their number would be missing and not a soul would judge them for it.
*****
“Hey, Lovely. Glad to see you didn’t scamper off with the rest of those cowards.” said noisy voice that was soon accompanied with a noisier laugh.
The last straw was when she got a pat on the back that jolted her and forced her to open her eyes. She looked and saw the lantern jawed Beau Howards. Gently taking his hand off of her shoulder, for all that she still smiled when she saw him, her gaze was fairly gelid.
Even close friends and family would hesitate to so rudely pull someone out of their meditative trance. Just the mere chance that you could interrupt someone while they were on the brink of reaching a breakthrough or cause a backlash was enough to make most people tread carefully.
“Hello, Mister Howards.”said Edna. Displeased with the man. Though her training as a maid and her time as young heir kept it from her tone and hid it so well that even she couldn’t entirely be sure of the extent.
“Sup, little lady. Just wanted to know if you wanted to come over to our side of the camp. Me and a few friends got together and we figured we’d take it easy for a bit before the real work began.” said Beau.
Edna’s smile stiffened, because she was pretty sure she was on the verge of something when she’d been interrupted.
Honestly she kind of blamed herself, Edna’s carriage was parked amongst the vehicles and equipment of the other contractors. Next to the area that the Jelani military had cordoned off for themselves.
It would have made perfect sense to go in there to cultivate but she’d wanted to stay outside and try to use some of the methods in her notebooks to absorb the rich solar aether that could only be found near a sandsea.
Now she had to think of a way to politely decline, in truth she didn’t even want to bother being polite, but making enemies right before a military engagement seemed like a bad idea.
“Hey”
They both jumped, both Beau and Edna, with Edna yelping slightly and Beau reaching for the war axe he kept strapped to his back. A lean shadow appeared from nowhere and sat down right next to them. Edna turned and saw Billy, his nine-eyed mask lifted up, his skin pale, a bit of dried blood crusted beneath both his nostrils. His eyes seeming to be filled with a million iridescent green fireflies.
“Billy?!”
“Er…Hello? Have we met?” said Beau.
“Yes...Yesterday.” said Billy. Just barely glancing at the man.
“Where the hell have ‘you’ been?” said Edna. Her tone, a little more harsh than she’d expected or intended, it to be. Billy’s face staying as impassive as ever, not seeming to mind it.
“Busy..... Doing something.”
“Yes,I know….I read the note. The highly unhelpful note. I meant what was the ‘something’?” she said, not knowing whether it was even worth getting annoyed any more.
“Sorry. Anyway I need you to see something. Come on.” said Billy.
Edna looked at the Billy and then she looked at Beau and then she looked at Billy and then she sighed.
“Sorry, it looks like I kind of have to…y’know..”
“No it’s okay, business before pleasure...We’re all professionals here. Hey, Maybe next time…” said Beau, the disappointment plain on his face.
“Uh...Right.” said Edna. Getting to follow Billy as he strode away, walking deeper into the desert.