CHAPTER 42 THE BEGINNING OF THE END PART 1
“What the hell am I supposed to do then?” I asked, there were a number of ways this could go. Not sure I was really a fan of any of them though.
“So, adventurers technically can’t be conscripted to fight. Something about political neutrality in that regard. However, there’s nothing stopping an adventurer from signing up willingly.” Kaylith replied.
“If you actually want to do that you can go to the guild and speak with one of the receptionists and they’ll help you with that. If you don’t want to be involved at all you can still go there and camp out. Adventurer Guilds are supposed to be neutral ground. If it’s destroyed at all by the invading force, or if the defending force forcefully conscripts adventurers, bad stuff happens to the offending party.”
I nodded slowly. Interesting. Basically I had something akin to political immunity just for being part of them.
At the end of the day though I wasn’t sure joining a war would be the best call to action for me. I’d probably get my ass handed to me pretty easily. And then I’d be dead with nothing to show for it.e Although this could be a classic high-risk high-reward endeavor. If I pulled through I’d level astronomically. In fact I’d probably hit tier two long before it was ever and be able to get decently through it, maybe all the way to tier three.
Was it worth it though? Maybe I could just push through and go to Alixia instead and ignore the whole ordeal. Lots to think about.
“I guess before I make a decision I should go to the adventurers guild to start with. From there I can figure out what I want to do.”
Fiona nodded approvingly, “That’s probably a good idea. Let’s head down there.”
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A short jog later put us in front of the guild. There was a military recruiter outside the front door asking if any of the adventurers wanted to sign up with the promise of glory and payment.
I knew half of that was just straight bullshit. Sure they planned on paying, probably even pretty well. But glory? That didn’t exist. I’d never been a part of a war, but I’d heard enough stories and first hand accounts. War is an undeserving hell for the innocent manifested by the hatred and greed of their peers.
“Okay, if you’re planning on signing up you can join us if you want, otherwise just stay here in the commons area. Maybe get a drink and try to relax. As long as the enemy follows the rules this building will never be touched.” Fiona said clapping a hand to my shoulder.
I nodded my head in a daze, life was getting way too hectic for my liking right now. Wait.
“You’re planning on signing up?” I asked almost incredulously.
Fiona kinda glanced back at Kaylith who just shrugged, Marcie was currently amicably chattering to Striga who looked like she was just ignoring everything she was saying.
“I mean, yeah. This is our home. But that’s not the case for you. Anyways, you remember what our motto is right? It’s helping out the people around us. By defending the city how many people could we alone save from being killed in the crossfire? How many soldiers could we save by taking a blow that would kill someone weaker than us?”
I sighed, I guess that made sense in a way. I guess it also made my decision a lot easier.
“I’ll join you.”
Fiona frowned, “Are you sure? This isn’t something you should jump into lightly. We’ve had plenty of time to talk with each other and think this out. In fact, I’d personally feel a lot better if you stayed here. Given your low level this would be significantly more dangerous for you-”
“Not true.” I quickly interjected, interrupting the middle of her sentence. “I’m a low level yes, but this would, from my point of view, be less dangerous for me than you. For one I already have three classes, Garrus never mentioned this because we didn’t really want to broadcast it to any and everyone, but my third class is a purple. According to him it’s inflated my stats so far that I’m equivalent to a tier two mage and warrior rolled into one. Given that I’m a spellblade I’m technically supposed to be the middle ground and yet my stats are higher in the given categories than either. The second part is that I’m a healer. If I get injured I can take care of myself. You wouldn’t be able to do the same. If I come with you I can heal you while also giving assistance where it’s needed. I can help boost your effectiveness just that much more.”
Fiona’s frown deepened. But didn’t say anything, I could practically see the gears turning in her head as she contemplated actually letting me come along. I decided to push things a little further.
“I’m going one way or the other now, Fiona. Either I’m coming with you or I’ll go by myself just to spite you.”
She fixed me with a glare, “You really are a snarky little bastard aren’t you?”
I just smirked at her.
“Fine, see if I care, you can join us but if you die it’s your own fault.”
I smiled at her, “I would never blame you for my choices.”
She nodded before turning around and walking over to a short line in front of one of the receptionists. I fell into line behind the rest of the Silver Maidens.
I wonder if Penny and the rest of them had made it out alright? Maybe they decided to stay here. Maybe they were already in the guild here. It would be hard to tell, this place was designed to hold thousands of people at once, trying to find them in this mess would be nearly impossible.
It didn’t take long for the line to filter through ending up with us at the front.
“Silver Maidens +1 to sign up.” Fiona stated as the receptionist looked up at her. She then looked back down and filtered through some papers notating a few things before looking back up to Fiona.
“Name of the additional?”
“Alex King, formerly of the Earth Raiders.”
The receptionist, her name tag said Jenny, filtered through some more paper before I guess finding what she was looking for. I wonder if they had like a magically updating database. Garrus had done something at one of the guilds to let them know he was taking me on, I was kind of impressed it had reached out to other branches so quickly and seemingly easily.
“Right, I’ve got him tied to your party for the meantime. You’re going to want to head to the Northern barracks, from there you’ll be given directions on where to go and what to do. Given your group's combat orientation, you probably have a good idea of what they’ll want from you.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Fiona nodded, “Understood.”
Jenny then handed her several slips of paper, “These are passes that show your willingness to volunteer. Keep them on you at all times, otherwise it’ll cause a whole bunch of trouble.”
Fiona nodded again, grabbing them and handing them out to the rest of us. Jenny nodded before raising her voice a little to yell, “Next!”
We stepped out of line and headed back out the front door of the guild.
“Alrighty,” Fiona said, stretching a little, “Let’s get this show on the road. To the northern barracks!”
For once her enthusiasm felt a little forced.
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We made it to the barracks pretty easily, there was a pretty large group. None of them adhered to the uniform I had come to recognize as the city guard, or military. Whatever you wanted to call them. That left several hundred adventurers gathered to fight and help defend the city. A lot more than I had expected in all honesty.
We pulled up to the edge of the group and waited about, groups started to fill in behind us. After a strenuous hour of waiting around as a few more people trickled in behind us a man dressed up in pretty fancy armor stepped onto a slightly raised stage, putting him above head height of everyone. This allowed those like us towards the back to be able to see who was talking.
[Level 973]
A pretty high level, just about to turn over to the fourth tier.
“Alright, this is what we know. Currently the Empire of Alixia has invaded from the north. They’ve already captured the city of Lustirne that sat in between the capital and the border. How they managed to capture the town without a single person slipping through the cracks to come and warn us is a completely different concern. The point is that they weren’t able to do that here, meaning we will be able to call for reinforcements from the other cities.”
He stopped for a quick breath
“However, it will take them a while to muster and make their way over here, until then we need to hold out with what we have. You may have also heard that currently two of the five spell-blades are in the capital. Don’t hold out hope that they’ll be joining us on the front line. Their main objective, is to defend the royal family before anything else. If they manage to break into the capital, that means that they’ll join in. It’ll also mean most of us are dead so we won’t particularly care. Our job is to make sure it doesn’t come to that.”
There was a light murmuring that was flowing through the crowd. I too was slightly confused. With the two of them fighting out there with us, a lot could change. But maybe there was something about this I wasn’t considering. Maybe it was an exceedingly common tactic to try and sneak in and assassinate the ruling class or something. That seemed like a poor idea if you weren't at an insanely high level to be able to deal with everything on your own.
“We’ve got the startings of a plan to work with, we’d like you all to help us with it.” The officer’s voice pulled me back to pay attention. “We’ve got an initial force we plan on helping to lead the operation. We’d like you to join them, in two hours they’ll be heading to the outside to engage with the opposing forces, they’ll follow behind you. If we had time to integrate you into their formations we would, but currently they’re trained for this. We expect you to somewhat be able to operate on your own.”
The murmuring grew. I was pretty sure I was reading correctly between the lines. He wanted to send us out first. To be meat shields for the soldiers that would follow behind. It seemed Fiona and the rest of her party had caught on to the underlying words as well.
Someone finally decided to speak out, “So you plan to use us as meat shields for your initial charge while you piddle about back here trying to come up with an actual plan? I joined to fight for the capital, not die in a suicide charge.”
The officer’s eyes rotated over the crowd, having not quite caught who it was that spoke out.
“This is not a suicide charge, it’s the first step of a three stage plan we’ve got underway. Someone has to be apart of this initial group however, and it’s the easiest one to instantly integrate variable elements into. If you choose not to join you’re free to walk away, however now that you’ve signed your willingness to join if you walk away your guild license will be stripped and you’ll be forced out of the city. So really, the decision is up to you at this point.” With that he walked off the stage to a stunned silence.
I didn’t have high hopes for him not getting his head caved in with a rock in his sleep.
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Everything had happened so suddenly. Now I was standing in front of the north gate with the rest of the Silver Maidens waiting for what we all now knew was a suicide mission. Maybe it was a bad idea to sign up, or maybe, just maybe, I’d be able to save everyone and it would work out for the best.
I sighed as I tried to push the wishful thinking out of my head. I quickly checked my person making sure I had a good idea of where everything was on me. I had managed to hold onto some mana potions from the demon invasion.
Did these things have an expiration date? I wouldn’t put it past this world for magical ingredients to go bad after a certain amount of time.
Fiona turned around and glanced between all of us and started speaking quickly.
“Alright, here's my plan. Kaylith and I to the front, followed by Striga, then Alex and Marcie. We stay close, keep it tight. I trust Striga to be able to go around and do her thing while keeping an eye on us if we need help. She should be able to hit people we’re distracting from behind if we’re having trouble dealing with them. Also this would be a good time to tell us if you have anything special Alex.”
She turned to look at me as she finished up. Everyone else glanced at me after she finished as well. I only hesitated slightly before giving a quick overview of my classes.
“My first class is a lightning based mage, I have a ranged paralysis attack although I don’t know how useful it’s going to be here, I think my more important skill from that class is going to be a chain lightning skill. My second class is a mana based sword class. Mainly just there to provide physical stats and allow me to use my weapon which will cut through their armor like butter. The only thing stopping this thing from being more lethal is my own level of skill, I can’t quite fully utilize it yet. My last class is probably the most important one, area heals that are subjective to my own targeting along with a touch based heal. I also have the ability to place one barrier per level. Amount of mana absorbed from the shield is dictated by how hard of a hit it takes. I also have an aoe observation skill although I’m not sure how handy that’s going to be here.”
Fiona nodded, “Can we attack through the shield?”
I frowned, “Skill description doesn’t say so, but I’ve never tried. I would assume no.”
She just nodded.
“That’ll be fine I guess. We really do need to stick close together, this is a two-way street in that Alex needs us, but we’ll need him. We need to look out for each other right now. That’s the only way we stand a chance of pushing through this.”
The rest of us nodded our heads in agreement. Kaylith opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by a bell and a loud voice.
“PREPARE!”
At the sound of the voice the north gate started rising up slowly.
“SET!”
Fiona drew her sword and shield as did Kaylith and stanced herself to prepare for a charge. I drew my sword and gave it a light twirl and made sure my buffs were ready. While [As Fast As Lightning] was listed as a passive, it also had a lightshow attached to it. So I wasn’t too keen on running it when I was in the middle of town. Now though? I pumped my mana into it to reactivate it along with [Wreathed in Lightning]. That skill would last several minutes before I needed to recharge it and just increased my damage practically for free with how cheap it is.
The gate then raised high enough that we were able to run through underneath it.
“CHARGE!”
And with that we surged forward.
There was no roar as we pushed forward. This was no battle for glory and honor. This was a death run.
And to make it perfectly appropriate we were met with a hail of arrows.