In a border city several days away from the thief city.
“The city has fallen to the barbarian forces,” said a skinny Oni who was hidden in the shadows of the tall dark building they were standing inside.
“I told those undying people that their limited forces were not enough to hold such a city... go accept the offer from those dark-robed people.”
“I don't know if that's a smart thing to do. They seem a little too eager to help us even though we have never met people like them before...”
“We need all the help we can get if we want to take the city back and start our conquest of the barbarian lands. In war, we can not be picky with those that offer to help us lest we offend them and they decide to back the enemy.”
“But those dark-robed people practice such barbaric...”
“That's even more reason to have them use it on the enemy and not us. Gather everyone we have that can fight right now. We can let those guys do the dirty work and then we can come in and mop up everything else if it all goes according to plan.”
“The remaining undying allies that stayed here with us say that their friends who were killed in the city are not dead but they are no longer on this land and can not help us until they travel from a distant land all the way back here...”
“What a bunch of useless beings... tell them they will have to come with us to prove their loyalty.”
***
“Now that we have taken action they won't sit still,” said Zundar as he looked over the inner city while standing on the city wall with Akira.
Ding!
The Oni have learned of the fall of the Thief City!
Defend the village and allow civilians to live in peace.
Rewards: The city will join the AAF and become a forward base for the alliance.
“True, we can expect them to come back with a strong force to take the city back... we need to prepare for their arrival. But first, we still have to clean up the mess and all the problems they left behind,” said Akira.
“Those guys are a bunch of sick weirdos... and their weird symbols are all over their tools,” said Crowbahr.
“Judging from everything we have found so far the rumors were in fact true. This is a sick and twisted place. Luckily we were able to cleanse it of such people,” said Sweety.
“The rest of the residents seem to be a normal mixture of different demon races from both the Oni and the AAF. But their living conditions are horrible as most of them are extremely poor or were slaves living in the slums which made up the majority of the Thief City's buildings. From what I learned most of them came here on their own even if it meant living in such squalor. It is far safer living here than living in a small village that constantly gets raided,” said Beater.
“What about the more well-to-do Oni that were living it up with the demigods and the Oni rulers?” asked Akira.
“Many of them escaped during all the commotion. They took all of their valuables with them as they left through the tunnels. As nice as the tunnels were for getting into the city they are also nice for the enemy to get out... or in...”
“Qorn, can you let the tunnel guards know that we will be blocking all the secret entrances for an unknown amount of time,” said Akira.
“How am I supposed to tell them that? They will now agree to this as it is their main source of money,” said Qorn.
“Let them know that the Oni will be back and they know who controls the secret paths. Which means they will be the first to be killed if they want to invade the city using the tunnels. I'm sure they would rather close the tunnels for now and live instead of dying,” said Akira.
“Alright, I'll go talk with them. But there is no guarantee they will agree...” said Qorn.
“Good, the faster we can get this city sealed up the easier it will be to defend.”
“UrEallyOingOEepEsLace?” asked Spearia.
“Yes,” said Akira after listening to the translation. “Although it's a leaky ship right now... this will be a good bridgehead to build up forces to stop the enemy from striking out at the rest of the AAF villages. That only if we can shore up the many holes in its defenses.”
“If we take control of this city we will be able to launch our own raids and expeditions from here instead of having to move about all the way back at the shore,” said Beater.
“We still need to reinforce the walls so that they can at least last long enough for us to push back the enemy when they arrive. It's great that this city already has a moat which should make our life somewhat easier after we plug up the holes. With our recent experiences in defensive warfare I believe we are well suited for this coming battle,” said Akira as he thought of the several years that they had held back the demigods from moving farther south towards Kodria. Although the situations here are far different from then.
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Everyone that was standing on the wall looked down at the watery moat below. It was true that it gave them a sense of security but also made them feel trapped.
“Everyone has their tasks so let's get to it before the enemy can respond!” said Akira.
“Yap?” asked Fluffball.
“What are we supposed to do?” asked Dolph.
“We have the hard job of talking to the civilians living here. There is so much to sort out with them as well as see what they all plan on doing,” said Akira.
***
“I know you keep saying you want to live in peace... but that is not possible if the Oni army is truly marching here like the fluffy dog man says,” said Spearia.
“You should not have come here in the first place!” shouted an angry Oni.
“That's easy for you to say! You were not being constantly harassed by those undying people and the city overlords!” shouted a young male representative for the Minos faction that lived in the city.
“What are we going to do about the large number of thieves and bandits that are still living here?” asked an Oni representative, ignoring the person who just spoke.
“The captured Oni conspirators must pay! They killed my son without reason and did not even pay for his burial!” said an elderly man.
“That is nothing, they have killed several dozen people from our section of the slums over the last month! Those who have been enslaved had it the worst as they were killed at the whim of their owner. No one knows how many of them have died! Are you all so blind to previous rulers' treatment that you would rather have them ruling us with an iron fist again? Why do you hate the idea of freeing ourselves from their control and deciding our own fates? I vote to support the alliance and defend the city!”
The back-and-forth bickering about who had it worse as well as past grudges had been flying back and forth between the different demon races for several hours now. Akira had not said anything other than his initial offer to help them become an independent force separate from the main Oni cities.
Now that someone had initiated a vote, there were many shouts for and against this declaration. But after another ten minutes of fierce yelling back and forth a decision had been made.
8 of the 10 representatives from different groups in the city voted to support the AAF against the Oni overlords and their new undying friends that they had recently made.
“Zundar, I'll need you to gather a group of volunteers to seal up the city. Spearia, please keep an eye on those two who voted against us... send a few people out to find and have a chat with the worst of the thieves and bandits. We need to understand who is and is not a threat. If they are a danger to the city you can send them packing,” said Akira, letting Zundar do the translating.
With the city locked down, the daily routine of the majority of the city was halted leaving a large portion of them with nothing to do. That was a great thing as Zundar and others who had work projects for the city were able to gather enough volunteers to immediately start their projects.
While that was going on Akira decided now was a good time to inspect the major hangouts and hideouts that the demigods had been holed up in during their stay in the city. He wanted to see what they were up to every night and if they had left any goods that they could use in the upcoming battle.
“Yap!” said Fluffball who had decided to join him along with Dolph and Vilkas.
There was no one to stop Akira from stepping inside the seedy tavern since the original Oni owners had already escaped the city as soon as they found out the winds had started to blow a different way.
Akira looked around confused since the common room looked no different than any other tavern he had been to before. Despite its looks on the outside, the place was extremely clean.
“What is so special about this place?” muttered Akira.
Fluffball spent several seconds sniffing the air, the wooden floor, and the furniture all around them but could not find anything out of the ordinary.
“Yap...” said a defeated Fluffball.
Akira only shrugged his shoulders and walked across the room with Fluffball who was still sniffing up a storm beside him as they walked into one of the back rooms of the tavern where a set of stairs descending could be seen.
“Yap!” said Fluffball.
“You're right. The fun must have been happening down there,” said Akira as he began to descend the small set of stairs.
Bam! He kicked open the locked door, breaking the flimsy wooden latch that was holding it shut.
“What the hell?” muttered Akira as he entered the room and looked around.
All along the walls and on stone pedestals were many different statues all made out of different materials, hardened clay, metal, stone, and a few wooden ones. In between all of the statues were many plush cushions and couches that looked well-used.
This was obviously the main gathering place the demigods used each night.
The numerous statues in the room would not have been out of place in some rich VIP room... if it were not for the gruesome expressions of torture and agony on each of the statue's faces.
There was also the fact that most of their body postures were not normal either. There were some holding up their hands as if to defend against an unseen attack while others looked like the statue had been restrained as they were tortured.
The display of statues all gave off a creepy feeling.
“The sculptor of these statues has a sick mind. Why would the demigods indulge them in such a sick hobby and gather so many of them here?” asked Dolph.
“We could ask the members of the [Full moon] guild. They are weird enough that they would probably know why,” said Akira as he continued to look around the room for anything of value.
Fluffball had given up sniffing the stone floor and the cushions and was sniffing each of the statues one by one before returning to Akira.
“YAP!” said Fluffball, his tail wagging furiously.
“What!?” asked Akira and his guards.
“YAP!” said Fluffball even more energetically as he ran a few circles around Akira.
Although they were shocked for a few seconds they all focused on their enhanced sense of smell to sniff the air near the statues.
“...”
“These demigods... I never would have thought this was possible...” said Vilkas.
Akira balled his armored fist and slammed it into the chest of one of the hardened clay statues...
Shards of dry clay flew off as a large hole appeared. Instead of the statue crumbling it was still stayed standing... because of the decayed body and burnt bones that were inside of the statue.
Akira smashed his fist into several other statues and found that each statue had been formed around someone who had most likely been alive before they were encased in the material used for the statue.
“These demigods are really sick,” was all Akira could manage to say.