We spent the next four days harassing the enemy supply lines with guerilla warfare. We also intercepted and neutralized any scouts we could find snooping around. My pocket dimension was stuffed to the rafters with our spoils, and so at night, we would sort through it and figure out what we could store away in some hidey-hole in the mountainside such that we could retrieve it after the war. Most of it was food, which would certainly be needed for all the refugees, but we also looted a generous supply of magical odds and ends, mostly consumables and tools.
The disturbing amount of arcanium powder suggested they had artillery for a heavy siege. Such cannons were not great for knocking down solid stone walls, but they could wreck magical barriers and enchantments if left uncontested. Artillery of such nature favored offense, for a large barrier was difficult to maintain and costly to repair, and one the size of a city was almost impossible to miss. Conversely, a barrier just big enough to hold a cannon and its crew was cheap to maintain and easy to repair. Ergo, if opposing artillery duked it out, the city would eventually be the first to break.
Reports on the other fronts were mixed. Most nearby towns and villages had been evacuated to Berkerin without incident, with only a few experiencing skirmishes with raiding parties. Fortunately, plenty of retired Adventurers and other skilled individuals volunteered to assist in the evacuations, especially those specializing in transportation or dimensional storage, so very little of scorched earth tactics needed to be employed. Likewise, the deforestation and moderate terraforming around the city had been performed exceptionally. I had only read reports about it, but by the description, I could expect to see a vastly different landscape upon my return.
Unfortunately, our interdiction force, led by Blythnin, had been pressed hard. Casualties had mounted, for the enemy vanguard could rotate in fresh troops, while ours remained the same and exhausted. Most were dangerously close to “healing saturation”, the limit at which healing magic could no longer continue to render any benefit. Granted, most of the Platinum and Gold Adventurers had Skills within their Blessing to mitigate that buildup or quickly recover from it, but even their limits had been pushed to the extreme.
And so, on the morning of what was supposed to be our fifth day of general raiding and mayhem, I received an emergency message in my communication book that ordered all personnel to return to Berkerin. The interdiction force had withdrawn from the field in favor of the safety of the city. The strategy involved them resting and recovering various “saturations”. One can only chug so many potions for health, stamina, and mana, or otherwise benefit from magical intervention to the same effect before becoming saturated in each respective category. That followed the same limits on the potions we had to remove the need for sleep, which fortunately, my companions and I have not needed to use. On a small note, my self-healing was extremely efficient at not saturating myself, and to a lesser degree, my pets. From what I heard, most self-healing falls into the same boat.
Speaking of boats, Bellwright summoned up a boat of sorts after we packed up our camp. It hovered off the ground. Similar to our previous boat in that it had no sails, said similarities ended there. The bottom was rounded, but it looked like another and larger boat had been turned upside down and placed on top while held up with several masts to form a roof of sorts. On the sides of the boat were large, horizontal cylinders near the middle of the sides. Small flames jutted out the rear end of them. We loaded into individual seats, each one with belts to secure us to them.
“Hold on to your butts,” shouted Bellwright as the boat lurched forward.
With a mighty roar, great gouts of fire belched forth from the side-cylinders. I felt myself pressed firmly into my seat as we jolted forwards while heading widdershins around the mountain, climbing slightly as we went. Apparently, Gulfore knew what was next, for she mumbled an incantation to create a spectral ramp that went halfway down the mountain. It straightened out and then inclined about 30 degrees upwards at the end. Without bothering to stop, Bellwright took us down the ramp. I was nearly crushed into my seat as I held on to the belts that strapped me in.
I felt my breakfast jostle within my stomach as we cleared the end of the ramp and were launched skywards. A new thrumming sound could be heard from below the boat, so some arcane mechanism must have been activated to slow our ascent as we loftily hovered our way towards the city. We lost altitude slowly, but I could tell we would arrive with plenty to spare.
Below us, we all observed the state of things as we drew closer to our destination. The head of the enemy army was perhaps half a day from the city, while their vanguard had already secured an area for setting up camp. A week ago, the city had been surrounded by forest up to about an arrow’s flight away from the walls. Now, complete desolation surrounded it up to a mile away. The land had been completely defoliated, not even stumps nor a blade of grass remained. The barren earth had been flooded and turned into a veritable quagmire. No doubt it was riddled with all manner of traps and other goodies to welcome our uninvited guests. The enemy would have to either make due with it or find a way to restore it to solid ground if they wanted to lay siege.
I observed great stockpiles of logs and lumber within the city. What had once been public parks or parade grounds were now stuffed full of that and everything else that had been harvested from the terrain. Even boulders had been removed from the field, as much as to deny the enemy projectiles for the siege as to provide material to repair our walls. I witnessed tiny figures moving around some boulders off to the side as they went about their labor to shape the boulders into blocks. Apparently, the citizens of Berkerin had pulled out all the stops when it came to preparations to defend the city. Considering the enemy was here to conquer and subjugate instead of merely demanding tribute or sacking, I could understand the impetus to pitch in.
I could see heads turned our way. The ship’s engines had all the subtlety of a meteor storm. The boat was loud on pretty much every spectrum, most significantly in the realm of magic. I felt confident that the average person could feel the magic radiating off it from a dozen or more miles away. Certainly, that explained why we only used it to retreat, for we were like sitting ducks up here in the sky where anyone hostile could launch anti-air attacks upon us. Naturally, we gave the enemy army a wide berth, for we did not want to get impromptu lessons in skydiving.
Perhaps the most disturbing sight was the three giants that moved with the enemy army. Two of them stood perhaps three stories tall, with the last at perhaps four. The first was a golem made of wood, and it lumbered along ahead of its twin made of stone. Behind the pair could be seen their presumed master, a giant humanoid with four arms, one of which held a massive club that rested upon his shoulder. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be some sort of tetsubō. If any of those giants managed to make it to our defenses, they would smash the walls to smithereens. Clearly, they would be high priority targets, so I dreaded the seemingly inevitable clash that I might have with them in the near future.
My hours of study in my youth and my supernatural intuition as provided by some Skills related to matters of military science suggest that, even with optimistic expectations for their prowess, the enemy would not be able to launch an assault until dawn the next day. More than likely it would be at least two days if they wanted to set up a fortified camp and start reshaping the terrain back to solid ground. Naturally, both sides would harass the other and feel out defenses, but the preparation and interdiction stages had come to an end for the defenders.
A hole appeared in the defensive ward around the city as we made our approach. Apparently, we were either expected or Bellwright had some sort of token to safely breach it. With engines screaming, for that is what I then knew them to be, he set us down near a fountain about two blocks away from the guildhall. Small lights laid about the area in an organized fashion clearly marked that this area was cordoned off for flyers to come and go. Guards approached us, not with any urgency, but more to the point that they were available if we had injured or needed assistance transporting supplies.
I waved the guards off as we landed while Bellwright dismissed the boat. We cleared the landing zone quickly as another flier was making an approach to land. It was more of a glowing ball of green light with people floating inside. Not as flashy or fast as Bellwright’s boat, but it got the job done.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
We hustled off to the guildhall, which had been turned into the command center for Adventurers. We passed a few groups of people likewise running hither and thither, but otherwise, the streets were clear of anyone going for a casual stroll. I expected the inside to be barely constrained chaos, but it was all a rather orderly affair. The chairs and tables had been removed, with organized desks being placed at key positions, behind which busy clerks scribbled feverishly at their paperwork. Colored lines painted the floor, each line leading to a desk and starting near the door.
We joined our respective queue, which was the green line, and we shuffled forward at a reasonable pace. It only took ten minutes until we were next in line, so apparently the wheels of bureaucracy had been greased with at least a small amount of efficiency. I looked around for Chooka or Serideth, but I did not see either of them. I had the privilege of dealing with the clerk, a male orc with a perpetual scowl on his face whose eyes seemed to be stuck in an unwavering and disapproving glare. After a boring but brief conversation, he handed me a missive for my orders, and my merry band and I departed the building for the comfort of the street. I opened the missive to read the orders, and afterwards turned to the expectant faces of my party that eagerly awaited the news.
“Good news everyone, we have leave until dawn tomorrow.” A cheer followed from everyone at that announcement. “Bad news everyone, we are to report to the Gates of Friendship by tomorrow at dawn.” Less enthusiastic noises followed that announcement. “I have an empty room in my home, so I am going to drop off our spoils of war there. If I die before the war ends, you know where to go to get it. Mind the hydra.” A few chuckles followed that comment.
Before I could properly dismiss everyone, I felt my legs leave the ground as someone tall and slender crashed into me from behind. Judging by the tenderness of the embrace and the lack of clothing brushing up against me, I felt confident as to the identity of my hugger.
“The rest of you can scram,” declared Chooka boldly as she held me aloft. “He is mine now!”
Not bothering to wait for any backtalk, she quickly flipped me in her arms such that she had me in a princess carry. She promptly turned heel and headed at a brisk pace to the direction of our home. I heard a few guffaws and comments from the peanut gallery as we departed, and within a few seconds, we were already a block away and alone.
“Miss me much?” I asked playfully as I reached an arm behind her to rub her back.
She glanced down at me as she hustled back home as fast as she could carry me. “Eh, the dishes were starting to pile up, so I came to fetch you,” she replied casually, the slightest hint of a smile starting to creep into her demeanor.
“You know the real trick is to just throw them away and buy new ones. That way you never need to wash them.” I tried to look serious, but I couldn’t quite maintain my composure. “Really, if I had known that dishes stacking up was all it took for you to sweep me off my feet and carry me in your arms, I would have bought dirty dishes and stacked them on our sink.”
She laughed at that joke as her muscles relaxed somewhat, and soon an errant tear streamed down her face. I nuzzled into her as she ran full tilt to our home, nestling myself within the comfort of her embrace as I tried to soothe her concerns by continuing to rub her back. I am sure we made an odd sight, but there were few people to witness us, and at the pace Chooka ran, we didn’t linger long enough to hear any snide comments or hushed whispers.
As we approached the front gate, I deployed [Veil of Shadows] and everything else I could think of to hide us from The Boys. I am sure they wanted to greet me, but I could tell that Chooka was eager to “decompress” after the stressful week of my absence. She leapt over the gate and surreptitiously made the approach to the house. The Boys snoozed away with their snouts resting on the edge of the pond, their body submerged. Chooka made our way to the back door, and we crept our way inside and up the stairs as if we were burglars and not the owners of the house.
Upon entering the bedroom, Chooka activated a Skill from [Courtesan] to block sound from leaving the room. She threw me onto the bed from halfway across the room, and before I could even land, she pounced to land on top of me. Indeed, she landed on top of me posthaste, straddling me at my midsection. Things escalated into a tussle in the sheets, not gentle and tender, but passionate and burning with the unquenchable flame of unbridled desire. Afterwards, we cuddled for a while, each basking in the comfort of the other absent any words needing to be spoken to express ourselves.
“Do you want to go first or should I,” I proffered, breaking our silence.
“You first,” she replied as she perked up, her body resting on top of mine with her head on my chest, careful that she didn’t gore me with her horns.
I started to regale her with a full account of my adventures. She interrupted me after the scene on the bridge with Skull.
“She totally wants to jump your bones!”
“You think so,” I asked, unsure if that was the case.
“I am a [Courtesan] and a woman. I totally know that sort of stuff. Oh, hold on!”
She scrambled off of me to grab a book she had stashed in her nightstand. It was a nondescript book about as long as my forearm and bound in good quality but otherwise undecorated black leather. She snuggled up next to me and cracked it open for the pair of us to view. Inside on the left of each spread of pages could be seen rather erotic and quite detailed pictures of people, complete with color. On the right side were words and statistics. She flipped through the pages until she found what she was looking for.
“Here she is, Skull! I have been trying to bed her for years now.”
She pointed to a “Conquest” section of the page, for which I saw no tally marks in any of the various explicit and provocative acts listed there.
“She isn’t in town very often, and she already had a bedmate every time I could catch her.”
“Perhaps something could be arranged,” I suggested, and Chooka beamed at me with an expression of hunger and gratitude. “Wait! Do I have a page in here?”
She flipped the book open to my page. I must admit, the picture was rather generous and flattering, showing off my lean but toned muscles while leaving little to the imagination. I noted the various activities of a lascivious nature. They didn’t just have tally marks, but actual numbers, many with triple digits. I looked further down to see how she ranked me on matters of skill and personality both inside and outside the bedroom. A few grumbles escaped my mouth on some of them, as well as a few sounds of acquiescence on others as I nodded my head with a slight side-to-side motion.
“Is there a scoreboard somewhere?”
She excitedly flipped to the front of the book, showing me a section for rankings based on various categories. I had placed well in all and first in a few. I could feel myself swell up with pride, almost like a peacock strutting with his tail fanned wide. We spent some time going through the book, with Chooka excitedly pointing things out, especially those on her wish-list that she wanted to add to her collection of “Conquests”. Keep in mind, they were not for bragging rights, but rather for her own personal satisfaction and to unlock new Skills for her Blessing. She is not the type that would kiss and tell without permission.
“Well, it seems there is room for improvement if I aim to achieve the highest score.” I yanked her close with a sudden jerk, which elicited a squeal of surprise out of her. I wrapped my arms around her and gave her a kiss. “Does that earn me a point?” Then I moved down to her neck just below her left ear for another kiss. “How about that one?” I continued to work my way lower, stopping to attend to her where my kissing would earn me the most points.
After some time passed and we were both satisfied with the exhibition of skill, she opened the book. She erased a number next to a certain statistic then eyed me up, making exaggerated expressions and motions as if she took great consideration of the matter. She wrote in a new number. I looked over at it with curiosity.
“That is a… modest improvement,” I commented, my expression showing how I was calculating how long it would be to reach the highest score.
“It is about both quality and quantity, and some people have a few years of a head start on you,” she admitted with a small smirk that suggested she was overall content with how things turned out. “But I think you have the quality part well under wraps.”
“Well then, by the time I am done, either you will need to lower everyone else’s score, or allow me to have an 11,” I suggested mischievously as I hugged her close.
She laughed at that, and I could tell that what worry she had for me during the last week had melted away. She slept peacefully in my arms that night, and I wish that such a night would never have ended. Alas, time progressed on as per its normal routine.