“Just tell me their weaknesses!”
“They are a mercenary company protecting traders and people. We can use bandits to wear them down and promote their competitors. There are groups of traders within Vuzgal that want to gain more power. We back them. Get them to snub the Adventurer’s Guild.”
“Is the Adventurer’s Guild part of Vuzgal?” Head Foster interrupted.
“It is possible. Their members and the Vuzgal defenders talk to one another more than the guards talk with other groups. There are rumors that their guild hall was given to them by Vuzgal.”
“Prepare a plan to attack Vuzgal. We will take out the headquarters of this guild and show that we do not care about our opponent.”
“That will be hard with all the associations there.”
“Yes, they’re not pleased with us right now. They care about money more than they care about face. See what the associations want to get them back on our side.”
Cai Bo nodded.
“This connection to the leader of the Vuzgal fighting force?”
“I sent a group to the Second Realm with a junior, Mercy. She knew him. They are looking into our past records in the Second Realm. Then they will work lower.”
“It is odd, but not a focus. What have you found about the Adventurer’s Guild locations?”
“They have hundreds of locations across the lower realms. I believe that we have all their known locations. They do not own cities, but, instead, have guild halls in cities with totems. It creates a vast network.”
“Strength in these cities?”
“Not high. They are extended in the fighting.”
“They have participated in three of the last eight attacks,” Head Foster growled.
Cai Bo remained silent, waiting.
There was a knock at the main door.
“Good, he is on time. Come in,” Head Foster said.
The doors opened to reveal a young man with deep black eyes, wearing fine battle armor. He moved naturally with the sword strapped on his hip as if he had been born as an armored knight.
Nico Tolentino. He was one of the top five candidates to get accepted into a fighting academy. Talented with combat techniques and smithing ability, he had formed his liquid core according to her sources and was preparing to temper his Body Like Iron.
Nico Tolentino was of the newest generation, unlike Cai Bo, who had practically reached the end of her path and was innately linked to the Institute. As it rose or fell, then she would as well.
There were plenty of opportunities for Nico to increase his strength. If he was able to enter a Sixth Realm academy, then it was possible he could reach the Seventh Realm.
Head Foster actually paused his cultivation.
Cai Bo could only bite her cheek at the different treatment.
“Nico, you will lead the Fourth Army to attack the Adventurer’s Guild. You can use those captured as ingredients for human core pills for your training.”
So opulent! Refining their entire being down into a pill. Even if they only drew out seventy percent of their overall strength, there were tons of fighters with strong bodies and some training in mana cultivation. Truly, it was the best way to cultivate.
“Head Foster, you are too kind.” Nico smiled, barely holding back a sneer, looking Cai Bo up and down as Head Foster turned around.
She thought about smacking the look off his face. After all, his clan’s leader was another of her puppets. But no, he would serve a higher purpose, a sacrifice for the greater gain. What was one more dead uppity brat?
“High Elder Cai Bo has information on the different locations. Cai Bo, guide Nico well. Crush the Adventurer’s Guild halls.”
“Yes, Head Foster,” Cai Bo bowed, a cold glimmer in her eye. She had the perfect target to turn this war in their favor.
11
Forward
The Willful Institute riders were thrown off balance as their charge was met with the Adventurer’s guilds spells and ranged attacks, shattering barriers, beasts, and bodies.
“Brace!” Branch leader Derrick yelled. The remaining forces crashed into the impromptu wall of fused stone, carts, and anything else Derrick’s force had been able to string up in the face of the massed counterattack.
There were only a few beasts of the horse kind among the mounts rushing the wall. Most of them could climb. Their momentum slowed to a grinding halt as melee fighters rebuffed them. Swords, claws, teeth, spears, and hammers opened beast and man alike.
“Spell scrolls!”
They blasted out in front of the melee fighters. The mounted forces had nowhere to go as spells carved through their ranks, removing the pressure on the front line.
“Ranged!” The melee fighters crouched. Healers pulled out wounded and healed anyone hurt. Armored ranged forces released their prepared spells, the bodies of their fellow mounted forces and the broken walls of the surrounding buildings pinned in the Willful Institute’s charge.
They broke under the slaughter and ran back the way they had come.
“Have mages switch to buffing and healing. Push any reinforcements to the flanks.” Derrick looked back to see the wall of a once-grand structure rent in several places, bleeding his guild mates and their allies pushing into the city.
The world exploded as he was thrown backward. He hit the ground and rolled. Stone and dirt rained on him as he pushed himself up, feeling worse than those combat training days with Blaze.
Gaping holes had opened in his impromptu defenses, turning it into no more than a rough patch of ground.
Horror ran through Derrick at seeing dead and wounded, his dead and wounded. His training forced him to focus, and he pulled out his map. Markers moved ahead of the wall. He couldn’t hear it, but he could feel the mounted forces coming again.
He opened his mouth only to start coughing. He covered his mouth and activated his sound projecting necklace. “Regroup between the stables and the wall!” Derrick used his necklace to reach everyone.
Those able to move the wounded and began running or hobbling back.
Derrick tore out spell scrolls, layering traps over the area.
“Sir!” A man pulled Derrick, spinning him around. “We need to go.”
His people were running for the rear as tiles slipped free of roofs and rubble crunched. The Willful Institute Riders howled as they rode through the street, across the broken buildings, and charged through the breaches in small groups.
Derrick and his small group started running.
Beasts leapt from roofs, dragging guild members to the ground, their riders lashing out with weapons and cutting down guild members who tried to get up.
Derrick’s group retaliated with spells and weapons, but his guild members were broken and scattered.
A spell formation appeared in the sky. A pillar of light dropped on a breach, leaving behind a crater of tombstones and a dust wave.
One of Derrick’s blades slid across the ground. He used a healing spell on himself and started toward the breach, pulling a spare blade from his storage ring. Around him, other people were getting up from the ground.
“Move to the rally point between the stables and the breach! Gather your guild members as you go!” Derrick ordered.
A rider charged Derrick and his people through a side road, his yells drawing four other Institute riders.
Derrick accelerated, drawing in mana, and reinforcing his body with elements faster than any normal human. The Fifth Realm fighters shot out spells, hitting the ground around him as he skidded from side to side.
He cast out an ice spell ahead of his charge, dropping to the ground as spells flew over him. He slid forward, hitting the ground, then launched himself up.
The world crackled around him as he landed on his feet, stumbling before he found his footing right before the riders. A spear nearly hit him in the chest as he broke his ankle. He hit the ground and rolled, careful to not stab or slice himself with his blades. The riders passed him.
He got
to his knee, breathing heavily as the group of five were charging his watchers. “Lightning!” Silver lightning shot from his hand, dancing between the iron and sweat-covered riders and their beasts.
They stiffened and rolled, tombstones appearing as they flopped.
“Shit.” Derrick pushed his foot into place and blasted it with a healing spell. “That’ll work.”
He hobbled toward the fallback position. wincing.
A rider took notice of him and charged.
Derrick cast an ice spear ahead of the beast. The beast impaled itself, launching the rider forward, his stirrups arresting his moveent and reversing his momentum.
His eyes widened at Derrick, the confusion and pain turning to realization.
Derrick used the Blade Rush technique. His sword cut a line of light, taking off both the rider’s and beast’s heads as he appeared on the other side of them. A rush of dust passed him as two tombstones appeared behind him.
“Ah shit, shit, shit, shit.” Derrick hobbled at the speed he’d just used, straining his not-so-good leg.
He wrapped it in ice, immobilizing it, and used another small healing spell. His gaze darted around. The smoke from fires and dust from fighting cut up the battlefield.
He ran toward the stables they’d passed upon entering the city. The newly erected wall—much stronger than the first—had appeared between the different stables and surrounding homes.
Wounded were lifted back over the new wall. Others jumped and climbed the cargo nets upwards.
Derrick stored his blades. Running and jumping, he used the wall to gain height. Guild members grabbed him. They grunted, pulling him over the wall.
“Ranged, get up on the taller buildings. Mages, clear the surrounding area. Flatten everything fifty meters out! Wounded over by the well!” Derrick cracked out commands, bringing order.
“They’re coming!”
“Repeaters, melee!”
He pulled out a heavy repeater.
A friendly mage used wind spells, forcing the smoke and dust away. Derrick’s eyes burned, but he fought against blinking and kept his sight on the enemy.
The guild scout cast fireball. Enemy riders surged out of the smoke at where the spell landed.
The heavy repeater kicked as hard as a horse, but Derrick’s aim remained flat and controlled, directing the fire right into the line of charging riders.
Dozens of others joined in, shredding weak imitations of barriers.
“Cease fire! Cease fire!” Derrick’s words were passed on as he looked at the pile of tombstones.
A wind, tens times stronger than the one before cleared the area, revealing hundreds of Institute fighters. They seemed to be in every street, with many riding across rooftops. They paused as the smoke cleared.
The Guild and their allies attacked. the Institute riders yelled and charged.
Spells and attacks flashed between them. Riders died. Sections of stable and defenses crumbled to the ground.
“Brace! Melee!”
Derrick stored his repeater and took out his blades. Blades of ice and lightning cut down jumping mounts and their riders.
“Get up! Back in formation!” The armored woman’s voice snapped through the air as the guild members reeled from the attacks.
He looked into her eyes as she nodded, using shield and sword, trained as all Alvans were. She took the impact off some wolf-beast, and bashed beast and rider back in the direction they had come from.
Derrick saw others along the defensive. Two or three people at most. They looked simple, but their movements were deadly.
CPD teams.
His ally ran toward the beast and jumped off a piece of rubble, her sword cutting through the rider’s neck before she landed again. A mage shot a green bolt past her. Striking the ground, it turned into roots and thorns, ensnaring a group of riders.
The guild members pulled together, reinforcing the front wall, buffing and healing, regaining their footing.
They were using everything they had to create a stalemate and turn the balance. Derrick could feel it.
Derrick heard a roar to the right flank. Fuck, more mounted.
He yelled out his own frustration as his attacks came faster and stronger. He didn’t care to save his stamina in his anger. They had fought so hard. They’d taken the walls and entered the city, but they were barely holding on against this mounted force. With reinforcements, it was a death knell.
Derrick’s swords parried a spear and stabbed through a climbing beast, sending rider and beast backward, clearing his vision.
It was as if a giant had grabbed him and squeezed. The fire running through his veins turned to ice.
“Adventurer's Guild!” Kim Cheol roared as the mounted force lowered their spears and secured them.
“Hoah!” The Willful Institute riders didn’t have time to form up as the force streamed through the smoke. Kim Cheol and Joan led from the front as they tore into the Willful Institute’s counterattacking force.
Derrick dodged out of reaction as an Institute fighter ran up the bodies piling against the wall. Derrick roared, filled with energy that came from deep in his soul, and attacked using magic and blade alike.
He stood as others went down around him and took hits, trying his best to cover others. Everyone was fighting to hold on in the press around them. Willful Institute riders started to turn and leave, rushing back toward the center of the city.
The Guild riders spread out to harass the fleeing Institute members, cutting them down with spells.
Derrick coughed, feeling tired and relieved. They’d made it. His eyes dropped to the bodies across the streets wearing Adventurer’s guild clothes, his relief turning to guilt.
He turned away to look at the remaining Guild members on the wall with him. There were only a few still standing from the original group.
“Care for the wounded. Use your stamina and healing potions,” Derrick ordered.
He pulled out a purple and green flecked potion. He scanned the area for the worst wounded and poured some of the potion on their open wounds, and then the rest down their throats.
Derrick looked up at the sounds of arriving beasts.
They wore the Guild’s emblem, fanning around the group. Healers jumped down from their mounts, moving among the wounded to assist.
“Echo’s breach is secured,” Lieutenant Colonel Dominik Zukal said to Colonel Domonos Silaz, who was bent over the table map of the city of Craghorn.
“The breaching force?”
“They’re out of the fight. They lost too many people,” Zukal said.
“Push up Reserve Unit Echo One,” Domonos ordered.
The room shook, but no one reacted.
“Looks like the enemy hasn’t given up on the spells,” Domonos muttered. “Get Bravo to hold their position. I want Alpha and Charlie nearer to them. Don’t want to get drawn into an ambush.”
“Street by street?” Zukal asked.
“Street by street, and use Life Detect scrolls. They must be using secret passages to move their forces. Echo only found the rider force in the last few minutes.”
“Yes, sir.” Zukal turned to the messenger aides. Map aides were altering their map according to new information and sending it to the larger map, updating it overall. Linked maps updated the maps of commanders in the field, so they knew exactly where the enemy had been spotted and reported, and where their allies were.
Markets were turned into courtyards, the surrounding houses turned into walls and defenses with a little magic. Unfortunately, Third Realm fighters had more than enough power to reduce a house to rubble in a few minutes.
Domonos moved to the corner of the room. A periscope rested there. He put his eyes to it, flinching as a fireball hit the mana barrier just meters from the periscope’s lens, shaking the entire building.
The mana barriers held as Domonos waited for the smoke to clear.
On either side of the Adventurer’s Guild camp, there were other sect camps.
/> Groups with mana barriers marched across the farmers’ fields, pockmarked with spell impacts, and littered with the bodies of those whose mana barriers had failed.
The city wall was like broken teeth. The groups passed through and into the large city beyond.
The Craghorn rested on the banks of a once crystal-clear river. Waterfalls from upstream spread out to create a wet plains underneath. The rich waters turned it into an area teeming with life. Even in the Alchemist’s Realm, it was a jewel.
The city was filled with towers covered in gardens, catering to the massive resources required to support the Willful Institute. Many had wished to control the city, but none were bold enough to try before.
Now it was but a shell. Domonos watched a spell strike one of the towering buildings, shattering the gardens and sending the stone crashing below. He glanced at the waters. Smugglers and merchants were doing a bustling business, carrying away those willing to pay their high prices to the other bank or down the river. Those that didn’t have the means, but were desperate, tried to pull together rafts, or even swim.
The clear waters were muddied with the constantly moving ships, and the blood of those that tried to climb onto other’s ships only to meet the owner’s blades.
Artillery spells rose and fell, raining on marked positions within the city.
The other sects dragged their feet when they could. As soon as it looked like a win, they jumped at the opportunity to advance. It was a good thing that all the spies they had were his father’s intelligence officers. He didn’t trust the sects; they cared too much about personal gain over the mission.
His orders could deliver the men and women under his command to death. He also knew that if he didn’t command, if he didn’t give them the orders to hold, then he would lose many more.
If Echo hadn’t held, Delta would have been wiped out. Derrick had done a hard job, but he’d stopped the Institute’s counterattack dead.
Domonos pulled his eyes from the periscope as the building shook once again.
Seventh Realm Part 1: A LitRPG Fantasy series (The Ten Realms Book 8) Page 11
