Erik let out a laugh. “Well, fuck, it’d be a waste not to try these out!”
With ingredients that would have cost hundreds, if not thousands, of Mana stones in real life, Erik started to test them, to verify they were like what he had read in the books he read earlier. When he tried to consume them, there were no effects, not allowing him to trigger Reverse Alchemist. Still, with the tests he could do on them with his equipment, he was able to verify the information that he had read and add a greater understanding.
Instead of concocting anything, Erik started testing every ingredient possible, even pulling out a bunch of Lidel leaves to practice his flames on as he’d gained some inspiration over the last couple of days.
Even with all of the experimentation going on, with his Alchemy Book he could add in the results and move on, not worrying about forgetting them.
Chapter: Opening Blow
Roska tore a spell scroll. It was one of the spell scrolls she had kept as a personal possession when returning from the Second Realm. Even the simple spell scroll had cost a lot but its ability was well worth it.
In her vision, a wave of energy spread out through the walls. It adhered to the living creatures around her, highlighting the people around her. It would only work in a twenty-meter area, but it was as if she could see through the walls now.
“Seven minutes,” she said, looking at the timer effect that ticked down in the corner of her vision.
She checked the area above her again. Placing her hand on the seam of the heavy stone slabs where they connected, she moved to the side.
She cast her Butcher spell. The components of the mortar came apart as the stone shifted. She moved her hand, casting it a few more times, weakening the hold on the slab.
After a few more casts, the stone slab fell down into the mud, splashing her armor. She didn’t care as she reached up to the flooring. Instead of wasting her time, she looked around and pulled out a hammer. Seeing no one around, she smashed her hammer into the flooring, breaking it apart and leaving a pile of rubble on the stone slab.
She got up, finding herself in a large storage room filled with drink, stored food, and wood. Supplies that the manor used to keep running. There were guards from the kitchens to make sure no one was poisoning food, at the doors and gates, but over the supplies in the basement?
Roska watched people moving around the building through the Detect Life scroll, building up an idea of how to move around.
She headed out of the cellar, drinking a potion called Feather Light. Her weight reduced. She grabbed onto the wall and looked around. The manor was on a hill. A wall halfway up the hill reached the middle of the lord’s three-story building, standing at the top of the hill, overlooking the city and the lands beyond.
The city had around one hundred thousand people, most asleep under the cover of darkness.
Roska, wearing black spots on her skin and dark clothing, jumped up and grabbed onto the wall. She pulled herself up. The Feather Light potion made her weigh as much as a cat and she quickly scaled her way to the roof.
She moved across the peaked roof; then, using cloth-covered tools, she started to pull the tiles out of place. After some work, she removed enough to get through. She pulled the tiles back over to cover the hole and then moved through the empty storage attic.
She pulled out a hand-drawn map that Imani had been able to get from a steward.
She checked it against the building and moved through the rooms in the attic. The Feather Light potion kept her light enough that she didn’t make a sound on the floors.
She located a wall with a brick chimney going up.
Bingo.
She took out her tools again. Using them and her Butcher spell, she quickly cracked open the chimney. She looked down, seeing a glow below. Candles in a room lit up a fireplace two floors below, passing the third floor and reaching the second.
She could see people moving in the room with her Detect Life spell scroll active. It looked as if there were still reports coming in from across their frontier outposts. Commanders were writing down reports or updating them, moving on what she assumed was a large map in the middle of the room.
Roska put the bricks back in place with just a small one out of place so she could hear what they were saying.
She took the time to look around. She saw a few guards standing outside a room, another group in the adjoining room as a woman slept inside.
Lord Zaneli. Roska could have tried opening a hole above the woman’s bed and dropping in the explosives, but she was just one person. If she could kill her and the other commanders in their meeting, she would be beheading the Zatan’s control over their confederation.
She didn’t have a personal vendetta against anyone here, but she had her orders. Unknowingly, Alva’s methods of dealing with their enemy had turned from the upfront confrontations of the realms to the gray and black operations carried out on Earth.
Roska got comfortable as the messages came in from the rest of the team when they completed their missions and headed out to the meeting point to group up.
She waited there patiently, listening to the chimney, feeling it as someone started up a fire. Smoke started to enter the attic with her. She plugged it up and pulled out the Detect Life scrolls she had prepared.
She quickly changed into another outfit, the clothes from the same steward who they had gotten the map of the building from.
She sat back down and used the Detect Life scrolls periodically. She only had a few and she didn’t want to waste them by using them constantly. Finally, around mid-morning, the leaders of the confederation met up in the main meeting room.
Roska watched as Lord Zaneli entered the room. The commanders all stood to greet her. She waved them down and took her seat at the head of the table.
Roska waited for her to start the briefing, the others standing up and reporting on routine matters.
She started to take out the bricks she had removed the night before, leaving a wide opening. A chunk of brick went the wrong way and fell into the logs below. Roska’s eyes went wide as she stopped moving. The people in the room below looked over at the fire but then looked away.
With that, Roska pulled out the remaining bricks, chastising herself as she moved quickly and efficiently.
Finally, there was a large open hole with smoke coming out of it. Roska pulled out the large package that Han Wu made.
She checked the room once more. She pulled out the three pull cords and stuffed the package in the chimney. It dropped down right into the fire as Roska was already running for the door that would lead to the third floor.
***
Lord Zaneli walked into the conference room. The commanders rose to greet her as she waved them back down. “What are the reports from Tabur?”
“He should be already executing the battleplan he reported to us yesterday, using the catapults for long-range bombardment and then taking the outpost by tomorrow night,” one of the commanders reported.
“Good. What about our scouts and outposts?”
“We have had some issues contacting a few of them last night—might have been attacked by scouting parties or they made a run for it. Most of them reported in. Might need to change the commanders up. A number of them reported in late or at the wrong time,” the commander complained.
“Send someone to beat some sense into their thick skulls or give some promotions to others who can do the job,” Zaneli said.
A loud noise came from the fireplace. As sparks and flames shot up, they all looked at it before seeing that there appeared to be nothing out of the ordinary.
“There have been some changes within the city. Last night, there was a high number of murders. One of them might be related to the Kuccid family, a Quruzul tribe member,” one of the commanders said.
The room went quiet. They all knew the tensions among the tribes.
Zaneli tapped her fingers on the desk as something else fell in the fireplace. Everyone’s eyes shot over as the
y looked at the odd package laying there. It looked to be a package like the traders might move.
“Someone must be above us!” Zaneli yelled out as she stood. Her seat didn’t even touch the ground when Han Wu’s present went off.
***
Roska felt the explosion as part of the manor was blown apart.
She raced down the stairs and through the people who were yelling and trying to force their way through, just like her. She was covered in dust from the rock as flames started to spread from the conference room.
She made it out of the manor, coughing from the dust as she moved toward the main gates leading into the lord’s estate. Guards were already closing the gates.
She ran over, keeping her pace down so as to not alarm people.
“No one is allowed in or out!” the guard yelled, grabbing at the sword by his side.
“I’ve got to send a message! I was told it needs to get to the general right away!” Roska yelled.
The guards looked at one another before one waved her on. “Go and be quick about it!”
Roska bobbed her head and ran out of the gate, toward the city.
People were already looking up at the manor. The noise that had come from it was alarming; smoke could be seen rising from the manor with a big hole cut in the side of it. Part of the building gave way and collapsed in a shower of bricks.
Roska took off, running through the city. She ran through an alley, tossing off her jacket and pulling on a tribe’s armor and then a cloak overtop against the rain.
She ran through the city to an inn near the stables.
She made it inside and saw her people were ready. Roska bought some food from the person at the bar and then left, finding her group outside and waiting for her.
She looked to them as they fell in behind her. They walked to one of the stables that wasn’t guarded. They pulled out horses and headed to the trader’s gates. These gates weren’t used anymore as there were relatively few traders coming to Irdan.
The Zatan had targeted caravans since they began and only a few traders were willing to do business with them. Most of the people who did trade were people from Zatan heading to the trading outposts around the Beast Mountain Range.
Tully took the lead as the others pulled out crossbows underneath their cloaks.
“You’re not allowed through these gates!” one of the guards said. There were four in total.
Tully jumped off her horse. A spear appeared in her hand; she stuck it through one guard’s neck, whipping it around to the side and cutting the back of another’s knee. He yelled out before his cries were silenced with a cut across the throat.
At the same time, Imani had shot a guard in the eye with a crossbow, killing him instantly. She almost lazily got off her horse and flicked her hand, a throwing knife lodging in the last guard’s throat.
She pulled the blade out of the man’s neck as Gong Jin moved past them and started to push on the crank to open the gate. Han Wu assisted; the gate opened for them in record time as they could do the work of five men each. Roska and Yang Zan covered their backs as Imani and Tully got back on their horses, who were calm. These horses were used to the sounds of battle and blood after being around the nomads.
They finished opening the gate. Han Wu put a piece of cord on the rope and lit it, jumping back on his horse.
The group rushed out from the gate.
It wasn’t long until they were spotted.
Guards yelled out at them before firing on them.
Han Wu’s timing cord burned through the ropes quickly, resulting in the gate slamming shut.
With their reactions, the party was able to guide their slow horses out of the path of the arrows. It wasn’t long until they were out of range and nearing the tree line.
Once into the tree line, they quickly dismounted into a stream and sent the horses on their way. The party waded through the cold water as explosions could be heard in the distance. Han Wu’s preparations woke up the people of the Zatan Confederation, leaving breaches in their walls.
The group left the stream some time later. Roska pulled out a whistle.
With it, their panthers that had been resting in the area appeared after a little bit.
Roska smiled as she pet her mount, giving him a treat as she got up on his back and scratched his neck. “Time we head home.”
The group turned, and the panthers raced off through the forest even faster than the Zatan Confederation nomads.
***
Morning had just arrived over Vermire as Tabur ordered his people forward.
They had built up a number of bulwarks on carts, basically wooden huts with shields covering them against incoming catapult or ranged attacks.
These started to move forward, three of them dragging a catapult with them.
“Seems that last night a bout of fever went through the camp. About forty percent of our forces are bent over one way or another,” an aide said to General Tabur.
“Make sure to keep them isolated from the rest,” Tabur said in a low voice, as if it might give it away to the enemy.
Just my luck. I have an overwhelming superiority in numbers and nearly half of my troops are sick with something they picked up from who the hell knows where?
He could only let out a heated breath. He still had nearly sixty thousand troops that were combat ready.
I’ll need to call up more of the carriages to take the sick soldiers back to their respective units. They won’t be able to march fast in this condition.
It only shortened the time period he could fight even further.
He watched the catapults on the Vermire wall. As Tabur’s came into range, they fired off, trying to hit the moving bulwarks.
These loads contained flint stones as well as the flammable pots, starting fires on top of the defenses.
Covered in flame-resistant hides, it got hotter for the men underneath but only a few caught fire, requiring the bulwark to be pushed away and the soldiers to help the other members of their team.
The catapults on Vermire’s walls slowed their rate of fire.
“Do you think that their crews are getting tired?” one of the aides asked.
“They might be low on supplies,” another said, hopeful.
Vermire is a trading outpost, near the Beast Mountain Range. The most those catapults would be used for is killing or diverting a beast horde. In that case, it would make sense that they don’t have that much ammunition. Still, they have surprised us before.
Tabur watched his catapults get into range as they started to fire on the walls.
They adjusted their aim as more catapult and ammunition teams were pushed up to assist the forward catapult teams. The catapults on the wall fired less and less frequently, with a number of them being destroyed.
The wall was starting to come down, the rocks being knocked back into the city.
It was slow work, but by midday the wall was nearly completely collapsed.
“Send in the first wave. Have the catapults pull back. Get the bulwarks to remain as cover for the advancing troops,” Tabur said.
Orders were passed as a force of five thousand charged forward across the battlefield, making for the breached walls.
***
“Get ready!” Aditya called out, as he got a report of the enemy closing in. He looked at the wall that had collapsed in several places.
With his orders, in the morning the people of the trading outpost had moved to the other side of the town. They could only watch the wall being destroyed and their homes being shattered by the catapults.
Now the first batch of nomads rushed across the field of battle to attack them.
“Ranged, hit them when you can!”
The nomads continued coming closer before they were met with arrows and spells, where hundreds fell under the weight of fire. There were nearly ten thousand mercenaries and people from Vermire in the defensive force.
As the first group was stumbling, a second wave of one thousa
nd nomads came in behind them, strengthening their numbers. And so it went, with more and more of them piling in.
Some made it to the front lines, where they were torn apart by the mercenaries.
The mercenaries might not have fought a normal war, but these nomads, who had merely ambushed a few caravans and towns, weren’t much to the men and women who went up against the beasts hidden in the Beast Mountain Range.
The nomads fell like wheat in front of them. The Zatan Confederation seemed to understand that they would not win one-on-one and started to advance as a whole.
That’s it, just come a little closer.
The army was moving forward; the leading elements were just barely holding control over their people. A number had been left behind in the camp, but the majority moved forward, a force of fifty thousand.
The mercenaries might be able to win against a few people, but fighting at five-to-one odds, it would be a hard-met battle.
“Pan Kun, I think it’s time for some mom jokes and discussing their ancestry,” Aditya said.
“With pleasure, my lord,” Pan Kun said.
Across the line, the guards started to use spells to amplify their voices, jeering at the nomads, talking about the human and beast mating that created their rather low intelligence selves, insulting their families, catcalling out to their mothers.
As much as they looked like it, the nomads weren’t a normal group of soldiers. To them, as tribe members, their honor, their heritage, was something that couldn’t and wouldn’t be touched. Yet the people they would wipe off the First Realm were yelling such obscenities at them! How could their honor take it?
They started picking up the pace. The commanders tried to keep control until some of them were unable to do so themselves. The formation came apart as they charged.
Aditya looked to the battlefield, seeing people wearing masks or scarves move through the battlefield, leaving destruction behind them and easing the pressure on the Vermire lines before they fell back.
The Zatan Confederation army was a disorganized mess of people keeping formation and those rushing forward to kill.
The Third Realm Page 41
