Time of Change (Emerilia Book 7)

by Michael Chatfield

  However, some people were excited. They saw this as proof that the Dragons weren’t invincible. Therefore, they had a chance to take down a Dragon, earning fame and riches.

  On the other hand, others instead looked toward Densaou warily. The Dragons were known to repay those who attacked them with ruthless efficiency. They’d lost a number of their people and people wondered whether the Dragons would vent their anger out on those closest.

  Bob and Dave destroyed the runes and collapsed the mountain on top of it. Bob left Dave in Unity, where he met up with the Stone Raiders who were readying themselves for the coming portal raid.

  ***

  For two days, the Dragons nursed their injured back to their complete Health. Their Vitality was strong enough that if nothing directly killed them and they had enough food and time, they would recover to their original state.

  Although their bodies were all fixed, Densaou Ring was a sad place.

  The eight dead, massive Dragons lay within the largest volcano. It was as if the Dracul family had been stabbed through the heart.

  Deia, Dave, Mal, and Suzy did all they could to help.

  All of the Dragons had gathered in Densaou to pay their respects.

  Finally, the time to say good-bye came.

  Denur stood in front of the eight bodies and the gathered Dragons. Nearly sixty Dragons looked back at their matriarch. Some cried; others had stony expressions.

  “Today is one of the hardest days I have had to endure in my life,” Denur said. “Today, I put my daughter, three grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren to rest. It feels as if my heart has been ripped out of my chest and that I have lost the strength remaining in my body. I wish that there was something that I could do to see them smile one more time, to hear their laughter as they played games, or even just scold them for getting into trouble.”

  The Dragons smiled a bit and a few more had tears trail down their faces.

  “But that won’t happen, anymore.” Denur took a deep breath. “Many of you have been talking over the last couple of days that we should hole up in Densaou, that we should let Emerilia deal with their issues. There is a war coming. We all know this, but I say we should not let our fear control us, but rather our hope. Every person who came with me to Opheir volunteered, knowing that to let Akatol upon Emerilia was to make us complicit in a genocide made in our names. Akatol was my husband at one time, until his mind became twisted by greed and power. We might keep to ourselves for the most part, but we are still people of Emerilia. This is our home. Battles will come up in the future and we will lose more of our family.”

  Deia could see the weight that rested on Denur’s shoulders as she didn’t flinch away from leading her family, even with the recent losses in her heart.

  “This is the highest price that we could ever pay. It is one that I have been thinking over these past few days, leaving my heart and soul in pain. We have great power. We are the second strongest people on Emerilia. When Demons and angels walk our lands, when beasts of the air, sea, and land return, we will be the only ones capable of helping. This family came together when we were sent to another realm. We became stronger than ever before. Now, our very bonds between one another will be tested. I will not force you to join me, but I will not rest until these threats to our family are eliminated; not until this event is finished and we are safe will I rest. Any who volunteer are welcome to join me in creating an alliance with Terra.”

  Deia let out a shocked breath. Saying that she was joining with Terra was saying that she would take up an ambassador position within Terra, representing the Dragons and offering their support in upcoming conflicts.

  Deia glanced to Fire, seeing the pride in her eyes as she gently rocked Deia’s brother, Daniel, in her arms.

  She looked to Yoalin and Quindar, each of them holding a child, as Fornau held two.

  Deia touched her stomach. Even as they had lost family members, life continued on.

  ***

  Josh looked over the gathered Stone Raiders, DCA forces, mage’s guild, adventurer’s guild, Fellox Guild, and Portal Purge Guild. Fellox was the second rated guild in Emerilia. They had challenged the Stone Raiders for the first placed spot. Even though they had been defeated by the Stone Raiders, they maintained an amicable relationship.

  In comparison, the Portal Purge was a guild that focused on finding and clearing portals and then attacking the other creatures beyond. They were the best at what they did and didn’t have any animosity toward the Stone Raiders.

  It had just been a couple of days since Josh had sent word out to everyone, but these forces had already gathered.

  The creature in Opheir had been killed. From what people were putting together, it was clear to Josh that not even this combined force would have been able to deal with the Dragon hiding in the ice palace.

  He was eager to get going, to truly see what Ashal’s wilderness had to offer and clear out the portal. It was going to be one hell of a fight.

  He thought of a saying he’d picked up from Kol: It’s only with the hottest fires and the greatest ambition that the best weapon can be forged.

  Josh was hoping that this portal raid could temper the Stone Raiders and the others with them so that they could be able to fight whatever came at them in the next couple of months.

  The Dwarven tournament offered riches and fighting, but fighting one-on-one was nothing like the battles Josh and the Stone Raiders had been stuck in.

  Each of them had some of the best gear and supplies. What they needed were powerful opponents to go up against, to increase their levels and fighting skill.

  “Deia and Quindar have returned. Vrexu and Efri are ready to move,” Anna said to Josh.

  He nodded. The others had already returned beforehand, leaving the Dracul family in peace.

  “All right! Let’s go and clear out this portal!” Josh’s voice rang through the general chat. People cheered, some raising their weapons up in the air as they started forward and through the western keep.

  Thousands of POE and Players moved forward; wagons trundled along, carrying any supplies that they might need.

  The western keep’s gates opened for them, letting them exit Devil’s Crater and walk forward out into the Ashal wilderness.

  Josh stepped off to the side of the path.

  “One hell of a sight.” Lucy sat on her floating carpet.

  “Untouched beauty,” Josh said.

  Beyond the keep, there was nearly a kilometer of rough ground before it reached a forest that covered all of Ashal. The trees here were tens of meters thick, hundreds of years old. They had an ancient and formidable aura to them.

  Their massive raiding party snaked down the simple road.

  DCA scouts took to the air and moved through the forest. A smile grew on Josh’s face. Here, they were truly going into the unknown. They were the first to head into Ashal by themselves. There was no knowing what they would see in their travels.

  Just the road to the portal would be an adventure.

  A sense of excitement filled Josh as he stepped forward, headed out into the unknown, the star of his very own story.

  Chapter 22: Ashal Wilderness

  Party Zero moved with the rest of the Stone Raiders. The DCA were providing scouts so that they would have some warning before they ran into any large beasts.

  The guilds had also sent out their own scouts, making multiple layers that should catch any possible threats.

  Behind the passing raid party, a number of Earth and Dark mages raised a road along their path. It would make it easier for those who came later and for moving materials if they weren’t able to fly for some reason. If they were out front, then they were more likely to step on an animal or threat in the wilderness. At the rear, they could be sure of their security, focusing on their work as their guards watched on.

  In the first day, they only had small skirmishes with some Level 400 and 500 beasts. Most of them were trying to defend the territory that the raid gro
up had walked into.

  They would send out a few parties a day to deal with larger groups of creatures so that they would never reach the main group. A few made it past but never in large enough numbers to be of a real threat. Leaving them alive was inviting an ambush. They also had high quality meat and materials. Despite this logic, to Players, there was a larger driving factor: the amount of experience they gave per kill.

  Deia was off watching over Vrexu’s brigade while Anna watched Efri and his people.

  Induca and Malsour were still with their family and were due to return by nightfall. Lox, Steve, Gurren, Dave, and Suzy were together.

  Lox was in command, but was joking around with the others.

  They seemed to know Dave and Suzy were down a bit and so they were giving them space while being goofs, trying to take their minds off it.

  Dave cracked a smile, shaking his head at their antics as they recalled their adventure to the Dwarven tournaments, where Gurren had woken up on the roof of a brothel with no idea of how he had gotten there. It seemed he had fallen asleep early so Steve and Lox had carefully put him on the roof the night before.

  Dave looked off into the distance, sensing something with his Touch of the Land. “Damn, that is one big creature.” Dave tried to match what he was seeing with the creature library someone had made for Emerilia. It was like an encyclopedia of everything that walked the planet.

  Even with his high Intelligence, it still took him some time before he found something similar.

  “Ebony plated rhino? Well, they do look kind of similar,” Dave muttered.

  “Ebony plated rhino?” Lox asked in a serious tone.

  “Sorry, just saw one a good distance away. Damned thing is massive.” Dave shook his head.

  “I’ll let Josh know. Where was it?” Lox asked.

  “About three miles to our front and two miles north,” Dave said simply. “We shouldn’t go anywhere near it.”

  “We might not go near it, but they’re highly territorial and where there’s one, there’s more. They’ve got skin that makes it hard to use magic against them. No magical weapons or spells. Just have to go right in with physical weapons and they can hit hard enough to put a Level 400 down in one hit,” Lox said.

  “Ouch.” Steve grimaced.

  “Look out for more of them. It’s probably easier if you don’t look for them specifically, but things that might show something being in a place it’s not supposed to. Your Touch of the Land isn’t going to be too effective on these big bastards,” Gurren growled.

  “Will do.” Dave submerged himself into his senses. With Gurren’s pointers, he was able to find nearly half a dozen other ebony plated rhinos just half a mile away from where the raiding party was going to pass through.

  “Well, I just found about four of them near where we will pass,” Dave said.

  “I’ve talked to Josh. He said that we should head over and get rid of them if we think they’re a threat. I sent a message to Anna. She can get some of her flyers to help us out. Let the rhinos chase after the flyers; then we can take down the rhinos one by one,” Lox said.

  They headed out of the line of Players and POEs who were weaving through the forest. They were a bit spread out because of the forest. Even though it seemed like a nice relaxing day and people seemed to be idly chatting as if they were out on a stroll, all of them were ready to react to anything that might happen. A few of them talked among themselves as they saw Party Zero move away from the main group and head out into the forest.

  These murmurs became interested mutterings as DCA aerial forces as well as Dwayne and two other parties joined up with Party Zero.

  “Nothing like a little stroll through the Ashal wilderness to make a man feel alive again.” Dwayne took a deep breath of the fresh air around them.

  “Come to steal all our glory,” Lox complained.

  “Merely share it. I’ve heard that these ebony rhinos are rather formidable. Don’t want you to break a fingernail,” Dwayne said.

  Lox laughed, snorting slightly. “Welcome to the hunt!” He clapped Dwayne’s armor.

  “Since I’m just joining in on this, what’s the plan?” Dwayne asked.

  “We get the flyers to hit them, take aggro and kite them. We move in, hit one at a time—it’s going to take a hell of a lot to kill them. Blunt weapons are the best. We get the flyers to bring us another rhino and we do it all over again,” Lox said.

  “Sounds almost easy when you put it that way,” Gurren complained.

  “Good, because we’re going to be in the front line. We’ve got the best defensive abilities so we can hopefully stop the rhino’s charge, allowing everyone else to surround the beastie and pulp it to death,” Lox said. “Dave, you see anywhere where it would be good for us to set up a defensive line so we could stop the rhino?”

  “I think I have a place. There’s a small hill that overlooks a creek. It’s too steep on the sides for the rhinos to get up. We just need some Earth or Dark types to raise stones, have boulders at either side and then we can funnel the rhinos right into you two. Then, we get around behind it and start hitting away. It shouldn’t be able to get free before we put it down.”

  “Let’s make sure those walls are extra strong. A rhino’s foot can probably kill a Level 200 pretty easily. After all, these are ebony rhinos in Ashal; assume that every attack can probably kill you. They’re probably around Level 700 or 800. It’s really hard for other beasts to kill them. Even though they’re affected by melee attacks, they’re strong as all hell,” Lox warned.

  The Stone Raiders nodded. A serious atmosphere surrounded them. There was a time to mess about and a time to get serious. They checked their gear and readied themselves. They moved off quickly and quietly toward where the rhinos were laying down.

  “The scouts are saying that they’re having trouble finding anything. The foliage is thick and their different sights aren’t letting them see the creatures,” Dwayne said.

  Dave, leading the way, slowed his pace. For the first time, Dave felt unsure. He hadn’t clearly sensed these creatures, but rather a number of signs that he felt could have been created by the ebony rhinos.

  “Dave, give us a location. Once they’ve got it, tell them to drop a bomb on the place. That should be enough for you to pick up where they are, right?” Lox asked.

  “Yeah, that would work,” Dave said.

  “There we go,” Lox said. “First, let’s fortify that rise you were talking about.”

  Dave guided them to the rise. He’d found it was a rock with some dirt and grass on it; the dirt around all but one of its edges had been worn away by the stream that ran along it.

  The mages went to work, pulling up stones and making two large pillars that extended into a wall. They were the only way to access the rock unless someone had the Strength and Agility to directly jump onto it—like the Stone Raiders.

  The ebony rhinos weighed several tons and were made to run in straight lines, not jump. There was naturally no way for them to get on top of the rock without going down the corridor.

  Quicksand and other measures were added to the corridor in order to halt each rhino’s progress so that it couldn’t hit Lox and Gurren with its full strength.

  Once everything was set up, Dave opened up his map. He placed a waypoint where he thought the creatures might be.

  They waited for some time. The aerial scouts checked and rechecked that they had the right place. Even with all of their abilities, they were unable to find out where the rhinos were. They quietly moved down below the canopy of the massive trees.

  These trees rose as much as two miles from the ground, making it exceptionally hard to see what lay below them with normal sight.

  It was the main reason that the aerial forces spent so much of their time working on their different sight spells and skills to determine what lay beneath cover.

  “Targets are confirmed. Even though I’m looking right at them, it’s really hard to sense them unless they move,”
the scout’s leader said to the party.

  Dave smiled, relieved that his hunch had paid off. It was only because of his strong Touch of the Land, that combined skill of the Affinities, that he was able to sense that there was even possibly something in the area.

  “We’ve got lowest of Level 200, young adult-looking type, to a Level 735. This thing is massive.”

  As the aerial scouts looked at the rhinos, the rest of the party were able to see red outlines of the creatures. They were rough because of the distance between them and were only an outline. There was no actual detail to the images.

  “We’ll start with the lowest-leveled ones and then move up to the strongest. There’s four of them altogether,” the scout leader confirmed.

  Lox looked around at everyone. They looked ready.

  “All right, bring on the rhino express!” Lox slammed his Dwarven shield down. The twin points stuck into the dirt and then rock underneath as Lox braced it against the left side column. Gurren grunted, slamming his shield down and doing the same with the right side column.

  “Bombs away,” the scout leader said.

  Mana bombs exploded among the ebony rhinos.

  Creatures of flight took to the skies as smaller animals ran for fear of what might come after the explosion.

  The rhinos let out enraged bellows as more Mana bombs were released. They did some damage to the rhinos, but most of it was through the pressure waves of the bombs, rather than their chaotic magical energies.

  The aerial scouts moved apart, different groups aggroing the creatures and pulling them in different directions.

  The fighters on the ground readied themselves, standing behind Lox, Gurren, and Steve. Dave stood off to the side, ready to fight when needed, with Dwayne on the opposite side.

  Mana bombs trailed off as the aerial scouts sent down Mana bolts in order to keep their target’s attention. The Mana bolts were getting closer and closer as the underbrush of the forest rustled ahead of the corridor.