This is Our Land (Emerilia Book 5)

by Michael Chatfield

  “Thanks,” Dave said with a stupid smile.

  “Well, you got us a few more minutes, but our sides have met the Demon Horde and they’ve got more of those champions.” Steve flipped his axe in his hand.

  “Don’t worry, you’ll get your chance soon enough.” Dave looked at the Demon Horde rushing toward them still.

  In the center, they had been thinned out with Dave’s redirection of Mana. To the right and left, they had already made it within a few hundred meters of the DCA.

  The DCA’s mages let loose with their spells as those without armor used slings to whip rocks at the approaching Horde.

  Thousands of magical spells ripped through the forest. The Demon Horde unleashed their own spells, crashing through the DCA’s lines. Through the stress of battle, a few of the Demon Horde had awakened their magical gifts.

  “Well, thank you, Dave, for that fireworks display. Stone Raiders, I think it’s time we got into this fight! Kim, I want your forces providing support to ours and our flanks. Scouts and backstabbers, we’ll be supporting the DCA. Dwayne, make a hole in that Horde, would you?” Josh said.

  Orders were barked out as the forces were rearranged within less than a minute.

  “Shields, forward!” Dwayne said.

  Dave hoisted his shield, advancing forward and toward the Demon Horde that was filling in the sides.

  “Flanks, hold!” Dwayne picked out people to stop in position, so that the Stone Raiders made a half circle directed toward the Demon Horde.

  “Put your shields down and keep your blades equipped. Use your ranged weapons until they get close!” Dwayne said.

  Dave’s sword and shield turned into a longbow. He took a moment to look at his blinking notifications menu.

  Quest: Defiance

  You have foiled the Dark Lord’s plans and used his own power against his creations. He has marked you for revenge. There is only one way to stop a god: you must become one yourself.

  Requirements: Stop the Dark Lord from hunting you. By any means necessary.

  Failure: Restart Character

  Rewards: Legendary Item: Dark Lord’s Domain

  Class: Defier

  Stop the Dark Lord from hunting you

  New Class: Champion Slayer

  So, without the blessing of anything divine, or much more than your weapons and your spells, you took on the Dark Lord’s Demons turned Champions. Must be hard to walk with balls that big!

  Status:

  Level 1

  Effects:

  Relationship with the Affinity

  Dark: Hated

  Light: Neutral

  Water: Neutral

  Fire: Trusted Friend

  Earth: Angered

  Air: Neutral

  +10 to all stats

  Quest: Champion Slayer Level 2

  Kill 10 Champions (4/10)

  Rewards: Unlock Level 3 Quest

  Increase to stats

  Increased/Decreased reputation with Affinities

  Level 210

  You have reached level 210; you have 870 stat points to use.

  Dave’s fingers itched to put those stat points into his attributes but he couldn’t. Doing so would make him more vulnerable than not. With the extra power, he was more likely to mess up his reactions or pass out. He’d had headaches and needed to sleep after he had first unlocked his classes. Putting in more after not sleeping for two days while fighting for most of that time—he needed to wait for the right time; he wouldn’t get much time before he collapsed from the strain.

  Dave drew an arrow and fired it into the Demon Horde’s mass. He took his time, picking the strongest of the Demons he could sense before hammering them with arrows. He was nowhere close to the true archery experts, but he could hold his own.

  “Release the minions!” Josh grinned.

  Dave sighed at the ridiculousness of the statement.

  The area behind the Stone Raiders seemed to shake as Air creations, or summoned Air creations, raced out of the forest, aiming for the Demon Horde.

  Fire spirits, atronachs, and creations followed in their wake. Atronachs were faintly Humanoid-like creatures made up of materials associated with a single Affinity. Unlike a summoned caster’s creations, these were autonomous by themselves. They needed more Willpower to create one, but they could give a normal caster close-in support when they needed it.

  Creations from every material as well as the spirits and creatures that fell under their domains rampaged through the DCA and Stone Raider’s lines.

  “Protect the flanks; help the DCA,” Josh called out. The summoners moved to keep in range of their creations or creatures.

  Then, the necromancers’ creatures showed their faces: Bone Lords from the Aleph college, undead creatures that they had fought over the last six months. Even the Arch Lich’s remaining juggernaut stepped out of the forest and into the desolate plot of land that had been turned into a battlefield between the two forces.

  More juggernauts stepped up beside it. They started forward; moving slowly at first, they began to pick up speed.

  Dave whooped as the juggernauts shook the very ground with their heavy steps. They were still massive creatures, but it looked as if Jake and his necromancers had not been idle. They were faster than they’d been in the Aleph college.

  “Watch your aim!” Deia called out. The rate of arrows being let loose fell dramatically as the archers took their time to make sure that they didn’t hit friendly forces.

  The juggernauts and other minions of the Stone Raiders worked together to make a second force of nearly three thousand creatures that split in half, headed for either flank.

  “Cover the DCA; we can take the Horde straight on. Once the DCA is sorted, we will begin our advance!” Josh said.

  The Demon Horde continued closing, even under the constant barrage of ranged weapons.

  Efri and Lezar’s brigades were caught in a fierce fight across their front lines. The Stone Raiders’ attacks were helping but they couldn’t be everywhere necessary to stop the Demon Horde.

  Dave looked toward the DCA; all up and down their lines, battle raged. They were taking down the Demon Horde; the better weapons and training were paying off. Here and there, the Dark Lord’s champions emerged from the forest opposite, rushing toward the DCA. They would pay a heavy price, but the DCA stopped them.

  Dave focused back on his own problems, shifting the sword in his grip as he watched the Demon Horde in front of him.

  The Dark Lord had not waited. He’d already made half a dozen of the Demons into his champions. He hadn’t repeated the mistake of letting them change so close to Dave. They’d been well away, too far from Dave for him to read their spell formations, let alone make his changes.

  A streak of black lightning raced over the ground and slammed into Steve’s shield. He grunted under the shock as the force pushed him backward; his feet dug two three-foot-long grooves into the dirt.

  “Well, someone likes playing with lightning,” Steve complained.

  “Time we dealt with them the right way.” Lox shifted his shoulders under his armor.

  The Demons let out their blood-curdling screams of hunger, and put on more speed as they closed to within just a few hundred meters.

  Dave waited with the Stone Raiders’ line.

  The Demons slammed into line at virtually the same time. Although a few Stone Raiders toppled over, most stayed rock steady.

  Dave’s blade lanced out, slicing both of the Demon’s main arteries in its legs. As it roared in pain and blood loss, he sank his blade through its chest and stopped its heart. Finally, he slammed his shield through it, turning its ribcage into mush and hurling it back ten feet, and taking out dozens of Demons behind it. All of that happened within the first seconds of battle.

  Even as the Demon flew backward, Dave found his next target and took off its head with a single strike. As a blue highlighted area appeared on the next Demon’s side, he sank his blade through its ribs and tore throu
gh its vital organs.

  Almost without thought, he dismissed the sword so he could bring his shield up. A split second later, it rang with a stone’s impact. A mass of metal spikes lanced out from his shield; each point wove their way into a Demon’s vital areas. The shield returned to normal as five Demons fell to the ground. Their companions crushed them to death, if they hadn’t already died. Dave dispatched all that came near with shield or sword.

  There were no words or, even, no time to talk. He worked seamlessly with his guild mates based on his friendship and their mutual trust.

  Dave released his sword as a spear appeared in his empty hand. He threw it over a ducking Gurren, nailing a Demon in the neck and nearly decapitated it as it dropped the sharp rock they’d tried to bash Gurren’s head in with.

  Gurren didn’t hesitate, using the opening to take off another Demon at the knees and punch another with his shield hard enough to make their heart stop.

  Dave rocked with a hit; looking down, he saw a patch of ice that had hit his Mana barrier. Conjuring a wall in the middle of the Horde, he made a funnel for the Demons to rush through at two or three a time. Once created, Dave moved to the side, allowing a group of archers to clear out the corridor.

  Malsour must’ve seen, because more corridors suddenly showed up, funneling the Demons and making them more bearable.

  However, with their natural strength, it would be but a matter of time until they broke the structures and rushed forward in a wave once more.

  “Lucy, waypoint for Mana artillery!” Dave yelled to the support chat, sharing a waypoint he’d laid down a bit back from the corridors the Demon Horde were rushing toward.

  Lucy didn’t respond with words. Instead, the mid-morning sky seemed to light up with Mana artillery.

  Kim’s own mages added their own artillery to the mix. Mana slammed into the ground, leaving nothing but tombstone menus. The ground shook as dust and debris was shot into the sky.

  “Be warned; DCA Demon flight coming in! Once they’ve thinned out the Horde some, we’re advancing. We’re spread too thin; we need to get close to the crater’s cliffs so that we can provide mutual support. The mass of the Horde is on its way,” Josh said.

  “The mass of them? What the hell have we been fighting here then?” Lox grumbled.

  “The arse end ones?” Gurren asked.

  “Smart arse.” Lox chuckled.

  Dave smiled as the sky darkened with flying Demons. They dropped spheres, carpeting the already broken landscape.

  The bombs came to life, evaporating Demons and sending them flying.

  Dave knew that there weren’t many of those bombs.

  They probably just used all of them to have some hope that we could advance and reinforce one another. If we don’t have the right- and left-most flanks touching the cliffs, then the Demon Horde can get past us and start attacking the other keeps or working their way through the cliffs and into the crater. If we don’t hold them here, then we’ll be fighting a battle on multiple fronts.

  Chapter 8: A Call Of Allies

  Cassie sat in a chair, looking out over the highest towers of Markolm and admiring the beautiful city that spread out around her. She was in a mirror conference room that mimicked the city of Maphrol, the capital of Markolm and the seat of power for the high Elves.

  After Josh and the Stone Raiders had left, Cassie had carried word back to her Golden Sabres in Markolm. The guild was coming apart. People were headed in all kinds of directions: some banding together, others heading out on their own.

  Cassie had gathered a large group of veteran Golden Sabres, all agreeing to join their old allies.

  She sighed and looked out over the simulated city, trying to push down her nerves. Her mind warred. Would it be the best or worst decision she had ever made?

  The towers of Maphrol calmed her.

  The entire island nation, Markolm, was almost eighty percent Elves. The rest were either adventurers taking a break from Ashal or creatures looking to leave the rest of the world behind. Markolm might not be one of the most powerful countries in Emerilia, yet their functions, their actions and customs were much more advanced than any other country’s.

  And a big pain in the ass. Cassie snorted and looked out over those same towers, which seemed to glow with a yellow hue. It was said that Maphrol was the city of angels.

  Its beauty sure was mesmerizing.

  I wonder if Josh would come here with me? She blushed. Her mind betrayed her as she shook the thoughts away.

  “Cassie? It’s Lucy; what is it?” Lucy asked. She was never one for small talk, but the fact that she hadn’t even joined Cassie in her Mirror of Communication conference room was telling.

  “I asked to talk to Josh; this is very important,” Cassie said.

  “Well, he’s in the middle of a war right now, so, you’ve got me,” Lucy said.

  A war? He did say that he was going to be fighting in something that people would be talking about for months.

  Cassie took a breath and looked away from the city. She was staying in Hovulaf instead. It was one of the middling cities that held a teleport pad. Something that was vital to the Golden Sabres as they took trips to Ashal to find dungeons and loot. Right now, she was lying down on her bed, with her guards watching over her as she gave her message and her guild’s decision.

  “The leadership of the Golden Sabres is disbanding the guild. There are a number of members who are interested in joining the Stone Raiders,” Cassie said.

  “Send me their names. Those we know of and pass our tests can proceed to the nearest teleport pad at all due speed. We will accept the others we believe to not be spies, but we will have to keep them on limited forums access and information access until we can check them out. After Boran-al, we’ve gotten rather strict in who we let into the guild,” Lucy said.

  “I understand. What do you need us to go to the teleport pad for?” Cassie asked.

  “Well, we’re fighting a damned war and we’re going to need some reinforcements. Tag, you’re it. Now, send me a list of all those who want to join the guild. You will be in charge of making sure that only the people we say come with you. We don’t want any more information than absolutely possible getting out. We also have agreements that will cover all of these things. No one is to be streaming anything when they step on that teleport pad. You can record all you want, but it can’t be sent out unless the guild okays it,” Lucy said. “Do you understand?”

  “I understand.” Cassie winced at her own words, not wanting to know how much revenue she was going to lose for the move. The Golden Sabres was a sinking guild. This was the final nail in the coffin. She wouldn’t get much for that.

  Though, if even half of the rumors coming from the Stone Raiders were true, then she might be able to keep being an unofficial E-head and go about doing her promotions across Earth.

  “Good. Welcome to the Stone Raiders, Cassie. Emerilia isn’t anything like you thought it was.” Lucy cut the channel.

  Cassie went to her guild status.

  Current Guild: Golden Sabres

  Position: Guildmaster

  Guild Dashboard

  Leave Guild

  Her finger hovered over “Leave Guild.” She closed her eyes and stabbed her finger forward.

  A new prompt appeared.

  Affiliation change

  Disclaimer: All guild bonuses will be removed. You must be invited back into the guild to gain membership again.

  Do you wish to leave the guild [Golden Sabres]?

  Y/N

  “Yes.” Cassie exhaled as she looked to the floor of the room. Her eyes slowly moved back up to her interface and the new display on it.

  Current Guild: N/A

  Position: N/A

  Guild offers: Stone Raiders

  She pressed the [Guild offers] and went on to accept the Stone Raiders’ offer of membership. She stopped streaming and her recording before she went to the forums. She wanted to know just what the hell she was gettin
g into.

  “Aleph? Demons? What the hell?” Cassie said to herself as she passed through the forums. Her eyes widened as her mind went blank with shock at what she was reading. It was incredible. The adventures they’d been having, all they’d been doing.

  Yet, no one knew a damn thing. She opened up a thread about the guild halls, frowning at the Cliff-Hill and Verlun guild halls. Her frown deepened at seeing the third.

  She clicked on the Aleph guild hall.

  A holographic image appeared in front of her. The guild hall entrance began as a single corridor extending out from one point, growing into dozens of rooms, living areas and different workspaces. Then, the hologram moved faster and faster. It rapidly became obvious that it was more than just a single corridor with rooms; it was an entire city with buildings of all kinds filling into the space.

  “I wish I joined months ago,” she said out loud. She remembered her conversation with Lucy.

  There was a war going on and the Stone Raiders, her guild mates, needed her help. Tonight, the Golden Sabres had died, but tomorrow she would see just what adventures and troubles her new guild had gotten into.

  ***

  Lord Esamael slowly lowered the piece of paper he had been inspecting onto the desk in front of him. Geswald hid his fear well for an old man as he watched the handsome young lord at his desk.

  Pete had warned him, but there was no denying the fear that the man brought with him.

  Geswald was a powerful man, but in front of Lord Esamael, he was barely more interesting than a servant.

  “My lord, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” Geswald lowered himself into a bow while ignoring the two stony guards who looked down upon him as though he were their next meal.