The ground forces, seeing the aerial start getting organized, sprinted for the forest, exuberant at what could only be called a win as their fellows in the forest provided cover with their long-range weaponry. They disappeared into the forest; the ground forces moved through the trees, gaining elevation and space.
The aerial forces were still getting sorted out, as Krenua’s people moved through and told them they were dead.
Medics were deployed. If they could guide the observers through healing the different people, then they might recover some strength. As it was, they had lost a third of their forces in just two small engagements.
“The ground forces take risks, but they’ve got complete trust in one another and great coordination. We’re going to have to work on that coordination with the aerial,” Quindar said.
“Smart risks, versus showing off,” Anna said.
“We’ll have to see that they don’t get too arrogant.” Deia had trained a number of people in her life, from rangers to Dwarves. Ego was a big thing when they were being taught.
“Now that they’ve lost twice, they’re trying all they can to make up for it. Knowing Kala, she’s going to use this mass of emotions to her will,” Anna said.
“Don’t need a bunch of hotheads,” Deia agreed.
The trio watched as the aerial forces moved in, trying to see through the canopy and pick out where the ground forces were.
Sometimes, they were right over a position but the ground forces would cease their movements, waiting for them to pass before moving to ambush locations. Here and there, they would appear at random, cutting down the ranks of aerial troops, further frustrating the aerial forces.
Anna and Quindar’s faces would have made a grown man quiver in fear as they watched. They had got them into the sky and taught them the basics, moving onto how to bomb and how to fight in the air, but it looked as though the command structure was not strong enough and they had allowed too much freedom to the aerial forces.
Deia watched as the aerial forces started carpet bombing the forest, clearing out some of the ground forces as their “bomb” spears fell through the canopy. They got their largest amount of kills from this, but it was uncoordinated.
The ground forces were patient and calculating. They had been working on stalking one another, on patrolling and thinking on tactics and positioning. Their weapon skills might be weak in areas so they stayed their hand, fighting the battles they knew that they could win.
The battle didn’t last much longer before the trio agreed that it was done. The aerial forces came back to the fields outside the forest to land and recover their energy before getting back into the air.
As the training battle ended, the aerial forces watched the ground forces appear out of the forest over the space of forty minutes; they’d been spread throughout. Their losses were just an eighth of what the aerial forces had taken.
“So, what do you think?” Anna asked.
“I think that they’re going to be some good students. They’ve got a great foundation. With that, I can turn them into some damned impressive fighters. Bit of the elven ranger approach: work on archery and attacks at range, see what their abilities are in making traps as well as scouting. It’s clear that the aerial scouts are good at picking out people in large areas, but in overhead cover it’s a lot harder for them to have a good idea of what the enemy is doing. What have you got in the way of magic training?”
“Kala wanted to get the basics down and then look into working it in,” Quindar said.
“She doesn’t have much of a talent in magic—another reason we wanted to bring you over,” Anna admitted.
“Okay, well, I can’t teach all of this by myself,” Deia said.
“Well, we’ve also got a budget from the Devil’s Crater government for training our forces. You can hire people as you want to train them up, as long as you pass it through Kala,” Anna said.
“Well, that makes things a lot more interesting,” Deia said to herself, tapping her chin in thought.
Chapter 13: Growth
Hamdir looked out over Alephir. The city was nearly five times the size of Terra. A smile crossed his face as the corners of his eyes crinkled in joy. He sipped from his tea as he continued his appraisal of the city.
“It is good to see Alephir recovering so quickly.” Shard’s blue hologram flashed into existence next to Hamdir.
“Much faster than I thought possible. When we came back, I didn’t think that it would be possible that we could recover so much of our strength, even with the Stone Raiders helping us out. For months, we have been simply trying to stay afloat, shutting down facilities we simply don’t need because of our reduced population.” Hamdir paused. “I think it’s time that we started to look for more people who might be interested in joining the Aleph. We have plenty of room and work to be done. Our factories are producing goods for people all over Emerilia and we’ve become a major power. Even the elves and Dwarves have recognized us as an extended part of their people.” Hamdir shook his head in disbelief.
“A lot has changed in the time that you were gone,” Shard said, a bit of sadness in there.
Hamdir smiled sadly at Shard.
The AI had watched over their homes as they disappeared, trying his best to see that they survived until his masters came back. For all those years, he only had the Grey God to talk to, losing facilities and automatons and having to shut down himself time after time to try to keep Alephir even running.
“Frenik has been making a number of deals with the Dwarves. I was scared that the Dwarves might feel threatened with the return of the factories. It seems that they’re fine with it. They’re constantly swamped with requests for small items that they have to take trained smiths away from larger tasks to complete. Just the number of people looking for Dave’s screws—their cost was astronomical. We can bring the price down, take the pressure off the Dwarves and let them focus on making their items.” Shard sensed Hamdir didn’t want to talk about the time that the Aleph were gone anymore.
“Good! I don’t want to get into any conflicts if we can help it.”
“The Dragons are moving from Mithsia Mountains again, this time with all of them,” Shard said.
“What are they doing?” Hamdir asked. Akatol had been around when Hamdir’s father was alive and he was a young boy. He knew the stories and how ruthless Akatol was.
“I don’t know, but from what they seemed to be doing last time, they were running a test,” Shard said.
“What makes you think that?”
“They moved in, used their various attacks and then did it for a while, but there was a person who was outside the range of the total domain charging what looked to be a soul gem.”
Hamdir’s eyebrow rose. “I’ve never heard of the Dragons using any sort of tool to assist them in fighting. If they are starting to, it will be interesting to see what will happen.”
Some people were scared of the Dragons, seeing them as all-powerful beasts without a master other than the Lady of Fire. There were great tomes filled with stories about people who killed off Dragons. Hamdir knew that few of these stories bore any truth. Someone who attacked the Dragons without provocation was swiftly dealt with. There was once a nation within the Densaou Ring of Fire. They mined the rare materials on the Ashal continent created by the heat of the volcanos and their runoff.
The Dragons were only a few decades old when the people started to attack, thinking of taming the beasts or killing them for the materials in their bodies. They were able to heavily wound a Dragon and captured it.
The Dragons had acted swiftly and effectively. In the space of a week, they cut off the people, and then turned their homes to ash. The Dragon had been freed.
The Dragons entered the cities of those around the ring of fire, decreeing that people were not allowed to come within a certain distance. Also, if they were attacked, they would return the attack tenfold. Only if the Dragon was deserving of their punishment would they not inter
fere.
Most thought that the Dragons would just go and kill off other nations because they angered them. But the Dragons kept to themselves and worked on building their power, and were left alone. When one of their family acted out against the people of Emerilia, they were the first to react, subduing and, in a rare few cases, eliminating those who had gone too far. They assisted those who were affected in rebuilding.
It wasn’t perfect, but it worked.
“I thought that they had killed off Akatol when they fought over Ashal,” Hamdir said.
“It looks like he was banished to a prison of some kind, stored as you were,” Shard said.
Hamdir drank from his cup. Dark thoughts moved through his mind. The energy and vibrance that he had felt a minute ago seemed to be stopped by a wall in his mind.
Akatol was a threat to all the people of Emerilia.
“What do you think will happen with the Dragons’ attack?” Hamdir asked. Shard could run hundreds of simulations in minutes.
“If they are able to siphon off one Dragon’s power and transfer it to another, then I think they can crack the ice palace. As for how long it will take? That varies on their attacks and what Akatol puts into his defense.” Shard tried to stay neutral as possible. “I don’t have enough data on the Dragons to make an accurate prediction of the outcome.”
“I thank you for your opinion, anyway,” Hamdir said with a smile to Shard.
Shard bowed his head slightly at the compliment.
“What about the technology they’re using? It sounds like the Stone Raiders’ power-storing amulets and soul gems.”
“They are extremely similar.” Shard’s voice became strained.
Hamdir gave Shard an odd look. “What kind of soul gems are they using?”
“Vault.”
Hamdir’s eyebrows rose. “How did they get vault soul gems? There aren’t many factories. Dave and our own factories are the only ones in existence and we aren’t even selling them off to other people. The Stone Raiders and our own soul gems are used for power storage movement. We haven’t even replaced all of the other soul gems we have. Dave or someone in the Stone Raiders must have sold them one. There...” Hamdir’s finger tapped on his cup in thought.
Someone in the Stone Raiders has a connection to the Dragons? How? And who? Just talking to a Dragon is something only said in legends.
Hamdir didn’t notice Shard’s guarded expression.
“The Dragons are splitting up. One group is staying outside of the total domain; the others are entering and beginning their attacks,” Shard said.
“Could you show me?”
Shard shared a video through the interface.
They were watching through a scout that had been sent out as soon as they found out about the three creatures returning to Emerilia.
It and several dozen others had exited drop pads around Akatol’s ice palace, taking up positions to wait and watch.
Hamdir watched as Dragons came howling out of the sky. Their breaths were all the colors of the Affinities. They hit with enough power to send chunks of ice out of the ice palace’s walls. They landed, surrounding the palace as they continued to stream their attacks.
The ice palace lit up in color, seals trying to defend and the light of their attacks being reflected by its spectacularly reflective surface.
It was truly a show of massive power. Even if the Aleph used all of their automatons, they wouldn’t have been able to do a sixth of the damage that the Dragons were putting out.
“Good luck,” Hamdir said.
The mystery of how they had got a vault soul gem lay in the back of his mind, but more than that, he had hope that the Dragons might be able to deal with Akatol before he came up with some other terrible plan to increase his power.
***
Josh closed the same video feed that Hamdir and Shard had been watching.
He hoped that the Dragons had a way to defeat the creature lying in the heart of the ice palace. It seemed that they had some plan. Otherwise, he doubted that they would have appeared in front of the ice palace and fought with all of their strength.
He let out a sigh and stretched. He was sitting in his office in the Stone Raiders’ main tower. “Well, enough of this crap. I’m going to get out and do something!”
In a flash, he was out of his chair and at the door into his office. He opened the door, stretching as he walked and kneading his back with his knuckles. “I know this is supposed to be as realistic as possible, but making my back hurt from sitting in a chair for so long? There are some things that they could have done without,” Josh complained.
He got to an elevator and stepped in. He looked through the clear walls. The entire building was slowly being changed from stone to soul gem. It was cool to see as the soul gem ate upward through the towers with every day.
His elevator stopped in the training areas. He stepped out to wander through the large areas. Magical coders had been working for days to add in protections and barriers in the area so that the Stone Raiders could go all out on one another in the various training areas.
They had also gathered a number of masters from across Emerilia who taught all manner of subjects. They also did lectures in the Mirror of Communication school.
The Stone Raiders, with the aid of the best tutors and training areas, had worked to refine their skills.
There were a number who were taking the time between fights to work on their fighting ability. There were many weapon masters within the Stone Raiders. The more they learned, the more they realized that there was so much more to understand.
Our strength didn’t originally come from our stats. It came from us embracing Emerilia and fighting as if that was the only way to do it. I doubt there are many Player guilds that can compete with the spell casting and weapon handling abilities of our people.
Josh found Dwayne talking with a Dwarven trainer. Josh waved to Dwayne, getting a nod as Dwayne continued to talk to the trainer, deep in discussion. Josh took the time to look around the training area.
Their little guild had now grown to nearly three thousand members. Getting in was really hard as Josh didn’t want to lose the identity of the Stone Raiders with all of the new recruits rushing in to fill their spots.
Lucy vetted the people with her contacts both on Earth and in Emerilia. Cassie ran the recruitment; she looked not at a person’s level, but at their commitment and how they fit with the Stone Raider values.
Then it went to the different leaders; Lucy, Florence, Kim, Dwayne, and Josh had the final say. Every person who joined the Stone Raiders needed to pass this and then some tests before they were allowed to attend training classes.
Once that was complete and they had shown their ability, they were accepted. It was the longest process of any guild, but it meant that the people they had were the best.
The Stone Raiders’ fame had grown in leaps and bounds. There weren’t many who would challenge their position as the number-one guild in Emerilia.
Dwayne finished his talk, shaking the Dwarf’s hand, and headed over to join Josh. “So, you escaped your office and decided to come bug me? You want to see the people from Gudalo coming in?”
“I didn’t escape it, just quickly left before someone can come up with an issue that I need to deal with.”
“Tell me about it. It feels like I’m some kind of damn warrant officer with all the damn fires I seem to be putting out,” Dwayne complained, but he couldn’t hide his smile.
“You said that the people from Gudalo were coming here?” Josh said, with a confused look.
“The prisoners. They should be checked into their new living quarters soon.”
Josh’s face took on a sour expression.
“Look, I know you don’t like how close this is to slavery, but it’s way better than what most people would have on Earth if they were put into prison. Here, they can learn more skills. They’ve still got some freedom, and through their hard work, they can get free and clear with new
opportunities and skills under their belts to do something for Emerilia,” Dwayne said. “I don’t like it much, either, but we’re not treating them bad and it’s not as bad as it could be.”
“I know—just, it’s weird.”
“Well, we can go take a tour if you want, get to check them out?” Dwayne suggested.
“It would put my mind at ease. Didn’t Alkao take a whole lot of them to help out in Devil’s Crater?” Josh had just been swarmed with things; he hadn’t been able to keep track of it all.
“He’s taking about seventy percent of them. He’s got all manner of jobs. Lucy and Florence were talking to him and the Aleph. They’ve created a job board for the people that all three of us need. The prisoners can also apply for these different positions. Better to give them something that they enjoy and can excel at than restricting them to the same droll job that they hate.” Dwayne led the way to the elevator.
“Seems I’m not the only one who has been busy.” Josh smiled, happy that they weren’t just going to be using the prisoners for forced hard labor.
“Hah! You think that we get anything close to a break around here!” Dwayne slapped Josh on the back. Most people would have been thrown a few feet with the power of the simple back slap.
“I know we don’t! Hell, I didn’t think we would be opening Terra to everyone so early. Already eighty percent of the city has been paid for. We’ve been hiring Aleph engineers to keep on expanding the city now that Dave is spending all his time working on different projects and lecturing within the Mirror of Communication,” Josh said.
“Who would have thought that we’d get a city all to ourselves and that it would become the economic heart of Emerilia?” Dwayne shook his head as they stepped into the elevator. The Stone Raiders inside greeted them with nods and continued their own conversations or waited until they reached their floor.
“Well, I think we should plan on going on an excursion. All this sitting is making me forget that this is a game. With everything set up, it’s not going to be hard for Shard to run most things,” Josh said.
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