Erik and Rugrat got up from where they were sitting and headed out of the box.
“I have to go deal with a few issues that arose while the competition was ongoing.” Blaze excused himself
“I understand. I hope you resolve your issues. Let me know if the Silver Dragons can assist you.”
“Thank you, Brother Gu.” Blaze cupped his hands to Gu Chen.
Blaze left the box as the competition ended and the rewards were passed out. Blaze didn’t look back.
This year, the competition was the last thing on all our minds.
Cai Bo looked over as Low Elder Kostic walked back to his seat.
“Two people in the top ten. That won’t look good. How is the situation in the Institute now with the elders?”
“They want to put your dismissal to a vote and are gathering support. A group of Institute members attacked a high elder two days ago. We got a report from Meokar. The army there has been gutted. Less than four thousand remain. The head has requested us to return immediately.”
Which was the perfect opportunity for her to get close to the sect head.
“Will we hold Meokar?”
“Doubtful. The enemy is organized. They can fight in formations. I was informed that a group of mounted Grey Peak sect and Adventurer’s Guild members departed Reynir.”
“What about our own mounted forces?”
“They were the first target, then Elder Xiao and one of the forward camps. They combined spell scrolls and formations to make a peak seventh-tier spell.”
“Spell?”
“Yes, High Elder. It took one combined spell for each of the camps.”
“What will happen to Meokar?”
“It seems that the high elders want to fight, but the head has passed an order. We will retreat from Meokar, taking everything that we can.”
“And the Adventurer’s Guild?” Cai Bo peeked at the main box to see Blaze leaving with his guards.
“The head believes this is an act of war. He has offered bounties on the Adventurer’s Guild members.”
Storgaard fought to keep her face neutral as Reynir’s totem flashed and another unit marched out. They followed the other units out of Reynir and toward Meokar.
Now that the Willful Institute had taken a heavy loss, the other sects, seeing a weak opponent, were more than happy to send their units over to get greater rewards from Meokar’s carcass.
The totem flashed again, this time revealing a small group wearing cloaks. Jasper walked out to greet them, Storgaard a half-step behind.
“Blaze, I hope we placed well.”
Blaze, a large man, pulled back his hood, revealing some of his armor underneath. “Got some spots. How are things here?”
“The guild and Grey Peak sect are advancing through the forest between us and Meokar. We’ve rounded up five thousand prisoners from the breaches, and three thousand were caught on the run.”
“How long until we reach Meokar?”
“By tonight. We’re moving slowly to make sure there are no traps.”
“Understandable.” Blaze nodded. “Sorry for my rudeness. You must be Branch Head Storgaard.” Blaze reached out his hand.
“Guildmaster Blaze.” She shook his hand and bowed.
Some small guild, my ass.
“I’m sorry to trouble you like this. I wanted to see how things are progressing personally.”
“I am thankful I got to meet with the Adventurer’s Guild and fight beside you.”
“We might yet have some more chances. Seems that people are eager to grow into the Willful Institute’s land.”
Grand Elder Mendes looked haggard. All around him, the people of Meokar rushed about with storage crates. Formations were being pulled from the ground and ingredients harvested early. Workshops were dismantled and books were packed away.
Meokar’s totem didn’t stop working night and day as people evacuated and the remaining wealth of the Institute was shipped off to other locations.
Anything of worth was ripped out of the city. The once-orderly streets were barren. Random objects were tossed out. Those who were too poor to use the totem fled into the surrounding countryside. Meokar’s fields had been set ablaze, and smoke covered the city with the setting of the sun.
The swamp forests were dark already.
“No more members of the army have appeared in several hours,” Mendes’s guard captain said.
“Secure the gates and make sure the mana barrier is active.” Mendes said. Streams of people were still coming and going, panic on their faces.
Horns called out.
“The enemy has been spotted!” Elder Tsi ran in. A bandage covered her side and part of her face.
“I don’t want to leave anything that can aid them.”
“Yes, Grand Elder.”
Mendes put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it. He sighed, filled with regret, and headed for the elder’s chambers.
The room was in disarray.
Elders wore their weapons and armor. They hadn’t washed since the battle and still had mud and blood on their clothes.
Mendes looked at the grand table in the center of the room where he had controlled Meokar from for decades. He sat where he had decided the fate of hundreds of thousands of people. Where he had passed judgment on the group of adventurers who some of his disciples had murdered and stolen from. Turning the other eye as they would bolster the power of the Fourth Realm and reflect well on his branch.
It all seems so useless now. How had the Adventurer’s Guild got such powerful weapons and Experts?
Maps lay across the table. Communication devices lay ready with spell scrolls prepared.
The room grew silent. The other elders looked at him with hope, for leadership.
“We will evacuate all that we can. We will hold back the guards and those with a lower aptitude. We will fight alongside them. If we can survive, the Institute might look past our previous crimes. If we flee, then not only us, but our clans and the very faction, will be hurt. We cannot run.”
The room grew still as they all processed his words.
We gave so much, worked so hard to get our positions. They should have had many years ahead of them, but with one stumble, they were here. It was the truth of the Ten Realms. What they did now would reflect on everyone they knew.
“The enemy is moving in the forest. They are having a hard time since we destroyed the road behind us,” Elder Dean said.
“We have repositioned the mana cannons and siege weaponry we brought back along the walls. Please take a look,” Elder Rei said.
Several faces were missing, killed in the first counterattack or chased down in the route back to Meokar.
Mendes moved to the map, studying the different positions.
44
Level Heads
Blaze’s party raised a plume of dirt behind them as they reached the forward guild elements. Domonos stood waiting. The rest of the guild had been resting in position but perked up as he came to a stop. Joan and Kim Cheol were with him.
Blaze tore off his helmet, his face lined in anger.
“Good work, lad. Just need a quick talk with your people.”
He stepped past Domonos.
“Listen up!” His voice cut through the forest and low-level conversations, scaring war beasts. He needed no formations to enhance his voice. “When you took this contract, did I not tell you to listen to the guild officers? Or are you a bunch of idiot-damned children that don’t know how to do anything?” Blaze stomped over to rows of blanket-covered lumps.
He pulled the blanket off a corpse that was already being reclaimed by the Ten Realms.
“This is what happens when you don’t fucking listen! This is not a party-level mission. There are thousands of guild members here! Look at them, dammit—look!” Blaze yelled, pointing at the body, his eyes boring into anyone’s turned skull.
“You don’t want to listen, then go back to the goddamn guild hall! This is a fight against the Willful
Institute. That’s a sect. They have more resources, more people; they control entire cities. We will fall apart if we are running all over the place! This”—Blaze waved his hand at the dead bodies—“this happens when you run off trying to get glory. You end up dead. You want to be part of a sect, go and join them!” Blaze waved into the woods around them. “There are plenty of those idiots out there in the forests. The Adventurer’s Guild tore through those camps. The Adventurer’s Guild broke the Willful Institute on the walls. It was also the Adventurer’s Guild who lost their damn heads, didn’t listen to others, and ran after the enemy, only to be lured into ambushes into a forest they didn’t know! Did you think that the Institute is a bunch of idiots?” Blaze grunted and turned to the dead.
He bowed from the waist to them all.
The hardness in his face dimmed, showing the sadness that fueled his rage.
“Rest easy.” Blaze carefully put the blanket on the dead guild member.
His face hardened again, and he turned to his guildmates.
“The Adventurer’s Guild repays their debts and does the job they’re contracted to do. We can only do that if we’re alive.”
Even the toughest guild member didn’t dare to meet Blaze’s eyes.
Domonos’s eyes fell on those who looked ahead and stood straighter. Taking note.
“You’re new to this, I know. Trust in one another; trust in your guild officers. It took most of the day to get you together and spread all over the fucking place. Now all the sects have reached the fields outside Meokar. If you’re here for the loot, then you’re here for the wrong reasons. We have a job to do and a debt that Meokar will pay for in full. We’re here to wipe Meokar off the map. All loot will be collected, sold, and split amongst everyone based on contribution. Contributing means doing your task and not running off to get more loot. That’s what sect members do.”
Blaze looked over them all again and walked back to Domonos.
“They’re yours to command. I’ll ride with you to Meokar.” Blaze put his hand on Domonos’s shoulder.
“You did good.”
Thirty minutes later, and the Guild was ready to move. There were five thousand guild members, forty-five hundred mounted warriors, and five hundred who acted as their support and would handle their mana cannons.
Domonos rode next to Niemm and Blaze. Mounted beasts strolled through the forest. They were calm as scouts spread out in front of them. Nothing was getting past them.
“How is the situation in Meokar?” Blaze asked.
“They’re pulling everything out. Most of the Institute is gone,” Niemm said.
“Are they just going to let us take Meokar?”
“They put in some nasty surprises. The actual compound of the Institute is a maze of traps. Better to blow it apart than step in it. They plan to destroy the totem as well. It’ll take a week or two to repair. Mister Yi got information from higher.”
“What about the people inside the city?”
“They’re scared. Most have fled, but a few haven’t been able to.”
Blaze turned to Domonos.
“We told the guild members they’re not to attack one civilian in Meokar,” Domonos said.
“They transported out a lot of items, but they’ve got plenty of siege weaponry and soldiers. If they were to retreat, they and their clans would lose all standing. There’s no retreat for them.” Niemm shifted in his saddle.
“An enemy without any way out is a dangerous foe,” Blaze said.
Domonos merely nodded.
“I thought they would try to hold on to Meokar more,” Niemm said.
“Meokar is a small pawn for them. They have trouble across the realms, bad enough to make the head came out of seclusion and pull the elders together. If he didn’t, they would be fighting us tooth and nail for Meokar.”
“To survive, you have to be willing to cut off the limb to save the body,” Niemm said.
“Exactly. This serves our purpose too.”
Niemm shifted in his seat. “How?”
“In the last loss in the Fourth Realm, the Institute had few survivors. While it is surprising, it makes things distant. The people from Meokar? There are people from the Third Realm to the Fifth Realm. They all saw the Institute get defeated. Their stories will spread,” Blaze said.
“It isn’t enough to break them.”
“No, it isn’t, but you have to apply Ten Realms sect logic to the situation. Strength is everything. Alliances can shift and change, inside sects and outside. The sects in the Ten Realms control the land. They are always looking to expand and strengthen their people. One of the fastest ways is through war. They train their people, weed out those weaker, and get the spoils,” Domonos said.
“Taking repeated losses can undermine the faith of others,” Niemm said in a moment of realization.
“Correct.”
“Well, this is why you’re a guild leader and colonel, and I am a glorified sergeant.” Niemm chuckled.
“You and your people cling to low ranks, but your people could command an entire battalion,” Domonos said.
“We like it down here more. Small-unit tactics, a few people tilting the balance. Better in small groups instead of organizing all the moving pieces,”
There was a noise off to the east, and a mounted force charged forward.
“Stay steady—report!” Domonos called out through his sound transmission device.
“Captain Fontes here. Looks like the sects are charging ahead.”
“Tighten up our lines. Be prepared for anything,” Domonos said.
“What do you think it is?” Niemm asked.
“Sects being sects. The Grey Peak sect is a big exception. The other sects, now there is less danger, want to show off their power and get the best rewards. Looting is the primary purpose of wars and an incentive to get people to participate. They had a lot of people showing up when I arrived. With that, it’s time I headed back. I hate this rear echelon shit. Send me a message if you need me.”
Blaze held up a hand in goodbye and moved away with his people.
“So, what’s the plan?”
“We go slow and steady. We have nothing to prove.”
Rugrat looked out at Vuzgal, his thoughts in a haze.
“Something on your mind?” Erik was wearing light clothes as he sat down opposite Rugrat.
“I’m thinking about retiring.”
“Well, I’m not sure about the state of our pension plans anymore. Don’t think you can redeem them here.”
“No, I mean as the city lord, dungeon lord—all that.”
Erik sat there, waiting for him to speak as he organized his thoughts.
“Sitting there at the arena, watching the fighter’s competition—I didn’t care for the fights. The fake smiles, the mixing and talking to everyone. I wanted to be down in the Third Realm. I’m a damn grunt; I’m no lord. We created the council and picked out the leaders to lead all of this. I’m saying we let them do their jobs, and we do what we’re best at.”
“You’ve been thinking on this a while,” Erik said.
Rugrat leaned forward in his chair. “We have a responsibility to the people who follow us. We used to be the only sources of information from Earth. We’ve recorded nearly everything we know. We have Tanya, Matt, Kanoa, and all the people he brought with him. We led the people in crafting, highest level Journeyman crafters. There are hundreds of Expert crafters in Alva, and we weren’t even the first ones. Glosil has excelled at leading the military. We’re figureheads right now.” Rugrat slapped his leg.
“So, what are you saying? We should get away from this all?”
“No, nothing like that. I just mean, Erik, what we’re best at is fighting. We’ve been doing it all our lives. As Major Kimber once said, ‘Every job needs the right tool, and, son, you sure as hell look like a tool to me!’”
Erik chuckled, and Rugrat grinned.
“Fuck, all right! You’ve got me. Though how are we going to be useful?�
��
“That ain’t my job. That’s Elan and Glosil’s problem.” Rugrat sat back in his chair with a smile.
“You’re totally pushing it all onto them?”
“Yup!”
“Basically, just turn into advanced scouts. Leave all the managing crap to the people who need it. We show up from time to time but fade into the background. Get to do what we want to do.” Erik paused. “You know that they’re going to put guards on us, right?”
“Probably. It’s like having the president as a sergeant in the army.”
“This is nothing like it! You as a president? Hell, man.”
“I bet I could win it in my shorts.”
“Your poster campaign would be the thing of nightmares.”
“Or some ladies’ beautiful dreams!”
Erik shook his head, sighing. “All right, just like with Glosil, we need to trust the people who are in place. If we are always over their shoulder, we will never be able to leave, and they won’t be able to do anything without our approval. Shit, I’m looking forward to getting out there. Feels like we’re only scratching the surface in all this. What is the Ten Realms? Why the hell did we get sent here? All of that!”
==========
Quest: Purpose
==========
There are many secrets and half-truths about the Ten Realms. Why does it exist? What is it for? Separate the myths and legends from lies and truth.
==========
Requirements:
Reach the Eighth Realm
Join the Ten Realms Mission Hall
Become at least a one-star level hero.
==========
“You asked, and the Ten Realms delivered,” Erik said dryly.
“Fuck, more ascending!” Rugrat threw his hands up.
“It’s not like we were just going to stop at the Sixth Realm.”
45
Meokar
“How is everyone settling in?” Domonos said as Zukal, his second in command, entered the command tent. A map dominated one wall, nailed to a piece of wood that was staked into the magic-packed ground. Communication aides were setting up their positions. It was dark, warm, and dimly lit, unlike the opulent pavilion tents the sects had created.
Sixth Realm Part 2: A litRPG Fantasy series (The Ten Realms Book 7) Page 53
