Tim and Silas were in trouble. They were the vanguard of the ammunition convoy, and they had just entered the town center when an immense bull on fire came charging straight at them.
“Tier 4!” Silas gasped.
“Brace!” Tim crouched, holding out his precious Tier 3 spear, praying against all odds that at least one of them might survive, at least one of the eight young boys behind him who went to get the spears might come out of this alive and finish the mission, because most certainly, he himself wasn’t going to make it…
But a miracle occurred.
Remian shouted, “Light!”
Before Tim could exclaim anything, a wall of light twice his height and much wider rose up in between him and the charging bull. There was a terrible, jarring impact; Tim could feel the ground sake under his boots from the crash.
But the Bull was stopped cold. It could not get even an inch past Remian’s light.
Silas let out all his breath in relief. “I
“What happened here?” Charlie was astounded when he arrived on the airship the next day. “The Beast Wave hit last night.” Remian summarized. They met at the half-built airport. There was a high deck for mooring airships, currently accessible either via a long ramp or a manually operated lift. At present, four Legion trainees were pushing at the wheel powering the lift which had two injured trainees on stretchers aboard. Next to the lift were eight more injured trainees in a row. Down below were four more and other people queued up with their crates for export, still waiting for their turn to use the lift. “We need more lifts.” Charlie observed. “We need a secure warehouse, so people with goods for export can bring them up here early.” Remian countered. “This airport currently only had three people on staff, and two of them work at the air traffic control lighthouse.” All three were hired by Deutero, so Remian had little say over whether more c
In the end, it was Arnold who really blew Remian’s budget. The things he asked for were estimated to wipe out half of Remian’s earnings all by themselves. “You want that Repeating Scorpion quickly or in a few years? And a moving tower, no less… do you have any idea what it takes to build a decent Siege Tower?” “Not really, no.” Remian confessed. “Neither do I.” Arnold handed Charlie with a list of ordered parts, gears and tools. “Count it as research costs!” “How long do you expect this ‘research’ to go on?” Remian asked, concerned for his wallet. “Without these supplies? A Repeating Scorpion could take me all year. With them? I could have one ready in a week or so.” Arnold clarified. “Putting it on a moving platform would need more work; we’ll have to do a lot of testing and adjustments to fire a Scorpion while the platform is moving. Building an actual siege tower capable of withstanding Tier 3 and 4 Wilds… that’s going to take at lea
Atop Three Pines Peak, the Sun Eagle Lord sought to ensure the future of the Wildlands by cleansing all the Destroyers (humans) from it. From deep beneath the Black Depths Lake, the Deepsilver Lord sought vengeance for his fallen kin. The High Crown Stag Lord of the Speckled Highlands believed destroying humans would save the entire world from eventual destruction. The Golden Lion Lord wished to challenge mankind as a matter of pride. Then, there was the last, mysterious possibility; that the enigmatic Shadowflash himself wanted to rid his territories of these pesky humans. As to why these five were the suspects rather than one of the many other Lords of the Wilds? It was because these five were the five nearest Lords directly south of Frontier Town; the direction the Beast Waves were coming from. Shadowflash’s last known whereabouts was also in that direction. The most suspicious one? Sun Eagle, because up until now, none of the Wilds in the B
They ended up shopping at Burning Steel rather than the airship. Remian ordered Tier 3 weapons and armor in bulk, which he would later donate to the Guild for Points. After all, as Guild Master, he should strive to remain as one of the top Adventurers in his own Guild. They finally spotted the airship in the horizon by lunch time. As Mandy said; they were simply late. The reason for that became apparent as they docked at the still-unfinished airport. The airship had dozens of people on deck, and many crates of cargo to unload. “Workers!!” Remian roared to the sky, exultant. One hundred workers. Forty mercenaries. There weren’t as many mercenaries as Charlie estimated, but for Remian, who had sweated over a lack of manpower until now, forty tier 2 fighters was a godsend. On top of that, there were not ten, but twenty Iron Legion trainees this time around, led by another drill sergeant named Julius. “Orders!” Julius salute
This time, Remian thought, they were going to be ready. This time, for sure, they would stop the Beast Wave entirely. Things had gone well over the week. The dorm and the barracks were built; the Legion got their stone, and Remian got his wall. Four Guard Towers were raised, two to completion with Ballistae and Repeating Scorpions, and two just at Phase 1, but able to shelter archers and crossbowmen. When the day came for the Beast Wave to strike, Remian had a prepared force of forty mercenaries, a dozen Adventurers, and over thirty Legionnaires on guard while he himself went to greet another shipment of reinforcements coming in with the airship at lunch-time. As Charlie promised, they came early. “Any word from the scouts?” he asked Mandy, who stood at his side. “No sign of a signal fire. It seems the scouts haven’t spotted anything coming.” Mandy said. “I thought you said they usually didn’t attack until sunset. It’s high noon out here.” “Best to be wary. You never know, with th
The first indication they had that something was coming was when the ground started to shake. The birds began to scatter. Most of them took to the air and fled in every direction, getting away from the scene. But the ravens gathered. They began to stalk a certain figure in the distance. Trees began to fall. A visible column of floral victims trailed all the way from the far horizon. It headed directly toward the Frontier Town known as Fort Spoas. “What is that…?” Kairos asked. He stood on Remian’s left, while Charlie was on Remian’s right. They were atop the rooftop of the Adventurer Guard Tower, behind a fully prepared Ballista with a Steel Stake loaded and ready to fire. “We’ll find out soon. The scouts are almost here.” Remian pointed. There was Carrie, with Candice and Denise on her back. She had gone ahead with them especially to bring these two back quickly. Upon arriving, the twins went straight to Remian to report. “It’
Charlie wiped sweat from his brow as he brought Remian safely down to the ground in a thick cushion of air. For the moment there, he was afraid he was about to lose his business partner (and therefore, the blue mana crystals) for good. Already he had lost the airship, of which he was a partial owner and working partner. Just one million Lir wasn’t going to be enough to compensate him for THAT loss! Five million would barely cover the initial cost of his buying in as a partner, not to mention the loss of potential business and his time! Those blue mana crystals were the only comfort Charlie had as to his efforts on this disastrous night. Who could compensate him for the losses? Who was to blame? Was it the captain, for piloting the airship so close to the Wild? But how was he to know it had such powers? And besides, the captain was dead. The dead could not owe. Which, of course, was another reason to save Remian. If the guy felt guilty enough, Charlie could st
[Can someone please tell me what is going on?] The Spike-Back Lizard asked. [You great goof!!] Carrie barked at him. [You’ve destroyed the human nest! What are you doing all the way over here?!] [I… I don’t know…] the great big fellow looked around, blinking. [Where am I? What happened to that horrible shrieking…?] [You’re at the far north end of Shadowflash’s territory.] Carrie advised. [Shadowflash is going to be so mad at you.] [Shadowflash is dead.] Spike-back grouched. [That’s what they say. But nobody has proof.] Carrie insisted. [I’m here. He isn’t. That’s proof enough.] Spike grumped. [If he were alive, he would never have let me get this far.] Carrie fell silent. She did not retort to that. [So… what now? You’ve passed through his entire territory unchallenged. You’ve proven yourself to be the strongest Wild here. Do you intend to claim this territory as your own?] [What? No way! I don’t want that sort of responsibility!] Spike turned and started running south. [You gu