The streets of Yani City were abandoned for the city was under siege. The usual hustle and bustle of the markets, the shouting and cursing from the arena and the footsteps of civilians were now like ghosts of memories past. No one would have accepted that this was a previously active peak C-class city. Repeated attacks from previous years had taught them many a painful lesson, especially when it came to evacuation procedures. The entire city had been safely evacuated to a large underground bunker by the Dwight family members.
As the de facto leaders of the city, they had the ability to mobilise all city resources under them. The troops provided by the Yorks made sure the civilians followed the orders and kept the peace while the Cole provided provisions. The large bunker was under the stewardship of the Oxlade family.
At an intersection, in one of the richest districts in the city, an area considered just outside the Dwight family compound, stood a relaxed Guy, looking at the sky. He seemed as if was alone on these empty streets, but things were not quite what they seemed.
Swoosh!
A silhouette flashed beneath his feet.
"Sir, the Dwight compound is 70 per cent secure! Tino and her sisters have managed to prevent those on the frontlines from discovering anything! Within an hour, we should be through clearing out the remnants!"
Guy rubbed his short blonde hair and smiled. Everything was going according to Bastian's plan. Each of the war council members had been given specific orders to follow by Bastian, and Guy had his. He set his eyes toward the direction of the Dwight compound.
'As expected of Tino. We are conducting a slaughter, there should be smoke plumes and sounds of battle all around us but her sisters have set up an airtight bewilderment formation...'
The civilians had been evacuated, but there were things within the compound that could not be moved, not to mention that the shifty Cole family was pointing at the backs of the three aristocratic families.
Hence All three had to leave behind guards while they send a combined punitive force to attack the Cole family compound. Guy was Bastian's spear, his duty was to wipe out the Clan headquarters and regroup with General Moto.
'That old codger looks quite experienced. This should be an amusing battle.'
Guy had quite the intuition. He looked down and saw a rather pensive expression on his subordinate. His smile broadened as he said, "You think we attacked the wrong compound first didn't you?"
The subordinate was embarrassed, but Guy did allow for light conversation and inquisitiveness. Hence the subordinate spoke his thoughts.
"Milord, The York forces are more than twice that of the other families, since they are the greatest threat, why not take them out first? Why are we making the Dwights and Oxlades our initial targets?"
The Dwight family were leaders mainly due to Bhasera's martial might, but in terms of numbers of Teachers and Scholars, being the military force of the city, the Yorks were nothing to scoff at.
Guy ruffled his hair and crossed his arms, " Under normal circumstances what you have said makes sense, but this situation is different. You are thinking two steps ahead, but it seems Bastian is thinking ten, and he has quite the confidence in his gambit. How long until the front lines notice something is up and they send reinforcements?"
"Reporting to Milord! We estimate that reinforcements will only arrive half an hour at best. What are your orders, Milord?"
Guy looked toward the northwest direction and said, "Good. Tino and most of her sisters should be focused on isolating the York Compound from the world. Until we are done we won't get interrupted by them. You are young elites from The Great Thunder Tiger Empire. This is a small city in the middle of nowhere! I expect no casualties! I'm going to visit the second target. Once I'm done, we'll proceed to the third target together."
"Yes, Milord!"
Swoosh!
Swoosh!
The warrior disappeared, but in his place was someone else. She was covered in a pure white cloth that wrapped around her body. Only her eyes were visible but that did not prevent her curvaceous body from bombarding Guy's vision.
"Mirage, reporting to Lord Guy." She spoke telepathically straight into Guy's mind, but he was already used to it. She was one of Tino's most trusted lieutenants and was a telepathy specialist. Each group leader was assigned one such person near them to allow for smooth communication.
Tino and her sisters were masters of many skills required for espionage and the like. Mirage was especially good at wiping out her presence. She was visible in all white, but Guy was sure that he would lose track of her existence if he did not concentrate.
'The Falsified Daughters are truly frightening.'
"As planned, the Blind Disaster has provided support to the east wall. Onismo initially used the wall to test Kit and his men but they held on till required. Thunderbirds and Rhinoceros behemoths caused them issues but Kenshin came in time."
"Bastian was right, if we offered to take on an extra wall they would completely abandon us, do these idiots not care about their own city?"
"Lord, I believe that Onismo would have sent his personal guard after the mercenaries were wiped out. We caught him off guard with our request to take the east wall along with our south wall burden. In his mind, we should have kept the mercenaries, or at least a large part, on the south wall. The appearance of Vermalaen and the troops she is leading made him pensive. I have shadowed him longer than any of my sisters, so I am confident in my judgement."
Guy looked at the young lady and nodded in approval. She was smart and she was indeed quite reliable.
"It seems this Onismo thinks quite highly of his guard. No matter. This is good. I wasn't happy about adding an extra wall to babysit, but this can be used to our advantage, for example, now. Try to keep up!"
Guy crouched and gathered power in his body. A swirl of world energy gathered around the young warrior. Killing intent started to ooze out of his eyes and he gazed toward the northwestern horizon. Kinetic momentum stacked itself around him, causing the housing around him to start cracking.
Boom!
Guy laughed and leapt into the skies. His jump left a crater and a baffled Mirage in its wake. Mirage chuckled to herself and followed suit, but in a more silent and refined way, one more suited to her. If there was a cultivator with the ability to even notice her existence, one would notice her body disappear in parts, like a mirage in the desert.
...
The South Wall was calm, but not because it lacked participants. On the contrary, it was the most populated of the walls. The wall faced the docks and the ocean, which was full of aquatic daemons as far as the eye could see. Thousands upon thousands of seal-like creatures with razor-sharp teeth, showed their aggression with low-intoned growls every time they came up for air.
"Razor seals. This is going to be a problem."
Vermaelen, fully garbled in fiery red armour and a crimson cap, looked on at the sea of grey that thirsted for her blood and the blood of others.
Thousands of soldiers stood right in front of the wall and the gate, ready to meet the beasts should they make the mistake of wandering on land. Others filled the gap between the port and the wall. The port was half a kilometre from the entrance to the city on the wall. Most of that space was filled with buildings that belonged to the usually hustling and bustling markets of trade. Alas, it was time.
Due to the horde's frequency, they were built knowing that they would be destroyed, hence they were mostly simple wooden structures.
The market streets were now filled with soldiers, each nervous but excited, ready for battle.
Another one of Tino's sisters, similarly dressed in all-white tight-fitting clothing was by her side kneeling. Vermaelen continued to speak without even turning back.
"What of Guy?"
"According to Sister Mirage, his men have already taken down the Dwight compound in the centre of the city. He is en route to the Oxlade compound in the northwest where he is personally wiping them out. Once he is done there he will regroup with his troops and attack the Yorks." said the white-robed scout.
Vermaelen scowled, "He shouldn't underestimate the Oxlade, they are the most scheming bunch. Tell him to be careful, they might have the weakest martial might, but they are like roaches, hard to kill."
"Understood, I have relayed your message."
"Now tell me of the others."
"Our mercenaries held off the first wave of attacks and were assisted by Kenshin on the East Wall.
Bastian is getting his spell ready at the Cole family compound while the Fusion Realm experts have all gathered to deal with the two-star daemon, except for Onismo, who is monitoring the situation.
The Cole family compound is surrounded and is about to be attacked by the punitive force sent by the other families. Due to our formation non of them are aware that we are besieging their homes.
The North and West walls dealt with the first wave easily and look quite well bolstered by the city guard.
Vermaelen sighed and focused inward, on her own task. It was not going to be an easy one.
Grrrrrr!!!
The growling of the seals started to intensify from nowhere, causing the soldiers who had relaxed to tense up once more.
"Attention, prepare for battle!"
The vanguard commander shouted. The soldiers behind took their swords and banged them against their shields in response.
Vermaelen sighed. She reached to her side, then a soldier handed her a crimson helmet that matched her armour. With it on, only her orange pupils were visible.
Glossary of Terms.Marks.Mark Bearer:A person chosen to bear the Titan's Mark. They are also descendants of Ambevilius and are his possible successors.Titan's Mark:Proof of being a Mark Bearer. It is in the form of a tattoo in the shape of a golden coiling dragon.Custodian:A formerMark Bearer who has given up their rights to succession and willingly follows another Mark Bearer.House:A Regiment of Custodians under a Mark Bearer. A Marke Bearer can only posses a maximum of five houses. Custodians in a House have ranks. They are ranked in this order from highest to lowest-Minister PrimeMinisterReverentClerkOrdinary CustodianA House is organized as follows-House Scale- a group of Custodians and their ClerkHouse Claw- a group of Clerks and their ReverentHouse Fang- a group of Reverents and their MinisterClaws:These are claws that are on the Titan's Mark, they represent t
...The Sovereign Continent, a place with only one language throughout the entire land, a place where only one currency dominated the entire economy, a place where things like; looks, fame, intelligence or any factor that could possibly make someone the focus of other people's admiration, all paled to one thing. That one thing just happens to be both a language and a currency, that one thing is; power.In the face of power, all other things bow in reverence. If one has power, he or she is just. If one has power, then one is beautiful. If one has power, one has both fame and fortune. As long as one has power, everything falls into one's grasp.The source of power in this world stems from one thing, cultivation. This is the art of taking in energy from the environment and making it your own, resulting in wonders such as; magic spells, illusions, battle techniques and other skills. In general, there are two types of cultivators, a Mage and a Warrior
Chapter 1- The Face of Death...The Sovereign Continent was divided into five major parts or regions, these were:The Eastern Islands, the Northern Glaciers, the Southern Grasslands, the Western Deserts and the Central Jungles. Despite the seemingly self-descriptive names, these lands weren't particularly limited to the descriptions they gave off. For example the forest found in the Western deserts.Each major region was in turn further divided into many sub regions, each of these sub regions could consist of many Kingdoms, very few, or only one. When one Kingdom had the complete control of a land, which was as large as a sub region, it became an Empire.There were even a few Empires that span over multiple regions. These were called True Empires and were ruled by True Emperors. The largest and most famous True Empire, was the Coiling Dragon Empire. It was the only
In a tent in the middle of the camp stood several men, one of which was looking upon a makeshift bed, on which Bastian was sleeping. The man had a rough face and a set of eyes permeating with greed, he studied Bastian's body, as if he was looking at an object, one which could make him a lot of money.The tent was quiet, so quiet in fact that some of the men didn't even dare breathe in too deeply, afraid of gaining the ire of the man standing next to the bed. At this moment a doctor carrying a small box filled with medical equipment walked in. The doctor walked towards the bed and started examining Bastian's body. The rough faced man looked at the proceedings nervously, hoping that things weren't too serious, he eyed the doctor at his work.After the doctor had finished his examination, he said that Bastian was fine and everyone sighed in relief. He told the rough faced man that the boy had just fainte
Now let's rewind a bit, to a few hours ago, to when Bastian had just fainted. To others it would seem as if Bastian had lost consciousness, but to Bastian something else entirely occurred. What seemed like fainting was, in fact a far different and strange phenomenon. Just when he was about to go outside his vision blurred and he found himself in a strange place, his entire surroundings were white, it was as if he was in a giant white room, with no end in sight. After observing his surroundings Bastian noticed something in front of him, it was a large brown table. The table itself was nothing extraordinary...except for the picture of a large coiling dragon on its surface. The dragon was gold and its paws had two claws. Even though it was a two dimensional drawing, Bastian felt something from the picture, a sense of déjà vu to be more exact. He could not remember where exactly he had seen this dragon. That's when it hit him. This dragon looked eerily similar to the one that had destr
Bastian's mind was in chaos. Too many things had happened in such a short period of time. He hadn't had enough time to adjust. First he had reincarnated into another person's body, then he learned that he was in another world, and then he realized he was part of some weird inheritance game. Now to top it all off, he is now being sold as a slaveBastian could not help but mentally sigh at these events. In his past life he was a terminally sick person. He had had time to mentally prepare for death. Fate however played a trick on him, placing him in a situation where he, a man who was even prepared for death, felt miserable.Well when life throws you lemons...Bastian quickly accepted his fate and decided to run with his new identity. Since he already had the memories belonging to the body's original owner, Sebastian Tirius, he would not have a hard time adjusting.<
Chapter 5- Impossible!Ben was in a jovial mood. As he walked to the borders of the camp he whistled, further displaying how happy he was. He greeted many people along the way, something he rarely every did. Even going as far as to help lift up a person he had bumped into. This kind behavior was not something the proud and clever Ben usually had, but today was a special occasion.Ben finally had the chance to stuff it to a noble, the kind who had enslaved him and made his life miserable. All of his loved ones were tortured or killed by them.He had been saving the incado grass so he could sell it, but he felt that this outcome was definitely more pleasing. Money is money. Vengeance, cures the soul, or so he thought.He arrived to the boundary of the camp. It had been roughly a day since he had stuffed the boy with the herb. So he should be waking up around this time. Not to mention it almost time to sell the brat. As soon as he arrived however, he once again met an unexpected circumst
The girl stuttered, "Y-you! How did you?"Bastian replied, "You can ask me whatever you want, but I can't guarantee that I will answer."Ben saw that his master had thrown the girl's words right back at her. He was very pleased at seeing her distressed look. There was something, however he didn't quite understand."Master, what did you mean by 'House' and 'Custodian'?"Bastian was about to talk, when he was interrupted by the girl, "Don't you dare tell this filth anything, or else!""Or else what?" Bastian looked straight at the girl, as he challenged her. "I can keep quiet if you want, but in return I want you to answer a few of my own questions. Of course, I will take an oath to the heavens to never tell anyone!"The girl looked very unhappy. Her brows creased, as if she were contemplating something. After a few breaths worth of time, she sighed."Very well, I will answer your questions, but first you have to tell me how you got to know about this." said the girl in resignation.Bas