Chapter 12 Part 4 of 4 (Patreon)

Derrick knew that this would be it for the group. The other smaller groups that had been fighting had gathered the wounded and rushed them back to the rear, unable to deal with the concentrated and coordinated riders.

Derrick could feel the rumbling through the ground as the thirty or so riders ran towards his group of less than twenty.

Derrick tore his last remaining spell scroll, buffing everyone, giving them a massive boost to their fighting abilities.

They were just twenty meters away, as they reached ten Derrick felt a roar on his back as he realized he felt the ground not only shaking from the front but from the rear.

He looked back to see Kim Cheol and Joan leading two groups of fifty elite Guild riders.

The two riding groups smashed together, threading around one another with Derrick’s group a stone in the middle of it all.

Derrick dodged, attacked, using magic and blade alike, he stood as others went down around him. He took hits, trying his best to cover others. Everyone was fighting to hold on in the press that was all around them. Willful Institute riders started to turn and leave, rushing back towards the center of the city.

The Association riders turned, spreading out to harass the escaping Institute members.

Derrick coughed feeling the hit he’d taken to the chest.

He looked at his group, there were only a few still standing.

“Care for the wounded, use your stamina healing potions,” Derrick ordered.

He pulled out a purple and green flecked potion, he scanned the area for the worst wounded and poured some of the potion on their open wounds and then rest down their throats.

Derrick looked up at the sounds of arriving beasts.

They wore the guild’s emblem, fanning around the group. Healers jumped down from their mounts, moving among the wounded to assist.

***

“Echo’s breach is secured,” Lieutenant Colonel Dominik Zukal said to Colonel Domonos Silaz who was bent over the table map of the city Craghorn.

“The breaching force?”

“They lost too many people, they’re out of the fight,” Zukal said.

“Push up Reserve Unit Echo One,” Domonos ordered looking over the map that was laid out.

The room shook but no one reacted.

“Looks like they haven’t given up on the spells still,” Domonos muttered under his breath. “Get Bravo to hold their position, I want Alpha and Charlie up nearer to them. Don’t want to get drawn into an ambush.”

“Street by street?” Zukal asked.

“Street by street, and use life detect scrolls. They must be using secret passages to move their forces. Echo only found the rider force in the last few minutes.”

“Yes sir,” Zukal turned to the messenger aides. Map aides were altering their map according to new information and tapping it to the larger map, updating it overall.

Markets were places of rest, from the houses and the streets defenses were pulled out of the ground and turned into the scenes of fierce fighting.

Third Realm fighters had more than enough power to reduce a house to rubble in a few minutes.

Domonos moved to the corner of the room, a periscope rested there. He put his eyes to it, he flinched as he saw a fireball hit the mana barrier just meters from the periscope’s lens, shaking the entire building.

The mana barriers held as Domonos waited for the smoke to clear.

On either side of the Adventurer’s Association camp there were other sect camps.

Groups with mana barriers made the march across the farmers fields, pockmarked with spell impacts and littered with the bodies of those whose mana barriers had failed.

The city wall was like broken teeth, the groups passing through and into the large city beyond.

The Craghorn rested on the banks of a once crystal clear river, waterfalls from upstream spread out to create a wet plains underneath. The rich waters turned the area into an area rich with life. Even in the Alchemist’s Realm it was a jewel.

The city was filled with towers covered in gardens, catering to the massive resources required to support the Willful Institute. Many had wished to control the city but none were bold enough before.

Now it is but a shell.  Domonos saw a spell strike one of the towering buildings, breaking the gardens upon it and sending the stone crashing down below.

Domonos looked at the waters, smugglers and merchants were doing a bustling business carrying away those willing to pay their high prices to the other banks or down the river.

Those that didn’t have the means but were desperate tried to pull together rafts, or even swim.

The clear waters were muddied with the constant moving ships and the blood of those that tried to climb onto others ships, only to meet the owner’s blades.

Artillery spells rose and fell, raining down on marked positions within the city.

The other sects are dragging their feet where they can but as soon as it looks like we’ll show them up they jump at the opportunity to advance. Good thing that all of their ‘spies’ they think are on their side are actually father’s intelligence officers. Our units are working better together, they’re no true military units but they hold together a lot better than the sect forces. Their people only care about their gains. If there’s too much risk they’ll fold easily.

He knew that he was talking about the lives of the men and women under his command. He knew that his orders could deliver them onto death. He also knew that if he didn’t command, if he didn’t give them the orders to hold then he would lose many more.

If Echo didn’t hold then Delta would have been wiped out, they’re still clearing through the wall and the first line of houses beyond. On the other side they’ve got the Shiverlaws Sect. They’re only small and they haven’t fought much. Skittish and easily scared. They’d collapse at the first sign of true danger.

Domonos pulled his eyes from the periscope as the building shook once again.

Zukal was nearby.

“Do you want me to report the Fifth Realm fighters to the sects?”

Domonos paused.

“Leak that we ran into some powerful forces, use it to make them bolder and want to show their ability. Don’t say their actual levels. Have the spies report that we are looking to hunt them down to make them pay.”

“That way they’ll double their efforts to hunt them down and look better than us,” Zukal nodded.

“Out here we have to deceive the enemy and those who hire us. Once we cut out Craghorn then the Willful Institute will only have four remaining cities that can supply their training resources.”

“With how hard the Willful Institute is fighting, there isn’t going to be much left,” Zukal rubbed his face.

Domonos clapped him on the shoulder.

“Well it is a good thing that we don’t need the city, the other sects can fight about it, we just need to get paid and we’re onto the next fight. Find out if the Institute is sending out their riders to attack the other sects.”

“Yes sir,” Zukal nodded.

“I have a feeling that they’re starting to target us.”

Zukal grimaced at Domonos’ words.

“We knew that it was a possibility.”