“Captain Pegleg what are you doing here?” asked Akira who was still transformed.
“Have you grown taller?” asked Captain Pegleg as he tilted his head to the side and inspected Akira who was emitting an odd black mist that covered his body.
“You have changed greatly since I last met you. As for why I am here? We were just sailing along and when I saw those ships out there, I recognized them as ones that had attacked me and my ships before! How could I face my men as the captain, if I let our enemy getaway now that we are far stronger than before!”
“I thank you for the help you provided in eliminating the demigods that got away from us. Unfortunately, we can not talk for long as I am not sure what the demigods plan to do. So I need to return to my own city,” said Akira.
“What are you going to do with these sheps?” asked Captain Pegleg, pointing to the ships that had been captured from the Demigods.
“You can have them,” said Akira, before turning to Erock who had just arrived at the shore. He had come to see who or what exactly had finished off the Demigods.
“Erock, can you handle defending your city now or do you need some soldiers to stay behind and help?”
“We will be moving to our wartime lodging immediately. There will be no need for you to stay as we can defend ourselves when we get there,” said Erock.
“I’ll have the shaman inform Bleur shor city of the attack. They should also be moving to a safer location,” said Klyn.
“Captain Pegleg, how would you like to earn a few more ships?” asked Akira.
“How? You’re not going to try anything tricky with me are you?” asked Captain Pegleg.
“Just follow me and I am sure you will be able to acquire a few more ships. Oh, Erock, one last bit of advice for you. Invest in building a wall,” said Akira.
***
As soon as Akira stepped off of his ship and touched the busy docks of Kodria’s main island a system message popped up.
Ding!
-
Free wall upgrade reward is ready!
Would you like to implement the free upgrade now? Y/ N.
Akira accepted and immediately a blinding light flashed out from the center of the city and covered the outer city walls making them glow in a bright swirling milky white.
Ding!
-
Gathering information on local area specialties…
…special trait found!
Selecting a similar wall upgrade!
Implementing free upgrade ‘Wall of Protection’ … 1%…
Everyone in the city was shocked by the flash of light thinking it was some sort of attack made by the demigods. The most shocked were the city guards that had been patrolling the outer walls but now could not see the stone beneath their feet due to the bright light that covered the wall.
Akira had a front-row view of the light show as the outer walls were right in front of him. He stood still watching the swirling light that blocked the view of the walls waiting for it to disappear but after 5 minutes the wall was still glowing and Akira did not think it would go away anytime soon.
“Let’s head back to the castle and give the grand elders a full report,” said Akira as he led Klyn and his guards towards the opened glowing white gates of the city.
***
“You three guilds should be strong enough to capture Kodria,” said Bland who was sitting in a small meeting cabin on his flagship.
“That’s what you said about that werewolf village that was supposed to be small without any protection. They had been prepared for us with thousands of warriors and then out of nowhere undead skeletons boarded our ship and killed us!”
“It’s just your bad luck. Don’t put too much thought into it. It’s not like those skeleton pirates are allies to the werewolves. Now that you know what the werewolves are like to fight against, you can go after our main target. If you prepare correctly you can take over Kodria,” said Phobia.
“I doubt it. That is what you said about the other place,” said Buther. “Why can’t you come with us?”
“We are busy working on something else,” said Kooter.
“If you don’t act now then your guilds will have a hard time capturing Kodria. You will have to wait until your full guild is here to try again,” said Bland.
“It feels like you are just forcing us to do all the impossible tasks,” said Ranche
“We get nothing from this! If you succeed all the rewards go to you,” said Phobia.
The other guild representatives left the ship in a huff, all seemed to be unhappy with the tasks they had been given, but they could not ignore the lure of owning Kodria for their own guilds base of operations.
If they could capture it there would be no one on this continent that could push them out. Only the major guilds that were busy fighting back on Halrverold would be able to do that and they had bigger problems to worry about than some demon race and monster-infested land.
“You think they will be able to succeed?” asked Phobia.
“From what I heard, the place is far more formidable than Crowmaw city. I highly doubt it but if we can have them deal a heavy blow to the city damaging it, it should make it easier to capture later,” said Bland.
“Come on we are behind schedule for capturing Froit. If we don’t have it under our control when Fela arrives with the other guild members we will be a laughing stock and then Fela will take over your position Bland,” said Kooter.
“There is no way I will let Fela cruise in here and take over all the hard work we have done. We will leave immediately!” said Bland.
***
Over the next few weeks, several reports of Demigod attacks on smaller villages reached Kodria.
The majority of that news came from the mouths of several thousands of refugees that were fleeing south towards Kodria and other cities that would take them in. Many of the ragged refugees were the survivors of the small villages and towns that were attacked.
Akira stood on top of the castle roof overlooking Kodria as he watched the winter sunrise up into the sky. Next to him stood Mileena who huddled close to Akira trying to keep warm on this cold morning.
Fluffball and Pii’per were messing around behind them on the roof as the two watched the city.
“That weird light is still covering the walls. What did you say it was again?” asked Mileena as she looked at the bright Milky light which still covered the outer wall. The guards and city people had grown used to it by now and no longer paid attention to it as they were far more occupied with working on the defense preparations.
“It is a special chant from one of the old books I bought from the auction,” lied Akira.
Mileena’s attention moved from the wall towards the large tent city that had popped up on the opposite shore near the outer trade plazas walls.
“More and more people keep showing up. How are we going to protect and feed everyone?”
“We have enough stored food for now but we should be able to buy what we need for Jerora and the Dwarves. As for protecting them, I have already talked with the Grand elders and they have agreed to start building an outer city based around the current trade plaza.”
“I am just really worried about the demigods rampaging up north. Now everyone is coming south to Kodria for safety, but what are we going to do when there is no place to go other than here? How will we withstand the demigods?”
“There is no need to worry that much. There are far larger cities to the north of us, who are just as strong or even stronger than us. They won’t go down without a fierce fight and before that happens we will help stop them.”
Ding!
-
Free outer wall upgrade ‘Wall of Protection’ has been completed!
Outer stone walls durability was upgraded to Rank 2!
Special statues of protection have been added to the outer wall!
With a bright flash of light, the walls that had been covered in the milky white light revealed themselves. The stone was now a deep white color that blended in with the fresh snow on the ground.
What interested Akira the most was the large 10-foot statues that were now attached to the outside wall.
There were now statues made of the same white stone, each statue resembled a knight standing with both their hands clasped on the hilt of a long sword that was also made out of stone. The long stone sword pierced the ground in front of them. The statues were placed at each corner of the city wall, there was also one on each side of the outer walls city gates.
The statues were quite an impressive sight.
“Doesn’t that armor look a bit like yours?” asked Mileena as she pointed at one of the statues after a quick inspection.
“Yap!” “Piiiii!” Both Fluffball and Piiper interrupted their conversion with loud surprised shouts.
Akira turned to see what the problem was and found a ten-foot statue in the center of the roof. It was almost just like the statues below save for the fact that this one held its sword up into the air well above its head that was bare of a helmet like the others. The head of the statue had a canny resemblance to Akira’s furry face when he was transformed.
Piiper was sitting on the head of the statue, pecking at the face with her beak, but was unable to leave a mark.
Fluffball just sat at the bottom of the statue looking at the face of the statue while he sniffed the stone.
“It really is based on you…” said Mileena looking at the statue then back at Akira. “What are these statues for?”
“I have no clue,” said Akira as he looked at the large statue. No matter what he did he was unable to figure out if the state had any special effect. To his disappointment, the statues seemed to only be decoration.
“I thought you said it was from a book you bought. Doesn’t it have information on it?”
Akira shrugged his shoulders as he looked at the statue along with Fluffball.
‘Hey, system! That reward you gave me is crap! All it did was upgrade the durability of the outer wall,’ thought Akira. He was not impressed with the reward at all.
“Awoooooo~!” a faint distant howl that echoed from far away reached Akira’s ears.
He had been fearing this call for the last week unsure if Kodria was prepared for an all-out attack by the demigods.
“Awoooo~!” The faint warning howl was picked up by the guards at the river forts and relayed it to the city. Now there was no doubt about it, the time had come!
Akira could see a large commotion happening on the opposite shore as the tent city started to move with activity as the refugees scrambled out of their tents and rushed towards the short walls of the trade plaza where they would be safer from any attack that came.
Down below him, the once quiet and empty morning streets of Kodria were now bustling with activity as Soldiers and city guards started to move towards their battle stations.
Akira gave Mileena a quick kiss on the forehead and ran to the stairs to exit the castle.
Klyn, Vilkas, and Dolph were all waiting for Akira at the front doors of the castle.
The four of them headed down the hill through the busy streets towards the front gate’s towers.
When he arrived Varbu, Prince Gobbers, Princess Gobalina, and Four other werewolves were already waiting for him.
“Frang what are you doing here?” asked Akira, seeing his cousin was with the three other guards.
“I was recently promoted to be one of the four guard captains of the outer wall!” said Frang proudly.
Akira guessed the other three guards with him were the other three outer wall guard captains. Each of the city walls had four guard captains that were in charge of commanding the guards in their section.
“What’s the situation?” asked Akira.
“They should be here soon. The forts have raised the chain to block the river entrance and are ready with enough arrows and javelins to return fire with the enemy’s ships.”
From where they stood the large chain could not be seen as it was still hidden just under the water, this was to catch those unaware by surprise and allow the chain to cause the most damage.
“And the surprise?”
“They did not notice anything and have already passed by,” replied one of the Officers.
“Then all we can do is wait for them and see how the forts and city defenses hold up to a determined attack by the demigods,” said Akira as he stared at the river, waiting for the enemy’s ships to appear.
The enemy must have been taking their time as they sailed up the river cautiously because it was another hour before they arrived.
Unlike the fight at Crowmaw several weeks before, there was only one large ship this time that was leading the way down the river trailed by several dozen smaller ships of varying sizes.
When the large ship came into range, both forts started to shoot fire arrows at the deck and the sails of the ship. Several of the arrows struck true and started to burn. There was a happy cheer that ran through the guards stationed on the wall as they watched the start of the distant fight.
The cheer was short-lived as an icy wind blew over the entire ship and froze the fires stopping any further fire damage.
***
“Is that all they got?” asked a demigod who finished casting the ice wind skill.
“Down here, with the weather so cold, my skills are even more powerful!” said another demigod.
“Don’t get cocky, we are only at the mouth of the river, we still have to get to the main island!” said Buther.
“Everyone has permission to return fire!” shouted Ranche.
Almost a hundred different skills were shot off towards each of the forts. Ice, wind, fire, water, rock, and many other types of skill attacks lit up the surrounding area as they exploded against the stone walls of the forts with great force.
Boom! Swish! Swhoosh! Crack!
Wave after wave of skills rained down on both forts killing several soldiers who were unable to return fire because of the large barrage of attacks. Parts of the walls were cracked or crumbled as they received the massive waves of attacks.
“AWOOOO!” a howl rang out from the main island and the demigods found that all return fire had stopped as the soldiers in the forts had disappeared from the walls.
“Where did they go?”
“Don’t worry about the cowards, just keep up the attacks and clear the way for the ships behind us. It’s clear sailing after we push past the forts!” shouted Ranche.
CRACK!
Everyone on the ship was thrown to the ground and a few were even knocked overboard into the river as the ship came to an abrupt stop.
“What happened!” shouted Buther as he struggled to get back onto his feet.
“We hit something!” shouted the lookout.
“I know that! I want to know what it was!”
Screams started to emerge from below the ship’s deck as both demigods and their captured fighters rushed up out from the bottom of the ship.
“The front of the ship has been broken right off by a large metal chain! We’re sinking!” shouted a demigod who was drenched from the water that was flowing into the lower deck of the ship.
“You idiots just freeze the water around the ship!” commanded Ranche trying to stay on his feet as the large ship started to tilt to the side as it took on more water. The only thing holding the ship up right now was the chain that the ship was dragging down along with it.
Those with ice skills started to use them to freeze the water, but they were having to put their all into the skills as the unfreezing river was not staying frozen for very long.
“We can’t keep this up forever!” shouted one of the demigods.
“Just keep it up long enough for the other ships to pass! Don’t let up on your attacks on the forts!” ordered Ranche.
The smaller boats behind the sinking ship were able to sail by and over the chain that was being pulled down by the large ship. They were not harassed by the soldiers in the forts as they were still being suppressed.
“Everyone onto the rowboats!” shouted Buther when the last small ship passed.
The demigods abandoned the sinking ship and rowed to the smaller ships that had been waiting for them at the entrance of the lake.
“Head for Kodria! Don’t worry about the small trade plaza, we can take care of it after we get control of the city!” shouted Ranche.
“Wait! Where are Kodria’s ships?” asked Buther as he looked at the empty lake.
“They’re probably hiding behind the island. Hurry while we have the advantage. Everyone, keep sailing forward! Start bombarding the city walls!”
When the ships had well and truly entered the large lake they started to hear several howls coming from behind them!
Four large pristine warships along with several medium ships appeared on the river and passed by the forts and the chain that had been lowered to allow them to pass.
Each of the ships flew the flag of a howling wolf on a moon. The flag of Kodria!
Behind them was a mishmash of ships that all looked to be floating wreaks which seemed to have no problem keeping afloat. They flew the flag of the skeleton pirates that had attacked them at Crowmaw!
“We’ve been tricked!” said Buther with a horrified look.
The river was now blocked by several of the floating wrecks manned by what looked like skeletons.
While the rest of the ships were sailing right towards them!
“Blow their ships up!” shouted Ranche.
“Commander, we exhausted all of our power on the forts and as well as trying to keep the ship afloat! We need time to regenerate our power!”
“Prepare for boarding!” shouted the captain of one of the large ships.
Soon the Demigods were surrounded by the ships of both Kodria’s navy and Captain Pegleg’s ships.
Captain Pegleg helped lead the charge with his ship taking the brunt of the demigod’s attacks.
Melee fighting began on each of the smaller ships while the rowboats were just run over, causing the demigods to be dumped into the lake with nowhere to go.
Akira watched from the wall and was for the most part, satisfied with the results and the fighting prowess of the naval marines, who were battling it out with the demigods on the unsteady boats that bobbed up and down.
“The forts held up well,” said Klyn as the fighting on the ships was dying down.
Akira shook his head.
“This attack has proven that they are too weak. They need to be improved if they are to withstand even stronger attacks in the future.”
***
In a dark laboratory somewhere hidden on the continent of Halrverold.
The laboratory was filled with many bubbling bottles of eerie potions. Above the rack of the potions was the imprint of three triangles.
“Is it ready?” asked a dark-robed figure.
“Let’s check and see,” said Bonestringer as he took one of the newer finished potions from the wall and poured it out.
“Gyaaaa! Kill me! Have mercy and kill me!” screamed the man that was chained to the stone table in the middle of the laboratory.
The now-empty potion bottle was thrown to the ground with a crash.
“Hmmm… looks like it is almost ready. Not yet but soon,” said Bonestringer as he watched the screaming man jerk around on top of the table.
