With the mass wave of new merchants and survivors from the demigod’s attacks, many rumors and important bits of news reached Akira and the grand elders.
Each of the large cities of the north as well as the royalty were now aware of the danger that the demigods posed and were beefing up their cities defenses. They were now spending gold like water, hiring any adventure with a sword to become new city guards.
Earlier in the day, a small group of refugees who heard about the job opportunities had gathered together at Kodrias trade plaza and then headed north to try and test their luck at being a city guard for one of the large cities.
“Is Tormoid still refusing to join today’s meeting as well?” asked Akira as he sat down at the long wooden meeting table.
Bang! The door to the meeting room slammed open causing everyone to turn to the person that had just stormed into the room.
“Important news! The trade city Jerora has sent a messenger with word that the demigods are moving towards Froit! Although it is quite at their borders, for now, the governor thinks that after they take down Froit, they will come after Jerora. He wants us to send soldiers to help push back those that will be coming for them,” said Klyn. He was breathing heavily from his run to the meeting room.
Akira turned to one of the door guards and said, “Go inform Tormoid that he’s needed for this meeting and if he does not listen then you have my permission to drag him here.”
The guard saluted and jogged off to the room that Tormoid was staying at.
Their wait was not long as they soon heard angry curses coming from down the hallway.
“Unhand me fool! I am the Grandelder of the Bloody claw clan!”
Tormoid was unceremoniously shoved into the meeting room and the door closed behind him immediately blocking his attempt to leave the room.
“Ahem…Grand elder Tormoid please stop giving the rest of us Grand elders a bad image,” said Grand elder Àaron.
Tormoid straightened his shoulders and walked to the only empty chair at the table.
“What did you have the guard drag me here for?” asked Tormoid glaring at Akira.
“We just got word from Jerora and need your answer on sending troops north to fight the demigods,” said Akira.
“We will not be able to send any spare warriors for your war. We need everyone to protect our own people and can not go help Jerora,” said Tormoid.
“Understandable…” said Akira before turning to the others.
“The King and Queen have ordered a battalion to come north and join you in the fight against the demigods,” said representative Ieec.
“We will send out a company of our warriors as well! They are on their way here as we speak,” said Crulak.
“You know that all our warriors will join you in whatever fight must be fought,” said Chief Roc.
The other two chiefs nodded their heads in agreement with him.
“We Orcs do not want to get rusty so we will all go wherever you point us to! Plus it will be a great time to test the younglings in battle,” said Varbu as he thumped his chest.
“Gi gi giii!” said Gobbers, not wanting to be outdone by Varbu.
Everyone in the room had given Tormoid stares of disdain and were now ignoring him for his lack of sincerity even after all that had happened over the last few weeks and months.
“When your warriors arrive Crulak, we will make our way to Jerora. The rest of you can join us when your warriors arrive. Grand elders I leave the other items on the list for you to take care of,” said Akira standing up from the table.
Akira gave a small bow to the grand elders and left the room to start the process of gathering the supplies for a march north.
***
“Why are you traveling with us?” Akira asked as he saw Tormoid following along with the expedition force.
They had already sailed north and were now marching through the fresh winter snow to reach Jerora.
“I am only traveling with you for convenience and will be returning to my clan soon,” said Tormoid.
All along their march Akira had been sending outriders to warn the small villages and towns they passed. Many were already aware and were either fortifying or packing up to leave for a larger town.
There were only a few remote villages that did not know of the current events of the north.
As they marched towards Jerora a large civilian caravan had started to follow behind them growing bigger after every town or village they passed.
Several of the warriors from the small villages and towns joined the march wanting to help fight and protect the north from the Demigods.
The gathering of warriors and soldiers from many different demon races as well as human villages was really a sight to see.
***
“What took you guys so long to capture this place?” asked Fela, standing atop the stone wall of Froit.
“We had difficulties,” said Bland.
“With this, our presence in the north is solidified and the other guilds will have to pay us to use the city. With the money I can raise here the guild will be able to afford all the new armor and weapon upgrades to keep ourselves at the top!” said Fela happily.
After her happy daydreaming, she returned her gaze to those standing near her.
“You guys are so weak. Why are you not stronger than the common nobodies back on Halrverold? What have you been doing that you still have not completed your mission?”
“That’s easy for you to say since you have been playing around over there having an easy time getting stronger, while we have been struggling and constantly dying to the strong monsters here,” said Phobia.
“It can’t be that bad. You guys are just slacking off. Gather everyone and after you finish cleaning up we’ll head out to our next destination,” said Fela, brushing off all their words as poor excuses coming from a lazy person.
“You’ll see…” muttered Phobia angrily under her breath.
***
Dong! Ding! Dong!
The deep booming alarm bell continued to ring from its large tower at the center of the city warning the villagers of an attack.
There was no need now as everyone could hear the clash of swords hitting metal armor and wooden shields along with the cries of battle.
“Kill them all! Gyahahahah!” shouted a crazed Demigod as he chased after fleeing civilians. He carelessly swung his sword out and slashed a fleeing man’s tendons.
“AH!” With his leg muscles cut the man fell to the ground in a cry of pain.
“Don’t worry, it is just a scratch. I won’t let you die yet, I have to practice some of my skills on you,” said the demigod as he severed the man’s right hand.
Several other demigods were rushing towards the tower where the bell was ringing. They were only able to break the solid wooden door after using several flashy skills.
With the door now in splinters they entered and began slaughtering those who were hiding inside the stone tower. Their bloody footprints soon reached the top of the tower silencing the ringing bells.
“Ah that’s better, those clanging bells were getting on my nerves. Now I can listen to the soothing noise of the clashing swords on flesh, the cries of the dying and the howls of …” said one demigod.
“Wait…howls?” the demigods looked out one of the square windows of the large bell tower and saw a large mass of mismatched demon race warriors quickly surrounding the village!
“ENEMY ATTACK!” shouted the demigod frantically as he leaned out of the window trying to get the other’s attention to their impending doom.
Several demigods laughed when they heard him, “Enemies? Where? There’s nothing but prey here.”
Others ignored him and continued torturing their captives by testing out their skills on live targets.
“Grrrr…” one of those torturers felt a quick gust of wind on his neck and turned around to see a massive white Snow wolf only an inch away from his face.
Yellow moisture ran down the demigod’s legs and before he could fall on his butt from the shock the large jaw of the Snow wolf opened wide and bit down on the demigod’s neck.
The demigod was helpless in the jaws of the large creature as he was shaken back and forth like a rag doll, his neck breaking in the process.
As the large snow wolf continued to shake the body two black wolves appeared near him out of the shadows.
‘Stop playing with your food. We still have a lot of them that need to be killed,’ said Nox 1.
“GRRRR,” said Fluffball as he turned his back to them ignoring Nox 1’s words.
He gave the demigod one last shake to show his defiance before biting down and severing the man’s head with a crunch of bones. Several more crunches were heard as he chewed the demigod’s skull and swallowed his prize.
Soon after the body disappeared into light fragments.
Fluffball looked to the ground at the bloody mess of what he thought was a human. The body had had all of its skin flayed and limbs severed. As he watched the body breathed its last breath.
The town’s cries of pain switched from the humans to the demigods who were now surrounded wherever they went and were being hunted down by the combined army of many different warriors.
Even if they killed one or two there was another to take the dead warrior’s place.
“Stop! Do you know who I am?” asked a haughty demigod as he dogged a skill attack from Akira’s sword.
“No,” said Akira as he sent another attack flying towards the demigod cutting down a different demigod on his left.
“I am Eric Shun of the clan Demon hunters! You’re dead if you don’t stop attacking us!”
“Ooof!” Eric Shun was knocked to the ground from an attack on his back.
The heavy Fluffball stood proudly atop of the demigod who was trying to stand back up but could not.
Seeing this Grarr stomped down with his large paw and smashed the demigod’s head silencing the cursing man.
“GRRRR!” Fluffball gave Grarr an angry snarl for stealing his kill.
“Calm down Fluffball there will be more of them to kill in the future,” said Akira as he reached down from atop Grarr and ruffled the fur on Fluffball’s large furry head.
***
In the far remote corners of Foradverold, the dark fog continued to roll outwards slowly.
With the massive monster migration, many villages and small towns were overrun by them. The small hunter cabins and rural farmers were all wiped out.
In their place, tens of hundreds of shambling moaning dark figures appeared.
“Haa… this is so slow. I want to just kill them all,” said Tibia, annoyed at the fog’s slow pace.
“We can’t do that! That would defeat our whole purpose here! The many years of hard work would all be destroyed! It is slow now but once we get going it will be faster… I think,” said Bonestringer.
“Hmph… I’m going somewhere else,” said Tibia as she walked away.
“Your … where are you going Tibia?” asked Bonestringer reluctantly following her.
“You’ll see soon enough!”
