Akira, along with the cavalry, followed the directions given to them by the shaman messenger. They rode hard to reach the hidden encampment where Varbu, Prince Gobbers, and the rest of the main allied force waited.
As they passed through the army’s picket line Akira, his guards and Klyn separated from the cavalry and headed for the center of the encampment, where a large gray command tent had been erected.
On the inside of the tent, there were a few braziers burning the dry manure produced by the reindeer and horses of the army. Other than the braziers there was a small table which Varbu, Gobbers, and a few other officers were sitting around talking about their current problem.
“Is this the latest report?” asked Varbu.
“Gii, gii giiii giiiiiii gi,” said Prince Gobbers, nodding his head.
The group, hearing someone entering the tent, turned to see Akira, Klyn, and Zundar enter, while the rest of the group waited outside with the other guards.
“What’s the situation?” asked Akira.
“Commander, we just got new information from those keeping an eye on the settlement,” said Varbu as he held up a piece of paper.
“The scouts were able to see several of the Demigods die while fighting the infected outside the city walls. They also noted down the types of skills they saw being used. All this was nothing unusual, what surprised them was those same Demigods appeared back inside the city the next day fully in-tack and healthy although some were missing pieces of armor and weapons. The scouts reported that they have seen this happen at least two times so far.”
“This is indeed a strange and big discovery. We knew that they were able to revive but have never actually found any other information on the matter. Did the scouts find out a reason for why they appeared inside the city?” asked Akira as he sat down on one of the empty stools surrounding the table.
“They have not. With the large Molten Onyx Infected army surrounding the city, they have been unable to enter or get close to the city to listen in on any conversations. They have only been able to scout from high in the sky. If they get too close their familiars risk getting shot at by skills and projectiles of the demigods and city defenders.”
“How big are the two forces?”
“Three to five thousand civilians, most of them are people who fled from the surrounding smaller villages. There are around a hundred demigods but it’s hard to keep track of their actual number with them dying and reappearing all the time. As for the Molten Onyx Infected at first, there were only a few hundred and they were taken care of by the demigods. But, the city seems to be some sort of magnet as there are nearly 1600 of them currently surrounding it. From the reports, this force is not organized as a single army but is instead just a few separate large groups led by several of those new infected that experienced growth.”
Akira nodded, coming to an immediate decision. “Zundar, Klyn, you are to support Varbu and Gobbers who will be fighting the infected outside the wall. I will lead a small team to take care of the demigod problem.”
“I’m coming with you!” said Mileena.
“Of course,” said Akira.
***
“Looks like my assessment of the situation was right,” said Akira as they arrived a short distance away from the small city of Wribrock.
There were several hundreds of Molten Onyx Infected milling about at the base of the left and right ice-covered wooden walls as well as the rear wall of the city. In each of the groups, there were several infected that had gone through growth trying to climb up the icy wall or repeatedly slamming into it trying to destroy the wall.
At the front wall just outside the city’s gate, there was a small pocket of demigods vigorously fighting the infected.
“Remember to keep to the plan!” shouted Akira as he motioned for Varbu and Prince goobers to start their attack.
The two led their forces to attack the infected near the rear wall. The soldiers that they led were mainly infantry, ranged troops, and a small force of cavalry to help take care of any troublesome problems that popped up.
They had chosen to attack the rear wall to make sure that the demigods would be on the complete opposite side of them, unable to interfere.
Akira watched for several long minutes as a large portion of the infected were pulled from the sidewalls and moved to the rear to face the new attacking enemy that had caught their attention.
“Forward!” ordered Akira, pointing his war hammer at the enemy far ahead of them.
As one, his guards and the remaining cavalry began their charge.
***
“Toshie, the number of infected seem to be thinning out,” shouted an orange robbed demigod male.
He then used his large orange staff to shoot a large fireball at one of the many infected that were surrounding them in a semicircle.
“Orange, don’t let your guard down! We haven’t killed enough for that to happen. They might be planning something,” shouted Toshie.
Tooshie stood on the front line along with fifteen other heavily armored knight demigods. They each used their various skills to hold back the infected and weather their attacks allowing the demigods behind them to hurl their powerful skills at the massed mob of easy prey.
Several other melee demigods watched from the city wall and saw the danger was lessening as the number of infected outside the gates decreased. They decided this was the right time to join the others outside so they could gain some benefits.
The demigods paid no attention to the rear or sides of the city since they had left those areas to the city’s civilians to defend while they farmed the infected near the front gate.
“Trex, why are you guys joining us only now?! We could have used your help earlier so the others wouldn’t have died,” shouted Orange. He hurled another explosive fireball that damaged several of the clustered normal infected in front of Tooshie.
“Watch where you’re shooting! That almost hit me!” shouted Tooshie.
“Orange I’ve died twice already! I was just waiting for the others to join me before coming out but now with the 60 or so of us we can make short work of them!” said Trex, who was also wearing robes but held onto a large blue book.
Trex held his blue book in his left hand and began reciting one of the skills stored in the book while pointing his right hand at one of the wounded Molten onyx infected.
Seconds later three water arrows formed above his right hand and shot forward each of them slammed into the same spot of the large wound on the infected’s head, managing to pierce all the way through.
“Even though we’ve been stuck at this village it has been a great benefit for us,” said Trex.
“You only care about the message from the guild leader saying whoever gets the most points will be promoted to an officer,” said Orange.
While the two were arguing Toshie noticed a swift black mist cloud coming right towards them!
“An attack for the left!” he shouted out a warning!
Unfortunately for him, the other knights and the raging barbarians who were standing in the front line were unable to move. They had used several different defensive skills that boosted their defense and balance at the cost of being unable to move their legs while the skills lasted.
Before those behind Toshie could form a proper defense the black mist cloud engulfed everyone, obscuring their entire vision.
***
As the cavalry pierced through the weakened gathering of infected, they continued charging forward slamming into the demigods. The demigods that could move were now blindly waving their weapons and shooting off skills into the dark, they were only able to see their attackers when it was too late.
They were trampled on, knocked senseless by the blunt weapons, and a few lucky people were even knocked into the reaching arms of the Molten onyx infected. They were torn apart in seconds.
As the cavalry continued their charge forward, not stopping, Akira and a small force made up of his guards and several volunteers already transformed jumped from their mounts…
…and latched onto the icy wooden front wall. Using their sharp claws of both their hands and feet they stabbed them into the icy wood and started to climb up.
Akira pulled himself over the wall and came face to face with a female demigod that was using a bow as her weapon of choice.
Before a skill could be used, Akira swiped his claws across the female’s neck nearly severing her head.
With a swipe of his tail, he knocked away a lunging spear from the rear. Dolph pulled himself up onto the wall and used sharp claws to pierce the heart of the attacker.
Pii’per struggled furiously to flap her wings and gently dropped Mileena down on the wall next to Akira.
The dark mist was now clearing up allowing the surviving Demigods on the ground to see once again. It was too late for them to do anything now that the front walls and gate to the city were under the control of Akira and his allies.
They now were stuck outside and did not have a force strong enough to hold off or destroy the infected that surrounded them. One by one they were pulled down, torn apart, and eaten alive.
Akira watched all of this from the wall. While watching the gruesome demise of the Demigods he witnessed an infected that looked like a fox, start to evolve after it ate one of the demigods.
A dark light emitted from its body and its rough and clunky stone exterior started to ripple becoming smother and skinnier. Several seconds later a purple gem formed on its chest just under its neck.
Ding!
-
You have gained more information on the Molten Onyx Infected by witnessing an evolutionary growth.
The fox that had just gone through growth gained a small portion of smarts back. It looked towards the remaining demigods and sent a silent command to all of those nearby to attack the demigods and not the walls.
“Mileena, Pii’per, and you other volunteers stay here to protect the wall and keep the gate shut!” Akira before he hopped off the wall with Dolph Vilkas and several other bodyguards following behind him.
He raced through the streets of the small city, sniffing the air searching for traces of demigods.
There were no fresh scents inside the city that he could smell. His nose was telling him that the area with the strongest scent was the town center plaza so he started to head in that direction.
Akira noticed that each of the buildings he passed had several pairs of eyes staring at him warily. He sensed no threat coming from them so he paid them no attention.
As he arrived to inspect the plaza along with Dolph and Vilkas. Two bright sparkling lights flashed in front of his eyes revealing two demigods.
The two demigods were both missing several pieces of armor and were already in a discussion not noticing the werewolves charging towards them.
“Damn, I died so quickly yesterday that I was unable to get any points! If I don’t show off my fighting skills I won’t ever get the chance to be promoted to an officer.”
“Ha! With your poor skill and constantly losing equipment, you won’t even be given the chance. You have to pay back that large debt of yours for every piece of equipment you keep losing before they would even allow something like that to happen.”
Before they knew what happened the two had their limbs torn apart and their heads smashed in.
Akira and the others continued to search the city for any hidden demigods but found none.
He made his way to one of the walls occupied by the defending city guards and civilian volunteers.
“Hail friend!!” shouted a skinny man with long black hair when he saw the furry Akira and guards approaching them. “Did you take the front gates?”
“We did. What’s the situation here? Where are the rest of the demigods?”
“The situation? We have been held hostage here by the demigods! We wanted to leave when they first cleared the infected that had surrounded the city but they killed anyone who tried to leave. They have been forcing us to guard these walls while they fought the infected that continued to show up!”
“As for the rest of the demigods, they will most likely return later this afternoon. A large number of them died yesterday around that time.”
“Do you know where they’ll show up?” asked Akira.
“For some reason, they seem to always appear at the central plaza of the city. That is where you will be able to find them when and if they do appear.”
Akira nodded his head. “We will be breaking this siege and when that happens the entire city needs to be ready to move out!”
“Send some messengers that the people will listen to and spread the word,” said Vilkas.
“Will do, friend! With your forces taking care of the infected outside, the walls should be safe enough for me to send some of my warriors to the central plaza and set up an ambush for the next demigods that arrive.”
“I’ll have a few of my warriors join them,” said Akira.
“Awooooo!” He let out a long howl giving new orders to those near the front gate.
“I’ll leave the wrangling of the citizens to you, we still have a lot of fighting to do,” said Akira in a rough voice.
He waved to the skinny man and headed back to the front gates to rejoin the cavalry so they could continue clearing up the infected.
