A full day had passed since the siege of the city. With the Beastmen driven off and the remaining defenders taking count of their losses, Agosvale was slowly but surely able to recover.
A missive had been sent out to the capital to report the sudden incursion by the Beastmen. In hopes to draw support from the Queen and to bolster the moral of the people, Commander Welheart had taken to organizing the defending forces to scout out the area around the city. No good could come from any stragglers left in the forests.
While the defenders had taken losses, they had been lucky that casualties had not surpassed fifty percent of their total forces. A rarity in current times, as most cities faced a near total obliteration by the Beastmen and their ravenous armies.
The three cities eastward of Agosvale had lost contact with the rest of The Dragon Kingdom, and only sparse stories of debauchery, horrific feasts of human flesh, and bloody sacrifices reached their ears. None of it encouraging.
Since the beginning of the war, if it could be called that, The Dragon Kingdom had lost thousands of its people to the Beastmen Nation. If not from fighting, then those killed were used as food or sent to places unknown to be used as slaves. Rumors and hearsay spoke of The Empire secretly dealing with the Beastmen, or that an even larger country was forcing the Beastmen west to The Dragon Kingdom.
No one in power believed that Baharuth would deal with the savage beasts, but a stronger nation making them desperate enough to attack the Kingdom? A frightening prospect.
As Commander Welheart looked over the provisions and continuing reports on the city he sighed in exhaustion. He was thankful, damn near in tears, that Agosvale was still standing, let alone that more of his men were alive than he would have expected. But the casualties were still high and too many sections of the city had been damaged to his liking. Better than being dead, but only by so much.
"Commander, we have the latest reports."
More reports. Great. Welheart turned in his makeshift desk to the messenger, one of his Lieutenants, as he handed him the report. The smaller stack of papers finding company near the much larger stack on his desk.
With much of the city still damaged, the only appropriate commodities for him and the other officers was in a tavern near the church. Located near the center of the city it provided adequate centralization, but it also smelled like cheap alcohol and damp wood. Most of the civilians were relocated in the middle of the city, those lucky enough were able to move back into their housing, while others had to find refuge in tents or with friends and family.
Anyone else had to stick it out closer to the walls or in the damaged frames of burnt houses. Not the best options, but at least no one was forced outside the city.
Welheart rubbed his eyes, dark circles already forming from another sleepless night, and the words on the parchment looking like blobs and squiggles. He hated literature sometimes.
Taking notice of the Lieutenant still being present, and fidgeting with his hands, Welheart sought to address the issue.
"You need something Lieutenant, or are you just standing there to look pretty?" Welheart spoke while signing another order, not even bothering to look up from his parchment.
The Lieutenant seized up before he could bring his thoughts to bare.
"Sir the uh… the men… well it's about those tree things and uh…" he stumbled off as the Commander turned to glare at him.
"Lieutenant. Don't waste what little time I have by mumbling about something I might need to know. Talk." The Lieutenant swallowed before continuing.
"Sir, the men, and everyone else, they're getting nervous about the tree creatures. They're also asking a lot of questions about that man and who he is. It's… getting to be an issue, sir."
Welheart paused in his writing, placing his quill down to rub between his forehead and nose. Of course, everyone would be asking about the trees and the magic caster; being the highest-ranking officer in the city, he was the one expected to answer their questions.
Like he had any damn idea.
"Are the nobles getting uppity again?" Welheart asked.
"Yes sir, but it's also the civilians, the merchants, the adventurers, everyone sir."
"Everyone then. Great." Welheart groaned, he had half a mind to let the Beastmen back into the city just to escape the bureaucracy.
He and everyone in the city owned that man a debt. He was grateful, everyone was, that he had appeared when he did. Just flew right into the battle, summoned those tree creatures and took to the battle with nothing more than a sword while slaughtering the Beastmen. There wasn't a man, woman, or child that didn't want to kiss the man on his face after hearing about it. There was also no shortage of adventurers who wanted to see the man for some reason. Likely to team up or sponsor him, like the merchants or nobles.
After the battle was over, the man just came up to the city and started healing people. While healing magic was far from unknown, or rare, having the ability to heal hundreds at a time was something no one in Agosvale had ever seen. His magic was so powerful that soldiers on the brink of death, with missing limbs or hemorrhaging, were healed to such an extent that their limbs regrew, their bodies were filled full of blood, rot and gout disappeared, and any other minor injuries were erased from existence.
He'd heard some of the local priests arguing over something about providence and divine intervention. Welheart hoped the church wasn't going to get involved in an already delicate situation. His eyes and his writing hand couldn't take it.
As for the tree creatures, they stayed outside of the city near the defensive line. Ever since they started patrolling in Agosvale all they'd done was lumber along the outskirts of the city and stand guard. It unnerved the guards and everyone else, but since they hadn't made any aggressive moves no one bothered them.
Which was just fine for Welheart, he had enough to deal with and a confrontation with those creatures was the last thing he needed. It wouldn't end well for anyone in Agosvale, if the Beastmen corpses scattered around could attest to their strength.
Welheart wetted his mouth, finished dotting his parchment, then looked to the Lieutenant who was still on edge, but seemed to have gained his footing after his statement to the Commander.
"Where is he right now?" Welheart questioned.
"Sir the… man is in the same house he was yesterday," The Lieutenant answered. "He came out several times to check on the civilians and to look over the city. He also requested to see one of our men, a Captain Tagar sir."
Tagar? Captain Hammar? Welheart had no idea why the man wanted to talk to Hammar, but that was something to investigate later. For now, he needed to rip the old gauze off, and nip this issue in the bud before it grew out of control.
"Alright. I'm going to talk with this man, you're excused for now Lieutenant," Welheart ordered while standing up. Picking his sword up from the wall it was leaning on, Welheart walked out of the moist tavern air. "Report back to your station and keep an eye out for the other officers. Make sure none of them try anything stupid with the trees, and if the nobles or anyone not under my direct command bothers you, just say that I'm taking care of it and move on. Got it?"
"Sir, yes sir." With that the Lieutenant walked away at a brisk pace, glad to be away from the Commanders aggravated mood.
Welheart stretched his neck and back, satisfying cracks sounding as his spine realigned itself, before nodding at two of the guards nearest him. They reported to his sides and accompanied him to the temporary abode of this powerful mystery man, hopefully not for the last time.
Gods I'm going to get absolutely smashed after this I swear…
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When he took his first step into the city he saw the broken-down wall and the burnt buildings. First impressions were not great, and Graham knew that it was going to get worse before it got better.
He hadn't seen things like war up close in real life. The history books from school showed plenty of examples, some with pictures from the Arcology War, the World Wars, and even pottery depicting ancient warfare from Rome or China or wherever. His professors, some of who had fought in the Arcology War, stressed the concept of learning from these wars, not to simply prepare for them, but to avoid and mitigate them whenever possible.
Graham had taken after his father in his beliefs that war, and the military, were not glorious and that it should never be indorsed or seen as righteous. It was something that needed to end quick, to be seen in all its horror, and to learn from it. That was it.
Graham knew why his father told him that, but he wasn't prepared to see the results of war.
The bleeding soldiers, the men and women rushing around trying to keep people alive for a little while longer. The men sitting or standing around unable to do anything but watch, wait, or die from mortal wounds. The helplessness was more palpable than anything he'd ever experienced.
Everyone who wasn't a soldier wasn't much better. They were scared. So scared and confused. He saw it in their eyes, in their faces and bodies. Children crying and weeping, not screaming loudly with vigor, but whimpering silently as adults and older children huddled near them and did the same. Just… quieter.
Graham felt daggers of hot and cold in his lungs. He was so scared to see people like this. This wasn't Yggdrasil, nothing in Yggdrasil could come close to this. This wasn't a game, this wasn't fun or like an adventure where killing the monster saved the day and the hero had a happily ever after.
This was real. Visceral.
He almost cried. He nearly broke down from the realization that these people, real, living, thinking people, were under this kind of suffering. He read about the consequences of war but seeing it first hand was more than he could take.
But he didn't break down. Instead he felt something in him spark.
He knew he had magic. He knew he had items of great power. He also knew he could defeat those 'Beastmen' that tried to kill these people.
So, he knew damn well he was going to do something with that knowledge.
He was surprised at how powerful [Greater Healing] had been. He already used it on that one soldier, whose name he later learned was Tagar, but he didn't know to what extent it could heal people. When he used it in conjunction with [Widen Magic] he was just as shocked as everyone around him.
He saw several soldiers grow their arms, legs, and hands back in seconds. Wounds that covered half a man's body were sealed shut with no scar or marks, as if it never existed. Rotting limbs lost their dirty brown complexion and pale skin shined with a healthy glow as feeling and vigor returned to their owners.
Everyone around him seemed to be in awe as his magic did its work, and many more stopped to stare at what could only be described as a miracle. Graham could barely keep his jaw from hanging at the amount of people he healed, and how quickly the healing process worked its magic. Regrowing limbs wasn't exactly in his spell's description back in Yggdrasil, but in this world it seemed to do exactly that and more.
In all honesty, that shouldn't have shocked him as much as it did, given he summoned four Ancient Treemen and fought an army of Beastmen with a Divine class weapon.
But it did.
Everything after that was a blur, with people moving around, Graham healing anyone that needed it, and the soldiers securing the surrounding area. He made sure to send out a mental command to the Treemen to stay out of the city while remaining near the walls. Big creatures did not do well in tiny spaces, and Treemen were plenty big.
Thus, Graham found himself in a decently sized house, courtesy of the soldiers and that Commander Welheart. They seemed fairly accommodating to his situation and left him to his own devices for the most part. He went out a couple times since arriving to check on the people, and to get a feel for the city. Most of what he felt was fear, tiredness, and more fear on the part of the people, though they seemed to be doing better as time moved on.
Not a fantastic thing to see or feel, but it was better than having the entire city be six feet under and being compost for the soil.
He also had a feeling the Commander placed him in the house to keep him away from everyone else, and from the soldiers. Maybe because he thought Graham was still a threat, which was understandable, or because he just didn't want to deal with him for the time being. Again, understandable. Graham wouldn't want to deal with anyone like himself if his home had been attacked by hairy beast monsters.
Sitting near the edge of his bed, which was just some straw with a quilted blanket on top a wooden frame, Graham fiddled with an object from Yggdrasil. Rather, THE object from Yggdrasil.
The item was in the shape of a cube with a dark glossy surface. It was perfectly shaped with its clean and smooth surface to its sharp and pointy edges and corners. It was about the size of an adult's palm, no bigger than a fist and as heavy as a paperweight. It was simple, small, almost insignificant in how mundane it appeared. But it had to be the same Seed from before since it was the only item in his inventory that he didn't immediately recognize.
Not sure if I should be amazed or just…I don't know. Graham's face scrunched up, consternation filling his expression. There's no way this is Yggdrasil. Just no way.
Graham tried to examine the cube with his magic to see if there was some hidden power or gimmick, like some items in Yggdrasil, but nothing. It was a dark, glossy cube. No magic. No abilities. No secrets. Nothing.
Graham sighed.
"Of all the things today, you have got to be the strangest," Graham spoke while holding the cub up above his head. "What now? What am I supposed to do with a cube?"
He felt tired again. Nothing new, but now he could take some time for himself and start to really process his situation.
He was in a new world, with monsters and magic, magic that was potentially like magic in Yggdrasil for some reason. That also meant that there was a connection between this world and Yggdrasil in some weird, magical way. So maybe he could get back to Yggdrasil and back to his world if he could find that connection.
Or maybe not. Maybe he was stuck. He frowned deeply at the thought. He still had family, his sister and his parents, his friends, his school and his life. There were a lot of things he could lose if he couldn't return home. A lot of things left undone.
Graham signed once more as his head hung. He gripped the cube ever so slightly.
One thing at a time. Getting ahead of myself isn't going to help if I'm just going to mope about it.
Hearing a knock at the door, Graham raised his head. Wonder who it is?
"Who is it?" Graham asked.
"Commander Welheart." Came the reply.
Oh. Cool. Graham wasn't surprised it was the Commander, but he could see through the door that he had two other people with him. Likely as body guards incase of something happening. Probably because of him.
Graham released a breath of air, already dreading the idea of being chewed out by the Commander. He probably did something stupid without realizing it, and since everyone was still on pins and needles around him, they were probably too nervous to speak out against him.
"Door's unlocked, you can come in." Graham said while standing up, and subtly placing the cube back in his inventory.
As he expected the Commander and his bodyguards entered his temporary abode and proceeded to close the door behind him. One of the men stood at attention near the door while the other stood against the wall to Grahams right. The Commander took up the remaining spot in front of Graham, standing face to face with him.
Graham took notice of how the Commander appeared more ragged than the previous day, his eyes had darker circles that almost looked like holes drilled into his skull. His face somehow looked more unshaven and scragglier like he'd aged a couple years in one night. His eyes were bloodshot from a clear lack of sleep, and they were almost entirely red around the whites of his eyes.
In short, he looked both exhausted and terrifying. Not helping with Grahams nerves at all.
The Commander stood at attention while glancing up and down at Graham, noticing how he was only slightly shorter than the stranger. He hadn't gotten a clear look at him with all the hectic business around the city, but now that he had the time, he was honestly surprised.
He looked younger than his own son, barely past twenty summers. He was rather plain and ordinary in his presentation with only a dark blue coat to cover most of his upper body, some dark colored pants and shoes that looked to be made from boiled leather. While his skin tone and hair were something of a rarity within the Dragon Kingdom, he'd seen others with similar qualities, darker skin and lighter hair, in some neighboring nations.
His eyes were probably the most unusual thing about him, but even that seemed somewhat mundane with only the common brown that his own eyes possessed being overlaid by gentle golden tendrils.
"You wanted to speak with me?" Graham asked.
Welheart's snapped back to reality. He hadn't realized how long he had been staring at the man's eyes. That… might have made it awkward.
"I do," Welheart nodded. "First before anything else, I jut wanted to thank you for helping us when you did. You didn't have to, you could have just left and flown away, but you didn't. So, in representing the city of Agosvale and its people, thank you."
"Oh, uh, of course. No problem." Graham blushed.
"Hm," Welheart hummed, noting Grahams expression. "Moving on, I wanted to get to know exactly who it is that saved our city."
Graham cringed. He wasn't against letting people know who he was, but…
"That… might be a bit complicated."
Welheart raised a brow but appeared to have no reservations about Grahams statement. Graham rubbed the back of his neck, uncertain of how to go about explaining everything.
"So, maybe I should start at the beginning," Graham smiled weakly. "I don't suppose Yggdrasil means anything here?"
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Tagar groaned as he tried to work out a kink in his back. Walking throughout the dense forests of Agosvale, he and several other men had combed through its brushes and brambles looking for any straggling Beastmen or Beastmen scouts. So far, they had found only several corpses of Beastmen, either bled out after being abandoned by the remaining army or victims from scavengers in the forests.
The late day stretched the shadows of trees across the forest. The brownish green ground streaked with thick, dark lines, and the treetops resembled the dark roof of a stable with their all-encompassing blockage of the sky. It felt like a jail cell out in the middle of nowhere.
The Captain ensured that he and his men were tight in formation, near enough that they could see each other's blind spots in case of an ambush. Tagar kept a careful eye out for any magic casters or assassins.
"Captain, we've combed this area at least four times. There's nothing here," One of his men, Bakker, spoke out. "With respect, shouldn't we report back? It's getting late in the day and I would rather we be in the city before night, sir."
Tagar turned back to Bakker's direction to look him directly in the eye. He felt around his left hip to where sword was before touching the flute. The man, Graham, had said it was magical and could summon warriors to his side in a moment's notice.
Tagar felt some small satisfaction in that he could have reinforcements come at the blink of an eye. Two dozen warriors just by blowing wind into a wooden instrument. Hell, he'd never even played the flute, never liked how much it sounded like a bird with all the shrill and sharp noises it made.
Still, Bakker was right. It was getting dark and his men were tired and antsy, the same as him.
"Aye, it is I suppose," Tagar said as he turned to look up at the sky. "Alright lads let's head back. No use staying here if we're going to bellyache about it." Tagar joked towards Bakker, who smirked back at him.
"Yes sir, just like you bellyache about working on your reports." Bakker's eyes shone with well-intended mischief.
The others lightly chuckled at the banter, and even Tagar cracked a smile.
"Suppose you'll be doing it for me then, aye lads?" Tagars comment earned some groans and gasps, all in good spirit of course.
Most of the boys under his watch couldn't write more than a couple words, they could read well enough sure, but their writing looked more like ancient script than the modern tongue.
Tagar and his men had just begun their march back towards Agosvale, when they heard something approaching them. A subtle sound of thrush-thrush, something moving quickly across the leaf covered ground.
Tagar signaled his men to prepare, waving his hand for a circled formation. Whatever it was, it was coming from their rear, away from the city and likely not one of theirs.
His men drew their swords and raised their spears, while Tagar himself unsheathed his own blade and shield. He grazed the flute once more with his fingertips, for protection or to calm his nerves, he wasn't sure.
As the sound of running came closer, Tagar could make out the figure of a man in dark green clothing, a hood and what looked to be knives at his side. An Assassin, one that he'd seen before.
Before being sent out on their patrol in the woods, Tagar had seen several other groups of soldiers and adventurers being ordered about by Commander Welheart. He recalled seeing the Assassin amongst a group of silver and gold ranked adventurers.
"Arms down lads. He's one of ours." The tension immediately dropped between everyone, but Tagar was still on edge. Why would an Assassin from the Adventures Guild be running back to the city alone and with such haste?
Tagar waved down the man as he neared them.
He almost seemed to miss Tagar but was able to catch his movements in time to slow down next to his group.
"What's the trouble friend? Found some stragglers from the Beastmen, or have they regrouped already?" Tagar asked towards the panting adventurer.
Trying to catch his breath, the hooded adventurer pointed back where he had come from.
"Beastmen…army…," He panted before speaking again. "An army of Beastmen… bigger than the last is coming. My teammates were killed by an advanced scouting group before we could get out."
Oh, fuck. Tagar swore in his head. Agosvale was just starting to rebuild after the first attack and they didn't have half the men needed to push back another.
"How much larger, and how soon will they reach the city?" Tagar gripped the man by his arms.
"At least twenty maybe thirty thousand. It has to be one of their major armies, it's too large and has too many powerful Beastmen."
Tagar and his men paled at the thought. The previous army had around ten thousand Beastmen. With up to three times that number, plus any powerful Beastmen leaders, there was no way Agosvale would survive.
"They're about a couple hours from the city, it will be nightfall by the time they arrive or sooner." The Assassin answered, panicked himself but breathing better.
Tagar looked again into the brush of the trees at the sky. It was closer to night than before they started their patrol, and if they had until the night then it would take no small amount of time before they could get back to the city.
They had no horses to ride with, as any left were being used in the city for transportation or helping in reconstruction. It would take him and his men, as well as the assassin, at least until the cusp of night to arrive.
By then it would be too late.
They wouldn't have the time to ready any defenses before the bulk of the army arrived. It would be night and half the garrison would be asleep. Not to mention the hole in the wall hadn't been fixed from the previous assault.
But there was still a chance…
"Get back to the city right now!" Tagar shouted, not even bothering to respond to his men as he fled towards Agosvale with all the haste he could muster.
Hearing his men and the Assassin follow behind him, his only thoughts were of getting to Agosvale before the Beastmen and hopefully getting Graham to enact another miracle for the city.
Gods be good to us, hopefully he can do something about this. No one else can.
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"So exactly how bad is the situation here?"
Welheart looked up from his drink. Graham looked back at him with concern, knowing that it wasn't an easy question to answer.
Since Graham began his story, and what a story it was, Welheart had to order one of his men out to fetch him a drink. A strong drink.
Graham regaled him of a world that was like his own. Goblins, Dragons, Humans, all the creatures that Welheart had known through stories and from experience. But Graham went further in his story. Yggdrasil, a word foreign to his ears, was where he resided and traveled. It was a world were the gods had an active hand in the law of the land, where massive Dragons fought against nameless Abominations, and where heroes were so well known it was considered strange for a world to have none. When he told Welheart that magic beyond the seventh tier was common, even if Welheart wasn't a practitioner of such mystic arts, he knew what something beyond the seventh tier of magic was.
The realm of the gods.
But Graham spoke and acted like it was nothing more than a typical thing, as if it was as easy as breathing or thinking.
If only it were.
Nursing his drink as he considered Grahams question, Welheart wondered if he was in a drunken stupor. Could be given the madness he was indulging in, other worlds and godly magic.
"We're understaffed to handle all the destruction we faced," Welheart sipped at his drink as he lamented to Graham. "We lost most of our officers and higher ups by the time you arrived. The General and his staff were forced into battle when the Beastmen first breached the city. When they drove them off, they were ambushed by thousands of Beastmen that were hiding in the forest and encircled."
Welheart and the two men with him grimaced at the memory. It had been going well until that point when many of their comrades were ambushed, and the General and other officers were singled out by the Beastmen, then killed on the spot.
When the Beastmen had first attacked it had been night, a time when visibility was at its weakest for the garrison. The beasts had a magic caster with them that allowed them to destroy a portion of the wall to the west, soon after Beastmen were flooding the city by the hundreds.
The General and his men had been ambushed but were able to rally enough support to drive off their assault, and even kill the magic caster.
Hoping to boost morale, and to deal with a potential future problem, the General set out to kill the fleeing Beastmen. It seemed to be going well at first. The Beastmen were unorganized and had only the most basic premise of strategy, that being to overwhelm their enemy in loose formations of mobs. Cavalry was king in moments like those, where the horses could trample and crush Beastmen and their riders could cut, slash and pierce their disease ridden hides with lance or sword.
Then thousands of Beastmen came from the forest, howling like madmen and animals while wielding their crude yet powerful weapons. Every soldier not in the field was ready to soil their britches.
"As of now, I'm the highest-ranking officer in Agosvale. Frankly, I'm the only officer in Agosvale that isn't feeding the worms right now." Welheart sighed before taking a deep drink, gulping loudly despite being in the company of his own subordinates.
Graham looked to Welheart and to his men. They were all tired, half dead with exhaustion but still alert and very aware of the danger they faced.
He knew the city wouldn't survive an attack of just half the strength of the last army, even if they had time to prepare. They needed support from their own kingdom, support that would arrive too late if what Graham heard was anything to go by.
"You said your Queen had thirty of her Generals on the front lines. Maybe one of them could send their forces here?" Graham pondered.
Welheart's face soured before looking back up from his drink
"Normally they would. But since this war began our forces have been scattered and stretched across the kingdom, with fewer men to defend each region. Even if one of the Generals received our missive, they could send no more than a thousand men." Welheart's grip around the cup tightened.
He knew it was almost hopeless the moment his General and most of the garrison were ambushed. There were maybe two thousand soldiers in Agosvale after the attack. They used to have almost four thousand.
That sounded terrible to have lost almost half their forces, but, most leaders faced near total annihilation against the Beastmen armies when in battle. Losing half their numbers was terrible enough but having half of the remaining soldiers was better than none.
Graham glanced worriedly towards the Commander. Everyone in the city was in danger until they could fix the defenses and receive reinforcements.
He wasn't sure how to approach the situation. Normally, when in Yggdrasil, saving the town or city from a monster was enough to finish a quest. Kill the beast, return to the quest giver, receive items and reward. A simple, linear process.
This wasn't a simple or easy process.
People were vulnerable here and without more support they wouldn't make it in the long term. Even with the Treemen and Dryads helping the city, Graham wasn't sure if there were stronger Beastmen that could destroy his summons. The army that he fought wasn't strong by Yggdrasil standards, but that didn't mean there weren't other armies or individuals that could make Yggdrasil look like a wet blanket.
He had to be careful about this. He trusted Welheart's input, but he knew he wasn't he most knowledgeable person in the world.
During their conversation, Graham learned much about the world he was in after explaining his own. Welheart explained much about his kingdom and its history, some of the local religion called the Four Great Gods, even a little bit about magic and adventurers. Not to mention their history with some dragon called The Brightness Dragon Lord, and how he somehow had children with the ancestors of the current monarchy.
He did make it clear to Graham that he knew little else of magic other than the tiers and some spells he had seen as a soldier. So his limited knowledge of magic was only so useful, but it did help establish that magic was commonplace in the kingdom, and in other nations around them.
The fact that first tier spells were considered normal, if not impressive, was very concerning for Graham. If anyone, or anything, from Yggdrasil came to this world that was over level fifty, hell over level thirty, it would be catastrophic.
He sweat dropped in remembering that he himself was game breaking in Yggdrasil, let alone this world. If he took off even a single limiter ring without considering the consequences, and if he cast a spell in his uninhibited state?
Who knows what would happen. Even he didn't know the ramifications of his own power.
Well, nothing worth doing is ever easy I suppose.
"Commander," Graham spoke up, Welheart focused his eyes back on Graham. "What's the chance of another army attacking the city?"
Welheart shifted his drink around, a tense look of concentration in his eyes.
"Almost certain. Given that enough Beastmen escaped your counter attack, it's likely they'll report to whoever the head Beastman is." Welheart swallowed the last bit of his drink.
"How many men do you need to defend the city?" Graham asked.
Welheart looked to the ceiling, cup empty and eyes glassing over.
"More." Welheart said.
The two bodyguards seemed to slump at their Commanders statement. They all knew it wouldn't be enough against a larger army of Beastmen. They didn't have enough reserves in their army to send to Agosvale, and the Adventurer Guild would only pay so much to send their adventurers to die against man-eating monsters. Even the adamantite adventurer team of Crystal Tear could only do so much with their small group of warriors.
In the long run, Agosvale was just another city that could afford to be lost if it bought the kingdom some time to prepare. It was a sad but pragmatic view.
Help wouldn't arrive in time, or if it did, it would only delay the inevitable. Even with Graham, who's story seemed almost mythical, victory didn't seem certain.
Graham's head wiped back suddenly, startling the Commander and his men into reaching for their respective swords on instinct.
"Something's wrong." Graham said quietly.
"What?" Welheart asked sharply. He could only take so many surprises in one lifetime.
Graham turned his head back to Welheart, his eyes shining with dim golden glow as they narrowed in focus. Like a hawk who realized it was flying into a rival's territory, it was a primal and hard concentration, something few would tempt to anger if they valued their lives.
"My Treemen just sent me a mental image," Graham explained while walking towards the door. "Tagar and some other soldiers just came running back from the forest. They looked panicked but I couldn't tell what they were saying."
Welheart felt his stomach drop into his foot.
Panicked men running back from patrol were always a bad sign. He'd seen it before when he was a private training in the west and near east. Welheart gritted his jaw at what could have sent almost a dozen seasoned soldiers running scared.
"Did your Treemen see where they are now?" Welheart bit his cheek in anticipation.
"They went past the gate. They're in the city." Graham answered back.
Welheart signaled to his men to let Graham through the door, with himself and his men on his tail.
This wasn't going to go over well, but Welheart was the head of the city. He needed to know.
Graham was also curious, and just as concerned. If the men that came back were so panicked and in such a wild rush, what could have scared them?
Deep down he had an idea of what it was.
He didn't like it.
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The plan had been simple at first. Just like all the others before them.
The first wave was meant to disrupt the human settlements and weaken their forces to make the invasion easier. The outlying settlements had already been raided and sacked by their forces for resources.
Especially food. The humans made good food for their warriors, and they made better sport when taken alive as playthings for the monsters they broke in.
But the newest city was meant to be a cakewalk.
A portion of the hoard was sent out to break down any serious defenses before killing their leadership. Destroy their security, disrupt their stability, and then finish off the wounded animal with overwhelming force.
Simple and effective, the same as any other.
"You bring me tales of defeat and the loss of over half the forces sent to weaken those soft worms. Despite the simple nature of the task, you return in disgrace and worse, you return alive where as my warriors did not."
The Beastmen cowered before their much larger leader. His towering form a reminder of his status as one of the strongest Beastmen in their entire nation. His growling voice, so deep that the cowering Beastmen could feel it reverberate in their chests, brought only the thought of terror to their souls. Failure was unacceptable to the Beast Lord before them, and failure was punished without a shred of mercy or respite.
"Ten thousand of our warrior kin reduced to mere scraps in a days' time." The Beast Lord padded around the several Beastmen, their forms crumbling in on themselves as he glared at them.
"Now, I want an explanation from you, or I will have your corpses feasted on by the war beasts after I am through crushing your skulls." The massive Beastman emphasized by stomping his hoof onto the ground, the earth trembling slightly and giving in around his hoof.
The collective Beastmen quivered, their bravado shattered by the presence of their Lord, and the other Beastmen encircling them in the camp. The snickers and snorts from the surrounding crowd only further demeaned their status and cemented their inevitable demise.
"A human, one with magic, it summoned giant monsters and killed a score of our kin with just a blade!" A younger Beastman with the body of a panther spoke up, terror quivering in his voice.
The Beast Lord looked down at the younger welp, his goat like face unreadable but tempered with an intelligent rage at odds with his animalistic nature.
"You allowed a human to best you. Is this your answer?"
The panther Beastman barely had a moment to correct his wording before his head was smashed to the ground. The others still kneeling on the ground made no notice of their younger kin's death, his head smashed open like a pumpkin while blood was splattered across the ground.
"I will not allow the reputation of my hoard to be diminished by having our own food best us!" The Beast Lord snarled with a madness in his eyes, now fully enraged. "I will slaughter half of my own before I allow any to question our strength! You lot will be the first, but not before I have made use of your walking corpses!"
The Beast Lord gripped one of his kneeling warriors by the neck, lifting them with the ease of lifting a sack of feathers. Such was the strength of a Beast Lord that he barely noticed the weight of the other Beastman, even while he was struggling in the Lords grip.
"We attack with our full strength, and we will smash that pathetic city before the sun rises on us all. I expect my warriors to have a victory feast upon the ashes of that maggot city, and I will not have superstitious and frightful fools ruin our glory." The Beast Lord threw the disgraced fighter on the ground, the weaker Beastman whimpered at his bruised state.
"Leave my sight. I do not want to see your weakness until after the slaughter, then I shall deal out your fates." Waving the chastised Beastmen away, the Beast Lord turned to walk to his private tent.
Made of simple wood and animal skin, the tent was meant for the Beast Lords personal use, whether for sleeping, meetings with his subordinates, or to relieve himself with one of his females when he was feeling particularly…in need. Only a select few were allowed into his private domain, so it was no surprise that the Lords second in command was present when he entered.
"Malcrox, tell me of our forces. I will not let this failure undo everything we have accomplished."
Malcrox, the second in command of all his forces, and a Magic Caster capable of casting third tier magic, bowed before answering.
"We have assembled all our warriors from the surrounding packs. Berserkers, Beast Tamers, Skull Crushers, Horn Gougers, and of course my cadre of Magic Casters are all bowed to your will, Beast Lord Qhorn." The aged Beastman bowed, his hyena traits on display with his ever-present smile, and his hunched form held up by a wooden staff with a skull of undeterminable origin on its top.
Qhorn snarled, satisfied with the answer, but craving more details.
"Our numbers then? And the mercenaries?" Qhorn growled in demand.
"Your ranks have swelled Beast Lord. The Hoard now consists of over forty thousand of our kin, and the mercenaries that have joined add another five thousand. Giants and Trolls among their numbers." Malcrox answered eloquently, flourishing himself with a subtle growl and bowing of his head.
The Beast Lord hummed deeply from his chest, finding his rage sated with the news of his army's strength.
"The payment for their service to us?" Qhorn waved his clawed hand.
"As expected. More food, the right to weapons claimed in battle, and the access to any treasure in the human city. If they reach it." The older Beastman added, noting how his Lord tensed up at the mentioning of treasure.
Qhorn snorted, mercenaries were unreliable in the worst of times, but their power and effectiveness were useful when victory was certain.
"Very well. Have the Pack Leaders and Elder Kin organize our numbers and prepare to march out. I will have that city before dawn Malcrox, and I will accept no failure on their part," Qhorn drew himself up to Malcrox, face just inches away from the elder's sunken eyes. "Nor will I accept yours."
Malcrox said nothing, bowing before his master in submission before exiting the tent to confer the orders given to him.
Qhorn hunched down to sit while calling in one of his females, an attractive young sheep Beastwoman, to keep him company for the night.
I will show you elder brother. I will prove to our clan who is more deserving to sit at the throne. After I have dealt with this city, with the human worms, and then you, I will stand upon the corpses of my enemies and revel in glory.
999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
Oh boy, looks like generic bad guy's coming around the corner.
So, not too much happening this chapter since it's more of a review of what happened last chapter and a preamble to the next chapter.
No Bone Daddy yet, and Grahams power is still under wraps. But, since I worked on it just a little bit while writing this chapter, here's an updated character sheet for Graham.
Character Sheet
Name: Graham
Race: Human
Position: Allied to Agosvale
Residence: Currently: Agosvale, Dragon Kingdom
Titles: Yggdrasil- [The Human that Scares Monsters, He Who Can Not Be Named, The Unsung Hero]
New World- [Stranger]
Level: 100
Racial Levels: N/A
Job Levels:
Traveler (?)
Lost One (?)
Slayer (?)
Human Armageddon (?)
Follower of Soteria (10)
Apostle of Heimdall (5)
Alignment: Good (+500 Karma)
Stats
HP: Unknown
MP: Unknown
Physical Attack: Unknown
Physical Defense: Unknown
Agility: Unknown
Magical Attack: Unknown
Magical Defense: Unknown
Resistance: Unknown
Special: Unknown
And that's all for now. Next chapter's going to be coming along, but don't expect anything too soon.
Oh. One more thing.
None of the above classes are Grahams most powerful. There's a better reason why Monsters Fear Him.
