A Revolution for The Revolution

Approaching the Northern Border of Melromarc

"So how did you know the Gengar Shield could even do this?" Questioned Rifana as she glanced at the copied shield on Darius's right hip. They'd recently split with Naofumi's party once again in order to drop Rino off. Apparently there was some sort of an epidemic happening in the East, which the Shield Hero had decided needed to be investigated.

The Armory Hero figured he should be more than enough to handle a sickness, and since they were dropping Rino off up North it just seemed more convenient to go ahead and start his investigation on the refugee issue at the border. It was also during their flight that Darius decided to test a theory of his with the Gengar Shield.

"From what Naofumi and the Stats screen tell me," explained the cardinal hero, "The voice gengars are able to project thoughts into people's heads with their ability. So I figured 'if they can project thoughts into people's heads, maybe I can project my own thoughts out of the Gengar shield.' The result, road music." In short, he was using the megaphone-looking shield to project music.

"That's great and all," said Rifana, "But I don't even recognize some of the instruments in, whatever kind of music this is."

"Rock n' Roll, Old Country, Classical, Punk Rock, Irish Punk Rock," Darius named off the first few that came to his mind, "There's a laundry list of musical genres back in my world. What we are currently listening too is the band known as AC/DC because Rock 'n Roll ain't noise pollution."

"You're gonna have to explain that one to me," said the weasel girl, "because I don't think I understand a single word of what you're talking about."

"I think it's soothing," said Johann as they descended from the sky a bit to get a better look at the landscape.

"You are the only person I've ever met that would call AC/DC soothing," commented Darius as he took note of a town further below, "Let's check that spot out." Johann complied as they dropped in altitude, circling until they landed at the village entrance. But instead of being greeted by the sight of yelling, surprised gasps, or people cheering at the sight of them, the only sound that met them was silence as soon as the Gengar shield was shut-off.

"Well that's not foreboding at all," said Rifana sarcastically as she and Darius hopped off of Johann, who reverted to his human form.

"It probably means the issue up here is worse than we thought," said the Armory Hero as they began walking the town. It hadn't been quite as visible from the air, but now that they were up close the pitiful condition of everything was more than obvious. Buildings were in all states of disrepair with broken roofs, windows, and cracks in the foundations or along the walls. Some were so bad they'd collapsed in on themselves, leaving nothing more than a structure full of rubble. Even the watchtower looked like it could collapse at any moment. The streets were empty and no signs of life could be seen anywhere.

"Man this place is a dump," commented Johann as he lightly kicked a nearby wall, only for it to collapse and open a small hole, "Uh, it was like that already."

"What have we told you about wrecking property," hissed Rifana, "that's someone's home you just put a hole in!"

"I don't think it'll make much of a difference at the moment," said Darius as he peeked into the building with the least amount of disrepair, "this whole place is probably abandoned."

"Do you think they all evacuated during the last wave?" Suggested Rifana.

"Hard to say," replied the Armory Hero, "It could've been the wave or they might've run out of whatever allowed them to live up here, or bandits might be responsible. Whatever the case, we're just going to have to keep going and see if we find anyone further up." Both of his party members nodded in agreement as they finished their search of the abandoned town before taking to the skies again.

The story was similar in a couple of the other villages they passed, and the ones that weren't abandoned where charging exorbitant fees for even basic goods and services. They found out the reason why upon reaching the stone wall at the border. According to one of the guards, who they'd had to pay a toll too despite showing their merchant's pass, the taxes had been raised incredibly high by the local lord recently. But it wasn't until they crossed the border and arrived in another abandoned town that the whole story was explained to them.

"I think I see some people moving down there," said Johann as they approached the first village in the Northern country.

"Remember to land out of sight," reminded Darius, "the last thing we need is people running in terror before we can get some answers."

"Yeah yeah," said the dragon boy as they landed behind one of the larger buildings and dismounted. Johann quickly shifted to his child form as they walked around the corner. The people they assumed were villagers gathered around them, all holding various items in their hands. It didn't take long for Rifana to notice they all had some kind of wrap or cloth covering on their heads.

"Darius, I don't think these people come from this area," she whispered as one of the male villagers, a man with a white wrap on his head and a blue shirt, spoke up.

"Please dear adventurers," said the man as he held up a small stone statue, "would you be willing to take this in exchange for something to eat?" The rest of the people with him all had various items including a wooden spoon, quality fire wood, a broom and anything else that seemed to be valuable to whatever small degree.

"My appraisal ability works best with weapons, not so much with random items," explained Darius, "do you have any form of currency at all?"

"I'm afraid we don't have any money," said the lead man, "We're refugees you see. We've been forced to flee our country and these items here are about all we have left."

"What's happening up there to bring you all the way to the border?" Questioned Rifana.

"The previous king of our country had raised the taxes to an amount which was difficult to pay," explained another one of the refugees, a man with a brown cloth cap. "Word is that a group of adventurers were sent from this country to aid us by putting together a resistance." Darius pondered this bit of news for a moment.

"By chance, were these adventurers led by someone wielding an incredibly powerful bow?" Questioned the Armory Hero.

"From what I understand, yes," replied the lead villager, "the revolution did succeed and our lives got better for a short time. But then the revolutionaries went and hiked up the taxes as well. Not only that, mercenaries have begun showing up and silencing any voices of dissent. What you see here is everyone else left from our village, the rest were all killed."

"It does take a fair bit of money to run a country," mused Darius, "but there's a definite problem when they start silencing dissent."

"I'm afraid the reasoning behind the revolution's sudden turn is beyond me," said the refugee leader, "when I think about it, maybe the previous king needed a lot of money to run the country as well. Either way we can't go back there now."

"What should we do," whispered Rifana as the Armory Hero stared off into the distance in thought.

"Let's pull out the large camping pot," he said at last, "I recall you packed extra food for this trip." Rifana nodded as Darius summoned the pot from his inventory while Rifana laid out a blanket for him to also summon a number of ingredients. A few minutes later, they were handing out bowls of soup as well as some of the fruit they'd picked up from the formerly vine-covered village.

"Boooss," whispered Johann with a slight groan, "what are we gonna eat if we give away all of our food?"

"Relax Johann," replied the cardinal hero, "we can always buy some from the next town over or hunt down some monster meat. These villagers don't have the same luxury, however, so consider this a small sacrifice for a greater good."

"Fine," pouted Johann with his arms crossed, "But I want an extra helping at dinner this evening."

"We'll see what we can do about that," said Darius as they watched the refugees finish their meals.

"Thank you all again," said the refugee leader as the party started tidying up, "I don't know how much farther we could've made it without some food."

"Well take this with you too," said Darius as he conjured a small bag of gold coins and tossed it to the man, "I don't know Melromarc's policy on refugees so that should tide you over for at least a little bit. Just find work as soon as you can and hopefully you'll be alright."

"We'll be more than alright with this," said the refugee leader as he counted some of the coins, "we can actually afford a few meals now, how can we ever repay you kind adventurers?"

"Just spread the word a bit about what's happening up here," replied the Armory Hero, "It's best the king knows that his adventurers only offered a temporary solution."

"We'll do so gladly," said the refugee leader as they prepared to leave, "safe travels to all of you." The villagers continued on then, seeming much happier than when they first arrived.

"I hope handouts aren't how we're going to solve the problem in this country," commented Rifana, "We've made a fair bit of money but not enough to just be throwing out small bags of gold to everyone."

"We haven't," said Darius, "but the current rulers have. With some persuasion I imagine they'd be filling a bit more charitable."

"It's still strange to think about," said Rifana, "Why would revolutionaries who were angry about being overtaxed turn around and begin doing exactly the same thing?"

"There's a few possible reasons," said the cardinal hero as he held up a few fingers, "One: the revolutionaries might've inherited some financial issues from the monarchy they ousted and found they have no choice but to hike up the taxes. Two: they've lost sight of what they were fighting for in the first place and don't realize they've become what they hated or three, and what seems to be most likely, is that the revolutionary's intentions were not as pure as everyone originally thought."

"I suppose that makes sense given that mercenaries are being used to quell dissent," said Rifana, "But I guess the best thing to do is go see for ourselves."

"Well what are we waiting for?!" exclaimed Johann as he morphed into his dragon form, "It sounds like we're running into a fight and I feel like crunching down on some bandits or mercenaries or whatever they're supposed to be called."

"Let's just play it safe for now and have a look first," said Darius as he and Rifana climbed onto Johann's back and took off into the sky once again.

Northern Village: Some Time Later

The story was the same at a number of other villages they flew over. Some were in better states of repair and there were even some that actually had people in them. But because of the high taxes, all the goods were overpriced which was going to make it more difficult to purchase supplies while they were in the area. One thing did finally fall in the party's favor, however, when they got word of another nearby village experiencing raids by bandits. Whether the bandits were the same as the Revolutionary's mercenaries or not was up for debate but one thing was certain. The lead needed to be investigated.

So taking advantage of Johann's airborne ability once again, the party arrived at their destination to find that a raid was already in progress. "I guess we can ask the bandits themselves who they're working for," remarked Darius as he conjured a simple but exotic double-bladed staff in his right hand.

"Or we might consider asking the one who's kicking their asses," Rifana pointed out as her sharp eyes picked up a cloaked figure battling the bandits closer to the center of the village. Whoever it was, they seemed to be buying time for the remaining villagers to evacuate, but there was only so much one person could do against a large number of bandits.

"Guess that's our drop zone," said Darius, "and Johann, so long as you don't burn the village down, feel free to go a little wild."

"Now you're talking!" exclaimed the dragon as he dived down at the other bandits. Rifana and Darius leapt off as he barreled through a whole line of bandits. The Armory Hero and his partner were quick to charge into the fray as well, with the weasel girl dodging, weaving, and breaking both weapons and skulls with her mace. A group of three tried to attack her all at once with a pair of swords and an ax, but she was able to block all three with her mace at once.

"REPULSE!" cried Rifana as a yellow light from her mace blasted the bandits back. The ones that were still conscious wisely ran off. As for Darius, he was facing a number of spear and sword wielders who he'd intentionally let surround him. 'Imitator: Dance of the Phantom Monk!' As the first bandits struck with their spears, his form seemed to split into multiple directions.

'There's more of him!' was the thought on the bandit's minds as four more masked Armory Heroes seemed to shoot through their ranks, dodging around weapons and cutting them down at random intervals. With confusion spreading, the cloaked figure was able to advance as well, flipping elegantly around the swinging weapons and dodging arrows while slicing tendons and throats with a pair of daggers. The chaos was made complete as Johann landed outside near the remaining bandits who hadn't entered the village and began tearing through them like the wild monster he was.

The rapid change of the battle was too much for the now confused and terrified raiders as the apparent leader called for a retreat. The hasty withdraw was assisted by Johann breathing more blue flames at the retreating enemies. "Are we clear?" Asked Darius as his mask dissipated while his weapon remained.

"All the live ones are either unconscious or too injured to move," confirmed Rifana as her ears twitched for any suspicious sounds. She also double-checked by sniffing the air.

"Well that gives us at least a moment to talk then," said Darius as the cloaked figure approached the two of them, "How bad is it on the villager's end?"

"I sighted the mercenary's advance well before they arrived," explained the figure in a surprisingly familiar feminine voice, "But not everyone was able to get away. Despite that, your arrival prevented even more casualties and saved me some trouble so," she pulled her hood off to reveal a beautiful head of dark hair, "I suppose we're even on at least one account now."

"F-Figneria!" Said Darius as he took a surprised step back, "What in the world are you doing all the way up here?!"

"Teacher!" exclaimed Rifana as she rushed forward and hugged her former mentor, "It's so good to see you're alright."

"And it is wonderful to see you two are also well," she replied with a quick hug back before they released each other, "As for why I'm up here, in a way it's because of you two."

"Us?" Questioned Darius as he sent his weapon back to his inventory, "We only just got into this country a few hours ago."

"You misunderstand," said the guard woman, "We wiped out so many monsters during your training that I had almost nothing to do before the second wave hit at Reichnott's mansion. Even after it did, the remaining monsters didn't last long against me, so I beseeched my employer to allow me to wander the land for a bit. It was during my travels that I heard there was a need for mercenaries up here, which was why I even bothered coming this far."

"But the mercenaries here are being used to silence dissenters," said Rifana, "Which is kind of the opposite of what you're doing."

"Yes, once I realized what was being asked of me I turned against them," said Figneria, "I've been a thorn in the new ruler's side ever since and-."

"Okay, they're all gone!" exclaimed Johann happily as he landed behind Rifana and Darius, "I chased 'em for a good mile, so I don't think we'll need to worry about anyone coming back for a bit."

"Dear me it talks," noted Figneria with a slight tilt of her head.

"Yeah I talk, what's the big deal," said Johann, "All dragons can talk. Most of us just don't know human speech." The woman glanced at Darius and Rifana for an explanation about the strange creature in front of her.

"Johann, best get a bit smaller so we don't scare any of the villagers," said Darius.

"Fine," said the dragon as he reverted to his child form, "so who's the lady anyway."

"This is our weapon master Figneria," explained Rifana, "She taught me how to fight with a mace and my bare hands. She also taught Darius several of the weapon moves he uses with his Imitator ability."

"I don't recall teaching him that phantom dance he used earlier," said the mercenary woman.

"Oh, I picked that one up from an adventurer wielding a similar exotic weapon," explained Darius, "It requires that the double-bladed staff have a slight enchantment of illusion magic, so I was able to copy it because it was both a combat move and required a weapon."

"Intriguing," said Figneria, "though I take it this dragon boy isn't the child of either of you."

"Well we hatched him from an egg in the monster egg lottery," explained Darius as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Rifana was also notably red upon hearing the implication. "So he's not our kid or anything but he's more than just a mount."

"Are you kidding I'm a freakin' dragon emperor," said Johann as he flexed his arms, making him look more childish than anything. "I'll be able to level whole towns with no effort when I get full grown!" 'There's a scary thought,' realized Rifana. But Figneria actually smirked a little bit at this.

"So the legends are true then, traces of the dragon emperor remain after all," she said.

"Pretty much," said Darius, "Anyway, we'd best start rounding up the villagers and get this place back in working order."

"I'm afraid that won't be possible," said Figneria, "this is the second attack by the mercenaries in barely two weeks. I urged the village chief to evacuate after the first attack but he wouldn't listen."

"Well you've got some backup now," said Rifana as they watched some of the villagers slowly approach them, "Let's just hope they'll listen to reason."

"I don't know who you three are," said a man with a grey goatee and a black wrap on his head, "but thank you for aiding our village."

"We just happened to be passing by," said Darius, "according to Figneria here, the ones attacking are mercenaries. I take it your village doesn't approve of the new tax rate?"

"We're among one of the more prosperous villages thanks to our sale of fine wine," explained the village chief, "but the recent taxes have forced us to raise the price to the point where even the more well-off villages are no longer capable of affording any bulk orders. In protest we've been charging the highest price to the new rulers whenever they send for some."

"And let me guess, they've taken it to mean you're no longer loyal to the country or something like that," said Rifana with her arms crossed.

"They began attacking and stealing some of our shipments," said the chief, "We would've been in more trouble if Figneria hadn't shown up and offered to help guard them. She's done a splendid job of it too, which is why the Revolutionaries have sent their mercenaries to attack the village directly now."

"And many of your people have lost their lives due to these attacks," said Figneria, "Which is why I must urge you once again to evacuate the village to the location I've prepared."

"But we have more defenders now," said the village chief as he indicated Darius's party, "Surely with the extra help you can fend off future attacks."

"Now I'd best stop you right there," said Darius, "We were able to help this time, but we can't hang around here forever. The next wave is coming up and even if we wanted to stay we couldn't. Not to mention, defending one village won't solve the problem plaguing the rest of this country."

"What if we paid you?" Questioned the chief, "With the four of you here we won't even need to pay the overly high taxes. With the excess revenue I'm certain we could afford your protection."

"It's not a matter of payment," said Darius, "We came here to investigate why so many refugees are coming into Melromarc and, if possible, solve the issue. Which means we can't protect you and deal with the rest of the country at the same time."

"But our entire lives are here?" Pleaded the Village Chief, "Many people in this town work to harvest the grapes that make our wine, we can't simply uproot it all and take it with us. What will we do for food and other supplies?"

"A number of supplies are already in the location I've set up," said Figneria, "And with the help of these three here, acquiring more will hardly be an issue. What will become an issue is when the Revolutionaries send not only their mercenaries but their own soldiers as well. They may not have the strength of an actual army at the moment but only a couple hundred soldiers would be required to tear this village to shreds while occupying all four of us. So long as your village shows resistance to their commands your people will be targeted. So what is it going to be, remain here and wait for eventual death or evacuate for a time and live to see another day?"

The Village Chief still didn't look happy with the arrangement, but finally he sighed and nodded his head in agreement before turning and ordering the gathered people to begin packing up what belongings they needed. "You had best be right about this Lady Figneria," he said before walking off to supervise the remainder of the evacuation.

"Geez, what a moron," commented Johann before covering himself to avoid a bonk on the head from Rifana, "What, he knows he needs us to fight the bandits but he won't listen to what we say, isn't that something that morons do?"

"Leaving home is never any easy thing," said Darius, "I didn't have a choice when I was brought to this world and one of the things that keeps me going is the possibility that I might make it back some day. In much the same way, these people are being asked to leave everything behind with no guarantee that they'll ever be able to return."

"I can't say I really get it," said Johann, "But when I think about it I guess it would suck to find a new lair after spending so much time stocking it with treasure, oh that reminds me." The dragon boy reached down and pulled the coin purse off the body of one of the mercenaries. "Let's relieve these guys of their shiny treasures, I don't think they'll need 'em anymore." Darius and Rifana simply shook their heads but didn't argue as the Armory Hero used his inventory to store whatever weapons he hadn't gotten from the foes defeated by his allies while Rifana and Figneria got to work tossing the bodies into a heap. Johann contented himself with collecting the coin purses.

It was late evening by the time the village was evacuated and as the four adventurers exited the village, they left behind a burning pile of bodies for whoever decided to come along next. As for those who didn't die, they carried a message of fear back to their camps of a new threat to the country's corrupt rule.

Mountainous Clearing: That Night

The location prepared by Figneria turned out to be a few miles from the village. Just getting there required them finding a barely discernible entrance and venturing down a tunnel which led out into a type of cavernous oasis with an open roof and a number of other tunnels on the far end of each wall. The next surprise was the presence of another group of villagers. "You've certainly been busy," noted Rifana as the two groups negotiated what to do with the shrinking space.

"I discovered this place when I first entered the country," explained Figneria, "It has a natural flowing river deeper in the tunnels which provides fresh water. As for food, we'll need to work on that. The first village I brought was more of a small hunting village who are good at gathering. They've been able to survive on the supplies here so far but now that we've brought even more we'll need to figure out a strategy for the long term."

"Maybe not," said Darius as he conjured a familiar seed in his hand, "I was going to sell these, but I think Johann made sure we got enough money for now. Do you got a nice patch of soil here?"

"In the center," indicated Figneria, "though we'll be hard-pressed to find enough room if you intend to grow crops here."

"More like fruit trees," said Darius as he dug a small hole and planted the seed. Next he conjured a less colorful version of Naofumi's Mandragora shield. "You may want to stand back." The Armory Hero then used the shield's ability to accelerate the growth of the tree, causing it to sprout very quickly and start bearing fruit, though it didn't look as healthy as the one Naofumi had made.

"And just where in the world did you find something like this," said the warrior woman as she bent down to examine the small tree.

"Call it a gift from the Shield Hero," replied Darius, "It was his shield that altered these seeds to grow rapidly and with high productivity. My copy of his shield can accelerate it even further but I'll need to use it at least twice to get the same result as he did."

"So you did manage to find the other four cardinal heroes," Figneria said, "You'll have to tell me all about it once we get everyone settled." A process which, surprisingly, took less time than any of them expected. Apparently the rest of the village had been a bit more willing than the lord to pack up and move away from danger. This allowed the four of them plenty of time to catch up, though with a lot of questions from Johann about how they knew the 'booby assassin lady,' a remark which got him more than one knock to the head.

"And then we fed the refugees what we could and gave them a bit of coin for their travels," Rifana said as she more or less finished counting up the events which led them to the Northern country.

"It's good to see the time I spent on you two didn't go to waste," observed Figneria, "though it is disappointing to hear about the other three hero's attitudes. They all seem to lack a certain degree of foresight."

"If the viney state of that village Motoyasu visited is any indication then yeah," replied Darius, "Not to mention if what we've been hearing is true then Itsuki and his party only stuck around long enough to oust the current king. Now the whole place is suffering because he didn't make sure everything transitioned smoothly. As for Ren, he seems like the smartest out of them so maybe he'll be alright so long as he doesn't treat this like a game, but if he is, well I'd rather not think about it."

"It'd be best if we focused on the problem in front of us for now," said Figneria, "Since I'm no longer fighting on my own, there exists a chance we can turn the tide in our favor and force the current ruling body to cease their crimes."

"I hope you've got some sort of plan then," said Darius, "because the four of us together is formidable, but we're still not an army. Hit and Run guerilla tactics we can definitely do, but with the next wave quickly approaching we might not have that kind of time."

"If we instill enough fear into the mercenary's ranks, we won't need to engage them too directly," said Figneria, "especially if we use your abilities."

"I've used fear and intimidation before," said Darius, "But it was usually more of a spur of the moment thing. What did you have in mind?"

"First, I need to know if you can conjure the legendary bow that's wielded by the current hero," said Figneria. The Armory Hero responded by summoning said bow into his hand.

"This is the best I can do," he explained, "it has the general shape and everything down to a 't' but the color of the jewel and the bow itself will never match. But, if you just need me to shoot someone from a long distance it's more than capable of that."

"Long distance shooting will be required," said Figneria with her arms crossed, "But you don't necessarily have to hit someone important. You see while he was in the country the Bow Hero, Itsuki I believe you called him, apparently worked to conceal his identity. Given that most of what anyone here knows about him is that he used a powerful bow, you could potentially impersonate him and use the authority of a cardinal hero to put a stop to the current ruler's deeds."

"That could work," said Darius, "But Itsuki has a bit of a larger party than we do. Not to mention Itsuki never used a dragon to travel around and, thanks to his royal highness, there are no demi-humans in his party either."

"While that is true," said Figneria, "Just the possibility of the one who ousted the previous monarch returning should be enough to put them all on edge. If we sow enough confusion with misinformation and fear, we might be able to force the current ruler's surrender without even a fight."

"Well entire battles have been won or lost on a good bluff before, at least according to my history class," said Darius with a hand on his chin.

"But where would we even start?" Questioned Rifana, "There's still the problem of the mercenary bands attacking villages with dissenters." Figneria didn't answer right away, instead pulling out a map of the region with a few areas circled on it.

"A number of the main camps are located on the way to the castle itself," explained the guards-woman, "If we hit at least a few and successfully route them, the other camps should be called back once they realize where we're headed."

"And assuming they don't just group up and reinforce certain areas along the way," Darius pointed out.

"We don't need to fight all of them," said Figneria, "Once we're certain they're moving back, we can quicken our pace towards the castle. It's the type of offensive which can only be accomplished by a nimble but powerful team."

"Hmmm," mused Rifana with a thoughtful expression, "so we go in, attack a few camps, scare the ever-living out of them with what they assume to be the Bow Hero then assault the castle before they have time to fully organize any kind of actual defense."

"And then demand the ruler either rescind their tax-levying or we end them," finished Figneria.

"I'm all for it as long as I get to light some pricks on fire," said Johann as he leaned back with his hands behind his head. Darius was the last to answer as he turned the plan over in his head again and again. No plan was perfect, but this one would require some fast moving and hard-hitting to succeed, not to mention there was no guarantee that the mercs would actually believe he was the Bow Hero. But he trusted his former weapons master and assumed she knew the situation well enough to suggest such a plan. And if it would decrease the country's suffering, even just a little, then it was at least worth a shot.

"When do we begin?" He finally said as he made up his mind.

The Next Day: Main Mercenary Camp #1

'This is a definite setback,' thought the Mercenary Leader as he observed the map. He was dressed in typical bandit armor, but with a large cape and an ornate helmet to denote his rank. Though they did little to soothe his mind as he mulled over the reports he'd gotten from yesterday. A group of adventurers showed up and decimated most of the force he'd sent to raid the nearby wine village, which will mean more money to go around but less manpower. What made matters worse was apparently one of the adventurers commanded a flying dragon with actual combat ability.

"We're just gonna have to call for reinforcements to quell this little uprising," he thought aloud, "once the patrols get back we'll-eh." His planning had been interrupted by a loud whistling noise which seemed to be approaching extraordinarily quickly. "What in the wo-BOOOOOOM!" Those were the last words he spoke as a powerful arrow wielding the force of a small tornado tore into his tent and blew a hole through his stomach.

The impact was strong enough to tear the rest of the tent from its foundation, causing it to collapse as the mercenaries outside began to scramble for their weapons, each of them with similar varying thoughts. 'What's going on, why did our sentries not alert us, what kind of magic was that, where's the enemy?' were all questions on the minds of the confused soldiers-for-hire until a shout echoed down into the valley from a nearby hill.

"Your leader is dead!" declared a figure wearing a green hood with a cloth mask covering his nose and mouth. He also wore a green scarf cape with some sort of tassels running down both shoulders. But what really got everyone's attention was the bow he held over his head. "I fought to free this country from tyranny, but you have become tyrants yourselves! I see now that subtlety is not enough, so let this serve as a message to your king! The Bow Hero has returned to finish what he started!"

As he ended his speech, he positioned the bow and pulled back the string on it, releasing another powerful shot into the mercenary camp as a multi-pronged assault began. It didn't take long for them to dispatch a messenger with a simple letter containing only one sentence: 'The one with the bow is here.'

And so begins the campaign to retake the Northern Territory, will it succeed? And what other forces are at work behind the scenes? But enough of that, I hope you all enjoyed this latest chapter and as always feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as the Three Heroes Church make their move and unleash a terrifying foe against our heroes. 'Til next time.