Chapter 574: The First Foray

It boggled my mind how quickly I could move and how much I could do at times. I’d just done a full, countrywide tour of Exterreri, and the fact that I could just casually fly over to a city and say ‘alright, everyone here’s in the perfect picture of health’ then move on was just… wow.

It was sobering, in a way. However fast I was, however much good I could bestow, there were hundreds of thousands of people out there who were faster than I was, and more destructive.

The height we were at let us see what was going on for dozens of miles in every direction. Even with that, we heard the titans before we saw them. A great clashing roar had all of our heads turning to the west as two titans crested the horizon.

They weren’t true titans. One was a giant of metal and cogs, wood and glass. My eagle-sharp eyes picked out dozens of dwarves scurrying around, fixing and repairing things as the mecha battled the other entity.

“What are they fighting?” I asked Iona, relying on her ability to shamelessly cheat everything with her divine blessing. She squinted, a puzzled furrow on her brow.

“I… have no idea.” She confessed. “I don’t get anything back when I try to peer into its System.”

I looked again and whistled. The entity was an elvenoid-shaped person glowing with pale blue energy all over. The dwarven coalition was easily driving the entity back, every step bowling over trees and carving through farms like they weren’t there. Fires emerged everywhere the glowing energy person stepped, and the dwarves didn’t care, continuing to fire upon him.

I mentally flicked through the eight cards Queen had given me, wondering if they could even help. Against the dwarven construct, I could possibly gum up their works, but it was such an obvious angle of attack they had to have a solution for it.

“I mean, I’d be more impressed if it was a person, but you’re telling me that’s a manifested skill they’re fighting instead?” I raised an eyebrow, lips puckering as a punch back punched through the shoulder of the mecha, a pair of dwarves lighting on fire and a third dying outright to the strike.

Fuuuuck me I didn’t want to get in the middle of the fight, but now I had to, nevermind the potential tens of thousands of casualties in Ephesus. I sagged with relief as the injured dwarves healed up - clearly, they’d brought along medics. Only sensible. Thank the first mango, I didn’t need to leave.

The entire sky changed color, the two titans fighting heedless of the changes. Iona nocked an arrow on her bow as I stood up and stepped back, limbering up for a fight.

There was no fight.

The sun had turned into several thousand rainbow colors, the world’s largest disco ball in existence.

“Selene’s tits.” Iona swore, and I practically lost my eyebrows at the profanity.

“Not a curse, not a curse, not a curse.” I fervently prayed, remembering the Sunless Death. [Arbiter of Life and Death] had weak to moderate curse breaking, and if someone was going full-scale ‘curse the entire world’, the curse would start at stupidly strong and go up from there.

Nothing obvious was happening. I wasn’t growing extra arms, hearing whispers at the edge of my hearing, suddenly overcome with the desire to drink blood, or turning into stone, but curses could be subtle.

“Auri, what’s the first thing you ever burned?” I asked the bird.

“Brrpt!” She promptly answered. Not a memory related curse.

Iona lifted an eyebrow, scanning around, then asked a question herself.

“What’s six times eight?” She asked me.

“Forty eight.” From the looks on Iona’s face, we weren’t dealing with a math-related curse, logic-related, or far more likely - we weren’t being mentally befuddled with drugs or other hallucinogens.

Fenrir made an Ice hand in front of Iona, who smacked it with her own hand, giving the wyvern a high-five. Not a dexterity curse, nor was it preventing us from conjuring elements.

Like this we continued to test each other for various signs that something was off, everyone coming in clear.

Except for a minor scare where Auri said she liked water, but then she clarified it was good for baking - water itself was still a terrible substance.

About twenty minutes later the sun returned to normal, and a far-off skill created a thrown pillar of dirt literally sky-high. We watched it fall with wary eyes.

“Someone’s going to have a bad day.” I commented.

Iona snorted.

“Everyone’s having a bad day.” She replied.

Ephesus was in sight a moment later, and we split up, getting started with our respective way of helping. For me, it was more of the same.

Iona got smacked with her personal version of a [Vow]-trap in Ephesus, finding enough problems that her [Vow]

dictated that she help, now. Massa hadn’t been in such bad shape that she’d needed to stay, but Ephesus was a different story. We split up in spite of our reservations, agreeing to meet in Massa as soon as possible. Auri came with me to Belum, horrors and wonders the entire way over.

I blinked and missed an avatar of living Lightning crossing by, the only remnants of their trail a thousand Lightning bolts crackling in their path, mere sparks to the tempest that had flown through. The land heaved and flipped like a pancake at one point, fertile farmland plowed twenty feet under as rocks were revealed and a million critters and bugs scurried to find new shelter. The sky split on the horizon, only for a gigantic hand to manifest itself and swat down, then resealed the breach.

Belum was as easy as Ephesus, and I knew I was neatly stacking up levels. I was sorely tempted to class up - I planned on grabbing [The Elaine] as quickly as possible and returning to the real world, but every hour, every minute counted here.

Classers streaked by in the haze and dust-filled sky the entire time, the nights filled with vampires, and the days predominately elves - given where we lived, it made sense - mixed with the occasional devil or demon, and a single giant strode past on a mission. It didn’t take a genius to know he came from Modu, not between his frozen crown and thick Ice armor.

He didn’t bother us, and we weren't looking for trouble.

A day later we were arriving in Massa once again. Iona and Fenrir were waiting for us, the mighty wyvern in gleaming armor perched on the wall like a gigantic gargoyle. Iona was out of sight, so I scanned the city, looking for the biggest devastation. Annnd yup, there she was, right in the middle of it.

Massa was in an interesting state. Half of it was rubble, the other half was upright. The position of various buildings shielded others, and I could see which buildings had powerful reinforcement skills active the moment of the blast, and which ones hadn’t. Many hands made light work, and makeshift buildings were already being erected. The entire city was covered in soot and cinders, the pervasive haze blocking out quite a lot of light as burnt ashes slowly rained down over the city. Good for the vampires. They were a tiny fraction of the city’s population, but Classers all, and each one was doing what they could, having a visible impact. My favorite was the Water-element Classer who had streams of water being pulled from wells around him that werewas then being deposited into various jugs and buckets. A one-man fountain.

Three-quarters of me screamed that the haze was some deadly skill, the other quarter said ‘this was what happened when so much stuff went up in flames’.

It smelled like hopes and dreams.

Not to paint too rosy a picture - it was bad, but the large surviving population helped significantly. My heart sank at the sheer number of stacked bodies waiting for cremation, but I reminded myself it would’ve been far worse if I hadn’t been there.

I had seen the piles from Ephesus and Belum that let me know exactly how much worse it would’ve been if I hadn’t been here. It was sobering how much of an impact one woman could make.

Over the years, the tribunes and command staff of the Sixth Legion had slowly rotated, a single new face becoming old and familiar. Often-seen [Line Leaders] being promoted to [Centurion], and one day I’m suddenly at the promotion ceremony for them to become a [Tribune].

With the Sixth being split in half, all of the current command structure went in one day, and Katerina basically had to rebuild it from scratch.

Katerina had revived a number of her command staff from the Han campaign, the surviving members both having close personal ties with the Legata, and some of the highest leveled people with the most experience. Some had been replaced, of course - Leona was now the Second-in-Command - and it was a little jarring to see the whole group of familiar faces of command rotate all at once. The old faces were nice to see, and Maxlin - the head of the alchemists - had seized Immortality on his own, brewing a potion of eternal youth and drinking it.

A thought process split off and mused that he was both competition to me in the ‘selling Immortality’ business, and the obscene cost of the ingredients was why I could sell my Immortality for so much.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Thinking about it - I knew the Legate that had replaced Katerina’s replacement well, out of years working together. He had to be pissed that he’d lost the ‘coin flip’ and I was with this section of the Sixth instead of his, and was probably literally spitting nails over it.

I had no idea where he was, or what they were doing, and I worried over them. More and more they all looked like kids who didn’t know what they were doing, nevermind the grey in their beards. I’d served with some of their grandparents.

Katerina was insanely busy, so I got the catchup from Leona.

“Food supplies should last the city four months with what we’ve currently got. Two of the granaries got destroyed in the blast, and while Classers are trying to save and preserve the food, we’re treating it like it doesn’t exist. We’re trying to run a census on the [Farmers] and seeing who survived where, with what, but it’s further impossible to tell if they’ll be willing to take the trip into town, versus stockpiling for themselves. Taking it at spearpoint is an option of last resort, and we probably can’t commandeer enough to feed the town. It’s not looking great.”

I frowned, mulling over the numbers.

Amateurs talked strategy, while professionals talked logistics, and ‘how do we feed a city when the world’s gone mad’ looked a lot like the answer was ‘we don’t.’

I’d heard the theory a hundred times, but it was now staring me in the face. Things were falling apart, and a large city required massive amounts of surplus food generated by agricultural areas to survive. No surplus food? Riots and starvation.

Which led to the next question - how did you kick a ton of people out of the city before it went to shit? How did you warn people sternly enough to get them to take the message seriously, without causing a panic, riot, or run on the granaries? How did you tell people ‘your job as a [Llibrarian] was great. Grab a few books on farming, here’s a hoe and some seeds, none of your classes or skills are appropriate - good luck’?

It was a fucking mess, and none of the books I’d read on the topic had workable solutions that had been tested, instead being written by some [Author] who never left their room and experienced the real world.

“The numbers go down substantially with how many refugees are entering the city, and the debate right now is figuring out how to turn them away, and who should be let in.”

She glanced at me like I could conjure a miracle out of thin air, like the fact I was a Sentinel meant I could solve any problem with the snap of my fingers. I had left something of a strong impression when the explosions went off, but this wasn’t something I could easily fix.

“Brrrpt.” Auri ‘sagely’ replied, but it was just a brrpt, no words to it. Cheeky brat. I flicked her off my shoulder so hard a shower of burning embers was left behind, and she flew back to her perch, protesting loudly at her treatment.

“Ignore her.” I told Leona.

“Sentinel Invincible and his team have made their way to the city, and Ranger Team Mountain came out of the disaster alive. Speaking of, the casualty repor-”

Leona was cut off by horns blowing the alarm, and I left her in the dust as I moved, arriving at the walls before the [Soldier] could blow a third blast. Iona joined me a moment later, a strong breeze heralding her arrival, and with a great flap of wings Fenrir took to the sky, vanishing into the haze along with a number of pteranodon-riders. A quick glance at them suggested they were an adventurer group, and… well, as long as they were on our side, I suppose I was happy to see them.

A modest host of elves were riding up towards us, the sunlight glinting off of helmets and swords, bridles and arrowheads. They rode elk and deer, pegasus and moose, horns filed to sharp points. They were graceful and beautiful, both physically and the way they moved, their lethality like a naked blade in hand. Their levels were all over the place, from [Deer - 50] all the way up to [Ranger - 1891]. [Ranger] to [Mage], [Artisan] to [Healer], each one was armed and armored, moving impossibly fast over the terrain. From the look, they were more ‘nature’ and ‘woodsy’, probably from the Golden Courts instead of Tympestshard.

Also, there was a whole octopus riding a deer. I didn’t know why there was an octopus, just that it was around 1400, brandished six weapons, and seemed to be accepted as just another one of the group.

Bit of a trip to come all the way out here.

The gates crashed shut - clearly a powerful skill at work - and there was a sickly scream followed by the tiniest blip in my mana, followed by frantic pounding on the closed gates. Katerina and the rest of command - including two lines of bulky [Bodyguards] - were carefully making their way up the wall, and I briefly debated trying to go incognito as I hurried over to them.

Nah, better to be visible. The elves knew what a Sentinel was, and perhaps we could get them to fuck off somewhere else. Sentinel Invincible took to the walls as well, the mighty troll wrapped in layers upon layers of capes and cloaks, backed by his team casting a deep shadow over the towering troll. I eyed the haze-obscured sun, white ash snowing down around us like the worst joke of winter, and lifted an eyebrow.

Bold, for the sun-cursed troll to make an appearance with such flimsy protections. Then again, he probably had several dozen ways to handle the sun, and I didn’t mind the show of force that was a second Sentinel.

“Be shiny.” I told Auri. She started burning quite a bit brighter, not quite to the point where it hurt to look at her, but certainly a beacon cutting through the haze. Ranger Team Mountain were hustling through the streets, the difference between a Sentinel and a Ranger made clear in how quickly we could gear up and be in the correct position. I was still happy to see them - more competent people on our side could only be a good thing.

Weapons were out, the elves prepared arrows in their bows, and they made way for their leader to stride forward, not even moving as his majestic moose stepped forward.

“For the crime of Ivyhold! Surrender now, and we may grant you the mercy of servitude instead of slaughter.” He pronounced, his nose in the air. The words carried in an impossible way, tinkling and clear like a bubbling stream.

Ivyhold? The only Ivyhold I knew was a major city in the Golden Courts. Which was where they were from. I had to assume something had happened there, but why take it out on us?

All the grass near him withered and died, and I could see the impact of his skill or aura rapidly reach the walls of Massa and extend an unknown distance into the city.

[*ding!* [Etheric Aegis] leveled up! 510 -> 525]

Damn, thank vitality for protecting my clothes. Other people and buildings weren’t so lucky, and it quickly became apparent who had reinforcement skills and who didn’t. Beams rotted and splintered, glowing embers died, fungus erupted off every other surface, from cheery spotted mushrooms on the roof of a house to ugly pink slime going down the streets.

“Brrpt.” Auri made some gagging noises. “Brrrpt?”

Ooof, good question.

“Just stuff nearby.” I told Auri. The fungus on nearby buildings and on the street down below the wall promptly erupted in flames, any smoke or bad smells lost in the omnipresent haze. Ranger Team Mountain made their way up to us, deploying around the perimeter without a word.

Katerina was quick on the uptake, but the skill was just so quick and large. The [Legata] rapidly fired off a proposition so quickly I swear it was preplanned, except I knew all the Legion’s plans and standard doctrines. She’d made it up on the spot.

“We could only surrender to the elf who’s bested us in a set of single combat. Your best eight warriors against the best eight we can provide. You are elves, it’s only right that you demonstrate how superior you are to us. We can’t be expected to surrender ourselves into slavery to everyone who comes and demands it, can we?”

A number of younger soldiers and guards looked deeply uncomfortable at Katerina’s proposal. I wasn’t the biggest fan of it either, but I had an idea where this was going.

The play on their pride was a lethal shot, it would be nearly impossible to let it go. I kinda understood why the ancient Wardens tried to keep their curse a secret.

I was no expert, but the Decay skill looked like a city-killer to me. Everything reinforced would be fine, but cities weren’t entirely reinforced. Simply eliminating a few percentages of the material in a city would be enough to bring it to its knees, nevermind a third of an already-wrecked city. Some of the elves were starting to notice me and Auri, more and more eyes drifting our way and a few subtle nudges. Invincible got his fair share of looks as well, but more in a ‘mysterious cloaked stranger’ way.

“We do insist that you cease your skill while we determine the winner.” Katerina said.

There was no way they were going to do that. Why would they?

“It only behooves the mighty elves to show us lesser mortals the proper way of generosity and mercy.”

Oh, there we go.

Katerina didn’t seem to be quite as smooth as she thought as the elves bickered with one another, before Decay Asshole spoke up again.

“The city is lost, you will become our slaves or perish. We see no reason to pull back from the inevitable.” He said.

Katerina caught my eye, and I nodded.

“Sixth Legion! To me!”

It took twenty gut-wrenching, mushroom-growing minutes for the Sixth to fully assemble outside the gates, our eight champions selected to the elves eight.

Well, seven elves and the octopus.

The Legions believed in uniformity in equipment, from the lowest soldier all the way to the [Primus Pilus]. Each Legion could do their own thing, and Sentinels naturally had their own rules. Sandals and leather skirts, lamellar and helmets. Short swords and spears, pilums for throwing and protective gloves. Slings were standard-issue for everyone, ammunition being pebbles picked off the ground. For the price of a small stretch of leather with other uses, the rewards could be considerable. For the Sixth we only had small modifications. Tower shields were the name of the game for the heavy infantry Legion and our heavy use of alchemy meant everyone had a potion or three at their waist.

The [Primus Pilus] had joined the Eventide Eclipse and Sentinel Invincible. Sentinel Invincible’s team was purely to support him. Intelligence, shade, [Thinker], communications, logistics - his team was a classic ‘support the Sentinel in all the ways they need help outside of combat’ composition, and he was the only one stepping forward from his ‘team’.

The last two members of our team were two of the Rangers, selected because they were the ‘heavyweights’ of the team. Far off, I could hear a few [Adventurers] arguing with some of the [Soldiers] that they should be included and considered, but they weren’t even allowed to reach Katerina to present their case.

The elves were almost all higher level than us, only Invincible having a shot at fighting them on equal footing. If it were nighttime, I’d trust the troll to possibly be able to kill them all… but that sort of thinking was a bit naive. The elves had their own tricks up their sleeves. I had no idea what Katerina was thinking. There wasn’t much going on in any of the channels besides bland orders, and it was embarrassing how long it took me to twig as to why. I’d done the drills, but had never seen it ‘live’.

Of course. We were horrifically outleveled, the odds of Reed’s skills being outmatched and the elves listening in were extremely high. Whatever Katerina was cooking, she couldn’t say out loud. I doubted the full extent of her plan was ‘our mismatched group of reprobates can take on eight elves’, not with the moves she was making. We might be able to, but it was silly to rely on a single method.

At the same time, my healing and Auri were both complete bullshit, and there was a flicker of doubt as some of the elves started to suspect that Auri was a fully-fledged phoenix. The concern was beating down at their natural arrogance, a threat too large for their curse to ignore.

“Second elf on the left’s got the best speedster skill I’ve ever seen.” Iona quietly murmured to me as we limbered up. “Octopus is half-warrior, half-spellblade. Fenrir, you should crush him in an Ice battle. Auri, watch his water attacks. The elf with the crown of thorns…” Iona’s constant stream of dishing out everyone’s skills had the elves looking sour and impatient - nobody liked their secrets being bandied around, and Invincible was grinning like a madman under his adamantium helmet. He hadn’t been a huge fan of the big reveal that Iona could see stats and skills… until now, when it was working cleanly in his favor.

“Dawn. You’re only healing the Sixth, correct?” Katerina asked.

I double-checked my healing, ensuring that ‘octopus’ was indeed off the menu.

“Yes.” I had complete faith in whatever Katerina was cooking up. Auri was hopping from foot to foot, trying to stare down all the elves at the same time while also giving the octopus the phoenix equivalent of the bird. Fenrir was eyeing them all like they were lunch, which… they probably would be, assuming we didn’t all die.

If they didn’t want to end up as wyvern-shit, they shouldn’t have picked a fight.

I think it was going over his head, but I appreciated the fighting spirit.

“Assemble the arena!” Katerina ordered, issuing a few other commands to help explain how, along with some specific placements. It looked like she wanted the weaker, lower-leveled lines closer to the elves, which had a few troops biting back remarks and a few elves smirking. The [Centurions] took up the order, and the elves helped a bit, mostly so their troops wouldn’t be entirely surrounded by ours. In short order the Legion had constructed a barricade of flesh and steel, approximately 2000 men strong, shield and spears pointed inward. The elves had roughly a quarter of the circle to themselves, a distrustful gap creating a hole in the arena.

The eight of us were doing the best to create our line, shields overlapping with spears, and Auri and I stood behind the six soldiers. The elves kept a casual distance from each other, occasionally flicking their wrist to spin a sword or stretching to keep loose. The octopus was putting on one hell of a show, all of his weapons already in a spinning blur.

If it wasn’t so serious, it would be a textbook example of [Soldiers] fighting versus [Warriors] fighting. Working as a unit versus working as individuals.

My plan was to hit the octopus and the highest-leveled elf first with targeted Radiance beams to their vitals, then drop back to a defensive action while my mana regenerated and Auri worked her blazing magic. I had a secondary plan to possibly handle the speedster - if they were as fast as Iona claimed they could be, only Fenrir and I had the proper element to try and hit them.

Tons of speed was great when I had the advantage. It was absolute bullshit when the other side was faster.

“We will count down from three. Upon reaching one, I will declare ‘begin’, at which point this farce of a duel will commence.” Decay Asshole said, not even deigning to be one of the fighters.

“Acceptable.” Katerina said. “We are ready. For Exterreri!” She shouted, the cry taken up by the rest of the Sixth - and most of the civilians watching nervously from the walls.

“For Exterreri!” I roared as Auri brrrpted! along with us.

Decay Asshole simply snorted.

“Three.”

Our line dropped their spears, shuffling together to lock their shields together.

“Two.”

The elves were still languidly stretching, some of them laughing at us.

“One.”

“Sixth Legion. Fire all potions.” Katerina ordered.