Alforien

The legion fell onto the army at once, several shadows coalescing onto each soldier. A few even tried to get to me but I simply waved them away. I wanted to try dispersing the legion with magic but I couldn’t.

This was likely the least of the trials the Woods of Arnile had for us and if I wasted so much of my mana on this, I'd find myself lacking when the time came to fight the bigger threats. Besides, this was a good opportunity for the army to gain some confidence.

The shadows were largely ephemeral, making them hard to kill. The only way for non-magical Banmeru to do it was to continuously swipe at them. Each second the shadow was even partially dispersed it lost parts of its mass. A

And if there was one thing everyone in the army knew, it was waving their weapons and fists around until they hopefully hit something. Now if only they stopped hitting each other, this confrontation would have been perfect.

Within five minutes the threat was dealt with, the shadows only inflicting minimal damage through their Kinetic attacks that pushed people onto each other. The few major injuries that were caused when a poor soldier got pushed onto another’s weapon were quickly healed by Arlun.

“Army! Count!” I yelled. The command was one that had to be done after battles to make sure someone did not go missing. Apparently that was a problem in open field battles like this where people can just head out of the main battleground while fighting one enemy and find themselves lost.

Quickly, the Battalions counted among themselves, finally delivering the count. “All accounted for your highness!”The Quartermaster reported.

“Very well, I shall give the command to head out then.” I said and then yelled out, “Army! Move Forward!”

And like that, the army marched into the Woods of Arnile having fought its first battle.

Trevor

After the encounter at the village’s periphery, Trevor had expected the village centre to be another quiet, subdued space. It was not, in fact it was anything but, the market place was a surfeit with noise and activity.

It operated at a pace that reminded him of the markets of India, full of people moving about in a hurry and screaming at each other. There were two rows on each side of the road. One of stalls selling a variety of goods and another of proper shops selling what seemed like more costly and specialised stuff.

Trevor wondered which shop he was supposed to go to. At a glance, there were no specific shops that gave everything. THere were a number of fruit and vegetable shops, a shop for meat of several kinds. Though from the distinct lack of customers one could tell it wasn’t popular. A sign of low quality goods perhaps?

It would appear however that Trevor was overthinking things. Nicholas soon led Uncle Leanor to a shop that seemed to sell maps. It was a narrow storefront with a variety of old looking paper maps spread across the table. It was one of the reasons Trevor had not paid it any attention before. There was no want for maps in the bunker and the small shop seemed to carry nothing else

Nicholas pointed to one of the maps and said, “This is a map of the village, it should tell you the location of whatever you want. If it isn’t there you can ask someone. Do not under any conditions travel to any of the restricted areas marked on the map. You will be killed if you are found there.”

As soon as he finished saying that, he and his men left, leaving Trevor and Uncle Leanor alone again. Restricted areas. Was everything in Launeior so complicated? Was his town the only simple one?

“So…Dealer of War, was there a specific reason you wanted to come to this place only?” Trevor asked as Uncle Leanor was paying the shopkeeper for the map Nicholas had just handed him.

“Why yes, It was one of the best places for us to source supplies.” Uncle Leanor replied with a straight face. Trevor simply gave him a blank look in return. After five seconds of the two staring at each other while a confused shopkeeper looked on, Uncle leanor broke into laughter.

“Oh you can’t even take a joke! No my dear child, I did not know that the village had that motley crew guarding it. My information was a few months old, you know. Besides, I expect most of the villages in Launeior are like this right now. With the way the Factions are warring, all the smaller mercenary groups, adventurers and everyone else is going home. Pretty much the entire middle class of Launeior has migrated rural.” Uncle Leanor said

“But restricted areas? Are they that common? Every village can’t have secret rooms and stuff can it?” Trevor asked

“Secret rooms” -Uncle Leanor clutched his stomach and started laughing causing Trevor’s face to twitch, what was so funny?- “Oh, I had forgotten what vivid imaginations you children have! “

“Child, restricted areas are secret rooms and homes only in books. In reality they are places like armories, schools, parks etc. that they don’t want strangers and people like me near.” Uncle Leanor replied.

“Oh” was the only thing Trevor could say. Guess he had been comparing everything to books he had read back on Earth. It made perfect sense for schools and armories to be restricted. Protecting children was a thing humans and Banmeru shared. And weapons were well, weapons.

Time to change his perception of the Banmeru society. Trevor sighed as they left for the market. Time to buy some stuff and head home.

Alforien

If there was one thing I had realised in the last few hours, it was that the Trial was, for once, actually teaching him and the army something. Or at least that was teh way it looked and it terrified him. What exactly was the next hurdle that the Trial felt the need to train them.

The legion of shadows had returned every fifteen minutes. After a few times of them returning, I had given the order to sheath all weapons and use only fists. It had worked spectacularly. While it took longer to disperse every shadow, the men were being trained through proper battles with enemies that could do only limited damage.

Even I had taken to participating in it. After the battles ended and I had time to see notifications I was sure I would have gained a lot of Combat points. All around me, the men were joking around as they dealt with the shadows.

Perhaps it had something to do with the nature of the shadows or the constant threat but the men were improving at an unprecedented rate. Soon enough they were dealing with the shadows while conserving their energy.

Yes, they had even gotten enough stats that they were now strategizing. It was wonderful. Too good to be true really. Way too good. So now I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

As I floated on dodging the shadows and punching them ineffectively (Hey! I am still a baby!) Arlun suddenly ran towards me and yelled, “Your highness!” Narrowing my brows, I used magic to dismiss the shadows.

“What is it Arlun?” I asked

Arlun simply pointed in the direction of the Valurien Mountains, there, towering over the trees, stood two large…eggs. Yes, eggs. They could be nothing else. Black scaly and with red lining they were intimidating structures that I did not like looking at.

As if to tell me that the other shoe had dropped a loud screech sounded out, heralding the arrival of an angry predator.