Leon had retreated to the first major defensive line. They hadn’t where the enemies would actually choose as their entry point, so Leon had done a little rearranging of Cynarina’s roads and walls to limit the invasion to a potential of four paths they would have to take to push through the Island. His trolls were doing an admirable job of making the enemy forces have to fight hard for their place on the Piers. But ultimately it was 25 Tier 1 trolls against nearly 400 Tier 2’s and probably 20 Tier 3’s. They just couldn’t match the coordination and power being brought against them.

Leon was now standing on the wall that was their first position to hold. Along with him were 25 others, among them, Kathy, Lomara, and Lucy. The rest of the mentees were spread out along the retreat path. The Mentors… The Mentors were observing. They had claimed that their roles here were to prevent the enemy Tier 3’s from overwhelming the Mentees. Not to do the job for them. They would participate only if the enemy Tier 3’s began to move, and even then, only in equal measure. Leon found it ridiculous.

The trolls were doing a good job of harassing the beachhead that their opponents were trying to establish though. The enemy forces had already been fairly successful in securing their landing point. Leon’s trolls coming out in batches of 25 to charge at the lines they were establishing across the Pier. It was delaying them and forcing them to use up mana and manpower to take them out. But Leon’s supply of trolls was not infinite and soon he didn’t have any left. He’d already used all of the Fell Beasts in the suicide attack earlier. Now all he had left were his Centipede monsters. And those he wanted with him when it came to close quarters fighting.

The plan for defending the first choke point was fairly simple. Everyone here had ranged attacks and the like; they would do their best to take out the enemy forces when they started advancing and keep themselves behind the cover provided by the walls. Then they would retreat to the next defensive location. Leon’s role here was a little different. His combination of stealth skills even though he only had three of them, were particularly potent. Even Tier 3’s on the high end of Tier 3 had trouble spotting him when he didn’t want to be seen. Only skills that were specifically counter to his own and higher level made it so that people could target him. So, Leon’s role here was to basically act as an assassin. He was going to get behind enemy lines and take on the people who looked like they were in charge. All of them were Tier 3’s which really made Leon nervous. But Malorie had assured him that the Tier 3’s from these low-level kingdoms and empires were pretty much only Tier 3 in body. They did not have the dedicated training and resources given to those raised by the Guild. Meaning that they would be ridiculously tough and hard to hurt. But not overwhelmingly better and more skilled like the Mentors were. And Mentors were standouts anyway. They were exceptional even by Guild standards for their Tier.

“Be careful Leon.” Lucy spoke, “I know you are freaky fast and slippery as an eel when you want to be. But don’t take any risks. We all want you in one piece.”

“Yeah! What she said.” Lomara chimed in.

“If you do this right though… Let’s just say there’s a plan in place as a reward.” Kathy said in seductive tone that only Nymphs can pull off so perfectly.

“Well, if that isn’t incentive to try my best, I don’t know what is.” Leon said, giving them all quick series of kisses before he vanished under stealth.

“Is it weird that I really want him to go all stealth mode in the bedroom and ravage me while I can’t perceive him?” Leon heard Kathy ask the other two as he slipped away.

He actually tripped at hearing that comment and instead of trying to catch himself, he just used Quantum Blink to move himself out onto the Pier. Righting himself as he landed.

“I swear to god, I’m never going to get used to having so many women wanting to have sex with me… Especially with them all being fine with sharing.” Leon muttered under his breath as he blinked into the underside of the Pier, directly into the water.

He started swimming, pushing himself off of the struts and supports as he made his way out to the end of the Pier then carefully climbed up to the top. Using Utility Pocket to switch out his now soaked through clothes with a fresh pair before activating Knull Armor. He kept low and observed as the enemy forces arranged themselves facing away from him.

As he watched he found their plan to be pretty damn solid. The enemy forces had their Tier 3’s powering shields that prevented the attacks that were currently streaking through the air from the city walls. The shields were positioned to allow their Tier 2 forces to move across the pier, where they pulled out some kind of enchanted gear that they deployed. The things that they threw out onto the ground turned out to be a deployable wall. Once the wall was set across the entire Pier, all of the enemy forces poured out of their ships and onto the Pier. Now they had a solid foothold and potential area to retreat to if they needed it.

Leon was watching and waiting from behind their lines, trying to figure out who the leaders were and how their ranks were established. There might be some smaller fish to fry before he tried his hand at going in for a death battle with a Tier 3. Even if that Tier 3 was subpar by guild standards if the benefits of reaching Tier 3 were as big as reaching Tier 2 they would still be a major threat. Anyway, he needed to wait to strike until they engaged with wall anyway. Having a distraction was always better for stealth anyways.

Luna Everthorn

The beachhead had been established successfully. Their forces were deployed along the mobile walls, and they’d only taken about 45 casualties so far. 20 of those to the suicidal bird monsters and another 25 to those weird brutish Tier 1 monsters that had been on the Pier. Those things may have only been Tier 1, but they had been very large, very heavy, Tough, and strong. Not to mention that it seemed like they hadn’t felt any pain. The Tier 2’s under her command had quickly taken care of them, but the few that had managed to actually land a hit almost always killed their target just because of the sheer mass behind their attacks. If those monsters had been Tier 2 and actually armored… This would have been a significantly different battle already.

As it was Luna was fairly happy with how everything was turning out. With a solid foothold established on the Pier. They were going to start pushing in on the forces that were sending periodic volleys of ranged spells and attacks at them. Honestly it was hard to believe that the people they were facing on the walls were only Tier 2’s the firepower that they were putting down on their forces were requiring that her and her Tier 3’s maintain the shields lest they be broken through. What was even more crazy to Luna was that they were under such pressure from a mere two dozen Tier 2’s that were atop the walls.

It had been a long time since Luna had ever seen a Tier 2 individual as a threat. But all of those atop the wall that she could see were powerhouses the likes of which she had never thought possible of a Tier 2. With forces like that at her disposal this battle would already be over.

With her forces arranged, shields up, and everyone in formation. Except the Empires Tier 3’s who were hanging back as emergency shield generators. They began pushing forward towards the walls. At about the halfway mark to the wall the intensity of fire on their shields suddenly increased exponentially. Luna was astonished by the sheer firepower being leveled at them from only 25 Tier 2’s. What kind of madness was this?

Then there was a flicker of motion in the corner of her vision. One of the staff sergeants had collapsed to the ground. Followed by another five withing the span of a few seconds. She didn’t know what was happening, nothing had gotten through the shields… Then seemingly out of thin air four very large Centipede monsters appeared inside the ranks of her soldiers and began ripping into her men.

The centipede monsters were Tier 2. And they were frighteningly fast and strong. Luna and her Tier 3’s were busy holding up their shields to prevent the forces on the walls from sending everyone to an early grave. They had to keep it up or else the casualties would be much higher. Luna glanced around to try and tell the Empires Tier 3’s to take care of the monsters only to find that they were nowhere to be seen. The lower Tier soldiers would have to take care of the monsters themselves.

Leon Crumbl

Leon waited and watched as the formation of enemy soldiers pushed closer and closer to the walls. He was following a good distance behind them when he noticed something strange. A group of the Tier 3’s, five of them, hung back from the main force. At first Leon was concerned that they may be waiting for him and detected him, it wasn’t unthinkable that they had specialized anti stealth skills.

But his worry was unfounded. Though their real reason for hanging back was very confusing. As soon as the enemy forces were closing in on the halfway mark and the Mentees started actually attacking instead of shooting out potshots, the group of five hopped aboard one of the vessels on which they’d arrived and immediately started fleeing the Island.

“That’s not fucking weird.” Leon muttered to himself as he confirmed that they really had retreated.

Once he was sure that it wasn’t a trick Leon got closer to the enemy forces. Having identified the ranking symbols on the uniforms, he already knew roughly who he should be targeting. The Tier 3’s were holding enchanted artifacts of some sort that they seemed to be powering to maintain forcefields in front of their advancing army. Leon didn’t want to tangle with them just yet, so he picked out the people who looked like they were section leaders. Fairly high Tier 2’s but he wasn’t going to be giving them a chance to actually fight.

With all of his stealth skills active Leon blinked behind one of his targets and drug his enchanted daggers across his throat. Dipping slightly into meditation as he did so. Trying to quell his conscience as he rapidly blinked between half a dozen targets and summarily executed them.

This caused a lot of confusion, which is what Leon and the others had been planning on with this tactic. But they hadn’t realized how… inept these people would be. Leon was almost disappointed by how weak they were. He could see that the Tier 3’s were actually straining under the fire of his fellow defenders. There were only 15 of them and all of them were busy holding up their shields like it was important. The Tier 2’s here should be fully capable of defending themselves from the attacks of his fellow Mentees in his opinion.

Seeing how effective his attack had been so far Leon decided to go for broke. He unleashed his Centipede monsters and had them go wild. He was probably going to lose them here. But with the centipedes drawing attention, Leon blinked behind one of the Tier 3’s and drove his daggers into the man’s back.

It wasn’t enough to kill the Tier 3, but he dropped to the ground unable to fight. And in that instant a hole opened up in the forcefield. Which resulted in nearly fifty of the Tier 2’s dying before the other Tier 3’s corrected the issue. The one commanding the force suddenly screaming out orders left and right. Leon’s centipedes were practically unchecked as they wounded and flailed throughout the enemy ranks.

“It can’t be this easy.” Leon muttered to himself.

This wasn’t going to be a fight. With Tier 3’s that Leon himself could put down with a single attack leading this army he suddenly realized why the Mentors were so unconcerned with what was going on here. These people invading them were the equivalent of an industrial revolution country trying to take over the United States by sending only their elites. Sure, they were able to fight and kill some of them. But Leon and the rest of the Mentees could be considered low ranked army rangers or Seals with all the modern gear and training compared to the invaders.

Deciding to see if he could end this early, Leon blinked behind the enemy leader. A tall human woman wearing plate armor with two longswords at her waste. This one didn’t go like the other. As soon as he blinked into range to get off an attack with his enchanted daggers she instantly dove to the side and blasted where she had just been standing with a bolt of lightning.

The Lightning bolt missed Leon by a hairsbreadth. He wasn’t sure if he could have survived actually getting hit by that attack. He was confident in his Knull Armors ability to protect him, but that had been a Tier 3 spell, not just a skill.

“Show yourself!” the enemy commander screamed as her eyes swept right over him several times.

“Nah I’d rather keep my pretty face lighting free.” Leon taunted and barely blinked away in time to avoid getting hit by a bolt of lightning.

As he blinked around, he started dropping knives, and swords all around the commander. Keeping a close eye out on the other Tier 3’s who appeared to be struggling to maintain the Shields. After dropping a couple of dozen blades all around the commander Leon began using Telekinesis to throw them at her from different angles.

The enemy commander seemed to have some sort of sensory skill which was not a surprise. She drew her swords, one in each hand and was easily slapping away every blade as they flew at her. Leon timed several to fly at her at the same time and fired a Horrific Missile at the same moment before instantly blinking away.

Luna Everthorn

Things had taken a drastic turn in just a matter of a couple of seconds. First the monsters, then one of her Tier 3’s collapsing and allowing a volley of attacks through the shields. They hadn’t even made it to the walls yet. Then she’d felt tiny movement of air behind her and dove to the side. Abandoning her efforts at holding up the Shields and firing her Lightning Bolt skill at where she’d just been standing.

“Show Yourself!” she shouted while desperately trying to spot her assailant. It was insane, she could feel the persons mana. She knew that her assailant was a Tier 2. But whatever skills he was using seemed to keep her from detecting exactly where the person was.

When the person responded it seemed to drop him out of his stealth skills for a moment because he was suddenly visible. And Luna could hardly believe that she’d not been able to see him before. He was tall, taller than her even which was a rarity to see. He was covered head to toe in a dark chitinous armor that seemed like it had grown out of him. In his hands here a pair of daggers that glowed with enchantments. All of that she registered in a brief instant as she unleashed another Lighting Bolt at him.

Her assailant had vanished, and her attack had hit nothing but air. How was a Tier 2 able to compete with her? Now that he was basically invisible again, she drew her swords, and focused on her surroundings for all she was worth. She felt movement and slashed with her blades, catching a blade that was flying from an odd angle. Then another and another.

The blades were coming at her fast and from seemingly random directions. Luna had no idea what skill the man was using to do this when suddenly a trio of blades flew at her. Two of them she intercepted with her blades while the third she blocked with her shin guard. But the moment she moved to intercept the attacks one of her skills, Danger Sense, flared in warning like it hadn’t since she’d been a Tier 2. She awkwardly pitched her entire body and tried to jump.

She succeeded in her jump, but she didn’t fully avoid whatever it was. The attack hit her in the left ankle, not penetrating her armor, but fully flipping her through the air. Again, her Danger Sense flared but she was still airborne and there was nothing that she could do but curl up in a ball.

It was in that moment that she and everyone else present felt a massive shift of mana. The mana itself was Tier 3, but the quantity was overwhelming. The danger sense stopped. But the vast amount of mana that had just done something was still present. Luna had landed on her back and looked around to find the source of the mana.

Leon Crumbl

Leon couldn’t believe that he was manhandling a Tier 3. Practically bullying her. His Horrific Missile hadn’t pierced the armor on her leg, but he was pretty sure that was because it had been in the air and absorbed a lot of impact. He was lining up another shot as she flew through the air when he felt a massive outpouring of Spatial Mana surround the island.

Through his spatial senses Leon could feel a barrier made of space itself only about fifteen feet behind him. through his connection to Cynarina he knew that the barrier had cut straight through. The Pier and circled the entirety of the island.

The enemy commander was laying on her back looking at the barrier in shock. Everything had paused. Not one was attacking. Everyone was trying to figure out what the hell this giant barrier was. From the inside it looked like a mirror. Though it was obviously still letting light come through, Leon could see the other enemy ships through his own reflection if he squinted a certain way.

Looking at the enemy commander who looked confused as hell Leon blinked over beside her and dodged a swing from her blade.

“Look lady, I don’t know what’s going on with that barrier. It looks like you don’t know either. And to be honest you all are disappointingly weak.” Leon said in between blinks and dodges, avoiding lightning bolts and swipes of her swords, “Surrender now and I can guarantee you will all be sent home after the founding period. No one will do anything unsavory or keep any of your men and women if you surrender to me.”

The woman kept swiping at him and attacking, but right now they were the only ones doing anything on the battlefield. The other Tier 3s were holding up their force fields but that was it. No one was advancing.

The woman was frantically trying to land a hit on Leon, but he kept avoiding her and just staying out of her range. And that is when there was a second upswelling of mana that dwarfed the giant space barrier. The woman jerked around to see what had just happened and Leon took advantage of that moment to blink directly behind her and lay his daggers across her throat.

“Surrender now.” He said calmly, “And order you men to lay down their weapons.”

“They won’t listen to that order.” She said, “Our orders were to take this Island by any means possible. Surrendering because their commander is being held hostage is just a death sentence.”

“Your people are fully outclassed here. I’m not even the strongest one here, just the stealthiest. You all have literally no chance of winning. A single Tier 2 shouldn’t be a threat to someone like you, and yet here we are. Your people will only die if they continue. Just my girlfriends could probably take on the lot of you.” Leon said.

“Have a lot of those do you?” The commander asked in a mocking tone,

“Nine, but who’s counting.” Leon replied, “Look order everyone to lay down their weapons and I will ensure that no one is treated poorly, and that you will all be returned to your homes as soon as possible after this is over.”

“The boy is right, you all need to surrender immediately, we have a much bigger issue at hand. And if you surrender to him, his promise is a guarantee that nothing untoward will happen.” Gerrard, one of the mentors, stated appearing out of nowhere, somehow even bypassing all of Leon’s different senses.

The commander stiffened against Leon when Gerrard appeared. Seemingly realizing exactly how screwed they were. She hesitated, her breath starting to come in shallow and fast. Leon tightened his hold on her and pressed his enchanted blades against her neck with enough force that it was almost piercing her skin.

“I Luna Everthorn Commander in Chief of the RodenHiem army do hereby surrender to…” She shifted slightly, and whispered, “What was your name?”

“Leon Crumbl.”

“Surrender to Leon Crumbl and order all RodenHiem forces to lay down their arms.” She shouted

“Good.” Leon said, “Now be a good girl and drop those swords please. If I feel even a twitch of mana flow, I’m going to remove your head before you can zap me. We need to figure out what is going on.”

The commander who he now knew to be named Luna seemed to grip her swords so hard that the handles might snap, her shoulders tensed for a few moments before she dropped her swords.

Still holding her at knife point, Leon turned to the Mentor Gerrard, “Do you happen to know what is going on?”

“I have an idea, but the Nasir Empire is insane to be trying it.” Gerrard spoke, “They’re weaponizing a Breach.”

“Ok what is a breach?” Leon asked.

“Sort of like an uncontrolled portal to a different realm made of pure single affinity mana. It will flood this spatial bubble with the natural density of whatever the Tier of that particular affinity is. Instantly dumping extremely high tier uncontrolled mana into a Tier 1 environment is like… Its like overloading every single enchantment in a city all once in the same place. Explosion doesn’t begin to cover what it does. Everything within 5000 miles of this place is going to be reduced to nothing.” Gerrard said.

“OK so how do we stop them?” Leon said still holding Luna.

“We don’t.” Gerrard said, “The other Mentors and I have already tried to get out of the barrier. But none of us are space mages, and since the Nasir are only using up to Tier 3 mana, they are not violating any of the rules. They are just using artifacts of some sort to make all of this happen, so the Guild won’t intervene. We are evacuating everyone to the lowest floors of the dungeon in hopes that it will be far enough from the Breach. But we don’t know.”

Looking up to the walls Leon saw that indeed no one was there.

“Get your spoils of war moving kid and get them into the dungeon if you want them to live. We will be waiting for you all at the entrance to the tenth floor.” Gerrard said before disappearing.

“Well shit.” Leon said, “Are you going to behave if I let you go?” he asked Luna, she nodded, and he released her.

“Get your men moving. If you want them to live, we need to get them into the dungeon. They can take their weapons; they’ll probably need them. You to. Its straight down the main road here at the center of the Island.” Leon said

“You heard the man, get moving!” Luna shouted, “It’s weird to not be able to see you unless you talk. I already surrendered and we are getting a move on. No need for the stealth skills.”

“Honestly forgot about them.” Leon said, deactivating his stealth skills and dismissing Knull Armor, “Get your men moving as fast as possible. I don’t know how long its going to take for this Breach thing to happen, but no sense in everyone dying.”

“You are a lot younger than I was expecting.” Luna said, “How the hell are you so young and able to take on a Tier 3 in single combat?”

“Lots of Elixirs, Skills, Training, and more advanced Training. I honestly don’t understand how you can be a Tier 3 and not be far more powerful than you are. It’s like dealing with a civilian that’s had a little bit of training and thinks they know what their doing enough to be confident.” Leon said, “I’ve got to go check on something, you are coming with me. Get your men to proceed to the dungeon without us.”

Leon only had to wait for a minute before Luna had everything in order, then he took off running for his house. It wasn’t far away, and he wanted to make sure that people had remembered to grab Nadia. Luna kept pace with him easily as expected of a Tier 3. As they went the massive amount of mana that he was feeling seemed to coalesce into a bubble at the top of the dome barrier. It was far away but he could feel the affinity leaking from that area suddenly change. It was an affinity that made him shudder. He would recognize the Madness affinity anywhere. They were opening a Breach to the Madness realm.

“What affinity is that? I’ve never felt anything like it.” Luna said as they ran.

“That is Madness affinity.” Leon said, “And from the fact that it is already leaking through the dimensional membrane, I’d say its probably in a Tier so high we can’t even fathom it.”

They reached the house and Leon instantly saw that Nadia was still in her room curled up under her blankets. He blinked to her and grabbed her blankets and all, then blinked out beside Luna again with Nadia squealing in fear and confusion.

“Nadia its me. We need to evacuate into the Dungeon. Don’t worry I’ll carry you. Just calm down and hold on.” Leon said as he started running at full speed for the Dungeon entrance.