Luin and I went to the orphanage shortly after discussing what the crates would look like holding the gate pieces. Jarrax was adamant that was how they had been taking out the towns and villages thus far.

When we arrived, I had Luin take the kids upstairs to play, keeping them busy. I went to work in the kitchen and created a stairway going down into a small basement I had created by compacting everything into the walls and ceiling. Finished with the impromptu bomb shelter, I called for Luin and Luke to join me.

I pulled up the wooden floor panel I cut from the floor and showed Luke the stairwell. I explained that if he heard fighting outside, bring the kids down below and cover the stairs with the floor piece. Once everything settled down, and he couldn’t hear fighting anymore, they could leave. I had him go upstairs and have the bigger kids help him bring down their food into the shelter.

For most of the day, we stayed with the kids. Luke’s sister, Owena, took a massive liking to Luin and was almost always near the Kobold. She was currently sitting in Luin’s lap, clapping with the other kids as one of the smaller bunch was doing an odd dance or jig he had learned from his father. The poor kid had lost his parents on a caravan to a group of roaming monsters, and the survivors had left him here to defend for himself.

Seeing the smiles on everyone's faces made me want to push further my plans to create an orphanage in Mythtide. I even began thinking about a school where everyone could learn about magic and their classes. Hell, maybe I could create something better than the Adventurer's Guild to fulfill the role of both clearing out Dungeons and helping those in need. Wishful thinking, but you can dream, can’t you?

Around dinner time, we all heard three flares going off outside. I ran to one of the broken windows and looked up over The Guild’s hall to see the three floating white flares in the air. The war would start tomorrow. I wasn’t surprised when a window popped out in front of me.

[ War Notification ]

The Akhusite Kingdom has declared war on The Freelands.

The city of Meckingmoor has twenty-four hours to prepare.

23:63:62…

The timer counting down reminded me they had sixty-four minutes and seconds. I asked Luin to stay with the kids overnight, and I headed over to Jarrax’s house.

I caught the Minotaur as he was closing his gate. I watched as he placed his hand on one of the two stone pillars to either side of the gate and began to mumble something. A shimmer spread out from the stone pillars, going out to other stone pillars along his fence, and wrapped around the house. Within moments, a bubble of pure silver covered most of his land.

He turned and spotted me, my mouth agape as I stared at the protection shield he had mentioned before.

“It's mighty impressive, isn’t it. It doesn’t have many charges left but should withstand even a hit from a catapult. Where is Luin? She with the kids?”

“Yes, and yes. Are you already heading to The Guild?”

“I am. Best to get there first and take one of the rooms in the basement. Also, If you do anything unsavory, I’ll be inside already and can say I had nothing to do with nothing,” he said with a slight smile.

I walked with him to The Guild. The city seemed desolate. None of the residents were on the streets anymore. Jarrax seeing me looking around, answered my unspoken question. “Those who won’t be defending the town have all gone south to Shadegrove. Or they’ve gone down into the Fyr Mine.”

“I see. Where is everyone else?”

“They have the next twenty hours to drink, fornicate, or sleep. The System will not allow the army outside to attack before the timer is up.”

We finished walking to The Guild, and I said my Farewell to Jarrax, hoping to see him in the next seventy-two hours. When he was gone, I made my way over to my hole from the previous night and slipped down into it, seeing no one around. The town had turned into an eerie ghost town.

As I made my way to the section where my tunnels branched out, I began to feel small earthquakes. What in the world was going on? They seemed to come in a steady rhythm and then vanished. I made my way down one of the long side tunnels I had made and began to go outwards, maybe a hundred more meters, before making a tunnel and ladder going upwards.

I left two inches of the surface intact. Pressing my back against the tunnel, I positioned my hands to hold the surface above me and cut it from its surroundings. I ever so slowly pushed it upwards to see what was going on top-side.

The army’s camp was still there, the occupants joking and eating around the campfires. The ground trembled more, but I couldn’t tell what was causing it. A glint caught my eye to the left, but I couldn’t see what had caused it. I stared behind the army for a while and saw the glint once more. It was the same type of glint I had seen when the slaver ship had put up their shields.

Why was there a shield behind the army? Was that where the mages were?

I lowered myself down, reattached the ground to the sides, and reinforced the soil so no one could accidentally find and fall down the shaft. I climbed down and went to work.

I lay in the small bunker I had made under the army. I looked at the last five Azure cores I had been keeping for an emergency. With these and the Fireball Shards, I hoped to disrupt the army enough for those on the walls to finish them off with their cannons. I was still puzzled by the random tremors that rang through the ground. They didn’t seem to phase the army above, so my only conclusion was they had known about them.

Maybe they had been tunneling? Were they trying to tunnel under the walls? The tremors felt like they were above mine, or maybe the surface. It was very confusing to me. I looked down at the cores once more and began to pop them into my mouth.

[ System Notification ]

Three Rank C Azure Cores has given 120 Energy

Two Rank B Azure Cores has given 96 Energy

5% Bonus: 10

187 Energy converted to 1862 Mana

Skeletal System: 121/300

I was ready to begin screwing with those racist assholes above. Wait, is it speciest ass holes? Is that a word? I don’t even know why I’m debating it. I began walking towards the far tunnel. It was the only place I had seen wagons with tarps covering them. If they had gate pieces, it would be there. I had tried to tunnel around where I thought the mages were, but every time I tried to sneak a peek, nothing was above me.

As I climbed to the top of my furthest tunnel, I slowly pushed the tunnel’s cap to the side and peered out into the darkness. I could see a few soldiers around the campfires, but most seemed to be sleeping. I looked over to my left at the three large wagons unguarded. I slowly climbed out of the hole, threw the Glimmer Cape over myself, and got closer.

Looking around, I planned out the best way to use the Fireball Shards. Taking five of them out of my bag, I crushed one and looked around one last time. I tossed it inside the wagon, crushing the next before the Fireball exploded. The second ball of fire was in the air as the first one exploded, sending pieces of wood in every direction and setting the rest ablaze.

The second and third wagons went up before I heard shouts of alarm. I ran back towards my hole, tossing two more Fireballs towards tents where I hoped some of the soldiers were sleeping. The sixth Fireball landed at the feet of two of the Soldiers. One of them had his legs blown off with a shout of agony. The second just stood there, looking around like the explosion at his feet never happened. What the hell?

I got to the hole and began climbing down. The man impervious to flame shouted something and began to charge toward me. I climbed down as fast as I could and began running down the stone tunnel, mentally undoing the compressed stone, filling the tunnel behind me. I mentally pushed a window to the top right of my vision, showing me my Mana pool.

[ Mana: 2470/2500 ]

I popped on my Speed Aura to the max and made for the furthest tunnel on their eastside. Carefully pulling the tunnel’s cap to the side, I looked out and could see this side of the camp coming to life. Soldiers were scrambling out of their tents and running to the westside to see what was happening.

I slowly crawled out of the hole, my Glimmer Cape keeping me out of sight. I made my way along a few of the tents, stopping and holding my breath as a few well-equipped guards came out of fucking nowhere. I had no idea where they came from. They looked to have appeared out of thin air.

When I felt alone, I began to look through the tents. I found one of the large ones filled with food and cookware. This tent must be their kitchen. Another tent seemed to be some kind of storage tent. Everything else seemed to be the soldier’s sleeping tents.

I removed two Shards, crushing them and tossing one into the kitchen and another into a normal tent, and turned to run towards the storage tent. Two more fireballs went inside that one, taking out whatever supplies they had. I heard shouts coming from the west and began running towards my hole, tossing a fireball at each tent as I passed.

I was about to crush another Shard for the sixth sleeping tent when I felt a flash of pain as my shoulder lurched forward. I dove behind the tent I was about to set on fire. I got to my feet again, reached behind my shoulder, and felt the shaft of an arrow sticking out of my back. I chanced a look around the tent but couldn’t see anyone. Then watched as a man seemed to step through thin air as he was reloading a bolt into his crossbow.

The man looked around and spotted me, and began shouting. A handful of soldiers stepped through what I guessed was an invisible barrier behind him and began moving towards me and the only tent, not on fire in the area. I took out a second Shard and crushed both of them. I tossed one towards the group coming for me, and as an extra fuck you, I tossed the other into the last tent, destroying it and setting the bedrolls on fire.

I made my way back to my tunnel, using more of the Speed Aura to get me down quicker. The arrow's shaft broke off as soon as I got into the tunnel, forcing a cry of pain from me. I had forgotten about it in a rush to get down. I collapsed the tunnels behind me as I went, wasting more Mana but ensuring they couldn’t follow.

[ Mana: 2344/2500 ]

Now I had to figure out what hole to pop out of next. My Speed Aura still going full speed, I made a choice and decided to check one of the holes further north. Now that I knew they had to be behind some kind of invisibility shield, I had to figure out where the edge was.

As I began to ascend the ladder, the ground tremored violently. It felt like a massive elephant or something was walking above me on the surface. As I slowly peaked out from the tunnel’s top, my jaw almost unhinged to fall down the tunnel's long shaft.

Above me was what I could only describe as a massive six-legged turtle. On top of its shell was half a sailing vessel strapped to the shell. If what was on the other side of the strapped ship was the same as this side, then this beast had two incredibly massive guns or cannons coming out from the front of the shell, like they were a part of this massive beast.

I finally caught sight of the head to see what looked like a purple snake with a large white mustache bopping and weaving as it looked around before going back inside the shell, only for it to pop out the other end of the shell and look around. What the hell was this thing?

A loud hiss broke me out of my amazement at the sight of such a beast. I looked over and into the ruby-colored eyes of the snake before its head vanished into the shell and popped out the other side.

The massive snake turtle began to move, facing my direction. Then I saw the barriers of the shield begin to glimmer in all directions, the beast at the center of the invisibility and maybe a shield barrier. I then understood how the towns before this had been easily destroyed as the left barrel of the snake-turtle’s gun began to glow red inside.

I let the ladder go as I saw a massive fire orb leave the barrel and head towards me. I summoned the four pieces of Ice armor around me and tried to will the top of the tunnel closed. Instead, my legs slammed into the stone below an instant before I felt the ground shake, and the heat from the explosion above came rushing down the tunnel to meet me.

[ Mana: 2027/2500 ]