Plan

Naha raised the looking glass and watched the city at the base of the mountain. There were people on the walls, some standing straight and watching, and others patrolling it. The city wasn’t too large, but it had three levels, and each had its own walls. Three half rings separated the sections and each was raised in height, the city was built on an incline. Its back was against the mountain cliff, and a large fort was carved into its side.

There were three large gate entrances, and a constant stream of carts filled with ore were transported inside from the nearby mines, and others that she couldn’t tell the contents of as they were covered. The slaves were the ones doing most of the work, they had already checked the mines. They also had slaves on rotation, so work in the mines and the forests never stopped.

There were some monsters around, short wolf-like ones that seemed to be accompanying the taken who oversaw everything and served as guards. But, they had also seen plenty of people who had no collars around their necks and weren’t the taken. Traitors. Airships came and went, carrying goods away, but there were also caravans leaving, being escorted by monsters and taken.

The territory was obviously important to them, they had regular patrols all over, looking for any signs of intruders. Naha’s shadows kept their group hidden for now, and Zach was doing something with time that Naha didn’t quite understand. But they had managed to maneuver around them as they entered the territories surrounding this one. And now they were hiding in the forest.

“You see those three big towers?” Bera whispered near Naha.

“Yes,” she responded. There was one tower on each of the walls, taller than the others.

“Those are the locations where my information says their commanders sleep. The taken and the slavemasters,” Bera added.

“I’ll check it out,” Naha said. “What about the fort?”

“None of my sources managed to get anything from within,” Bera answered. “But we know that they have several powerful taken inside, the leaders of this operation. I don’t have anything on them, they are seldom seen, and when they fight no witnesses survive to tell the tale.”

Naha grimaced, that wasn’t ideal, but she would have to make do.

“When do you think the best time is?” Naha asked her.

Bera thought about it for a few seconds. “The time when they are busiest and most on alert. When they prepare shipments out of the city. That moment will give us the biggest chance to see as much as possible.”

Naha nodded, then put the glass down. “So, are we doing this now or are we waiting?”

Bera glanced up at Zach, then answered. “I would wait until the army’s march is detected. Once and if they send the reinforcements south, is when we should go in. Going before is just unnecessary risk. The situation will change once that happens. And if we go right now… the enemy’s numbers are too high for us to deal with them and to disable the slaves.”

“Vitor’s gas can do it,” Zach said.

Bera shook her head. “It isn’t about the lower tiered people, or the slaves. It is about the high tiered ones that might resist. Right now, there is too many of them in the city, and each of them is a risk. We are going to need to deploy the gas and eliminate the strong at the same time. Naha might be able to kill a couple of them within a short period of time, let’s say even a dozen. There is more than that number of them inside right now. We need that to change, that is the core of our plan.”

Zach narrowed his eyes, still looking at the city. “We wait then.”

Ryun jumped across the skies. He had practiced with his new Qi endlessly ever since he had gained it, obsessively even. He was finally at a point where he felt like he understood the Essence enough. With a slight push of Qi he would alter the area beneath his feet, and stop the momentum of his feet long enough to kick off from the Essence that was frozen. His Qi simply deleted momentum, freezing things in place. He had to keep it applied in order to allow himself to kick off, but by now he was very good at it.

Tali flew next to him, her Qi flaring too, creating a draft of wind that pushed them all forward faster. On their sides were other fliers, thousands of them. Those who had the capability and the resources to move fast across great distances.

Below them were the armies, the commander type Classers were using their perks to accelerate them, layering their powers over one another in sequence. It was incredible to see, the formations blurred across the landscape. He could see Essence going wild among them, their perks influencing everyone.

The reason why some of them were in the air, was because there wasn’t a need to waste resources on accelerating them too when they could keep up already. Airships trailed behind too, as well as a few floating castles. They had been making good time, what should’ve been a month’s worth journey they had crossed in barely a week. Though, they did have to take some breaks.

Ryun took the monotony of the march, or rather his leaping, to train his sense further and practice Oblivion by selectively deleting the Essence around him. Sometimes sound, sometimes air or light. He had gotten very good at in his opinion.

Him and Tali were above their Sect, as only the two of them could keep up with the accelerated army. Everyone else was on the ground. Some mounted, some riding carriages, and some on their feet. A part of him was feeling a bit sorry for them, after their first break, he had seen just how tired everyone got from being forced to move so fast. Different perks had different costs, but everyone in the army had been issued stamina potions made by Vitor Fah Storrah and his apprentices, the highest quality there was.

Ryun continued, there wasn’t much else to do until they reached their destination, and the war started in full.

The ships opened fire from the river. One would think that not many ships could fit in the river, and most would be wrong. Thenia River was one of the largest in the world, and at this point it was so wide that one could barely see the other side. And the depth was enough that ten of her ships could be placed on top of each other and still barely reach the bedrock. The fire was blinding. Perks and weapons unleashing a devastation that turned the night into day. As planned, they had attacked the enemy’s most Southern elements ahead of the army. They hoped to draw their forces here before they realized that the army was coming.

The coastal city’s walls were cracking and falling. The monsters in the air were burning and trailing lines like meteors across the sky as they came crashing to the ground. The few of the water monsters surfaced occasionally, but their submersed vessels took care of them. Water bulged here and there, great geysers exploded, and blood spread across the surface of the river. The monsters were dying.

“Should we join in the attack Captain?” Dracael’s first officer asked.

She looked out from the Command Deck and then shook her head. “No need.”

Something was wrong, she could tell. This place was supposed to be their gathering spot. The place from where the enemy launched their forces. There was a lot of monsters, three generals that she had counted, it wasn’t an easy fight. Their task force had lost ships, some had been destroyed in very gruesome ways, like being swallowed whole by a river serpent.

No, the battle was hard, it was just… not hard enough. They had encountered the enemy scouting elements three days ago. They destroyed them, of course, but some had escaped, they had to have known that they were coming. And they… they hadn’t put any additional defense, any traps, any surprises. That could only mean that they planned something big.

Dracael sat in her chair, unsettled, and waited for things to go wrong. They always inevitably did.