The guardsmen noticed the crumbling tower of dirt and stone and started running back towards the city. The problem being that the dirt was falling the same way, collapsing faster than some of them could escape. I jumped down, propelling myself faster with controlled bursts of blue mana and controlling my descent with the mana wings I used before. I was still too high up to help but I could see some of the guardsmen getting crushed by debree and rubble from the death raining down on them. I knocked some of the larger bits of rock away from them by throwing mana at it, changing their trajectory to fly out of the way. I could hear the screams of panic and fear clearly now, the battle long over even though their were still some corrupted undead around which were quickly getting disposed of by tons of rock and dirt crushing them. It felt like forever till I got close enough to help them, I had to watch them get crushed and attacked by the undead as they retreated. But now I can do something, I went into a steep dive before pulling up at the last second grabbing a guard on the way just before he got crushed by a large boulder.

I dropped him off at the tree line and looked back, getting one guard at a time isnt going to cut it. There are just too many of them scrambling around. I launched myself back and quickly started knocking as many boulders and rocks away as I could. Even managing to crush some of the corrupted undead while I was at it. I blasted rock after rock until finally the last rock fell. The last of the guardsmen had made it to the forest just as the last boulder fell, crushing the last of the corrupted undead as it landed. We all looked at the devestation in front of us, thanking whatever we beleived in that we survived. We gathered whatever dead we could find and went back to the city.

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Vold was taking another stroll around his mansion, walking through the garden watching the new servants he hired work. He was in a much better mood as of late, the royal army had left for some time and his rebelion had grown. It now spanned over three near by cities and countless villages. He rubbed a flower petal absentmindedly as he went over his plans in his head.

Taking a deep breath he walked deeper into the lush garden, ignoring the servants as they passed by. Barely returning their greetings with a wave or an almost unintelligible "good morning". Vold was enjoying his peaceful morning, something that is relatively new to him but something he liked immensely. From behind he could hear loud boots stomping on the cobblestone pathway and knew his peaceful morning was over. Spinning around not even bothering to hide his annoyance at being disturbed he came face to face with a young messenger boy. He gave a deep bow before handing him a small bundle of letters and documents, the whole time avoiding eye contact. He snatched the bundle and shooed the boy away, walking back to his office as soon as the boy was out of view.

He looked at the amount of work he had ahead and sighed, at least he was able to enjoy the morning a little before life came to bother him.

He plopped down in his soft cushioned chair and unwrapped the letters first. Most of them just being reports from the other cities in the rebellion. The other cities had taken over without involving the peasents, unlike the one vold had captured first. He knew the people in this city were angry and he took advantage of it, also by keeping the peasents out of it in other towns he could hide the news of the rebellion as long as possible. Until it was too late for anyone to do anything about it. There was one letter detailing a weird event that they heard about happening near a village that was near one of the other cities. The village has been there for a long time without being disturbed by bandits or monsters or anything other than a slight famine over the years. But recently they had noticed a large earthquake that no one in the surrounding area has noticed and when they went to check it out they had found a large amount of rocks and dirt piled around. They also found lots of footprints heading into the nearby forest that the village describes as a forrbidden place that is the home to an angry deity that curses anyone who enters his domain.

Vold put that aside for now and went through the other reports and documents before coming back to answer that letter. He wrote orders detailing the search of that forest, just in case there is something there he wanted it to be investigated. He doubted that there was a deity there but there was always some truth to legends. Who knows maybe there are some nobles that escaped the city that were hiding out in the forest. He would find out eventually.

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King Steruzelth was relaxing in the large heated mud pool he had built in the courtyard of his home. His spies were due to return today, bringing news of whoever was responsible for the attack on his daughter. He had already dealt with the matters of state and it was late in the day, he often liked soaking in the mud of his homeland at the end of a stressful day. The mud was actually brought from his birthplace, he had servants bring it here in buckets to fill this pool up. It had taken weeks but they had done it, with only a couple of them dying in the process which makes them very good workers. He would definitely use them again when he wanted something done.

His soak was interrupted by his newest slave a pudgey boy the used to be called Renlen. He used to be a noble and was quite prideful at first but that behavior was quickly and easily beaten out of him. Now the king just calls him pudgey, the king found this amusing. Pudgey walked towards the edge of the pool and waited to be awknowledged by the king before speaking.

The king noticed him right away and spoke.

"What is it pudgey?"

"I told you a thousand times thats not-"

He was cut of with a glare from the king and a flex of his muscles.

"What was that? PUDGEY?"

"n-n-n-nothing sir." Pudgey said in almost a whisper.

"Good" The king said as he relaxed. "Now why are you here interrupting me?"

"s-s-sir your g-g-g-guests have arrived."

The king was elated, this was very good news. This means his spies had finally returned with information.

"Good!"

The king got out of his pool and grabbed a towel from a nearby servant that was patiently waiting for the king to finish. Pudgey was looking at the kings naked body and all the scars that covered him. His eyes drifted south and shot back up almost immediately. Unfourtunately the king noticed his gaze.

"What boy? you jealous of a real man's body or you just want to lick the mud off my dick?. Keep staring and you will get to experience both."

Pudgey left as quickly as he could, hearing the king laughing at him as he left. Steruzelth got dressed and went to his throne room, sitting down on his throne. Looking at the trio kneeling in front of him he smiled.

"Welcome back my favorite spies, what do you have for me?"

The one in the middle was the one to speak up, but stayed in a kneeling position.

"We have found the one responsible my lord. He is an elf that has travelled far with a minotaur and a beastman of royal descent."

Steruzleth coudnt hide his wide grin.

"Where is he now?"

"We followed him to a forest that the locals avoid due to some superstition. Apparently there is some sort of hidden city there filled with monsters that live together."

The kings smile vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. He is taking refuge in a city of monsters huh?.

The king sat in thought for a moment before coming to a descision.

"We cannot just invade our neighbors just yet. So you are to infiltrate that city and bring me that elf. If you succeed your payment shall be tripled."

All of the spies opened their eyes wide at this statement and proudly declared. "Yes! My king!"