King Wang Ning stands aboard his massive warship, as his regal colorful robe flutters in the wind. His piercing gaze stands firm as he scowls at the approaching orc ships.

A good twenty orc Galley’s head towards his small fleet of eight ships.

His massive arms tighten firmly around his chest as barely controlled fury emanates from his tense form.

“Control yourself, Wang,” his trusted advisor and friend voices from his side.

Turning his head right, Wang looks at Chao Jun, a small man of no noble birth, but a tactical mind that would easily make heads spin.

“Chao,I lost my wife three years ago,” Wang starts, looking towards his good friend,” and now I may very well lose my only child,” his fury and sorrow ever present in his towering girth.

“Lihwa may very well be alive, so you must think carefully with every decision if we are to have any hope of regaining her,” Chao advises his king.

Wang slowly nods and takes a deep breath, the cold morning air helping him soothe his sorrow and muffle his fury.

“Lei Kung,” Wang calls as he turns his head back to the orc ships.

“Yes, my king!” Lei answers from a kneeling position behind his king.

“Order the other ships to slow their speed, I will be taking the Stormmaker into battle,” Wang answers without turning around.

“Your will, be done,” Lay exclaims as he stands up, strikes his chest, and leaves to send orders.

“I will wait inside,” Chao mimics the salute, walking towards the inside of the Stormmaker.

Within a few minutes, the ships tailing Wang’s start to slow down.

Noticing that preparations have been made, Wang starts to release his mana. It flows throughout his body and quickly exits the gills on the side of his neck.

His mana travels down his body and strikes the enchanted mithril hull of his ship. A connection forms between him and the mana engine within the bowels of the Stormmaker.

With a directed thought from Wang, the engine releases a stream of mana into the mithril plating of the ship.

Immediately the mithril starts to resonate with his mana as the ship hull activates, glowing mana lines become visible. The ship lurches forward as the waves around it beckon to wangs call. Twenty, thirty, fifty, the speed of the ship increases, the other ships quickly lagging behind as he alone rushes to engage the enemy fleet.

Wind blowing powerfully, but Wangs feet are firmly frozen to the deck of the ship with a bit of water. The orc ships are almost in range as wang spreads his arms apart, mana answering his call.

“I am King Wang Ning!” He yells, mana bursting out of the ships hull, spreading wildly into the air and sea.

”You have taken my daughter!” He continues to yell, clouds starting to form in the air,

”My pride and joy!” the waves start moving quickly, the clouds blocking the sun as they quickly turn gray

“I will have her back!” he yells over the sound of thunder crashing into the waves.

“EVEN IF I MUST WIPE OUT A CONTINENT TO DO SO,” he roars, a pulse of mana emits from his ship, causing the water to spin in the distance. A thousand meters around the Stormmaker, twelve hurricanes start to form.

Witnessing a force of nature never before seen, the orc ships quickly attempt to flee, but they are much too late.

The twelve hurricanes start to orbit the Stormmaker, their sheer combined size forming into a massive storm of twisting water that finally reaches the orc ships.

The orc ships are quickly engulfed, the sheer pressure and size of the storm ripping their hulls to pieces with utter ease and devastation.

Only the Stormmaker remains safe as Wang manipulates the eye of the storm.

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The city of Geral stands firm as it overlooks the eastern mountains of Geralyn. It's powerful stone walls and majestic carvings hold a great deal of history. The city initially built to protect from roving goblins, now houses the most influential beastkin in Geralyn.

Within its walls is an assortment of homes built for almost all sizes of beast-kin, both centaur and snake alike. In the center of such an ancient city resides a building whose masonry is as old as the walls itself. This is where the council of Geralyn lies. And today, the council is meeting inside.

Garren sits at a massive circular table. His elbow is plopped on the table as his hand supports his head. A bored expression can be seen on his face as he looks at the other council members.

Over 40 of them sit patiently waiting for the speaker to show his presence, so the council may start. “27,” Garren mumbles as he counts the number tiger-kin that are on the council. Two more than the last time he was here.

Annoyed with the wait, he turns his head towards Darius, the only Panther-kin in attendance.”So what was the reason that Saleve couldn't make it to the council again?” Garren asks, boredom making him frustrated.

Darius sighs as he looks towards his good friend,” Well…….all she left me was a freaking message saying that she needs to train our daughters to hunt down a mate,” he answers, annoyed with the constant questions from Garren.

Before Darius can lose his mind, the speaker finally enters the council chambers.

White is a good way to describe the speaker as an aged white furred bear-kin slowly walks towards the council. Hunched and using a log to help him walk, he slowly finds his way to the head of the council circle.

“Apologies,” he says as he sits down on an old chair.” When you get close to three hundred in age, everything then starts taking much longer,” he says, his voice still strong even with such age.

“For those of you new to the council, my name is Voli and I am the speaker that organizes these meetings.” He nods towards the new members.

“So without further ado, I will explain why I have called you in for this meeting,” Vali points at Garren,” Garren here is the current leader of the town Brentanol, whose location is close to the forbidden forest and,” he pauses looking towards the members,” the location of an underground tunnel through the mountains to the ocean.”

Gasps can be heard from the uninformed members of the council.

“So we have a way to reach the water?” A council member asks.

“Is it safe?” another asks.

Quickly all of the members start to yell and bicker over what to do with that information.

“Silence!” Voli yells, his powerful Mana infused voice resonate with the stone walls, forcing all into silence. Nodding slowly, Voli turns towards Garren,” Garren here will explain the situation.

Clearing his voice, Garren turns to the council members.”About three months ago, orc slavers were found hunting in Geralyn.”

The crowd of council members nods, already having been notified of the orc presence.

“We found out from the recovered villagers that the orcs got here through an underground tunnel built into the mountain. We eventually found it but the inside is massive. Currently, I have my guards around the entrance in case any more orcs come through, but so far there have been none,” Garren explains, stopping momentarily so that the council members can digest his words.

“The fact that there is a way to travel from the sea to Geralyn without having to pass through the desert is both extremely useful and dangerous for us,” Garren says as he folds his arm across his chest.

“The decision to destroy this passage or utilize it is something that the council as a whole needs to decide.”

The other council members nod towards the bear-kin over his good judgment and respect towards the council.

Voli merely smiles knowingly at the clear political game Belinda is playing at. Garren is much too blunt to have even thought of the political problems he would face over such a decision.

Voli turns towards the council members as they whisper to each other, not that it would help considering the impeccable hearing of many of the species here.

“With the possibility of an orc army located on the other side of the mountain, we must, unfortunately, make a decision today,” the whispering quickly dies down as all eyes turn to Voli,” please voice your stance and reasons out loud,” he says as he leans back in his chair.

Immediately a bunnykin rises up from her seat “ I voice that we destroy the passage. We are safe only because of how difficult it is for the other species to find us,” she says, quickly taking a seat.

A bearkin of black fur rises up from his seating position as the bunny sits back down.”I agree, it is too much of a risk to take all for easier trade,” he exclaims in a deep voice, again taking his seat.

Beast-kin rise and fall as they voice their opinion one by one.

Finally, it becomes Garren's turn. Getting up from his seat, the sheer size of his girth squeaking the poor chair, he looks towards the council members.”I believe that this is an opportunity worth taking,” he starts as he looks to the crowd.” we have been isolated in our forest for too long. We have the opportunity to open trade and rise above just this forest. We can-,”

“Oh please, you have the most to gain from this opportunity. Your town is the closest to it,” a snake-kin speaks out.

“Why does he profit most from this?” another yells.

“We need to destroy it.”

“We can build a port.”

The council erupts quickly into anarchy as once again the members of the council starts to raise their voices.

As they yell, one member who has been silent for all this time slowly gets up from his seat.

“Grendel died because of us!” He yells, looking towards the council members.

Immediately their is silence as they look towards the voice.

Taking a deep breath, he continues to yell.”Grendel lost his life against those goblins because we could not prepare him properly. The same person who has kept us safe for over twenty years was forced to give up his life for this council. We currently have the opportunity to change all of that. Do we really want our children to continue to fight these goblins with stick and stones,” he pauses as he looks to the expressions on the other council members. “We have the opportunity to arm our children with dwarven steel and elf magic.”

The council is dead silent as their expressions change from outright hostility to ashamed.

“I am General Wukong and I will not allow our children and friends to die needlessly!” Wukong yells as his eyes bore into the other council members.

Silence descends upon the council as Garren stares at Wukong with both confusion and gratitude.

“Please sit,” Voli says breaking the silence.

Immediately the assembly sits back onto their seats, ignoring the crackling sound emanating through the hall.

“It is time for a vote,” Voli starts once everyone is seated and comfortable.” Please put a hand in the air if you believe it would be best to permanently block off the tunnel,”

Immediately 14 hands reach for the air, a majority of the non-violent species having decided that dealing with an outside force may put them in a dangerous position.

“It seems that we will be clearing and utilizing the tunnel through the mountain,” says as he smiles at all the council members.” We will send general Wukong and his troops to assist Garren in taking over the passageway and clearing any orc troops in the vicinity.”

Voli looks around for any complaints or better idea’s. Finding none, he slowly stands up using the help of his log.”This council is over and you may all leave.”

The council members stand up to leave but Voli quickly singles out Garren.”Garren!,” he yells at Garren as he attempts to quickly retreat.”That chair is very expensive, do make sure to bring a replacement next time you come here,” Vali exclaims with a smile as he stares at the blushing bear-kin as he slowly wipes some wood chips off his behind.

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The free city of Karander sits squarely at the southeast area of the main continent. With imposing walls and a massive variety in species, they have become a big shipping and trading spot for a variety of traders..except orcs.

The residents of the city comprise of former slaves or their children. It is well known that if slaves of an orc ship rebel and kill their owners, then their next stop will almost always be Karander.

Such freedom comes with quite a high military cost, such as massive expensive dwarven cannons which are placed upon stands aiming towards the ocean. Such cannons require a great deal of caretaking and are quite expensive to fire.

Though all of the port buildings are made of wood, there is a single building made of hardened stone that faces the ocean. This building is the guard tower, where the captain of the guard works.

“Captain,” a hardened dwarf guard runs into a room on the top floor of the tower, his beard swishing with every step.

Adalwolf looks away from his desk where a large stack of documents awaits his signature.

“Possible orc sighting on the ocean,” his lieutenant answers, sweat pouring down his brow.

Adalwolf looks outside the window of his office, staring towards the sea. A powerful fog covers the distance where the light of an enormous ship can be seen. Only the orcs are willing and stupid enough to use such massive slow ships.

His mind quickly thinks about his own past. A strong wolf-kin mercenary leader from the northwestern side of the continent was captured and put to use as a rower.

During a heavy storm, he was able to free himself from his shackles and kill off the guards, quickly retaking the ship. With the help of the other slaves, he was able to make port in Karander, where he is currently the captain of the entire port defense.

“Wake up all of the guards and make sure the cannons are ready to fire. They may very well be slaves looking for safety, but I want everyone ready if not,” he orders the dwarf lieutenant.

With a quick nod, the dwarf runs to relay his orders. Adalwolf looks back towards the sea, attempting to force down the memory of his mate...and her gruesome death.

Taking a deep breath, Adalwolf walks down the stairs to join his guards as they prepare to meet the ship with possible hostility.

A few minutes later, he finds himself at the port, a scimitar resting at his hip as his strong digitigrade legs stand firmly on the wooden platform.

Looking around, his guards stand ready, weapons in hand as they fly the Kalander cape colors.

“Here it comes,” a dwarf yells as eyes turn towards the approaching ship as it parts the fog.

Massive! Is a word Adalwolf would describe the ship, clearly made to be more vertical in size than long like an orc galley. Taking a long look, Adalwolf slowly starts to relax as he notices the exquisite details of the ships hull, something the orcs would never waste much time on.

Slowly the ship starts to make port as a short bearded dwarf stands upon the deck, looking down towards him and his guards.

“I am David, captain of the swi-Wiseman and I request authority to dock,” the dwarf yells loudly.

“David?” His lieutenants blurt out from his side.” Wasn't he the captain of the Swiftsail? It’s not even a month since he last made port?” He says, looking towards the ship.

“It seems David has an interesting tale to tell,” Adalwolf comments as he nods towards the dock workers to help with docking.” Let's go introduce ourselves to such a large ship captain,” he exclaims as he strides towards the dock, his soldiers still at the ready.

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