1. Silas Wycliffe - level 45 - Duellist

2. Natalie Svoboda - level 43 - Cryomancer

3. Dominic Wood - level 42 - Black Knight

4. Mia Pascall- level 41 - Elementalist

5. Josh Thompson - level 38 - Antimage Brawler

6. Iris Azer - level 38 - Lifetree

7. Yuri Dmitriev - level 36 - Cleric

8. Lina Radhakrishnan - level 36 - Blazeblade

9. Diego Garcia - level 35 - Supay Summoner

10. Renard Lavigne - level 35 - Arcane Fletcher

11. Brigette Wagner - level 35 - Bladesinger

12. Elise LeBeau - level 34 - Minister

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16. Clio Tiafel - level 34 - Halberdier

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102. Damon Hersey - level 31 - Metalworker

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204. Amara D’Aegor - level 28 - Commander

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641. Rolf Ruttering - level 24 - Tactician

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1290. Tessa Flowers - level 21 - Alchemist

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1950. Olivia Green - level 16

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2471. Ethan Wycliffe - level 8

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3611. Gwledig Popkin - level 2

Riverside’s town hall had been too small and distant for a proper meeting, so instead the war council was held in a giant party tent some miles away from Lyfort. There were near a hundred captains in there, the majority keeping to the edges of the tent while the most influential fighters and strategists heatedly discussed their plans in the centre. A large wooden table had been placed there over which lay an encompassing map littered with many smaller ones on its body.

Dom banged the table with his fist to cut through the noise, then turned to Elise who prompted Amara to step forward. As a Commander, the princess was the only person here with a rare class relating to battle planning, the others only having uncommon classes like Rolf.

“Given the current circumstances, we believe a slow and focused attack would be best suited,” the shaerd said. On the large map appeared holographic figurines, each representing different amounts of troops with their dress codes matching their real-life roles. There were some 2000 human and shaerd combatants around Lyfort in a wide circle, but the town still outnumbered them at 4000. Of course, only 1000 or so of these were proper combatants, but it didn’t mean they could disregard the 3000 others who could as well be armed and dangerous. Amara snapped her finger and now the map became holographic as well, taking on a 3D form to show the lay of the land. “Here in the town’s south you can see there are considerably fewer troops, but we believe this is a deliberate display to lure us into a trap. Rather, it appears these heavily populated sections—” she said, pointing, “—are in fact their less fortified positions. They have simply placed greater numbers here to make up for their weakness.”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Floyd interrupted from the other side, the only seated person in the tent. “Let me get this right - you’ve just been backstabbed by one lot of aliens and you’re about to trust the word of this other one.” Numerous hurrahs followed his call, most from his fellow New Derbyians but also a considerable number from captains of Riverside too. Floyd turned to Riverside’s leadership and shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong, geezers, I’m all for outsourcing my work too, but maybe this isn’t the time for that.”

Discontent, Amara was about to speak up when Elise patted her on the shoulder, shaking her head. “We appreciate your concern, Floyd,” the Minister said, “But there’s no connection between the shaerds and the Order, and it would be a waste of talent to throw aside Amara’s skill-set due to unfounded fears.”

Nearby them, Silas agreed. He had been wary of the Order of Tyr since the start, not so much because of what they did but rather because they had the forces and capabilities to do far more. On the other hand, the shaerds were a magnitude fewer in number and would only risk extinction the second they turned on the humans who surrounded them on every side. In addition to this, perhaps it was his naivety speaking, but he trusted the shaerds far more after Amara’s skillful and noble display of leadership during their escape from Valrun’s Keep: she had sacrificed her own troops to save the humans.

To his surprise, it wasn’t Floyd who responded to rebuttal but rather Rolf, the plump Tactician. Silas still remembered him as the man who struggled to speak in front of thirty people at the Riverside’s town hall, so it only exacerbated his shock when Rolf spoke decisively and deliberately in front of the hundred. “I disagree. We should not take this slowly when it would only put us at more risk.”

Amara gave him a challenging look, and he expanded his point to the tent. “I figure the shaerds and those from New Derby are not so familiar with this area and how often the ratkin roam here. If they spot us fielding around Lyfort, they’re not going to just shy away; they’ll use this opportunity to launch a full assault on Riverside. For that reason, we need to be in and out quickly, which we can do anyway since we can shoot them up to the high heavens.” Rolf finished by sliding his glasses up the bridge of his nose, answering Amara’s challenge with a slight curl of his lips.

Hearing this, Silas realised Rolf’s plan would be far more appropriate. There were only two hundred-odd combatants left in Riverside, where he had left Olivia and Ethan as well since he didn’t trust them to prove themselves on a proper battlefield with just a handful days of training. He didn’t know if the Order had a countermeasure against firearms, but assuming they didn’t, it made little sense to go slow and easy on them. Even he had picked himself a stocky handgun to hold on his person, aware it could be a lifesaver at the worst of times.

Others reacted similarly to Silas, Floyd himself jumping out of his seat and waving at Rolf. “Now, that’s a proper plan from tubby here. We go in, we blow their heads up, we come out. No need to waste time.”

With that, the tone for the rest of the war council was set as the tent zeroed in on Rolf’s plan, ironing out its kinks and organising its details. By the time noon was approaching, the council was officially ended. Just over a day since Lyfort had declared war on Riverside, the humans were preparing to annihilate the Order of Tyr from the area. Murdering their envoys had taken this war past a point of no return, making it too dangerous for Riverside to keep crazy cultists in their backyard.

They were set in groups of fifty, attacking Lyfort from every side in order to flush out its citizens into their grasp, where they planned to slaughter them in the streets. It was such a horrific and barbaric plan, or it would have been if they hadn’t been under consistent attacks from the ratkin and hordes over the last month. Lyfort’s citizens weren’t people deserving their compassion, the men and women told themselves while marching, they were monsters like all the others in the wild. No one denied that their plan was cruel, but they all acknowledged it was necessary all the same. Those who didn’t were back in Riverside, refusing to fight in this war.

Silas led a company composed of experienced members into the southern sector of the town. He was joined by Mia, Bandit, and Brigette - the old squad from Valrun’s Keep. It was no coincidence that the company directly beside his was led by Floyd. The thinking was that in case the southern sector turned out to be a trap, as Amara suspected, then these high-levelled and experienced troops would find it easier to survive and escape.

Their foray into Lyfort came to an explosive start as Elise made sure it was a co-ordinated attack through texts. Positioned at the front of Silas’s company were heavily armoured, shielded troops whose primary function was to keep the cultists off the rest of their allies. Behind them followed the troopers armed with assault rifles with enough magazines to at least wipe out a few hundred amongst them. And Silas brought the flank with the rest of those who weren’t well enough trained with firearms or had a strong enough class which made them useful anyway.

They heard volleys of gunshots and heart-wrenching screams in the distance before they encountered any Order troops, and for a time it seemed their path had been deserted, but of course, it wouldn’t be so easy. Out from the surrounding System-built houses rushed out tens and tens of Lyfort’s denizens, trying to charge them down. But for all their effort in trying to gain an advantage through surprise, the humans simply remade their formation in a matter of heartbeats before letting bullets fly, shredding down the ogres and satyrs who led the charge.

The nymphs formed mana barriers and shot fireballs, but it meant nothing when gunfire shattered their barriers and New Derby’s make of dark armour had fire resistance built into it. It was the same when the ryfin tried shooting blow darts at the humans, hitting a handful in exposed areas, but mostly rolling over to the hail of bullets.

Silas held his own in the back, aided by Mia’s auspicious spells and Bandit’s opportune swooping attacks. Brigette’s tunes provided its passive bonuses as well, although he could hardly hear it over the clamour of combat. Either way, the ambush proved to be nothing noteworthy as they shrugged it off with minimal casualties, although they had burned through a considerable amount of their ammunition. The issue was that New Derby simply hadn’t produced enough in the week or two their firearm factories had been in production.

Either way, Silas reported the attack to Elise and heard back from her that their area was sparsely guarded as suspected. However, she ended the message by telling him to proceed with caution since the company that had gone just west of them had been wiped out, all fifty of them. From the last messages she had received from them, it sounded like a small number of highly specialised troops had committed the massacre, but she couldn’t confirm this for certain.

Silas spread this information to his company and saw fear and worry unfurl over their faces, but they followed him still when he led the way. Fortunately, it seemed luck was on their side as they came to a broad plaza made of pale stone with various stalls set up, skeletal in its layout since all the merchandise had been packed away. On the other end of the plaza, Silas spied Floyd’s company marching towards them, the Champion leading with a great, splitting grin.

Just as he was about to call out, he spotted a figure exiting through a hidden alleyway which too led into the plaza. It was a hulking figure that he would have recognised from silhouette alone, the broken horn at once reminding him of Faris and their time spent in the underground dungeon.

A trail of blood followed Krumtor as he dragged an ogre-sized bludgeon, its spikes scraping on the stone-set ground. Beside him walked a green willowy nymph who looked flawless in comparison, which he figured was due to the thick mana barrier encompassing her figure. Both of their auras were devastatingly dangerous, and he sensed another of their level in the area too, although he failed to pinpoint them.

Floyd shouted out towards them, and although the nymph turned to regard him, Krumtor turned to Silas instead, baring his grisly teeth, spitting out a mouthful of gore. “What was it again? Silly-us? Silas?” The ogre’s grating voice was nothing like what he remembered, and he felt a now-familiar sense of fear as he stared at this reaper of men. All the same, Krumtor had no time remaining to continue as the troopers took aim and fired, men and women shooting the Avatars from both sides. And yet the expected outcome never came as two expansive mana barriers rose on both ends and blocked their bullets, showing no signs of breaking despite the devastating barrage.