“Oh shit, she’s charging up a spell! She’s going to use a strategic class! Everybody get down!” Somebody screamed. The trick was to get down, but not too far so as to have the shockwave forcefully move through the earth and up the bones into the body. Because, depending on the quality of the shield, and its dampening, it could reduce those well, or not. This also depended on if the shield was supposed to protect civilians or not. And let’s face it, most of these drafts were basically civilians. Granted they could almost all be replaced in a day, but that wasn’t the point.

And that point was that they had been trained to resist a shockwave from a nearby spell blast. You got down and beyond something but did your best not to touch anything. Because that could then transfer it to you.

Micky of course, as a squishy, got down and behind a building, that was in front of Prin, who then picked him up in a damsel carry, you know the one that is about carrying the weak partner to safety as they run away from the bad guy. Yeah, Micky was pouting a bit, but he understood.

Boom! The explosion didn’t rock the fortifications, at least not too bad. The other clanner had blocked the spell with a shield. Quite literally just happened to block the spell for the fort as well. Safe to say that they wouldn’t need to build a trench here in front of the fort though.

It seemed the other clanner was pissed. The one that launched the spell seemed to be mocking them and launching spells randomly while the shieldy one went on the defensive. Soon, they too got pissed and launched attacks on the weaker clanners tasked with taking the artifact. This became a back and forth until one of them just decided to start leading the other away. Soon they were off into the monster forests.

The monster forests weren’t truly ruled singularly. This was a good thing for humanity as they had more, stronger high leveled powers. Instead they were ruled by infighting clans of beasts. Sometimes the sects can and would take up residence inside as they used the regular beasts as a training tool. They also didn’t really care if a few powerful somethings came in and messed the place up. The forest would take care of such things shortly. In a day tall trees of a certain kind would replace the old ancient ones. These would then grow from under the canopy of some ultra fast growing bamboo, or giant river tamarind or pepper trees. So the monsters really didn’t care as it wouldn’t change anything.

Lastly the weaker food sources usually grew back at least as quick. In fact, they were like a natural disaster that made room for those overcrowded specimens that didn’t have it before. Of course, that’s not what the over crowded specimens thought when they were being massacred at the time. This would lead to several beast waves as they scrambled away. But it wasn’t like these guys were going to fight all out, or go far in. There were bigger, badder, and stronger things in there and they weren’t keen on waking them.

But this didn’t matter so much as the [Hero] was actually a part of the blast area. Oh well, you all know the saying, a [Dead] [Hero] was never really a [Hero] in the first place, just an exceptionally skilled, lucky bastard. So now they clans were fighting even more intensely over the treasure. Probably only to present it to some young master to gain favor. Maybe some favored offspring. Whether they could unleash its full potential or not didn’t matter.

But that didn’t matter since it was eventually taken away by another [Hero]. It seemed to be a no name figure beforehand. Some weak nobody that could only hide behind others. They heard a story that they had been a legionnaire in the Aene army at one point but that was just a rumor with no proof. And unlike one would think the clanners weren’t going to bring trouble for Aene over such a thing. Mostly because while this little fortified camp in the beginning stages of construction wasn’t worth mentioning, but Aene itself was able to keep the clans within its borders in line.

The fighting ended in the next three days with the clanners scouring the woods for the lost artifact. It was unlikely that they were going to find it though. Still, it was best to be careful, so Micky proudly left with a supply caravan. Prin didn’t wear her armor so as not to rub it in that he had basically everything taken from him. Including all the deeds he had secretly transferred to himself. It was ok though, the important thing was the politician that he had done. He had even exchanged correspondence with a duke at one point… granted through a subordinate, about some trivial stuff the duke didn’t actually care about.

The important thing is the duke probably has a record somewhere that he actually did send and receive letters with someone at Micky’s level. This would be about the best Micky could expect, and if he ever did meet or need something from the duke he could expect a senechal or [Assistant] skill to remind him of that fact. As the saying went, “Get the tentacle through the interdimensional crack of the void” or so the cthulhu star-spawn cultists used to say.

Micky for his part was looking forward to seeing his, well his family. He had been apart from them for only a short while, and he had only known them for a short while before even that. But yet, he had grown attached to them in the short time that he had known them. He was very much looking forward to meeting back up before going over to Aene the capitol itself.

But first, he would have to go pick up Maymay. She was knocked out of the skirmish early and unlikely to have picked up many benefits. Though he had marked several high quality stands of trees as she had asked, in his own convoluted organizational system of course. These could then be picked up later by her when she was ready to make her own forest, much much later.

And so Micky got on the road. By now he was fairly familiar with travel. It was most of what he was doing for the past month after all. At least he wouldn’t have to face bandits. Just roving enemy troops, that were still attempting to cross the border. And oh yes, how could he forget Prin’s slave, by proxy his slave. Afterall, she wasn’t and probably never would be a knight house unto herself, and thus would remain his personal knight. Thus all of her property would be his. Yeah…?

Well that was neither here nor there. Looking back on his time in the army he had first started commanding a full centuri. He had fought with the legate in charge almost as much as the actual enemy. Been forced to fight with his fellow countrymen in some kind of noble mosh pit. He outmaneuvered them only to be put into the legates crosshairs again.

He had been court martialed countless times. All at the behest of the legate who had an enormously more powerful background. He was afterall an expendable consumable piece, not even at the level of a pawn. He was a literal gift to his former friend, being wrapped up in a boe to be an obedient, but useful, pet. The legate on the other hand, was groomed to be a useful heir to the line. Or failing that, a useful bargaining chip. The resources he would throw away were worth more than Micky had ever seen in his life. The baron’s town ten times over.

But Micky had won out, mostly with perseverance. The man’s eventual ineptitude had destroyed him and now he had been sold off to the highest bidder with the best breeding. If Micky even saw the man gain, the former legate could count his lucky stars.

Then Micky himself took over temporarily, if only behind the scenes and unofficially. His name would never be on the history books and likely hard for even historians to place. There was simply a gap between the two commanders. The 11th would eventually take credit for the creation and inspiration of the fort. However, the name of the fort would be up for some debate. This was because the fort was already started by that time.

So what did the name Magaera would hotly be debated. Was it the name of a lover he had at the fort, or in the past? Was it the name of a secret family member? When did he have this relationship with the women? Inquiring historians want to know!... When Micky found out in a bar somewhere he laughed his ass off. It’s what the man got for stealing credit, ha!