Unimp, a small human town in the northern lands of Foradverold.

“... sire there is a large gathering of warriors outside the town walls. They want to speak with you,” said the town's guard captain between gasps of breath as he tried to calm down after running so fast.

“Why tell me this? You know I do not like being disturbed by random people,” said the town's leader, not looking at the guard captain.

He continued to ignore the guard captain while he lay on his cushioned couch and flipped the pages of a secondhand monthly newspaper he had bought from a passing stranger.

“Interesting... is that so... I never saw it that way...” muttered the leader as he read about many different things he had never heard about or seen before.

“...sire...”

“What? You're still here?”

“These people outside the town will not leave. If you don't speak with them I am afraid that...”

“Fine! I'll go see them.”

“Sire, do you think they are here for Unimp?”

“What would they want with our town? We just started back up and have nothing to steal.”

The guard captain escorted the town leader to the wooden gatehouse so that he could talk to the warriors on the outside and get them to leave.

A dozen guards were already standing guard on top of the gatehouse with their weapons ready as they looked down at those below them.

“What do you vagabonds want?” asked the town leader as he looked at the 5 or so ruffians that stood outside the gates. Their armor and weapons all looked extremely worn out and tattered.

“Surrender your town or die!” shouted one of the ruffians.

“Captain, kill them all,” said the Town leader.

The town guards raised their bows and waited for the captain's order to fire.

“Sigh... we wanted to take this town without damaging it... Everyone Attack! Leave no one standing!” shouted the Vagabond warrior that looked the worst out of them all.

30 plus warriors rose from their hiding places in the long grass and joined the others near the gate as they began a full attack on the town.

The weak wooden gates were shattered into small splinters under a massive wave of colorful skills.

A large burly vagabond warrior holding a spear in his muscular arm aimed at it at the top of the gatehouse and hurled it forward. A bright purple light covered the spear as it shot forward.

Thunk!

The spear pierced through the town leader's stomach like butter. The force behind the attack knocked him off his feet and sent him falling onto the dirt road, where the spear embedded itself deep into the ground and pinned down the town leader where his blood slowly spilled out and turned the dirt red.

Several of the vagabond warriors passed him gleefully whooping in excitement as they chased after fleeing townspeople.

The town leader grabbed onto the spear sticking out of his chest and tried to pull it out but his bloody hands kept slipping.

“Ahhhhh!!” “Mommy!” “You monsters!”

As his strength fled him, he could only lay still and slowly die while listening to the horrors that were happening all around him.

A burly arm reached out from the corner of his vision and grabbed the end of the spear tearing it out of his body with one quick pull.

“Gah!” the town leader let out a cry of pain as blood and guts flew into the air.

The burly man left without saying a word. But a second person walked up to him and crouched down next to his head while smiling at him.

“Look at you, looks like that wound hurts. If you had surrendered, we would have killed you all quickly. But now...” the man's dagger slashed out and lopped off the town leader's right hand.

“... I get to play with you.”

“Sniky, quit playing around. We have to clean up this place, repair our armor, and create a stronger defense structure to stop the other guilds from taking it.”

“What's the point? All the good spots are already taken and we are being forced to take over a small backwater town like this that has nothing going for it. The larger guilds will probably come here when they are tired of fighting each other and we will lose all the work we put into it” said Sniky.

“We just have to gain as many benefits as we can while they are busy fighting each other. We may be able to hold them off for a time if we prepare properly.”

The majority of juicy targets in the north were all being gobbled up and now there were only a few easy targets left. The only towns left were the hard nuts that in order to crack, would take their full focus to handle. But right now the demigods were focused on consolidating their forces first.

Jeora was one of these hard nuts that had not been cracked and was now far stronger than was before.

***

Bent-Gii settlement.

“Burrruuu!” the war horns of Kodria's army announced their presence. Even though they had marched as fast as they could to arrive and support Akira they were still several days late.

The army stopped outside the wooden fence and inspected the damaged stone walls that showed cracks in several places as well as a destroyed ballista that lay on the ground where it was pushed off the wall.

Akira exited the settlement's gate and turned to Mileena who was packing her belongings back into the carriage they had arrived in. “You should head back with the guards and take care of the kids. I have to take care of taming the surrounding area and stop any more of these problems from popping up.”

“... alright, but you need to make sure you don't take any unnecessary risks and stay as safe as you can,” said Mileena reluctantly.

“Don't worry, I will be well protected with so many soldiers supporting me. Nox 1 and 2 are always ready to help me if I get into any tough spots.”

“Yap!” said Fluffball as he watched Mileena get into the carriage.

“With the new batch of soldiers from Kodria, Bent-Gii can hold out if any bandits come again so there is no need to worry about us right now as long as we fix the damage,” said Varbu.

Akira watched for a long time until the carriage and its guards disappeared down the dirt road heading back to Kodria.

“Alright! Men, we are going to be traveling around the nearby territory to clean up any and all bandits! We must make sure no demigods are setting up any camps near our territory,” shouted Akira as he turned to the large waiting force of soldiers waiting outside the settlement.

“We're coming with you!” said Oib.

“How could I not come with you and document such an exciting adventure!” said Erkia.

… and so the traveling merchants decided it was best to move along with the army as they would be protected and they could help them sell and buy things wherever they went.