Chapter 26: Battle of the Beasts

In the video projected on the wall, was the view of Goliath screaming “Incoming!” at the top of his lungs and Fatty firing an Arc Cannon as 30 huge black rhinos charged towards them through a field. One by one they fell, but some of them still reached the pair. As the few who had escaped Goliath and Fatty’s cannon fire hurdled out of the grain field, Fatty roared loudly and launched forward to meet one.

It was like smashing into an immovable object as the massive horn collided with Fatty’s huge gut, and the rhino was knocked back. Fatty then dove forwards like a mad man taking a huge bite out of the rhino’s neck. James just shook his head and let out a sigh. ‘Perhaps that hungry bastard wasn’t the best choice. He’s losing the Guild’s face, running around trying to eat living spirit beasts.’

Meanwhile, Goliath’s eyes had turned a glowing blood red as he smashed his hands down onto the head of a rhino while it roared out in pain on the ground. While they were distracted, two more black rhinos charged out from the grain field and closed in to smash the duo. Before they got the chance, two booms rang out over the fields and two Guild Members in black robes flew past on Air Boards firing off a shot each from Arc Cannons.

After a few moments when the battlefield seemed to still, James spoke into the Black-Pad. “Oi, Goliath!”

Goliath got up from his rage induced smashing of the rhino’s head and looked around. The moment he saw the drone floating nearby he jumped to his feet. After flicking the blood and gore from his hands, he began to approach with a strict solemn face.

“James, it’s worse than we thought. I’ve already lost one of our teams. The Cannons can’t hold fire anymore. We’ve only got a handful left. I’m going to have to pull everyone back for today.”

James cupped his chin. “What’s the situation, how many have you managed to kite out, and what’s the word on the main horde?”

Goliath wiped some blood and sweat from his brow as he looked off at the sound of Arc Cannons firing in the distance. “We’ve pulled at least 200 out. We’ve tried to keep the Cannons as a last resort, but they only move in herds of at least 20. We’ve done enough damage that the main horde has started moving. If we can keep this up, there may only be a few hundred left by the time they reach the city. I’m just worried there won’t be any of ‘us’ left by then.”

James then nodded gravely and sighed. “Pull them back Goliath. Don’t kite the horde anymore and get everyone back to the guild. You’ve done well mate.”

After he had said as much, he nudged Skay again and the image changed to the lab. Everyone’s eyes widened somewhat when they saw robotic arms whirling about in the background building an Arc Cannon and Lackey 1 bandaging up a new laceration on his remaining arm with his teeth.

James pinched his eyebrows as he watched the most competent and simultaneously incompetent lab assistant they had. “Lackey 1.”

After he’d spoken, Lackey 1 looked up from his arm and peered around. Then after he saw James’s face on the computer screen, he jumped from shock. “Guildmaster, I swear I’ll clean the blood up. It’s just that the big cutting part on the making things part moved and accidentally sliced my arm.”

James’ eyebrow twitched slightly when he heard that. ‘Can this guy not tell the big cutting part is going to cut him if he goes near it?’

After a moment of considering if he should just cut his losses with 1, he finally asked some questions. “1, how many Cannons came out of the factory today?”

1 scratched his head in thought for a moment. “Well, it was about 14. That one over there is the last one we have materials for. I’m afraid were out of lightning ... Err, of the LS3 materials Guildmaster.”

James gave a nod of the head. “Fine, go tell Norman to get some... ‘flower power’ ready, you’ve got wounded coming in soon. Oh, and 1, how much longer on the Berta’s.”

1 just looked confused for a moment then looked back into the factory at something. “Well, shouldn’t be more than 12 hours. You made a lot more parts for these ones Guildmaster.”

James just gave another nod. “That’s fine. Keep everything running till we get back.”

The connection closed and then Skay switched it over to a screen from a drone that had a bird’s eye view of the horde moving out of the forest. It looked like it was still close to a thousand beasts, despite Goliaths hard work today.

Everyone sat silently at the table trying to process this. For starters, they could project distant places and have face to face conversations with people tens of kilometres away.

Then there were the strange powers that the two guild members had been using when battling the rhinos.

Finally that short glimpse of the lab. That was the most confusing, it looked like artefacts that were making artefacts. How the hell did that work?

James turned back to the assembly. “Well, that’s the situation. We sent out some people at noon to harass the horde before it grew too big to contain. Looks like they’ve had a rough time of it but made a sizeable dent, which will make our job easier. We probably won’t be seeing too many beasts near the city until tomorrow noon time, but as you could see ... There’s a lot.”

Once he finished, Lucas sat up a little straighter. “What was that artefact that was making an Arc Cannon?”

James just gave a wry smile. “Oh I’m sure you’d love to know, but for now, that will remain a secret. Perhaps one day, you will be invited to the lab for a look around. Right now, I have other problems to worry about.”

Lucas looked like he suddenly became tired again then hummed and hawed for a moment. “I will call for some assistance and have the horde eradicated. They probably won’t get here until tomorrow though.”

James just smiled. “Many thanks for that. However, if you move out to eliminate the horde, it creates dependency. If our city can’t defend itself, how do you expect it to survive another attack? Some duties can’t be shirked. Tell you what. If you send some troops to back us up, just in case we can’t hold the tide, then I’m sure in a few months when we’re both free, you can come for a look at the lab.”

Everyone sitting at the table thought on that for a moment. Finally, the new girl heading the Tailor’s Guild chimed in. “I agree, we can’t afford to rely on someone that we may not be able to count on every time. You’re helping us out now, but what about next time? Now that the beasts are moving, that shows they know the monolith is damaged. If we can’t defend ourselves, we may as well pack up our shit and leave now.”

Toller gave a firm nod. “I agree as well. It would be good to have some backup in the city to protect the people, but this city needs to stand by itself, or it will eventually fall. How we react to this crisis now will determine how we respond in the future.”

Finally Song, who was having a rather shit week and was upset the beasts had ruined his birthday plans made himself heard. “How do you suggest we react? We’ve never needed to wall our city, which means we’re open to attack from the hordes. If we can’t defend on a wall, that many beasts will rip us to shreds.”

James gave a nod of the head. “I agree. For now, it’s almost impossible to defend against a horde. That’s why, in my opinion, we should attack it instead.”

The Explorers guild that had mostly remained silent till now shot to their feet. “What?! You want us to go out there and attack that horde like suicidal idiots? A throng that size will tear us to pieces. Even if every Palace Realm in the city went out we’d be massacred!”

James smile became a little darker. “I agree, blindly rushing at them will only get us killed. That’s why we’re going to use hit and run tactics instead. We’ll have the Builder’s Guild laying traps in the direct path of the horde. I want the Explorer’s Guild up in the air. I’ll have my boys give you a lift, we need terrain maps. I want to know every hill, ditch, crevice and creek within 3 kilometres of their direct line of travel.

“The three clans are about to have an intake. We have so many able-bodied barrier realms running around this city right now it’s not funny. We are going to have to inform the city eventually, after all, a whisper travels faster than the horse. If we can keep the citizens controlled and rile them up to join the cause, then we can have them out there taking some punishment and dealing it out.

“Tailor’s, you may not be strong in battle, but I’ve heard you have some array that you call clothe enchantment? You use it to make cloth so strong it can resist a sword strike, right? Well, we’re going to need armour, so that’s on you. We’ve also recently acquired a lot of scales from tests on the ‘dragon scales’ liquid. You can probably get about 20 decent armours out of it. I want everyone leading units on the front lines to be wearing it.

“Tiny and Kelsy, your sect’s will be on the front lines this time. For every beast your disciples kill, is a freebie at the school. Hao, Song, I know you don’t like the idea, but you’re going to have to kick your Hall of Forging up a gear to equip the city’s troops. If you like, we can probably pump out some of your artefacts as well if you give us the designs, but then, that’s up to you.

“The Imperial Branch ... well, I guess you guys just sit back and enjoy yourselves. From what I understand you’re useless at everything and don’t even really deserve to be living in the city.

“Merchant’s guild, we need every resource in the city. Tools, fabrics, metals ... everything. You’re in charge of supplying these at a reasonable price to each guild. If you fucking screw anyone, then so help me god, the Kantsu branch will be sending a new Guildmaster to Gau City.

“Farmers guild, you’re going to have an important job. You have the most manpower in the city, I want you to try and divide up some extra hands to whoever needs it. You may not specialise in anything we can use in war, but you do specialise in hard work. Which is something everyone needs a little bit more of right now.

“Finally the other three clans. You’re about to break the bank. We’re going to create a joint armed forces. You’re going to be paying out the ass for every member of this army to be properly equipped, and then you’re going to lead it. Before you have any strange thoughts, I have a little gift for each of you.”

Saying all the way up to this point, he tossed out 13 little necklaces with a pendant the size of a thumbnail and a few millimetres thick. “This is a timed explosive. In case you’re not sure what that means allow me to demonstrate.”

James then placed a spare necklace around a support column in the main hall. After the clasp was fixed, the pendant gave a little glow. James then tied some string to the end and walked a good 10 metres away before giving a tug.

‘BOOM!’

The support column was blown to dust and a wave of heated air swept over the room.

James then sat back down calmly. “That thing will blow your head off in 48 hours unless I, or the old madman, disarms it.” Saying that he pointed at Skay who was recording the results of the explosion. “Much stronger than the original stuff I put in it.” He mumbled to himself.

The 13 people from the clans turned somewhat pale after that little deminstration. “We can’t trust you!”

“This is a slap in the face of our clan!”

“That’s right, we haven’t even discussed your plans yet! You think everyone is just going to fall in line and agree to this nonsense.”

“You’re basically trying to take over control of the city! We won’t stand for it!”

As they all blustered and refuted, everyone else shared a look. Basically, James did run this city now. If they wanted to live in this city, they needed James’ approval.

None of them had powerful backers, with only a few acceptations, and those that did have backers, well ... a chance to gain some favour with the guy building weapons that could disintegrate palace realm cultivators or the pathetic bloke they stranded in this shity little city to run a branch clan or guild. Who are they going to fawn over in the end?

With a similar thought running through their heads, everyone basically agreed to the proposed plan so far and unanimously said nothing to defend the three clans that were trying to get out of having to have any involvement that might lose them some power in the city.

Once they realised the predicament they were in and that no one was about to step out and assist them they tried to bargain.

Afro-face, who still had fresh blood dripping from his messy beard jumped out to offer support in a different way. “Our clan has powerful master alchemists. We can assist the war effort by donating assistive remedies. We even have strong spirit pills that replenish spirit energy. We can help the war effort in other ways.”

James cocked his head to the side. “Well, I’m sure that’s all well and good, but just how many of these things can you make? Enough for an entire army? And just how good are they? As good as our 616? Or perhaps better than our clotting paste?”

“Ahh ... well, it probably wouldn’t be as powerful as your 616, I’m afraid we just don’t have the spirit ingredients. But we could definitely finish at least 500 pills that are half as good. We could also complete something close to the same standard as your paste. Maybe 200 of that.”

James gave a sagely nod with chin cupped in hand. “Oh I see, you don’t have enough ingredients? Did you perhaps use them all recently trying to flood the market with your crappy products to reduce the price of our products? Only a few weeks ago, we all sat here and everyone was warned that the monolith was damaged and the city was in danger.

“You didn’t think it strange that all our sales dropped in quantity suddenly? We’ve been stockpiling 616 to the brink of excess. We’ve got so much of the stuff, I could fill a lake with it and go fucking swimming! You think your pissant fuckin pills can match up to that? You think that would be more useful than going out there and fuckin killing the god damn spirit beasts? Is your head made entirely of fucking hair!? Harvy, shoot this man!”

Harvy raised up the Arc Cannon and his death aura cascaded off him like a thick black mist. Afro-face started to panic the moment he heard the order for his death. “Wait! Wait! I’ll do it, I’ll wear the necklace. We’ll lead the armies.”

James raised his hand to halt Harvy and smiled. “Good to hear it. I don’t particularly like these methods, but they are efficient. To give you all some ease of heart, I swear to the heavens that should the city survive this disaster, I will ask my subordinates to remove the necklaces.”

Once the heavenly laws descended, and he finished handing out orders he stood up. “Toller, come meet me at the guild once your crews are ready, we’ve got a lot of work to do. Everyone is to get started. If we don’t have at least ten thousand people ready to march out that gate at dawn, then this city is going to fall.”

He then spun on his heel and walked out. As they moved back towards the Guildhall, Skay couldn’t help but let out a sigh. “I’m fucking glad this is your job and not mine haha. If that were me, I’d have killed them all and fucking left the city, even if it meant I’d be losing half our stuff here.”

James just gave a bitter smile. “Old madman. Let’s just hope this works. That may be the first time in my life I’ve been so assertive. If things were different, and if I’d never been stupid enough to pick up this burden you dropped on me, perhaps I would have done the same thing you would have.

“The only reason I’m not doing it now is that I’ve come to learn, although it’s slightly troublesome, using other people to get your shit done is much easier than trying to get it done yourself. Also, it took me a lot of effort to get this far, I’m not about to throw away everything we built because some fuckin animals crawled out of the forest.”

-South end of the City at dawn-

You would be surprised just how much shit cultivators with spirit energy can get done in about 18 hours. Standing at the south end of the city were 23,000 armed and equipped ... peasants. Leading every thousand men was a member of the war council.

Each thousand-man unit was filled with cultivators from every faction. No unit had only one faction’s cultivators filling it. This was to prevent anyone from doing naughty things. The only exception to this was James’ group that numbered just over a hundred.

Within it was 16 people on Air Boards each holding an Arc Cannon. On the ground, every member was covered in strange black armour and carrying black swords or lances or some other weapon ... that was black.

Standing at the front of this group was James and his core members, who were dressed in exactly the same garb as everyone else with the only exception being a large, coloured seal on their armour. Each member of the core group had a different colour and every 10 or so people from the guild shared that colour on a small shield on their chest. The only missing members of the guild were Fatty, Skay and Harvy.

James was staring off into the distance as if waiting for something.

Seeing this action, Hao couldn’t help asking. “James, if we don’t march out soon then the beasts are only going to approach us faster. We need to start moving, don’t we?”

James just grinned then before he had the chance to comment, a strange humming sound spread out over the fields. Everyone was a little panicked when they saw 3 huge light blue boxes descending from over the city. James gave a broad grin.

“Fuck they’re finally here.” After that, he tapped an ear piece. “‘Bout fuckin time. Get your fat ass down here!”

Fatty’s voice came back through the little earpiece in James’ ear. “Hey hey hey! I’m doing the best I can okay. Flying this thing is like driving a fucking dump truck.”

As James and Fatty started swapping some choice words, the three Big Berta’s settled onto the grain field crushing a good deal of grain underneath. James then spun around to the forces assembled behind him. “I’m not sure what you’ve been told, but I’m sure you at least know where you’re about to go. For now, each unit will be resting here until further notice. Units 1 to 3, load up. You’re going in first.”

As he yelled that out, using spirit energy to amplify his voice, the loading ramps from the back of the three Berta’s dropped down. Everyone was slightly more panicked now. Flight? They were flying into battle? And with only three units? What about the rest?

As these thoughts flashed through their minds, James gave his guild members a look. They all nodded and started herding the units into the flying death traps.

After a slow 15 minutes, the Berta’s took flight again and started moving out towards the horde. The best part about hordes was they moved slowly. They liked to eat everyone and thing on their way to somewhere. This herd was still about six hours out which meant they had to be moving close to one kilometre and hour. Which was really slow.

James was aware that once they started to get it riled up ... well, they would probably get to the city within an hour at most. As their three troop ships flew overhead, the Brotherhood guild members briefed everyone on their jobs. Each unit would set up behind the horde then send out small units to start luring some back.

Everyone thought these guys were out of their minds, but after they touched down they found themselves set up with odd bunker hills and trenches everywhere. After a few minutes of familiarisation, the troops started sending out kiting teams.

At first, they were a little timid and only pulled back as few as they could, which was usually only about 15 or 20. After a unit found that they could decimate that many easily, they started getting a little bolder.

As those rear groups started kiting beasts from the back of the horde, James had the next 6 units arranged along the path of the beasts in different areas. Their job was simple. To distract and slow the horde.

Once the horde approached their position, they were to engage the edge of it and make a fighting retreat into the next group that would be waiting. By the time all three groups had engaged and withdrawn twice, then the horde would probably already be near the city.