-Callen-

  An uncontrollable smile lingered on my face as I patted my hands, looking at the large stacks of food piled up, filling the previously barren warehouse. The local mayor seemed equally thrilled at the change of fate.

  “We likely won’t be able to help your town again in the near future, so it's on you to rally the refugees into producing enough food before you run out again.” I gave the man a pat on the back as I stepped back out and moved to join up with Karia in the army formation. Well, calling it a formation was generous; it was more of a militia blob. With only 50 knights compared to the several thousand men recruited, with a vast majority with only rudimentary survival experience or none at all. Part of me struggled to accept the truth of why we recruited so many; they were intended to function as meat shields and fodder to distract and tire out the elves.

  With my arrival, Karia gave me a firm nod before turning north with the army in tow, runners running through the crowd announcing our departure. I got into pace with Nixie, who looked utterly bored. Shuffling along at a comparatively sluggish pace.

  “Callen,” Her stare of devastating boredom and hope for a solution earned a couple chuckles from the men nearby.

  “Sorry, I don’t have the means of magically boosting the army along. Seems like you're going to get to experience normal travel between towns.” I paused a bit as something of a thought came to mind. Nixie wasn’t a fighter, didn’t have her car, and we are fighting elves, so without carefully made top-of-the-line traps, there wasn’t much Nixie could do marching with us. “On second thought, while I can’t speed the army along, you don’t need to stick around with us for the walking. Want to go back to Port Town and restock your gear, maybe help out Reesia in keeping home safe?” Nixie paused in thought before reluctantly nodding.

  “Fine, but I expect to be brought along when you get into trouble. Give me some kind of magic rock or something to let me know when you need me because I’m not going to sit around the flower’s tower all day waiting.” I quickly etched a quick runic array similar to the one Callia and I used in the festival: a pair of wooden tokens set to activate if fed mana and vibrate on its corresponding match.

  “I’ve never tested it at ranges like this, so I don’t know if that will interfere with the effect, but theoretically it should be fine. When I need you, the token will vibrate.” She held it in hand briefly before shoving it in her pocket.

  “If it doesn’t work, I’m going to blame you.” I nodded in compliance as one does with bossy sisters, and I summoned the void gate. Focusing briefly, I reached over to Nightshade, asking her to open up her end for Nixie to return. With confirmation I opened my side, and Nixie gave one last comment before heading off. “Make sure you come back to us, ok?”

  “Right.” With that Nixie left, leaving me to move with the army. With most of the combat personnel among the civilians already having fallen in battle against the elves, the knights skilled in perception were organized to act as scouts for the main force of the army, and the rest were responsible for supervising the civilians fighting off the various monsters on the road. I volunteered to join them, but Karia had other plans in mind for me. In particular, it was the crafting of tools that would help others overcome the immortal nature of the elves.

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  My solution, stakes, just like how someone would kill a vampire but enchanted with the skills essential to disrupting the immortality field. The biggest issue was finding men with enough mana to effectively use the stakes. That and the fact that making the stakes was an absolute pain; it took enchanting multiple active high-level skills into a simple object. In the three days it took for the army to march to Lanious, I only managed to craft nine stakes. On the way, news about the cities' condition reached me from the scouts long before our actual arrival, but the scene was far worse than words could describe.

  There was nothing left of the city but cinders and collapsed stone. Outside it was a mix of hoof trails and crushed bodies. A stampede of monsters was driven into running down the fleeing civilians and soldiers. A trail of crushed bodies stretching between Lanious and the western town at least partway; at some point the bodies stop and the herd diverts away from the path it had been driven. The scouts' reports seemed conflicted because the force that stopped the stampede appeared to be a massive army of either earthkin or children. Both seemed unrealistic, at least until some of the drafted soldiers shared news that the Duke had drafted every child between 10 and 15 shortly before the invasion began.

  We didn’t stay long in the city; instead, Karia immediately had us set off towards the western town to hopefully flank any elves that had continued pushing west. A detachment of 15 knights and 500 men was left to garrison and restore the city.

  “Reports suggest the elven force ahead is limited in size, just like the previous band. We’re going to rush ahead and destroy them before they can meet up with the primary force, which I suspect is being delayed by Baron Mecca. We’ll leave the army here to guard this region while the fastest among us will move ahead to reinforce the neighboring town and then move on to Nox City to get updates on the warfront. Sir Lisander, I leave you in charge of holding this city. Should the elves return, withdraw back to North Crossing town and hold them from pushing any further south.” Karia laid out the general outline of our new plan. I dumped all the food Callia had stored in the void before we set off. As the day ended, the sight of a town peeked over the edge of the horizon.

  Many-formed Immortal Fish Master

  Gramit looked into the distance. The mountain-like shadow of the citadel was casting the portion of the river he and his new army of fishmen hid within. While he knew the fishmen were as dumb as rocks, he had underestimated how social they were. As news about him spread, many came seeking him. His power to reconstruct fishmen into different kinds of fish had drawn countless into his service. The word of the Many-formed Immortal Fish Master spread throughout the various tribes, and they all came seeking his blessing. The number of followers grew, and before he knew it, a tribe became an army. It was still a relatively small army, but an army nonetheless.

  If he didn’t somehow accidentally assemble an army, he never would’ve considered something as bold as invading what was undoubtedly the greatest fortress in the world, but then again, the scent coming from the citadel was a craving bordering obsession. He originally wanted to avoid this place. It was a famous trap for all kinds of monsters seeking to harm humanity to break upon and perish, but the faint traces of that scent lingered in the water just long enough for him to be helplessly drawn into it like a fly to a torch.

  He inspected his army of somewhere around 700 fishmen. Maybe four or five in the whole army were strong enough to threaten knights. Honestly, invading the citadel with such a force was a joke, but he was a genius; at least his gut told him he was, and he was immortal, so it would work out eventually. The gaps in his memories irritated him to no end, and nightmares of monsters lingering in the dark haunted him. He didn’t know who he was, only that he wanted to feast upon the scent. He lingered at the surface of the water, staring at the citadel, seeking to find a weakness that would grant him his prize.

  Meanwhile, in the guard tower of the citadel, a paladin looked over to the man next to him. “You don’t think the fish actually think we can't see them, right?” The two looked down at what appeared to be several hundred fishmen swimming at surface level, staring at the citadel. The shadow cast from the citadel happened to stretch over the river, but instead of hiding the fishmen, the lack of glare from the water made them painfully visible. If it had only been one fishman scouting they might've gone unnoticed, but with so many staring at once, getting noticed was inevitable.

  “If they knew we could see them, they wouldn’t be hiding there. Anyway, rock, paper, scissors on who reports?”

  “Sure,”

  Lord.