VOLUME 4: CHAPTER 10

VOLUME 4 CHAPTER 10

5 days passed since the Third Army captured Akash City. Every day, scouts from the Empire were sent to investigate the territory, but were quickly dealt with by Anandra and his men. Every day was filled with blood and tension as small skirmishes broke out here and there. Fortunately, the enemy did not launch an all-out assault against Akash City, probably wary of the fact that the Kingdom managed to capture the place in a mere day. 

“Here. Dig deeper.” Lark was holding a stack of documents as he pointed at the ground in front of him. 

The Blackstone Knights around them seemed to have understood, as they grunted then started digging at the place Lark pointed at. The ground in front of the gate was being dug deeper than the other areas. They planned on putting spikes on it later, harden the ground, then fill it with water using magic. It would be completed by a wooden bridge which could be folded and drawn back during sieges. 

Since time is of great essence and they could be attacked by the Empire anytime, Lark decided to prioritize the moat in front of the gate first. For now, trenches next to the walls should suffice. He also started installing additional ballistas on top of the walls, each of them capable of firing three spear-sized arrows in each shot. 

“My Lord, we’re ready to start,” said Anandra. 

Lark looked at the nearby forest, then at the documents in his hand. After a while, he said, “Do it.”

Anandra bowed his head then started disseminating Lark’s orders. The sound of a gong was heard and smoke started rising up into the sky from the nearby forest. Flocks of birds flew out and the cries of animal reverberated. 

They’ve gathered enough wood these past several days. It was now time to burn the forest. 

This was the decision Lark came up with after the incident five days ago. The forest was a good place to set up traps for the enemies, but it was a double edge sword that could become an escape route of the Empire. There was also the fact that the Ghost of the Empire could use the forest to his advantage with the help of his fog. 

This decision to burn the nearby forest was cemented when several scouts from the Empire kept coming here the past few days, and most of them chose to spy on the city while hiding in the forest. Lark had quite the headache dealing with them, since the sea of trees limited the vision of his surveillance birds. 

The workers would stare at the burning forest every now and then, but not one of them panicked since everyone had been briefed of the plan beforehand.  

After checking the progress of the moats, Lark went towards the fifth district, the place where the magic tower was currently being built. By now, the base had been completed; the magic formation had been engraved on the ground with eight blocks of stones surrounding it. 

Lark noticed that the leader of the supplies team was here again, observing the magic tower creation process. Although she tried her best to remain nonchalant, her eyes gave her away. Those pair of crimson eyes were almost gawking at the sight, as though the magic formation and the eight blocks of stone surrounding it was the most beautiful thing in the world. 

Lark erased his presence and stealthily moved closer to her. 

“You really like the magic tower, huh?”

She almost jumped in surprise. She turned around and saw Lark smiling at her, clearly amused that he managed to take her by surprise. 

“Ah, Commander.” She bowed then scratched her cheeks in embarrassment. “About this… I’m currently on break that’s why—”

“—There’s no need to be stiff,” Lark laughed. “I’ve received your report this morning. Good work.”

She had been perfectly managing their supplies so far, monitoring everything down to the last grain of wheat. Those who tried to take more than what was rationed were caught and punished. 

The two of them stared at the magic tower for a while. 

“Commander,” she said. “Aren’t you afraid that the enemy will use this magic tower against us? There’s no assurance that we can hold onto this city until the end of war. Even our rations wouldn’t last us half a year at this rate.”

“That’s true,” said Lark. “And we can’t expect the Kingdom to send rations this far into the front lines. We’ve been lucky enough to pass through the numerous armies and sentries the Empire placed in the region unnoticed, I doubt the others would be able to do the same.

If we lose the battle, we’ll just have to take down this tower before we flee the city. Destroying the magic formation embedded on the base and the pillars should be more than enough to render that thing useless.”

Had the other elders of Wizzert City heard this statement, they would have gone crazy. Even though it was logical, even Chryselle herself found it hard to destroy such an artifact. To the magicians of Wizzert, the Magic Tower was one of the most precious relics of the past era. 

Seeing Chryselle’s disbelief, Lark added, “We can just make another one. There’s no use in dwelling too much on things so insignificant.”

Chryselle awkwardly laughed. “I guess you’re right, Commander.”

Chryselle was about to ask Lark regarding the rations given to their captives when she noticed two familiar boys coming towards their direction. She pulled up her hood, made her salute, then bade goodbye to Lark. 

As soon as she disappeared from sight, Austen and George arrived at the area. The two of them were broadly grinning, their eyes clearly eager to tell Lark the good news. 

“Young Master!” Austen’s voice was filled with pride and confidence. “We did it! George managed to complete the magic formation! And I managed to conjure my first fire ball!”

And as though corroborating Austen’s statement, George channeled mana into his surroundings and a magic circle slowly started forming underneath his feet. 

Lark had expected George to take several more weeks before he could achieve this feat, considering his lack of talent in magic, but it seemed he was wrong. The magic circle took a long time to be formed, but it was perfectly stable. 

It would be impractical to use in battle, since the enemy would have killed George before he even managed to complete half of the circle, but this was still a great achievement regardless. The important thing was that the magic circle was stable, perfect. An important first step in all spells. 

“Good job,” praised Lark. 

Hearing this, George lost focus and the magic circle disappeared. He gasped for a moment then embarrassedly scratched his head. 

“Young Master, Look!” Austen clearly did not want to lose to his younger brother. “I will cast a really big fireball spell!”

Lark had a bad premonition about this. 

Without waiting for Lark’s consent, a magic circle formed underneath Austen’s feet. The young man started mumbling the archaic words Lark taught them a few weeks ago. It was the chant for a simple fireball spell. 

“H-Hey!” 

Lark deliberated whether or not he should stop the spell. Austen was clearly an amateur in the field of magic and right now, he was pouring a colossal amount of mana into the magic formation than what a simple fireball spell actually required. 

Austen breathed in and shouted, “Fireball!”

It looked lame in Lark’s eyes, but Austen was clearly mesmerized after he nailed the last part of his chant with that magic word. Austen spread his arms wide and a large ball of fire manifested itself before him. It was large enough to engulf a horse whole. 

“Hahaha!” Austen was ecstatic upon seeing the colossal ball of fire. “George! Young Master! Look! I did it! I did i—”

And the spell went haywire. 

The ball of fire shot towards the sky and spun around, forming a serpentine-like vortex. Austen fell on his butt, his jaw slacked as he looked at the phenomenon unfolding before his eyes. 

Lark sighed. 

The magic formation itself was perfect, but the amount of mana supplied was disproportionate. Coupled with the fact that execution of the spell was done horribly, it was no wonder that a simple fireball spell turned into a Fire Vortex. 

“Seriously, these mana monsters,” Lark clicked his tongue. 

If he let the Fire Vortex for too long, it might shoot towards the ground and kill the soldiers. 

“Y-Young Master!” Austen panicked. “W-What should I do? It didn’t look like that before. I swear it—”

“—Shut up for a moment,” Lark spat. “Stupid disciple.”

A thin bolt of lightning shot from Lark’s fingertips and struck the violently spinning mass of fire. Anticlimactically, the Fire Vortex disintegrated into small orbs of fire then dissipated after a while. 

“Let this serve as a lesson,” Lark reprimanded his disciples. “A hastily cast spell like that one will eventually go out of control. And even if it shoots towards the enemy, it’ll be easy to dispel it by simply hitting its core. It’s flashy, cool-looking, yes. But it’s nothing but a giant waste of mana. Remember that.”

Austen looked down, still traumatized by what happened. He knew that if Lark was not here, he would have probably killed several innocent men. Right now, the construction of the magic tower halted. The workers and soldiers were looking at them. 

“This is the reason why I insisted that the two of you master the basics first,” said Lark. “You don’t have to be quick in casting the spell. For now, focus on making sure that it’s stable and executed well. Overtime, as you keep repeating the same spell over and over again, your casting speed will increase proportionately.”

“I’m… I’m sorry, Young Master.” Austen’s voice was barely audible. 

Lark frowned but decided to let the matter slide. Hopefully, they’ve learned their lesson. They were still young, and Lark knew that this wouldn’t be the last time an incident like this would happen. Thankfully, he was here to prevent the spell from striking the city. 

Seeing his two disciples’ crestfallen faces, Lark decided to steer away from the topic. 

“The two of you. Come with me,” he said. “I’ll show you something interesting.”

The brothers looked at each other for a moment, then wordlessly followed the Young Master. Soon, they arrived at a storage house at the fourth district. The guards saluted and opened the door upon seeing the Young Master. 

Upon entering the storage house, Austen and George gasped. 

It was more appropriate to call the place a weapons factory. 

Currently, numerous workers were assembling ballistas, catapults, large balloons, severing discs, and other weapons the brothers were unfamiliar with. 

George approached the iron balls neatly placed inside wooden crates. Each of the iron balls had peculiar symbols engraved on them, which somehow reminded the brothers of the magic towers in Lion City.

“If you channel mana into it, it’ll blow this place up,” Lark nonchalantly said. 

George leapt back in terror, his face immediately drained of all color. He had not expected that thing to be so dangerous. 

“Is it fine... to leave it in the open like this?” George was worried that someone would accidently trigger the iron ball into blowing the entire place up.

“I’m kidding,” Lark chuckled upon seeing George’s face. “Those things are a bit resistant to magic, you see. It’ll be too dangerous to use them in war, otherwise. They’ll blow up only after receiving a certain level of impact, so we’ll need to drop them from the sky or catapult them into the enemies during sieges.”

George grumpily listened to Lark, clearly displeased that the Young Master made fun of him. Austen, on the other hand, approached the balloons. He had heard before that those things could fly into the sky, but he hadn’t seen one in action. 

“You’re free to inspect the weapons, but make sure not to touch anything too dangerous,” said Lark. 

The brothers nodded happily. 

The mana bombs were actually the most dangerous weapon in this factory, but Lark didn’t say that out loud. There were also the severing discs too, but those were not nocked yet on the ballistas, so they’re nothing but sharp, spherical blades right now. 

For several minutes, the brothers went from one place to another and inspected the different weapons gathered in this place. Lark, on the other hand, supervised the creation of the more complex weapons, making sure everyone met their designated deadlines. 

Lark was speaking with one of the leaders of the weapons team when the pendant on his neck buzzed. 

Lark… Marcus.

A familiar voice, full of static, was heard. 

Do you… hear me?

It was the Baron. Lark sighed in relief. After losing contact with the Second Army for almost a week, he thought they’d perished in battle. 

Lark channeled mana into the pendant and replied back. ‘Baron, what happened? Where are you?’

The Baron immediately replied, ‘We’ve lost a lot of soldiers, but we’ve managed to group up with the Marcus and Yorkshaire Army. But we’re running out of time. At this rate, we’ll be wiped out.’

Lark frowned. ‘That General Alvaren. He’s still after you?’

‘Yes.´

What a persistent bastard, Lark thought. He said, ‘How many soldiers do you have left on your side? And the status of the Marcus and Yorkshaire Army?’

There was a long pause. For a moment, Lark thought that he lost contact. 

The Baron replied, ‘Eleven thousand. And that’s including the remnants of the Marcus and Yorkshaire Army. The Sword Saint and the War God are with us too, but they’re currently injured.’

The number of soldiers was less than before, even after absorbing the remnants of the Marcus and Yorkshaire Army. 

Sword Saint Alexander and Lui Marcus, his older brother. Those two were among the pillars of the military of the Kingdom. For them to be in such a state after confronting General Alvaren… That old man was definitely another monster, just like General Rizel. 

Lark quickly stormed his mind for the best way out. Considering the fact that the Baron was able to send messages, then it seemed that the Second Army was currently nearby. A week by cart at most from Akash City. 

He needed to help them, otherwise eleven thousand potential reinforcements would perish. And he needed to do this while protecting Akash City at the same time.