Hours later, the moment that Will had predicted, had almost arrived.
The sun was already setting down. Will continued to breed the camels.
So far there are 4 camels, 3 of them are now adults. The oldest calf had already grown up like its parents.
Will kept feeding them 'treats' but didn't force feed them. The camels know how much they want to eat, which is why they won't eat 100 treats in a single day.
"Would it be a good idea to eat them until there are like 10 camels? Yeah, sounds about right."
"Why are you raising these camels?" Asked Grace.
"To eat."
"Oh. This doesn't seem natural at all. How can one camel keep giving birth so fast?"
"It's another one of my abilities. Do elves eat meat?"
"They can, but once we do, we lose our connection to nature." Grace kept looking at the camels.
"Lose your connection to nature? How does that work?" Will doesn't know much about elves.
"You know about Lea? Our Goddess? The one who protects nature?"
"I think a friend of mine mentioned it briefly but not the whole thing."
"It is said that our Goddess created the elves so they could love and protect nature in her steed. Animals are meant to be eaten by other animals, and then their corpses can be eaten by the forest and grow, then the animals would that part of the forest, and so on."
"So the circle of life? I've watched the Lion King animated movie." Will jokingly said.
"Um, sure. So, our Goddess Lea will punish the elves if we break that circle, by eating any kind of meat. It's a weird law but we have to follow it."
"So you can't kill animals either?"
"We can, but we can't eat them."
"It seems your Goddess Lea is very weird. No offense."
"None taken."
"So what happens if you lose your connection to nature?"
"We lose the ability to talk to trees, and also we lose protection from our Goddess."
"What kind of protection?"
"The force of nature. It's the reason why no humans have ever been able to invade our homes. Without that protection we will be vulnerable. Even so, it isn't enough to protect all of us from the likes of you."
"Why are you mad at me? I have never done anything to elves." Will shrugged his shoulders.
"You took the Adalis from us. We had to go through a lot of trouble to find you and her."
"Not my fault that you guys were doing a terrible job raising Adaline. I merely rescued her."
They continued discussing for a while. Arbor kept a close eye on them, his daughter might lose her temper on him.
As they were about to go to their beds, Adaline felt something getting closer.
Meanwhile…
Over 50 men had finally arrived. Patches of grass could be visibly seen.
"So it was true. There is a water source here. All this time, all these years, and we've only realized until now." Jim touched one of the grass blades to check if it was fresh, and it was.
"Everyone, proceed slowly. Whoever killed Lance and Terence is still out there."
They all took out their guns and walked slowly with caution.
It was Jim's plan to arrive at night, the best possible time to catch Will and the others by surprise.
It was also a cloudy night, not even the moonlight could light up the lands.
Meanwhile…
Adaline quickly let the others know about the intruders.
"So, he's finally here. How many are there this time?" Will asked. He took out his weapons and carried them with him.
Adaline stomped the ground repeatedly.
"That's a lot." Will said.
"I counted 61." Arbor said.
"My dad counted 61." Grace translated to Will.
"That's more than I expected."
They all stood up on the guard towers. It was too dark to tell where they were.
"Couldn't you install some lights?" Asked Grace.
"I only have torches and they don't last that long. I don't know how to make any other permanent light sources, otherwise I would've added some." Will also didn't expect them to attack at night. But attacking at night is indeed smarter than attacking in broad daylight.
Will thought about using the status bars above their heads to see them, but it doesn't work like in Minecraft. He cannot see a persons' status bar through walls, or in the night either.
"Don't make a noise. They probably think we are still asleep."
Grace translated to her father and he agreed.
Arbor closed his eyes to hear them better. His dad has the best hearing in the elven kingdom, but he doesn't have such an ability. If his father was here he could tell where anyone is even if he is blindfolded.
Jim and the others got closer and closer silently.
"Is that a wall?" One of the men whispered.
"Since when was there a wall here?"
"How long have these people lived here?"
"Shh. Don't make a sound." Jim said. They could also barely see the wall in the dark,
"Did she also come here?" Billy asked himself, he wondered where Grace is right now.
Jim suddenly stopped and so did everyone else.
"Everyone surround the walls." Just like he commanded, they completely surrounded the base. That way they could all attack at the same time in all directions.
Will couldn't see them at all. He quietly talked to Adaline who was with them.
"Adaline, don't forget the plan, okay?"
Adaline was shaking in fear, but nodded still. She ran inside a stone house for protection.
Arbor was now on the ground. He couldn't use any long range weapons at all. He was like a last defense, if the intruders successfully broke through the walls, he would kill them all, and protect Adaline and the others.
Grace and Will were in charge of shooting them all down.
Jim and the men slowly walked towards the base.
Will could vaguely see the shadows of several men getting closer. But they still didn't shoot. They waited for the perfect opportunity to strike.
Will was getting scared, but breathed in and breathed out.
One of the men thought that he stepped on ground, but there was nothing. He lost his balance and fell on the hole.
The hole was 3 meters deep, and beneath that hole were various stone spears all pointing up.
"AAAHHH!!!"
Several men were unprepared for this and fell to their death already.
"What?" Jim could hear his men screaming one second, moments later they would stop screaming.
"Now!" Will said.
Adaline used her powers and impaled most of the men's feet using her roots. The trap had only taken out 12 men at the same time. Even Adaline cannot use an infinite amount of roots to impale all the remaining men at the same time.
Will began firing his assault rifle at the shadows he could vaguely see.
"OPEN FIRE EVERYONE!!!" Jim commanded.
People saw Will firing his gun and focused on that.
Will's shield, and his armor reflected most of the bullets as he continued firing his assault rifle.
Jim saw Will and shot him with his magical bullets. It left a giant hole on the guard tower.
"GAH!" Will was pushed back but didn't fall off the wall.
"What the hell was that?" He felt a great force of power that hit him, but he sustained minor damage.
{Steel shield}
{Durability 281/500}
His shield took all the damage, and half the shield's durability was cut almost by half.
"What kind of gun is what?" Lucky for him it wasn't as destructive as his magical gun, but it was still deadly. If he didn't have his armor on, and his shield, he would have suffered a lot of damage and possibly died.
"Dad, the wall doesn't seem to have any entrances." Billy came back to report to his father.
"Then we need to make one."
While Jim was assessing the situation, he kept hearing screams of his men.
"OW!"
Jim's men kept yelling in pain. They were being shot with arrows.
Arrows and bullets are two different things. Arrows are sneaky, silent, and hard to detect, but not as deadly as bullets. But even so it was a perfect weapon to use in this situation.
Grace kept shooting arrows where she thought she would see dark figures.
"Everyone, jump over that trap and make your way closer to those walls. I will make an entrance." Jim shot the wall 2 times and made two giant holes big enough for them to fit in.
"Be careful of more traps."
"SON OF A- Something keeps stabbing us on the ground."
Tiny spears kept impaling their feet making them unable to use their feet.
Jim heard that and immediately jumped away. As soon as he did, tiny spears had almost impaled his feet.
"That's… the organic creature!" Now Jim knew who it was they were dealing with. The same one who took his arm.
"So, we meet again." Jim smirked. He could finally take his revenge for losing his arm.
Will continued shooting his assault rifle at them, he couldn't tell how many were left.
Jim saw him again and shot him with his magical bullets.
Will was pushed back and this time he fell on the ground.
{HP 46/50}
Thank goodness for his dragon armor that broke his fall.
"How many rounds does he have?" Will asked. His steel shield was nearly broken.
"Lucky for me I made spares." Will threw the shield away and got a new one. He made sure to have a chest on him filled with weapons, armor, shields, and bullets.
"They're going to enter through the walls!" Grace loudly said.
"Tell Arbor to cover his ears. Cover yours, too." Will said.
Will immediately grabbed some stone on the floor from the wall that Jim destroyed, and made a tiny wall to provide him and Arbor some cover.
Adaline seemed to know what Will planned on doing and covered her ears.
As soon as Will saw someone enter, he immediately let out a roar.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"
The roar caught the intruders off-guard and were pushed back. The shout not only pushed some of them back to the traps and fell to their deaths. They were all semi-deaf now and confused.
{Small dragon set bonus: Dragon roar}
He had tested this ability before, and he found out a few things, these do indeed push back everyone in its range but not as exaggerated as the shout from the Skyrim game.
It also left everyone nearby deaf and confused, except Will, and the ones who protected their ears before.
"What?!" Jim and many others were frightened to their very core. Only one thing could produce such a sound, dragons. Some of the men fled in fear.
Jim instinctively looked up for any dragons, but it was dark so he couldn't see it. Dragons are feared more than anything in this world.
Arbor took this chance to run outside the walls and attack everyone head on.
He could vaguely see several dark figures lying on the ground. He cut off their heads swiftly as if cutting butter with a hot knife.
Arbor entered the castle walls as soon as he killed them. He didn't want to leave Adaline nor Grace unguarded for too long.
Will quickly covered the holes on the walls using his crafting system.
Jim noticed that there weren't any dragons around, it was all a trick. He recollected his thoughts. He could vaguely guess that most of his men were already dead or ran away.
This was actually not a part of Will's plan. Inducing fear in others using the dragon shout would have never worked in the day.
Will had honestly never thought of this but it worked out for him.
Jim heard something moving under his feet again, he jumped away and shot the ground where he stood, and Adaline screamed in pain.
"AAAAUURGH!!!"
Jim knew that Adaline was gonna stab his feet at that very moment. He knew that she used her body as a form of weapon like last time, so he shot the roots and injured her in the process.
"Seven rounds left." Jim needed to make these bullets count.
"Adaline!" Will and Arbor ran up to her.
{Adalis}
{HP 1621/2000}
"How were you injured?" Will and Arbor checked her condition, but her roots were all injured. They both knew how they injured her now.
"Not this crap again! JIM!" Will was seething with rage once more. It was his plan to use Adaline's roots to stab the men and catch them off-guard, he never would've thought that they could've injured her like that. Once again, it was because of his own actions that caused Adaline to be injured.
Arbor was angry as much as Will. Arbor got both his weapons and sliced through the walls as if they were nothing. He once again exited the walls and searched for the one who injured Adaline.
"JIM! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Will cried out in anger as he too exited the walls.
At that moment, the moon finally lit the area, and Jim saw Will's dragon armor reflect the light.
"Right over here." Jim smiled and shot at Will using a magical bullet.
Will saw Jim for one moment, and barely blocked that shot with his shield. He was pushed back to the wall and made a huge crack with his body.
"Blagh!" Will coughed up blood.
{HP: 4/50}
The force of the bullets were stronger because he was closer to Jim, and was directly in his line of sight.
Even the shield broke in two and it was brand new with full durability. Enchanted bullets are on a whole new level compared to regular weapons.
Jim also saw Grace shooting arrows at his men and aimed his gun at her, but was stopped by someone else.
Somehow someone sneaked up behind him and cut off his other arm. It was no one other than Arbor.
"AAAAHHHH!!!" Jim cried in pain as blood flowed out of his arm.
"So it was you who injured Adaline. And you were just about to shoot my daughter as well." He said but didn't kill him.
"Dad!" Billy ran up to him, but Arbor kicked down Jim and put his blade close to his throat.
"Surrender, or else your leader dies." Arbor threatened him.
Billy stood there afraid and confused. What did the man want?
"Son, stand down. Don't move. Everybody don't move." Jim also didn't understand him, but it was logical what he wanted them to do.
Looking around them, Jim noticed that there weren't that many people left. Out of the 60 men he brought, only 8 were left including him.
"Drop your weapons and get on your knees, now!" Arbor commanded.
"He says to drop your weapons and get on your knees right now!" Grace showed herself while aiming a bow at them.
"Gr… Grace?" Billy recognized her.
"You heard him! Do it!" Grace also recognized him, but didn't care. They clearly came here to kill them, and Jim almost killed her if not for her dad saving her at the last minute.
"But…" Billy was heart broken. He was sure that Grace was the one for him. But it seemed that it was never meant to be.
Jim's men dropped their weapons and got on their knees and placed their hands on their heads.
"Grace, put these on them." Will limped his way to them, Adaline helped him stand up. He crafted some steel handcuffs beforehand in case something like this happened.
Grace took the handcuffs and cuffed everyone's hands behind their backs.
"Where… where's your brother? Where's Tucker?" Jim looked around for his other son, but he was nowhere to be found.
Billy slowly looked over the death traps, and below him, was Tucker who had died when a spear ran through his chest.
"Tuck… TUCKER!!!" Billy lost it completely. Grace pulled him back and cuffed him.
"No, no, no, that can't be. Not my little boy." Jim knew why Billy yelled, his son had died.
Now all of the prisoners were lined up while cuffed. Jim wasn't cuffed because he lost both his arms now. Arbor used a piece of clothing to wrap it around the part of the arm he didn't cut off, to stop the flow of blood from flowing out.
Will felt bad about this. They were son and father, and one of their family members had died.
"What do we do with them?" Grace asked.
Will was still injured, but thanks to Adaline she helped him. They were both slowly regaining their HP.
"You killed my brother." Billy looked at Will in anger, if looks could kill, Billy would've killed everyone near him.
"Then you shouldn't have come here." Will responded.
Jim was dead on the inside. First his arm, his men, his hope of helping his village, and now his son was gone.
"Grace? Why would you do this to us? Tucker and I helped you dammit! We guided you here and this is how you repay us?!"
Grace looked at Billy very seriously.
"My father, and the organic creature you attacked a month ago are part of my family. The minute you attacked them you made an enemy out of me."
"Grace, what does Will want to do with them?" Arbor asked, still holding a sword. The minute any of them do anything suspicious, he will cut off their heads.
"Maybe I could build them a prison to lock them all up in…" Will had this idea of keeping the prisoners alive for now.
"And you! You were the one who hurt my father! All he wanted to do was to save the village! Are you that selfish?!" Billy said angrily.
Will looked at Billy's face. What he said reminded him of something long ago.
Many years ago…
He was in his basement having a serious talk with Alex. It was one of the few moments where Alex talked to him about his past.
"You said you shot your father when he tried to kill you." Will said unable to believe what he had heard.
"I did. And I don't regret it." Alex responded coldly. He had his sleeves rolled up all the way to his shoulders.
There were various burn marks, and cut marks on his arms. They all seem to have happened long ago, some more recent than others.
Part of his shoulders was exposed, and it too had the same cut marks as his arms, but more deeper compared to others.
"It's your father, even if he was the worst scum of the Earth. Couldn't you have shot him on the shoulder and ran away?" Will asked.
"I could've done that, yes. But why would I ever take the chance to let him track me down and bite me in the ass? He had friends who were into some illegal shit and were powerful, there was no way I was gonna give that man a chance to ever kill me. I would rather kill than be killed." Alex said very seriously. He had a terrible childhood where his parents were just the worst.
Will didn't say anything. He couldn't refute Alex's words.
"Kill or be killed." Those words stuck to him since that day.
Back to the present…
"Kill or be killed." Will murmured to himself.
"Pardon?" Grace asked.
"I changed my mind... Leave no survivors." Will realized something now.
It didn't matter which world he lived in, it was all a game of survival. Like predators hunting each other, only one will survive, and the one who survives is the one who is stronger.
He thought that this world was dark, but his home world was the same. Alex showed him that.
Grace ran her finger around her throat as a sign to her father to kill all the prisoners.
"Dad?" Billy looked at his father. Arbor raised his blade and cut their heads off in one fell swoop.
Will thought how Alex was right. Why take a chance to let the enemy come back to bite them in the ass in the future? It was better to kill them now than to be killed.
Will knew that this was cruel, but it's a cruel world, and he's gonna live with that. It was either themselves, or them.
Grace went up to Will and patted him on the shoulder.
"I also know how cruel this world is. I've seen what they've done to my people. What I saw in my adventure is too dark and gruesome not meant for anybody else to see or learn."
Grace could see how Will made a tough decision, but it was the right decision. He reminded her when she was still pure, innocent, naive, back when her view of the world wasn't tainted.
It was the same for Arbor. He too knew how cruel this world is. Only those who know how the world is, and learn to live with it, can only continue to live and rise above everyone else.
"I can see that now."
Will walked up to his base to sleep. That night, he couldn't sleep well at all. Adaline followed him and slept beside him, he petted her head all night, which is how she was able to sleep well.