Farevie, once explained. Now its basics are over, what you really need to know is its powerhouses.
Duth knew he was no match for a few reasons. Not because of their armies. That would be a numbers game if it came down to battling. One the dead can exceed and thrive in. Given the most obvious factors, yet the powerhouses were different. No they werent armies, but they may as well have been.
The first and foremost issue is the adventurer guild. A strong force by themselves, yet the backers and vanguard happen to be a terrible combo.
Spellblades
Now as Duth had learnt there were apparent teirs or strengths? Hard to describe. By information of the dead. The first two he encountered were the weaker ones, the recruits. They had their own power sets, enchantments and even a system of growth.
Had he faced one that wasn't a recruit. Duth full well knew he would die. The first one he faced was an exp bag of fifteen hundred. Yet the second was thirty-five hundred!
That said, the upside to spellblades is their numbers. Or well to Duth its an upside. In all there were a dozen recruits, with around a few dozen masters. Thats in this city alone.
The spellblades reinforcing the checkpoints were the weak ones.
WEAK
He who felt akin to a lamb being placed on the chopping block faced a weak opponent compared to their masters!
He inwardly shivered. Had he not learned this, had he sieged sooner, had he encountered these powerhouses…
Duth inhaled a gale of wisp.
Spellblades aside, there were two other parties that were threats
A counsel of scholars, named Magitoligy. Who stirred in the inner city. Virtually wizards and witches alike and a mysterious rumor of a cult? No name to attach importance though. Only half of a symbol. A fist.
The cult had a sort of strong presence in the city's underworld. But why he felt a semblance of threat is unknown.
This just tells him he needed to level faster. Therein he could eventually face the enemy. Given nothing bad happens along the way.
I mean come on, what's the worst that can happen right?
Right?
###
Duth did his best to suppress his cold arua. Watching from the tree canopy in a deadly still silence.
Ahead of him was a bolstered checkpoint after a recent attack. Not by him, but rather Adilen. Corpses lay littered across the grounds. A tower had collapsed on itself, a cart flipped over in the middle of the road.
The bolstered forces had arrived early. Beating back Adilen and his undead. Of course a few wights were lost.
The force numbered a hundred men, a good mix between local guards and the soldiers from within. That's good news, this is what he wanted.
From the looks they wrre cleaning up. A few sharpshooters watching their backs, whilst a man from behind watched with a stern expression.
Duth had not use this same reckless tactic here, the man in the back stood in a heavy thick templar kit. At first he thought it was to look fancy. But his mana sight made him real aware of the danger here. That man in the mana sight was a pillar of gold.
Divine mana? No, too weak. But certainly enhanced by a divine power. Likely a blessing?
Duth rose his hand inching it forward as seventy blue wisp glimmered into reality.
The wisp shot forward, upon doing so Duth turned his body around gathering his strength just as the hail of bolts breached the treeline.
Crack!
He launched himself away, the templar glanced at the wave of blue wisp. Uncrossing his arms. Reaching out, a golden trim manifested. He grasped the air yanking backwards!
A broken union of shards cascading on the surprised soldiers and guardsmen alike. Unaware that seventy spells that would have reduced them into mush became a sparkle of shattered magic!
Duth felt all seventy of his spells shatter, hearing it from here. Yet he could care less, with a piercing gaze of a templar falling on his retreating figure.
Yet the man did not give chase.
Only finding the liches attempts at senseless killing in front of him, a knight of the War Goddess. A distasteful insult.
"Send word to the inner city. Rally my troops, if the dead dare play war games. Then let two play that game."
His tone was thunderous but the very heavens rumbled in agreement. The skies sparkled with golden lightning, even when there were no clouds to borne them.
An omen fell on Duth, perhaps he had dug his own grave?
###
Horns distantly blew, as within hours troops began to mobilze, a battlion adorned in bronze colors stamped into formation, dark red banners rising between each troop. They gathered, then marched out of the city gates!
Five thousand men, twenty-five banners. Their boots rumbled the dirt, citizens clearing the path. Mere hours after arriving before a standing knight.
He turned to them a stern expression. Just days before they arrived to this region with rumors of the dead. He had seen it with his own eyes. Now their time was closing. He would march on them and Garlen.
The counter offensive has begun.