Belgrave
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A desolate ghost town on the outskirts of the Frey Kingdom. Belgrave was created and named after Zou Belgrave, A rank 4 wizard. Zou Belgrave created Belgrave after the war with the former Shoeu Kingdom.
After establishing Belgrave, Zou's name spread across the eastern side of the Frey Kingdom. Being on the outskirts, a rank 4 wizard was a very rare sight. Usually, rank 4 wizards were only seen near the capital.
Hearing that a rank 4 wizard created a town almost in the middle of nowhere, made many people leave their own villages and move to Belgrave. For many years Belgrave was a thriving city, and more and more people migrated. Soon, Belgrave, which was once a small village, turned into a massive city.
In a small span of five years, Belgrave grew to have a population of 100,000 people. Being under the protection of a rank 4 wizard, the town was fairly peaceful. The low ranked demon beasts were easily killed by the city guards. Even on the rare occasion of a rank 3 demon beast appearing, Zou Belgrave would easily kill it.
Unknown to the citizens of Belgrave, Zou Belgrave was getting weaker by the day. During the war with Shoeu Kingdom, Zou was severely injured by a rank 5 wizard. After the war ended, Zou left the capital and set off to the edge of the kingdom.
Zou Belgrave knew that his days were numbered, knowing this he decided he wanted to live the rest of his life peacefully. Thus he created Belgrave.
With Zou growing weaker by the day, his strength steadily declined. Just after the 7th year of Zou creating Belgrave disaster struck. A couple of miles away from Belgrave was a giant mountain range. Inside were thousands of demon beasts.
The demon beasts ranged from Rank 0 to Rank 5. Usually, the rank 4 and rank 5 demon beasts lived deep in the mountain range. However, on the seventh anniversary of Belgrave they left the mountain range.
While the citizens celebrated the seventh anniversary of Belgrave, an army of demon beasts raced towards the lively town.
***
*Ding* *Ding* *Ding*
A large bell in the center of Belgrave rang.
An old man selling fireworks in the streets looked up at the bell.
"Damn! Demon beasts attacking the anniversary celebration?"
To the citizens of Belgrave even though it was a peaceful town, it had seen their fair share of demon attacks. Though, they were small attacks with only rank 1 and 2 demon beasts. After a moment of silence, the celebrations continued.
However, unknowingly to the citizens, this would be their last day on earth.
***
Outside of the mountain range stood a squad of four men.
"Captain!"
A large man with two axes on his back looked towards the voice. At the top of a large tree, stood a young man. He wore red leather armor covering his body with a wooden bow on his back.
"What do you see, Fu?"
Out beyond the large tree stood thousands of demon beasts. Normally, demon beasts have no organization, but these beasts stood in a line facing Belgrave.
"Sir! This is very bad, I see hundreds… No, t-thousands of demons!"
The large man didn't believe the young man and proceeded to climb up the tree to confirm his words. When he got to the top of the tree he also saw thousands of beasts. They were all in a line, they weren't rampaging, they were just standing silently.
The large man quickly turned around to the other two men.
"Q-Quickly! Go tell the Captain of the city guards! N-No, We need Zou Belgrave!"
The two men that were below the tree had frightened expressions. They swiftly turned around and proceeded to run towards Belgrave at full speed.
Once they arrived, they went straight to the Captain of the City Guards to inform him of the situation.
"Captain! Two scouts are outside, They said they have urgent news!"
"Let them in!"
When the two scouts entered the room their bodies stiffened as they looked at the Captain of The City Guards.
The Captain of the City Guards was an extremely built man. He had a large black beard, his body was covered in light steel armor. Light steel was a special type of armor, It was as hard as steel, but as light as leather armor. Hence the name, light steel armor.
The Captain looked at the two men infront of him, he had a stern expression on his face. With little to no emotion showing.
"What are you here to report?"
The two men kept completely still as they felt the Captain's aura. They both felt like they couldn't breath because of the man infront of them.
"Come on! Tell me!"
The Captain slammed his on his desk, causing it to crack slightly. Finally one of the men spoke up,
"Sir! We were out on patrol and w-we spotted thousands of beasts near the exit of the mountain range, sir."
"What?! Don't you know lying to me is punishable by death!?"
Both of the men felt a strong killing intent enveloped around them. The second man spoke up just in time.
"S-Sir! He's telling the truth, Qi Hai told us to report to you immediately and for you to inform Zou Belgrave!"
After the Captain heard the name of Qi Hai, he slowly brought in his killing intent.
"That Old bastard is still out patrolling?"
Both of the men held their breaths as the Captain spoke.
"Where is that Old bastard now?"
"Sir, He's still next to the exit of the mountain range watching the beasts."
The Captain put his hand to his forehead and went into deep thought. After a couple of minutes he finally looked up at the two men.
"Okay... Go to your barracks and get ready for battle!"
Both of the men bowed down and took their leave.
"Xiao!"
A young man in his twenties opened the door. He wore light iron armor as he bowed to the Captain.
"Sound the bell! Demon Beasts have been spotted due east of Belgrave!"
***
*Ding* *Ding* *Ding*
The large bell at the center of the town started to ring, signally an attack. Troops that were enjoying the celebration of the seventh anniversary of Belgrave stopped what they were doing and headed to the outer walls.
Twenty minutes later thousands of troops gathered towards the eastern gate with their armor and weapons. Even though this was the age of wizards, not everyone could use magic.
Besides the thousands of regular soldiers, there were also wizards present, one-hundred to be exact. The one-hundred wizards represented the wizard regiment.
The wizard regiment was made up of mostly Initiate wizards, with ten Adept wizards, three Rank 1 wizards, and finally one Rank 2 wizard. The main purpose of the wizard regiment was to support the regular soldiers from the back lines.
Soon the Captain of the City Guards stood on top of the eastern gate looking out at all of the troops. Even though the Captain wasn't a wizard, he was still a Rank 4 Martial Body.
People that trained in the art of Marital Body were mostly soldiers and people that couldn't practice magic. If Marital Body is trained to a high enough level, they can withstand rank 1 wizard spells with their bodies alone.
"Everyone! Around thirty minutes ago, I received a report of demons to the east of Belgrave. The man that gave me the report said that there were thousands of demons in a line facing Belgrave."
Upon hearing the Captain say thousands, whispers started to erupt in the crowd. The soldiers below him thought he was joking, they all wore confused expressions.
"Thousands? He's joking right?"
"Yea. He has to be joking, the most we've ever fought was 500 and that was well over three years ago."
"You two shut up! The Captain never jokes!"
The two soldiers that were whispering quickly shut up after seeing who spoke to them. The squad leader of the Silver Threads. The Silver Threads were an elite group of soldiers that practiced Martial Body, each of them were at least Rank 2.
As the whispers died down, the Captain continued to speak.
"I know most of you think that I'm lying, believe me, I thought he was lying too. Until, I heard who sent him to tell me. Qi Hai."
The whole East Gate became quiet upon hearing the name Qi Hai. In the eyes of the soldiers, Qi Hai was a legendary man. Around three years ago, during the attack of 500 demon beasts, Qi Hai randomly appeared when the soldiers were close to defeat.
Qi Hai, alone, defeated hundreds of demons with his two battle axes. The soldiers at the time thought Qi Hai was a god descending on the battlefield.
Veterans of that battle remember Qi Hai rushing into the demon horde spinning around with his two axes killing tens of demons at a time. While killing demons, Qi Hai yelled orders to the remaining soldiers which eventually led to victory.
The soldiers later found out after the fact, that Qi Hai was Zou Belgrave's general when he went to war with Shoeu Kingdom. Qi Hai was also a Rank 5 Great Martial Body.
"Considering that Qi Hai has said this, It's going to be a tough fight. I've already informed Zou Belgrave about the situation and he will be joining the fight."
All of the soldiers became very anxious about the upcoming battle.
"Listen everyone! Even though it's going to be tough, remember we have Zou Belgrave, A Rank 4 wizard! We are the only defense that this town has! We have to go and fight, not only for Zou Belgrave but also your family!"
All the soldiers shouted in unison,
"Ah! We will fight for Belgrave and our family's!"
The Captain looked down at all of his soldiers and smiled,
"Charge! Charge to the mountain range!"
All of the soldiers rushed out of the eastern gate heading towards the demon horde.