Tova, 23.07.5537.
Hector woke up with an aching back. He tried to push himself off the ground but couldn't feel his arms. He sensed his surroundings but all the elemental mana ores he placed before his evolution was emptied and there weren't any remnants in the air either.
"Argh! Who put a rock under my back?" His mind spun quickly and he sprung onto his feet.
No one would interrupt his evolution, General Truewater guarded him. The room was in shambles, the ceiling had broken off parts that stayed in place. They were actually falling down extremely slowly. Dread loomed upon him, his gut wasn't feeling good and he knew it wasn't just the hunger from the after-evolution. He scrambled for his bag and put on the armour in it, falling down because he rushed his numb body. His body was energy starved at the moment. He gulped down the best mana and stamina recovery potion he had as he didn't have a ridiculous mana regeneration rate.
Hector didn't give a damn about the current state of his body, he ran up to the door after making sure his gauntlets were worn properly.
"Huuu! Haaa!!" He took a deep breath as his hand rested on the doorknob.
"Uncle!!" He pushed the door open with gusto and destroyed the knob in his grip in the process.
He didn't see the general. He saw mountains of rock where military structures surrounding him had been. Large fires around him, frosty air further in the distance, a whole lot of screaming and the heavy stench of blood drowned the atmosphere. Hector snapped his head around and images of soldiers crushed under mountains of rock flashed through his mind. A lot of soldiers were locked in combat so he shook his head and focused on figuring out what to do instead of imagining the worst.
'It…it shouldn't even have been a day since I started evolving.' Hector was unsure if his room getting damaged affected the time flow.
"We're done here!" General Truewater's voice echoed throughout their supposedly hidden base.
The 'sky' fell on the entire base. The base was swallowed in water and the Trolls were ripped away by a violent tornado. The soldiers here were all elites, with the numbers his glance got there shouldn't have been as many deaths as he imagined. They held onto anything grounded but General Truewater had absolute control in his domain. Entire squads of King Classed opponents weren't even able to resist.
"Evacuate! Someone grab that prince! I'll pull the Old Hag away!"
"Hector! Catch!"
His great-granduncle, General Truewater continued to bark orders. He caught the shiny blue fist-sized orb that a stream of water pushed into his hands.
'...This sets up his illusion right? And a barrier. I see.' Hector sort of understood the plan.
They were ambushed with mountain-sized rocks, the only one who could find them had to be Old Hag and the General went to hold the Shaman back while his soldiers fought the ambushers. The impossibly capable man must have allowed the mountain-sized rocks to land on empty buildings or delayed it for the soldiers to get out. The screaming had mostly come from their enemies with a few exceptions.
He was dragged away, placed in between many stinky men as they ran.
"Where are we running to?"
"Just follow us!"
"We gotta be quick! Old Hag's too strong, the general is holding her back for us but he's already injured."
"He's injured?" Hector was a little shocked. The man might not be the head of his household who was currently the strongest Truewater but he was next in line with greater potential. He was a level 400 Grandmaster who used to help clear small Epic, purple gate dungeons. Alone.
Originally, he assumed a King ranked would be here but he was wrong. The man has stuck at 500 long ago and only had to get his skills up to par. It might have been one of the reasons the man came to Tova.
Hector figured out the army's backup or evacuation destination very quickly. It was a guarded and hidden dungeon portal underground. It should be the Empire's training spot on Tova, a blue portal.
The army ran into the dungeon one after the other as Hector ushered them in. He got quite a few guards but they knew why he was still standing outside. He was glad to see Captain Cain rush towards the gate with his fellow survivor that travelled with them on his back.
'Why does this feel planned…' Hector borrowed a knife to cut his fingers, dripping his blood onto the blue orb likely made by one of his royal relatives. He couldn't use barrier magic but he had the Lord family's blood. The fact that this orb was made to activate with his blood only enforced the idea that the situation was planned or anticipated.
The water illusion and barrier expanded and erased the physical and magical presence of the dungeon portal. It was already hidden underground so the illusion and barrier were just an extra precaution. It was smaller but there was a fully equipped camp inside the dungeon.
"Recruit, we would bring you to a green gate but that's not possible now. You'll level here." The old veteran that guarded him changed his tone real quick.
Hector smiled and replied, "Just what I'd hoped, sir!"
❅❅❅
Elcra, 08.08.5537.
"Whaa..erg, why're you guys here?" Commander Wil yawned.
"Midnight Shepherd's scouts found us, they escaped. We're running towards Fourth Tide." Athena summarised.
"Tsk, that's troublesome. My boys sure are late." Commander Wil raised one side of his lips up in annoyance.
The flat tip of his club pushed down on the King-Classed Troll's chest and no amount of the physical giant's struggling could push the scrawny old man away. All four of its limbs were smashed flat into the ground while Commander Wil pushed his club harder. It slid into the giant's chest, through its ribs and heart but when he retrieved his club the heart tissues were already reconnecting and the bones mended back as if they didn't break.
Commander Wil simply pummelled and trashed the Troll over and over again for the next ten minutes just like how he done for the previous hour.
"Finally! This is back-breaking work as always."
Unnamed was fighting the other Troll with Cap Dwarf while the third already died before Athena and her two partners got here. They weren't really 'fighting', just surviving while waiting for Commander Wil to save them.
Athena, Ning Xin and Walt knew better than to step in.
It was unexpected that the remaining Troll ran off before Commander Wil finished their squadmate off. They usually fought to the death but they might require elite fighters more than ever. Commander Wil was stronger than they imagined, this contingent from Fourth Tide's forward base cannot harm them if he was around.
Their plan to escape to Fourth Tide was under the assumption that these three had to hold the Troll's elites back while they ran but here they are with two dead Kings.
Why on Elcra was a man of Commander Wil's power in their tiny militia?
All six of them looked at the direction they came from. Walt leapt to catch the humanoid figures ragdolling through the air. Many of them began to stabilise their bodies and skid to a stop by themselves.
"Are we through?" Ebony looked bored when he came over.
He didn't need an answer since he could see that there were still tons of enemies at a safe distance away from their leader's battle, now grave.
"Will they back off?" Walt just saw their commander obliterate the enemy's strongest force.
The war at Fourth Tide had a larger scale but they shouldn't have that many spare forces to support Fifth. The Fifth also continued to balloon in numbers as their men joined them from their rear. The only good thing was that the average strength of reinforcements was dropping. Not all were professional soldiers.
"They will be executed for escaping battle." Cap Dwarf was panting hard but he caught his breath quickly.
"Honour huh?"
"Want me to do it? It's quite a waste so I don't think I should." Commander Wil could wipe out every living being in range with a single swing of his club but he wouldn't gain any experience or Natural Potential.
"Just stick around, we can move slowly since you're here." Athena agreed. She evolved not long ago and was in dire need for the experience.
Walt needed skill levels and Natural Potential but didn't see himself killing a high level Troll at the moment.
"Old man! What now?" Channah the lizard woman was in her usual bad mood.
"Do you think going to Fourth's a good idea?" Ayla questioned the more informed leader.
"...Not really."
Curses were spat all over, they all had decent to great hearing.
"But it is the better choice. North is Tova, no point going deeper into enemy territory with this pathetic lineup. West, where we came from is getting a lot of attention and Midnight Shepherd hates us and actively desires to hunt us down. South is the mainland, we want to get there but millions have stretched out their camp from Fifth Tide's cliff. They are constantly watching out for our presence, likely an order from our dear Shepherd. East, hohoho, an even bigger army but the Imperial's forward base stands strong based on the last report I received, 5 days ago."
"We're dead, aren't we? The Trolls here are slightly stronger." Channah seemed to have finally calmed down as she licked the bloody scar on her shoulder.
"Sound mages, can you contact anyone?"
"Too far. And the essences in the atmosphere are only getting thicker every day so callstone's stable range has been getting shorter too." One of the sound mages from the first assault squad replied.
The militia's morale continued to plummet.
"Relax, although both enemies in front and behind us know our location, only little Shepherd wants us dead badly enough to hunt us down. She knows I'm here so whoever she sends can keep me busy long enough to kill everyone else. Their numbers increased too so I might be in danger if she got actual elite squads but even if she had those they would be busy protecting her, putting pressure on Fifth Tide or holding their line so the little lass won't push them back." The commander didn't care for the respectful titles of a higher-rank soldier.
"There will probably be a gap that we can squeeze through before Fourth's Troll can react. That is if they even care enough. If we're lucky, the Imperial Army is fighting them while we run back. If not, well, only the weak will die. The route shouldn't be any more dangerous than our current situation so it's indeed a better course of ac-"
A loud grumble cut Commander Wil's speech.
❅❅❅
"It's okay. Here, eat some meat jerky." Ebony tried his best to pacify the hungry girl that used him as a shield. She twitched her ears vigorously and he silenced their conversation.
"It's not okay! That was so embarrassing!"
"You're running on fumes, with far higher physical stats but you're eating the same quantity of food. It's nothing to be ashamed of. You didn't even need to drink my blood."
"..." It was obvious that she disagreed but couldn't argue.
The two of them were not nervous at all, just like the commander and the fellow elites. They can fly and although Fourth's Troll army supposedly had better aerial defences they had a good chance of simply flying back to the mainland or reaching an Empire's base if they worked together.
Only the mysterious magic Shamans wielded or perhaps a tribe they haven't seen could trouble them. There shouldn't be any Kings in the direction they were going unless it wandered from a fight against the Imperial Army. These muscle heads couldn't fly either, so they still had a good chance of escaping.
"Eat something, we have hours of battle ahead of us." He didn't have to persuade her.
She wrapped herself under her torn mantle and started munching through a ton of snacks and jerky. He also fished out some snacks for himself. Using 'will' was extremely strenuous, it might be because he overused it but it wasn't like the unlimited mana manipulation he could do without getting mentally strained.
Their actions made a few warriors' stomachs grumble as well. Everyone realised that if they didn't make it to an Imperial base soon they would starve to death. They didn't receive supplies ever since the Fifth Tide's forward base got pushed back and then abandoned. Most people didn't have spatial storage and they were all very strict with their own food supply. Water hasn't been a big problem, everyone took good care of their water skins that could produce water or convert mana into water. Fortunately, it wasn't as if those with spatial storage were accused of stealing food since they took logistics for food very seriously.
The Imperial soldiers had super crackers, the same series of products as souper bread. A single cracker was chock full of nutrients that could substitute one unclassed human stomach day's worth of food. They had bigger appetites than normal humans but individually carried enough for 2 weeks.
The product wasn't commercially sold so the militia and academies didn't have something that compact that could provide half as much sustenance. Souper bread was compact but could only fill their stomachs without giving them the necessary nutrients a combatant required.
"It seems like they don't want to give us a break." Cap Dwarf stood up from his earthen snake head.
Ebony didn't keep his domain up, he let his mind rest from the overuse of 'will'. As his seniors reminded him, it was important to only use the right amount of strength so that they could muster enough energy when they really needed it. They had too little information about the current state of the Trolls to be confident that no dangerous squad was nearby. Their enemies rushed over after those with a better eye saw their defeated leaders.
"Leave some for us. You people always kill too many."
"Don't exaggerate, we aren't able to contain all of them by ourselves."
The first assault squad got the stink eye from the general public.
"How rude…or is it just mean? We protected them." He still had his conversation silenced. He was beginning to question things he saw but he was never right when he guessed so he asked people.
"Some people are just jerks. Not rude, they just don't feel grateful."
"I see."
At least he was able to tell that those ungrateful people were not saying rude things as a joke. He can tell if two friends were saying the exact same words but have a different 'feel'. It was their tone but he hadn't gotten good enough to say he masterfully understood the tone.
"I'll watch you kids, go on." Commander Wil sat and massaged his knees.
Attacking a base was one thing, out in the open there wasn't anyone able to fight the old man even if they sensed him through his mark. The Trolls knew this, they knew that Commander Wil had no benefit in killing them. The old man would sit out and they had a chance to wait till their elders came. In the meantime, it was feasting time for the Trolls.
Ebony and Ning Xin didn't hold back but they didn't go the extra mile to exterminate their enemies either. Conserving their energy, they continued fighting for much longer. The Trolls used their numbers and lives to wear the militia out and it was working. They had no trouble with warriors and mages without mana.
The impromptu rotation they made was so terrible that the Imperial soldier watched with a headache. The first contact had already dried up most people's energy and they had few people to protect them during this time. There was nowhere to run either as the path they came from still had plenty of Trolls they simply ran past earlier.
Many people used potions and pills to give them a boost in power or energy before they managed to create a defensive circle. Commander Wil did save a few people but many died as they were out of his reach. The rear couldn't defend themselves against a truck jumping onto them. The warriors were busy keeping themselves alive and the stronger few didn't want to put themselves at risk.
'Would I risk myself for strangers? So many people are dying but I don't seem to care. I helped those that I could but why? This is not normal is it?' Ebony didn't know.
He could throw himself at these enemies without any significant levels or risk. He did his best to save those in his reach but the chaos was too much for him to take care of everyone. If he fails to save someone within sight he simply goes on to the next fight or to help another person. The most obvious feeling to him was helplessness, there was no pity, no remorse, no guilt, no frustration and definitely no sadness. He began to notice from others' reactions that he was the one that acted differently.
Ning Xin always reached and reacted in time but her violent motion blew the ones she wanted to save away. She still saved that person in time but she changed her focus to 100% offence. "Fewer enemies, fewer deaths on our side." was the reasoning she would likely give him. Even so, she had been frustrated and angered by her own half-failure. Ebony wasn't sure what she was angered about and there wasn't a chance to ask her.
'It's not just because of my core skill that's for sure.'