Lord Margaux Whitetail of the Whitetail Deer tribe was standing on the ramparts over looking the lands outside of his city. Next to him were Chief Bloodclaw, Chieftain Razortalon, Elder Redfeather, and Oracle Swiftstrike, and they all were looking towards the west where a once majestic forest had been greatly reduced in size.
Previously, when the boar clans had halted their attacks against the deer tribes, Lord Whitetail had been relieved. He had thought that the actions made by the Sun & Moon flying ships had instilled fear into the invaders, but when he heard the reports from the crows, his naive thoughts quickly disappeared.
The information that was brought him was that the Bristlehair Boars had returned to their lands, and then proceeded to battle against all the other Boar and Pig clans located there eventually uniting them together. This newer and larger force had split into several armies, and were currently en route to attack all the neighboring cities.
Lord Whitetail had gained some hope when he saw the Bloodclaws arrive carrying the artifacts that supposedly defended them against the rabbit tribe. As Lord Whitetail continued to try to find a way through this situation, a voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Lord Whitetail, are your soldiers ready?", Razortalon asked the deer lord, "The scouts from the falcons have returned, and their estimation is that the incoming army will arrive at the walls within the hour."
"Yes, you can be assured that we are ready", Margaux answered.
"If it will put your mind at ease, I've received communication from Sun & Moon island", Razortalon told Whitetail, "Two ships are heading straight here to assist us, so our priority should be to defend, and keep our troops alive."
"Isn't that a rather passive and weak strategy?", Redfeather, who had just walked over, questioned the Eagle lord.
"Normally, I would agree with you", Bloodclaw replied, "Considering the numbers being reported, if we tried to directly confront them then today will be the anniversary of our death next year."
"What does this scroll that you gave us do, Chief Bloodclaw?", Swiftstrike inquired.
"Very good question, Oracle", Bloodclaw replied, "We gave some to you and our own spotters, and it belongs to a pairing. Anything you indicate on this scroll will be reflected perfectly on scrolls held by my pack. This will allows us to launch attacks against the army without putting ourselves in harm's way."
"I thought wolves were all about fighting up close?", Redfeather teased the wolf lord.
"That's not our objective", Razortalon reminded the Hawk, "We have to hold out for a few hours, and await the reinforcements."
The five leaders continued to discuss things, and occasionally someone would run up to them, give a report, and run off somewhere else.
After half an hour, Bloodclaw stretched out before saying, "Swiftstrike, are your soldiers ready? We are about to attack."
"Yes they are ready, but how are you going to attack from so far away?", the falcon asked.
"Follow me, and I'll give you a demonstration", Jaeger invited them to tag along.
The five leaders made their way to the closest artifact placed on top of the wall, and the wolves stationed their saluted them as they approached.
"Swiftstrike, contact a scout and have him select a spot where the soldiers are tightly packed together", Bloodclaw told the falcon, "Also, we gave him a communication jade, have him activate the flight mode and turn on the camera so we can see his view."
After a few moments, Bloodclaw manipulated his phone and it started broadcasting the feed from the scout's phone. The faction leaders watched as the scout selected a spot on a scroll he was holding, and saw the same sign appear on the scroll the wolves had in their possession.
The team leader shouted at his team, "Prepare to launch!"
Bloodclaw mentioned to Swiftstrike, "Oracle, just to be safe, perhaps your scout should fly somewhat higher."
The Oracle got his jade out, and quickly relayed the message to his subordinate, and soon everyone watching the light screen saw the picture change as the scout gained altitude.
"Launch", the team leader commanded.
The audience watched as the artifact shot out of the artifact into the air with a slight arc. They followed it until they could no longer physically see it, so they looked back at the light screen in anticipation.
The screen currently showed thousands of pig and boar beastkin making their way toward the city. It was going much slower than expected due to the soldiers desperately eating every grass, bush, and tree in their way. Thirty to forty seconds after starting to the watch the light screen, the talisman that was launched landed in the middle of the army. It activated, and a giant web of lightning spread out from the source, jumping from beastkin to beastkin. The Deer, Hawk, and Falcon lords eyes opened widely as they witness hundreds of warriors instantly die, but the next moment shocked everyone. The board and pigs that didn't take damage from attack immediately ran over the hundreds of corpses, and began feasting on their comrades. The sight disgusted everyone, so Bloodclaw turned the screen off for now.
"We've all been in many battles, and witnessed deplorable actions in our lives", Razortalon said, "Just remind your men to be prepared for this before we have to fight them up close."
The leaders split up as each one when to find their team leaders to spread the word.
Chief Bloodclaw and Oracle Swiftstrike stayed behind as all the wolf's artillery teams began launching more talismans towards the approaching army. They watched at talismans of various elements flew off into the distance. On the screen that Bloodclaw brought out again, the leaders watched as the invaders burned, shocked, stabbed with spikes from earth, fell down large holes, crushed by gravity, and blocked by large ice walls.
The enemy suffered heavy casualties, but every time the same thing happened: the survivors would devour the fallen, group back together, and walk towards the deer's city. After launching talismans for about an hour, the artifacts went quiet, and nothing else flew into the sky.
"What happened?", Lord Whitetail panicked.
Chief Bloodclaw scratched his chin in embarrassment, "We are out of talismans for the long range attacks."
"What's going to happen next then?", the deer lord asked.
"We will wait until they are tightly packed", Razortalon replied, "I also that talismans, unfortunately, they are not compatible with these artifacts. I will distribute the talismans out to all the flying beastkin, and we will drop them on the army next. Once we use up everything I brought, we have the last two defenses before they can attack the wall."
"What are those defenses?", Lord Whitetail had to know.
"The first are talismans buried in the top layer of the ground", Razortalon explained, "When they step on it, it will activate and kill everything in a certain range. The second one are artifacts similar to these here, but they can only launch talismans at short range. We will have to step forwards to to defend the wall against any enemies that can make it through that."
Bloodclaw was watching the scout's broadcast when something appeared that caused him to frown. The others watched as Bloodclaw expanded the screen, and when they looked, they saw the carnage and destruction caused by the earlier attacks. What came next though was a view of even more beastkin advancing, but unlike before, these beastkin were larger. Some were marching, but many were riding on top of large boars that were three times the size of a normal soldier.
Razortalon signaled to Redfeather and Swiftstrike, "It's our turn now, gather your kin and let's go."
The three birdkins walked off, and several minutes later the skies were filled with birdkins flying in formation towards the invaders. Unlike the talismans, it took the flying beastkin over ten minutes to reach the mass of soldiers. Razortalon instructed everyone on how to activate and aim a talisman when dropping it on the enemy, and performed a drop to demonstrate.
Thirty minutes later, Chief Razortalon was leading everyone back to the city after dropping all the talismans. The could have been faster, but the stronger boars were leading the weaker ones to try and avoid the attacks from the sky. After another ten minutes, everyone had returned to the city walls, and where eating to regain some strength, but at this point they knew they could only wait for the inevitable.
It took close to an hour before the army was sighted by scouts on the city walls, and the alarms began to warn everyone inside. Chief Bloodclaw was doing his best to update the flying ships on the situation when Lord Whitetail walked to an elevated position to be seen by his own.
"Whitetails! As you can see, the enemy is at our doorstep bearing down on us. I want to thank our guests for their help, without them, the city might have already been overrun", Lord Whitetail stopped to salute the other leaders, "I pledge that I will do everything thing I can to protect the city, and that's not enough, I will hold the line to allow you to evacuate. If this is our last moment together, then I will forever cherish it, but I believe this will be our greatest victory ever. Stand together and fight, let our names forever go down in history."
While it was a short speech, Lord Whitetail was pleased to see that it did raise the morale of the defenders. Scores of soldiers moved to the top of the wall in preparation of defending against the enemy army. They watched at the pigs and boars slowly moved towards them until the artifacts outside the gates activated, and started firing talismans towards the invaders.
Everyone watched as lightning chained through the boars, fire shaped like dragons advanced, sharp spikes of ice rained down, spikes from earth shot up, and enemies were crushed by gravity. But eventually, these artifacts ran out of talismans as well, and everyone watched as the remaining army hit the last of the defenses, the traps. The army of boars and pigs rushed forward, ready to attack the gate and city walls when ground shaking explosions went off, killing many. This continued to repeat until all the traps had been sprung, leaving a still sizable army free to assault the city.
Lord Whitetail lifted his spear into the air, and pointed it forward, "Attack!"
Captain Zhuo was sitting on pins and needles since the last update from Chief Bloodclaw. When Captain Zhuo had received the initial call for help, she had immediately ordered the Swiftwind to travel to that location at top speed. Captain Long, who captained another frigate, the Razor Gale, was also following along using the same coordinates that she was given. When it was estimated that they were five minutes away from their destination, Captain Zhuo raised the alert, commanding the crew to their battle stations.
"As soon as we arrive, scan the battlefield first. The enemy this time are the soldiers or the pig and boar nations, so when you attack keep clear of Deer, Wolves, Eagles, Hawks, and Falcons", she briefed the crew, "Use the appropriate weapons when you fire, I don't want to see our allies caught by our attacks."
"Yes, Captain", the crew responded.
A few minutes later the city came into view, and Zhuo shouted, "Locate the enemy, and fire at will."
The crew members responsible for the ships attack arrays began scanning the ground before selecting a target and firing. Captain Zhuo was looking over the city itself, and saw there were several holes in the walls and beastkin everywhere locked in combat. As the two ships navigated towards the gate, multiple beams of light shot from the flying ship instantly killing scores of boars and pigs. The soldiers that were saved saluted the ship before heading back into the wall to continue killing the enemy that had breached it. Captain Zhuo personally decided to keep her ship by the gate while Captain Long slowly moved through the city, clearing it of all enemies.
After five minutes, the city was secure again, as the invading force had been killed by one of the two ships, or the defenders.
"Captain Zhuo", she heard from one of her crew, "Chief Bloodclaw is contacting us."
"Excellent, put him through", Zhuo replied.
"Captain Zhuo, it looks like you made it just in time", Bloodclaw finally relaxed.
"My apologies, Chief", Zhuo said, "We tried to get here as soon as we could. I can see that there are many casualties."
"You made it, and that's what matters more right now", Bloodclaw told her, "Unfortunately, this was only one of the armies. There are probably two other cities completely destroyed."
"We will go attack them next then", Zhuo replied.
"Captain, we are detecting a stone holder approaching this position. Estimated arrival in about three minutes", the voice of a crew member interjected.
"Pardon me Chief Bloodclaw", Zhuo excused herself, "Something big is heading this way, we can talk more after I handle this."
"Please go ahead, don't let me hold you up", Bloodclaw assured her as she commanded the ship to move towards the target.
"Captain Zhuo, this is Captain Long, do you require back up?", she heard over the radio.
"Just standby for now and protect the city. I'll send a message if the situation turns bad."
The ship only took about ten seconds to find the Holder of the Boar stone, as it was now a giant boar covered in bristles that looked like they could punch through most armor. It's mouth had multiple tusks protruding out, covered in dried and fresh blood as it scavenged the battlefield for food.
"Load the Gravitas talisman", Captain Zhuo directed the weapons crew.
"Talisman loaded, Captain", she heard in response.
"Helm, take us out of range of the damage", she ordered.
The flying ship rose higher in the sky away from the giant boar, which ignored it to continue to devour everything it could find.
"Fire", Zhuo said.
"Acknowledged, firing Gravitas talisman", the crew member replied before activating the attack array.
The talisman was launched by the ship and proceeded straight towards the giant boar. Exactly the same as before, when the talisman made contact with its target, an impact, quickly followed by multiple shockwaves caused severe damage to everything in a five kilometer range. Before the Bristlehair boar could react, the force of gravity once again pulled everything toward the center, and created another large boulder. Captain Zhuo quickly collected the boulder in a special place in the cargo hold before sending Captain Long as message.
'How is the security of the city?', she typed.
'There are many dead or wounded, but the city is more stable now than before', she read.
'The target is no more, I will proceed towards assisting the other cities under attack. Make your own judgment if you can leave', she wrote.
Long wrote back, 'Talked with leaders, they will contact us if they are attacked again. Heading towards your direction with Lord Whitetail's servant for directions to the other cities.'
"Helm, standby at current position and wait for the Razor Gale to arrive", Zhuo said.
It didn't take long for the other ship to arrive, and after speaking with the servant that Captain Long brought along, the two of them heading towards the other two cities that were under attack. When Zhuo arrived at the city of the reindeer, she saw a town mostly in ruins. She aggressively attacked the army there, taking a few hours to ensure the threat was gone. She sent messages to Captain Long, Chief Bloodclaw, and Chief Razortalon informing them of her findings. Captain Long also sent messages that were very similar to her no longer after she did, she decided to stay here until the Whitetails could do something about it.