The guard in the next room collected himself, and quickly verified the identity of the corpses. “Sir, it’s the Blood Blade Gang. Six of their senior members. Their identities are confirmed.” The voice from the other room announced.
“He has more of them too. From when he rescued us.” The little girl declared.
Karl patted her on the head, so she felt that she was appreciated for being helpful. If he had to explain that he had hunted more of them, he would just terrify the guards even more.
“Send them all in, I’m ready.” The man in the other room announced.
Karl sent the bodies over, and the man began to swear.
“What in the Dragon did you use as a weapon? A bloody railroad tie? These wounds look like you drove a club through their chest.” He complained.
“Oh, those would be the puncture wounds from my golems. They’re patterned after a Bloodbath Spider. Thick, sharp legs. Very effective in close combat.”
“I am going to pretend that I know what a Bloodbath Spider is. But this will need my supervisor.” The guard Captain insisted.
Karl shrugged, and the kids began to tug at the back of his pants leg.
“Do you have more tubers?” They whispered.
The guards looked suspicious. “Have you not fed the children?”
“I fed them what I could. I wasn’t exactly packed for ten people. But the tubers are a magical resource, and they’re pretty tasty.”
Karl took out another hand and heated them with [Flaming Body].
A red light began to flash, and an alarm sounded, which had all the guards drawing their weapons.
“Whoa, calm down, what’s everyone freaking out about?” Karl asked.
“You used an attack skill in the city!” The guard Captain shouted.
“To heat potatoes.” Karl reminded him as the kids grabbed the hot tubers from his hands.
“Have you never been in a city before?” The guard screamed, obviously not happy with the situation, as he tapped buttons to get the alarm to end.
The Elves were all giggling as they ate, reassured by Karl’s lack of concern about rules and consequences. Of course, they had no idea that he simply didn’t know the rules, so he couldn’t worry about breaking them.
The alarms were shut off, and more guards came running into the room, where Karl was casually leaning against the wall as the kids ate.
“What happened. Are there casualties?” The most powerful of the new entrants demanded.
Karl would put him somewhere in the Royal Rank, possibly into the Monarch Rank. “This… fine gentleman… was unaware of the restriction on combat skills in the city and used a fire attack to heat food for the rescued Elven children. It appears that he has nearly eliminated the Blood Blade Gang in the last twelve hours. The bodies are in the back room, but don’t enter if you have recently eaten.”
The supervisor scoffed, and the Elves laughed as he walked into the back room, cursed, gagged and came back out, closing the door behind him.
“He tried to warn you.” One of the boys crowed as the supervisor came back out.
“And who are the rugrats?” The supervisor demanded.
“Recovered from the bandits. They were going to sell them to a slaver, apparently.” The Captain explained, with a hint of genuine sadness in his expression.
“Well, I suppose that we could ask either the Guild Alliance or the Darklight Host to arrange to send them with a caravan.” The Captain’s boss reluctantly agreed.
“Do you have an allegiance?” The Captain asked.
Karl changed to his [Bestial Raiment] skill armour to see what it created.
The armour came out all black with a gold trimmed Darklight Host tabard over the top.
That seemed like an obvious enough answer. It had even blinged up his tabard for the day.
The Captain blinked slowly as he stared at Karl’s armour until he changed back.
“You are a Darklight Host War Champion? Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He muttered to himself.
The supervisor stepped in front of Karl. “Are you here to trigger a Guild War? If you are, tell me right now, and we will take care of the kids, so they’re not caught in the middle of the battle. But you should know that you’re here to make the announcement, we can’t let you leave this office without an escort.”
Karl shook his head. “I wasn’t intended to be here at all. I was relocated through an anomaly and dumped along the road to Kanyigi. Everything that happened after was simply because I was making my way here to find out what happened.”
There was a scuffle outside the doors, and Karl leaned over to see what was going on. There was a large group picking a fight with the guards around the carriage for the Acolyte Cleric.
“Are you going to deal with that, or should I?” Karl asked.
If they were going to make everyone pick factions to come into the city, it was probably better not to be viewed as immediately betraying his side.
Before they could do anything, a loud horn was blown, and echoed by horns all through the city.
“Too late. The Guild War has begun. We will keep the kids safe, but the guards will be locked inside the dorms until the battles end.”
“Seriously? You don’t even protect the civilians?” Karl asked.
“And take sides? Thanks, but no thanks.” The supervisor replied.
The Elves waved to Karl. “Don’t worry about us, Monster Man. We will be right here when they stop fighting.”
Maybe this sort of thing wasn’t as uncommon as he had thought.
Karl stepped out into the street, and everyone froze. The people who had been in line were now fleeing out of the city, along with hundreds of others. But they were all leaving through the smaller doors, or down ladders over the walls.
If this happened enough that they had an evacuation plan for the city, it must be a rough life that they lived here.
“Declare your Allegiance or be attacked.” A man in a bright blue tabard yelled.
The guards around the carriage looked hopeful that Karl might choose them, as he had intended to take the Elves to their people.
Karl smiled as he changed his armour and called out the beasts, with Remi coiled up on Thor’s back so she could see to fight.
The man in the blue tabard went pale as he saw Karl’s armour.
“Get him!” He shouted at his companions. [Good news Rae.] Rae laughed in his mind as she darted forward and tore the man, who was still at the Ascended Rank, apart.
Karl noticed a notification in the corner of his Status overlay.
[Demon Guild Alliance has declared War on the Darklight Host Alliance]
Once he focused on that, Karl noticed that he could see red crossed swords over the heads of a large portion of the town.
He was becoming more convinced that this was one of the strangest Anomaly Instances that he had heard of, but at least he knew what he was supposed to be doing now. They had literal targets on their heads, and he just had to eliminate them while keeping his team safe.
Once that was done, he should be able to return. Hopefully, nothing bad had happened to the Lithium Mines.
[These people are real, not dungeon constructs.] A gentle voice whispered in his mind.
It wasn’t any of his pets, but Karl couldn’t see who it might have been.
But if that was the case, then his next order, which would have been to have Hawk bombard the city from high altitude, would have to be reconsidered.