Once Karl made his threat, a new Spellblade came through the portal. He was Monarch Ranked, and wearing the same black robes and shining red armour as the others, but with a gold embroidered cloak hung over his shoulders and clasped with a gold chain studded with rubies.
“Who do you think that you are to threaten my people?” He demanded.
“Prince Karl of the Golden Dragon Nation. And from what I can tell, I personally command more Monarch Rank combat power than your Clan does, so I am asking you politely to take them and go home. If you want a piece of the action here after this pathetic attempt at poaching, you need to ask the Archbishop, or one of his people.”
The mage paused, considering his response before this situation got even more out of hand. Spellblades trained to fight above their rank, and were considered an Elite force all over the continent. The Elites, on the other hand, were a new force without a lot of the respect that the Spellblades had earned over the centuries, but some of them had unique classes that were more than a match for anything else at their level. The Clan Leader knew the stories of some of the other Elites who had achieved things that were considered conventionally impossible.
But that didn’t mean he would back down from a challenge, at least not just on the off chance that this particular one was capable of such remarkable feats.
“And if I say that my people aren’t leaving?” The Spellblade replied.
Karl called the two Lamia Bodyguards, and the mage paled. Monarch Ranked intelligent summons were far more dangerous than a conventional Golem, and these ones had immediately created their own Monarch Ranked barriers.
Karl smiled. “As I said to your men, we can do this the hard way. I was only extending a measure of courtesy to you.” fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
The pair faced off across the barrier around the attacking Clan, who were all looking haggard and exhausted from the effort of holding the barrier against the constant artillery barrage.
The artillery and Hawk, Karl mentally amended, as Hawk was taking full advantage of his evolution to Ghostfire Thunderbird to sit on top of the barrier and let his flames drain the defenders’ energy without having to do anything himself.
It was a brilliant move, and as soon as the barrier cracked, Dana could cast her Golems inside. With the barrier up, you couldn’t cast spells from the outside in. But every time Karl cracked the barrier with his maul, you could for the next second or so. At least spells that didn’t try to move through the solid parts of the barrier.
Remi came over with her trio of bodyguards, reminding the mage that if they pushed, the defenders could get inside the barrier and wipe out the Spellblade Clan in a matter of minutes now that they were tired and low on mana.
“Release my people, and we will retreat for today.” The Clan Leader relented.
“That should be fine. The energy of the Relic won’t last much longer. Cara, if you would kindly send the Spellblades back to their bubble.” Karl agreed.
Cara mentally cheered as Remi passed her a large stick out of her space, allowing the Void Badger to poke and herd the mages, who she was still preventing from using any spells.
There was no particular reason to make them walk the rest of the way to the barrier, but Cara wasn’t willing to give up her game yet.
The Clan Leader turned and walked back through the portal to his home Sect, and the others quickly followed, leaving an empty barrier for half a second after the portal vanished.
Ophelia came over to where Karl was standing, and Hawk circled down to land nearby, now that his perch was gone.
“What did they say? Are they giving up?” Ophelia asked.
“For the day, anyhow. They might not be back, but someone else will, and likely with a larger force, now that they know that this one failed.
Well, there are more reinforcements coming now, so we will be able to relax a little and let the new arrivals take over for us.” Karl replied with a sigh.
The others all laughed as Karl finished his speech. There was no way that the next group to come invading them not was going to expect an overpowered Royal Rank Elite and a seven-metre tall Dire Bear to be part of the force.
Ophelia took a small notebook out of her inventory, which looked ridiculous in her Werebear hands. “Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Get some rest. I am taking wagers on when the next group arrives. Closest to the time wins the pool.”
She was about to continue when energy surged in the air, only a few metres from where she was standing. “Let me amend that. I will take wagers on the one after this because that was too fast to even get our bets in.”
The soldiers from both nations began to laugh at the absurdity of it all. They were still recovering from the last battle, and there was another portal already opening in front of them.
The others retreated, leaving Karl at the front, with Cara standing on his left side like a guard badger.
She now nearly reached his hip, and was thicker in the body than any dog Karl had ever seen. She had to be close to seventy kilos of pure muscle, but when Karl extended his fingers and gave her back a rub, the skin still shook loosely, in the odd way that Void Badgers fur did. You could pick them up by the excess skin, and they wouldn’t feel anything other than a gentle massage.
In fact, Cara had considered picking fights a few times just to get someone to properly massage her, but had given up the notion when she realized she could just ask Remi and Rae.
In front of them, a Royal Rank Mage in ornate armour stepped through the portal with a barrier around himself, then stopped and addressed the defenders proudly.
“The Staptonbia Tower would like to negotiate for access to this Relic.” He declared.
Everyone turned to Karl, and he realized that his positioning had nominated him as the official spokesperson for the defenders.
The Newbon Army was happy to let him deal with the humans, who were notoriously rude to monsters, as most of the Newbon army still didn’t believe that he was actually a human, despite his allegiance.
His own allies were happy to let him, simply because he was the strongest one here. It was either him or Corbin, and Corbin was more interested in looking after his Spellblades.
Karl nodded in response.
“Alright. I think we all know the routine. The Relic allows ten people to attempt to use it at once. There are no known Rank limits, but the benefits are greatest for those who have at least one specialty skill and time to grow.” He agreed.
The mage nodded and held out a small metal box.
Karl flipped the lid open and saw a potion inside. He couldn’t identify it at first, even with the system interface, but Remi did.
[It’s not finished. They think it is, but they’re just humans. If we add a powdered Earth Stone to that, it will be good stuff.]