[First day back in the pigmen city, Sam’s POV.]
50 million.. Was that the total population of pigmen in this world? No, there had to be more.
Sam stood beside the village chief — no, the guy was a king now. He looked around the room. The chief had three sons; even Heather had said he had two children. Memories aside, he had to try and change these people’s minds. Dying for a stupid piece of land was beyond moronic.
The fancy-looking pigman said something, gesturing towards the large wooden table, and everyone walked toward their seats. Not all of them were summoned — Elias, Lumi, and Reize were not there. Everyone only seated themselves after the king took his seat, his family along with all the extra people leaving the room.
Einar asked, “This advance party.. How big is it? Many people seemed badly injured outside..”
Mindseer translated for them.
Heather replied, “That’s not from them. Those are recruits who daily dungeon dive to raise their levels. We have many potentials, and this is the fastest way for them to live up to that.”
“It’s reckless..” Evrin said. Sam had rarely seen her so displeased.
“It’s voluntary,” Mindseer replied simply. “They just guide their path and make it slightly easier for them to get stronger by gathering them in groups..”
Guess it was time. Sam coughed, getting everyone’s attention.
“I admire your fight. Your preparation, your love for this land. But this is not a ‘maybe’ fight — there is no way to win this. When we defeat this 10 million, the other 50 million will be ready behind them. When we kill them all, there will be even more. The whole world is lost to this.. Evil thing. We have to think about other options available to us..”
Suddenly, the whole room’s faces became undecipherable as, one by one, they all looked down. It wasn’t simple stubbornness.. Something else was going on here.
At last, Mindseer answered.
“That is not an option anymore. To check if it was okay for pigmen to cross worlds, I used my waygate cube and saw what the future ahead was if I had a pigman with me while going back. The third rankers and second rankers were fine.. But everytime the first rankers or infants — even some of their weaker second-ranker espers—were with me— My sight showed they could not survive in the world we came from. I was about to tell Damian about it, but I saw the attackers arrive, and I couldn’t leave this place. They have means of doing surprise attacks on the city once in a while..”
“What about using the waygate to go somewhere else on this planet?” Sariel suggested.
One of the pigmen ministers replied. Mindseer translated,
“Only unconquered land is behind us. And it’s not even one-fifth of what the Black Ones have crossed under ten years, the ocean starts after that. Crossing that, as your companions informed us, is only barren land leading up to the high-temperature region. The Blue Ones can’t survive there.. Even we Red Ones can’t either, not for long in such an environment. The whole world is theirs. We cannot lose our resources and start over — neither can we leave the only symbol of the divine behind just to live for a few more days..”
The king finished the unsaid sentence,
“Either we survive, or this is the last of us. We will fight. If this is what the divine wishes, then let it be.. We will not run. The decision won’t change.”
All pigmen in the room, regardless of the color of their skin, nodded in respect and in complete agreement.
“Very well..” said Maelor. “We will help as long as we can.”
All the humans nodded in agreement along with Sam. He understood it was not just their pride.. This was the end of their world. And they just wanted to live their last days with integrity and not run, showing their backs to the evil who killed all their brethren, good or bad. They were, after all, the last descendants of a long lived warrior race.
After a day of rest and understanding the state of conflict, Sam and the others were given a choice — to join the battlefield or help in other ways. The one experienced and powerful guide leading the dungeon runs for other newcomers was also quite an important task. So was going out as a scout to keep an eye on the movements of the main Black Pigmen force. The constant attacks of the wild monsters outside the city walls had not stopped either.
And of course, there was the main battlefield some 80 kilometers from the northern defense wall, where Bloodedge with his 10 million Black Pigmen were being held off by two transcendents and a force of 30,000 pigmen. The region was mountainous, and they had met them in a narrow path, going forward to fight just to have this advantage.
Somehow they were holding them off, but they were losing ground each day. Once they broke free from that area, it would be an open battle. The battlefield was being prepared by them for the future battle — setting up traps and making it uncomfortable for a large body of people to attack at once.
They were doing everything possible under the sun, but it was clear nothing could possibly be enough. Their researchers and mages were constantly producing new runic tools, trying to replicate Damian’s designs. Sam was surprised to see they had even managed to do so for a few of Damian’s spells. That guy was in for a surprise when he came here. Still, it was all just stalling for time and waiting for the inevitable.
Sam could clearly see they lacked a decisive strategy to deal maximum damage — to stop this all. The decisive weapon that could change the path of this war. He knew very well, without that, they would just be losing good men. It was truly a hopeless fight.
Sam, along with Lucian, Maelor, Alex, Evrin, and Einar, had decided to join the narrow battlefield, fighting against the traitor Bloodedge. They had decided to go there and see if there was any possible way to make any meaningful difference.
Before going, however, someone came to meet Sam. He was surprised to see Elias looking for him. He couldn’t let the guy join the fight, even if he begged — Damian’s brother was not someone he could take risks with.
However, the thing the boy told Sam made him raise his eyebrows in question. The boy had found many of Damian’s runic weapons and, seeing the condition of these people, walking in his brother’s footsteps without even knowing, he had come to ask Sam if they could lend some to the pigmen so they could do their research and try to replicate them while making use of some of them.