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Book 9: Chapter 5: The Cost
Dark clouds loomed on the horizon, a herald of the coming storm. Somewhere in the distance were twenty forts not unlike the one whose ramparts Sadie stood upon. Ten for ogres. Ten for hobgoblins. And then, between them all was the realm’s primary objective. She looked at the notification she’d received upon entering the Primal Realm:
You have entered the Eternal War. To conquer this Primal Realm, defeat your enemies and take the Hollow Crown.
Sadie knew that the Hollow Crown was no item, but instead, a castle at the center of the Primal Realm. It would not be accessible for another five months – originally eight – which would allow for the challengers to create defenses and thin their opponents’ ranks. It was a war, after all, and not one where quarter could be given. They couldn’t win until every ogre and hobgoblin lay dead.
The same was true of the hobgoblins and ogres. However, if Sadie’s group failed, the winner – whoever survived among the warlike races native to the Primal Realm – would spill out into the world and lay waste to everything they saw. From the guides she’d read, that was a harsh simplification of how the two races had originally warred themselves to irrelevancy.
The hobgoblins had been so decimated that they’d been forced to breed with other races just to maintain their lines. Eventually, their elder blood had been diluted to the point of unrecognizability. Some sub-races of goblin came closer to the ideal represented by the hobgoblins – like hill goblins – but they all came short in one way or another.
By comparison, the surviving ogres had fallen afoul of some fel ritual meant to given them an edge. It had backfired, infecting their whole race and sentencing them to simplicity. The remnants were still incredibly strong and often quite durable, but their intelligence – as a whole – was sorely lacking. Because of that, over the eons since the ritual, they’d transitioned into a subservient role within the wider multi-verse. Sometimes, they were used as shock troops, but mostly, they were only suited for manual labor.
No one even considered them an elder race anymore. For most people, the idea was laughable, and the ogres’ storied history was almost entirely forgotten. There were even those who doubted it entirely.
Of course, they hadn’t seen what Sadie had. She’d battled multiple ogres over the past few months, and it was easy to imagine them as gods of war raging across the multiverse.
“What do you see?” asked Jari, standing beside her. The hulking man carried a multitude of weapons, but he favored the spear. He was also well-equipped with brigantine style armor, a helm that looked like it had been forged from iron, and a shield slung across his back. She glanced up at him and saw the thick beard poking out of his helmet as he asked, “Will they attack with the storm?”
“The scouts say they’re idle. Building defenses, just like us,” Sadie answered.
“Smart.”
It was. While the primary goal was to take the Hollow Crown, the realm could not be conquered until every last enemy was dead. There had been some debate about using the time they had to mount an immediate offensive against their enemies, but that idea had been discarded as implausible.
After all, even if they defeated one enemy in a rush – a dubious prospect – doing so would put them at a disadvantage against the other foe. The logic was sound, but there were still detractors. Some were more vociferous than others, but thankfully, Svotogorsk was not a democracy. Outside, Ivanka’s word was law. Inside, leadership had fallen to Sadie and Jari.
There was no room for dissent.
So, while the other captains might have given voice to their disagreement, they would fall into line. Anything else would result in their deaths. Such was the necessity in an army.
And army, they had.
She turned back to the still-under-construction fortress. It looked strikingly similar to Svotogorsk, though far smaller. Instead of playing host to a couple hundred thousand people, it only needed to house a fraction of that number. Fifteen thousand, in fact. Ten thousand were battle-hardened and with a significant number of levels under their belts. It was the sum total of all of Ivanka’s preparations, Jari’s training, and hundreds of battles against the ogres and hobgoblins that had already entered their world.
If it didn’t represent the largest and highest-level army on Earth, Sadie would have been incredibly surprised.
The only issue was that they had very few standouts among them. Jari was over level one-hundred. So was one other captain. But aside from those two, the levels were almost perfectly balanced, with no one rising higher than level ninety, but none lower than seventy-five. ṙ𝘼ΝỒBÊⱾ
A mighty force, to be sure.
She wondered how she would fare if she found herself fighting them alone. It wasn’t out of the question that she might win. Not without significant repercussions. She would inevitably be grievously wounded. The only question regarding her victory was whether or not her ethera reserves would last long enough for her to slaughter fifteen thousand people.
Probably not.
She was no army killer.
Although, in the back of her mind, Sadie knew that Elijah could do it. If he was properly motivated, he could put such an army down while taking whatever damage they had to dish out.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘱𝘶𝑏.𝑐𝘰𝑚
That was what set him apart. Sadie didn’t like acknowledging that anyone was her superior. In fact, she hated the very notion of comparing herself to others. But in this instance, she had to admit that Elijah was better suited.
And she wished he was with her.
Not only because he would make the fight that much easier, but also because she missed his touch. She missed the way he looked at her. The simple pleasure that came from knowing he was nearby. She had begun to take it all for granted, but now that he was gone, she missed him terribly.
Sadie sighed, pushing those thoughts to the back of her mind. They were not helpful, and what’s more, she knew that her reunion with Elijah wouldn’t be soon coming. She had months of hard work ahead of her.
Thankfully, she was not alone. In addition to the ten thousand soldiers, the group she’d brought along also featured five thousand non-combatants. Mostly Builders, but there were Blacksmiths, Leatherworkers, and other outfitters among the total as well. They’d even brought a few Cooks along.
In short, the fortress was a fully functioning and self-sufficient city. They would need it.
After a few more moments of standing on the wall walk, Sadie caught sight of something on the horizon. “Incoming,” she growled, grabbing the hilt of Final Verdict and levering it free of its holster on her back. Despite its huge size and massive weight, she held it easily with one hand. “Looks like the scouts were wrong.”
Jari shouted, “Enemy sighted!”
If the watchtowers had been completed, the Rangers would have seen the enemy coming well before Sadie had. But with her cultivation and levels, her senses were sharper than most.
Behind her, men and women – all armed and armored much like Jari – raced to their battle positions. Most would end up on the wall, but there were plenty who’d gather in the courtyard to sally forth and decimate the oncoming enemy as they attempted to mount the walls.
Sadie would be among them.
She was a defensive fighter, but many of her spells and skills were wasted as a wall defender. She didn’t bother with the steps. Instead, she simply leaped free of the wall and landed in the muddy courtyard. Nearly a thousand fighters joined her over the next couple of minutes. In that time, the scouts shouted updates on the enemy’s position. From the wall, she’d only caught sight of a bit of movement, but she didn’t need to see her foes to know what was coming.
They closed far too quickly to be ogres. That left only one other option, and Sadie wasn’t certain if it was good or bad. She’d fought a few groups of hobgoblins before entering the Primal Realm, so she knew they were incredibly dangerous. Not as strong or durable as the ogres, but more numerous and far quicker.
They were also even more vicious.
Ogres strove to prove their might, to defeat their enemies and take their rightful positions as the preeminent species in the multiverse. Hobgoblins wanted that too, but there was a note of sadism in there as well. It wasn’t enough to simply beat their foes. They craved the humiliation of their enemies.
Sadie had been in more battles than she could count, but as the scouts shouted updates, she still felt the pace of her heartbeat quicken. Then, she heard their footsteps, like a rumble of thunder before the first scream erupted from the wall. It was like a dam breaking, and within seconds, the sounds of battle – screams, roars, and the clash of weapons – filled the air so completely that Sadie couldn’t hear anything else.
Then, the side gate opened, and she rushed out alongside the rest of her companions. A thousand men and women sprinted from the fortress, immediately circled the wall, and fell upon the hobgoblin army.
Sadie had a brief moment to note their appearance – they were slightly taller on average than a human, with wide shoulders and limbs corded with rangy muscle – before she reached the opposing force and brought Final Verdict to bear. Her first attack sheered a hobgoblin in two, and she whipped her sword around, reversing its direction and slicing deep into another enemy’s hip.
Then, the rest of her force crashed into their amassed foes. From that point on, the battle devolved into chaos. Her people knew to give her a wide berth, and she used that to her advantage as she cleaved her way through the hobgoblins.
They were taken by surprise – none of them expected a counterattack so quickly – and they were woefully outnumbered. Getting pressed from both sides put them at a distinct disadvantage. However, that didn’t mean their defeat was inevitable. Far from it, in fact.
In seconds, the hobgoblins showed why they’d been so successful in war. They pivoted from attacking the walls, immediately raising their shields in defense. As ethera swirled around them, Sadie knew she and her people only had one chance to end the fight without significant casualties.
If the hobgoblins were allowed to recover, they would use their signature ability – the one that had enabled them to sweep across multiple worlds and threaten even other elder races. She didn’t know what it was called. That had been lost to time. However, the effect was well-known.
The basic gist of it was that they had a natural ability to bolster their attributes based on how many were gathered together. It was not a long-lasting buff, but it was more than enough to turn the tide of any battle. If they were allowed to use that, a thousand hobgoblins could easily defeat a force ten times their size.
Sadie’s job was to prevent that.
She activated Faith’s Reckoning:
Faith’s Reckoning
Conjure wings of faith, allowing for flight and significantly increasing all attributes. Duration determined by Ethera attribute. Potency based on Core cultivation.
Current Duration: 73.3 seconds
Her attributes surged as wings of divine light erupted from her back. Her body glowed as she also used the trait associated with her armor, Celestial Health. A trickle of vitality filled her as she threw herself forward with reckless abandon. With a flick of thought, she used Halo of Protection as she tossed out one instance of Blade of Judgement after another.
The hobgoblins did not let her attack unfettered.
Instead, they fell upon her with every ounce of fury they could muster. They didn’t fight like berserkers, though. They were disciplined soldiers who maintained control at all times. Still, each time one landed a blow, it came with a sadistic grin.
Sadie slaughtered as many as she could before their collective ability took hold.
She noticed the difference immediately. Attacks that otherwise rebounded harmlessly from her armor now cut deep grooves in the high-grade metal, and if it weren’t for Anchor of Faith, each attack would have sent her staggering. However, because of that often-forgotten but all important spell, she was able to maintain her footing.
Her companions were not so lucky.
All around her, the shields provided by Halo of Protection shattered under the weight of single blows. But the other soldiers were not without defenses of their own. And because of Sadie’s aggressive tactics, the numbers of hobgoblins had been significantly reduced. Their ability was likewise weakened.
As Sadie hacked and slashed, enemies fell before her. There was no elegance to it. Fighting a war wasn’t about fancy swordsmanship. It wasn’t a duel of equals, but rather a workmanlike slaughter.
Ranged attacks fell from above as Sadie’s force hammered the hobgoblins into the walls. She used Blessed Bulwark to bar their retreat, and after a half hour of hectic battle, the last hobgoblin fell.
Blood-soaked and tired, Sadie looked around at the battle. A thousand hobgoblins dead, but it had cost at least a hundred of her people. Maybe more. She’d know the true numbers when they had the chance to count.
It was then that she realized the enormity of the task before her. One battle, and at least a hundred people were dead. How many casualties would it take to win the war? A shudder gripped her spine as she considered the cost.
