The fight for Vel begins. But even after it ends, a more significant conflict may be lurking.

If you would like to read ahead, my Subcribestar ( https://subscribestar.adult/neopuc-s-fables ) and Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/Neopuc ) pages are staying two chapters ahead of what is posted publicly here on FA.

Thumbnail artwork by  Essyx

<<< PREV | FIRST | NEXT >>>

Chapter 16

A massive maw was hurtling at Vel, one large enough to swallow three or four dozen of him at a time. He wanted to dodge, but the sight of a vast maw lined with sharp, glistening ivory fangs had left him paralyzed. Even if he could have moved, he was not confident he could have dodged it anyway. The head was moving with such startling speed that it seemed like his destiny was to be a small snack for the nine-tailed fox attempting to eat him before anyone else could get their hands on him.

Oshiko’s hot breath felt like it had completely enveloped him as her muzzle closed in on him. Her tongue was extended to lap him up and take him in. She wanted to swallow him alive. Oshiko could not risk snapping those lethally sharp fangs around him. That huge tongue of hers had just touched his body, the brief touch already enough to wet his chest with her saliva when something changed. Vel watched in amazement as the incredible head of the ebony fox veered off course, teeth and tongue sailing past him so close he could have reached out to touch her fuzzy muzzle.

Vel wondered how Oshiko could have possibly missed him. And then he saw Masumi. It had been easy to forget the existence of all the other titans in the room when one of them had just been about to eat him. The kirin had been sitting right at the table with them, though. That, combined with the fact that he could see a few minutes into the future, meant that Oshiko’s actions had not surprised him in the least. The only thing he had to do to foil her plans was poke her muzzle with a finger. As terrifying as the experience had been for Vel, Masumi just looked a little bored.

Oshiko was the very picture of outrage. Her mouth snapped shut, her teeth clacking so loudly it sounded more like thunder to Vel. The way she looked at Masumi seemed to promise revenge, but she quickly calmed down just enough to remember that Vel was still there. Vel tried to get his legs working again before Oshiko could make another attempt on his life. She looked like she was going to go for him again, but something else caught her attention, and she quickly dived away from Vel.

An axe larger than most of the buildings in Vel’s hometown went sailing through the air just where Oshiko’s head had been. It buried itself nearly hilt deep in the wall. If she had not dodged that blow, the axe might have gone right through her head. That was something she realized quickly enough as her rage was replaced by a more cool and calculating expression as she surveyed the room.

As Vel chose to do the same thing, what he saw was nearly heart-stopping for someone his size. Every single giant in the room was now thundering in his direction. Vel did not think he had ever seen Iah looking that angry. She had been the one to throw that axe, and it did not look like there was any room in her mind to care about the consequences of killing a member of the elder races. Considering how she talked about them before, that seemed like it really meant something.

“Secure the pest,” Lunaria shouted to her followers as they charged his way. She led the charge while the other two looked like they were recovering from the shock of nearly losing their prize. Those two were moving slower than the others, making Vel think they had been frozen just like he had been and were only moving now in response to Lunaria’s orders.

Lanzui’s response was a bit harder to read. It was almost like he did not know how to feel about all this. That was not hard to understand. He had been lied to by someone he thought to be an ally, enemies trying to destroy the world were invading, and the dragon did not look like he knew who his allies were anymore. That stood in stark contrast to Oshiko, who looked like she was prepared to fight everyone at that point.

On the other hand, Masumi looked impatient, which was not uncommon for him as he was constantly waiting for the rest of the world to catch up. Still, with so many other titans rushing towards them, it seemed like he should have been just a little more concerned from Vel’s point of view.

Weapons were drawn, and Vel watched as managlasses also came out and spells were prepared. Iah was the only one with a single managlass. All the others had at least five. Based on everything Vel had learned about these giants, that was supposedly a grand display of wealth and power. He was not sure how much he liked being out in the open for this. They were going to be throwing around spells capable of felling titans. If he should take even a glancing blow from such power, he doubted there would be much of anything left for the giants to fight over.

As spectacular a sight as it was to have that many titans charging at him, one of the titans closest to the table was what really managed to get his attention. Oshiko had stood up to her full height, and her tails had fanned out behind her in a manner that reminded Vel more of a peacock. The air seemed to shimmer slightly around those tails, and he thought he saw a faint glow. When she started reciting a spell, all the other giants hesitated ever so slightly.

As Vel wondered what was going on, Masumi cupped his hand protectively around Vel as he finished reciting his own spell. There was a faint glimmer around Masumi and Vel, and he hoped it was a defensive barrier of some sort. It was just in time, too, as Lunaria had also completed a spell and had launched a lance of ice straight at Oshiko. The fox completed a spell right after, and a blue ball of fire of such intense heat that Vel broke out in a sweat almost right away was sent flying at the unicorns.

The ball of flames destroyed the ice lance instantly, but the other two unicorns seemed prepared for this. They had simultaneously launched fireballs of their own that hit Oshiko’s. Their fireballs were significantly smaller than hers had been, though. Still, it was enough to cancel out her fireball, and they were all back to reciting spells.

Iah and Lanzui had taken advantage of the situation, too. They had both cast what looked like protective spells on themselves. Or at least that was what the shimmering around their bodies looked like to Vel’s eyes. They glanced at each other, and a look between them seemed to indicate that they had agreed to work together. Things were looking chaotic now. Before the conversation between the giants, there had only been two sides. Now, there were the unicorns, Iah and Lanzui, and Oshiko. Masumi seemed to be sitting things out, content to just sit there and keep Vel protected.

There was something that seemed strange about the fight to Vel. Then again, this was the first time he had seen them fight outside of Iah’s pocket. She could have been fighting the way she was now the entire time, for all he knew. He did not think that was the case, though. While the unicorns, Iah, and Lanzui were all keeping an eye on each other, at least two of them were always trying to counter Oshiko’s spells. The added element of magic was something Vel simply had no experience with. He had no idea why they all needed two magic casters to counter Oshiko. They all seemed to think it was necessary, though.

That left the unicorns with a bit of an advantage as they still had a free member to attack anyone. It was something that Iah and Lanzui were quick to try and counter. They moved closer to the unicorns almost as much as they did the table. This did not go unnoticed by the unicorns. Two of them had standard spears like he would have expected any soldier to carry, while Lunaria had a more ornate glaive, but the blade did not look like it was made out of metal. It had a more ivory-like appearance to it. That was puzzling, why she would have an ivory weapon for a battle like this, but Lunaria seemed confident in her weapon. Vel assumed there was more to it that only the giants knew about.

The unicorns used the spears to keep Iah and Lunzui at a distance while still trying to counter Oshiko’s spells. Oshiko could not do much besides continually cast spells to keep herself from being overwhelmed by both groups. If anything, she was being forced to create space between all of them to give her enough time to recite her spells. Any of the giants should have been able to make it to the table in a second or two, but with a three-way battle going on, they could only creep forward at a glacial pace.

The spells being cast were a marvel. Attacks of every element Vel knew about, rays of scorching light, corrosive liquids, and things he had never heard of were being thrown back and forth with abandon. Vel had difficulty believing he was not watching a battle between gods. A corrosive substance hit the protective magic barrier that Masumi had cast. It would have hit Vel had that barrier not been there, and he was glad it had been there. That substance melted a hole through the table the size of a boulder. Vel thought it was a good idea not to wander too far away from Masumi and his barrier.

As spectacular as the display of magic was, their skill with weapons was almost as impressive. Vel may have only had a few weeks of experience as a soldier, but he recognized true skill when he saw it. The worst fighters were probably the two unicorns accompanying Lunaria, but even they were clearly elite fighters. If Vel could fight them on equal terms, he knew he would lose in moments. Iah, Lanzui, and Lunaria were on a different level, though. He had no idea who was the best among them, but they were a thing to behold in combat. If any of them had been his own size, he would not have wanted to take them on in a fight with any less than a group of ten, and that still would not have been a sure thing.

Vel had seen the aftermath of Iah’s battles and that she had won while being outnumbered each time without getting injured much herself. And now he was seeing why that had been the case. She was deflecting attacks that would have skewered himself as if it were second nature, all while countering spells being thrown at her. Honestly, she was beautiful in the battle. It was taking some very careful teamwork on the part of the unicorns to prevent her from taking any of their lives.

Lanzui was no slouch either. Considering that he was the only unarmored individual in close combat, he was being awfully brave. And the only weapon he had on him was a wicked-looking dagger he had produced from seemingly out of nowhere. He was at a massive reach disadvantage, and he was taking the occasional glancing blow from the unicorns, but they never seemed to be able to draw blood from him. If anything, Lanzui appeared to be taking the least injuries of any titan present. Between the magic being thrown around and the weapons flashing through the air, blood had been drawn from everyone except Lanzui. Even Masumi had a small nick on his neck from a stray attack. While his clothes had some rips and tears, Lanzui was not showing any signs of bleeding. The dragon did seem to prefer avoiding Lunaria’s glaive above everything else, though.

It looked like Masumi had noticed his confusion, and he provided some narration for the battle, “Dragon scales are tough, and they get tougher with age. Some are tougher than others, too, like Lanzui there. He’s probably better armored than that gnoll of yours. However, that blade of Lunaria’s could probably penetrate his hide. It’s made of unicorn horns. Wish I knew how they could shape their horns like that with them being unbreakable and all. Whatever they do to them also makes them sharp enough to penetrate even the hide of a tough old dragon like Lanzui.”

Lanzui heard that comment and smirked, “You have over a century on me.”

Masumi ignored that remark and continued, “As for Oshiko, each of her tails amplifies the power of her magic. It used to be that having all nine tails would make their magic nine times as strong, on average, but Oshiko is barely getting two times the power.”

Vel thought he heard a slight growl in the words Oshiko recited for her spells. She wanted to say something about that, but she was occupied at the time. Masumi rolled his eyes and added, “No insult intended, Oshiko. You are indeed one of the most powerful magic users alive today.”

Masumi turned his attention back to Vel, “That’s why she wants you. She doesn’t want to be one of the most powerful magic users today. That vixen wants to be elevated into the league of the greatest magic users of all time, and she can’t do that without eating someone like you.”

“Thank you for the explanation,” Vel said, “But why aren’t you helping? Don’t you want one said to win?”

“Of course. It would be advantageous to me if Lanzui and that gnoll of yours were to triumph here,” Masumi said as if that were obvious.

“But you’re just sitting there.”

“Old hatreds run deep,” was Masumi’s reply.

“Meaning?”

“Little human, I’ve lost track of the number of times a dragon has tried to eat me,” Masumi sighed, “And on occasion, I’ve had to sit in on meetings where the meat of my people has been offered to other carnivores as an exotic treat. As much as I do want your…friend to win, the thought of being comrades in arms with any carnivore sickens me too much.”

“But you say the fate of creation itself is at stake,” Vel implored.

“Then why don’t you help,” Masumi asked back as if that were such a simple matter. Vel was no warrior. He was a farmer. Any fighters out there could have slaughtered him even if they were of equal size. But, even if he were a warrior, that would not have helped, not in a battle between titans. They were trading blows that could have toppled castles and fortified walls. He looked at the ground, at the mammoth paws and hooves thudding powerfully against the floor. Vel remembered the time just a short time ago when he had helped the gnolls pull weapons out of their paws as if they had been nothing more than splinters. If he tried to get involved in a fight between them it would have resulted in him becoming little more than an unnoticed stain on the floor.

Vel was about to say just that as he looked up to Masumi. That was when he noticed the kirin was scratching around his neck in a way that emphasized the necklace of managlasses there. Of course, that was not a coincidence, and Vel said, “Wait, do you want me to help with magic?”

Masumi nodded in the affirmative but did nothing else, prompting Vel to ask, “Then could you pass one of the managlasses down here?”

“No.”

As the sound of battle still rang out across the room, an exasperated Vel said, “Then could you give me a lift up to one of them.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Old hatreds run deep,” Masumi said with a bit of an amused smirk.

“Then how am I supposed to help,” asked Vel.

“Climb,” was all Masumi said. Vel saw that Masumi’s hand was still on the table, finger tapping away, barely audible over gigantic weapons colliding and spells flying around. That did provide a means for Vel to climb the giant kirin, but with the only handholds being the clothes that he was wearing, he was not looking forward to that climb. However, it felt like it was something he needed to do. The fate of the world was at stake, and he did not want to leave everything up to Iah.

So, Vel began his climb. Fortunately, Masumi’s arm was positioned so that it was not a vertical climb, but the material the clothes were made out of was very smooth to the touch, making for a slick and frightening climb. When he managed to get far enough along the titan’s arm that he no longer had the table beneath him, he tried not to look down at the floor, so far below, even with the giant sitting down.

There were a few times that he nearly slipped off Masumi’s arm and much to his consternation, the giant never did anything to help. If anything, the kirin was pointedly ignoring him. But Vel was able to keep making progress over a couple of very tense minutes. When he reached Masumi’s shoulder, he half expected the kirin to shrug him off, but Masumi continued barely paying any attention to him. That left him with having to climb down the rope around the titan’s neck to one of the managlasses.

The climb down the necklace was not quite as bad as the one up his arm had been. If Vel fell, it would be right into the lap of Masumi. His lap was covered in the same material that Vel had been climbing, but it was still a long way down. There was a chance that he could survive the fall, but he did not want to find out for sure. Just the fact that Masumi was large enough that he might not be able to survive a fall from chest height to his lap was a sobering thought.

Vel was able to make it down to one of the managlasses with only one near-death slip. It was his first time being so close to one of them. From a distance, they had looked smaller than they truly were. Each one of them was significantly larger than he was. He had little idea how they worked, but he had watched Iah work them a few times before, and he had seen the other titans do the same thing she had before they started using spells. Every time, they had flicked the managlasses before first use, as if that somehow activated them. As Vel leaned over to pound on the glass, he hoped that a certain amount of force was not required because he could not even match the force of their flicks with his little body.

Whether it worked or not was anyone’s guess. Vel just started reciting words he had heard some of the giants using for their own spells. Despite the translation spell Iah had cast on him when they first met, Vel did not understand the words. The spells were in some original language, but Vel lived on the frontier, and he sold his goods to customers who spoke a wide variety of languages. Even if he could not understand the language, he had gotten good at picking out words from other languages and thought he could mimic them well enough.

As he tried out a spell, Masumi caused him to falter when the kirin spoke, “It’s pretty good that you can do that just by listening to a spell. Most of my apprentices haven’t been able to do that. It’s going to embarrass them to hear a tiny savage could do such a thing.”

Vel had to stop what he was doing. Having Masumi talk while he was on an object resting against the titan’s chest caused everything to rumble ominously, and he had to switch to holding on to the managlass for dear life. He wanted to give Masumi an angry reply but had already wasted enough time. So, instead, he went right back to trying to cast a spell, gesturing in the direction of one of the unicorns that Iah was fighting, the blue one. What happened next took Vel entirely by surprise.

He had been expecting a fireball around the size of his chest to manifest and shoot towards the unicorn. It probably would not have done much damage, but it might have at least been a distraction. What he conjured up was no tiny fireball. It was of the same scale that the titans had been tossing around. It was a monstrous ball of flames that could have devastated a castle. And it sped right towards the blue unicorn.

It turned out that none of the titans had a way to detect a magic-based attack besides listening to the caster or at least looking at them to see if they were casting a spell. Vel’s tiny voice had been completely drowned out by the fight, and everyone had been ignoring Masumi while he just sat there and the bigger threat of Oshiko was standing so close to him. That meant Vel was also getting ignored. So, not only was the unicorn surprised to have a fireball headed his way, but so was Iah.

The unicorn did have some protection from a spell and his armor, but the spell had already been weakened from other magic attacks and Iah’s axe. Vel’s fireball was enough to blast through the unicorn’s shield and hit him with enough force to unbalance him. The shield did take enough force out of the fireball that his armor was able to protect him, but from the way smoke was coming out of the gaps in the armor on his shoulder, Vel thought the armor must have grown hot enough to burn his flesh beneath it. Whether or not that was true was inconsequential. The unicorn’s reaction was what truly mattered.

His arm flinched as one hand left the spear for just a brief moment. The unicorn probably wanted to do something about his unexpected injury out of instinct alone. When he realized what he was doing, he tried to get his hand back on the spear, but it was already too late. Iah moved fast as lighting to capitalize on his mistake and batted the unicorn’s spear aside. With only one hand, he could not prevent her from doing so. For the first time, he was wide open, an opening that would only last for the briefest of moments as someone as skilled as the unicorn would recover quickly enough. Unfortunately, an instant might as well have been an eternity for Iah.

She swung her axe hard into his midsection. The sound of her axe hitting his armored belly was so loud it left Vel’s ear ringing. Vel wondered why she had chosen to hit him in such a heavily armored part of his body. The axe did not penetrate the armor, but there was a huge dent. Then, all of Vel’s doubts vanished as the spear dropped to the ground and the unicorn coughed up blood. Vel’s military experience had not extended much to fighting other people. He had only fought unarmored monsters many times his own size. He had heard from some veterans that an armored opponent was different. Armored opponents were often beaten to death rather than stabbed. And Iah was a monster many times stronger than a person of similar size would have been.

Though the unicorn’s armor had protected him from getting disemboweled, his guts had probably been turned into paste. Vel could see the life leaving his great black eyes, but even then, he was unwilling to give up. His hands were numbly reaching for a side dagger, but Iah was fully aware that a dying opponent was not the same thing as a dead opponent. One of her powerful hands had already found its way beneath his armor and around the unicorn’s thick neck. Then she squeezed, a wet cracking noise being heard above the other fighting and blood squirting through the air as clawed fingers dug into flesh. The second Iah let him go, the unicorn collapsed to the floor, dead.

That one act visibly changed the momentum of the fight. With the unicorns down one member, they started to get pressed back by Lanzui and Iah. The attacks on both groups from Oshiko did not help them much either. Vel did think about who to attack next, but it looked like he had helped enough. Iah engaged with Lunaria, leaving the other unicorn to take on Lanzui. While the unicorn was good, he was not good enough to go up against the dragon unassisted.

While jabbing at the dragon with his spear, Lanzui was able to grab the spear by the blade itself. The unicorn tried to pull it free, but Lanzui’s grip was so tight Vel thought he heard metal bending. Then the dragon took his dagger and swung hard enough into the shaft of the spear that he cut the shaft in two, severely reducing the unicorn’s ability to keep the dragon at a distance.

Lunaria had kept track of this and, frustrated, said, “Fall back. We’ll have to handle the humans the other way.” With that, the unicorns started trying to extract themselves from the fight and make their way to the smaller door to the room Lanzui and Oshiko had come through earlier. Iah and Lanzui did not put much effort into pursuing them, not when that meant leaving Oshiko alone in the room with Vel with nothing but Masumi for a protector.

The unicorns did receive a few glancing blows off their armor, but they did make it out of the room alive. That left Lanzui and Iah now facing off with Oshiko. The nine-tailed fox did not look all that concerned. In fact, she was looking pretty smug as she proclaimed, “The matriarch has nearly exhausted her mana powder. You can’t defend against me for long.”

“We can test how good your magic is against my scales,” Lanzui said.

“And I can lend a hand,” Vel stated.

Oshiko scoffed, “Your scales aren’t that tough. And you’re an amateur, my sweet little human.”

Iah’s only response was to chant a spell that caused Oshiko’s eyes to widen in surprise. Vel had not heard that one before, so he had no idea what would happen. It turned out it was not an attack, though. The main door to the room that had been magically sealed shut suddenly burst open as Iah destroyed whatever enchantment had been placed upon it. In mere moments, the once spacious-looking room started to look much more crowded as nine more massive gnolls flooded into it.

Oshiko looked much more perturbed by this turn of events, but the fight had not left her eyes. That was hard for Vel to believe. She may have been a powerful magic user, but each and every one of Iah’s clan looked like highly trained killing machines. Perhaps she was just planning on taking some of them down with her.

Then Iah motioned at one of her gnolls with a bag over her shoulder and said, “Bring her out.”

Without a word, the gnoll complied and pulled the sack off her shoulder. Opening it, the gnoll quickly dumped out what was a tiny figure to the other titans in the room. The creature was still a giant to Vel, but she was small enough to look very frightened of the other beings in the room. She was another foxlike creature, though her fur was snow white. Eventually, she spotted Oshiko and looked, as well as sounded, like she was about to burst out crying as she said, “Aunt Oshi, help me.”

“Little Seri,” Oshiko exclaimed, sounding surprised to see the smaller fox, “What are you doing here?”

“The other elders sent me on the mission to get the gifted from the gnolls. Then the gnolls sniffed me out,” Seri said.

Oshiko growled, “Those conniving old hags. Must have gotten jealous that I was going to get the first shot at the human. To think they would send one of my nieces on such a dangerous mission.”

“You can have her back if…,” Iah started to say.

Oshiko was quick to roll her eyes and sounded more annoyed than frightened as she interrupted, “If I stand down. Very well. Return my niece and you’ll have no more trouble from me.”

Iah took a moment to assess the black fox, probably trying to see if she could trust her. Then she shrugged her great shoulders and motioned for the smaller fox to be released. Seri bolted right into her aunt’s arms, and the tension seemed to fade from the room, even though many of the gnolls kept their eyes on Oshiko.

Lanzui spoke up, “Now that we’ve settled that, perhaps it’s time we returned to other matters.”

Iah turned an angry glare to Lanzui, “Yes, let’s. How about we talk about how you’ve had me and so many others commit such a grievous sin against the gifted, all for your own need for power, and how it has us all on a path to destruction.”

That had the other gnolls looking perplexed. They had not been privy to the conversation about how stealing the mana from people like Vel was slowly draining away at creation itself. Lanzui looked awkward at that statement, but it was Masumi who next spoke up, once again threatening to knock Vel from his perch on the managlass, “Yes, yes, you carnivores have your thing about honorably consuming your victims. But we do have other pressing concerns.”

That brought Iah’s attention to Masumi, and she looked about as angry with him as she did with Lanzui. She also looked like she noticed Vel clinging precariously to his perch. Her eye twitched in what Vel thought was annoyance as she stomped over to the table. She towered menacingly over the kirin, though he looked utterly unperturbed. It most likely helped that he had some insight into how things would turn out.

Iah’s expression suddenly softened as her eye focused on Vel. She started to reach out a hand but hesitated for a moment. Vel wondered what was happening with her as he noticed her ears droop a bit. It reminded him more of the time she had been embarrassed after she managed to get someone stuck between her toes. Vel looked up at her pleadingly. He was unsure what was going through her head, but if he had a choice between being in her care or Masumi’s, he knew who would take better care of him.

Iah understood the meaning of the look and finished reaching out her hand so that it was right next to Vel. He hoped over, and Vel was greatly relieved to be in her much more careful hold once more. Now that Vel was feeling more secure again, he ventured to ask, “I’m taking the more pressing concerns have something to do with what Lunaria said on her way out.”

“You would be correct about that.”

“Do they have some other means of getting another gifted person,” Vel asked.

“You’re the last one left for now. They might get lucky, and another will show up in a few days, but it’s more likely to take months before another is born,” Masumi said as if that were common knowledge.

“How can you possibly know that,” Vel asked.

“I’d like to know that as well,” Iah added.

Masumi sighed, “I suppose many secrets are being exposed today. My people can see into the future, but we can only naturally see our specific futures.”

Even Lanzui looked to be surprised by that and asked, “Do you mean you can look into the future of any kirin or just yourself.”

“Just myself.”

“But your people have made prophecies concerning events long past their own deaths. Has that all been a lie,” Iah asked.

“No, those prophecies have been true, except when we lied,” Masumi smirked, “However, with the assistance of the other elder races, we found a way to look into the future of other gifted.”

“Wait, does that mean you’ve been looking into my future,” an astonished Vel asked.

“Of course,” Masumi continued, “It’s not a perfect process. Sometimes, our knowledge can leak into the minds of those we are looking into, which is why your people have legends of some of us. And I’ve investigated all the other gifted humans, and I know none of them stood a chance of lasting as long as you have.”

Vel asked, “Then are the unicorns planning to wait until another gifted person shows up to complete their plague?”

Masumi waved that comment away, “I already knew about the Djallowuo plan and informed the phoenixes and the nine-tails about it. Between the former’s healing skills and the latter’s magical power, they should be able to do something about that. How long would you say until your people can deal with that spell, Oshiko?”

Oshiko was busy fussing over her niece, but she spared them enough attention to answer, “Hopefully within another couple of weeks, but no more than a month or two, max.”

Lanzui looked puzzled as he said, “Then their window is closing. What could they possibly have planned?”

Vel felt Iah’s hand tense up, and he looked up to see an expression he had never seen on her face before. She looked horrified as she said, “Before we followed the unicorns in here, the alarm bells in the city started going off. Cado was under siege by an army of Djallowuo cultists. I assumed they were just a distraction to let them assault this property and steal Vel.”

Lanzui scoffed, “Grass eaters attacking a dragon city, and probably a bunch of ill-trained gatherers at that. We’ll deal with them in time.”

“No, they really were just a distraction until they just failed. But, once Lunaria gets out of this mansion, which I assume has anti-teleportation wards, they will return to their army and inform them of their failure. Then there will be no point in a siege.”

“If there is no point in a,” Lanzui started before realization suddenly hit him too and Vel saw that same look of horror on his face as was on Iah’s.

Vel suddenly felt a chill creep up his spine as he asked, “What are they planning on doing with that army?”

Iah lifted Vel up, so he was at eye level with her as she said, “They’re going to march on your world. That army is meant to exterminate your people.”