Book 6: Chapter 30
An army marched from Avalon, headed east. Standard soldiers, led by officers, all commanded by the General of Avalon Curcius marched following the roads that had been built headed to the border, all workers and materials originally earmarked for building new towns and villages shifted to make it easier to move eastward. The soldiers weren’t peak fighters for their tiers and possessed no extreme builds with varied Classes that built themselves into something amazing, they were standardized, with each soldier being as similar as possible in build to those they fought side by side with. They were uniform and unremarkable and together they were a powerful fighting force ready to defend their homes and their families, just like every other true army on Torotia.
In front, behind, at the sides of, and even quite far away from the army traveled Avalon’s Sentinels. Combatants and adventurers that couldn’t fit within the uniform environment of an army but wanted to serve the nation of Avalon directly. Split into small parties like every adventuring team they moved as best fit their members, making the fastest time they could to the mustering site. Scouts, sneaks, rogues, and explorers led their parties through paths and trails that no army could take while less mobile groups simply kept pace with the troops.
Independent adventurers brought to the fight by the Adventurer’s Guild’s call or simply in the area and willing to pitch in moved similarly, but with less efficiency. The Sentinels were organized and methodical under the command of Meten, even if they weren’t as organized as the army. The independent adventurers didn’t have that and many fell behind as they got lost, embroiled themselves in minor conflicts with each other, and in some cases just couldn’t keep up.
Kay, King of Avalon, didn’t march along the roads or travel through rough trails. He didn’t walk on the ground at all. He formed a massive shell out of blood that he filled with his Blood Guard, Eleniah, and himself that he picked up with Blood Manipulation and flew toward the looming battle.
“Why does this feel like cheating?” He muttered, keeping his focus on his S.P.S artifact as he essentially levitated his craft forward. Having the artifact had solved the issues that had cropped up before with this idea and allowing him to actually use it. He was also curious to use his new Blood-Sight Skill to literally see through the outer edges of the craft he’d made, but the part in the description about “sensory overload” made him unwilling to experiment with it at the moment. “I get that it isn’t cheating, but something about moving so much fast than everyone else is bugging me.”
“It’s because we can’t start the fight until we have everyone there.” Eleniah told him. She turned in place on the red couch sitting across from Kay, frowning as she tried to shift to a more comfortable position and failed. “These couches aren’t right.”
“I’ll focus on making more comfortable furniture on the fly later. Why is that bothering me? The reports we got said that it’s one monster or creature empowering and leading the undead, so if we take it out we win, right? Why not just fly right past everything and kill it?”
“Quality versus quantity. I mean, there’s no guarantee that killing the thing makes all the other undead just stop, they might just go wild, which would be a big problem without more people there to mop them up and make sure none of the stragglers escape, but it’s more about the fight itself. Can you guarantee that you’re stronger than the necromancer creature? Enough to destroy it before it can do anything.”
“No, I can’t.”