Risen World

Joshua stared down at the smug looking Kyle and already knew the man was up to something. It didn't take a genius to figure it out, but he knew whatever he was up to had nothing to do with the army he already had assembled. It was clear that something else was in the works and it was something that Kyle clearly believed would give him the edge to break through all of the defenses of James Town. Joshua however knew that there was no way that Kyle new of all the trump cards he had and if things went wrong it would be an easy enough solution for his main group to come out and play.

"So you've come back for round two huh?" Adrian said after the barrier from the system had been put up. "You must really like having your ass kicked, didn't know you were a masochist but it doesn't surprise me." His words caused Kyle to frown for a bit while Burl burst out with laughter at the remark.

"Hmm, you can say whatever you want, but this time I'll have my revenge for what your guild did to me." Kyle said after a quick glare towards Burl.

"What we did to you?" Henry asked with a look of annoyance. "Last time I checked it was you and the Scavenger Guild that decided to waste your time attacking our territory not the other way around."

"Yes and you should have rolled over and died like the inferior guild you were, but now that you've rushed into becoming a large guild you've made the biggest mistake you could have." Kyle said with his smug smile returning as he glanced over towards James Town. "A guild with so few people in it really wants to jump to the big boys table. It doesn't matter if you have the champion of the tournament on your side we will overwhelm you and your shabby little town."

"I guess the other seven members of our guild that made it into the final day of the tournament are all just chopped liver then?" Adrian said with a teasing smile. "Well we know he's insane, what's your guys' excuses?"

"Not really an excuse. I'm in it for the challenge and well for some monetary gain as well." Burl said with a grin. "I've got nothing personal against you, but if you want to make a name for yourself you've got to take down someone that's already reached that point. Besides our guild thrives in territory conflicts. Its how we've made ourselves known up to this point. A peace treaty will only get in the way of our fun."

"So an egotistical jackass that's mainly in it for the fun." Adrian summarized getting a chuckle out of the man that just continued to grin. "What about you shorty?"

Joshua could tell that Adrian was trying to egg them on, but outside of Kyle who was easy to enrage the other two didn't seem to care in particular. The short ex-mercenary kept a calm expression and responded with one word. "Money."

"Well I believe that's enough with the pleasantries. What's the matter, cat got your tongue?" Kyle said as he looked towards Joshua who hadn't said a word up to this point. "I guess even the hub city champion can be taken off guard."

"Not exactly, I'm just surprised by how easily your younger brother can read you like a book. He said you're going to try to attack us in some way and a few days later you show up right on cue. He must have you dancing to the beat of his tune all the time." Joshua said with a cold look causing Kyle to shut up as his face grew red from anger.

"That brat knows nothing about me, and you have no idea who you're dealing with. Do you think I'd come back and attack you once again without a plan? I'm not foolish enough to think that numbers on their own will be enough to deal with you lot, but that doesn't mean you can't be dealt with at all." Kyle said with a smirk. It was then that Joshua got a bad feeling as his intuition was telling him something was approaching. He closed his eyes and stretched out his aura sense towards the forest and could feel a large group humans on one side, but on the other it was surprisingly empty. All of the beast that normally stayed in the forest seemed to have fled the area.

'What's wrong Joshua?' Henry said through a system message as Joshua widened his eyes and started glaring at Kyle.

'Somethings wrong with the forest. There's not a single beast inside it far beyond the range of my aura sense. Even on the side where the invaders aren't located.' Joshua said causing Henry to frown as well.

"Oh are you finally taking my words seriously now?" Kyle said with a grin. "You know there's something that's always been true about beast even when it comes to the more intelligent ones we explorers find ourselves facing every day. Rile them up enough and they go crazy and rampage. Do it well enough and you can even control it to some extent, well at least you can control where you want them to go."

Just when Kyle finished speaking Joshua suddenly felt the aura of five people running through the forest coming from a different direction than the rest of the invaders. They were running full sprint and seemed to all be classes that specialized in fast movements as they used different skills to keep up their pace. These five people weren't what grabbed Joshua's attention however. Instead it was the stampede of large beast that was rushing through the forest after them. The stampede was made up of mostly ant like creatures which surprised Joshua. He couldn't observe them sense they were still so far away, but judging from the aura amount he was filling from them they were most likely around level seventy or higher.

"It's a tactic I've used before to weaken a few territories before a war starts." Burl said with a smile. "Anthills are fairly common in dry areas and there is something special about them. If you still the queens core instead of just out right killing and destroying it the ants will follow after you. They can follow you for such large distances that they won't even be able to find their way back home, so instead they will try to make a new one nearby once they regain the core. A place with tons of human sized food walking around like a town often becomes a good place for them to start building their new base."

"Either the ants over run your little town or they damage it enough to where we can swoop in and finish the job through a territory war." Kyle said while smiling. "I can't wait to see which outcome it will be." Once Kyle finished speaking he took out an item that teleported him and his two companions away just as the ants were getting close enough to be seen in the forest. The barrier around them faded away since the other group had left and now they were standing out in the open with an approaching heard of ants.

Joshua watched as one of the explorers that was leading the ants pulled out a large core from his pocket and tossed it far into the air before escaping through the trees. The rest followed his lead, but one wasn't lucky and got his leg caught by one of the ants' mandibles. The ant was the size of an elephant and easily tore off the leg while slamming the man into the ground. Joshua couldn't see what happen next as he was overrun by ants and the tidal wave of insects kept heading towards the core. The moment one of the ants retrieved the core they all stopped before looking up into the air and swinging their antennas around as if they were communicating.

That's when Joshua saw them all turn to James Town and started rushing in its direction. Joshua didn't know if they planned to rush through James Town into the open plains or just stop there and take it over, but either option lead to conflict that was unavoidable. "Damn it, this was something I wasn't expecting." Henry said with a frown. "We'll have to send out the robotic troops, because there's no way the turrets alone we be able to hold off so many creatures at once."

"We'll probably have to use armor penetrating rounds if these ants are anything like the ones we had to deal with in the past." Adrian said with a frown. "Such a waste of money, but at least will have lots of materials to sell off when this is all over."

"You two head back and get everything ready. I'll be right behind you." Joshua said as he took out his scale blade and flared his aura. The sudden surge in aura and killing intent caused several of the ants to freeze up for a moment. Now that Joshua could actually see them he knew that they weren't higher than level seventy-five and he was currently two level tiers above them. His suppression was in full effect and if there weren't so many of them Joshua knew that they'd probably flee instead of charging forward, but there were too many to be dissuaded.

Adrian and Henry both nodded before running back to the wall while Joshua started concentrating aura into his scale blade. The ants started rushing forward once more believing they could just swarm Joshua, but he already knew that was likely going to happen in the first place. After concentrating aura into his scale blade he then used the skill to create a massive sword of aura that towered into the air and combined it with the leaping skill that would land explosively and do damage in a forward arch.

Joshua was going to kill as many ants as he could with one move before blinking back towards James Town. As the aura around Joshua surged up into the giant blade of energy Joshua jumped high into the air directly towards the approaching waves of ants before slamming into the ground blade first creating a massive explosion that caused the entire area to shake. The blade energy landed in front of him generating waves of aura that cut through hundreds of ants and knocked aside thousands more. Even with all of the beast that Joshua had just killed he still could barely feel a gain of experience proving just how hard it was going to be to level up at this point.

Turning around Joshua quickly blinked away before the ants could get reorganized, but the little explosion was more than enough to halt the surge of insects long enough for the robotic army alongside Lily's beast army to come and position themselves for the upcoming assault. Joshua smiled before using his aura to kick off the ground and leap all the way up to the top of the wall. There was still an hour and a half before the territory war, but the army of ants needed to be dealt with first..