Silver Spoon Series

The plan that Roger, Lyonel, and Dantelion were able to put together was rather simple, but there is a certain art to simplicity. The village of Elstree had a population of just over six hundred people. All of them now had classes, but they were not all equally adapted to those classes, or to the new life they could offer them. There was also quite the disparity in how well equipped people were. Each run through the dungeon could only supply a couple of items for the party to share, and so far the adventurer's store was only able to offer a few low quality weapons and armor for purchase with their gold.

The fact that the brightly colored golemoid Brud, who ran the store, was able to manage that much was commendable. Thanks to a few donations from the town owner, and then a variety of items offered on consignment, Brud had managed to make a little profit, and he used that to gain limited access to the Network merchant system. It had required the purchase of a Mercantile License, something he could only do through Elstree's town hall, but it let him buy items from outside the tutorial and sell them in his store. The license itself was incredibly expensive and he wasn't even able to purchase it permanently. Instead he had only managed to secure the privilege for a month, with the option of extending it when that time was closer to expiring.

The items he could buy from offworld weren't cheap either. The seller of the items was charging a price for either making or procuring the goods, and the Network took a piece for setting up the connection, as well as a markup for transporting the items between the buyer and seller. That meant that each sword he sold, which usually might go for around a gold piece, cost him three or four to buy, and that was before he made any profit himself. It might be better for the village in the short term if he sold at cost, but then he would be unable to extend his license, cutting off their already limited supply. So he had to charge his customers even more than the high prices he was forced to pay.

What all of that meant was that certain parties were more effective than others. Those that had gotten their classes earlier and thus had more dungeon runs, or those were able to complete it successfully each time, were much better equipped than others. They also had more gold from looting the dungeon creatures and so they could buy more items to fill in gaps in their gear. Combined with the fact that some people were more eager to train than others, some seeming almost obsessed to the detriment of their normal job, Elstree had its own group of elite warriors. However, every member of their village was probably better than the greatest warriors that Crasmere had to offer.

The best of the best were the first fifty to receive their class stones. Not only had they had more time to grow and train, but the fact that they had all cleared the dungeon on their first run had forged a bond between them. They even had a name they referred to themselves by, The Principals. As names went, it was a little arrogant, but it had a couple of meanings that made it clever as well. Others in the village also used the term so it couldn't have been too bad. None of these elites had reached opal yet, but most were over halfway there in their primary classes. The shared achievement they had gained that first night had also led them to be some of the most fanatical about training. If Alan could have seen them today, he would have been impressed by their current skill level.

In addition to the Principals, there were enough other parties that had forged a particularly strong bond with each other, or were just excited about the new possibilities their life had, that they too were at a level the other villagers couldn't meet. Altogether, there were around ninety villagers who could be considered part of this elite group. These ninety, Roger had assigned a special mission to.

With a good amount of haste, and done on the east side of the village, they had headed out and entered one of the portals that led far away from the enemy villager. Once there, they set off for another portal that wasn't too far away. Once there, they simply waited. All of the scouting groups from earlier had been recalled already, and with their return they had brought some useful information, especially about the lay of the land. A good chunk of the elite warriors had also been assigned to explore the enemy zone, so it had been necessary to get them back.

The small army of Crasmere had stalled their advance when they noticed that Elstree had begun to send scouts through the portals. They had also noticed that these scouts had actual armor and weapons, unlike what they had seen so far. If any of them had unnatural perception, they might have also noticed that most of the gear the invaders had was of a slightly higher quality than what their own crafters had been able to supply. Fortunately that wasn't the case, and the Bodarians who had classes and might have noticed, were all back inside the walls of the village.

After seeing Elstree's scouts retreat back to their own side, the army had waited another hour to see if anything came of it. When nothing did, a few of their own scouts advanced and entered their targeted portal. They returned shortly and informed the leaders that nothing much had changed on the other side. There were signs of people running around on the walls, and a bell that was ringing, but no large force was assembled to meet them. For some reason this inspired confidence in these fighters and they chose to advance. As far as they were concerned, Elstree was showing signs of panic and only thinking defensively.

That suited the plans of both the military minds of Crasmere and Elstree. Roger and Lyonel had suggested that the villagers on their wall should seem to be running around, as if quickly trying to prepare for an assault. This would hopefully encourage the enemy to actually make their attack. Dantellion had come up with the ringing bell. The village didn't actually have a bell, but Elluin, his mage, had a spell that could create auditory illusions. Thus the ringing bell, making it seem like the town was panicking and hastily trying to recall its people to mount a defense.

What the Elstree leaders didn't know was that the army that was about to attack them had a couple of aces up their sleeves. Or more properly, on their fingers. Jemina had gifted the leaders of the attack with two spatial rings. Inside these rings were two crude catapults. These were the product of two of the Bodarians who had been brought in after Butan had captured the village. Warfare was a common fact of life on their planet, and these two had some experience with siege engines. The rings also included a decent amount of stones for the catapults to use to batter down the enemy's wall. The fact that Elstree seemed to want to hide behind those same walls in the hope that they would provide them an advantage, was exactly what the Bodarians had been hoping for. And so it was that the beginning of the battle for Elstree was a surprise for both sides.

While most of the elites for Roger and Lyonel were deployed through a portal, that wasn't to say that what was left was trash. There were plenty of people who had been diligent about their training, and had received some equipment. Others had a passion for their classes even if they hadn't been able to really shine yet, whether it was because of a personal failing or, more often, a synergy issue with their party.

The defenders on the walkways had put on a display for the enemy spies, but behind the wall was a group of twenty parties ready to react at a moment's notice. There were almost eighty people on the wall scrambling around. It was a good cardio workout if nothing else. Several more parties were assigned to various spots along the wall just in case the Bodarians tried something sneaky. The rest were ready to go in the town center. Even though so many were absent, having orders to be somewhere else, those in the center were packed in tight enough that weapons had to be put away so that no one was accidentally skewered.

Now that the enemy was coming through the portal, those on the wall could tone down the act. They still tried to appear disorganized and a little panicked, but they could stop most of the running. The Crasmere army took almost ten minutes for everyone to make their way through. Roger and company had assumed they would form up and then try to storm the walls. They had expected some ladders or maybe ropes to help them climb over, or possibly some kind of battering ram. Both Lyonel's and Dantelion's parties were at the gate watching, and they were all confused when they couldn't find any sign of devices for overcoming their walls. How was the army going to take the town if they couldn't get past the gates?

The answer soon appeared. The group of over two hundred enemy soldiers split into three groups. The largest assembled into a rough rectangle, while the other two groups consisted of about twenty people each, and large wooden pieces started appearing before both of them. It took a couple of minutes just to get all of the parts of the catapults out, and it wasn't until they started piecing them together that the defenders realized what was going on.

Siege weapons weren't unknown in the Network. Alan had been exposed to some impressive siege weapons in a dungeon that recreated an ancient battle. The thing was, mundane siege weapons were mostly useless. In the Network, almost all real battles involved people with classes, and not normally lowly quartz ones. A red grade warrior with a strength and constitution class could deal far more damage with their fist than any boulder launched from something as crude as what the Crasmere people were assembling. A talented mage of the same level could do a number on a non-reinforced wall as well.

The Bodarians actually knew of this, having discussed warfare with the current mayor of their village, and the few citizens who had gone through a Village Raid before. When the deal had been made to restrict the adventurers from participating, they had decided to create some siege weapons to devastate the serfs they thought to face. It had taken them all night to finish, and the rush, plus the need for them to be able to be broken down into pieces, had resulted in their crude nature. Crude did not mean useless, however.

Each of the catapults, when fully constructed, could launch a thirty centimeter rock over a hundred meters. Against a well crafted stone wall, that would take forever to make a real dent. Against a wooden wall made of logs stuck in the ground and bound together? It might be able to get through that in a few hours if the hits landed in a good grouping. The real benefit was if they could slam those rocks into the gates. Those would break in a fraction of the time, allowing the army to stream into the village center.

Once the leaders of Elstree realized what they were dealing with, they had an emergency planning session and then saw about implementing their new countermeasures. Fortunately, putting together the catapults took more than an hour. It would have gone faster if the Bodarians could have done it for them, but they had thought that would be too much support, and it would have violated the agreement. In that time, Lyonel had managed to get most of the air benders and earth movers up on the wall. They also got the most skilled archers up there as well. They swapped out with the people already up there so as not to alert the enemy.

The first rocks launched from the catapults fell hilariously short, not even reaching halfway to the wall. That led to another thirty minutes of troubleshooting before they launched their second volley. These were actually a danger and were headed properly for the wall. Twelve mages stepped up and six each targeted a rock. They had been told ahead of time which ones they were assigned to. All twelve of these mages were air benders with the gust spell. A single casting of gust probably wouldn't have had much of an impact on the large missiles, but six at once, creating a massive headwind, were enough to slow the rocks down significantly. They hit the ground with more than twenty yards to go to reach their target.

To the enemy villagers watching from the field, it wasn't immediately obvious what had happened. They launched a third volley, and after seeing it fall short yet again, they were paying better attention to their fourth try. This time several people were able to identify when the rocks suddenly started to decelerate. They knew something weird was going on, but they couldn't see the small movements that the air mages required to cast their spell, so they couldn't be sure.

The Crasmere captains decided to move their catapults closer. They, and the people manning them, had already been inside the range of any longbows on the walls of Elstree, however, the slight elevation the archers got from being on the low walls was not enough to make a hundred meters a particularly effective distance. They could have scattered some arrows around, but they didn't have the skill to make such attacks worth the expenditure of arrows.

Once they moved to about sixty meters out, this dynamic shifted. A serf who had trained their whole life with a bow could hit a stationary target more than half the time at that range. The number of such people would be fairly low for villages with several hundred citizens. The Crasmere force had some soldiers step forward with large wooden shields to help protect those working on the catapults. There weren't a lot of shields to go around, but it would hopefully be enough for the ten or fifteen archers they expected.

Elstree had more like fifty people with longbows, and while most of those hadn't spent their life learning to use such a weapon, their new hunter classes made up for that and more. As the first two catapult missiles were launched from the closer range, the archers were already drawing their bows, counting on the mages to take care of the incoming threat. The air mages did their best, but they had less time to affect the rocks now, and the heavy missiles also didn't have to go as far. That was where the earth mages came in. There were a similar number of these as air mages, and they each used their stone spear spell to attempt to hit the rocks as they made their final approach to the wall. It was tricky to time and aim, but they managed to completely stop one of the rocks and the second was knocked off course with most of its energy depleted. It hit the wall next to the gate, but it did little more than cause a loud thwacking sound.

The archers, meanwhile, had already launched their retaliatory shots. There was no unified release, but all the arrows were fired in the span of two seconds. The Crasmere villagers who had been charged with defending their fellows were overwhelmed. It wasn't just the number of arrows that swamped their efforts, it was the accuracy as well. These weren't arrows launched on a wing and a prayer, they had been skillfully targeted. More than twenty people were hit with that first volley, and it was a miracle that only two were killed.

In the meantime, Johan, one of the most effective solo hunters from Elstree, had jumped over the wall and made his way around the enemy. He did a good job of moving stealthily through the long grass, but in truth the army wasn't really paying attention to anything other than Elstree. These were not true soldiers, instead they were more of a hastily assembled militia. Once he was past the assailing army, he made his way to a specific portal and disappeared.

In one of those quirky little twists of fate, at about the same time that Johan was entering his portal, a messenger from the Crasmere army was also making a run for her own portal. After seeing the unbelievably accurate and numerous barrage of arrows, coupled with the falling rocks and numerous stone spears, the captains had decided that Elstree was cheating, and their adventurers had joined the fray. It wasn't true, but it was an easy mistake for an outside observer to make. While the Bodarians were assembled back in their village hall, waiting for news, Johan's contact was holding just on the other side of his portal and his message was received immediately.

The entire elite force from Elstree, around ninety of the best trained warriors that Alan had been able to produce, streamed through their portal and appeared a couple of hundred meters behind the Crasmere army. If the enemy had immediately reacted to their presence and run back to their portal, a large portion of their force might have made it to safety. However, such quick thinking and instantaneous response was only possible in computer games. It was several moments before anyone saw the force assembling at their back and another thirty seconds before the leaders became aware of what was going on. Their concentration had been understandably on figuring out how to deal with the ranged fire their siege engineers were taking. By then, it was far too late to change the outcome.

As the Elstree elites continued to pour through the portal, parties grouped up and took off running, interposing themselves between the enemy army and their return portal. Before the Crasmere captains could come up with a plan, more than thirty people were standing in the way of their retreat. Those people blocking their path also looked much better equipped than they had been expecting, and it hadn't been lost on the soldiers that they moved far smoother and faster than regular serfs should. Even at this point, it was possible they could have broken off their attack and saved at least some of their force if they made for an alternate portal, even at the risk of ending up far from their home village.

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Once again, the most reasonable of delays spelled their doom. Seeing the anvil that was their best fighters coming through the portal, the group waiting behind the Elstree gates came streaming out. They were the hammer that would shatter the Crasmere villagers. Between those that had been playacting on the walls and the fighters stationed out of sight behind the gates, their force was slightly smaller than the Crasmerians. Combined with the elites blocking a retreat, however, they actually outnumbered the enemy and that didn't even consider the massive advantage their classes gave them.

The enemy commanders were now faced with a choice. A disciplined retreat was out of the question, there was no way they could move in formation to any portal without being caught by one of the two forces. They could scatter, letting each individual make his way as best as possible, but that would lead to a massive rout and few, if any, would make it back. The captains thought they knew two things, and so they decided to actually press on with the attack.

The first thing they thought they knew was that the force in front of them was significantly weaker than the one behind them, and that the gates were open. This was only partially true. Yes, the gates were open, but that was not going to be something the Crasmerian commanders needed to worry about. Even as they were giving the order to attack, Roger was dispatching most of his reserve to take up positions on the walls and to also rush out and aid the force acting as the hammer. They were also mistaken in thinking that the villagers coming from the gates in front of them were weaker than the well equipped version behind them. They were slightly inferior on a person to person basis, but they had more numbers and their quality was also far superior to anything the Crasmere army had.

The catapults were forgotten as the invading force ran forward. This was no measured advance, and these weren't well trained combatants. They were what every medieval lord would have called a rabble. That wasn't to discount their bravery or conviction, it was simply a statement of how little actual experience they had with both their weapons and actual battle. Each soldier sprinted forward as fast as they could, brandishing their weapons, and it caused the large army to spread out some.

The first casualties for this stage of the battle were self-inflicted. Several of the Crasmere villagers stumbled as they ran on the unfamiliar terrain and a few outright fell down. In an effort to catch themselves they ended up flailing around with their weapons, inflicting injuries on themselves and those around them. Fifteen people ended up being knocked out of the fight in this manner, fortunately none of them had taken fatal wounds.

The fact that they were already losing people went undiscovered by the leaders of the army, as they were leading from the front, as the Bodarians had taught them to. Even if they had known and wanted to do something about it, their forces were committed. The distance between the frontlines of the two groups was only about ten meters at the moment, and the Elstree elites were moving in from their rear to entrap them.

The battle moved to its next stage when the mages in the Elstree gate force started throwing spells. The archers who had remained on the walls could have launched a couple of volleys into the enemy ranks to deadly effect, but Roger was actually trying to minimize deaths. That's why it was the mages who were tasked with the ranged attacks. Fire and light bolts, stone spears, and a few shadow bolts shot across the dwindling distance between them. At the level the mages were currently at, these spells were powerful, but not deadly. A stone spear to the chest or a fire bolt to the face might have been able to kill a serf, but they were intentionally trying to avoid such hits.

The front wave of the Crasmere attack went down, including their commanders. The Bodarians had actually set up a short chain of command, however, so their subordinates took over control and spurred them onwards. A reasonable person, seeing the wave of spells emerge from a force of what should be serfs, would have realized that something was wrong and possibly called off the attack. These people weren't rational at the moment, however. This was the first time they had experienced the adrenaline high of combat and their baser instincts were driving them forward. A few here and there gave in to the other half of their primal urges and tried to run, but there was nowhere to go.

The vanguard of Elstree's charge consisted of their biggest tanks. Utilizing large shields or their own massive shoulders, they accepted the damage from the few strikes that the Crasmere militia was able to land, and in return they knocked down the front two ranks of the enemy with pure momentum. They followed that up with brutal attacks from their clubs, hammers, and maces, knocking down another row. Coming in behind them, the more agile fighters were making sure that the enemy who had been flattened in the initial charge stayed down.

Instead of stabbing them, this usually meant kicking away their weapons, or knocking them in the head with the flat of a blade or the butt of a spear. The mages and healers were behind them, and they used the rope they had been given to bind their hands while the healers did their best to stabilize the enemy warriors. Again, Roger was trying to minimize casualties. These people weren't really the enemy, they were simply on the wrong side of some crazy game of capture the flag that the Network liked to run.

There were fewer than forty enemy combatants left standing, and they now found themselves surrounded by the brutes who had decimated their front lines and the true elites who had finally caught up from behind. A couple of foolish people tried to fight back, but the rest quickly surrendered. In the space of a few minutes, the entire Crasmere force had been captured, with no deaths and only a few wounds dealt to the defenders. Even now they were getting them tended by the healers who had far more work to do on the enemy.

Unfortunately for Elstree, the second thing the Crasmere captains had 'known' was actually true. The messenger they had dispatched before the final attack had reported back to the Bodarians, and told them that the pact had been broken. Again, according to the letter of the agreement, Roger hadn't violated any of the rules, but it certainly seemed like they had to the enemy. The Bodarians had collected their entire force of tutorial recruits, the fourteen strongest warriors from an initial force of ten thousand, and marched for the same portal their villagers had used.

This took them a small amount of time, and so they emerged as most of their force was being dragged into Elstree. After hearing from the prisoner Fred, Roger had gotten a group of construction workers to begin building a paddock to hold the prisoners in. If they couldn't end the Raid quickly, they needed someplace to hold the captives. The temporary fences they were putting up wouldn't be effective for long term security, but it would help pen them in until something better could be built.

Once again, the people outside the gates didn't notice the new arrivals at first, but one individual on the walls had. Lyonel had tasked Hector with watching the portals for any signs of the enemy, especially the one they had chosen to use for this attack. He had been the only person to see the enemy messenger go back before the final attack, and he was the only one to see the Bodarians appear on the field. The ferret man scout quickly let his party leader know and with a shout at Dantelion, the two groups of adventurers quickly made their way down the stairs and out the gate.

Seeing their own leaders exit the village caused many of Elstree's fighters to look around nervously. They quickly spotted the problem and new orders were given. The Principals left off dealing with the captured villagers and formed up, ready to support their own adventurers. Everyone else did their best to clear the area. No words were exchanged between the opposing groups, as far as the Bodarians were concerned the people of Elstree were oath breakers and deserved nothing but contempt. On the other side, they were simply eager to end it.

A betting man might think that this fight would be one-sided. There were fourteen Bodarains against sixty fighters for Elstree. Things weren't so simple, however. Each of the large golemoids had at least three classes and they were all opal grade. Only Lyonel's party was at a similar level. Dantellion and his party all had four classes, but they were still stuck at quartz until they leveled up their newest classes. The Principals only had two classes each and were still just starting to learn about their abilities. In the end, the fight devolved into a mess.

The Corellians were able to face off against Butan and his party, but that left nine more powerful warriors for the rest to deal with. All of their experience working together in the dungeon helped the Principals coordinate to keep from getting overwhelmed. Instead of simply charging the bigger, stronger, Bodarians, they approached them as they would the boss of their dungeon. Tanks in the front tried to separate the warriors from supporting each other, making it a series of smaller skirmishes instead of one large assault.

The culture of the Bodarians made this task easier. If they had managed to retain their party formations, the stronger golemoids might have been able to reap the Elstree warriors like grain. Instead, they got bogged down in smaller challenges. An entire party of Principals was still not a match for a single Bodarian warrior, but it allowed them to limit casualties and hold out against them until help could arrive.

That help came in the form of Dantelion and his party. They moved from fight to fight, swarming the Bodarian and inflicting several small wounds that caused them to slow enough for a more final blow to land. Gaud did tremendously in her role, able to soak up most of the attacks from the stronger warriors without taking too much damage. She was supported in her role by Thadrick, who had gotten a healer spell that actually provided his target with a buff to their constitution. It made the already tough tank that much more durable.

They were able to move from group to group, putting down the Bodarians, which allowed more of the Principals to gang up on those that remained. It wasn't all one sided, however. The opal level golemoids were fast and strong, and several of the villagers took wounds that weren't easy to recover from. Fortunately, Alan's order to have a healer in every party was proving to be a saving grace. No one on their side had taken a fatal injury yet, and with healing magic they were able to keep the critical injuries from turning deadly.

The Bodarians weren't so lucky. Dantelion's group wasn't actively trying to kill them, but they weren't trying not to either. About half of the golemoids were incapacitated by either being knocked unconscious or being too hurt to fight. The others either took a single fatal blow, or they died from a collection of wounds before anyone had energy to spare for healing them. When the final one of the nine golemoids fell, a large female warrior who was wearing little armor but seemed to shrug off swords like she was made of stone, they all turned to see how Lyonel and his party was doing.

Currently it was three on two. Lyonel, Gerry, and Samson were facing off against Jemina and Kyle, the largest Bodarain of the group, who was currently holding a longsword in each hand and smashing hit after hit down onto Lyonel's sorry looking wooden shield. How that thing was still in one piece was a mystery to the villagers. Gaf and Hector were currently out of the fight. Hector because he had taken one of Kyle's longswords straight through his abdomen, and Gaf because he was desperately trying to keep Hector's intestines inside his body.

In addition to being brutalized by the berserker's swords, Lyonel was also doing everything he could to keep himself in between Jemina, the other Bodarian still on their feet, and his two mages. Assuming he lived through this battle, no one in Elstree would ever question Lyonel's courage or his competency again. At the start of the fight he had made it his mission to prove who the true winner of their last duel had been and he had targeted Butan. The hamster man had been driven by a rabid fury and he had beaten through the opposing leader's guard in only a few blows, before smashing him in the head again. Lyonel had shown zero restraint in using unrelenting assault this time, activating it from the get go, and Butan hadn't been ready to deal with the vicious and repetitive attacks.

The ability had left him drained when it wore off, but he had been able to help Hector take out another of the Bodarians before it did so. Their target had been the healer, who was trying to revive the fallen Butan. Lyonel didn't think success was likely since there was a noticeable dent in the golemoid's head this time, but they hadn't wanted to take the risk. Afterwards Lyonel had suddenly felt enervated and Hector had taken the hit from the berserking Kyle to save Lyonel's life.

Meanwhile, Gerry and Samson had managed to take out the golemoids' ranged attacker, a woman named Prid. She had been chucking throwing axes around willy-nilly. She must have had almost twenty of the things secured around her body and with almost every step she would pull and throw another. Gaf had been drawing her fire while the two Corellian mages worked on their spells. About the time that Hector went down and Gaf went to save him, they both had finally managed to finish.

Samson's spell was a new one he had picked up as the reward for a dungeon quest. Stone Armor was supposed to allow him to encase part of an ally's body in solid stone, protecting it from attack. The spell only lasted as long as his mana did, and it drained that quickly. When he first received it he had been pleased, thinking of a few ways he could use it to help his group. Then Gerry had made a comment about unconventional things Alan had done, and he realized an interesting quirk about his spell. It didn't have to only be targeted on allies, and he could make the stone as heavy as his mana pool allowed.

With some trial and error he had discovered that he couldn't encase an enemy's entire body, their aura would overcome his spell's mana and it would never even form. Even trying to surround an unwilling creature's head with stone was an iffy proposition at best. Their hands, however, that was a weak spot. For whatever reason, a person's aura wasn't as strong around their hands, and they only put up a little resistance to his spell.

With a final incantation, Samson caused two incredibly heavy boulders to form and they dragged Prid's hands down, pulling her to the ground with their phenomenal weight. At the same time, Gerry managed to form a water sphere around her head. As a truly offensive spell, he had an easier time overcoming her magical defenses. Normally a person might be able to defend themselves against Gerry's suffocating water before it became a real problem, but Prid's internal energy was being overwhelmed by the combination of the two spells, in addition to her being physically restrained by the simple mass of the stone gauntlets Samson had so helpfully made for her.

Whether she would have been able to resist the spells eventually ended up being a moot point. While she was restrained and panicking, Samson took out his axe from storage and chopped her head off. Three of the Bodarian's were down, two permanently, but it was now two highly skilled warriors against Lyonel and the two backrankers. Jemina in particular seemed to want revenge on the mages, and wasn't even trying to attack Lyonel, she simply wanted around him so that she could cut down the two who had murdered her friend.

Physically, both golemoids were stronger and better fighters than Lyonel. However, mentally, Lyonel had gained a toughness from his misadventures that was letting him hold up. It did come at a cost, though. His stamina was once again getting ready to bottom out. Luckily for him, this time he wasn't alone.

Bodarian culture didn't have a concept of magic or spells. On their home planet there was a dominant religion, but it was more a worship of their own bodies rather than an external all powerful being. This meant no one was granted supernatural powers, just the energy they were able to cultivate within themselves, making them naturally stronger and tougher. This would actually serve them well in the Network as it was actually related to true cultivation. The problem for them at the moment was that they looked down on those who used magic, other than healers. That had always been a cherished profession.

This disdain was about to cost them. They had seen time and again that magic couldn't hurt them much. Monsters and dungeon dwellers had cast their spells and their bodies had mostly resisted the effects. There was the occasional scorching and some pain, a minor wound here and there, but nothing they weren't used to. The death of Prid would have thrown them if they were mentally able to process what they had seen just now. Samson and Gerry were rather clever mages, and they knew that a direct assault wouldn't be too effective at the moment. Their spells weren't that strong yet. But they too were not alone.

As Jemina made to move around Lyonel yet again, she found her forward leg catching on a root or something and she stumbled off balance. What she didn't realize was that Samson had created a small stone spear that targeted a blade of grass in front of her and it was that shaft of rock that had tripped her. At the same time Gerry was summoning a dazzling ball of water and light in front of Kyle. It was a similar, if lesser, spell to Alan's prismatic orbs. It certainly wasn't powerful enough to blind him, but it did distract the already crazed warrior enough that his next strike was off target and when Lyonel deflected it off of his Hardened shield, it ended up slicing into Jemina's back.

For some reason, that was able to pierce through Kyle's blood colored rage and he dropped the blood covered sword in shock. Having learned what happens when you hesitate, Lyonel used the opening to bring his mace around and smash Kyle in the shoulder. He couldn't reach high enough to hit the larger man's head easily, but the impact, boosted by Crush, was enough to shatter the shoulder socket and thus Kyle lost the use of his other sword. Partially dismissing the injured warrior, Lyonel turned to Jemina.

The slice on her back was painful, but not debilitating. She had already recovered her balance and was advancing again on the mages. She must have had some kind of sixth sense because she turned just as his mace was coming for her back. She really was a peak warrior and she managed to deflect it with her sword just enough to redirect it away from her body. If he had to go against her alone, as tired as he was, it probably would have ended differently.

Instead he felt energy suffusing his body as Thadrick cast his buff on him. Then a small arrow shot past him, forcing Jemina to dodge, aborting her attack. This allowed Lyonel to get his shield back in position and bring his mace up again, ready to go again. He never got the chance.

When Jemina turned again to face her opponent, she saw the mass of warriors behind him. After finishing off their own opponents, every Principal who was able, and the mercenary party, had moved to support their people. The golemoid woman looked around and realized how hopeless her situation was. It was at that moment she dropped her weapon and surrendered. The move surprised Lyonel, but honorable surrender was a concept they recognized. There was no point in wasting your life in a suicidal attack that would achieve nothing. Kyle soon found himself similarly surrounded, and now that his berserker rage had passed, he too surrendered. Neither of the victory conditions had been met, but the battle for Elstree was, for all intents and purposes, over.