.Back to The Present…
‘King Valthor, please tell the alliance’s chiefs to prepare their armies for the counter-attack.’ Felix requested.
Although King Valthor said nothing in response, Felix knew that he had accepted his request begrudgingly.
“It’s finally happening.” Chief Drogath commentated as he appeared next to Felix. A look of distress could be seen in his eyes like he wasn’t certain about the future.
“It will be fine, chief.” Felix comforted him with a serious tone, “I will never let anything bad happen to the Mire Marauders tribe.”
As Felix expected in the past weeks, Chief Drogath wasn’t pleased with his plan but he still accepted it, understanding that it was their best way to save their tribe.
“Good luck.”
“Let’s go fatty.”
Without delay, Bodidi opened a portal and jumped inside of it first. Just as Felix wanted to tag along, Selphie caught his arm and asked with a worried tone, “Are you sure you don’t need my help there?”
Felix patted her hand to comfort her and replied with a faint smile, “I will be fine. You on the hand need to be careful as they will come at you nonstop.”
“The same applies to you.” Felix added as he flicked Olivia’s forehead…Then, he entered the portal not waiting for their replies, knowing that time was out of the essence.
When Felix opened his eyes on the other side, he found himself above a towering sand dune that was overlooking a magnificent golden desert.
It was a never-ending stretch of golden sand and granite outcrops that shimmered in the relentless light…Heat waves swayed above the sand dunes, turning the horizon into a murky illusion.
There was a little aroma of dust and burning sagebrush in the heavy, dry air.
There was nothing but sand and sky as far as the eye could see, sometimes interrupted by a wind-sculpted tree or clump of cactus.
The only sound was the occasional gentle ruffle of sand as a lizard or scorpion scurried across the ground, otherwise, there was complete quiet.
Nonetheless, while being desolate, the desert had a weird, eerie beauty; a sense of enigmatic antiquity that gnawed at the spirit.
“Let’s go.” Felix opened a dimensional mirror that was connected to the Desert Wind Clan’s frontlines and stepped inside.
Unlike the Mire Marauders’ chaotic frontlines, there wasn’t an ounce of noise near the territorial line…It was for a good reason.
“As expected, they went into a completely defensive mode.” Felix commentated as he watched the Scorchlanders hiding behind their lava and magma barriers across the territorial line.
Meanwhile, the desert tribesmen weren’t attacking them as they seem to be building their numbers near the territorial line.
“Isn’t that the food merchant?”
“What is he doing here? Wasn’t he still in the Mire Marauders’ tribe?”
“Quickly! Inform the lord!”
Since Felix teleported to such a peaceful battleground, the Scorchlanders easily spotted him…He didn’t seem to care about being found out as he merely walked toward a gigantic humanoid man made out of a sandstorm.
Although he had no features, he stood tall and straight…This was Chief Xandor of the Desert Wind Clan and the holder of Felix’s fate in terms of mastering his runic sand spells!
“It’s good to see again, Chief Xandor.” Felix greeted politely.
Felix was already familiar with him as they had met multiple times during the alliance’s meetings in the past weeks…His relationship might not be in a friendly state yet, but it was higher than neutral as Felix made sure to always be in his best image near him.
“Mmm.” Chief Xandor nodded and then asked, “How is the situation in the Mire Marauders?”
“Not good, they will be engaged on in less than two minutes.”
“Then we have to rush our preparation.”
“Agreed.”
Both turned to look at Bodidi with similar stoic expressions, making him flinch.
“I will start now!”
Knowing what they wanted from him, Bodidi swiftly teleported to the eastern side of the territorial line…Then, he opened a towering square-shaped portal after he picked the exact destination in his mind.
He repeated the same process across the territorial line, opening a dozen of gigantic spatial portals.
“What are those?”
“Gulp…Is it me or do they resemble spatial portals?”
“They can’t be portals, even if the Desert Wind Clan’s chief gave permission, there is no way Elder Strauvis will do the same.”
“Then, what the hell is going on here?!”
The Scorchlanders were left utterly baffled and creeped out by the sight of those gray-illuminating portals…Every one of them had a very bad feeling about this. Yet, they just couldn’t fathom what was going on.<.com>
Just as the appointed commander was about to contact Lord Heatiaz about this bizarre development, the words ended up stuck in his throat at one of the most horrific sights he ever witnessed.
Rumble! Rumble!
? The ground shook in front of one of the portals as a heavy flood of crystal pure water rushed in direction of the sea of lava!
At first touch, sand turned wet and hardened while the lava sea cooled down and released white fog around the portal, blocking everyone’s vision.
Whoosh!! Whoosh!!
Before the commander and the Scorchlanders could react, their attention was forcefully changed to another portal.
This one was releasing a chilling air carried by a surge of milky white snow and icy fragments! When they landed on the lava sea, the reaction was obviously liquidation followed by fog, causing the area around the portal to be hidden as well.
Unfortunately for the Scorchlanders, the party was merely at its first leg as the remaining portals began terraforming the environment around the territorial line too!
Some were similar environments and some were different. The only thing that mattered was that the lava sea was getting assaulted by all of those new expanding environments simultaneously!
The Scorchlanders’ commander was too stunned and horrified to bother ordering his armies to defend their territorial line.
Too bad for him, this was merely the first part of the invasion!
Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh!
Suddenly, when the new environments had established a good area of the surface around the portals, thousands of raging Elementals surged from each portal, causing the sight to resemble the avengers’ endgame war scene!
There were water-based Elementals from the Nola River Tribe, Earth Based Elementals from the Underground Dwellers Tribe, Snow/Ice Elementals from the Mortha Peak Tribe, Plant/Wood from the Southern Forest Tribe Elementals, and more!
All of those tribes were bordering the scorchlanders and in conflict with them, causing them to join Mire Marauders’ alliance when proposed.
By the time they stopped surging from the portals, the territorial line had become a hot pot of multiple environments that separated themselves with invisible lines!
Felix smirked as he watched this once-in-a-lifetime beautiful scene of nature coming together with all of its environments in one area without any conflict.
Abruptly, the chiefs of those tribes appeared next to Felix and Chief Xandor…Each one took a humanoid form of their element, causing Felix to resemble a video game summoner.
“Are we late?”
“I came as fast as I was told.”
“Lord Heatiaz must have been informed by now, let’s begin our assault!”
When they asked those questions, they had their eyes on Felix like he was their leader.
It wasn’t farfetched to call him this since he was the lead strategist of this entire war due to the plan being proposed by him…Plus, most of the investment belonged to him.
“Attack with everything you got.” Felix said with a serious look, “This is now a race to the hearts of both territories. The faster we get closer to Scorchlanders’ main territory, the more cards we will have for our negotiations.”
This was Felix’s master plan for this conflict! Use most of the power of more than twelve tribes to attack from a single direction while the Scorchlanders’ were weakened due to their heavy investment in the Mire Marauders!
With this unfathomable number of armies attacking from a single direction and combining their forces to accelerate the territorial terraforming, even Lord Heatiaz would feel the sweat!
“ATTACK!!”
With one unified order, the alliance’s armies charged forward as they used tens of thousands of elemental projectiles at the Scorchlanders’ barriers!
BOOM BOOM BOOM!!
To no one’s shock, the lava and magma barriers were no match to this overpowering force as they kept falling apart at a rapid pace.
“RETREAT! RETREAT!”
Horrified, The Scorchlanders’ Commander shouted at his army while flying away, ditching the territorial line without a second glance!
If Mire Marauders knew that their armies would get run over by the Scorchlanders’ reinforcement, then he was certain that his weakened army was going to be deleted out of existence in less than a minute!
There was simply absolutely no way to defend their territorial line!
“PUUUSH!!”
Felix watched the chaotic battleground with a faint cold smirk, knowing that Lord Heatiaz should be observing this development with a livid expression.
Felix had hit the nail right on the head Lord Heatiaz’s face was completely twisted in rage as he watched his people being chased after like they were dogs.
Yet, what angered him the most was definitely the sight of his territory getting devoured at a dumbfounding speed!
‘Let’s see how long you will last until you give in to our demands.’ Felix snickered.
