Chapter 913 - Hunting Forts
\'You also must learn how to defend against them,\' the golden dragon said, \'as it seems your enemy got himself a treasure trove of the original weapons.\'
"Yeah," Arthur got out to the open before slowly adding, "but at least we now know one weakness."
\'Which is?\' Gege asked.
\'That black curtain,\' the golden dragon answered before adding, \'but if it was something special, then we will face trouble here.\'
\'Ding! The more troublesome thing would be for it to be only available from the higher realms only,\' the system added and Arthur didn\'t participate in their talk for now.
He started flying directly towards Doaf, Amera, Jud, and the crow. The four of them just finished cleaning the battlefield and taking in their remaining forces.
"How bad is it?" Arthur asked the moment he arrived while his portals kept popping around every one of his special forces.
"Well…" Doaf took a deep breath before adding, "we lost almost one fourth of our total forces."
"Hmm…" Arthur slowly thought about this.
"Don\'t worry," Jud said in confidence, "we, eventually, won this war."
"It\'s not this war that I\'m concerned about," Arthur said while his face told everyone he was facing a dilemma, "there are more wars we need to face now."
"N… Now?" Even the warmorgener, the crow, was surprised by his words.
"Yeah," Arthur slowly nodded and his simple answer made everyone realize something was wrong here.
"You… did find something bad down there, right?" Amera was the first to hammer upon that point and Arthur could only sigh.
"It\'s only a possibility," Arthur slowly said, "but we need to clear that doubt by raiding many forts."
"Well, if that\'s all we need to do," Doaf shrugged, "then we can attack those we skipped before, right?"
Arthur shook his head as he said, "we won\'t leave here," he then waited for the report he asked from Gege to arrive.
He asked her to tell the system about the routes these forces came from. Each army he devastated here came from a fort just like that.
Initially he thought that each fort was now completely emptied. But if that hideous dark angel mage really brought many objects to this world, then he would find some mages defending these forts.
\'Ding! I got the map,\' the system said.
\'Good,\' Arthur then turned to the four, "is there anyone with a paper and pen?"
Doaf took out a large piece of paper and the crow took an ink and a feather. Arthur held the feather and let the system take over his body.
He started to draw a detailed map of the topography here. Gege already used the tree to scan as far as she could to locate the main landmarks around each fort.
Everyone watched drawing like he was performing magic. He was totally focused and completely absorbed in what he was doing.
"How… is he doing that?" Jud whispered while he began to know what Arthur was drawing.
"He… is special," Doaf didn\'t know the details, but he knew that Arthur could, at least, draw maps.
It wasn\'t the first time to do this. Jud nodded in realization, despite him not realizing anything of value.
"Here," Arthur gave Doaf this paper before adding, "you four will form one team. Go and start from this place."
The four looked at him in doubt before Arthur took out the bracelet and gave it to Doaf, "keep it safe until we meet again."
"Then what about you?" Amera asked, "don\'t tell me you are going to take on a fort on your own!"
"It\'s not a fort," Arthur simply laughed, "I will take even much more forts than you four."
"Again boasting about things like this," the crow couldn\'t help but accept the challenge, "alright, let\'s see which team will score more."
"Stop it you two!" Amera was worried, "how can he go on alone?"
Her words made the crow all silent while Jud moved his eyes silently between Arthur and Amera. He would be a fool if he didn\'t notice that something was going on between these two.
"I can handle myself," Arthur seriously said, "plus you lost a lot of force already. I don\'t want to lose anymore."
"But you have no force at all!" Amer argued in an intense way and Doaf couldn\'t help but take her side in this matter.
"She has a point."
However even before anyone could say anything, a portal opened and Arthur instantly vanished inside. "It\'s not a request, it\'s an order," his voice came just before the portal closed, "get control of all the forts and leave some forces to guard it."
As he vanished, Amera couldn\'t help but scream in anger.
And the other three knew the next time the two of them would meet, Arthur would be in great trouble.
"Keep an eye on them," Arthur kept moving fast, so fast, using the portals as the main way to teleport. Throughout the map, he realized how big the number of forts was.
\'What if...\' Gege paused as Arthur interrupted her: "Don\'t worry as I will move using these portals towards the source of trouble."
In fact he hoped one of those mages left behind to cause a problem. He wanted to see what this weapon was.
In no time he managed to cross a large distance in less than half an hour. The fort he appeared in front of was simply a small town in the middle of many villages around.
"So they left some in defense after all," Arthur could already see a few spots of black energy all around the place.
\'There is no grandmaster,\' Gege slowly said.
"Send off some of the dragons to kill those remaining here," Arthur moved fast towards the central town while portals flashed all around.
\'What about the people here?\' Gege asked, \'Should we kill or save them?\'
Arthur took a wide glance around. There was nothing but white energy in this place. "They are innocent, take them inside," he decided before moving towards the town fast.
"So they brought another one here," just as he entered the biggest building in the town, he found a similar object covered with a dark curtain lying in one of the rooms.
The place was all empty. But he also found many corpses all around the place. "Luckily... they seemed to be experimenting how to control it," he said while adding, "take them and that object inside."
\'Got it,\' Gege said before adding, \'But I might need some time to move everyone here. After all, they approach a hundred thousand.\'
"What?!" Arthur was surprised as he never imagined such settlements would have such large numbers.
\'The villages have many levels underground where many live,\' Gege explained.
"Alright, then tell the others this as well," Arthur said before adding, "I will make sure to visit every single village. You will leave a few portals behind for them to get inside your garden."
\'That will work,\' Gege said before the golden dragon asked:
\'What about those skeletons you took?\'
"You know what I\'m going to do with them, so why bother asking?" Arthur sneered before flapping his wings and passed through a portal.
And like that he kept jumping from one place to another.