Jack and Drakon set out with a majority of the available military units, roughly 250 people of various types followed by 30 hellfire wolves, as Tyson is left in charge of a reserve force. The military convoy pass by the foundation of the new city wall, silently inspecting it Jack isn’t sure what to make of it as it looks like a pile of buried logs but trusts his ministers.

The trip to the village is almost entirely uneventful, it lasts about 4 hours, the only interesting thing that happened for the duration was a slime the size of a house was spotted in the distance just aimlessly bouncing around leaving dead spots where it lands.

The bunny scouts have gone ahead so they follow the road laid out until they reach a marker indicating that this is a suitable spot to prepare, the village has 922 residents, a guard unit of 70ish and unknown number of players.

The soldiers start unloading the carts at the marked point, Drakon is helping while instructing them which will take some time. It’s the first exercise outside the city perimeter for many of them as many of them are visibly nervous, Jack dismounts Sleipner giving instructions to it and Fenrir to listen for Jack, he’ll need their support if something happens.

Jack says a few words to the soldiers and Drakon before setting out by himself, the bunny scouts will have a complete map of the area soon but it’s rather obvious where the village is. Using ‘Bunny Dash’ several times in a row, the dragon qi flowing through his enlarged meridians is making him feel like rampaging, he appears near the city walls.

A tall city wall of logs buried into the ground but crumbling with scorch marks everywhere, almost as if something corrosive has been hitting it constantly, Jack takes out a disguise kit causing his appearance to become a blemished one and his robe swapped to a dirty beggar like one, a precaution against the players.

Walking along the city walls, there’s several run-down farmhouses causing the area to have a destitute feeling, large piles of but he comes across a gate with a single guard posted, standing by the doorway relaxed as he watches Jack.

“Here for a job, beggar?”

“What? job?”

“Yeah job, are you hard of hearing?

The guard looks at Jack seriously as if he’d strike Jack down but his expression is betrayed by his shiny gold and silver plate mail chest plate, it’s like a cosplay with how shiny it is, Jack holds up some silver coins.

“No sir, I was just looking for entry, my appearance is shoddy because of the hard trip here”

Flipping the couple of silver coins the guard catches them and slips them into his pocket, opening the door he announces, “Welcome to Wasserstadt, just go straight and take a right, you’ll be on the main street and don’t tell anyone about this entrance”.

The man pushes Jack through the gate while pointing, “That way” he announces and closes the door.

Jack walks through an alleyway filled with rubbish, avoiding what he can it opens to a residential area, there’s a bleak atmosphere among the run-down houses but plenty of greenery giving a contrast to the brown on the outside. Jack continues with the path laid out for him as the alleyway turns into a path and then opens on the main roadway.

The basic dirt road has a few people along it with large jars by their side, Jack stops by one seller and peers into the jar with his divine sense, it’s just water in the jar. 

“Oi get out of here filthy beggar, you stink!”

The jar owner chases Jack away with a broom, walking down the road he doesn’t see much more than jar sellers but most of them ignore him when they look at his appearance and clothing, the few that don’t back away after the smell hits them. 

The village is strange, there’s few very people other than guards, jar sellers and a few people from outside the village on horse and cart. Jack quietly overhears a few conversations as he walks down the dirt road, but nothing that can shed some light on the situation.

The guards are openly accosting the few women on the street, while most of the sellers appear down trodden. Jack just continues to walk as he internally maps out the layout, two guards on horses ride by. Their horses are in terrible condition but covered in shiny polished armour showing where the priorities are.

Jack makes a turn down a side street, houses made of stone and larger than the previous area are along the street flanked by two gigantic wooden mansions either side of the street. Quickly exiting this area, he returns to the main road and turns down another side street, but he’s intentionally bumped by someone coming out of the restaurant he is passing by. 

Some guards not too far away look on, Jack looks at who bumped into him. A well-built adolescent man holding the hand of a youthful woman, they are both wearing the fashion of the system cities instead of the typical rustic clothing of people that live in a village this size. 

“Beggar, what have you say about yourself?”

“He stinks, make him leave” the youthful woman holds her nose and looks away from Jack.

“You’re probably here for a handout from my friend, Master Ausgezeichnet, if you kowtow and apologize for ruining our day with your stench here, I might introduce you to Master Ausgezeichnet, after you serve me for 10 years”

The adolescent man doesn’t wait for Jack to respond, he takes a step forward.

“Stinky Beggar, apologize for ruining our day with your stench and kneel before your new master!”

The adolescent man raises his hand for a backhanded slap, Jack’s mind works hard to process what’s going on and how to take the next course of events; He could accept the unprovoked backhand slap and slip quietly away without alerting the guards.

The backhanded slap comes down, but it seems slow to Jack as his mind weighs up the options, the guards are looking at the show from the distance unmoving; the town doesn’t pose any threat to the force that Jack brought, he could easily take care of the few guards that he has seen.

The only problem is the players, he doesn’t know where they are.

Jack’s mind whirs while the backhand slap is travelling toward him, but a thought enters his mind; ‘So what about the consequences, I can deal with them cause I have a damn army or am I going to let other people always dictate my life?’.

‘Am I going to worry about what if and miss what’s now even in situations like this? An arrogant young master?’

Jack laughs and steps back to avoid the slap, “I should thank you”

“Why?”

“You gave me a wonderful opportunity to use up some of this energy”

Jack calls a fireball into his hand, the adolescent man is stunned by this development as his knees shake, “Sir We ca…” but he is unable to finish his sentence before Jack shoots the fireball forward, the adolescent man flies backward into a storefront spitting up blood. Jack held back because he didn’t want to kill him. 

The young woman screams and shouts, “GUARDS GUARDS!”

 

Some nearby guards come rushing over brandishing their weapon, but they’re unsteady.

“Surrender and we’ll let you... live!”

The guard chokes on the last word, Jack scans the crowd of guards discovering he could instantly resolve this with a single use of the second motion.

Calling his spear out, Jack has decided ‘screw it’ he’ll start the engagement now and deal with the consequences.

A braver guard steps forward and slashes down at Jack, but rotating his shoulders, the slash misses.

An archer further away is notching an arrow bringing back some memories of Feather Town.

Jack uses ‘Bunny Dash’ allowing him to squeeze through the gaps of the soldiers that were surrounding him and appear before the archer.

The archer screams as the young man appears before him unable to let out an arrow, Jack thrusts the spear forward, it pierces the archer who tumbles lifelessly to the ground.

The guards are visibly shaking upon seeing Jack's movements, one of them reaches for his pouch which catches Jack's attention.

‘Bunny Dash’ he reappears before the guards before announcing in his mind, ‘Second motion’.

*SWISH SWISH THUD*

Blood spurts from all the guards except one, who is holding a shield to block the spear, as they tumble to the ground lifeless.

Jack frowns at the person holding the shield, he brings back the spear before charging up the spearhead ready for a small explosion.

The spearhead glows brightly as he brings it up and stabs forward; the air splits apart as the spearhead travels toward the man.

The guard holds the shield out again, but this time the spearhead easily pierces the shield.

*BOOM*

The man’s body flies backwards, Jack didn’t want to kill anyone, but he will not hold back in this situation.

The people have left the streets while guards are gathering.

*AWOOO*

A distant howl is heard followed by several more from different directions, the guards are suddenly more nervous allowing Jack a chance to slip away.

Using ‘Bunny Dash’, he climbs to the top of a nearby building and looks at the village. The two enormous mansions stick out and they’re made of wood, thus prime targets for a distraction.

Using the movement skill a few more times he appears on top of one mansion, using his abundant dragon qi he calls upon a few fireballs.

A blaze quickly forms and engulfs the exterior of the building. He smiles to himself before using the skill again to disappear into the distance, a couple of people wearing knightly armour exit the building and glare in the direction he left.

The village is in chaos as the few people on the streets scramble about trying to protect their goods, guards are gathering together and rushing toward the sound of the explosion when they’re redirected to another direction to take care of the fire.

Leaping over the city wall, Jack gets a distance away before whistling for Sleipner. 

It only takes a few minutes for the horse to show up, the smoke from the village is billowing over the city wall in the background as he leaves the area feeling slightly satisfied but mentally preparing for the next phase.

It doesn’t take long for him to come across his soldiers, the couple hundred black uniformed soldiers look far more menacing than the gaudy polished silver and gold of the guards in the town. Drakon rushes forward to greet Jack, he’s kitted out in his battle gear giving him a much more imposing feel than his usual jovial look.

“Lord, I hope it was that you making all that noise”

Jack laughs before saying, “Yeah some asshole decided that he’d show off to some woman but I’ll give you one guess how that went”

The wind has picked up causing the smoke to billow over a larger area, Drakon peers into the distance for a moment before joining Jack in laughing, “Well guess I can throw my plan out then, what did you do exactly?”

Jack quickly summarises the events within the village, including his opinion of the quality of the guards, to which Drakon continues to laugh for a few more moments before looking seriously at Jack.

“Did you find the players?”

Jack also adopts a serious expression and shakes his head. 

The two men furrow their brows and silently ride the scant distance to the primary village gate, by now it’s entirely unmanned and open as people rush out.

The imposing black armoured soldiers of Dragon - Phoenix Village march up the road, stopping in formation outside the village gate with Drakon and Jack at the head of the convoy. The drilling has paid off as everyone marches in lockstep, the aura of a mighty military unit coming from the group of various soldiers.

Jack looks over the soldiers, many of them are nervous but many more of them are brimming with energy as though they want to rush into the fray and slay countless enemies.

“Everyone, this is our first engagement with a hostile force!”

Jack announces, countless eyes fall upon their Lord, but the young man continues, “We don’t know how many hostiles there will be but I can guarantee, you can handle it!”

“You are the soldiers of Dragon - Phoenix Village, the soldiers of a tiny village that didn’t exist even 3 weeks ago yet look at us today, hundreds of us are marching together to bring peace and stability to the surrounding region!”

“The idiots of this village think they can bring peace and stability to the region with their council? Just look at that!”

Jack motions behind him; countless eyes turn and reflect the flickering of flame as the fire is raging over the city wall.

“Have they protected anything? Have they saved anything?”

Jack pauses for a moment, an aura is being released from deep within his body causing the villagers to stop and watch Jack.

“You are the soldiers of Dragon - Phoenix village, today we are almost nothing, but in the future all will come under our banner for protection, they will want to come under our banner for salvation, in the future… even gods will come to fear making us their enemy”

Jack finishes speaking as the group wait by the gate, it doesn’t take long for a group of people dressed in knightly armour emerge from the gate flanked by 40ish guards.

“Looks like the players are here…” Jack quietly mutters to himself; he pulls out the spear and points to the leader of the group.

“You are the players of this village? You represent some council?”

The players quietly talk between themselves without moving, Jack cannot understand them because they’re not speaking English but he’s able to understand one thing; “Demon!” as they point to the rear where Fenrir is in his two headed form.

The leader of the group flashes green as an aura of wind surrounds the various guards and other players, “GO!”

The knights all separate, there are 8 of them and their bodies all emit unique colours, the village guards rush forward and get tangled up with the front line of soldiers but their speed is enhanced somehow allowing them to dodge the slashes from the swordsmen.

Jack jumps off Sleipner and uses ‘Bunny Dash’ to engage the green-coloured leader, Drakon has also dismounted his horse and is engaging with someone that has a yellow-coloured armour and aura, 2 of the players rush off to engage Fenrir while the remaining 4 stay where they are.

The 40 guards are quickly dropping before the properly equipped and partially trained military units of Dragon - Phoenix Village, the guards are given their skills by changing into the F-rank ‘Guard’ profession which is almost worthless against the higher-ranked Swordsmen and C-rank Advanced spearmen.

‘First motion’, Jack announces in his mind as he stabs forward keeping his eyes glued to the leader’s forehead.

*SWISH*

The stab misses leaving Jack momentarily stunned.

“HAAA”

The green man slashes with his sword with his speed boosted by the strange green aura, Jack readies ‘Bunny Dash’ to retreat a distance but the sword contacts his robe before he’s able to move, a sound of the sword hitting an armour plate resounds but Jack retreats to the distance.

Jack furrows his brows as he looks down at the damaged robe, the green armour man glows green again but Jack doesn’t sit still and readies the second motion.

Drakon is not too far away, engaging in a fistfight with yellow armoured man, the man's body glows yellow as the two gargantuan men exchange blows.  

Fenrir enlarges to his true form and instantly takes down the two players that tried to engage him, ripping apart their bodies and throwing them to the Hellfire wolves who seem rather devilish with their behaviour right now.

Jack disappears as he uses bunny dash again, this time ready with the ‘second motion’, he appears before the man as he launches his own sword strike but Jack does a simple jab forward similar to the previous one.

*SWISH*

The man’s sword stops short as a green swordlight shoots off to the side, his arm is dangling loosely by his side as blood drips down from various parts of his body, a shocked expression comes over his face as Jack calmly smiles at him.

“I don’t know if you can understand me but tell Ausgezeichnet he brought this upon himself” 

Jack pulls back the spear and calls upon the fire petals, the green armoured guy has blood dripping from his mouth but a large green glow appears above his head filled with wind energy, enormous wind blades rip through the air and fly towards Jack faster than he can use ‘Bunny Dash’.

Jack disappears from the spot but reappears behind the guy, his face and body has several cut marks from being unable to dodge the wind blades. 

‘Second motion’ Jack announces in his mind and stabs forward again, this time aiming for the man’s vital organs and brain.

*SWISH SWISH SWISH*

The spear rapidly stabs forward 3 times causing blood to spurt out of the man's neck and back. 

His face is one of shock as he could not register this last movement by Jack before burning up into nothingness, the fire petals burning his body until not even ash remains.

The remaining players that didn’t engage in battle escape quickly into the city upon seeing the green armoured leader disappear, Jack points to them making the bunny assassins rush ahead and intercept them.

Drakon and his opponent can see the result of the battle, they both call upon their special skills, the opponent uses a skill as his fists suddenly turn into rocks and he punches forward but Drakon responds by using his fire breath attack melting the guys fists and most of his arm, he’s screaming in pain but Drakon finishes it by pulling out his sword and slicing the guy’s head off.

The bunny assassins bring back the players but Jack says to kill them, they’re cursing in an unfamiliar language at him but he blows them off as they’re executed, he doesn’t care as they’ll just respawn if killed and aren’t suitable for interrogation because of being able to log off.

The few guards left alive all kneel and put their weapons down, the soldiers stop attacking according to their training, for many of them this was their first combat experience. Jack quietly looks over his soldiers, some of them are hurt but none of them look worn out.

Drakon wipes off his sword walking up to Jack, “Lord…” he is looking at the village that has almost turned into an uncontrollable inferno, Jack speaks out.

“Good work everyone, this was our first mission, and you did well but it’s not over yet, I expect you all to keep this behaviour inside the village, let’s go!”

Jack gives the order to march forward, the surrendered guards have been tied up and are being dragged along while Jack has remounted Sleipner, Drakon is riding another lightning scaled horse as they’re flanked by all the soldiers, they proceed through the gate onto the main road where Jack not too long ago; the people are cowering at the sight of the black armoured military.

A unit of guards rushes up but they’re quickly apprehended by the bunny assassin’s and join the other surrendered guard, it grows to about 40 guards out of the original 70ish tied up; the fire is raging in the background but none of the villagers dare make any sudden movements lest they draw the ire of the military before them.

“I’ll go take care of the city heart, you take care of the population and ensure there aren’t any more players”

Drakon looks pensively at the village, a good portion of it is already on fire but he agrees with Jack’s suggestion and leads the soldiers further down the road while Jack splits off by himself. 

The city heart building is toward the centre of town, it’s a simple stone building surrounded by a few wells and lush plant life. Jack reaches the doorway and it won't budge, he can feel the familiar barrier of a non-friendly city heart, the last time was at the mining village but this one feels much thicker.

He calls a fireball into his hand using previous method but the fireball just fizzles out without making a dent on the barrier leaving him stumped for a moment, his mind considers the tools available when he thinks back to the visions of ‘Heavens Piercing Thrust’, the woman in the visions could use the final motion to pierce through a barrier placed by the heavens, perhaps he could use his limited understanding to produce a simple result on this barrier?

Calling the spear into his hand, he focuses his mind and places the two fire petals into his hand.

‘I know this isn’t the true third motion, but it has to do something… I already know fire qi can break these barriers’

Jack reassures himself in his mind as he pulls the spear back, ‘Second motion, if one won't work a thousand will’ he announces in his mind as he stabs forward.

*SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH*

The spear stabs forward 4 times but 16 small holes appear on the barrier, slowly burning away the barrier and joining into a sizeable hole, a hole large enough for Jack to jump through.

Immediately jumping through the hole, Jack inspects the area; a blue city heart orb floating above a large well. 

The city heart itself has water dropping into the well which shows how they’re able to have so much greenery on this dreary plains area, Jack presses his hand on the city heart orb but nothing happens, furrowing his brow he looks deep into the water where he can see a fat large fish eating some meat and looking ugly, similar to the strange fish in the stream by Dragon - Phoenix village.

Jack tries to get its attention, but it’s happy just eating at the bottom of the well and looks repulsive, so Jack decides that it’s better to just kill it and save any headaches from transporting a large fish back to the village.

Throwing a piece of demonic sheep mutton into the water the fish swims up and gobbles it up but Jack just stabs into the water with his spear instantly piercing the fish through its head and killing it, the city heart shivers but nothing changes as it keeps leaking water. 

Jack stores away the dead fish and then presses on the city heart again, this time he’s able to relocate, conquer or destroy. He opts to relocate it as the player Ausgezeichnet will probably come here in vengeance and the fact it can produce clean water will help Dragon - Phoenix village immensely. 

Storing the city heart, Jack exits the building where the smell of smoke assaults his nostrils, casting a haze over most of the village. 

The sound of a horse is coming from the distance as Drakon comes into view, “Lord we need to evacuate, your fires are too effective...” 

“Ok, I’m done here so you start leading all the villagers out. I will ensure the integrity of the valuables and make sure they end up in the right hands...” Jack smirks to Drakon who gets the gist of it, Drakon shouts out.

“EVERYONE, HELP EVACUATE THE TOWN. BREAK DOWN INTO YOUR SQUADS AND GET TO WORK!”

Drakon gives a few directions to the various squads about which area to focus on while Jack sneaks away, the bunny assassins are joining him.

“Take any valuables or documents you can”

They separate and get to work, Jack is raiding the mansions that should have housed the players while the bunny assassins are going through the various shops already on fire, entering the mansion and looking at all the gold piled up in the house he has a big smile on his face as he takes everything not nailed down into his storage ring before moving onto the next building.

The soldiers are leading out the few villages they could find, it’s strange as there should be close to 900 people in the village yet there only appears to be less than 300 total and mostly malnourished but they don’t have time to worry about this as the villagers all flock to the help this unknown military is providing.

In the real world, a young guy is snorting something as he’s surrounded by people and drinks, there’s loud dance music playing and flashing lights.

“Live it up, we can’t lose with all that gold!”

“HAHAHA, I knew following the legendary Ausgezeichnet was the right choice”

*RingRing*

The young guys phone goes off, “Must be some more good news!” the crowd cheers and the guy takes the phone call.

“Yo… What? What!? What do you mean you can’t teleport back?! We had all the advanced gold from the Apricot Town Lord there!” the crowd goes silent as the man is uncontrollably angry, the young guy looks at the crowd before sighing.

“I’ll call you back… fucking useless. You guys keep partying, I just have some business to take care of”