Jessica is the first to look in that direction, Mai does too as she gasps.

 

Amber breaks eye contact first as her eyes twitch, she curses under her breath as Jack laughs but spots something large and white in her eye reflection and turns around.

 

A large white sphere appears before them, Jack recognises this place as he clears his throat.

 

"This is the third defensive location. It was identified as a primary point of ingress between all the inward roads in this direction."

 

"How many are there?"

 

"There's over 48 but this one was identified early on so it has the most progress. This is the second most important road in the village and it's not like we built it so other people know about it, even the animals know about it as you can see."

 

Sleipner steps on various animals on the pathway as Mai looks over the side but quickly looks away, they approach the white sphere as Sleipner slows down allowing the people standing guard to look at them. The people are unable to see atop the giant horse but they all know that this is their lord's horse so they salute it nonetheless. Sleipner stops before the barrier not willing to walk through it.

 

Jack gives it a stroke and jumps off the back, "Who is inside?"

 

"Lord, Bane is inside with central command."

 

"Is there enough room for Sleipner?"

 

"Lord I don't wish to make a judgement on that but it may be a tight squeeze. I am sure they will accommodate you."

 

Jack walks through the barrier easily, he feels a wave of strange energy going through him. It feels strange yet mostly ignores him after some initial pressure, all eyes are drawn to him as Jack looks around the place.

 

There's several layers of walls that get larger as they're more solid. This is like a mini version of the city walls currently deployed yet because they're much smaller in size they're already able to complete the second stage which is the metal reinforcements. Many soldiers are up on the wall where there's also various cannons and ranged weapons. It's a small area and there's a lack of other horses, there's a small entrance so Jack makes a decision and walks out the barrier again.

 

"You guys come down."

 

Mai quickly jumps off, Jack spots her luckily and catches hers. The little girl is laughing as Jack places her on the ground, "You didn't have to catch me."

 

Mai walks forward but stops before the barrier, Jessica and Amber slide down the side while Jack helps them off as Lunamarie slides down the other side.

 

"Ah bunny elder-sister why did you get off face first?"

 

"Huh?"

 

"Are you ok?"

 

"Yeah of course, why wouldn't I be?"

 

"Ok bunny elder sister. Umm do we have to go inside this?" Mai stops before the barrier.

 

"Well it's the safest spot... on the frontline. So if you want to help then this is where you should stay... though I know as soon as I turn my back you'll run off."

 

Mai giggles, "Maybe."

 

"You guys alright, want to go inside?" Jack asks the two women before him. They seem a tad more closer than usual, Lunamarie wanders over and joins them while wiping her face.

 

"Might as well."

 

Amber walks forward with her arms behind her head, Lunamarie is following closely after. Jessica looks at Jack, her gaze looks deeply into his eyes.

 

"What?" Jack asks softly.

 

Jessica's face adopts a smile, "Just making sure."

 

"Of what?"

 

"Nothing."

 

Jessica walks through the barrier, Mai is standing there with Jack and Sleipner.

 

"Well Sleipner, I'm sure you know what to do." Jack gives the giant creature a pat, he lets out a huff and runs away. The horse's giant frame barrels down the pathways and into the forest, it bushes over branches and steps on anything in its path as right now it's either food for the insects or insects. The two of them watch the horse disappear into the distance and turn around.

 

"So let's go."

 

Mai holds Jack's hand tightly, she shuts her eyes tightly as they both step through the barrier. Some black colour floats off Jack while much more comes from Mai. Jack holds her tightly to disguise everything as he can feel her shivering. It stops after a few moments as Mai lifts her head off of his shirt. Her eyes are watering and her nose is runny, Jack gives her a wipe down with his sleeve as they turn around.

 

"It's small in here, why does the ground feel strange?" Amber asks as she stomps.

 

Mai runs forward and stomps too, "Yeah, it's weird. What is this? It's like bouncy?"

 

Jack explains as Jessica stands before him and gives his shirt a stealthy wipe down, "It's something to prevent burrowing-type creatures. The dwarves had the design already. I'm not sure what it's made of but it doesn't last long, we should get inside..."

 

The soldiers on the wall are watching them stand there and talk. They walk through the first checkpoint and into the narrow walkway. The walkway opens into a small courtyard that's filled with people and equipment being shuffled about. The holy-element equipment is everywhere right now as damaged gear is passed around. Jack hurries them along into the buildings to get them out of the way yet come across another busy place. This time people are passing around paperwork while on communication devices. 

 

Amber walks forward and joins in the chaos, many people notice she has intruded but after glancing at the supervisors who hasn't reacted, they continue their job. Lunamarie has found a chair to sit down, her eyelids are heavy and doesn't notice the person standing there waiting for her to vacate the chair.

 

"Lord!" a voice comes from a different direction.

 

"Bane, I thought you'd be here if not in the merchant city. How are things here?"

 

"So-so, they'll hold but now that you're here then things are more assured."

 

"Shall we talk somewhere better?"

 

"There's a room prepared for you, let's move there."

 

"Ok, after you" Jack picks up Lunamarie who has fallen asleep already. She blinks then blushes. Her eyes close as she rests her head on Jack.

 

Mai has walked ahead with Bane, while Amber has disappeared.

 

Jack walks up the short hallway and up a set of stairs leading into a large conference room. A large map is in the middle of the table with all the movements going on right now, the pieces move themselves as Jack can see them go back and forward. Sometimes falling over or changing colour, Jack stands there watching it when Jessica gives him a gentle nudge.

 

He walks into the side room where there's a desk and a nice living room setup, it's cramped yet spacious enough to fit them inside. Jack places Lunamarie down on the couch, causing her to wake up.

 

"Wha... Who said you can hold me?" she says as her face blushes.

 

"You fell asleep on someones chair, just go back to sleep if you're so tired."

 

"Who said I'm tired, you're tired!"

 

"Yea yea" Jack waves her off and looks towards Bane, Jessica and Mai have taken a seat and looked at the snacks on the table.

 

"This was made quickly, I'm surprised."

 

"Lord, this is only a simple design. We have deployed 3 of them so far, but that's not important. The situation is pressing, if they're unable to breach this position then things should be fine but it'll quickly become uncontrolled if they do. Are you going to provide support here or on the outside?"

 

"I'll be going outside of course, there's no reason for me to stay inside plus I'll just get in the way. What does everyone else plan on doing?"

 

Jack looks towards Jessica, she takes a bite out of a cookie on the table and chews it purposefully making everyone wait and swallows it, "I'll stay here for now. You can just come get me if you need me otherwise I'll support if they need it here."

 

Jack ignores her and looks at Mai, she has a mischievous smile on her face, "Alright, I guess it's clear what's going to happen so you guys make sure Lunamarie is safe, she seems pretty tired."

 

The room turns to the bunny girl who is sleeping with some drool hanging out her mouth, the girls giggle while Jack addresses Bane.

 

"What's the situation?"

 

"Well, if you'd follow me, I'll guide you through some of what's going on."

 

"Alright, I'm curious as to what's going on."

 

Bane walks through the door, Jack gives a last look at the girls. Lunamarie is asleep now, so she's not important while Mai is eating some fruit on the table, she seems to have quietened down some since going through the barrier.

 

He finally looks at Jessica, they make eye contact briefly but Jessica looks away and attends to Lunamarie. He wants to say something to reassure her but cannot find the words and leaves closing the door behind him; he wants to tell her everything that happened in the city but it'd take far too long to explain... It'd be easier to show it but then that's as good as doing nothing for now. Jack scratches his head and walks towards the table before him.

 

It’s hard to say that he found a lead on who caused the problems while also saying that he cannot do anything about it, things need time to be planned out and brewed.

 

Bane is standing by the table looking at various points of interest laid out on it. The table has a model of the battlefield before them. It's a detailed model of the field before them with individual pieces that are moving about. The pieces are mostly human shape but there are a few large insect shapes on the board too but a lot of it is dark. It's large fields with spare forest except for two sections on either side that go outside the protective barrier.

 

The invisible barrier provided by the city heart orb provides all the region buffs and is asking as some sort of barrier against the invasion going on outside yet it hasn't stopped the insects coming in.

 

"There's no sign of demons?"

 

"There have been reports but nothing reconfirmed, they've been spotted by the main paths so they might pop up again. As you can see there's a few sections that are dark."

 

"What's that one?"

 

"Oh that's where Drakon has deployed. We aren't sure what's going on there so he has been sent to investigate."

 

Jack looks over that part of the map. The creatures are going along the same path each time they come inside the village perimeter with 3 zones separating them, there's 4 dark zones that simply appear black. Tyson has been deployed to the other two zones that are responsible for the main defense ensuring the path leading to the village doesn't get breached. Many squads are supporting Tyson in his battle on the frontline but there's only a few where Drakon is near the dark zones.

 

"Do we need to check out the dark zones?"

 

"We have squads preparing to go to each of them, you can join them if you'd like Lord."

 

Jack watches the table as a large horse comes through one of the pathways clearing out the insects that were on it, he gives a smirk and chooses to leave Sleipner alone for now.