Amis, the soldier/guard was stationed at the Eastern watch watchtower.
Xerendia has watchtowers over the gates at the cardinal directions.
The one in the east opened up to the forest and further villages and cities ahead, the one in the west was the way to a shoreline harbor city, there were hamlets in between them, the Royal Capital, Ulethria, was sitiuated in the south-east of Xerendia.
In the north of Xerendia is the largest mining metropolis, within the Kingdom of Odivere, this metropolis came about due to the alliance with the dwarves who reside within the mountain ranges, the dwarves themselves live within a cave complex, where they trade metal products, both magical and non-magical in exchange for agricultural produce and various livestocks or meat products.
The name of this Mining City or Metropolis is Orentium.
Orentium is a kingdom made by the dwarves around and inside a mountain named the same as their country.
The dwarves themselves look short and stocky with muscular frames, they also sport a lot of hair for warmth and style, the tallest dwarf only reached about five and a half feet, a veritable giant by dwarf standards, but average compared to human and elven statures.
Dwarves are famed for their ability in mechanical technology and weapon crafting, in fact, some gnomes live within, they are smaller than the already short dwarves, reaching three feet, the tallest being four feet, they provide superior magic item crafts and pursue to combine Gnomish Item crafting with Dwarven metallurgy
The Dwarves lving in Orentium consider this their second homeland, their first homeland is an entire continent where dwarves outnumber other species.
Their continent is famous for having a lot of ore veins, both magical and non-magical, they also have an agreement with three ancient dragons, where the dragons protect them and they provide for the dragons.
South countains fields and valleys, this region is known for its splendid farms and livestocks.
This fertile region is what supplies the kingdom of Odivire with grains and meat.
Amis yawned because he was sleepy, he regretted drinking with some of the older guards in the afternoon, after they were done drinking, he fell asleep outside the barracks with some of his older drinking buddies.
Beck, the vice-captain of Xerendia roared him awake for his night shift, and so he was assigned to watchtower duty with a splitting head ache and drowsiness that only intensified over time.
As Amis was about to yawn, he noticed shadows moving towards the closed port cullis, it was always closed dureing the night.
He looked at his spyglass, what he saw sobered him, and he rang the bell.
All the soldiers heard the bell, even the nearby villagers got anxious, but as long as it wasn't the templa bella ringing, it was still safe.
At this moment, Kaiser and Anne was just putting the child Alex to a crib that was too fancy for his house, the crib had been the gift of the mayor.
Anyone else seeing this would say that they are a married couple, they even acted that way for the past months where they took care of Alex, but sadly, they were not married, if they both didn't possess a secret that they haven't shared with anyone, and if Kaiser wasn't too uncertain because if their age gap, they certainly would be in a relationship.
Kaiser heard the bell first.
After putting the child to sleep, Kaiser was the first one out, as Anne was looking at the receding back of the man she loved, she went back to the temple to prepare for any emergencies.
Kaiser arrived at the eastern watch tower, he saw beck and few of the more experienced guards were already there.
"Sorry for being late" Kaiser said, one of the female guards said "So, how was the wife and child doing?" The one who said this Merey, a 32 year old soldier married to one of the more famous bakers.
Male soldiers are a majority in this village, but female soldiers aren't exactly a rarity.
After saying so, the soldiers on guard laughed quietly.
Kaiser, raised his voice"Amis what do you see?" "A-a-a h-hundred dark hounds!!?"
Everyone was shocked, the sheer numbers of dark hounds out numbered them in this side, and the hounds were already running towards them.
Kaiser shouts an order "Use the Bridge!!"
Kaiser's shouted command shattered their unease, and they moved to "Use" the bridge.
The bridge was not the weapon, but a sigil on it.
The magic that was activated hits all nearby enemies, the lightning hits the leading hound and jumps to anothet target, this is what made this sigil terryfying, it cannot identify friend from foe but it snakes to another target after impact.
The effective range of this sigil spanned a kilometer forward and set lightning every twenty seconds
However, the hounds were fast, before their numbers thinned down, they were already in within five hundred meters of the wooden pallisade, the sigil worked best on a group of hounds, killing five wolves per twenty seconds.
Kaiser ordered, "Archers, Rain arrows!"
The archers in the watchtowers, five each, shot down the hounds effectively, until the hounds started zigzagging to avoid the arrows.
"Damn! They are moving too much for us to shoot!". Thek the archer leader for this side shouted down.
"How many remaining!?" Kaiser retorted
"About fifty, sir!" Thek answered while aiming then killing a hiund
Kaiser then answered;
"Spearmen, in position, close the metal portcullis, archers continue shooting them down, the mages should be here any minute, hold out until then!"
The men ran to the weapon rack near the guard post, twenty spears for twenty men.
Despite its size, Xerendia only has ten mages as soldiers, a considerable number for a village, but with Xerendia's population of 3,000, its a small number.
This is because Adventurers or explorers are prevalent in Xerendia, the mages here are considerably stronger than even some cities.
The strongest among them was a graduate from the Highly Prestigious Arcane Institute.
A place where only the best of the best was allowed to join, with its strict and meritocratic policies, racial discrimination is almost non-existent.
The reason for why strong mages and highly competent soldiers were here is because of Xerendia's strategic position and its highly valued potion distillery, forests with stong monsters and rare herbs.
The men got into position on time, the hounds were blocked by the portcullis amd all the spearmen had to do was stab forward.
They alternated, with five people stabbing, the other groups would rest to prepare for the hounds' eventual entry into the village.
The portcullis eventually burst and 15 wolves got in.
Kaiser was there, fighting off three by himself.
The spearmen's only directive to wait for the mages and focus on the defensive was the correct one.
The mages arrived, those ignorant in the power of magic, would say that only two mages wouldn't have much effect, until:
"I call upon my magic, show your might, manifest as fire, Firestorm"
As the man finishes his incantation, fire rains from above, killing all the hounds still outside the gate.
As he was going to boast his firepower, he recieves a meaty smack from an older man's staff.
"I told you to stop reciting spells and start manipulating magic directly, you can already do it."
The older man, scolds the other mage, and raises his staff, unlike the younger man, he doesn't recite a spell, instead mana swirls around him, and then he releases a fierce lightning that jumps from hound to hound to those that have entered the gate by jumping over.
As impressive as these two mages are in combat, the mages are prodigies distributed by five to each city, although Xerendia is called a village, its population is beyond that of a simple town and is equal to a small city.
Mages are special existences that are able to tap into their own mana and command that mana to manifest and effect reality.
Shamans are similar to Mages, but instead of their own mana, they use the mana around them or catalysts, most wood elves are Shamans, since they barely leave the thick mana area of the World Tree.
"Thanks, M'ger, Kator and Master Rykus" Kaiser said this with a slight bow
"Haaaah, Kaiser, stop with the damn honorifics!" Rykus shouts at Kaiser.
"Anyways, I heard you got married while I was at the capital, where's your wife? Is she safe?".
"Huh? Wife? Have you gone senile old man?"
Kaiser asks in genuine confusion dropping the formal tones he used earlier.
"Don't call me senile! I know what I heard, you have a son now and a wife at home right? I was even surprised that it was a healer, Anne, was it?"
Hearing what Rykus said, Kaiser flinched in surprise and looked around the smirking guardsmen surrounding him.
"She is not my wife! She.... uh.... She helps take care of my son...... That's all".
Kaiser with faltering words explains to the old mage while Beck gives out instructions to his men.
Later on, Kaiser and Rykus along with Beck following behind them, arrived at the village chief's house, a splendid house designed with both beauty and functionality.
A tall man in the prime of his life stood at the gate waiting for the three of them, the man whose full name was Poland Maverick D'Messares, a nobleman of commoner origins who acquired his nobility through military achievements.
Poland stood not as tall as Kaiser but his spine was ramrod straight and had the almost the same body build as Kaiser.
Though Poland's hair was starting to whiten, there is no doubt that he still is a powerful warrior.
Poland had the lowest rank of a landed noble, a baron, then he was given jurisdiction over Xerendia.
"Oi! Rykus, what took you so long to return? Are you finally limping from old-age?" Poland basically screamed those greetings that no one would expect from a noble.
"The hell you mean? I could still wipe your ass after beating you black and blue don't underestimate me!" Poland's jab at Rykus about his age is simply because Rykus has been alive for more than 100 years.
Magic users and people who mastered their life force can extend their life, the oldest mage in the ancient Kingdom of Odivere is the court mage and has been alive for centuries
Poland himself has mastery over his life-force and and has lived for 70 years and while his body looked no older than 50
The royalty of Odivere has a special bloodline, they are of Elven ancestry and that blood runs thick, the heir of Odivere must be atleast have long ears as evidence of their lineage.
The current king of Odivere has been reigning for 400 years and is nearing his 600th birthday where he announces the one who will inherit the Crown.
Because of the the royal lineage of Odivere, there is no racial discrimantion between the other races and the humans.
Odivere is the oldest country on this mainland continent, its long history of 10,000 years has started to stagnate and corrupt the country from within, its miliary might is superior, devoting a whopping 500,000 soldiers all over the the territory, soldiers are split in two, the royal soldiers and the soldiers of nobility, this number of soldiers are only counted as the soldiers in active duty, some soldiers are reserved in case of emergencies, bringing the total military force to a million at most.
250,000 Royal soldiers include mages and knights loyal to the Crown.
250,000 Soldiers of nobility are a rough estimation of their numbers since noble families employ soldiers on their demesnes.
The Soldiers of Nobility are hired warriors, mages and knights under the service of a noble family, the highest ranking soldier of a noble has to follow the higher ups of the Royal Soldiers.
The King is above all the military, but the duty to manage military is left to the Royal Knight Commandant, below the the Knight Commandant are the Lieutenant Commanders in charge of the common soldiers, and the General Knights who command the knights and the noble soldiers.
The noble soldiers under the Royal Command are those chosen by the Nobility as representations of suppport, the common soldiers are those who voluntered to serve the crown.
Odivere is a multi-racial Kingdom, all the races within are its citizens and only minor racism and discrimination can be found.
In total, a quarter of its whole military are non-human, mostly dwarves and Half Elves, there are also a few beastmen such as canines and felines, rabbits too.
As the soldiers were cleaning up the corpses of the hounds around the wall, a flickering shadow can be seen, yellow eyes glowing in the dark.
He spoke in a different language "It failed master, this village is sturdier than expected, but, I smell the blood of the ancients, it seems that fate favors us, we can acquire two more here".
"Is that so? Any hope of them siring children?" A voice replied within the spectre's mind
"Yes, master, they are taking care of the child, and by my observation, they might be married within a few years"
"Retreat for now, the Heracs are here, they brought Gnolls, I need you scout here, we'll take their stronghold within our continent"
"As you wish, Master"
The spectre's voice faded along with is shadow body.
"I hope you both have children when I return"said the increasingly fading spectre with amusement.
