Chapter 104
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The season of spring is quickly approaching. The frigid winter days are fewer, and the warm weather is returning to melt away the blankets of white snow covering the surrounding landscape.
Over the past month, Ben had recruited a naval crew for his yacht and sent them out to explore the surrounding waters north of the continent. They have discovered a few scattered islands but have yet to find another large landmass.
Mythia and the other female cultivators had reached the upper second stage levels after ingesting the pills Ben gave them. Ben could only shake his head at their progress because most of them including Mythia had already surpassed Princess Alessandra's current cultivation stage and level.
Mythia had made nice gains in her magic spells and had reached Apprentice: level four in Firebolt and lightning bolt. She is currently stronger than Alessandra was when Ben had brought her to the Sandy River battle and had fought alongside him on the bridge.
Not only was Mythia making gains in magic but the other ten female cultivators were also learning the same two spells she was training. Ben had also sent the twenty Fairies over to the SECT Headquarters and had them use the cultivator HALO.
Once the fairies received their individual cultivation techniques they began to cultivate and train their spells every day in just the same as Mythia and the other female cultivators did.
While these young ladies were progressively becoming stronger the soldiers had progressed through ninety-seven percent of their classroom lessons.
There was now two thousand three hundred and ten total troops training and defending in the Avalon Kingdom.
__________________________________
[Current Troops]
__________________________________
400: Elven Archers- General Victor
200: Human Mounted Knights- General Justinus
600: Human Heavy Infantry Spearmen- General Kaeso
1000: Human Male Dismounted Knights- General Decius
100: Javelin Cavalry- General Cassius
10: Half-GIant Male Heavy Armored Swordsmen/Heavy Armored Axemen
__________________________________
2310 Total Troops
__________________________________
Not only did the total number of troops increase over the winter, but the population continued to increase. The once empty fortress that only had a few people walking the streets was now turning into a bustling town.
Ben sat down at one point and noticed it wouldn't be long before his fortress would be considered a small city and it still did not have a name.
Just how he had gathered his people and troops to declare the establishment of the Avalon Kingdom, Ben stood before them with Princess Mythia, Chancellor Rayner, Great Officer Stefan, and Great Officer Lysa to announce the name of the Avalon Kingdom's capital city.
From then on the fortress would be known as Dragonshome. Many of the capital cities in the other eight kingdoms were using two words combined into one word to make up their capital city's name.
Aregard had Goldcrest, Ciral had Wolfmere, Trareniel had Timbershield and now Avalon had Dragonshome. Ben had already begun using and promoting the name and image of the Dragon on his noble crest and on his products.
Even if the dragon did not exist in this world it was now becoming a recognized symbol across the continent. Any carts, canned foods or packaged products Ben sold all displayed a dragon holding a shield. The dragon and shield crest was slowing becoming a logo known for uniqueness and quality.
__________________________________
The people of Dragonshome were beginning to come out of their homes again these days now that the weather was changing. After being subjected to just over four months of winter they were all ready to breathe in fresh air and welcome the warm weather.
Ben was growing anxious to make a move on the Trareniel Kingdom and bring stabilization to the region. The Trareniel king was a ticking time bomb and he was capable of blowing up again at any time.
He teleported to the road he had constructed running east toward the Trareniel capital city in the Wayward Forest. He had blocked this alternate route off from the main road running from north to south through the forest and it has remained unused since its construction.
To begin preparations for the invasion Ben built three Small Military Camps along the road. They were very basic and reminded him of the forts Julius Caesar would have his men construct when they were planning to remain in an area for some time.
There was a simple wooden wall that ran around the outside of one hundred and ninety-six plain shacks. On each corner of the walls stood a wooden tower about twenty feet high that could hold around ten archers.
[Small Military Camp]: A square camp that contains 196 small wooden shacks. Each wooden shack can sleep, four soldiers comfortably. The camp is surrounded with a wooden palisade wall. The palisade wall has a wooden tower on each corner and a wooden gate in the center of each wall. [Houses: 784 units] [Costs: 500g] [requires: 1000 units of wood] [This camp can be built anywhere outside of your build zone and can be deconstructed]
Across the road from the camps, Ben began construction of a [War Machines] structure.
[War Machines]: Produces scaling ladders, wheeled battering rams, catapult, trebuchet, ballista, siege towers, and mantlets. It also comes with a custom design menu that allows you to design your own machines. [Locked until: built mine-toolmaker-carpenter-engineers guild] [consumes: wood, metals, silk, plastic, rubber, nylon, glass] [requires: stone, wood]
__________________________________
During the night Ben activated his Chameleon skill and stealthy approached the Trareniel capital. He was taken aback to see how many men were patrolling the walls of Timbershield so late at night. The last reports he had heard from the Aregard king was that they were short on recruitable troops.
He then took note the majority of these soldiers were wearing a strange crest on their tunics. Ben was familiar with the Trareniel uniform and crest from the battle at Sandy River and these uniforms and crests were different from those. It could only mean Brandomma must've caved to the Trareniel threats and had sent levied soldiers to guard their walls in hopes of deterring Avalon from attacking Trareniel.
Ben went to a dark unguarded spot of the wall and used his tape measurer to measure the exact height of the city walls and then returned to the forest before being discovered. He made a note of the wall measurements on a virtual text doc and then returned to Dragonshome.
Instead of having his troops walk south toward the invasion staging point Ben had made two hundred more carriages to carry everyone there throughout the winter season. He also had to create five huge covered carts made mainly of mythril alloy to transport his Half-Giants to the battle field. Two Half-Giants could fit in one of the custom mythril alloy carts and they would be pulled by six horse teams.
Over the next week, Ben gave orders to the generals to have the troops pack all their gear for travel and battle. Ben also prepared the Fairies, cultivators and of course Mythia.
__________________________________
There was still scattered areas of snow on the ground when they set out but the concrete roads remained clear thanks to the Heating Coils under them. A total of two hundred and thirty-two horse-drawn carriages along with five Mythril wagons carrying two Half-Giants each made their way gradually south.
The travelers along the forest road were all curious of the long line of carriages passing them by as they moved between Aregard and the southern kingdoms. This was why Ben did not want to walk his troops south because these merchants and traders would begin to gossip about the large group of soldiers who were on the move once they reached their destinations.
It was better to get to the invasion staging point as quickly as possible before word made it back to Trareniel that a huge army of Avalon soldiers was seen traveling south through the Wayward Woodlands.
It took them a couple days to get to the staging point which was hidden just west of the Trareniel capital in the forest. The troops unloaded their gear and carried it into the shacks they were assigned in the Small Military Camps.
It would be a couple weeks before they used the horses to travel back to Dragonshome and they could not leave them attached to the carriages for that long. Ben made a simple makeshift corral for the horses to run around and graze in while they were here. Wooden crates of fruits and vegetables were set out for the horses and a few men were assigned to feed them a couple times a day.
While the troops prepared their gear and placed the horses in the corral, Ben went across the road to the War Machines structure.
He had no intentions of using the catapults or trebuchets it offered. There was the risk of the huge stones being flung into the city and killing the civilians. The Trareniel subjects were furious with their current king and Ben wanted to keep the focus of their wrath on him. Ben's plan was to take the Trareniel capital without killing civilians or destroying anything in the process.
At the War Machines structure, Ben used the measurements he took of the walls to create four huge siege towers.
For the next couple weeks, Ben had his Men practiced climbing into the multi-leveled siege towers and how to move them forward while they were loaded with troops. Each siege tower had two large levels which could hold around one hundred men on each level.
The men on the lower level could use extended handrails to push the tower forward while remaining inside the tower protected from attacks. The troops on the upper tower levels practiced at holding a shield wall formation as the tower moved forward.
Once the upper plank dropped down on top of the walls his men would be in a shield wall formation to protect them from any sudden missile attacks. When the planked dropped they were instructed to move out on to the wall in a shield wall formation to quickly capture a staging point on the walls.
They drilled together for a week and a half and then during the night, Ben built a concrete road through the forest and out onto the open land west of the Trareniel capital.
The sun just began to show orange on the eastern horizon when Ben gave the command to begin the invasion.
Four huge siege towers lumbered out of the forest under the cover of darkness. They had a couple miles to push the towers so by the time they were close to the city walls the sun was rising and the defenders were aware of the slow-moving towers.
The defenders kept climbing the walls to look out at the four strange wooden objects moving slowly toward them. These were the first siege towers ever seen in this world so the defenders were unsure on what was happening. The Avalon troops were hidden inside them so they were wary but not on high alert.
A few nervous archers on the walls began to launch warning arrows at the towers but they would just stick into the thick exterior wood planks without any effect.
Ben remained in the treeline with the troops who could not fit inside the siege towers watching and waiting. When the slow-moving towers were about two hundred yards from the city walls he led his men out of the woods at a slow pace. They marched toward the city while keeping an eye on the speed of the towers.
As the towers drew closer to the walls, Ben had his troops pick up their speed. It wasn't long before they were spotted by the defenders and they knew the towers which were almost on top of them must not be a good thing.
Ben along with his generals, the Fairy magi, the cultivators, the Half-Giants and the reserve troops were about two hundred and fifty yards away from the towers when they all dropped their heavy wood planks onto the walls at the same time.
THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!
One hundred dismounted knights in full armor slowly marched out onto the walls in shield wall formation just as they had practiced from inside each of the four towers.
The sudden emergence of four hundred fully armored men with their shields locked together was an intimidating sight. Those drafted civilians playing as soldiers were killed or driven back off the walls as a hundred spears flicked out between the small gaps in the shield wall.
Once the upper tower floor had captured a staging point on four separate areas of the walls the troops on the lower tower floors ran up the stairs and out onto the walls to join in the battle.
The additional four hundred men who suddenly poured out of the towers kept the defenders busy enough to where they could not impede Ben as he led the reserve troops up to the base of the four towers.
The reserve troops were already divided into four division and had each been assigned a tower to use. Each of the reserve divisions ran up the tower stairs and out onto the walls.
The four towers had only reached the walls ten minutes earlier and there was already over two thousand Avalon troops continuously pouring out onto the walls to engage the defenders!
Ben jumped down from the wall into the city with Mythia, the twenty fairies, the ten female cultivators, and the ten Half-Giants. Eighty percent of the city's defenders were on now the walls but Ben wasn't concerned about them.
He led his small team of elites through the city and dispatched any guards or defending troops who stood in their way. They all ran directly to the Royal Palace and Ben had his small group spread out around it.
The Half-Giants, the Fairies, and the cultivators surrounded the palace to prevent anyone from coming or going. Ben went inside with Mythia and found people running around in chaos. Someone must have ran here and reported the city was under attack before his team had made it here.
When Ben and Mythia entered the lobby wearing armor from head to toe it only added fuel to the fire. People began screaming and running in panic as Ben and Mythia advanced toward the where they assumed would be the royal quarters and throne room.
They ran into a few small groups of palace guards who came out to check on the sudden disturbance. Ben and Mythia quickly eliminated anyone who aggressively approached them with magic or blades.
Ben scooped up a palace official by the shirt who came out a door at the wrong time. He held his bloody sword blade against the middle-aged man's chest and commanded him to lead them to the Trareniel king.
The official was scared stiff for a moment until Ben gave him a couple slaps across the face to motivate him to move. They were led to the left down a long hallway by the stumbling official who brought them to a large set of double doors.
The official claimed the king was inside the throne room through the doors trying to come up with a defense to save the city.
Ben threw out two firebolts simultaneously over the official's shoulder who collapsed in fear. The two doors exploded into the throne room when the firebolts impacted with them.
The sudden implosion of large doors ripped from their hinges took out two palace guards who stood on guard on the opposite side. The large crowd surrounding the Trareniel king on his throne were startled by this unexpected explosion.
They would have never thought the attackers could have made it this far already. It had only been a couple minutes since they were warned an unknown army had suddenly attacked the city walls.
They were all standing around discussing what they should do when the doors blew into the throne room.
Ben led Mythia through the shattered doorway and screamed out, "King Soren Knotley, roll your f***ing ass over here!"
A group of six palace guards came charging over toward them and Mythia shot off with Whirlwind Maneuver to confront them. She was eager to test out the sword technique she had Ben purchase her and to extract some revenge for her family.
Ben had bought her an expensive technique she took a liking to called [Sword Dancer]. Mythia had trained it up to Stage one: Level three over the past couple of months.
Just as the technique had described she appeared to be dancing to unheard rhythmic music as her sword slashed and thrust it accentuated her moments. If she were four or five years older it would have been an enticing performance.
It was beautifully hypnotic dance veiled in mists of blood spraying from the wounded guards surrounding her. The onlookers could not help but look on in awed fascination even though they were watching such a gruesome spectacle.
By the time Ben had slowly walked over to where Mythia had confronted the group palace guards, they had been completely eliminated. When the last guard hit the floor everyone in the throne room was released from Mythia's mesmeric dance.
King Sletten suddenly stood up from his throne with a look of horror as he searched in vain for someone to save him. The bastard even threw a couple of his officials at Ben and Mythia to buy himself some time as he attempted to flee toward a door behind his throne.
The both Ben and Mythia ignored the crowd of officials and crossed the distance in a flash to capture the escaping king. Ben placed the sword on king Sletten's waist in his inventory and pushed him wordlessly down onto his stomach.
He used the zip cuffs he used on the store vandals to secure the king's hands and feet together.
"None of you here need to worry, we are here to dethrone this bastard. I am the king of Avalon Ben King and this is Princess Mythia. We are here due to the invasion of the Aregard Kingdom and the attack on our troops who were stationed near the Aregard border. This kingdom is now officially a part of the Avalon Kingdom. We will not loot the city or kill any of the citizens. You all can return safely home for now and you will be summoned back here after a few days. I intend to have you all keep your current positions and you will find that things will only improve around here from now on. Please be at ease and if you do not cause any trouble your lives will continue forward from here for the better."
Ben had everyone step away as he cast a Sleep spell on Soren Knotley. He threw him over his shoulder and walked out of the palace with Mythia right beside him.
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The season of spring is quickly approaching. The frigid winter days are fewer, and the warm weather is returning to melt away the blankets of white snow covering the surrounding landscape.
Over the past month, Ben had recruited a naval crew for his yacht and sent them out to explore the surrounding waters north of the continent. They have discovered a few scattered islands but have yet to find another large landmass.
Mythia and the other female cultivators had reached the upper second stage levels after ingesting the pills Ben gave them. Ben could only shake his head at their progress because most of them including Mythia had already surpassed Princess Alessandra's current cultivation stage and level.
Mythia had made nice gains in her magic spells and had reached Apprentice: level four in Firebolt and lightning bolt. She is currently stronger than Alessandra was when Ben had brought her to the Sandy River battle and had fought alongside him on the bridge.
Not only was Mythia making gains in magic but the other ten female cultivators were also learning the same two spells she was training. Ben had also sent the twenty Fairies over to the SECT Headquarters and had them use the cultivator HALO.
Once the fairies received their individual cultivation techniques they began to cultivate and train their spells every day in just the same as Mythia and the other female cultivators did.
While these young ladies were progressively becoming stronger the soldiers had progressed through ninety-seven percent of their classroom lessons.
There was now two thousand three hundred and ten total troops training and defending in the Avalon Kingdom.
__________________________________
[Current Troops]
__________________________________
400: Elven Archers- General Victor
200: Human Mounted Knights- General Justinus
600: Human Heavy Infantry Spearmen- General Kaeso
1000: Human Male Dismounted Knights- General Decius
100: Javelin Cavalry- General Cassius
10: Half-GIant Male Heavy Armored Swordsmen/Heavy Armored Axemen
__________________________________
2310 Total Troops
__________________________________
Not only did the total number of troops increase over the winter, but the population continued to increase. The once empty fortress that only had a few people walking the streets was now turning into a bustling town.
Ben sat down at one point and noticed it wouldn't be long before his fortress would be considered a small city and it still did not have a name.
Just how he had gathered his people and troops to declare the establishment of the Avalon Kingdom, Ben stood before them with Princess Mythia, Chancellor Rayner, Great Officer Stefan, and Great Officer Lysa to announce the name of the Avalon Kingdom's capital city.
From then on the fortress would be known as Dragonshome. Many of the capital cities in the other eight kingdoms were using two words combined into one word to make up their capital city's name.
Aregard had Goldcrest, Ciral had Wolfmere, Trareniel had Timbershield and now Avalon had Dragonshome. Ben had already begun using and promoting the name and image of the Dragon on his noble crest and on his products.
Even if the dragon did not exist in this world it was now becoming a recognized symbol across the continent. Any carts, canned foods or packaged products Ben sold all displayed a dragon holding a shield. The dragon and shield crest was slowing becoming a logo known for uniqueness and quality.
__________________________________
The people of Dragonshome were beginning to come out of their homes again these days now that the weather was changing. After being subjected to just over four months of winter they were all ready to breathe in fresh air and welcome the warm weather.
Ben was growing anxious to make a move on the Trareniel Kingdom and bring stabilization to the region. The Trareniel king was a ticking time bomb and he was capable of blowing up again at any time.
He teleported to the road he had constructed running east toward the Trareniel capital city in the Wayward Forest. He had blocked this alternate route off from the main road running from north to south through the forest and it has remained unused since its construction.
To begin preparations for the invasion Ben built three Small Military Camps along the road. They were very basic and reminded him of the forts Julius Caesar would have his men construct when they were planning to remain in an area for some time.
There was a simple wooden wall that ran around the outside of one hundred and ninety-six plain shacks. On each corner of the walls stood a wooden tower about twenty feet high that could hold around ten archers.
[Small Military Camp]: A square camp that contains 196 small wooden shacks. Each wooden shack can sleep, four soldiers comfortably. The camp is surrounded with a wooden palisade wall. The palisade wall has a wooden tower on each corner and a wooden gate in the center of each wall. [Houses: 784 units] [Costs: 500g] [requires: 1000 units of wood] [This camp can be built anywhere outside of your build zone and can be deconstructed]
Across the road from the camps, Ben began construction of a [War Machines] structure.
[War Machines]: Produces scaling ladders, wheeled battering rams, catapult, trebuchet, ballista, siege towers, and mantlets. It also comes with a custom design menu that allows you to design your own machines. [Locked until: built mine-toolmaker-carpenter-engineers guild] [consumes: wood, metals, silk, plastic, rubber, nylon, glass] [requires: stone, wood]
__________________________________
During the night Ben activated his Chameleon skill and stealthy approached the Trareniel capital. He was taken aback to see how many men were patrolling the walls of Timbershield so late at night. The last reports he had heard from the Aregard king was that they were short on recruitable troops.
He then took note the majority of these soldiers were wearing a strange crest on their tunics. Ben was familiar with the Trareniel uniform and crest from the battle at Sandy River and these uniforms and crests were different from those. It could only mean Brandomma must've caved to the Trareniel threats and had sent levied soldiers to guard their walls in hopes of deterring Avalon from attacking Trareniel.
Ben went to a dark unguarded spot of the wall and used his tape measurer to measure the exact height of the city walls and then returned to the forest before being discovered. He made a note of the wall measurements on a virtual text doc and then returned to Dragonshome.
Instead of having his troops walk south toward the invasion staging point Ben had made two hundred more carriages to carry everyone there throughout the winter season. He also had to create five huge covered carts made mainly of mythril alloy to transport his Half-Giants to the battle field. Two Half-Giants could fit in one of the custom mythril alloy carts and they would be pulled by six horse teams.
Over the next week, Ben gave orders to the generals to have the troops pack all their gear for travel and battle. Ben also prepared the Fairies, cultivators and of course Mythia.
__________________________________
There was still scattered areas of snow on the ground when they set out but the concrete roads remained clear thanks to the Heating Coils under them. A total of two hundred and thirty-two horse-drawn carriages along with five Mythril wagons carrying two Half-Giants each made their way gradually south.
The travelers along the forest road were all curious of the long line of carriages passing them by as they moved between Aregard and the southern kingdoms. This was why Ben did not want to walk his troops south because these merchants and traders would begin to gossip about the large group of soldiers who were on the move once they reached their destinations.
It was better to get to the invasion staging point as quickly as possible before word made it back to Trareniel that a huge army of Avalon soldiers was seen traveling south through the Wayward Woodlands.
It took them a couple days to get to the staging point which was hidden just west of the Trareniel capital in the forest. The troops unloaded their gear and carried it into the shacks they were assigned in the Small Military Camps.
It would be a couple weeks before they used the horses to travel back to Dragonshome and they could not leave them attached to the carriages for that long. Ben made a simple makeshift corral for the horses to run around and graze in while they were here. Wooden crates of fruits and vegetables were set out for the horses and a few men were assigned to feed them a couple times a day.
While the troops prepared their gear and placed the horses in the corral, Ben went across the road to the War Machines structure.
He had no intentions of using the catapults or trebuchets it offered. There was the risk of the huge stones being flung into the city and killing the civilians. The Trareniel subjects were furious with their current king and Ben wanted to keep the focus of their wrath on him. Ben's plan was to take the Trareniel capital without killing civilians or destroying anything in the process.
At the War Machines structure, Ben used the measurements he took of the walls to create four huge siege towers.
For the next couple weeks, Ben had his Men practiced climbing into the multi-leveled siege towers and how to move them forward while they were loaded with troops. Each siege tower had two large levels which could hold around one hundred men on each level.
The men on the lower level could use extended handrails to push the tower forward while remaining inside the tower protected from attacks. The troops on the upper tower levels practiced at holding a shield wall formation as the tower moved forward.
Once the upper plank dropped down on top of the walls his men would be in a shield wall formation to protect them from any sudden missile attacks. When the planked dropped they were instructed to move out on to the wall in a shield wall formation to quickly capture a staging point on the walls.
They drilled together for a week and a half and then during the night, Ben built a concrete road through the forest and out onto the open land west of the Trareniel capital.
The sun just began to show orange on the eastern horizon when Ben gave the command to begin the invasion.
Four huge siege towers lumbered out of the forest under the cover of darkness. They had a couple miles to push the towers so by the time they were close to the city walls the sun was rising and the defenders were aware of the slow-moving towers.
The defenders kept climbing the walls to look out at the four strange wooden objects moving slowly toward them. These were the first siege towers ever seen in this world so the defenders were unsure on what was happening. The Avalon troops were hidden inside them so they were wary but not on high alert.
A few nervous archers on the walls began to launch warning arrows at the towers but they would just stick into the thick exterior wood planks without any effect.
Ben remained in the treeline with the troops who could not fit inside the siege towers watching and waiting. When the slow-moving towers were about two hundred yards from the city walls he led his men out of the woods at a slow pace. They marched toward the city while keeping an eye on the speed of the towers.
As the towers drew closer to the walls, Ben had his troops pick up their speed. It wasn't long before they were spotted by the defenders and they knew the towers which were almost on top of them must not be a good thing.
Ben along with his generals, the Fairy magi, the cultivators, the Half-Giants and the reserve troops were about two hundred and fifty yards away from the towers when they all dropped their heavy wood planks onto the walls at the same time.
THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!
One hundred dismounted knights in full armor slowly marched out onto the walls in shield wall formation just as they had practiced from inside each of the four towers.
The sudden emergence of four hundred fully armored men with their shields locked together was an intimidating sight. Those drafted civilians playing as soldiers were killed or driven back off the walls as a hundred spears flicked out between the small gaps in the shield wall.
Once the upper tower floor had captured a staging point on four separate areas of the walls the troops on the lower tower floors ran up the stairs and out onto the walls to join in the battle.
The additional four hundred men who suddenly poured out of the towers kept the defenders busy enough to where they could not impede Ben as he led the reserve troops up to the base of the four towers.
The reserve troops were already divided into four division and had each been assigned a tower to use. Each of the reserve divisions ran up the tower stairs and out onto the walls.
The four towers had only reached the walls ten minutes earlier and there was already over two thousand Avalon troops continuously pouring out onto the walls to engage the defenders!
Ben jumped down from the wall into the city with Mythia, the twenty fairies, the ten female cultivators, and the ten Half-Giants. Eighty percent of the city's defenders were on now the walls but Ben wasn't concerned about them.
He led his small team of elites through the city and dispatched any guards or defending troops who stood in their way. They all ran directly to the Royal Palace and Ben had his small group spread out around it.
The Half-Giants, the Fairies, and the cultivators surrounded the palace to prevent anyone from coming or going. Ben went inside with Mythia and found people running around in chaos. Someone must have ran here and reported the city was under attack before his team had made it here.
When Ben and Mythia entered the lobby wearing armor from head to toe it only added fuel to the fire. People began screaming and running in panic as Ben and Mythia advanced toward the where they assumed would be the royal quarters and throne room.
They ran into a few small groups of palace guards who came out to check on the sudden disturbance. Ben and Mythia quickly eliminated anyone who aggressively approached them with magic or blades.
Ben scooped up a palace official by the shirt who came out a door at the wrong time. He held his bloody sword blade against the middle-aged man's chest and commanded him to lead them to the Trareniel king.
The official was scared stiff for a moment until Ben gave him a couple slaps across the face to motivate him to move. They were led to the left down a long hallway by the stumbling official who brought them to a large set of double doors.
The official claimed the king was inside the throne room through the doors trying to come up with a defense to save the city.
Ben threw out two firebolts simultaneously over the official's shoulder who collapsed in fear. The two doors exploded into the throne room when the firebolts impacted with them.
The sudden implosion of large doors ripped from their hinges took out two palace guards who stood on guard on the opposite side. The large crowd surrounding the Trareniel king on his throne were startled by this unexpected explosion.
They would have never thought the attackers could have made it this far already. It had only been a couple minutes since they were warned an unknown army had suddenly attacked the city walls.
They were all standing around discussing what they should do when the doors blew into the throne room.
Ben led Mythia through the shattered doorway and screamed out, "King Soren Knotley, roll your f***ing ass over here!"
A group of six palace guards came charging over toward them and Mythia shot off with Whirlwind Maneuver to confront them. She was eager to test out the sword technique she had Ben purchase her and to extract some revenge for her family.
Ben had bought her an expensive technique she took a liking to called [Sword Dancer]. Mythia had trained it up to Stage one: Level three over the past couple of months.
Just as the technique had described she appeared to be dancing to unheard rhythmic music as her sword slashed and thrust it accentuated her moments. If she were four or five years older it would have been an enticing performance.
It was beautifully hypnotic dance veiled in mists of blood spraying from the wounded guards surrounding her. The onlookers could not help but look on in awed fascination even though they were watching such a gruesome spectacle.
By the time Ben had slowly walked over to where Mythia had confronted the group palace guards, they had been completely eliminated. When the last guard hit the floor everyone in the throne room was released from Mythia's mesmeric dance.
King Sletten suddenly stood up from his throne with a look of horror as he searched in vain for someone to save him. The bastard even threw a couple of his officials at Ben and Mythia to buy himself some time as he attempted to flee toward a door behind his throne.
The both Ben and Mythia ignored the crowd of officials and crossed the distance in a flash to capture the escaping king. Ben placed the sword on king Sletten's waist in his inventory and pushed him wordlessly down onto his stomach.
He used the zip cuffs he used on the store vandals to secure the king's hands and feet together.
"None of you here need to worry, we are here to dethrone this bastard. I am the king of Avalon Ben King and this is Princess Mythia. We are here due to the invasion of the Aregard Kingdom and the attack on our troops who were stationed near the Aregard border. This kingdom is now officially a part of the Avalon Kingdom. We will not loot the city or kill any of the citizens. You all can return safely home for now and you will be summoned back here after a few days. I intend to have you all keep your current positions and you will find that things will only improve around here from now on. Please be at ease and if you do not cause any trouble your lives will continue forward from here for the better."
Ben had everyone step away as he cast a Sleep spell on Soren Knotley. He threw him over his shoulder and walked out of the palace with Mythia right beside him.
The season of spring is quickly approaching. The frigid winter days are fewer, and the warm weather is returning to melt away the blankets of white snow covering the surrounding landscape.Over the past month, Ben had recruited a naval crew for his yacht and sent them out to explore the surrounding waters north of the continent. They have discovered a few scattered islands but have yet to find another large landmass.Mythia and the other female cultivators had reached the upper second stage levels after ingesting the pills Ben gave them. Ben could only shake his head at their progress because most of them including Mythia had already surpassed Princess Alessandra's current cultivation stage and level.Mythia had made nice gains in her magic spells and had reached Apprentice: level four in Firebolt and lightning bolt. She is currently stronger than Alessandra was when Ben had brought her to the Sandy River battle and had fought alongside him on the bridge.Not only was Mythia making gains in magic but the other ten female cultivators were also learning the same two spells she was training. Ben had also sent the twenty Fairies over to the SECT Headquarters and had them use the cultivator HALO.Once the fairies received their individual cultivation techniques they began to cultivate and train their spells every day in just the same as Mythia and the other female cultivators did.While these young ladies were progressively becoming stronger the soldiers had progressed through ninety-seven percent of their classroom lessons.There was now two thousand three hundred and ten total troops training and defending in the Avalon Kingdom.__________________________________Current Troops__________________________________400: Elven Archers- General Victor200: Human Mounted Knights- General Justinus600: Human Heavy Infantry Spearmen- General Kaeso1000: Human Male Dismounted Knights- General Decius100: Javelin Cavalry- General Cassius10: Half-GIant Male Heavy Armored Swordsmen/Heavy Armored Axemen__________________________________2310 Total Troops__________________________________Not only did the total number of troops increase over the winter, but the population continued to increase. The once empty fortress that only had a few people walking the streets was now turning into a bustling town.Ben sat down at one point and noticed it wouldn't be long before his fortress would be considered a small city and it still did not have a name.Just how he had gathered his people and troops to declare the establishment of the Avalon Kingdom, Ben stood before them with Princess Mythia, Chancellor Rayner, Great Officer Stefan, and Great Officer Lysa to announce the name of the Avalon Kingdom's capital city.From then on the fortress would be known as Dragonshome. Many of the capital cities in the other eight kingdoms were using two words combined into one word to make up their capital city's name.Aregard had Goldcrest, Ciral had Wolfmere, Trareniel had Timbershield and now Avalon had Dragonshome. Ben had already begun using and promoting the name and image of the Dragon on his noble crest and on his products.Even if the dragon did not exist in this world it was now becoming a recognized symbol across the continent. Any carts, canned foods or packaged products Ben sold all displayed a dragon holding a shield. The dragon and shield crest was slowing becoming a logo known for uniqueness and quality.__________________________________The people of Dragonshome were beginning to come out of their homes again these days now that the weather was changing. After being subjected to just over four months of winter they were all ready to breathe in fresh air and welcome the warm weather.Ben was growing anxious to make a move on the Trareniel Kingdom and bring stabilization to the region. The Trareniel king was a ticking time bomb and he was capable of blowing up again at any time.He teleported to the road he had constructed running east toward the Trareniel capital city in the Wayward Forest. He had blocked this alternate route off from the main road running from north to south through the forest and it has remained unused since its construction.To begin preparations for the invasion Ben built three Small Military Camps along the road. They were very basic and reminded him of the forts Julius Caesar would have his men construct when they were planning to remain in an area for some time.There was a simple wooden wall that ran around the outside of one hundred and ninety-six plain shacks. On each corner of the walls stood a wooden tower about twenty feet high that could hold around ten archers.Small Military Camp: A square camp that contains 196 small wooden shacks. Each wooden shack can sleep, four soldiers comfortably. The camp is surrounded with a wooden palisade wall. The palisade wall has a wooden tower on each corner and a wooden gate in the center of each wall. Houses: 784 units Costs: 500g requires: 1000 units of wood This camp can be built anywhere outside of your build zone and can be deconstructedAcross the road from the camps, Ben began construction of a War Machines structure.War Machines: Produces scaling ladders, wheeled battering rams, catapult, trebuchet, ballista, siege towers, and mantlets. It also comes with a custom design menu that allows you to design your own machines. Locked until: built mine-toolmaker-carpenter-engineers guild consumes: wood, metals, silk, plastic, rubber, nylon, glass requires: stone, wood__________________________________During the night Ben activated his Chameleon skill and stealthy approached the Trareniel capital. He was taken aback to see how many men were patrolling the walls of Timbershield so late at night. The last reports he had heard from the Aregard king was that they were short on recruitable troops.He then took note the majority of these soldiers were wearing a strange crest on their tunics. Ben was familiar with the Trareniel uniform and crest from the battle at Sandy River and these uniforms and crests were different from those. It could only mean Brandomma must've caved to the Trareniel threats and had sent levied soldiers to guard their walls in hopes of deterring Avalon from attacking Trareniel.Ben went to a dark unguarded spot of the wall and used his tape measurer to measure the exact height of the city walls and then returned to the forest before being discovered. He made a note of the wall measurements on a virtual text doc and then returned to Dragonshome.Instead of having his troops walk south toward the invasion staging point Ben had made two hundred more carriages to carry everyone there throughout the winter season. He also had to create five huge covered carts made mainly of mythril alloy to transport his Half-Giants to the battle field. Two Half-Giants could fit in one of the custom mythril alloy carts and they would be pulled by six horse teams.Over the next week, Ben gave orders to the generals to have the troops pack all their gear for travel and battle. Ben also prepared the Fairies, cultivators and of course Mythia.__________________________________There was still scattered areas of snow on the ground when they set out but the concrete roads remained clear thanks to the Heating Coils under them. A total of two hundred and thirty-two horse-drawn carriages along with five Mythril wagons carrying two Half-Giants each made their way gradually south.The travelers along the forest road were all curious of the long line of carriages passing them by as they moved between Aregard and the southern kingdoms. This was why Ben did not want to walk his troops south because these merchants and traders would begin to gossip about the large group of soldiers who were on the move once they reached their destinations.It was better to get to the invasion staging point as quickly as possible before word made it back to Trareniel that a huge army of Avalon soldiers was seen traveling south through the Wayward Woodlands.It took them a couple days to get to the staging point which was hidden just west of the Trareniel capital in the forest. The troops unloaded their gear and carried it into the shacks they were assigned in the Small Military Camps.It would be a couple weeks before they used the horses to travel back to Dragonshome and they could not leave them attached to the carriages for that long. Ben made a simple makeshift corral for the horses to run around and graze in while they were here. Wooden crates of fruits and vegetables were set out for the horses and a few men were assigned to feed them a couple times a day.While the troops prepared their gear and placed the horses in the corral, Ben went across the road to the War Machines structure.He had no intentions of using the catapults or trebuchets it offered. There was the risk of the huge stones being flung into the city and killing the civilians. The Trareniel subjects were furious with their current king and Ben wanted to keep the focus of their wrath on him. Ben's plan was to take the Trareniel capital without killing civilians or destroying anything in the process.At the War Machines structure, Ben used the measurements he took of the walls to create four huge siege towers.For the next couple weeks, Ben had his Men practiced climbing into the multi-leveled siege towers and how to move them forward while they were loaded with troops. Each siege tower had two large levels which could hold around one hundred men on each level.The men on the lower level could use extended handrails to push the tower forward while remaining inside the tower protected from attacks. The troops on the upper tower levels practiced at holding a shield wall formation as the tower moved forward.Once the upper plank dropped down on top of the walls his men would be in a shield wall formation to protect them from any sudden missile attacks. When the planked dropped they were instructed to move out on to the wall in a shield wall formation to quickly capture a staging point on the walls.They drilled together for a week and a half and then during the night, Ben built a concrete road through the forest and out onto the open land west of the Trareniel capital.The sun just began to show orange on the eastern horizon when Ben gave the command to begin the invasion.Four huge siege towers lumbered out of the forest under the cover of darkness. They had a couple miles to push the towers so by the time they were close to the city walls the sun was rising and the defenders were aware of the slow-moving towers.The defenders kept climbing the walls to look out at the four strange wooden objects moving slowly toward them. These were the first siege towers ever seen in this world so the defenders were unsure on what was happening. The Avalon troops were hidden inside them so they were wary but not on high alert.A few nervous archers on the walls began to launch warning arrows at the towers but they would just stick into the thick exterior wood planks without any effect.Ben remained in the treeline with the troops who could not fit inside the siege towers watching and waiting. When the slow-moving towers were about two hundred yards from the city walls he led his men out of the woods at a slow pace. They marched toward the city while keeping an eye on the speed of the towers.As the towers drew closer to the walls, Ben had his troops pick up their speed. It wasn't long before they were spotted by the defenders and they knew the towers which were almost on top of them must not be a good thing.Ben along with his generals, the Fairy magi, the cultivators, the Half-Giants and the reserve troops were about two hundred and fifty yards away from the towers when they all dropped their heavy wood planks onto the walls at the same time.THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!One hundred dismounted knights in full armor slowly marched out onto the walls in shield wall formation just as they had practiced from inside each of the four towers.The sudden emergence of four hundred fully armored men with their shields locked together was an intimidating sight. Those drafted civilians playing as soldiers were killed or driven back off the walls as a hundred spears flicked out between the small gaps in the shield wall.Once the upper tower floor had captured a staging point on four separate areas of the walls the troops on the lower tower floors ran up the stairs and out onto the walls to join in the battle.The additional four hundred men who suddenly poured out of the towers kept the defenders busy enough to where they could not impede Ben as he led the reserve troops up to the base of the four towers.The reserve troops were already divided into four division and had each been assigned a tower to use. Each of the reserve divisions ran up the tower stairs and out onto the walls.The four towers had only reached the walls ten minutes earlier and there was already over two thousand Avalon troops continuously pouring out onto the walls to engage the defenders!Ben jumped down from the wall into the city with Mythia, the twenty fairies, the ten female cultivators, and the ten Half-Giants. Eighty percent of the city's defenders were on now the walls but Ben wasn't concerned about them.He led his small team of elites through the city and dispatched any guards or defending troops who stood in their way. They all ran directly to the Royal Palace and Ben had his small group spread out around it.The Half-Giants, the Fairies, and the cultivators surrounded the palace to prevent anyone from coming or going. Ben went inside with Mythia and found people running around in chaos. Someone must have ran here and reported the city was under attack before his team had made it here.When Ben and Mythia entered the lobby wearing armor from head to toe it only added fuel to the fire. People began screaming and running in panic as Ben and Mythia advanced toward the where they assumed would be the royal quarters and throne room.They ran into a few small groups of palace guards who came out to check on the sudden disturbance. Ben and Mythia quickly eliminated anyone who aggressively approached them with magic or blades.Ben scooped up a palace official by the shirt who came out a door at the wrong time. He held his bloody sword blade against the middle-aged man's chest and commanded him to lead them to the Trareniel king.The official was scared stiff for a moment until Ben gave him a couple slaps across the face to motivate him to move. They were led to the left down a long hallway by the stumbling official who brought them to a large set of double doors.The official claimed the king was inside the throne room through the doors trying to come up with a defense to save the city.Ben threw out two firebolts simultaneously over the official's shoulder who collapsed in fear. The two doors exploded into the throne room when the firebolts impacted with them.The sudden implosion of large doors ripped from their hinges took out two palace guards who stood on guard on the opposite side. The large crowd surrounding the Trareniel king on his throne were startled by this unexpected explosion.They would have never thought the attackers could have made it this far already. It had only been a couple minutes since they were warned an unknown army had suddenly attacked the city walls.They were all standing around discussing what they should do when the doors blew into the throne room.Ben led Mythia through the shattered doorway and screamed out, "King Soren Knotley, roll your f***ing ass over here!"A group of six palace guards came charging over toward them and Mythia shot off with Whirlwind Maneuver to confront them. She was eager to test out the sword technique she had Ben purchase her and to extract some revenge for her family.Ben had bought her an expensive technique she took a liking to called Sword Dancer. Mythia had trained it up to Stage one: Level three over the past couple of months.Just as the technique had described she appeared to be dancing to unheard rhythmic music as her sword slashed and thrust it accentuated her moments. If she were four or five years older it would have been an enticing performance.It was beautifully hypnotic dance veiled in mists of blood spraying from the wounded guards surrounding her. The onlookers could not help but look on in awed fascination even though they were watching such a gruesome spectacle.By the time Ben had slowly walked over to where Mythia had confronted the group palace guards, they had been completely eliminated. When the last guard hit the floor everyone in the throne room was released from Mythia's mesmeric dance.King Sletten suddenly stood up from his throne with a look of horror as he searched in vain for someone to save him. The bastard even threw a couple of his officials at Ben and Mythia to buy himself some time as he attempted to flee toward a door behind his throne.The both Ben and Mythia ignored the crowd of officials and crossed the distance in a flash to capture the escaping king. Ben placed the sword on king Sletten's waist in his inventory and pushed him wordlessly down onto his stomach.He used the zip cuffs he used on the store vandals to secure the king's hands and feet together."None of you here need to worry, we are here to dethrone this bastard. I am the king of Avalon Ben King and this is Princess Mythia. We are here due to the invasion of the Aregard Kingdom and the attack on our troops who were stationed near the Aregard border. This kingdom is now officially a part of the Avalon Kingdom. We will not loot the city or kill any of the citizens. You all can return safely home for now and you will be summoned back here after a few days. I intend to have you all keep your current positions and you will find that things will only improve around here from now on. Please be at ease and if you do not cause any trouble your lives will continue forward from here for the better."Ben had everyone step away as he cast a Sleep spell on Soren Knotley. He threw him over his shoulder and walked out of the palace with Mythia right beside him.
