224 Behind the scenes 1

"You… you're Shadowflash?!" George stared. "Where have you been?!"

[I've been locked in Psionic combat with a Spectral Beast.] Shadowflash answered.

"Really? It's been over a year already. Half your Fief thought you were dead." George said. "And the other half wasn't sure you were coming back."

[That long…?] Shadowflash blinked. [I thought it felt rather long… but over a year?! Why hasn't the Earth Lion King sent help? Why did the King not come to my aid?!]

"Why would he?" George asked.

[It is the sworn duty of all Wilds!] Shadowflash protested.

"Does he even know about that Spectral Beast thing you were fighting? Last I checked, nobody knew where you were, not even that King lion fellow."

[I sent word!] Shadowflash protested. [I sent my son Daring to get help…]

"Who's that?" George asked. "I haven't seen any wolfcat named Daring."

There was a short, but heavy silence.

"Shadowflash, I have a lot of questions, but right now my people are in danger. The Tide is really on a rampage this time, and they're not letting up. If you're the Lord of this Fief, then is there something you can do to save us?"

Shadowflash paused, thought about it. [You have indeed treated my kin as friends. I have seen it, heard it, felt it. Therefore, I too, will treat you and your kin as friends… but only those who are in your pack.]

"That's great! So, can you call off the Tide?"

[No. That is beyond me.] Shadowflash shook his head. [But I can, at least, claim this den of yours as my own. They will not enter.]

"And if they tried to enter anyway?"

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[Then I bite their heads off.]

"Good enough for me!"

***

Shadowflash stood with George in the entrance of Kara-Goth as the Beast Tide amassed around the Pit. They hissed, they stirred, but with the Lord of the Fief standing there, none of them dared approach the place he designated as his den.

[SShhaaadowflash…] a huge, white serpent rose up from the masses.

[Bone King.] Shadowflash acknowledged with a slight nod.

[Dare you stand in my way?] the Bone King hissed.

[Every wolf guards his den. It is the code.] Shadowflash answered quietly.

[What does your code mean to us…?] the Bone King snorted.

[It might not mean much to you, but it means a lot to the Star Wolf King.] Shadowflash answered. [Would you like to take it up with him?]

The Bone King withdrew, hissing. [This is a Beast Tide! Sanctioned by the Five Emperors themselves!]

[And it's doing remarkably well. Go on, then. Go hunt the men and destroy their dens. But you're not touching mine.]

[Do you think I am blind?!] the Bone King roared.

[Yes.] Shadowflash said frankly. [That's why you rely on your hearing, isn't it?]

There was a short, mollified silence.

[Regardless! Those humans in your den must die!]

[Those humans are my property. You are not allowed to harm my servants.] Shadowflash announced.

[Your… servants…?]

[They clean my den and bring me food. Call them my pets, if you prefer.] Shadowflash barked. [Go on and find some other humans to kill. The ones here belong to me.]

Abruptly, a little red bird flapped down from above and stood in front of Shadowflash. "Chirp! Chirp, chirp!"

[What? You want the Tide to chase them out?!] Shadowflash stared. [I thought Mindy was your friend!]

"Chirp! Chirp, chirp, chirp!"

[No way! I'm not letting all those strangers into my den!] Shadowflash shook his head. [If you want them to move to Three Pines, you'll have to convince them some other way. Leave my home alone!]

"CHIRP!"

[This isn't your South Domain! This is the East Domain of the Wood Emperor Kor'ag-dras! You can't order me around!]

[You DARE!] the Bone King hissed.

[Like I said. If you have a problem, take it up with the Star Wolf King.] Shadowflash snorted, and walked away.

George hesitated, and then politely saluted the Tide and walked away also.

For a moment there, the entire Tide milled around restlessly. The Bone King turned to the little red bird wordlessly.

"Chirp." The bird shook its head.

Gritting his teeth, the Bone King turned. [To the north! We shall cross the desert and bring woe upon the sand city!]

[NORTH!] the Tide raged on.

They left Kara-Goth behind in peace.

***

Over on the northern continent, absolute mayhem was loose upon the world of mankind.

[GO!] Storm Pegasus King ordered, and nineteen Lords and their hordes from all five Emperor's domains spread out across the 'civilized world'.

The nearest to where the Wilds made landfall, La Vive was hit by three Lords, a Pegasus Lord, a Crab Lord, and a Monkey Lord. First, they fell upon the unsuspecting Germat army who had been occupying abandoned towns all across the border. Within hours, the vast majority of those towns were reduced to rubble, every seaside town was under invaded by crustaceans, and the entire Germat military store of bananas had been thoroughly plundered.

Why were the seaside towns (which run east to west) invaded when the border towns ran north to south? Well, the Crab Lord ran into a La Vive minefield and was blown to pieces before he could change his orders. Left to their own devices, crabs run sideways, you see… it didn't seem to bother them that they were soon spread too thinly too quickly to do much damage since the faster ones outpaced the slower ones and nobody stopped to properly wreck a town before moving on to the next one. As a consequence, the La Vive Resistance was able to save at least half the towns on the west half of the country and the governer of Pearl City held the biggest public crab feast the country had ever seen in decades.

[Should we help them?] the Pegasus Lord asked the Monkey Lord at La Vive's third town ruin.

[How? It's already taken everything we had to get them this far. If not for the Deep Emperor, they would probably be halfway to Libertaria instead of arriving here.]

Five Lords descended upon Itarim. A Tiger Lord tore through the northern zones. A Snake Lord terrorized the southern beaches. Two Bison Brothers rampaged through the central cities. Whatever these four missed, the Grim Pegasus Lord wiped out. Itarim was left with pretty much no smaller settlements standing after the first day, and the Iron Legion headquarters was having its Last Stand.

Two Lords crossed Itarim's northern tip and stumbled into Auria. Bears and giant ravens started to tear up the countryside.

Four of them marched into Germat. The Sabretooth Lord, the Scorpion Lord, and the Frog Lord engaged the Germat military along its fortified borders for an hour before the Elephant Lord charged through and left only pieces behind.

Incidentally, the Elephant Lord had been charging through literally everything since landing on the shores of the northern continent. He and his troop simply went in a straight line through Itarim, the Neutral Zone, Germat, and then exited Germat in exactly the same fashion, smashing right into Bellas territory.

An Elk Lord also headed into Bellas and joined in the ruckus.

Two more Lords drove Ashdale right off the continent. Ashdale initially had a little territory on the edge of the northern continent, as well as their major lands being on the islands off it, but that territory had shrunk to a beach head as the Germat forces advanced, and with the coming of the Spider Lord and the Lizard Lord, they retreated all the way back across the Dalian Straits to their islands.

The last two Lords remained with the Storm Pegasus King at the Neutral Zone. Both were sons of the Pegasus King and likewise led armies of flying horse-types. In addition to these two, the rest of the West Tide who followed the King (rather than their Lord) dominated the Neutral Zone with them.

[How long are we going to stay here?] one of the Pegasus Lords asked his father as their hordes cleared the land of mankind.

The Storm Pegasus King shrugged. [I don't know. Maybe a day. Maybe a year. Maybe a hundred years.]

Until then, mankind had been completely driven out of the Neutral Zone. A new frontier entirely dominated by Wilds suddenly appeared smack dab in the middle of six civilized countries and pushed all their borders back until it claimed a piece of land for itself bigger than any of their remaining turf.

La Vive lost about half its territory, the Wilds rampaging unchecked as far as the border with Hispanol. Itarim lost more than half, retreating to just that highly defensible strip bordering Ceres and Auria. Auria and Germat pulled back most of their forces quickly enough to save their main cities, but each lost sizeable bites of territory and all their border forts. Bellas held out a bit better, but still had to retreat from their borders to a second line of defense set up farther north. Also, the elephants had charged all the way to their northernmost beaches and there milled around aimlessly, unable to proceed farther, while nobody dared to try to drive them away. Ashdale pulled back off the northern continent entirely, and still had to deal with lizards sieging their shores from the sea.

Magic cannons fired and fired all day and into the night. Mana crystals were consumed endlessly. As the day passed, the treasurers and magi of the six countries began to sweat even more than the generals commanding the war.

This entire war was fought over the Last Mana Lode, but none of the countries who joined the war were able to get their hands on it. Urgent letters petitioned their respective authorities to cut down on mana spending, but war took priority, and the Wilds were unrelenting.

Desperate, these battered warring nations looked to even farther allies for help.