Chapter 288

The easiest way to remove a slave collar like the Nimans use is to kill the one who owns it. Since the authority can only be transferred to someone in direct contact with the current owner, that should still be someone in convoy.

Following that simple logic, by the time they have killed everyone who is not enslaved, the collars should have just fallen right off. The Merged Primal Echoes are thrilled to get to test that theory, mangling bodies to ensure that none get resurrected. Only half the escort force is dead when the collars come free, and the commoners of Skyview join the fight.

The enraged people of Skyview, mostly Beastkin in this convoy, tear into their former captors. They prove to be much more innovative than the Echoes had expected, and the merged pair simply stops fighting for a moment, letting the summons do the work while they take in the truly innovative ways these seemingly ordinary people have thought up to give the slave drivers a truly horrific death without having any specialty tools on hand.

The escorts aren't a full raiding force; they're just there to bring the enslaved people to the market. Once the collars are on, they can't really fight back, and they can only use class abilities with permission. Even running away requires exploiting a loophole in directions to go somewhere, most often an order to get out of a room that was given without a set destination.

The Primal Echo and the summons it calls are coated in an inky black haze, giving them an unnatural feel. Not Demonic, but just as terrifying with a hint of the [Existential Dread] aura emanating from every Summon, as well as coming full force from the Primal Echo.

The primary aura doesn't affect the freed commoners, which are seen as allies by the Echoes, but the unease from the summons isn't easy to ignore. By contrast, the Drakes and Dragons of the Kone clone-led wings are being hailed as heroes by the villages they've been battling in.

The Army Cavalry unit has just arrived at the Bhopal Village and they are sending back an unbelievable tale of a ten-meter tall horrific tentacle monster in the distance, shredding the escorts of the slave convoy.

The news causes confusion in the Throne room, tempered by satisfaction that the rescued villagers have begun returning to the town square, as the beast and its summons are said to have things well in hand at the attack scene.

[Did you send a giant horrific monster to attack the Slave convoy?] King James sends to Cain, who bursts into laughter, startling Duke Chen.

"Sorry, sorry, the Cavalry came across one of my summons, which is a little scary looking and panicked."

[Yes, the Giant tentacle beast with wings is mine. Don't worry; it's friendly, but it will likely be on its way soon; I ordered it to find the convoys.]

Calming the throne room is much more complicated than settling himself, and King James is about ready to start slapping people when the ruckus finally dies down.

"As I've been saying, it's a Summon, a terror tactic designed to panic the slave convoys; of course, it's scary looking. But it's on our side. Now, which Nobles present here have their forces assembled?"

While Maria and the King work out troop deployments, Cain has sent the four Ancient Seraphim he can Summon without transforming through the portal to various villages to look for the main raiding force.

They shouldn't die quickly, as an Epic Summon is equivalent to a Dungeon Boss their level before being buffed by Cain. Legendary summons takes a Raid party of twenty or more to deal with safely. Still, Ancients are on a different level, especially having started as Legendary, with their higher quality skills.

In an entire hundred-person group, there should should be enough firepower to take them out if the group has good coordination.

The real problem with getting to kill them is their skills. In this case, the army of Seraphim, in the case of the melee-oriented Legends, the problem is that they one-hit kill everything in range of their weapons.

The Seraphim are best for group battles, but one of the Legendary Demons in the Census Cain gained from the Demon King is essentially a Legendary version of the Wrath Bringer, twenty meters tall with an ax the size of a small house. If that thing gets you, you're dead. Dead dead, mangled beyond reconstruction slow. Plus, it can fly and use fire magic.

After considering that, Cain decides he's being kind to the Niman forces by sending the Seraphim.

The villagers that are saved by the Seraphim refuse to believe they're summons, their deeply ingrained superstitions lead them to believe that it was a divine intervention that saved their lives. Once the news of multiple groups saved by Seraphim armies starts to spread, commoners from all over this corner of the continent begin to believe that King James and the Skyview Commoners have the favor of the gods.

With the troops sent out, Cain and Chen can return to the Throne Room, catching up on the latest news. The neighboring territories forces caught a wing of the Raiding party and are engaging with the help of a pair of Kone Clones. The Dragons and Drakes are herding them to the infantry, who were having trouble keeping up with the mounted forces, and it is reported to be going well.

But they have also found the cause of the attack; multiple rebel Nobles are with the raiders. According to a captured Slaver, they've been promised every Beastkin in the lands they help the Rebels reclaim as their own, newly independent country.

They're taking most of the Humans too, but that's really of no concern to the Nimans or their allies, just a bonus. The Rebels planned to have their loyal followers join them in the captured lands, not to keep the locals. 

That news had the loyalists in an uproar, and it wasn't the least bit hard to get them to assemble their armies anymore. Many had to be left behind to deal with Gnoll and Goblin attacks and various local concerns, but it didn't take long to gather a large army to go clear the borders.

The banquet scheduled for tonight has been moved to tomorrow in anticipation of ending the battle successfully, so the Nobles involved in the mission are all taking their families home or to a safe location and getting ready for action.

Duke Archibald has territory not far from the border, so he's going there to motivate his tired troops for the next battle of the succession wars, but Duke Chen opted not to take a large territory, and Cain doesn't have a standing army, so they're both remaining with the King for the day.

Currently, the discussion is if the King should stay in the palace; as with the ongoing battles, assassination has become a serious threat again. With Gwen and her Bodyguards, he's feeling reasonably confident, but the danger is still there.

Letting the Rebel Nobles leave the country was likely a mistake, but the act of compassion was appreciated by the soldiers, who will have told their families and friends of the benevolence the new King showed even to defeated enemies.

Image is vital to a King looking for reforms that benefit the commoners. There's no point in making changes if they don't trust you enough to accept them.

The final decision is to stay in the Palace so that the Rebels don't occupy it in his absence and use that as a claim to the rightful rule of the country. With the history of troubled succession in the nation, simply holding the Palace can be considered solid proof of the right to rule by many.

Cain sends an update to Misha and Mythryll, who volunteer to come back in case of a fight, but Cain instructs them to stay home. If Rebels or the Gnolls they've displaced with the latest attacks enter the valley, he's worried Svetlana alone might not be enough of a guard.

The visit to Long Fang City was a resounding success for them today. They got to meet a lot of people, explain who they were and the plans for the valley, and they even managed to find several rare Alchemy ingredients that the Guild had been looking for.

Mythryll also managed to find a good excuse to try out her new class abilities, regrowing the herbs they purchased and repairing and ripening the crops in a number of damaged fields they passed by.

Gnolls haven't been easy on the land, and even with the reduction in taxes and rent, it was looking to be a lean year for some farmers who took the brunt of an attack.

After Mythryll visited, that changed, immediately making her a local folk hero. So much so that even while they're stopped for lunch at a local diner, she is still swarmed by Wolfkin and Werewolf children.

The plan is to go to the City Park after eating and let the kids play until they tire themselves out. The parents of her new followers think that's a great plan, it gets the kids out of the house all afternoon, and they'll come back exhausted. There's no downside for them.

The park is primarily a grassy field with a few benches and barbecue pits, but walnut trees give shade to most of the sitting areas. Long matured and nearing the end of their annual growth cycle, the trees are full of nuts, with more than a few falling to the ground that the local kids like to roast on the barbecue pits using the fallen branches they have collected to keep the park clean.

On the stone bench, Mythryll picks a few of the grapes growing up the back, which have been mostly picked clean this late in the season, though they do find a few late fruits.

Since the nuts only fall once a year, the kids have a pretty good collection of branches ready for when they are all ripened in a few weeks.

For now, some of the werewolves are teaching Mythryll how they use their claws to get the raw ones open to snack on while Misha has begun a game of tag using scraps of cloth from her inventory as proof of a tag.

Red team versus green team, whoever gets all the flags first gets the point; then they're handed out again.

With food everywhere, snacking seems to be the local pastime. Berries, nuts, and leafy greens grow all over the city in such abundance that the locals don't even think that simply grabbing berries to eat as you walk is strange, as it would be anywhere else.

They keep the kids busy until the first calls for dinner are shouted from kitchen windows, the sharp hearing of the werewolves and wolf kin makes sure their parents can easily reach them with a raised voice even from blocks away.

The first call to dinner is the kids signal for everyone to head home, and the ladies can barely stand under the weight of hugs bestowed upon them, promising to come over and play again when the nuts are ready.