* * * * * *
Currently, it had been three days and four hours since the start of the Mounted Race. Smoke and the rest of the members of the Non Aggression Pact arrived in Barat safely.
Many factors were involved in order to cross Wundern desert with minimal casualties. The monsters hiding beneath the sands, the deadly scattered quicksand, and most importantly the sandstorms that destroyed anything in its path.
This was the reason why the coalition were leisurely eating the looted food from Brandal's fort, and resting their mounts for the next part of the race.
Parties who had members above fifteen wanted to join in on their Pact. Smoke wanted to accept everyone, but the other party leaders were hesitant.
They thought that if they had more members the division between the loot would greatly decrease. Smoke pointed out that the other Brandal bases could potentially have 500 bandits in them.
Mamelon argued that 500 was an overestimation. The council of party leaders and Soutien voted to limit the members of the Non Aggression Pact to a maximum of 300. Everybody in the front runners group applied to join Smoke's Non Aggression Pact.
As the main pack of the mounted racers arrived they were intrigued to see that the front runners did not go their separate ways.
The unfamiliar arrivals asked around and learned about the Non Aggression Pact. Most of them quickly applied, and their quota of 300 members was instantly achieved.
The new members were informed that Smoke, Mamelon, and the council of party leaders were the ones who led this coalition.
The other riders who were unfortunate enough not to join the Non Aggression Pact tried to form their own customized party.
However, the other riders were not able to bring themselves to trust each other, without the Pact's security features.
An hour after the tumultuous formation of the 300 coalition riders, Sagen and the rest of the stragglers arrived.
When Sagen saw that the DarkElf had increased his men, Sagen promptly gathered his twenty-five guild members. He lost four of his men when they crossed Leiden bridge.
"Everybody! Ilad has increased his ranks by this much. Our only chance at extracting our revenge is from a surprise attack. Looking at them closely. Ilad is only really close to those two Lioumereans."
Sagen faced him and checked on the conditions of their mounts.
"Alright, you have ten minutes to rest. We have to leave Barat village straightaway."
The Feras guild members groaned but obediently followed Sagen's command.
Smoke saw Sagen and wanted to play around with him. He was about to walk to him when the Feras guild leader and his men started for the plains, and directly headed out to Wundern dessert.
The DarkElf stood in disbelief. He decided to follow them with his eyes. He used his ability 'Telefax Vision'. Sagen and his men rode their mounts at full speed.
Another fifteen minutes in, and the Feras guild members were in the territory of Wundern desert. Smoke started to go back to rejoin Gandiva and Laernea.
Smoke thought that Sagen was up to something and prepared some countermeasures. They still had another hour to rest before the agreed upon time that the coalition riders were to head for the desert.
As Smoke turned around he saw a black shadow appear in the corner of his eye. Smoke relied on his long range vision once more. The black shadow turned out to be a sandstorm in Wundern dessert.
Everyone barricaded themselves in Barat village. They waited another three hours, before the sandstorm dispersed.
Without delay, all the riders went on their way. The 300 members of the coalition faced the Wundern dessert with renewed vigor.
The desert had assorted creatures from small insects to harmless birds. However it also had formidable monsters.
Wundern desert had wild bronze jackals, nocturnal aardwolves, burrowed sandcats, poisonous chuckwallas, and the king of the desert the bearded dragon Pogona.
The coalition of riders struck all the hostile monsters in its path. The sandcats relied on their ability to travel under the sand, but with the Druids' help, they efficiently tracked down the sneaky monsters.
The Druids pointed at the locations on the ground, and Knights with long spears and lances would pierce it with their weapon's full length. Experience wasn't included in the Pact. This made everyone work for their own XPs.
Packs of bronze jackals and nocturnal aardwolves were usually hard to capture. Despite that, the coalition's overwhelming numbers gave them the needed manpower to capture every one of the mountable monsters.
They tied Calming Rope on the monsters' necks and towed them to the next village. Calming Rope was a rope especially designed to help domesticate these rideable monsters.
A staggering haul of fifteen bronze jackals and twenty-two nocturnal aardwolves alone was estimated to be at 31,100,000 zecs.
The 300 coalition members were all in high spirits when the sand that they stood on drastically shifted. Some of the riders were thrown off from their mounts.
From the epicenter of the shifted sands emerged the ruler of Wundern. Pogona, the 60 foot long, bronze scaled, bearded dragon.
It was a flightless dragon, but its enormous size made it a horrifying monster.
Pogona used its split tongue hissed at the members of the coalition. With its spiked tails, it thrashed the Pact members behind it.
Everyone was stupefied. Smoke saw that no one moved at all. They just stared at the massive bronze bearded dragon.
Smoke knew that he had to do something. He tried his best to his loudest battle cry.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The DarkElf dismounted from his hell boar and ran on foot towards the bronze bearded dragon. Pogona clawed the charging Smoke with its right front legs.
Using his 'Cunning of the Dire Fox' ability, Smoke dodged the attack and grabbed the dragon's leg instead.
Smoke's scream and his fight with Pogona awoke the astounded Pact members. All the ranged fighters released their projectile attacks.
Mamelon shouted her orders.
"All melee attackers, follow Ilad's example and jump on the dragon! Healers pour out all of your mana and protect our people from dying."
Pogona's lifebar displayed (412,927/500,000 HP). The bombardment from all 300 members of the coalition kept on with their attacks.
The bronze bearded dragon was desperate. It tried to shake off the attackers that were on top of its skin. Pogona managed to throw some of them off, but the Pact members were relentless.
The king of the dessert tried to burrow into the sand but the Aqua Knights and the Flame Knights meddled with the sand, and made it impossible for the Pogona to escape into it.
Smoke ran up from the right front leg to the monster's head. From there, the DarkElf shoved his flaming Rzeka glaive into the dragon's right eye.
"KIRRRYYYAAAAAAAA!"
Pogona screamed in pain as its eye was gouged out. Smoke completely blinded the bronze bearded dragon as his glaive took out Pogona's left eye.
Smoke went to the back of the bronze bearded dragon's neck. He started to hack away the bronze scales to sever the monster's head.
Tirer, and Virer, the two Flame Knights from Confiance helped with this endeavor. The king of Wundern dessert still had (207,416/500,000 HP) left.
This time, Flux and Courant, the two Electro Knights from Confiance, joined them in attacking Pogona's neck. The monster tried to reach them with its claws, but its joints were not able to bend that far.
Pogona shook and thrashed its body. It rolled on its back, and tried to crush the attackers on its body. Smoke and the other Elemental Knights managed to jump off, but the other Pact members were not as fortunate.
The bronze bearded dragon's weight alone crushed 15 of the Pact's members and killed them. However, now that the dragon exposed its belly, the damage from surviving members increased.
The lighter bronze scales on Pogona's belly had lesser defense than on its back. It took them another ten minutes before they finally killed the king of Wundern desert.
* * * * * *
The village of Selatan was 20 kilometers north of Betul village. There was another forest fragment of Otaczac from Wundern desert before you could reach Selatan village.
Sagen and his twenty-five Cavalry Knights miraculously survived the sudden sandstorm that insurged when they entered the desert of Wundern.
They avoided any hostile monster and rode straight on to reach the thick forest fragment. He decided to travel on without substantial rest in order to set a trap against his hated DarkElf.
Sagen gambled on his target's tendency to have a fair distance away from the rest of his allied riders. The Stealth Knight noticed that he only had the two Lioumereans close to him.
"Sir Sagen, we have our men in position."
"Good, once that bastard Ilad is within view all of us will grab him and kill him. Don't worry about the Chaotic Evil alignment. I'll give the Ilad's killer five times the amount needed to purify that alignment."
The promise of zecs spurred on the Feras guild members. As they hid in wait of their DarkElf target. Five shadows casted over Sagen.
He looked up and saw five falcons flying above his men. He thought that it was strange to see a Hunter's pet in the middle of the forest.
Then he felt the tall shrubs in the forest move. A lone one armed man came out. Sagen thought that he looked familiar but couldn't recall from where.
Afterwards, a red Werebear came out from the opposite direction of the one armed man. Sagen finally remembered the one armed man. He was a member of Smoke's private army.
The mysterious player who was as famous as Tristan and Amahan. He was confused about what they were doing there. The red Werebear went closer to him and asked him.
"You're, Sagen, right?"
The Stealth Knight's face grew more bewildered.
"Why do you know my name?"
"I heard that you were out to get Ilad, the Flame Knight from Coatl?"
"Huh? What does that have to do with you?"
"Well, he is a member of our group, and that means he is under Smoke's protection."
"So that's why that bastard was so confident. I don't give a damn about Smoke! I'm not afraid of him."
Sierra nodded at Adder, and spoke.
"Then you've declared war against us."
"HAHAHAHA! You, Ilad, and Smoke are hilariously. Guys I'll give 10,000,000 zecs to whoever kills the one armed man and 20,000,000 zecs to the one who kills the Werebear."
The Feras Cavalry Knights immediately charged at Sierra. Their damage against her averaged from 300-450 damage points.
After the twenty five Cavalry Knights attacked Sierra, her lifebar was left with (254,575/265,200 HP). The were astonished at how low their damage was. They thought to change targets. The Cavalry Knights shifted directions and went after Adder.
However, before they reached the one armed man, forty modified fishing nets were thrown from behind the tall shrubs.
The Cavalry Knights tumbled into each other and were entangled by the fishing nets. Sagen looked to the direction where the fishing nets were thrown from, and forty leather-armored Fishermen came out.
There were still movements from behind the shrubs. Four Hunters and two Range Siegers stepped out with their bows and ballistae pointed at Sagen.
All six of them released their bolts and arrows and pierced through Sagen's armor. Jinggu and Sharur's bolts knocked him off his mount.
Sagen scrambled to get back on his mount. The Stealth Knight tried to escape with his acinonyx cheetah, but Sharanga's falcon dropped an eight trap system on him.
Sagen and his acinonyx cheetah were pinned down to the ground. They had no power to overcome the weight of special trap designed for the Maneator.
Sierra walked calmly towards Sagen.
"I heard Ilad promised you that he would reduce all the members of your guild to level zero. I think that such a thing would be too harsh, even for a bastard like you. So, I'm giving you this final chance. Stay away from Ilad or else I won't be able to stop them from keeping his promise."
While Sierra threatened Sagen a group of fifty leather-armored Farmers equipped with menacing pitch forks came up from behind her.
Sagen started to grovel.
"Thank you... Thank you... I promise, this time I'll really stay away."
"Good. I knew you'd be able to understand the situation."
