CHAPTER 84: PIERCING CRY

"My Lord. All safety measures have been taken, you can come out now," Captain Mera Vill said.

Captain Mera looked like a soft woman with lovely grey eyes and golden hair. Her armor did nothing to hide her curves as they seemed to be made specifically to fit her.

Even her smile was warm and her voice charming. There was nothing about her that screamed danger or such.

And yet, she had the title of Captain in the Dragon Guard, a force that was once known as the strongest within the Empire. And even now, a lot of people still feared them.

Mera Vill wasn’t a Vorrakyn, not even from the West. She was one of the talents scouted by the family and smuggled out of the capital to Kragthar.

Families do that sometimes.

They look for street brats, beggars, and such to scout for talent to absorb.

Vacuse knew all too well that those in the Dragon Guards deserved to be there. Even with how far the Vorrakyn had fallen, you can still only rise in the family through strength.

He smiled back at her as he came down from the carriage, the orc heir and his captain right behind them together with Harkon.

He stared at the sinking sun and held back a sigh.

Ever since the trip started, Vacuse realized why Drenvar had personally sent the back carriage over. It was because it was an artifact.

And a mid-rank one at that.

It was covered in runes that served different functions, but it felt more like a prison than something that was to keep him safe. And then there was the way the Dragon Guards were operating.

Every inch of land was scouted ahead and anything suspicious, even trees, were immediately destroyed and all the surrounding monsters and animals killed.

They weren’t taking any chances at all.

But Vacuse didn’t mind that much since they were protecting his life.

"Good job, Captain Mera."

She nodded and gestured to a table and chairs that were set beside a burning fire. Ragna and Vacuse approached it and everyone around bowed.

A man with white hair rubbed his beard softly as he stared at Vacuse taking his seat together with Ragna. "Lord Vacuse, I see that you made Lyra Vacuse the captain of your logistics."

Vacuse finished eating the meat he was eating and swallowed it with water. "You are... Percival, right."

Percival was the leader of the diplomatic delegation sent by Drenvar. The man was also in charge of teaching Vacuse about... anything and everything.

He bowed and took a seat not too far from them.

The group was settling down around them, tents were getting erected, and the soldiers were preparing for camp. But they were all silent as they moved efficiently and quickly.

Vacuse looked at Percival. "You don’t approve?"

Percival smiled. "On the contrary. I think it’s a very wise choice. She was one of my students when she was still training in the castle and I can tell that she’s going to bring a lot to your team."

Vacuse didn’t say anything.

After the delegation group was made and sent over, Vacuse had charged Lyra with finding out any information about them and that was how he knew that he was her previous teacher.

He also learned that Percival wasn’t just a normal scholar. He was a spy and part of Drenvar’s spy network.

He continued eating in silence for a while before he spoke again. "Percival, how do you think our mission could be successful?"

Percival smiled wearily. "This is a question that the Dragon Lord and the entire Dragon Lord logistics intelligence have tackled before we set off."

His eyes flickered to Ragna. "I think... we can’t properly answer such questions for now. We, the Vorrakyn, want to ally with them. We can only wait for their own response."

Vacuse smiled. "I guess... we will have to wait then."

He didn’t say anything more about it and just continued eating.

The night went on peacefully, and the night after that, nothing strange happened and the next morning, they began the trip again and towards nightfall, they saw the fortress in the distance.

The Standpoint fortress.

It was evening and the sun was going down. The small light fluttered in through the bars. Vacuse was watching things pass by lazily.

"How long are we going to use in the fortress?" Ragna asked with a grimace.

Vacuse smiled. "You really don’t like this place, do you?"

Ragna snorted. "The Standpoint is a fortress hated by the Warbines. It’s literally a point where several invasions have been carried out against us.

"It’s also a fortress we want to tear down or own. It’s a good point for us to carry out our invasion of the West."

Vacuse nodded thoughtfully. "That’s a very good point. The Standpoint guards from the wilderness and it’s also a strategic place to fight the West from.

"Too bad it’s never been conquered before."

Ragna gave a slow smile. "Maybe it’ll happen in your time."

Vacuse snorted and shrugged. "Who knows, a lot of things are happening in my time that have never happened before. More are set to happen."

Ragna nodded. "I suppose."

It was then that it happened.

A whistling sound that pierced through the air like a bird’s angry cry.

Everyone looked up immediately.

If there was ever a way for an attack to hit the diplomatic group, then it could only come from the sky. And that was why the Dragon Guards had taken precautions.

Not all of the Dragon Guards were Vorrakyn. In fact, most of them were not, and that was to bring in diverse pathways to the Dragon Guard.

One of those pathways was the one with a bird monster that roamed the sky and scouted for them.

Below, one of the Dragon Guards clutched her chest, her eyes went wide, and she fell foaming on the ground while she thrashed, limbs flailing around.

Everyone that saw her winced as they understood what had just happened. Her Bound beast must have been hit.

Dead or alive, that’s to be seen.