Not Again!

The hot sun soon started to drop in the sky as the afternoon turned to evening. Dom had spent his time supporting the Villagers with the building of the Stone Wall. Sostratus had been directing the construction team with his schematics, whilst Wang Shu had been leading the effort to have the stones move in to place and cemented together with a mixture of materials that had been gathered from the surroundings.

Crassus was stood nearby in the Lumber Camp with Septimius the Centurion from the Praetorian Century that had arrived. Pullo was also stood with them and they were having a deep chat about some tactics that they could employ in the forest battlefield.

There was a sense of tension in Riverside, as people quickly worked to prepare for a potential attack. Dom felt the tension as well as there had been no sign from Tomoe. Thankfully the forces that had been outlined were in position, ready to be recalled to create an evening defence line upon the sound of the recall. Dom just hoped Tomoe and her group where back by then.

"How's it going Lord Lazarus?" Lucius asked as he approached from the Centre of the Town. Dom was currently covered in dust from the stone. His weapons laid against a patch of wall that had been completed.

"Tiresome." Dom replied, "The sun is setting and I don't have long left, I just hope nothing happens whilst I am gone."

"We will be fine." Lucius replied seriously, "We have enough competent people that we will be able to hold anything major off until you return. If what ever comes is more powerful than us and you return and we are all gone. Then I am sorry for letting you down."

Dom walked up to Lucius, and patted his Mayor on the shoulder, a gentle smile on his face.

"I expect you to be at the Town Centre doors when I return." Dom stated, "If you are not there I will be very disappointed."

"Of course Lord, I promise I will be there." Lucius replied with a laugh.

"Warriors approaching!" Dom heard a shout from the Forest Edge. He turned his head to look and saw that the Praetorians and Hoplite that were at the edge of the forest parted ways as a small group arrived.

Dom looked and saw a small unit appearing from the forest edge, their normal armour was stained with dry blood and they all had glum faces. Some of them were limping and supporting by others as they appeared. Dom recognised the leader as Deimos the Hoplite, and behind him came more and more Hoplites and Legionaries from Tomoe's unit. As they arrived some of the Hoplite that were waiting quickly approached them and took the injured ones from those that were less injured.

"We need the Doctors!" Deimos shouted as he approached, a pained look on his face as he approached.

"Get the doctors!" Dom ordered as he approached, as one of his guards that was stood close ran of towards the Merchant District to grab Hua Tou or Phoebe. As he shouted it, Deimos noticed him and limped in his direction. "What happened Deimos?"

"We tracked the owner of those eyes for several miles, tracking it back to a cave within the forest. There was nothing around the cave, but per Commander Tomoe's instructions I sent back a scout to get her and the reinforcements to investigate." Deimos replied, "When she arrived, we headed inside to investigate the interior of the entrance and see if we could locate it."

"What did you find?" Dom asked, "And where is Commander Tomoe?"

"She is fine Lord, she is slightly behind us." Deimos replied, "We were attacked by large wolf like creatures, they were larger than any wolf that I have seen before in the mountains near Athens. We fought back against them, taking some serious injuries to the unit. Thankfully Commander Tomoe wielded her sword and struck them down. We have been able to bring everyone back, but erm."

Deimos paused for a second, before looking at the ground with a sad face.

"Not everyone has made it, we brought everyone back but not everyone made it." Deimos repeated, a small tear at the side of his face. "Some of those injured may not make it either."

"Let's hope that they do!" Dom replied, patting his warrior on the shoulder. "They thought bravely for Riverside and they will be honoured. I can't believe it was a Wolf that was watching us and it's pack that have done this!"

"Erm, no Lord." Deimos replied, "I'll let Commander Tomoe explain."

As he said this, Tomoe appeared from the forest, her thick armour covered in dried blood, in her right hand she carried a small sack, red blood dripping from the round contents that were inside. She noticed Dom and Deimos and headed towards them, flanked by two Legionaries that walked with her to protect her flanks.

"Are you ok Tomoe?" Dom asked concerned, seeing that she struggled as she walked.

"I just had the greatest fight of my life." She replied with a sad smile, "However I am worried about my unit, I have lost my first Warriors since arriving in Riverside, men that I had made a connection with and was proud to fight beside."

"It is horrible, but we always knew we would make losses as we try to create this little kingdom in the wilds." Lucius commented from beside Dom, having followed him and stayed quiet until now. "What is in the bag?"

"The real villain." She stated, before opening the bag and pulling out a pale grey head, holding it from it's long silver hair. Its ears were unnaturally pointed at the tips and as it's mouth swung as she held the head high. It's teeth were sharpened to points and were dark and stained. Blood continued to drip from the head as she held it aloft.

"What is that?" Lucius exclaimed, looking at the strange human like head.

"It is unnatural." She replied, "It's not human, It's body is following along with the bodies of our fallen, I bumped in to Tomyris and her men are bringing them back."

"What is it then?" Lucius asked.

"It looks like the images from the stone tablets in the Mausoleum." Gregorios said from behind Dom. "It may be worth asking Dion as he has seen the tablets more clearer though. He should be with Gan Ning."

"Shang Yang has also looked over the tablets so I'll ask them both to do a comparison." Lucius stated, "We need to put that head away before it strikes fear in to people. Was it alone?"

"It was commanding the Wolves, they attacked us at first, and then when we finally started to get control of the situation it appeared and moved like a ghost in the cave, slashing and stabbing at any exposed flank. It had better sight than us in the dark cave and after several bouts I was able to take it's head in a swift movement after a feint." She replied, "It was alone, but it had a packet with some map like parchments, so I believe it may have been a scout."

"We need to get Hua Tou to perform an autopsy on it's body." Dom stated, "Obviously after he has overseen our wounded. We also need to pull the full force back in to Riverside and set up a recurring guard. It may have been a scout but one creature could not have conducted that massacre and placed all of their bodies. Did you find it's bow and arrows?"

"We did find it's bow." She replied seriously, "And some arrows, but it only had two quivers which is not enough. It definitely has allies nearby, potentially other scouts. It was well trained and if an army of these attacked we would loose."

"Thank you Tomoe, go get yourself checked over and cleaned up." Lucius ordered her, "You need some rest, you have done well and we'll make sure to properly pay respects to our fallen."

"Thank you both." She said with a bowed head, "I'll pass the head over to one of my men and check in at the Clinic, I'll see you both later."

Dom looked at the sky and saw that it was nearly dark, he didn't have long left until he had to log out. He felt reassured that they wouldn't be under attack tomorrow, but he did wonder what was next for Riverside. Maybe he would need to follow up on Gan Ning's other plan and reach out to Tongpai Town for reinforcements.

"I need to leave soon." Dom said to Lucius as they headed back towards the Town Centre. Hua Tou's daughter and Doctor Phoebe had headed past them towards the injured troops as they left, whilst Tomyris and her forces had also returned to Riverside.

"We will keep building the wall tomorrow and continue to scout in the forest." Lucius said to Dom, "The arrival of the additional warriors is great, and hopefully Crassus can bring us in some much needed reinforcements such as mercenaries when he returns from his trip."

"Make sure you remind him that we also need the human resource, materials and other rare goods whilst he is there!" Dom stated, "Make sure he doesn't spend all of the money on building his Zoo."

"I will!" Lucius replied with a smile, "But I'm sure people would be grateful for an extravagant distraction."

"We also need to get the mine constructed, we need as much stone as possible." Dom stated, "Can you prioritise having a watchtower built there and a clear communication network so that we can spawn the building. I know we have other priorities, but our two small hills of stone probably won't complete the full inner wall."

"It's on my list, I'll get the watchtowers sorted tomorrow, we need as much of an early warning as possible." Lucius replied.

[10 minutes until forced log out]

Dom smiled in return as he entered the Town Centre, pushing open the doors and heading inside. The Great Hall was still busy with people preparing food for the Warriors and Builders, all of whom would need plenty of rations over the next day or so. He smiled at a few of the people, including Francois Benoit who was overseeing all of the cooking, and the Johnson brother who was a baker and was currently covered in flour.

He headed upstairs in to the living area, noticing that the fire had almost burnt out and that it was quiet. He hadn't seen much of Meritamen today and wondered if she was ok, he hoped everyone was ok and wondered when Tomoe would return to get some sleep now that she had temporarily moved in to the Town Centre.

He shook his head at the chaos that could be caused by the two women who had entered his life in World Conquest Online and was quite looking forward to reality again and chatting with Andrew about what had been going on. He headed up the last flight of stairs and stripped his armour off as he did so, placing the chest piece and grieves on the floor by his staircase, knowing someone else would clean it before he returned.

He stripped off his Toga and headed towards his bed, his eyes partially closed as the tiredness of the last few days hit him. He was thinking deeply on what the next steps of Riverside should be, and how they would deal with all of the growing threats. He hoped that Andrew and Kai joined him soon, and that Crassus was able to use some of their gold to their advantage. Maybe when he logged back in he would use the White Invitation Letter and hopefully end up in an auction or a meeting with a potential ally.

"What a nice body." He heard from the direction of his bed.

He opened his eyes fully all of a sudden, alert, he looked towards his bed, sat on it was Meritamen. Meritamen was sat upright, her legs crossed as she leant forwards. She was wearing only a pale silken skirt that covered her lower body and a see through pale silk top that allowed Dom to see everything that was underneath it, her tanned toned skin clearly defined, as was her voluptuous curves.

"It's been a scary day, and I worried that it may be our last if we were attacked." She stated with a teasing smile. "If it's potentially our last night together, I wanted to enjoy it fully as husband and wife."

As she said this, she slowly started to remove her see through silken top, causing Dom to flush and be flustered as he didn't know what to say. Dom had spent most of his early adult life sharing a dorm room with three men, had even though he had seen women like this, this was the first time in this situation. It's a game Dom kept reminding himself, regardless of how real it all felt. Meritamen smiled as he blushed, knowing she had finally trapped the fly in her web.

Suddenly her eyes opened in shock as Dom disappeared in front of her. The game forcefully logging him out, rather than ending the game in the bed as he usually did, he had logged out stood half naked in front of a stripping woman.

"Not again!" Meritamen angrily growled, seeing him disappear for a second time, however this time not through a portal. She stamped her foot on the floor as she put her top back on and stomped downstairs.