The Wall

Dom had left the Dock and the almost complete Trireme Galatea, which would be the start of Riverside's Navy. He had bid farewell to Himilco and was being accompanied by Lucius and Subutai across the Town towards the Inner Wall that was being constructed. As usual they were flanked by Dom's guards and were making a steady pace.

"You need to go rest." Dom stated to Lucius, who had dark marks under his eyes.

"I would, but there is so much to do, we need to be prepared for the worst." Lucius replied.

"We are preparing as well as we can." Subutai said, "We have our army ready, Crassus is getting us mercenaries, the Wall is being built. There is little else that we can do."

"I know that, but...." Lucius went to reply.

"No buts." Dom replied seriously, but this was broken by the slight giggles of Gregorios and Trojan that followed behind. Dom turned and glared at the two guards, who quickly looked away innocently. "You have worked hard and you need to rest."

"I will after things have calmed down." Lucius said grumpily.

"No, you will go rest now, that is an order from your Lord." Dom ordered, knowing that if he didn't order Lucius to do it, he wouldn't.

"I agree with the Lord." Subutai stated, "Get some rest and then join us later, we need you at your best."

"Fine!" Lucius grumbled, "I'll get some sleep, but if anything major happens I expect to be awoken immediately."

"Of course!" Dom agreed, patting his Mayor on the shoulder, "Thank you for everything Lucius."

Lucius gave a slight smile back, before heading off towards the Heroes Hall whilst Dom and Subutai continued to the wall. It was around five metres high now and covered the majority of the northern front of Riverside, encompassing from the pathway that travelled to the mountain in the east, across the manufacturing district and now starting to curve around the Military District.

They headed past the Brewery where a strong smell of fragrances could be smelt, Dom wondered what Peruda and her family were making, but he was happy to taste it. They then walked past the Blacksmiths and could see that the smoke was still flowing from it's forge, as more and more weapons from the Ancient Underground Kingdom were made usable.

They soon reached the base of the wall and Dom was impressed by the structure and could see almost one hundred people moving the huge mounds of stone that had been spawned by the White Cubes to build the Wall. Dom could see Wang Shu in the distance directing the construction effort as people of all types were involved with the construction. In the centre of the Wall was a large opening where wooden structures had been built as they attempted to manufacture a gatehouse for the Inner Wall.

Shang Yang was stood, discussing things with Sostratus over the Wall Schematics that were lay on a wooden table in front of them. Beside them was a tall man with a hammer, who Dom recognised as one of the Blacksmiths, as well as one of Wang Shu's sons.

"Good morning Lord Lazarus!" Shang Yang announced from the table as he saw them approaching. "We are just getting the gates manufactured and this part of the wall should be complete for phase one, we will then be building some alternate towers that will be attached to it."

"Did we get some schematics for towers?" Dom asked excitedly, already impressed by what they had been able to construct in such a short period of time.

"No, but Sostratus here has been able to design a schematic based on the Wall Schematic and the Watchtower Schematic." Shang Yang replied, "Due to this, we will have Towers constructed across the wall where our Horse Archers can fire down at any enemy that approaches. As Riverside grows, hopefully we will have a permanent Archer division that can man these walls."

"Hopefully we can remove more of the forest and create a temporary killing field." Subutai replied, looking through the location of where the gate should be and seeing that lots of trees had been felled.

"We have more than enough wood to keep us going." Shang Yang agreed, "We are stockpiling it and should be able to build houses at a quick pace once we get round to actually using the felled trees."

"Everyone has worked hard." Dom agreed, "We'll need to make sure that everyone gets a reward once this has been completed."

"I'll see to it Lord Lazarus." Shang Yang stated, "What are your plans for the rest of the day?"

"I intend to check on Tomyris and Tomoe, whilst awaiting Gan Ning's return." Dom replied, "Hopefully by then we will be able to plan our next steps. I may even go and train with Pullo some more if possible."

"That would be an excellent idea." Shang Yang agreed, "Constant training will make you better equipped for any eventuality."

"I shall return to overseeing the forces." Subutai stated, patting Dom on the shoulder, "Send for me if you need anything."

"I will, thank you both." Dom replied, as he headed through the gap in the wall towards the overflowing Lumber Camp that had lots of large silver logs pilled high beside it. Dom noticed Lars and his sons were directing people that were working as they cleared the forest in a semi circular fashion. A large gap now appearing between the newly constructed Wall and the Forest edge. The more forest that was cut down, the more land became available to Riverside for when this situation ended, and Dom was excited to see what would happen when they enacted Stage two of their growth plan.

Horse Archers were stationed across the open ground, patrolling in small units as they trotted their horses up and down the wall, keeping their eyes constantly on the forest were Tomyris and Tomoe were both stationed with their forces. Dom also noticed plenty of Legionaries involved with both the forest clearance and the wall construction and was once again grateful for the Legionary Warriors Hall that he had, solving both a military and engineering problem.

He headed over and chatted with Lars for a while, discussing their progress that seemed to be ahead of schedule. Lars even brought up his intention to buy some land as soon as the currency was released, which was put on hold again, due to the Type 3 humans attack. As they talked, a shout came from the forest announcing that allied forces were returning.

They had created three signals, that could be easily spread across the watch towers. One horn announced the return of allies, two horns announced an unknown approaching force and three horns announced enemies approaching. Each unit of eight had been given a horn that had been manufactured in the Blacksmiths, this meant that both the Watchtower and armed forces had enough to communicate with each other. Gan Ning and Subutai had also been discussing some other signals and how they could incorporate them in to the army.

Dom looked to the forest edge and soon saw a red flag with a Sabre Tooth Tiger's face on the front, signifying that Gan Ning and his force had returned from their mission. He first noticed a collection of Spartans, that were now Dom's Elite unit, followed by some Legionaries, led by Macro who had accompanied Dom and Gan Ning on their first southern expedition. Soon Dom saw Gan Ning, who was all smiles, which was a huge relief to Dom.

"Welcome back Lord!" Gan Ning shouted loudly as he headed over towards Dom. "How have you been?"

"I've been good!" Dom replied, "Just worried about all of you whilst I was gone. How was your search?"

"Successful." Gan Ning stated, "We have done a full search of the cave, it wasn't very deep and we had taken some of the glow stones that we had brought back from the Ancient Underground City. We have collected some maps built on similar parchment to what we use, these should give us a better idea of our location compared to theirs. We found some more tools and some personal possessions from the creature that we discovered. I am happy to confirm that it seemed that it was alone."

"That is great news." Dom agreed, turning to those around him "Let's head to the Town Centre and get a full report! Trojan, please find Subutai and Lucius, hopefully he has gotten some sleep. Gregorios, please get in touch with some runners to get Tomyris and Tomoe as well. We shall all meet at the Map Room within the next hour!"

Everyone took their orders and headed out, whilst Dom walked with Gan Ning towards the Town Centre. Behind them a small group of Legionaries walked, carrying a collection of bags of items that had been gathered from the now empty cave.

"Are you confident they were alone?" Dom asked as they approached the Town Centre.

"Very much so!" Gan Ning replied with a smile. "I believe that the main force would have cleared this area previously, which is why the bodies we found were around a month old. We arrived after that period and may have accidently stumbled across the outer scouts. It seems this enemy may have been alone for now, we just need to hope he hasn't sent a signal to the main force."

"If he hasn't and we got to him quick enough, then we may be safe for a while." Dom replied, a huge relief washing over him. He pushed over the Town Centre doors and stepped inside, the legionaries following them as they headed towards the Map Room.

"Very true." Gan Ning agreed, "What we need to do is locate where they would have been based, where these bodies arrived from, and which direction they are heading in now. If it is to the West, then we need to look at the situation with the Mine that we want to spawn, if it is to the East, then it may be in the direction of Tongpai Town, if it is in the north, then we should be safe for the forceable future."

"I do not believe it is the West." Dom said as they went in to the Map Room and the legionaries dropped their bags around the edges, before bidding farewell and heading outside of the Town Centre.

"Why is that?" Gan Ning asked, opening the bag that had the maps inside it, taking them to an empty block that hadn't been used yet and putting it on top.

"If they had headed west, we would have bumped in to them during one of our earlier excursions." Dom said, "Also, Gluttonous Chief's Village was to the West and neither Atzi or Tayanna mentioned anything life this."

There was no reply, and Dom wondered why Gan Ning hadn't responded. He turned to him, and saw that Gan Ning was staring at the map intently, surprisingly serious for his cheerful General.

"What's up Gan Ning?" Dom asked as he headed over to see what he was looking at. He looked down and saw that the forest was clearly marked out, the bottom left of the Map was the mountain, and the map travelled far to the east of the forest and then straight north and continued for a while. There were several cross marks on the map, as well as a couple of large square boxes.

"I think we are safe." Gan Ning responded finally, "They haven't even travelled this far south yet, I believe that these squares are settlements, and the crosses are places that are some form of point of interest. What worries me is this square here."

Gan Ning pointed to a square that was towards the North East of Riverside and on the edges of a small shaded area which Dom assumed was a lake and the edge of the forest. From a distance perspective, Dom felt it was at least three days away if they travelled in a direct line with no forest, however if they actually wanted to get to that area, it would take them at least a week.

"What is it?" Dom asked.

"I think." Gan Ning replied, "That is Tongpai Town. If that is the case, then there is a chance that they are the next target."

Dom suddenly realised the situation, Tongpai Town were technically their enemy, however the Type 3 humans were a different species and were more of an enemy. He had a conundrum and needed to make a decision on what they should do next.