Monster Invasion Part 2

Draven landed in the middle of the Lizardmen army. He tossed out a few wind blades and casually walked over to the boss as his wind magic sliced through tens of lizard men at once. 

LIzardmen Chief

Level 20 Elite

Health: 25000

Mana: 15000

Draven scoffed at this boss he wasn't much stronger than the rest his elite status gave it a bit more health and damage, maybe it knows a few spells. But it did not have the incredible attack power and defense of the Stone Elemental. Draven tested its defense with an earth bullet and casually shot it in the chest. He was surprised that it didn't pierce its scales but it was knocked down and seeing the pain on its face Draven was sure he cracked its sternum with that attack. Draven was thinking of all kinds of cool ways to kill this boss and he was thinking of how he wanted to do it. He remembered how he felt when 58 people in the town died because of him. They were at war and people were likely dying at the other battlefields. His trying to be flashy instead of just killing it was resulting in more people dying. 

This realization hit Draven hard and he got upset with himself for having such childish thoughts of acting like some kind of superhero trying to come up with finishing moves. His eyes turned cold as he sunk into the shadow and appeared behind the boss stabbing it into its heart he then looted the creature like it was any other mob and moved on. He stomped the earth with great force causing pieces of ground to crack and get knocked up. Using his psionic magic he turned those pieces of earth into projectiles that flew in separate directions piercing through the heads of the riff-raff in the enemy army. After killing half of the army, Draven hit loot all as he required the dragon SP. Knowing that his group now had the advantage of numbers he left the battlefield. Soaring in the sky he observed the last two battlefields. Having killed the last of the elementals he saw his father flying towards the beast army. 

"Guess I'll deal with the Goblins then," Draven said to himself as he accelerated through the air. He breathed fire on the front lines melting roughly 50 regular goblins. This gave his citizens time to regroup and heal the wounded. A few of the shamans who were goblins that were adept with magic attempted to bring him out of the sky. Draven simply willed them to come to him using Psionic magic he made sure to lift them into the air by their throat. He then pushed more mana into the spell causing the grip he had on them to tighten until their necks snapped. He then let them go and they lifelessly fell from the sky. Draven had enough dealing with the trash mobs as he landed in front of the boss and his two ogre goons. They immediately swung their gigantic maces towards Draven. He was thinking of trying to catch them with his bare hands to see if they even had enough strength to harm him. But that would have been unnecessary he simply fell into the shadow and reappeared behind them. He came just enough out of the shadow so that he could slash at their ankles severing their Achilles tendon. They collapsed to the floor wailing in pain. Draven then picked up one of those maces and started smashing their skulls with it until they were as flat as a pancake. 

The Goblin General as his mystic eye called the boss had a terrified look on his face as he began to look for an escape route. He then sprinted towards the small wooded area that served as a shortcut to reach the mountains. Draven took his time chasing him as he slashed and killed as much of the army as possible as he jogged after the Goblin General. After slaying a large portion of the army by throwing random wind blades left and right he entered the wooded area and saw the General frantically running to reach the other side. Draven gave chase and as soon as he ran past the first set of trees multiple nets came flying at him. Having successfully caught Draven in his net the Goblin General began to laugh "KEKEKEKE"

Many more goblins and hobgoblins along with a few ogres came out of hiding and pounced on Draven even the Goblin General took this opportunity to draw his sword and attacked. 

"Is this normal rope?" he wondered. Draven then slashed at the ropes forming the net and cut them to shreds. Seeing the ambush draven decided to try a new spell he had wanted to try that required Dual Casting to perform. Since all the armies were practically defeated he didn't mind trying out a finisher move he just couldn't help himself as he cried out its name.

Scalding Fog! Draven yelled out as he cast a large amount of water while simultaneously heated it to 100 degrees he then clapped his hands spreading the now steam around him and causing it to envelop his attackers. They all ran through the steam and immediately collapsed to the ground screaming in pain and their entire body was being burned by scalding hot steam. This wasn't enough to kill them but the attack was over. Draven looked around curious about the damage that it had caused. It was such a large amount of steam that no spot on their body was free of blisters. Satisfied with the results Draven ended their misery and chopped off their heads. 

<All 4 Generals have been defeated Monster invasion has repelled.> 

"Looks like Dad killed his general as well," Draven said. He gathered all the orbs and items from the goblins and flew back to Ironforge. "Al can you tell me how many casualties we had during the invasion?"

<A 182 total of Citizens Ironforge have perished during the battle.>

Draven sighed, "That many?" he was hoping that number would be a lot lower. they were too weak as a whole. The town needed to get stronger otherwise everyone would be dead after a few more invasions. Fortunately, there were a lot of orbs for them to level up with now. Draven landed in the town and ate the 2 XP Orbs of the generals he of course didn't gain a level again. Everyone was still busy carving all the creatures from the invasion Draven let them to it. He first wanted to gather all the orbs himself and then distribute them but some people seemed to be in charge of those respective groups and if that was the case he was sure they could distribute the orbs according to who deserved what.

"Al how many people did not participate in defending against the invasion?" Draven asked.

< According to their map locations during the battle a total of 241 people did not participate. of those 48 were under the age 13.>

Draven nodded he was glad Al was able to think along with him. Show me a list of the names of deserters excluding the 48 children. A tab on the map appeared labeled deserters and showed a list of the citizens that were now deemed as deserters. "Al show me the last locations of all the deceased." A bunch of dots appeared on his map and Draven went about to collect all of them placing them into his inventory. It took him about half an hour and people were still carving up the creatures and didn't pay any attention to him picking up their dead comrades. He then placed them all neatly in rows on the stone floors of the town square. Each holding the weapon they died in combat with. With their eyes closed they rested. Everyone started walking back into town with their spoils of war looking happy with their victory. They then saw Draven sitting in a large chair he had gotten from the Townhall. He sat behind all of those who died they were neatly placed in rows. Thinking he wanted to speak on their behalf everyone began to crowd around those who died to protect their town. 

They waited for Draven to speak as more and more joined the crowd surrounding the dead. James had taken his place beside Draven and their own 4 Generals stood slightly to the side. Draven looked at the map and saw that none who had fought were not present in this crowd and all of those who hid from battle were not there. Still hiding in their homes or shops some even dared to be in the bathhouse. 

All those who are uninjured from the battle please form a line of two. Hurry up I don't want to keep our fallen brothers and sisters from their deserved rest any longer than I have to." Draven called out in a solemn voice. They did as he asked and Draven gave each group of 2 a name and the location of each person in hiding and told them to drag them here by force if they had to. Hearing that some people were hiding a look of hatred spread across those gathered and they did as he asked. Multiple groups of two ran around Ironforge gathering all those who didn't participate. Within 20 minutes truly everyone was now gathered. Draven had the 193 deserters stand in their own group upfront forcing them to stare at the bodies of those who died. Draven saw a man turn his head to look away and he became furious.

"Don't you dare look away! You who hid in your bed as these brave men and women fought to death to protect Ironforge and you dare not even look at them!" The man started to shake but refused to turn his head to look at the bodies. Draven slipped into his shadow and appeared behind the man who nearly had a heart attack seeing Draven suddenly appear. Draven grabbed him behind the head and forced him to his knees. Holding his head in place by grabbing his hair he forced his face to get very close to that of a woman that had died. "Look at her! She is no longer with us. She fought and died. She showed more balls than you ever had in your entire life. Now she is gone. Do you think she might have survived if another 193 people had joined the fight? It's a possibility, right? just one more person standing beside her to protect her flank?" Draven said as he pointed to the stab wound on her side. 

"Im a Craftsman not a combatant if I die you will lose someone who is dedicated to making weapons and armor!" He yelled out to his defense. "So you're saying your life is more important than hers?" Draven asked looking at him with cold eyes. He then turned to the crowd. "Do any of you think your life is more valuable than the person next to you? Any of you know this guy and think his life is more valuable than hers?" he said pointing to the corpse in front of him. No one said a word as they simply shook their heads. 

"Let me make something very clear to everyone," Draven said turning to the crowd still holding on to the man's head by his hair. You are only as useful as your level. The further you fall behind the more useless you become. I went out of my way to help all of you. To free you from the shackles that prevented you all from getting stronger. None of you have an excuse anymore. I couldn't give two shits about what professions any of you have. Do we need people with professions? We sure do that's not even a question. But as I am sure you all have noticed, the things you can learn are tied to your level when you reach the next rank you can learn more stuff. What does that mean? It means everyone is a combatant it doesn't help anyone if the things you make are for novice Orbhunters and the rest of us are ranked Bronze. If you don't fight you aren't leveling up. If you don't level up your professions are useless to me. Maybe one day in the distant future when we have recreated civilization again non-combatants can exist. But that is not today we are at war with the world and everyone needs to chip in. We are on the brink of extinction we can't afford to feed and give resources to people unwilling to do their part." Draven yelled out loud enough for his voice to ring through Ironforge.

"As the leader of Ironforge, I revoke your status of citizenship. Al did the background work and removed that man from the list of citizens. A blinding light formed around him and he was teleported out of Ironforge. Standing outside of its barrier he slammed his fist against it unable to come back in. The rest of the 192 People who had not fought in the invasion started to scream and shout. They cried and begged for Draven to show mercy. "You're sending us to die!" A woman frantically yelled out. Draven shadow stepped to her causing her to freeze in shock. Everyone became quiet. "How can I send you out to die when in my heart you all are already dead?" I would trade any of you to bring back any one of them." Draven said pointing toward the rows of corpses. "It's better to get rid of disappointments before they can disappoint you again," He added. "We can change we will work hard and fight in the next invasion. We will right everyone?" she asked looking at the others in her situation they all nodded at neck-breaking speeds. "Can any of them change?" Draven asked pointing to the dead again. "Can any of them grow stronger, accomplish their goals, redeem their mistakes, find love, or even eat another meal? Why should I afford that privilege to any of you when I can't give it to them?" 

"I'll give you guys a deal. I spent a month out there by myself i learned a lot and it changed my perspective on many things. If all of you manage to survive out there until the next invasion and then fight the monsters and survive I will allow you to come back. You will all be listed as deserters until then and must pay to enter Ironforge to use the pods to rank up. All other facilities are prohibited. You will sleep outside and will conduct all business outside. I will make sure that a merchant comes out once a day to make any trades. Don't expect to find any deals." Draven said. He didn't want to kill them he just needed to make an example of them. By creating a lower class that citizens will constantly see they will work harder to not end up like them. Before they could voice any more opinions Draven spoke up once more.

"I hereby revoke the citizenship status of all the Deserters," Draven yelled. AL went to work as one by one blinding flashes of light surrounded them and teleported them outside the barrier. Screams of desperation could be heard from all around them but no one had a look of pity on their faces. "I will not tell you what you can and can't do but I would think twice before any of you go out of your way to help them or share resources with them. They need to earn their right to come back. Imagine you would have died while they cowered in their rooms waiting for it to be over so they could go back to their daily lives while all of you sacrificed yourselves for their sake." Draven waited a moment to let what he said sink in. "Now let us bury our brothers and sisters they have waited long enough." Everyone nodded and helped move the bodies. Draven could have placed them in his inventory again but decided against it. By carrying them it allowed everyone to show their respect and gratitude for their sacrifice. Draven helped carry a body with his father as well. He used his magic to open the graves in the cemetery and the Generals spoke out to what they could remember of the actions the dead took on the battlefield before their death. 

After all was said and done Draven and James went back to the Townhall as they had a lot to discuss with AL. As soon as Draven arrived he placed his hands on terminal. 

"Do your thing AL."

<On it Draven. Scanning Terminal Complete. Vulnerabilities detected. Creating filtering software. Software installed. Searching for locally stored files. Files found. implementing Filter on audio Audio files have been filtered. It is now safe to speak freely in front of this terminal. I installed Filtering software that searches any words relating Djinn or its abilities will then delete those and replace them with something else. The Ten'ok disregard these recordings as nonsense from a lower being. This work even if the decides listen you real-time.>

Good job AL that takes a load off my shoulders. Can you speak through the speaker of the terminal or some other device it will make it easier for my father to ask you questions and I don't have to repeat everything you say. 

< Of course the terminals do not record the audio coming from the terminal to make it easier for the Ten'ok to sift through the data. You will be required to keep your hand on the terminal for me to maintain a connection with the speakers though.>

Draven nodded as he placed his hand back on the Terminal. 

<Hello James, I am Alazahr you can call me AL. the A.I. of Draven's Djinn System. It is nice to meet you.">