Chapter 368 - The Siege (Part-1)

Ryuu leaned against a chair, various food items were placed on top of his table, his hand firmly grasping a goblet full of wine, against him sat Dhaeq and his lovely wife Kiesa, compared to all the female of the 'Blood Mountain Horde', she was a petite looking woman but was vicious in battle wielding a bastard sword at least twice her height and the only person Ryuu had seen doing something similar was sister Neacht. He had fought alongside her and saw her cleave creatures half with each swing a testament to her strength not to mention all the battle scars specially on the left side of her face indicated that the power couple were bought battle crazy duo.

Ryuu felt a colossal headache forming, "So more and more refugees are coming to seek shelter in your tribe because the 'Emperor' is tearing them apart, so how dangerous is this Emperor."

Dhaeq gained a solemn look on his face as did his wife as he spoke with a tired sigh, "You saw the group that arrived today, a few hours ago?"

Ryuu nodded at that as he spoke, "I do around 100 something arrived so what about them."

Kiesa replied on her husband's behalf, "They were around 50,000 strong and we were its vassal."

Ryuu's eyes widen as Dhaeq continued, "Not only that but we have already lost many of our sister tribes and it seems in our region we are the last one standing."

Ryuu's grip on the goblet hardened as he understood the full implication of everything another tough battle that would lose huge amount of their lives, lives that they will have to pay if they want to move to the next level after all their 300 days were not yet over and abandoning the shelter might very well be a defeat which they have to pay with their lives, it was so irritating if they could just wait for another week then they could qualify to move to the next level and they will not have to tussle with the so called 'Emperor'."

Ryuu looked at them as he spoke, "How frequent do this Emperor's pop up?"

Kiesa frowned as she spoke, "Long time ago our honorable ancestors were part of an extremely large tribe of a few hundred thousand strong an Emperor attacked with his horde and now we are just scattered remains of the once glorious tribe."

Dhaeq squeezed her wife's hand as he spoke, "We were only saved by the timely intervention of a great hero, but enough of that we decided that if it is our fate to disappear in the sands of time then so be it, but there is still time for you all to escape from here, it is our tribe and as such we do not wish for our guests to suffer you all have done more than anything we could ask you have stood shoulder to shoulder and fight alongside us but please do not thing that it is an insult but we do not wish for you to fall alongside with us."

Ryuu closed his eyes and mulled over the situation with careful consideration as he spoke, "Brother Dhaeq I do not know about my other companions but I believe if it is to be our last stand than we should try to do so when our feet are firmly on land rather than while in stormy seas, I believe abandoning you would be a death sentence to us because we are very few in number as such chances are that we will not survive out in the open, but if we stay here I will acknowledge that we all might not survive but at least we have a chance to win, upon saying that I cannot speak on behalf of others who are my companions I will have to ask them on what they want or not but I will tell you here and now I am staying. "

Dhaeq let out a tired but relieved sigh as he spoke, "Thank you brother thank."

Their talk went on for at least an hour before Ryuu began moving towards the place of their residence, he was smoking from his trusted kiseru with a frown etched on his face as he entered the place many cultivators who were loitering around looked at him.

"Please summon everyone around something important has happened I need to inform and discuss any further future course of action.", with his piece said he sat on the nearest chair staring at the wall as his head was swimming with ideas.

A shake brought him out of his thought as Ryuu looked to see Zywia looking at him with a frown, "Is something wrong brother Ryuu?"

Ryuu gave her a small smile as he spoke, "Yes Sister there is something wrong as such I summoned all of you.", with a huff he stood up as he spoke loud and clear.

"My brothers, my sisters and my comrades in arms for the last 292 days we have toiled hard to protect our shelter and in doing so we already have lost couple of our esteemed comrades it was such a sad day for us, we all are tired from constant battles and we are on verge of moving to the next level within a week but alas it seems Eden is once again after us."

As he spoke the ear shattering silence reigned the room as Ryuu looked at each one of them directly in the eye, 'If I were back in earth there were many who would have thrown tantrum upon the word 'comrade' I never understood even after dying why they did that, it is just a word synonymous to friend'.

He took a deep breath as he began speaking, "I was having a conference with the Chieftain from who I just learned that 10 tribes in the surrounding area including the Royal tribe whose vassal our host is, has been wiped out few of their survivors have joined our host and I believe many of you have seen their arrival seeking refuge.", many of them nodded as some of them frowned thinking about where Ryuu was leading the conversation to, "From them I have learned that they were attacked by something that they are calling 'Emperor' beast, according to them similar beast had attacked their ancestors long ago and had decimated a tribe with the strength of few hundred thousand.", he stopped letting his words sink into their mind as he continued again, "I know you have seen the strength of the members of this tribe as such you can safely guess its strength when the Chieftain simply told me to abandoned them to their fate and escape while it is still time."

At his proclamation everyone was startled the entire clan was warrior like and respected strength for them to say something like that was worrisome for them as one of them suddenly broke down as she spoke, "Is it going to be a repeat of the 2nd floor again."

Ryuu simply nodded at that as he spoke, "It might be."

The room erupted into complete pandemonium as everyone was shouting as a good few decided to abandon and run from this place.

"SHUT UP!!!!!", a shout came from True-Spear who slammed his spear hard as he spoke, "You want to run, then please do so but where will you go? At least if we stay here at least we will have number enough to hold them off and who said we have to win we simply have to fend them for a week and then we could run but in the desert we will die for sure."

As the mood plummeted Ryuu spoke with a vicious smirk on his face, "I have a plan."

Zywia's eyes narrowed at the smirk before it widen in horror as she shouted out, "No NO, never the last time you had that smirk you cause a super volcano to erupt."

Ryuu pouted as he spoke, "How would I know that the volcano was active."

Zywia screamed in anger, "THAT WAS A DORMANT VOLCANO!!!!!"

Ryuu waved of her concern as others gained a shocked look on their face as he spoke, "Meh that is not important."

Zywia was about to rant at him but Ryuu stopped her by placing a map in front of everyone as he began speaking again, "Well this is the map of the place which was graciously provided to me, along with command of their rune carvers and potineers and in fact if any of you do not know what I meant, rune carvers are array master and potioneers are alchemist."

As he placed the map on top of table that he was placed near him, a three dimensional model erupted as he began speaking, "Is there anyone amongst you knowledgeable on Array weaving?"

Many of them frowned as one of the spoke with a gasp, "That is very high level technique, said to be impossible to learn, you know it?", his voice had a touch of awe in it as he looked towards Ryuu.

Ryuu nodded as he spoke, "Yes, I know Array weaving is a very obscure subject with limited application as such many do not venture into it, basically I along with the help of array masters will have place 367 arrays around this place, the array diagram will be the one which I would provide then I would link them to create a giant barrier, a barrier which would entice our enemy to enter and as soon as they would step inside it they would get slaughtered, now I would want alchemists to work in tandem with us to supply us with poison that will spread towards the enemy further crippling the invading horde."

True-Spear frowned as he spoke, "Will your barrier hold them for a week."

Ryuu gave him a small reassuring smile as he spoke, "Of course it will hold."

"Just as long as you do not make a volcano to erupt brother Ryuu.", came a voice which made Ryuu to stumble as others broke into laughter.