[Ouroboros' End]
Just over an hour after their return to the town, Darganth and those close to him stood gathered in an unused room near the edge of the town. After an extensive greeting, the topic had by then shifted back onto the chaos that was engulfing the area, prompting Neandra to take the lead and recount what had happened since they left.
At first, it had simply been more of the same. After the clash Darganth and Alicia had with the smuggler group shortly before their departure, their troops stayed at a distance and only observed. Having been fine with this, as what little information they could gather was well worth not having them interfere constantly, Neandra had let them be like that.
Surprisingly, as occasional beast and monster encounters of the Vagha's group of dragons during their trips into the wilderness unveiled some of their group's strength, these observers had even started increasing the distance they kept out of their own volition. Soon, this apparently started to spread to other parts of the smuggler group, because about two months after Darganth's group had left, practically every smuggler started avoiding the vicinity of their estate. A few higher-ranking ones of course tried to intervene and would occasionally march right past the gate of their base with sigils of their group fully on display, but once they left again a day or two later, their subordinates would once again start avoiding the area.
What Neandra hadn't expected at that time was that this would be the start of a series of escalating events that would ultimately lead to the current situation. And even she wasn't sure about all the details of how.
What she did know, however, was that the first escalation came when the people of the town, rather unsurprisingly, quickly discovered that the smugglers were avoiding the area around their base. Though most people tolerated the smugglers' presence, few who weren't a part of the organization truly liked it. But a mythic rank whose name could be found in most compendiums of the strongest people in the realm fragment was enough of a deterrent to keep these voices silent, even as the smugglers monopolized control over more and more businesses and institutions in the town.
Still, control based purely on fear was a fragile thing. The moment the word got around that the new people in town somehow managed to get the smugglers to leave them in peace, incidents started cropping up here and there.
At first, it was small. A few teenagers or young adults who were unhappy started a small clash with a few employees of the business group that serves as the smuggler ring's legitimate front. A store-owner who was losing business to their lower prices threw a stone into the window of one of their stores. Or simply a few masked individuals painting disparaging messages onto the warehouses just outside the town.
To this, the smugglers responded in the same way they always did, with violence. However, unlike how it was before, the people of the town didn't cower when the enforcers marched down the street. Instead, a resistance started to form from those who already had a grudge against the smugglers. Though few in number, they were motivated and difficult to keep down, fighting back against the growing presence of armed members of the smuggler organization wherever they could. And as their efforts were obstructed more and more, the foot soldiers started to lash out indiscriminately.
From that moment, the path to the present situation was practically sealed. Whereas before it was mostly shopkeepers with a grudge and young people who wanted to bring change that opposed them, the smugglers' indiscriminate response only served to create more hate against them. And importantly, this new hate wasn't largely limited to the mana-less in the town. Whether it was a guard captain whose daughter was caught in the range of a spell intended for a few members of the resistance or a traveling merchant who had been attacked for selling to people the smugglers didn't like, more and more people with power and resources started harboring grudges against the smugglers.
However, despite the rumors that the smugglers were avoiding the area around the estate of Darganth and his group, there was still some hesitation to act due to the leader. While the lowest rung of members might fear Neandra, few were willing to bet their lives on just the possibility that she would actually be able to fight off their leader.
Luckily for the resistance, this notion that Neandra might not be strong enough to fight against the leader would soon erode when the latter went out to personally take care of the opposition to his forces. Teleporting above a crowd that had assembled in opposition to his continued influence over the town, he made the mistake of visibly reacting when Neandra left their estate to observe the chaos that was happening only a few dozen meters before their front door. And though she herself hadn't paid enough attention to know for sure how he did react, it ultimately also didn't matter.
Hundreds, if not thousands, had seen his reaction. And while some interpreted it as apprehension, while others swore they saw fear in his expression, the consensus was the same. The leader wasn't confident about winning against Neandra. For a brief moment, this realization caused the crowd to fall silent, the minds of every person in it only slowly managing to process the implications of this.
But when the first shout then echoed out, all hell broke loose.
Suddenly, it wasn't just shouts that were hurled at the enforcers that had accompanied their leader, but stones and other projectiles. While only a few of these projectiles were reinforced with mana, with the volume of attacks, they didn't need to be. Most of the enforces present that day were first and second ranks. After all, why would they recall the valuable resource that a high-ranking mana user was from a more important task just to deal with some mana-less civilians?
As such, though doing so was difficult, most of the enforcers were still vulnerable to being brought down with simple improvised weapons such as the ones the people of the town were wielding. But when they outnumbered their foes by over a hundred to one, it didn't really matter how difficult it was to defeat one. Even the few third ranks among the enforcers couldn't stop this development despite their best efforts. Though their aura avatars made them immune to the weapons of even the few mana users among their foes, they found it difficult to quickly subdue the riot simultaneously, especially as it became increasingly difficult for them to avoid hitting their allies in the chaos.
At the same time, the edges of the crowd scattered across town, shouting about what was transpiring and repeatedly proclaiming that the leader of the smugglers was afraid. Which of the two messages had the larger impact was difficult to tell, but in either case, there were soon hundreds of guards and equally as many other mana-using inhabitants who rushed to join the fight. Among them, dozens of mythic ranks lead the charge, with multiple times that many also joining the resistance over the following days, quickly overwhelming any and all forces of the smugglers in the town.
The leader, the only one of the smugglers present who had the strength to push back against this tide, seemingly didn't even register this. Instead, the moment that the fighting had broken out beneath him, he had turned his might onto Neandra. She suspected that he had done so in the hopes of taking her by surprise and eliminating the source of the town's confidence to rise against him.
However, his efforts were futile. Not just would his attack not have been capable of killing had it struck as she was an ascendant, but Neandra also felt the surge of mana that preceded his attack and returned to her true form in its base size before his spell could manifest.
The moment the variant of a spatial blade spell struck her scales and failed to pierce them, the leader abandoned the fight and fled by teleporting away. With it, he struck the final blow to his group's status as untouchable in the eyes of the town. What followed was a full-scale war as the guards started pushing out the smugglers' presence in the area. Simultaneously, more and more high-ranking members of the group returned from their missions, soon causing regular clashes between mythic ranks all around the town and leaving them in the situation Darganth and the others now returned to.
Hearing this recount of the events, their groups only stood in stunned silence for a few moments. Half a dozen thoughts went through each of their heads in that time as they processed Neandra's story, with everything from surprise to excitement written on their faces in response to its twists and turns.
The first to break this silence was Jennia, who tried to break the ice with a joke. "Well, it was a good plan while it lasted, but welcome back to the experience of just improvising it as we go."
A small chuckle echoed through the room in response to her joke. Still, while it did manage to pull everyone of those present out of their racing thoughts, there remained a weight in the atmosphere, with all being aware that this wouldn't be as clean an affair as the war on Ikrus had been. There, the fighting had remained largely separated from civilian populations. In contrast to that, the town itself was the objective that was being contested in this fight, even if, for now, the worst of it, meaning most fights between mythic ranks, had been over control of the walls that stretched along the wilderness to both sides of it.
In fact, it had been there that the mythic rank smugglers had struck first. By taking control of the farthest sections of the wall that still belonged to the town and constantly launching attacks against its entire width to make amassing a counterattack difficult, they ensured that no contact with the cities that the wall ended in could be made across it. Combined with the constant interference with communication magic and the leader's interception of any attempts to teleport out of the town, this effectively isolated the town and made calling for outside help impossible, at least for a moment.
Still, were it not for Darganth's group, the time this bought the smugglers would've most certainly been enough to finish conquering the town. As long as the wall itself was manned, the guards from the cities wouldn't investigate further. Meanwhile, the lack of returning merchants would certainly start drawing attention, but it might take weeks before the matter reached anyone who could even send mythic ranks as reinforcements.
For his part, Darganth was already weighing the advantages of reopening that connection across the wall now since Neandra had mentioned it toward the end of her description of the recent events. Though it would be difficult, as they'd have to attack the wall from the direction it was designed to defend against, having their involvement become known beyond the borders of the town would be helpful for their goal of using the destruction of the smugglers to establish a reputation in the realm fragment.
With this in mind, he turned toward Neandra.
"You've seen their higher-ranking members. How strong are they?" He asked her.
"The leader is the only one I've seen that surpasses the emperors we fought against on Ikrus, why?" She answered.
"Because I'm trying to estimate how our chances are if we were to try to recapture the wall."
"You want to directly go on the offensive, is that wise? They'll have to attack the town sooner rather than later, and here we'd have prepared positions to raise our chances of victory." Neandra said.
Darganth had considered this. However, even before taking into account the strategic aspect of how it would impact their goal of spreading their fame, having their forces concentrate in the town didn't win out in comparison. Neither the undead nor the ogres would mesh well with the human defenders, so just for that reason, Darganth would prefer to open a second front and keep them separate.
"It would keep the undead and ogres out of sight. And we have the numbers to sustain a wider front." He argued back.
Nodding along, Neandra had to concede that point to him. "Then are you sure that it could work? We read the same history, the wall has blocked numerous attempts of beasts and monsters alike to break through."
Grinning, Darganth nodded while turning toward Melidra. "I'm confident that we have the resources to breach it. But the question is whether Melidra thinks she and her army are ready to translate that theoretical potential into practice."
Surprised at suddenly being involved in the conversation, the woman in question wasn't sure how to answer and hesitated. Glancing toward Cehlya as if gauging whether her goddess wanted to answer instead, it took her a few seconds before she nodded.
"I think I can open a breach for you." She ultimately said.
Smiling slightly, Cehlya stepped in only then. "You don't just think it, you can. I've taught you how a true wielder of the death element uses undead over the past months, you're more than ready for the task. Especially as I'll help you with the more difficult techniques, though you'll still have to lead the army yourself."
"Does that settle it?" Darganth asked.
"It does. Then I'll recall Vagha's group and the draconians with them to ensure that the town doesn't fall while you're attacking the flanks."
"That's a good idea. Once we're past the interference, we could even contact Vorthos and Enilla, they would bolster our forces even further. We now have the capacity to keep the starweaver stationed here, so we'd be relocating it soon anyway." Darganth said.
"That might be overkill, but why not. Though the leader is still mine to fight." Neandra said.
Ignoring the Scalladras' frown in response to the information that Neandra already wanted to fight the leader, Darganth nodded. "Of course."
"Alright." Neandra said, "Though I hope you don't plan to set out right now."
"In a week at the earliest." Darganth said.
Smiling in response to those words, Neandra said, "Good, because I now want to know what you have been up to in the time you were away. And don't leave anything out."
With those words, Neandra leaned back with a smile, letting her gaze sweep over the rest of their group as slight grins of amusement slowly crept onto some of their faces at the reminder of all the stories that came from their expedition.