Risen World

Chapter 553: Territory War Messenger

Just after the message for the territory war appeared Joshua saw several members of the Fenrir Guild teleport directly into James Town to see what was going on. Henry was one of the first ones to appear with Adrian and Aito following soon after. Jayce's group appeared as well but no one seemed all that worried and instead seemed like they were just coming to check out what was going on. After the last territory war they were more confident in the town's defenses, but still were ready to fight if it was necessary.

"Well who's dumb enough to make us their target right after the peace treaty was brought into action?" Henry asked as they all made their way up to the top of the wall that surrounded the town. "I don't think it would be the Raider's Guild, they have more of a grudge with the World Government Guild and they didn't seem to be the type to challenge those that could push back."

"I doubt it's them, besides Charles warned me this was likely to happen." Joshua said as everyone turned to figure out what he was talking about. At this point just about everyone in the Fenrir group that was part of the main alliance expedition force had arrived including Robin, Brook, Ivan, Victor, Jacob, Evelyn, Natsumi and Katsumi. When Joshua saw everyone arrived he was pleased to see that just about everyone was above level eighty at this point with the only ones not quite to that level were Jacob and Evelyn since they were support fighters. Even they had reached level seventy eight since they went along with Jayce's group for training throughout the week. The group was more than prepared for the upcoming expedition with Celia and Thomas being strong enough to join them soon enough.

"Oh you mean what he said about Kyle?" Adrian said with a grin. "I knew the guy was stupid but I didn't think he'd be dumb enough to try to challenge us in our territory so soon without any back up from the World Government Guild."

"People that are full of themselves often make these types of decisions." Julia said with a shrug as she could see the approaching group of invaders on the edge of one side of the forest all gathered together. "They aren't even trying to be sneaky about it. Seems like we won't even need to use the drones to observe where they're coming from."

"Maybe not, but we can still use them to get an idea of who were up against outside of Kyle. Besides now that we're officially considered a large guild by the system the size of our opponents group can be much larger." Joshua said with a serious look as he used the system to instruct the drones from the town's defenses to go out and observe the intruding force from a distance.

"Wait we're considered a large guild now?" Monika asked a bit surprised just like everyone else. She was usually the quiet type but the surprising comment from Joshua got her to speak up when she usually wouldn't.

"Yep, which means our opponent has to be considered a large scale guild as well. This means they can currently have up to ten thousand members to attack our territory." Henry said with an annoyed look. "Judging by the amount that's gathering on that side of the forest it's apparent that overwhelming us with numbers is the plan."

"True, even though we are a large scale guild now our recruitment has been primarily focused on quality and not quantity." Ivan said getting nods from the others. "How many members are in the Fenrir Guild at this point?"

"We hadn't even reached the max amount for a mid-sized guild last time I checked." Joshua said with a shrug. He had left a lot of the more recent recruitment to Henry and Julia since he was training Thomas and Celia for the past week, but when he checked out the guild information as the leader he was able to quickly find the answer. "We currently have seven hundred and twenty-four members. Not even close to the amount our opponents are likely to have."

"Are we in trouble then? I know this town seems to have a lot of defenses, but can't they just overwhelm us with numbers and a decent strategy of approach?" Thomas asked a bit worried. Celia seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Thomas based off of the worried frown she was sporting. The rest of the group however began to laugh at the question. "What? I know you guys are strong, but that Kyle guys got lots of money to throw around and gather some powerful explorers. They won't all be on your level, but some of them are probably close considering they have to be from a large guild."

"It's funny because we've been through similar situations before in the past and that was the same mind set some of our enemies would have." Adrian said with a chuckle. "If we're competing in a dungeon they'd see our small group and think their far larger group would have an advantage. If we were in a territory war they would look at the fact that the number of guild member we'd have would be so small compared to their own and figured they'd just run us over. Either way it always ended with our opponents underestimating us."

"This time around we won't even have to send any of our guild members out to fight." Joshua said getting everyone's attention. "We will win this territory war with just the town's defenses alone. I told Charles that I would overwhelmingly destroy his brother and show him how small he was in the big picture of things and losing to us without us even having to try will do just that."

"Our town's defenses are great and all, but I don't think they alone will be enough to stop all of those people from forming up and pushing to our gates." Julia said with a frown. She and Henry were the two main tacticians of the guild and Joshua heeded their advice whenever given. "A large guild would have been in several territory wars up to this point and would know how to push through turret fire for sure."

"True, but there is a reason why I decided to go ahead and upgrade to a large guild in the first place." Joshua said while smiling causing Henry to understand right away.

"As a large guild our resources and defenses will have grown greatly. What level have you gotten the town to since you upgraded the guild?" Henry asked.

"It's already level eighty-five and still growing stronger." Joshua responded with a smile. "Any and all of our defenses will be that level and the amount of robotic patrol troops has also grown greatly. At the moment we can have a thousand robotic troops out at once that will all be level eighty-five, fifty drones can be used to keep an eye on the entire battlefield, and Lily can have a thousand beast from the stables out to fight alongside the robotic army. That along with the turrets would already be enough to give the large guild were facing a hard time, but this time I plan on winning overwhelmingly."

"You're planning to use the town guardian as well then?" Aito asked with a bit of surprise. They all knew how powerful that beast could be and when they fought the creature it was weaker than it would be now with the current town level.

"Yep, and I also plan on using some of the metallic guardians as well. After all we've got so many materials for them we might as well test them out in a territory war. In the future we plan on using them in town subjugations so this will be a good test." Joshua said with a smile. "So with that in mind all of you can just sit back and watch the show. If by some miracle Kyle has some surprise that the defenses can't handle then we can join in ourselves and deal with it."

When Joshua finished saying this he noticed a group of three people walking across the open field towards the town's gate and stopping just out of the turrets range. It was clear they had gotten the system message that they were encroaching on the territory of James Town and stopped right there. Joshua could make out Kyle from a distance, but he didn't know who the other two were. Before he could think about it anymore a system message suddenly popped up for him to read.

[Your opponent for the Territory war has sent out a messenger to be met before the war shall begin. You have ten minutes to meet up or else they will be given the reply that you have declined the invitation.]

"Did he really just send a messenger? Who's dumb enough to do that?" Marcus asked the same question that was on everyone's mind.

"Apparently he is. It's dumb to send out a messenger if you're the aggressor in a territory war. It gives up the surprise of who exactly you are, but let's go have a nice chat and see how deranged this guy's become." Joshua said with a sigh before jumping off the wall. Henry and Adrian both followed after him. Joshua landed with a thud sending cracks all over the ground while Henry used a gust of wind to slow his decent and Adrian landed gracefully. The three of them made their way over just to see what Kyle had to say. When they arrived they could all see the smug face of Kyle alongside two other men. The man on the right was someone that Joshua recognized from the meeting being one of the few people who had left the peace treaty in refusal. He was clearly the leader of a large guild that Joshua didn't know of.

'He's the leader of the Rampage Guild Burl. A rather aggressive guild that has constantly tried to take over others territories whenever given the opportunity. They've slowed down on that front since they've become a large guild but they still declined the peace treaty.' Henry explained. The man was around the same height of Adrian and judging by his equipment seemed to be a heavy swordsman of some kind, though Joshua wouldn't be surprised if he had a unique job. He didn't participate in the tournament so he had no idea.

The other man standing by Kyle's side was much shorter around the same size as Marcus, but he had a sniper rifle on his back and a cold look in his eyes in comparison to Burl who seemed eager to begin the fight with a maddening grin. 'Don't know who he is, but since he's here and not a member of the Rampage Guild I'd guess he's a mercenary or maybe an ex-mercenary.' Henry said with a shrug. When Joshua observed the two he could see that they both showed off their levels without a care. The leader of the Rampage Guild was level eighty-four while mercenary was level eighty-three. Kyle seemed completely out of place at level Seventy-eight and even that was questionable since Joshua knew it hadn't been earned.

Soon enough the two sides had gotten close enough for a barrier to form around them made by the system and the short meeting of sides to begin..