First, the Secret Waves went silent.

Spies were sent in secret. By all reports, the entire East Side of Fort Spoas had dropped down a cliff.

Then, the excavation site went dark.

Three Sky Galleons loaded with troops went to investigate. By all reports came, a Tier 5 Wild had stomped the excavation site into dust. That Wild had been captured by local miners, and the site was soon under reconstruction.

But when four airs.h.i.+ps from Ashdale visited Fort Spoas at the same time, people began to ask more questions. Apparently, there were a lot of natives from Fal'Herim already there. Taskmasters were sent to those slaves' clans to exploit that fact.

How surprising that most of those clans were already gone. Furthermore, some friends from Ashdale indicated that Frontier Town was on the rise, with the Beast Waves stopped and slaves being freed, and they were even buying airs.h.i.+p parts…

The Desert King decided to send an agent to verify the truth of these rumors. He sent one of his flags.h.i.+p's escort frigates and a squad of elite fighters from his own personal guard along with that agent.

"Who dares to steal the property of the Desert King?" the agent demanded with loudspeakers from the airs.h.i.+p ten feet above the airport control tower.

Remian and Mindy boarded the Tug and went to meet them. "There has been no theft! These workers were hired legally and regularly send their paychecks home!"

There was a short silence. "Prepare for inspection!"

The military frigate landed at the docks.

What followed next could have taken up a whole chapter of increasingly annoying dialogue ending with a cliffhanger, but let's skip that and just have a summary of what everyone already knows to expect. There was an incredibly arrogant s.h.i.+p captain who thought the world of himself and nothing of the poor country b.u.mpkins he had come to bully. Without even actually 'inspecting' anything, he made demands, threatened and bl.u.s.tered, claimed all their valuables in the name of the exalted Desert King who was his boss and proclaimed that he would **** all their women publicly in front of them, including Mindy, who was only twelve, but really he was looking at Phoebe the whole time.

At a certain point, he was so annoying and everyone was so mad at him that Carrie made a move. Seeing her approach, he said something about keeping her in a zoo for children to throw stones at and laugh and gawk at, promising to tame her and make her perform tricks for show…

CHOMP! He never did get to explain exactly what tricks he thought he could have a Tier 4 wolfcat learn. Carrie crunched his head between her teeth with a satisfied look on her face, then kept chomping down his headless body, ultimately munching the whole arrogant captain in roughly fifteen seconds flat.

Then, she burped, and finally looked a bit embarra.s.sed. [Excuse me.]

"C-captain!" the arrogant late captain's aides were aghast.

CHOMP! CHOMP! CHOMP! Buff and Red's pack all got to work finis.h.i.+ng what Carrie started and they basically had a free meal at the Desert King's expense. Almost the entire Fal'Herim airs.h.i.+p crew disappeared down their gullets in rapid succession.

By that time, everyone had had it with Fal'Herim. Remian himself was on the verge of outright violence. If Carrie hadn't eaten the captain, Remian might have actually set him on fire.

But no, he had more important things to do.

"Mikai, sneak your lynxmice into that airs.h.i.+p. Leave no survivors." Those were the first words out of Remian's mouth ever since the Fal'Herim airs.h.i.+p captain got chomped. Then, he turned to Tim. "We're going to need those tunnels to Fal'Herim."

"Really? When?" Tim asked.

"Right now."

Then, he called up Spike. "Big guy, I need you on the road to Fal'Herim."

[But there is no road to Fal'Herim!]

"Not yet, but you should be headed there over land anyway."

[But… but it's desert! It's dry and sandy, and there's no water! My skin is going to itch! Why do you think I live under a waterfall?? I need to keep my face moist!]

"Fine. We'll send along some water. Mindy can drop water on your head from her airs.h.i.+p."

[How is that going to last all the way to Fal'Herim? It's a three-day journey even if I run!]

"We'll load the whole Sky Barge with water and send it with you. Also, don't run all the way there. Walk at a comfortable pace and keep your strength reserved to fight off a counter-attack."

[A steady walk? But that's going to take five or six days!]

"Then five or six days it is."

[But they're going to attack me!]

"Yeah. So blast them out of the sky."

[What if they attack from land??]

"We'll send along some wolfcats to help." Remian turned to Markus. "I'll need your help too."

"Fighting Wilds is one thing. I draw the line at attacking Fal'Herim." Markus said immediately.

"Fighting Wilds was all I was going to ask of you. I'm sending our Wilds to attack them, but we won't be back in time to face the Beast Wave." Remian said. "I'm taking the airs.h.i.+ps and the Wilds, but I'll leave the FDF and the human clans here with the Iron Legion. Can you manage the next Beast Wave?"

"I believe so." Markus mused. "I guess this is ironic payback, that you're sending your Wilds to attack them while they're sending their Wilds to attack you. Except that it's me who's going to be fending their Wilds off."

"Something like that." Remian nodded shortly.

At that point, Phoebe approached. She had her head down and a very guilty look on her face. "I'm sorry. Because of me, you couldn't avoid war with the Desert King."

"No, it's not you, and it was probably going to happen sooner or later anyway." Remian a.s.sured her.

"But it's too early. You're not strong enough yet. At this rate, you're all going to die." Phoebe said in tragic tones. "I know you're going to put up a brave fight, but in the end, you just don't have the kind of forces and equipment they have."

"True. But they don't know we're already at war. We have the jump on them." Remian said.

"They have weaponry powerful enough to hurt Spike and they're definitely going to see him coming. You know that, don't you?"

Oddly enough, Remian grinned. "I'm counting on it."

That very hour, Spike began a long, five-day journey across the Desert to Fal'Herim. Every few hours, the Tug few out to him and dropped bucketloads of water on his head to keep him hydrated. While the Tug sent out to wet his skin, Remian had his workers load up the Sky Barge with water.

The following day, DD and his boars followed Spike. With them were the Tug and the Sky Barge, both filled with supplies, workers and water. They caught up with Spike on the third day and marched on toward Fal'Herim together. Also, Remian sent four packs of wolfcats to join them. They would catch up just before reaching the Desert King's city.

It was an army that all of Fal'Herim could see coming miles and miles away.

In response, Fal'Herim launched one airs.h.i.+p, the other military-grade escort Frigate.

"Here we go." Remian cleared his throat. "Mindy?"

Oddly enough, Mindy wasn't out there with the Tug and the Sky Barge. No, those were currently crewed by adventurers, recently freed youths from the Harvest Sun clan fiercely proud to be fighting for their newfound freedom. They had training with the Iron Legion, they had learned to use scrolls, and they were proving capable enough to crew Junk-cla.s.s and Patchwork-cla.s.s airs.h.i.+ps.

Mindy, on the other hand, had a much, much more challenging job.

"Ready." She said tautly, unable to hide her nervousness.

"Then let's go." Remian said, climbing aboard the last airs.h.i.+p left at the Fort Spoas airport.

No, it wasn't the Foresight. This last airs.h.i.+p was the most advanced craft ever to grace Fort Spoas. It was armed to the teeth, and had a cutting edge magic-drive, armor plating, military-grade weaponry…

The name of the airs.h.i.+p was the Red Fang. It was the very same airs.h.i.+p that had been sent to Fort Spoas on 'inspections'. Mikai and the lynxmice had captured it and now Mindy and Remian and a crew of adventurers were taking it up into the air to intercept its sister s.h.i.+p.

Remian was using the Desert King's own airs.h.i.+p against him.