Semore Budz and Doot both cursed their bad luck. Their attacks negated the expensive one-time use invisible potion that had been given to them by the guild leader of the new BenDover guild that they had recently joined.


    They holstered their two small hand crossbows and without a second thought jumped off the wall near the gatehouse escaping before any of Kodria''s guards could intercept them. They only received light fall damage that was mitigated by rolling to lessen the impact.


    “What were we thinking to accept such a stupid mission!?” asked Semore while he ran as fast as he could trying to stay ahead of Doot.


    “We needed to show off our skills and not be outdone by the Veggie group who joined the guild at the same time as us,” said Doot.


    “Why is our luck so bad? If we had succeeded, with how new the guild is we could have risen to a high position...”


    “We''ll… AHHHHH!”


    Semore looked to his side where Doot was just a moment before and found no one!


    “Help!” shouted Doot, his voice coming from high above. A Wyvern had grabbed his arms and was now flying high into the sky!


    Semore ignored his partner and long-time friend, he was beyond saving. Instead, he quickened his pace running towards a thick patch of weeds where two small canoes were hidden.


    Multiple sharp objects pierced the back of his neck before he could reach the canoe. Not willing to be captured alive or tortured, Semore used the last of his strength to bite into a poisoned candy just before his body went limp and he no longer could feel his arms or legs.


    Fluffball''s nose caught the scent of the poison and spat out the demigod''s neck and hopped back several paces not wanting to be contaminated by the poison.


    The demigod limply fell face first into the muddy weeds of the shore and started to convulse and make odd gurgling noises as the poison took effect.


    Fluffball let out a snort, he was unhappy at being unable to take care of his target himself. The demigod soon disappeared into hundreds of lights leaving only a few items on the ground.


    With his target, dead Fluffball looked up into the sky where a small dot was growing bigger as it fell from high above. With another unsatisfied huff, he turned around and ran back to Kodria''s gates which were now swarming with infantry and city guards that were heading towards the shoreline.


    Splat!


    ***


    Back inside Kodria''s castle.


    “It was made out of silver,” said Zundar holding a smashed silver bolt that he had pulled out of the building that it had slammed into.


    “No wonder the wounds are so deep and not healing quickly,” said Klyn, as he treated the large gashes on Akira''s hands and his shoulder.


    Even with the help of Klyn''s holy aura to cleanse the wounds and even pouring the red potion on them, the wounds were still slow to heal.


    “How is the woman that got hurt?” asked Akira.


    “The bolt went all the way through her leg. Luckily it missed the main artery,” said Klyn.


    Akira only nodded, “The rest of the day''s main events are canceled.”


    “What about all the food that was prepared for the festival?”


    It would be such a waste so Akira was only able to relent on that. “The evening festival will still be held for the citizens of Kodria to not waste the food.”


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The remaining festival would not be as cheery as before but that was all the more reason to keep the festival running to try and pull their minds away from the current events.


    When his hands and shoulder were fully bandaged, he walked over to Mileena who was trying to calm down the two newborns inside the metal cart while surrounded by a shield wall of heavily armored guards.


    “How are they doing?” asked Akira while placing a bandaged hand on her shoulder to reassure her.


    “Was this a bad decision to have the festival? What if they are mentally scarred by this?” asked Mileena, as she played with a stuffed animal trying to get Silvy to stop fussing.


    “Nothing like that will happen. With them both receiving our love and care I have no doubt that they will be fine,” said Akira.


    Both Silvy and Wyt were looking at Akira with great interest as he was still transformed and was still emitting a strong aurora that made weak people frightened, and even strong people uncomfortable.


    The two didn''t seem to be affected by his aura at all and only stared back at him.


    “Yap!” said Fluffball as he returned to the castle finished with his quick battle.


    “Who was it?”


    “Yap!”


    “I see. Of course, it was demigods...”


    “Yap.”


    “Understood. Samuel, send out an order to add cutting the weeds at lakes shore to the weekly chores. We must not allow any blind spots or places for people to hide things or people in those weeds.”


    ***


    All through the north, the power shifts were massive as old groups and smaller guilds fell from volatile infighting and battles with other guilds for territory.


    Many of the guilds’ power and the number of members fluctuated greatly depending on the results of their battles for territory. Some guilds lost large groups of people who splintered off to join other guilds that now owned territory.


    Unfortunately for the smaller groups of demigods, they were having a hard time doing anything solo with the battles for territory and resources becoming more fierce. It was now getting to the point where It was too painful to try and grow without a guild as more and more things came under the control of the large, medium, and small guilds.


    The small groups were forced to join or create their own guilds. One of these newer guilds was the BenDover guild, a small but fast-growing guild.


    The core members were all from the former group known as [Team Ultimate Ben Dover].


    Multiple oddballs and groups that did not fit in with the other guilds had joined them all wanting to have a town or village controlled by a friendly guild.


    This was because everyone was currently being harassed as soon as they entered the territory of another guild. If they were allowed into the occupied town they would only be taxed out of all their gold. If they were truly unlucky they would be denied access to the only local place to sell their loot and recuperate from a hard battle.


    The guild benefiting the most from the small groups joining them was the FrozenBlood guild. Although they were not as strong or as well equipped as the Demon Hunters they had more low-ranked members.


    Even though they may have recently lost their territory, all was not lost. If they could get a new base of operations they could start building up their power and get better equipment and grow stronger at a faster pace.


    “It is like you said there is no point trying to continuously bash our heads against the walls they have hastily built. If we continue to die our strength will drop too far and we''ll be unable to take over anything,” said Igluu, the second in command of FrozenBlood.


    “We''ll have to cut our losses. From what I heard a short time ago, there should be two large coastal prizes no one has captured yet,” said Nameless Officer 1.


    “Their population and fighting power is no joke, although they do not have the advantages we have, we can not be careless. Just remember what happened to the main guilds that attacked one of them some time ago,” said Nameless officer 2, who was the brother of N.O.1.


    “We are far stronger and more numerous than even they were back then. We will have no problem capturing one of them,” said Coldman, the guild master of FrozenBlood, as he looked at a map of the shoreline.


    “We will take this village as our own. Gather our guild members and all of our resources. We must move out as soon as possible before others figure out what we plan to do. We can not let them interfere with our plans.”


    ***


    In the woods, the small [BenDover] guild were looking over a highly detailed map they had recently bought.


    “The large guilds are fighting over Froit and the surrounding villages and towns. The FrozenBlood guild and the two allied guilds are fighting over this area here... so we should steer clear of them,” said Ben.


    “So should we take this place? It''s nearby,” asked Dover pointing to a spot on the coast.


    “Hmm, no one seems to have picked it due to the hard difficulty. But if we chip away at it, we should be able to take it over before anyone else thinks of trying it.”


    “Then let everyone know that we have decided on our first target. We will make it our base of operations or die trying!”