Titan's Throne

Chapter 101 - Battle of the Clans

"Let's start with what we know so far. Onismo, tell us what you know."

Bhasera signalled to Onismo York, head of the York family, which just happened to be the family in charge of public security and Yani City's armed forces; making him the highest ranking soldier in the city.

Contrary to what most might think, Onismo was a small and quiet man. He barely spoke and had the temperament of a sophisticated man. If he was seen on the streets wearing his robes, one might believe him to be a scholar, but he was not wearing his robes. Right now, like Bhasera, he was fully clad in armour, with bloodlust oozing out of his body. He was a man who lived for battle, thus today was quite exciting for him, but none of his excitement showed on his face, which was as expressive as a piece of plain paper.
Onismo stood up and reported what he knew, "So far, our scouts have reported that a horde or daemons is gathering a dozen miles from the city, surrounding the entire city from all four walls. Including the wall facing the ocean. The first wave is estimated to hit us within an hour or so."

"My word!"

"How is this possible?"

"This! This is.."

Clatters of noise came from the stands as multiple gasps of shock came in reaction to Onismo's words.

"Silence." Bhasera did not shout, but a single word from him had a better effect than a shout from anyone else within that room. His overbearing presence was not to be underestimated.

"Onismo, explain more regarding the oceanic daemons. If I am not mistaken, the horde usually only attacks from the land, does it not?"

"Indeed." Onismo nodded and continued. "Oceanic daemons are gathering underwater and are only awaiting orders to move. It is on this front that we are least prepared."

Yani City had four walls. The north, south, east and west walls. The southern wall was the one facing the ocean, and behind it were the ports.

"Although we were caught somewhat unaware, we will be able to sortie enough soldiers for the north, west and east walls. The issue is the south wall. Our only option is to have mercenaries and our private armies hold down that fort. That is the secondary concern."

Bhasera frowned, "Secondary? Then what are the other concerns?"

"I had an expert on daemons give me as much information as he could from the roar, and judging from the information he gave me, the beast is most likely an aquatic dragon. Although he was not able to pinpoint the exact species, he was able to determine its cultivation."

Tino could no longer keep silent and asked, "What is it?"

Onismo sighed, "It's a two star daemon!"

The previous news had made the room somewhat noisy, but this news made the room so quiet what might think the grim reaper was dancing about. Faces turned colours, spit was swallowed, breathing stopped and limbs lost their strength. Now everyone in the room knew why Onismo had labelled the lack of manpower on the southern wall as being a secondary concern!

A two star daemon! That means this was a creature that required at least two Fusion Realm experts!

Cultivation has small realms and large ones. Acolytes, Scholar and so on are only sublevels of the Foundation Building Realm. It was named so because it was when one was building the foundation for future cultivation.

The next major realm was the Fusion Realm! This was the realm that separated the wheat from the chaff, the talented from the prodigies, the skilled from the savants!

A single Fusion Realm expert could massacre thousands of Teachers and Scholars with a wave of a hand. And now a daemon which required two such experts was eyeing the city! This was a disaster!

Daemons had their own ranking system but it was much simpler than the one used by humans. Normal daemons had no rank. Ones that had energy equivalent to a Teacher or a Scholar were One Star Daemons. A two star daemon had energy equivalent to a Fusion Realm expert. But this was merely energy!

Daemons where much more gifted physically than humans, so it would usually take two humans on the same level as the daemon to bring it down. Which meant that at least two Fusion Realm experts were needed. But it gets worse.

Mankind are terrestrial creatures, thus fighting aquatic creatures requires much more effort and man power. Fighting a two star aquatic daemon would require at least 3 Fusion Realm experts.

Now for the real kicker. It was a dragon!

It was common knowledge that dragons were top quality daemons. Any  creature with dragon blood running through its veins would be at least twice as strong as normal creatures its own level. Meaning that the number of Fusion Realm experts required to deal with this creature had rendered the number of soldiers available for the south wall irrelevant.

Bhasera said, "How many Fusion Realm experts can we call upon.?"

Onismo replied, "You from the Dwight Family, Myself and my father from the York family, Khama and Senior Oxlade from the Oxlade family. As for the Cole family I am not sure."

As soon as Onismo was done all eyes in the hall were on Tyson! What made the Oxlade, Dwight, York and Colr families so powerful was the presence of a Fusion Realm expert. It was a mystery as to how many Fusion Realm experts the Cole family had, which was part of the reason no families had made a move on them, after all, one must know their enemy before attacking.

"My Cole family will dedicate one Fusion Realm expert." said Tyson after some thought.

"Hmph! Outrageous! Only one? That is barely of any help at all! Unworthy of your position." The speaker was none other than Khama Oxlade, the current head of the Oxlade family. He was a fat man, but he was quite powerful. Both in terms of cultivation and financially. It would not be an exaggeration to say that all the city's wealth passes through his hands at some point.

"Now now little Khama don't cause trouble. My Dwight family can only present one expert at the moment as well." Said Bhasera with a light hearted laugh.

Khama could not help but cough. "Ehem, Senior Dwight, we are all aware that your family has two Fusion Realm experts that are far from the city running errands, and that they would be here to assist if they could. Not to mention that Senior is worth 3 experts by himself."

Tyson could not help but smirk, Khama never passed up an opportunity to curry favor with Bhasera, but he was not wrong. Bhasera's strength was well known by all, even among Fusion Realm experts he was quite powerful. There was a reason he had been in power for so long.