Sierra saw that Laernea was impatiently waiting for her to be free, as the lioness Lioumerean kept within her line of sight.
"Can I help you with something, Laernea?"
"Yeah, you can! It's been almost two days and we haven't heard anything from Smoke. Can't you contact him in your other world?"
Sierra thought about calling Smoke, but then she realized that he would have called if he really wanted to talk to her.
"Aren't you guys together all the time in your other world? I thought the two of you were a couple?"
The red werebear became defensive as Laernea pressed on with her questions.
"No, we aren't like that. We're just friends. In fact, I've never been to his house."
Sierra caught a glimpse of Laernea's smile when she finished talking.
"Oh, I thought that the two of you lived together or something."
"Laernea, do you like Smoke?"
"What? Why in the world would you think that? I'm just worried about him. If he died then shouldn't he have resurrected by now?"
Sierra patted Laernea's shoulders.
"I've been worrying about him too, but we still can't contact him. Don't worry, I'll give him a call when I get back to the other world."
* * * * * *
Sherry got out of her gamepod. Her mind was filled with what Laernea told her. She picked up her cell phone. She was about to dial Nash's number, when her uncle called her from downstairs.
"Sherry? Sherry? Can you hear me? I'm about to go to the groceries, do you want anything?"
"Wait up. I need to buy some stuff as well."
Sherry rushed down and waited for her uncle to drive out of the garage. She sat in the front seat of her uncle's black sedan.
They rode to the supermarket in awkward silence. Sherry wanted to reconcile with him after she made his new girlfriend eat her exotic Zectas dishes.
She was about to speak when her uncle Alex beat her to it.
"Listen, I'm really sorry about Gloria's visit. I may have overreacted a bit, she's just not into special food."
Sherry remained silent, and stared straight at the road.
"Awww, don't be like that. I thought your special menu was delicious. In fact, I've asked some of our investors to have a taste at it."
"Why did you do that? I'm not yet ready to have outsiders taste it yet."
"Ahh... Well, I haven't given them a date, but I think this could really be something. I think if you have more exotic dishes then you could have a special restaurant."
"That was my plan right from the start. Before Gloria told me it wasn't any good."
"You shouldn't let one person's opinion distract you from achieving your dream."
"I know that, and I didn't say I was gonna quit. I'm still searching for more recipes to add to my menu."
"Good. Just tell me whenever you're ready. I can set up a meeting with the investors then."
Sherry beamed. She knew her uncle Alex still had her best interests at heart.
As she got out of the car, she noticed that her cell phone's notification light was on. She swiped her thumb over the screen to check the notification.
It was a voice mail from Nash. The redhead was ecstatic. She just reconciled with her uncle and now this.
"You can go on ahead. I've got something important to do."
"Okay, just find me when you're done."
Sherry went to a quiet corner of the supermarket and listened to Nash's voice mail.
"Hi, it's Nash. Uh... I'm really sorry I haven't informed you of my whereabouts in Zectas. I was so caught up trying to solve the puzzles in the labyrinth that I.... Oh well, at least I'm inside the labyrinth now, right? Also, as it turns out the leader of the Brandals was Duke Burmistrz, and Macher was working under him. I knew there was a reason why I had a bad feeling about him. Can I ask you to tell the rest of the private army not to worry? I'll call them as soon as I'm out of the labyrinth. That dungeon disables all forms of communication to the outside world. I think that's everything for now? Oh, and I also found Caid's son, Espion..."
Her smile turned into a frown, after she heard Nash's voice mail. She couldn't believe how he could be so insensitive.
Nash didn't ask for an update. He didn't even ask how she was. All he said was to reassure his private army that he was fine. The more she thought about the voice mail, the more she felt unimportant.
Furthermore, she wondered why it took him so long to call her. So, she decided to call him when she wanted to say something to him, and at the moment she wanted to say nothing.
Nevertheless, she was still glad that he finally found his way into the labyrinth. Nash additionally gave her vital information about the Brandal's leader. She never expected it to be the Mayor of Coatl City.
* * * * * *
Sierra watched the 250 men clothed in leather armor assembled before her. They were armed with fishing spears, pitchforks, and wooden shields. She saw both fear and determination in their eyes. It was just five minutes ago when they saw a yellow flare launched from the south east.
One yellow flare meant that there were around 500 intruders. Sierra decided to face them head on. Since, she didn't want to expose their headquarters' location.
Laernea stayed in the castle with two platoons made up of 80 recruits. Someone had to stay behind, and protect Verbrannt Castle. As a precautionary measure against invaders who could break through Sierra's attack force.
The 250 men were divided into two battalions. Sierra took command of the first battalion, and would attack their enemies from the front, while Adder took command of the second battalion.
They were assigned to perform a surprise attack from the side. Both Sierra and Adder gambled that the two pronged attack would catch the Brandals off guard.
Sierra ordered her battalion to hold their position when they reached five kilometers away from the castle. Whereas Adder's battalion moved further ahead to hide in the forest.
The Invading Brandals finally came into view. Sierra saw five Brandal Leaders, and estimated the bandits to be near 400 rather than what the flare signal indicated earlier.
The Brandal's stopped and had their 35 Snipers take the front. The Snipers pulled their bows and began their arrow attacks. Sierra responded by ordering her battalion to raise their wooden shields.
A second after the arrows were launched, all the black ctenosaur riders ran from behind the Snipers.
The bandits made a mad dash for Sierra and her battalion. The red werebear ordered the Fishermen to assail them with their spears.
Their intense training and improved fishing spears further increased their attack power. It used to take ten fishing spears to kill a black ctenosaur rider, but now they did it with eight.
Sierra's battalion killed fifteen black ctenosaur riders on their first volley of fishing spears alone, but there were still more than 345 bandits coming straight for them.
The red werebear charged to the front as her men launched their second attack of fishing spears. The black ctenosaur riders clashed against the wooden shields, and broke most of them.
The moment the black ctenosaurs came into contact with Sierra's battalion, Adder and his men came out of hiding from the forest. Adder's battalion launched their own fishing spears at the bandits.
The Brandals were caught by surprise. They were temporarily distracted but the Brandal Leaders who stayed behind called out, and gave them orders.
Sierra and Adder leapt to the center of the swarm of bandits. They took on as many as they could. They wanted the enemy's attention on them, and not on their fledgling militia.
Nevertheless, the 35 Snipers started to pick off Adder's battalion members one by one. While the rest of their militia's front squads were slaughtered by the black ctenosaur riders.
Adder tried to run towards the Brandal Leaders, but numerous bandits would blocked his path. Sierra decided to stay behind, as she tried to protect the members of the militia.
Sierra kept on using her 'Double Slash' ability to push back the black ctenosaur riders. Despite her efforts, the bandits still managed to attack the squads outside of the werebear's defensive reach.
She had a hard time fighting the black ctenosaur riders while defending the militia. She felt like she was fighting with her hands tied behind her back.
The Brandal leaders issued another command, and Adder's battalion was slowly being pushed back into the forest by the black ctenosaur riders.
All the Fishermen from the militia remained focused on attacking the same target. Unfortunately, the Farmers were not able to hold their defensive formation.
The sounds of shattered shields was synonymous to the death of a squad. One of the squad's Farmers used their pitchforks to momentarily block the bandits.
Their desperate attempt gave them the few crucial seconds needed for the other squads behind them to kill the black ctenosaur riders directly in front of them.
The squad with the broken shields retreated while the immediate squad behind them took their place.
The militia's focused attack left the Brandals with 335 bandits. Sadly, it came at a high cost. Sierra and Adder were left with 197 men.
Adder's double bladed sword precisely struck the back of the bandit's necks. The bandits understood his intent on reaching their Leaders, and continued to block his path.
Because of this Adder's lifebar was reduced to (59,210/120,150 HP). Even if he did manage to break through the blockade of black ctenosaur riders, his lifebar wasn't enough to fight against five Brandal Leaders.
Adder knew that a Brandal Leader had 185,000 HP. It was clear he needed to retreat. He started to make his way back to his battalion.
The black ctenosaur riders were waiting for this moment. As soon as Adder turned his back, multiple throwing daggers were fired at him.
Two Brandal leaders left their post from the back and were riding fast towards the one armed man.
From the front of Sierra's battalion, she saw that the Brandals were aiming for Adder. The bandits were moving in for the kill.
Sierra hesitated to leave the militia, but she saw that as the battle progressed they were equally improving. The red werebear made a beeline towards Adder.
She couldn't imagine losing Smoke's right hand man. Her 'Double Slash' ability proved very effective in clearing her path.
Sierra reached Adder in time. The two Brandal Leaders were only ten feet away from him. Adder saw Sierra running to him, she gave him a signal and Adder nodded.
The red werebear held both her claws together, and made it into a jumping board. Adder leapt on Sierra's claws as she threw him upward, increasing the height of his jump.
Adder leapt high. His aim was to land behind the two Brandal Leaders, but the Brandal Leaders took out their bullwhips and caught him in midair.
The two Brandal Leaders pulled him down to the ground hard. Adder was left with 25% of his lifebar. Sierra quickly pulled off the bullwhips before Adder was dragged away.
The two of them were surrounded. Their two battalions were slowly dying. It looked like a hopeless situation. Sierra tried to think of a way to save at least Adder.
As Sierra was looking around for a way out, she saw a cloud of dust rise up from behind the Brandal Leaders.
A carriage pulled by a stag moose came like the wind and blew past the three Brandal leaders who kept to their posts.
Gandiva's carriage had been upgraded. It had two meter spikes attached to the wheels, and an archer tower on the back.
She asked Tulin to use its strong sturdy horns to plow through the black ctenosaurs who blocked their path.
Gandiva made Tulin stop beside Sierra and Adder.
"Hop on. Let's get back to our militia and regroup."
Sharanga was on top of the archer tower. She kept on attacking the black ctenosaurs with her arrows. She ordered her falcon, Shar to throw the five trap systems on the two Brandal leaders.
The first Brandal leader was caught in the trap which weighed him down with 500 kilos, when the five trap system interlocked.
While, the second Brandal leader managed to block the falcon's thrown trap with his bullwhip. Sierra and Adder got safely on board Gandiva's carriage. They were on their way to the front lines of their battalions.
Everybody's attention was focused on the escaping carriage, that they didn't notice the three meter monster carrying two oversized zweihänders appear as the cloud of dusts settled.
