Mark found himself once again in Fort Faria, though this time there was no smell of blood and death. Nor was the fort echoing with the pounding of Calacra's roots as it marched toward them. No, instead the fort was filled with the echoes of hooves as many strange-looking horses and cows wandered the courtyard. The smell of sweaty men and unwashed animals filled the fort. It was better than the undead's stench but just barely better.

  Mark then was taken out of his sightseeing of the fort's transformation from bastion against the undead to giant barnyard by loud footsteps coming from behind him. He turned around to see it was Faro. Mark was just about to call out a greeting when he found himself in a headlock between Faro's thick, trunk-like arms.

  "You bastard! How dare you leave your position without orders!" Faro screamed out, clearly enraged at Mark going rogue at the last battle. He was so loud that few of the nearby soldiers stopped herding the horses and cows for the upcoming conflict to watch Mark be reprimanded. Mark tried to defend himself but found he could barely breathe in Faro's iron headlock.

  "Running off, not saying a word to anyone! Then getting yourself killed in a one-on-one duel with the enemy commander! You're supposed to be a brave boy, not insane!" Faro shouted out, clearly surprised, despite being there at what he saw as Mark's death wish. "Well, don't you worry, boy; you'll be following orders this battle. Is that understood? Faro said menace clear in his voice. All Mark could do was nod his head rapidly in agreement while desperately trying to tap out on Faro's arms. Faro, upon seeing Mark's clear surrender, let go of him, leaving a gasping Mark on the courtyard floor.

  "Alright then, lad. Good to see you got some sense in you after all. You'll be riding with me now; get on your steed here, and let's get going." Faro said, pointing to a gray-colored horse with hardened hide, once again speaking like a jovial giant as he went back to shouting at the rest of his soldiers that the show was over and that they needed to be ready to ride within the next hour.

  Faro's had commanded it, and so it was done. As Faro's and Mark's got on their horses. A breed known as the catacomb smashers, along with the hundred other scythe men from the fort, while 50 got on strange giant red bulls. They all made their way out of the northern gates towards the grassy fields north of Fort Faria.

  What was strange was each man that was riding had two riderless horses next to him, following him in a triangle formation. Upon seeing that none of the riderless horses were tied to the riders in any way, Mark became curious about how the Detreon controlled them so well. So he turned to Commander Faro and asked. "Faro, how are you guys controlling the riderless horses? Shouldn't they be running off to go eat the grass or something?" Mark said in a clearly confused voice.

  " It's simple, my dear rookie. Our goddess Detrei isn't just a goddess of harvest but a goddess of herds as well. Which means she can create the perfect war horses that are loyal and are very obedient to her people." Faro said with pride in his voice at his goddess's power and skill in creation.

  Mark was a bit shocked at that revelation. That would explain a lot. "What doesn't that mean? Since the catacomb smashers have horns that are as big as lances, you only need to lead one rider to charge, and the rest will follow you, causing a full cavalry charge with only a single rider?" Mark was shocked that such a thing could be possible. Faro just gave a shit-eating smirk and nodded back a yes.

  This made Mark realize he had to change his earlier estimates of Faro's forces because if each one of the riderless horses next to a ridden horse was functionally the same, That would mean they were functionally three hundred cavalry, and he wasn't sure what the fifty Red Bulls were capable of. Mark began to study the strange red bulls, trying to figure out their exact purpose in the upcoming battle, when their status screen popped up.

  So apparently the strange red bulls were mobile artillery and siege engines all in one. So that was good to know, and it seemed that Detrei had been learning a lot from players, apparently to make something like that. Now knowing he could get details on the magical war beast of Detrei, Mark figured he should see what the stats window would say about the catacomb smashers.

  After seeing the info for both of the war beasts in their group, Mark was feeling very confident with whatever they were going to attack. Though that didn't stop him from wanting to know where they were going. "Hey Faro, where are we headed?" Mark asked his curiosity bursting out of him, trying to figure out where they were taking this strike force too.

  "To Carthax, one of the oldest and largest hill forts in all of Alyssa. It was once the border between multiple nations; now it is a main fortress for the forces of Hargal. If we take it, we will push the undead line back and reclaim lands lost to the Detreon for centuries." Faro said excitement and trepidation filling his voice at the task ahead of them.

  "What, for something like that? Don't you think we're a bit short on men to take a fortress that big?" Mark said suddenly becoming very concerned that they didn't have enough men for the job.

  "Don't worry, Mark, we will have enough men. Don't you worry." Faro said with a wide knowing grin on his face, clearly reveling in knowing something Mark didn't. When Mark waved him to continue, Faro instead kept his silence and just kept riding on his horse. Clearly Faro wasn't going to ruin the surprise.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  So Faro and Mark continued to ride in silence. Mark stewed in thoughts trying to figure out what Faro's meant. He would have asked the scythe men that were with them, but sadly, with each man having a few riderless horses between them, it made talking a bit difficult. He'd have to yell to be heard, and he'd rather not scream at the men he was supposed to be fighting with. In fact, the only reason he could talk to Faro was because he was riding directly behind him, and Faro would look over his shoulder so they could talk while looking at each other's face.

  Luckily for Mark, he was safe from having to try and figure out how they had enough men or were going to get enough for the upcoming siege. Because he began to see the men they were going to need as multiple attack groups, much like their own, they began to come from multiple directions, and they slowly began to come together, forming one army on the march towards the fortress of Carthax.

  The journey took about a week for the army to march across the lands belonging to Detrei and into the ones belonging to minions of Hargal. They had to deal with a few small honored hordes along the way. Along the long march, Mark noticed a few things. Such as their army didn't seem to have a general as far as Mark could tell, just multiple commanders working in unison for the journey. Though they did have multiple players spread throughout the different strike groups. Each player had their own unique weapons and armor, which made them easy to spot.

  Eventually, at the end of their weeklong journey, the walls of Carthax stood before them. The fortress was on what the Detreon called a giant hill but was actually a small mountain by what would be considered normal standards. The fortress had multiple walls from what Mark could tell and would probably be a tough nut to crack.

  The commanders from the different strike groups that made up the army got together for an impromptu meeting. They quickly decided to attack the southern gate with a combination of catacomb smashers and winter red bulls, figuring they would quickly plow through the gate and the remaining part of the army, the scythe men would kill whatever stragglers remained of the undead's forces in the fort.

  With a plan made, it was quickly implemented, and soon a horde of war beasts came charging at the southern gate of Carthax. Just as they were about to slam into the gate, a massive hand suddenly swung from the walls of the outer walls of Fort Carthax. The giant skeletal hand sent the leading warbeast of the charge flying. Luckily the commanders were able to call off the charge with horns Mark hadn't seen on them before as they quickly blew the horns twice, causing the rest of the war beasts to return quickly before they were within reach of the giant skeletal hand.

  Even luckier was we; we didn't lose the warbeast the giant hand had hit. Well, the Warbeast were out of the fight with the injuries they had sustained. These war beasts were tough enough to survive being sent flying, apparently. Which really showed that Detrei made war beasts to endure. The commanders of the army quickly reconvened to discuss what to do about the giant skeletal hand and if there was just one or if they were at every gate at the fort.

  Mark stared at the skeletal hand, trying to glean any information from it, hoping he could figure out what to do next with any intel he gained. As the stats window finally popped up for the giant skeletal hand, what he saw was not encouraging.

  With this horrifying revelation of the outermost wall's true nature, Mark began to look closer at the wall. He began to see all the loose flesh and muscles that were in between the bones that made up the wall that he hadn't really seen before. Just as his stomach was becoming queasy from the loose body parts he was seeing that were both Detreon and animal parts melded into a wall. He saw an eyeball jammed in between what he guessed was some type of animal meat that proceeded to stare directly at him. So Mark, being the brave, experienced hero he was, promptly puked from disgust.

  As Mark began to puke, which was surprising considering he hadn't eaten anything yet in this world. So what was he even throwing up? The upper part of the walls of Carthax reshaped itself, and soon enough there were several catapults made out of bone and flesh flinging boulders at them.

  The army acted quickly, and once again the commanders blew their horns in specific bursts to give orders as all the sythe men mounted and both they and the catacomb smasher tried to get out of the range of the catapults. The winter red bulls, while trying to stay mobile, began to grow their berry bushes in the shape of nests on their backs.

  Soon enough, Mark watched in a mix of astonishment and amazement as birds about the size of a human fist that were entirely made out of berries somehow began to fly up to the walls and exploded in a shower of berry juice. So Mark watched, trying not to get crushed by a boulder, while the winter red bulls and the wall of Carthax traded fire, signifying that the siege had truly begun.

  "Well, Robert I gotta say, Hargal's boys do make some rather interesting toys. I know my viewers agree; in fact, I've gotten some wonderful letters with donations telling me how they were inspired for their own work. That's always great to hear, you know." Simon said, clearly moved, that the show had inspired people.

  "Yeah, Simon, it's great!" Robert said with heavy sarcasm, as he was now very concerned that his game world of Allyssa had just inspired some lich or something. Which he really hoped wasn't true, as he would rather not be indirectly responsible for destroying worlds by some undead abomination whose creation his game had inspired.

  "Ah, turn that frown upside down, Robert. Your game is doing great, and you got a great seat to a great battle coming up soon. You also got the expansion of your game to look forward to." Simon said with an upbeat attitude, trying to cheer up Robert.

  "What expansion?" Robert asked confused when he remembered that once a game world reached a certain player count, they expanded, and with this big battle coming up, it'll probably draw in more people with the free public. So once it's over, the world of Allyssa will expand, which he hadn't planned out yet. "Shit," Robert said in a deadpan voice.

  "Ahhh, it snuck up on you, did it? Well, I would get to working on it if I were you." Simon said giving Robert a polite warning, but it wasn't necessary as he was already working on the plans for how the world of Allyssa should expand. "Don't you worry; I'll tell you when something important is about to happen." Simon said in a chipper yet static-filled voice as you could feel his attention go back to the workshop's many TV screens following what was going on with the siege of Carthax.