"Now?" Marcos glanced all around, "can't you see the condition of my men? They are all injured and suited to fight another war yet."
He turned to Doaf to get his support, but Arthur cut the path on the two as he firmly said:
"We went to this war with no more than a thousand. Are you telling me now I shouldn't go to it when I have tens of thousands? That's ridiculous!"
"I won't let my men fight this soon," Marcos said in a stubborn way.
"In fact…" Doaf had to step in, "you know how much I respect you as a friend and a brother, but you also know that I'm higher in rank than you as our grandmaster."
"What do you mean by that?" Marcos' eyes narrowed as he coldly asked.
"If I said they will fight then they will," Doaf said without flinching, "and they will."
"This is…" Marcos hesitated before adding, "a very wrong decision leader."
Doaf kept his silence for a brief moment as he wasn't pleased by the way his old friend just addressed him. "I know what I'm doing," Doaf coldly said, "prepare the men… there is another war we'll fight."
"I'll bring this matter later to our grandmaster," Marcos said in a threatening tone.
"Pray our grandmaster will arrive soon, or else we all will die."
Marcos didn't get the meaning of it but Amera didn't wait any longer. "What do you need of me? My blood?" she turned to Arthur and hurriedly asked.
"Drop a few over here," Arthur moved his foot off the array center and pointed to that spot.
Amera didn't hesitate and let her blood fall over the spot and drench it all.
"Rumble!"
The next moment the entire array shook while Arthur smiled in content. "It's a blessing we did it once the portal was crushed," he said while examining the array, "it's still active and has enough energy to start the second portal."
"That's great," Amera said before turning to the other two, "prepare your men. This fight might seem quite easier than the first one but we need not to relax."
"Count on me," Doaf simply said before grabbing his old friend and vanishing towards the scattered bronzed giants all around.
"Thanks," Amera suddenly said before flying off to her little group of men, "for standing up for me."
"That's what a man should do to his girl, right?"
"Keep dreaming," she laughed while getting further away.
"Hey, we have a promise between us," he shouted at her back and all he could hear was her laugh.
"She is still playing with me," he shook his head while watching her flying away.
'Ding! At least she didn't refuse to honor her words,' the system said and the two of them laughed.
'Yawn!' At this moment Gege just came to drop a bomb over their heads.
"Sleeping already? So fast?" Arthur was shocked to hear her yawning.
'Oh, I was just stretching out my body,' she chuckled and Arthur felt weird at this moment. 'What? Can't I play with you too?' she laughed.
"Not like this," he said, "you literally dropped my heart to the ground!"
'Hahaha, don't exaggerate it,' she said in amusement, 'I doubt you'd even need my help during the next fight.'
"Mentioning that," he paused before adding, "what's the status of that army?"
'Wait a moment,' she said as she went to ask the tree about the condition of the approaching army. 'Strange, they halted their advance,' she came fast to bring the good news.
"Really?" Arthur raised one eyebrow, "it seems… a bit weird."
'Ding! Not that weird to me,' the system said, 'Ding! They planned to kill a lion with a pack of hyenas, but they now had to face a pack of lions instead. It's normal for them to stop advancing and even retreat.'
Arthur thought about it for a short minute before saying, "Either way this will buy us some precious time."
'Indeed,' Gege said, 'I asked the tree to keep you posted with the news if I went to sleep.'
"How about the portals?" Arthur asked.
'I told you already, I can only control one little portal to take you and anyone in, but not in large numbers.'
"And?"
'What do you want to know?' she asked with loss.
"'When will they return to normal?" Arthur asked what he had in mind.
'I don't know, maybe a day, or a year, or even the next hour… who knows?'
"Tsk, you are acting harsh and cold with me," Arthur complained in a fake depressed tone.
'Don't play me, I can read your mind and you can't,' she laughed and he couldn't help but smile.
"Rumble!"
The array shook again and this time Arthur knew the portal would just open soon. "Be ready," he said, "and inform others to get ready. I doubt we'll wait for more than five minutes this time."
'Thanks to those mages trapped inside, the monsters regained most of their former powers,' Gege said.
'Ding! I believe even some got the chance to evolve.'
"Oh, that happened?" Arthur turned his head around but he couldn't see anything like it.
'Ding! I spotted many cases like this, so trust me.'
"Alright, it sounds better either way," Arthur smiled and kept his silence for the remaining minutes.
Then the array rumbled for the third time and this was followed by the formation of another portal.
"Oh, it seems quite lively up there," Arthur couldn't help but sneer when he spotted what lay on the other end of the portal.
There, instead of the previous empty and destroyed world of the bronzed giants, the cauldron world seemed to still be standing in the face of their enemies.
"Now the game changed," Arthur slowly said, "bring me Amera and the other two… we need to talk about our plans here."
'I've sent the summon request to them,' Gege said, 'but how can we help?'
"That's what I'm waiting to hear from them," Arthur muttered, "after all this portal is a one way connection I believe."
'Ding! It can work both ways if you want,' the system suddenly said, 'Ding! Any portal can work either direction, but that might require some extra preparations.'
"I won't decide for now then," Arthur thought about it before adding, "I need to hear their thoughts first. After all this is a fresh war with many enemies and a lot of allies."
'Ding! We can all move there,' the system suddenly said, 'Ding! Much better than staying here and facing the bitter odds of that array.'
Arthur realized what the system was referring to and he couldn't help but nod in agreement. "Yeah, it's best if we all moved to that world instead and closed the portal."
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