The gate is large enough for three ogres to pass through at a time and they start moving as soon as it is open. This shows that they trust me, at least a little, and it also shows their bravery. It isn’t easy to walk through a gate for the first time to an unknown destination.

  I have to stand still and maintain the gate until all of them are through, but it shouldn’t take long. The ogres don’t have any domesticated beasts, so they are carrying everything they own. The most that they have is a few small carts that they are pulling by hand and those contain the huts.

  They move quickly and don’t waste any time, which is something of a relief since the gate costs quite a bit of mana. As they are walking past me I keep hearing bits and pieces of their conversations. They are all talking about the upcoming training and seem quite excited about it.

  Hopefully, the training will bring out their potential as warriors and increase their strength. I really want to see a good number of the ogres joining the elite unit that Leonarr will be creating. The way the other tribes revere the ogres, they should be capable of at least that much.

  It takes almost an hour before the last of the ogres goes through the gate and I follow. As soon as I am through I close the gate and let out a sigh of relief, that took a lot of mana. In fact, without the gate network I could have never kept a gate that large open for that long.

  Luckily, the military had people waiting and they are already helping to get the ogres settled and organized. I check with Bearaka, but since there are no problems I head to the castle. I luck out and the kids are there, except Albion and Haku, so I sit down and have a meal with them.

  I give Kechara all of the completed obelisks and then head down to my workshop. I store the rest of the stone that I didn’t use and as many other materials as I can to make room in my ring. After that, I gate to the fort that Leonarr has been using as a forward base.

  Unfortunately, I am informed that Leonarr has moved the forward base to another location. It is in the area that we have already taken from the empire and is much closer to the action. Since I haven’t been there before, my only option is to take to the sky and fly there.

  However, when I arrive I am once again told that Leonarr isn’t there, he is with the army. So, I take off again and head to the city that the army is currently laying siege to. When I arrive, I find that my army has surrounded a medium sized walled city.

  They are keeping their distance from the city, probably just outside of arrow range. I land in the space between the army and the city, but no arrows come my way, at least not at first. I take a minute to look over my army, which is bigger than I was expecting it to be.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  I guess it has been a while since I last took a look at things with the army, I have been leaving it to Leonarr. From what I can see, he has been doing a really good job at managing everything. After this, I will have to make sure and tell him what a good job he has been doing.

  To my surprise, I spot a small number of humans scattered among the ranks of the army. I know I ordered that refugees be rescued and taken in, but I didn’t expect any to join the army this soon. Even if they were already warriors, I thought it would take a while before any were willing to sign up.

  Not to mention that for them to be here now, it should mean that they have already completed the training. For that to happen, they would have had to have been among the very first to be rescued. Not that I mind or object to them joining, I just wasn’t expecting to see them here.

  As I am standing, staring at the humans in surprise, I feel several arrows hit and bounce off of my scales. This makes me turn and look towards the city and the troops stationed on top of the wall. In particular, I stare at the group of archers that is the closest to me and probably who shot at me.

  From the looks they are giving me, mostly shock and fear, I am pretty sure that I am right. However, I do not plan to deal with them myself, I have an army for that. Instead, I turn my attention to the nice big stone wall that they are standing on top of.

  However, out of the corner of my eye I spot something that drags my attention over. On the wall, there is a small group of beastmen among the soldiers and they are all wearing collars. Looking back and forth along the wall I spot a couple of other small groups of beastmen.

  It looks like we weren’t as successful at rescuing our people as we thought we were. That changes things, we need to try to keep them alive if at all possible and free them. As I am thinking things through, Leonarr approaches with two beastmen with shields covering for him.

  Leonarr says “Your Majesty.”

  “Hello, Leonarr. The army is looking good, I am impressed!”

  Leonarr says “Thank you, My King!”

  “We will talk more about that later. Right now, I am concerned by the beastmen slaves that I see on the wall.”

  Leonarr says “Yes, I am as well. They must have been kept somewhere our spies couldn’t get access to. We were rather rushed, so it isn’t too surprising that we missed some.”

  “That is true. I am not looking for someone to blame. Rather, I am trying to think of how to rescue them in this situation.”

  Leonarr says “Well, what is your plan for dealing with the wall? That is our biggest problem. If you can take care of that, we will do our best to rescue our brethren.”

  “My plan is to rip the stone wall out from under them and store it into my ring for later use.”

  Leonarr says “Can you do that to the entire wall?!”

  “No, not even close. At most, I can take about half of the wall on this side of the city. Will that be enough?”

  Leonarr says “More than enough. All we really need is one hole to break in through. After that, we can handle the rest.”

  “Alright. In that case, get ready. I will deal with the wall and then try to do something to help those beastmen.”

  Leonarr gives me a salute and then rushes back to the army to get them ready to move. I again turn my attention to the wall and this time I send my mana into the stone. While I haven’t actually tried anything like this before, it should work, in theory.