Chapter 301 - The events leading to the destruction of Izvratya (Part 2)
To increase the chance of their plans to succeed, they all decided to do something to make the entry into the village harder. They placed two thick wooden logs and locked the main gates of the village from the inside. They also placed barricades so that it would be hard to push the gate itself. Just destroying the lock and removing all the debris would delay the entry of the guards as long as possible which is what they really wanted to happen.
Though the fire was already blazing inside the village, since the walls are high and none of the guards cared to look inside, the five beast men members of the fire brigade was able to complete their tasks with no issues. They had enough time to watch the fire eat up the areas they splashed with the red liquid with in amazement and then run back to the team assisting the beast men from the middle area.
The guards only noticed the unusual occurrences inside the village when a strong wind blew towards the direction of the main gates. They felt a sudden heat wave hit their backs, undoubtedly coming from the direction of the living areas inside Izvratya. Though they have only noticed it now, the fire brigade started this fire about half an hour ago.
One of the guards, looked through one of the gaps from the high walls of the village which they used to check the inside of the village and they were shocked to see a huge fire soaring to the heavens, destroying everything in its path. The guard who saw this scene immediately shouted to his companions that there is a fire inside and they need to stop it before it engulfs the whole area.
Each of the guards immediately looked for buckets that they could use and then ran to the nearest water source which was a river. Once they have filled their buckets they ran back to open the gate to enter the village. They tried pushing it just like they always do but this time, it wouldn't budge even if several people pushed it with all their might. The two logs used as locks and the barricades did their job well of delaying their entry. They will eventually be able to resolve the hindrances but that is only after half an hour later much to their dismay later.
When one of the beast men tasked as a lookout heard the guards trying to pry the gates open, he ran to the back of the village where the group from the middle area and the beast men assigned to take care of them are standing. Once they got the news, they ask those that could still say the teleportation activation word to start teleporting on their own. At this time, the fire brigade has joined them. Once the abled individuals have been teleported out, the remaining beast men held on to the individuals that needed help and started teleporting out in pairs and trios quickly.
At this time the other three groups have started to make their way out of the hole they secretly made at the back wall of the village where there were currently no guards. Their signal is when the fire was big enough and the guards have started forcing their way in from the front. The signal that they have been waiting for arrived at about 30 minutes from the time they communed in the area. They saw Artak who was running towards them who gave them a nod to start the massive teleportation, he then continued running till he exited the back wall of the village to join the foragers and hunters.
The three groups made their hurried exits from the back wall and ran as fast as they could to their target areas. They made sure to put some barricades on the hole that they just used as well. They moved efficiently as a team with a common goal and by the time the guards were able to destroy the barricade, they were already halfway through their mission. It was quick because they don't care much about how they harvested and just stored away whatever they found edible or useful along the way.
It took another 15 minutes before the guards calmed the fire a bit and noticed that there seemed to be no villagers helping out to stop the fire. They started scouring the huts but they were all empty. They moved from one hut to another till they reached the back of the village but there was not a single soul in sight.
Upon reaching the back wall, they noticed a small hole on the fence that seemed to have been haphazardly covered up. One of the guards shouted to signal the others that there are escapees and the fire was just a distraction to delay them from noticing the original goal of the villagers. It took them several minutes to push out the barricade covering the hole from the other side of the hole.
Once the barricades were removed, the guards started running towards the back of the forest but with such a huge group running through the forest, the foragers and hunters have already heard them coming. They were angry and wanted to spite the guards so they made sure that the guards locate them first. Once a guard is chasing after them, they run away while shouting curses and taunts on their pursuers. When the guards thought that the escapee will finally be caught, the escapee will suddenly disappear without a trace.
This cat and mouse chase continued for almost another hour. The ones whom the guards located first were the ones that were already done with their tasks and had their storage bags filled to the brim. Since they can no longer take anything more from the forest, they volunteered as baits to lure the guards away from the others. Their goal was to give more time for their companions to fill their bags as well.
As the leader of the whole escape plan, Artak stayed behind, making sure that everyone was able to escape. He asked for Luna during their short time together to give him a way to check if everyone has escaped safely. She readily agreed to give him one a tool to do this which he greatly appreciated.
Inside his personal storage bag was that specific tracking tool that was connected to the marks on the back of the hand of his fellow beast men that Luna placed on them. It has a counter where he will be able to see how many is still in the vicinity of Izvratya and how many has reached the safe point. She also gave him two surprise gifts inside his personal storage bag.
Once he saw in the tool that everyone had already arrived at the designated safe point, as a leopard beast man, he used his speed and the second gift he received from Luna to do his last task. The second gift he received from Luna is a temporary spell that will make him invincible and undetectable for half an hour.
He felt so happy knowing that he has a huge contribution to this plan. He even had two storage bags (it was her first surprise gift) and one of them was the type that only he was provided. Though he had to return the special storage bag eventually, he still relished in the feeling of being special.
His special storage bag was specially designed to keep even keep living things inside it. He was still amazed at how his storage bag seemed to have unlimited space since it can even store naturally occurring structures.
Contrary to his belief that the storage bag has limitless space, it was actually another application of space magic. Luna connected it to another space that only her and Laerad have access to. All the things that Artak took will then be reused by Laerad to build the new Lyartaim inside the new world tree realm. This made it possible for him to store even mountains, rivers, caves and a whole expanse of the forest without a sweat.
He enjoyed this new found power so much that he started storing all of the trees and plants including their roots, all the living animals and even larger naturally occurring structures such as caves, mountains, rivers and streams. He took the whole river full of fish, the waterfall and the mountain it was attached to and all the connected streams to it as well as all the caves filled with ores and gems. After he's done, the areas of at least 2 kilometers surrounding Izvratya had become a barren land devoid of any life.
He started with the area in left side of the village then slowly moved to the front of the village where the guards came from and have left unguarded due to the fire. Once done, he moved to the right part of the village and cleared that up too. He waited for the guards to notice that there was nobody left to chase at the back of the village and started moving back inside the village before he made his final move to empty out the back area. With this, the ex- citizens of the now ruined Izvratya village have fully squeezed out everything valuable in and out of their village which was just a rightful payback for every suffering they have received in that hellish place.
He looked back towards the direction of the village, where parts are still blazing fiercely with fire. His smile looked forced, even painful but there was a hint of relief. He sighed and whispered to the wind, "I have finally avenged you, my dear friend. I have avenged everyone that have died painfully in this place too. Our hell has finally ended. This place has finally ceased to exist and can no longer destroy another beast man's life."