Chapter 47: Assault On Arkadia (Part 1)

'Thinking'

"Talking"

[System]

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- The Arkadian Kingdom | Arkadia –

- Clarke Griffin –

In a small garden toward the back of the Arkadian Royal quarters, was Clarke, or as the people had come to call her Queen Clarke. The early afternoon sun shined down upon her face, a face that was basked in concentration. Small beads of sweat dripped from her hair and down the sides of her face. A dark and light blue book grasped firmly in her left hand while her right hand spun through the air with smooth and controlled motions. A baseball-size blob of water spun around in the air, slowly gaining more and more mass by the second. The water soon began to take shape into a small humanoid figure with small fairy wings. The form made a brief squeak of surprise as its bright light blue eyes focused on Clarke. Clarke smiled at her creation as the spirit made up of living water dashed around the garden, squeaking gleefully at the abundance of flowers. Eventually, Clarke unsummoned the fairy and began on her next creation, A Water golem.

{Image of Water Spirit}

For her and she assumed every Hydro summoner, though she didn't actually know if there were others, the water golem was a difficult form to craft. It required a deep sense of familiarity with the water and a special delicate hand, as well as a higher concentration of water. Not only that but compared to the water spirit's small use of 250 MP, the Water Golem used far more, 1,000 MP. Clarke's hand made a few motions and rose, a moment later a rapid current of water formed on the ground a few feet away from Clarke. The water spun around and around traveling vertically as it did so, until stopping at around the 3-foot mark. From then on up the water began to take shape, first of a heavily muscled torso, then a pair of arms and finally a faceless head that looked around before locking in on Clarke. The figure bowed recognizing its summoner and master.

{Image of Water Golem}

"Form a spear." Clarke ordered. After continued practice with her magic and spells, Clarke found out that the Water Golem, the most humanoid form out of all of her summons, was able to form and wield weapons. And while it did cost her a little bit of extra MP, it was well worth it, besides 25 to 70 MP wasn't difficult for her in the slightest.

The Water Golem did as was ordered, creating a spear completely made up of water. The golem twirled the spear around a few times and began to accelerate around the garden lashing out into the open air, as if he was facing an imaginary opponent of some sort. Once the summons had seemed to be done with its fight, Clarke unsummoned it and decided that was enough for today. She had already practiced earlier that morning, and while she did still have a couple thousand MP left, she decided that it would be better to have the magic on hand in case of emergency instead of being wasted on training.

[Level Up!]

[Class Hydro Summoner is now level 52!]

Clarke smiled at the level up and placed her Sacred Water Totem into what Arthur called her Proto-Inventory. All of the others that also have classes all have a proto-Inventory, a result of the class crystal, Arthur surmised. It was nothing compared to Arthur's seamlessly limitless inventory, as our inventories only had a total of 25 slots as well as a 500-pound weight limit.

Clarke dismissed her line of thought and opened her stats page. In only a month, her Hydro Summoner level had risen from 29 to 52 with training alone. And with her new summons that she unlocked she was sure she could have been majorly impactful in the war, but alas Arthur had to get her pregnant. And while she loved him with all she had, she still wished she could help in some way.

[Clarke Griffin]

Titles: Princess, One with Aqua, Queen of the Sky People

Race: Human

Level: 35

Class: Hydro Summoner

Class Level: 52

HP: 18,480

MP: 22,375/23,625

A set of footsteps on the soft grass alerted Clarke to another presence other than her and her Guards. "Clarke, how are you doing?" Asked a familiar male voice.

"Good. How are you Bellamy? How is Gina?" she asked as she turned around.

"I'm alright. Gina just left a little while ago for a delivery to and from Mount Weather. Your Mother requested some more medicine and apparently Mount Weather has some of the best." Bellamy told her as they began to walk away from the Garden, the pair of Royal Guards and a pair of Sentinels following loyally behind them.

"It makes sense, Mount Weather is probably filled to the brim with modern medicine, some of it is probably even better than what they had on the Ark." Clarke said as they walked down the halls toward the Mechanical Bay.

A few minutes of silence Bellamy spoke, "I want to be out there."

"What do you mean?" Clarke asked.

"I want to be out there on the frontlines with Arthur. My friends are out there fighting the fight and I'm stuck here. I should be out there helping them." He complained.

"I understand what you mean, but Arthur left you here for a reason. Someone needed to protect the Ark, and while Kane is here as well the men respect you more. You train with them, eat with them, and identify with them. It's the same reason as to why Lincoln is still here instead of out there fighting." Clarke explained.

Clarke and Bellamy then walked through a door and into the Mechanical Bay where Raven was working on a new and improved mech. Whereas the previous mech stood at an impressive height of 5 and a half meters tall, this mech stands at an even higher height of 9 meters tall. It could barely fit inside the mechanical bay and was forced to crouch if it wished to exit. It was a dark green color with the occasional highlight of light green or gunmetal gray and had a series of orange strips painted onto it. One on the right thigh of the machine and three more on the shield on its left arm.

{Image of New Mech: Mace}

"Alright, Mace one more calibration and you'll be ready to give those vampires hell!" Clarke heard Raven say to herself.

Bellamy and Clarke's footsteps on the steel steps drew Raven's attention away from the data pad in her hand and over toward them. Clarke smiled at Raven while Bellamy seemed to be awestruck by the sheer size of the mech.

"I knew that Arthur ordered you to build another mech after the first one was lost, but damn. You really outdid yourself this time Raven." Bellamy said with admiration.

"Why thank you, Bellamy. Though, I can't take all the credit for Mace here. Sinclair and a few of the other engineers helped as well." She said with a smile. Raven took a few steps back away from the mech and began the calibration process before setting the data pad down on a table nearby.

"What about Wick? I thought he would've helped you out?" Bellamy asked as the last he knew Raven and Wick were in an off and on relationship.

Clarke opened her mouth to correct him, but Raven beat her to it.

"Wick? Oh, that jackass. Yeah, me and him stopped talking a while ago." At the sight of Bellamy's apologetic expression, Raven clarified her words. "No worries, Bellamy. We simply weren't meant to fit, besides I'm more into blonde hair and golden-eyed men instead." It took Raven a second to realize what words just escaped her mouth, and as soon as she did her hand snapped to her mouth in shock.

"So, Raven likes our King as well, huh? Go figure." Bellamy said with a smirk.

"Raven-" Clarke began but was swiftly interrupted.

"Clarke, I know I shouldn't have feelings for him, but your mother and him really helped me out during my whole Wick situation. It was...kinda hard not to develop some sort of feelings for the man." Raven said with a blush adorning her cheeks as she scratched at the back of her head bashfully.

"Trust me, I know how it feels." Clarke muttered more to herself than Raven, but both Raven and Bellamy still heard her. "Raven, let me ask you a quick question. How many girlfriends, and at this point fiancés, does Arthur have?"

"Umm, well including that Wolf Queen, 4. But what does that have to do with anything?" Raven asked confused.

"There's 4 of us and somehow in some way, none of us have fought over him or had some kind of dispute. Do you know why that is?" Clarke asked with a growing smile.

"Honestly, I don't really have a clue. I thought you guys were gonna separate when he was just with you and Octavia." Raven admitted.

"The reason is that we all have a connection or friendship with one another. Granted, I haven't gotten to form one with the Wolf Queen yet, but after the war, I'm sure we can get along. Besides, Arthur loves every single one of us equally, he may do something special for one of us one day or another, but he always has special days lined up for everyone. So, when Arthur comes back, take your shot, but if he doesn't reciprocate your feelings, then that's it. Understood." Clarke explained in a soft voice, at least until the end. When demanded if Raven understood her voice took on a firm and almost regal tone to it.

"Understood." Raven agreed with a nod.

"I can't believe what just happened." Bellamy said with a shake of his head. Bellamy went to speak further but was swiftly cut off by the door on the far side of the Mechanical Bay opening, revealing a heavy-breathing, Lincoln.

"Azgeda...there here!" Lincoln said after taking a moment to steady his breathing.

"How?" Bellamy asked with a serious look on his face.

"They traversed around Mount Weather and are only a day or two march away."

Bellamy turned toward the two Sentinel Guards that were escorting him and ordered them to go and find Kane and the other council members. After the guards left and went to do as they were bid, Bellamy turned to Raven and said goodbye before heading off toward the council room with Lincoln.

"Shouldn't you be going with him, Clarke?" Raven asked after seeing that Clarke hadn't followed after Bellamy.

"Oh, I'll follow after them in a second. I still had a question for you, Raven." Clarke told her.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Well, two actually. The first one being why name it Mace? The second one is how long until this mech is combat-ready? We're going to need all the firepower we can get if we want to take on an Azgeda army with the frankly small number of troops we have here." Clarke asked her.

"Well, to respond to your first question. I named him Mace because you see those three plates on his left arm." At Clarke's nod, Raven continued, "Those act as both a shield and when the pilot wishes to can shift and transform into a wieldable Mace, spikes and all. And when is Mace here going to be combat-ready? After I'm done recalibrating him, in a few hours. Don't worry Clarke, when Mace here joins the battle, they won't know what him em'." Raven finished with a smirk.

Clarke smiles and nods at Raven before departing with her Royal Guards.

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- Later that Night –

Azgedan soldiers hustled and bustled about preparing for battle. Their vampire commander had marched them sneakily past the primary forces of the coalition and toward the Skaikru capital of Arkadia. They had hidden in the shadows and snuck past the border defenses, now they were less than a day's march away from laying siege to their city and killing everyone that inhabited it. Their sneak attack would be perfect, and the Arkadians would have no chance against them and their sizeable army. Or so they thought.

Almost a mile away, perched up high in a more than mile-high redwood tree was an eagle. An eagle made up of water. The eagle's eyes glowed a lighter blue compared to the rest of its dark blue body, its head twitching ever so slightly. After a few hours of near-motionless observation of the Azgedan army, the eagle's eyes lost their bright blue glow, reverting back to their dark blue base. The eagle's form then collapsed into a large blob of water the fell to the forest floor.

{Image of Water Eagle}

Back in Arkadia inside of Arthur's study, Clarke, Bellamy, Lincoln, Kane, Abby, and the other council members all sat at the round table in anticipation. An hour before dawn, Clarke had summoned an eagle and sent it out to track down and find the Azgedan army. Once it did, Clarke took control of the water animal and perched up on a tall redwood tree. She observed hundreds of soldiers setting up makeshift tents for the night and tying horses to hastily made fenceposts and around trees. For hours she observed the Azgedans make camp, trying to get a glimpse of the vampire in charge. Finally, just when she was about to give up, a tall young man with small scarlet-red eyes. With medium-length black hair that is parted in the middle with the bangs hanging over his forehead. He's wearing a long-sleeved, double-breasted white coat with two rows of gold buttons down the front, red details including shoulder epaulets, gores at the bottom, and stripes on sleeves. He further wears a pair of white gloves, a black-on-white armband on his left arm, a similarly striped black and white web belt with a hilt for his sword on the left, and a gold waist-plate. In addition, he also wears white trousers with two black belts strapped around his left leg and black shoes.

{Image of Marquess Bultwald}

'That must be the vampire in charge.' She thought as she watched the vamp walk out of a large white tent and toward a group of men that were sitting and chatting by a fire, all of them had white combat uniforms, and white capes on. With that she left the eagle's eyes and unsummoned the animal.

When she regained consciousness, many of the council members had already left for their quarters for a good night's sleep. Bellamy, Kane, Abby, and the council members of the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services.

"What's the situation?" A tired Bellamy asked.

"I wasn't able to get a clear count, but from what I could see, I estimated around four to five-hundred soldiers." Clarke informed them.

Kane's head fell into his hands, and all of them released a tired, shaky sigh. "Jesus Christ." Kane said in horror.

"That's not all." Clarke said, causing their heads to shoot back up toward her, their eyes wide open in disbelief. "They have around a hundred to two-hundred horses as well as a group of high-class vampires."

"What are we going to do?" Clarke's mother Abigail Griffin asked. "It's not like we can surrender, right?"

"We can't, and even if we could, we wouldn't." Bellamy said firmly, both Kane and Clarke nodding their heads in agreement with his words.

"Bellamy's right. Azgeda doesn't take prisoners, if they do it's because you're important in some way, and even then, they'll torture you for days. It will only be worse; I imagine, with these vampires leading them." Lincoln spoke up.

"Then what do we do?" asked one of the council members.

Clarke went to open her mouth and speak about Raven and her mech, but as she did the door to the study burst open with the girl herself standing in the doorway with an apologetic guard behind her.

"I'm sorry, My queen. This woman said that she had some important information to deliver and when we tried to stop her-" The guard tried to inform her but was cut off by an energetic Raven.

"Clarke!" Raven said, rushing past both council members, as well as her mother, to get around the table and in front of her. "It's done! The calibration for Mace is complete and he is 100% up and in working order. All that's needed now is to load him up with some ammunition and a pilot and he'll be ready to kick some Ice Nation ass!"

At the council members, Bellamy, Kane, Lincoln, and her mother's confused looks, Clarke explained what Mace was. While Raven chimed in about what Mace could do. Eventually, they came together and formed a plan that relied exclusively on Mace and his firepower. The plan was to send a group of scout pumas out and toward their encampment before the sun rose. They would arrive there and lay down fire killing as many Azgedan soldiers as possible. Upon the arrival of the vampires, they would retreat back toward the Ark and stop around a mile or two away where a large line of Rangers and whatever Sentinel Guards that were left stationed here would be sitting and waiting. Due to the mech's massive height, Mace would remain hidden behind the walls, using his shoulder-mounted cannons as artillery. Then, once the vampires showed themselves, the pilot in the mech would come out from behind the walls and engage them in combat while the rest of the Arkadian forces focused on cleaning up any remaining Azgedan soldiers. After the plan was made, the council members all retreated back to their rooms for a good night's rest, and after a short few words with her mother so did Clarke.

The plan was solid in concept, but every good strategist knows that a plan never survives first contact with the enemy.

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- Near the Azgedan Army Camp | 15 Miles away from Arkadia –

Three lightweight reconnaissance vehicles, codenamed Pumas, accelerated through the forest, weaving around large rocks and trees. The Rangers driving said vehicles were deathly silent, as was their door gunner, and their fellow ranger that manned the turret on the back of the vehicle.

{Image of the Puma}

{Image of a Ranger}

The Pumas engines revved as they burst through the forest and out into the open. In front of them was a large hill, and past that was the Azgedan encampment. As they arrived up on the hill, they were struck with horror and dread as hundreds of Azgeda warriors carried around supplies, packed up tents, and mounted up on horseback. Both emotions were then replaced by a sense of duty and a firm resolve to protect their home.

The driver in the lead Puma reached over and grabbed the radio off the dashboard and said into it, "Open fire. Let's waste these bastards!" Without waiting to receive a reply, he placed the radio back and nodded toward the gunner in the back. The M61 Vulcan turrets began to spin before releasing a hail of death and destruction on their enemies in the form of 20×102mm Vulcan at 6,000 rounds per minute.

*BRTTTTT! BRTTTTT!*

*BRTTTTT! BRTTTTT!*

*BRTTTTT! BRTTTTT!*

The door gunners didn't sit idle, and neither did the drivers. Both Rangers pulled their M392 service DMRs out and began to pick off any available Azgeda troops. This went on for about seventeen seconds before a series of gargantuan blood-red arrows the size of a person flew toward them. Several of them flew over them, but two of them impacted the ground near one of the Pumas, leaving a sizeable crater in its wake. Not wanting to be struck by one of the arrows, the PUMA drivers decided that it was time to leave. While the turret-mounted gunner and the passenger kept on firing, the driver radioed that it was time to leave and set the PUMA into reverse. They reversed off the hill and spun the PUMA's around before hightailing back through the forest toward Arkadia, leaving an angered Azgedan army in their wake.

{Image of M392 DMR}

- At the staging area | 2 Miles away from Arkadia -

Four dozen Arkadian rangers traveled back and forth, carrying sandbags, ammo crates, and other items that would be consequential in their defense. A large group of lumberjacks were hard at work chopping down trees and hauling them over to the defensive line, adding to the growing barricade and opening up a large area of the forest.

The plan was for the Arkadian Rangers, the four Sentinels, both Royal Guards, as well as any civilian volunteers to hide behind the makeshift barricades and allow for the Azgeda army to encroach on them. Once they were out in the open, they would peak out from behind the barricades and all hell would break loose. The three PUMAs that were used in the preemptive attack were covered in vegetation and hidden far behind the barricade. They would show themselves once the fighting began and give the Arkadians an even greater advantage. Not to mention the gigantic mech that was one on their side hidden back behind the walls of Arkadia, as well as Clarke, who planned to use her water summoning magic to its fullest.

"Clarke, how long do we have?" asked Lincoln as he approached in full ODST regalia with an M45 shotgun over his shoulder, his helmet under his arm, and an M392 DMR on his back.

{Image of M45 Shotgun}

{Image of Lincoln with helmet on}

Clarke's eyes shined bright blue and she closed her eyes. A few moments later when she reopened them, the blue glow was gone, and she had a steely glint in her blue eyes. "Tell the men to hurry up and prepare the lumberjacks who refused to fight back to Arkadia, they'll be here within the next half-hour."

"What about the wolves?" Lincoln asked as for all he knew they weren't mentioned in the attack plan.

"The wolves have been ordered to sneak around the forest and flank their army. Once they've engaged us in the forest the wolves will wait a few minutes before launching their attack from the rear. If neither side buckles, then we'll have boxed them in." Clarke explains to him.

With a brief nod, Lincoln grabs his helmet from under his arm and smoothly places it on his head. The helmet fits Lincoln's head like a glove and the previously black visor activates, turning a bright blue. He racked his M45 and bolted over to his second in command and began issuing orders to have the lumberjacks brought back behind the barricade and to have the ones that refused to fight loaded up into a trio of transport trucks and taken back to Arkadia.

While Lincoln did that, Clarke made her way to a stump of one of the trees the lumberjacks knocked down, took out a map and began to get grip on where the Azgeda army was, coordinate wise. Once she knew roughly where the enemy army was, she pulled her radio off her belt and contacted the pilot of the Mech. "Raven, can you hear me? Raven?"

"Hear you loud and clear, Clarke. Whatcha got for me?" Raven asked from her cockpit.

"I have a set of coordinates that I need you to hit." Clarke told her.

"Send em."

"Latitude: 39.185660. Longitude: -78.163334. Give em hell, Raven."

"Don't worry, Clarke. There'll only be a pile of corpses after Mace here is through with them. Now, get ready Clarke, because here come the fireworks." Raven said before shutting off her radio.

Not a minute later several large booms were heard from the direction of Arkadia, and as the lumberjacks' trucks began to dive off, everyone saw nearly a dozen objects fly over their heads.

"Alright, everyone. Finish setting up our defenses and prepare for battle! The Ice Nation army will be here soon, and we need to be ready for them!" Bellamy yelled out, making his presence known.

"Sir, yes, sir!" All of the troops said in response.

"Do you think we'll make it?" Clarke asked as Bellamy made his way over toward her.

"It's not a matter of belief, but a hard fact. We will survive and kill every last Ice Nation and vampire soldier in our way." He said firmly.

"Did you contact, Jet?" She asked.

"Yeah, he said that he'll be able to send reinforcements soon, but they won't arrive for a few hours."

"Then we'll just have to make do on our own." Clarke said resolutely, before walking off toward one of the two tents they had set up.

When she walked inside, four of her personal maids were already waiting for her with her armor in their hands. While Arthur had begun training her in the art of self-defense, he wasn't able to complete the training due to the outbreak of war. To prevent her from being harmed he had crafted her an ornate set of metal armor, consisting of a material he called ultra-steel and reinforced silver.

{Image of Clarke's Armor}

Clarke nodded to her maids and allowed for them to place the armor on her, within a matter of minutes Clarke's armor was fit snuggly on her, and she was ready for battle.

Once she was outside her tent, she called upon her magic and summoned a trio of water eagles that would obey her beck and call. For now, she would have them be stationary, but once the fighting started, they would rush the enemy and attack.

"Clarke! Here take this, they're just past the tree line. They'll be here any second!" Lincoln said as he ran up to her and offered her an M392 DMR and a couple of spare magazines.

After telling the maids to keep quiet and stay inside the tent, she and her Royal Guards made their way to the barricade and took cover. She and one of the guards took cover behind a wall of sandbags, while the other guard took cover behind a thick redwood tree.

Soon, the beating of drums and singing could be heard from the forest past the clearing that they had made. As the Azgedan soldiers appeared from the forest, for a second Clarke thought that none of them had been damaged by Raven's artillery strike. But upon seeing the rows of men that bandages hastily wrapped around different sections of their bodies, and that their number had dwindled to almost half of what they originally had, she knew that the strike hit its mark.

She and the other Arkadians waited with bated breath as the rows of Azgedan warriors continued to increase and get ever closer toward them. And when the first row of warriors was about to approach the barricade, she acted. The three eagles swooped down from their perches high above in the trees and transformed right before their very eyes. The ones on the left and right transformed into water wolves, costing Clarke 3,000 MP. While the middle one transformed into a ferocious water lion, costing her another 5,000 MP, leaving her with just 3,000 left.

{Image of Water Wolf}

{Image of Water Lion}

The caught-off-guard soldiers buckled under the weight of the lion and its wolf comrades. The first few rows of troops didn't stand a chance as the lion and the wolves tore into their flesh and shook them around like a bunch of ragdolls. As the second row of Azgeda troops fell, the Rangers and the other defenders opened fire, killing dozens of warriors in a matter of seconds.

The battle raged for what felt like hours when in reality it was only a couple of minutes. Dozens of horse mounted Azgeda warriors attempted to rush through the clearing and strike at the men defending Arkadia, but a quick glance from the turret-mounted gunners on the PUMAs put a stop to that. Throughout the battle, the vampires attempted to get involved, resulting in one facing off against Clarke's water Lion. What the vampire seemed to forget, however, was the fact that blood is 90% water. All the vampire did was double the Lion's size, resulting in not only the lion gaining more power but Clarke was able to regenerate a small portion of her Mana as well. By the time the battle had reached the five-minute mark, three Arkadian's were dead while two of the vampires and a staggering number of Azgeda troops were dead as well.

Eventually, a loud horn was blown causing the remaining Azgedans to turn around and run for their lives, and while few stayed to keep on fighting the majority of them escaped back into the forest. Clarke was about to order the men to follow after them, but she saw Lincoln out of the corner of her eye leaping over a sandbag barricade, shotgunning an Azgeda warrior in the face and then charging after them. A dozen rangers followed after him, and after telling the soldiers to sit and wait, she entered through her summons view.

Currently, her water lion was near the back of the Azgeda lines taking down a pair of vampires. Looking past the vampires she spotted the werewolves swiftly making their way through the Azgeda ranks, some transformed, some not. One of the werewolves was in combat with the main head vampire that she had spotted leaving the tent. From what she could remember the wolf was a general under the Gray Wolf Queen and was called the Axe King. 'Mortas something? I believe his name was.' Clarke thought as her lion's paw slammed down into the side of one of the vampire's heads, tearing it off and sending it flying through the air.

The other vampire screamed in despair and began to combat her lion with anger and desperation, but she was far too focused on the fight behind the angered vamp. As her lion continued to fight, she watched as the head vampire fought against the Axe Wolf King with equal if not greater strength. While the Gray Wolf General wielded a large, stylized axe the vampire wielded a long blood-red longsword. As they fought, the vampire would parry and deflect the wolf's big axe swings with ease. Eventually, however, the winner was decided. The Gray Wolf General had been getting tired out and the vampire capitalized on it. He deflected a large overhead swing and sent the axe directly into a large stone in the ground. Eight or so daggers made of blood then spawned in the air behind the vampire and soared toward wolf, piercing through his armor and into him. The general attempted to transform into his wolf form, but it was too late. Two long blood spears pierced through his back, and the vampire sent him cascading to his knees with telekinesis. His head was decapitated from his body before he could raise his head.

Just as the wolf general's head came off, the lion's maw closed itself around the lower-class vampire's upper body and with a satisfying twist, ripped the upper body clean off. The higher-class vampire turned around and witnessed as the lion dropped the upper body of his subordinate on the ground without a care in the world and then let out a bellowing roar for all to hear.

The vampire glared as he said, "You'll pay for killing three of my underlings, and you'll pay with your life!" He screamed, launching himself forward and igniting his blade in red, orange, and yellow flames.

Clarke smirked as she saw this and ordered the lion to roar to signify its dominance; water beats fire after all. "ROAR!"

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A/N: I really love posting these again, I hope you guys feel the same and have a great day! Next chapter will be Clarke's Lion summon versus Marquess Bultwald!