Chapter 36 - City Defenders

Based on the books I'd read, the city of Malduhr could be divided into 7 main regions. Noble housing, commoner housing, commercial and retail district, industrial district, farming and greenhouse district, entertainment district, and the stadiums. All 7 are very important to the city's functioning and I would expect there to be bandits poised to attack in each area. If we split up, we can only reach 3 at a time and I'm not confident in our capability if one of us encounters Monte. Thankfully, I'd been improving my teleportation skill and I was now familiar with each of the areas. It would take most of my mana each time we teleport but I should be able to take us to each district. I explained the plan to the group. We would teleport there, and I would use my sensing abilities to try to isolate any bandits in the area. My Emotional Intelligence skill mixed in would allow me to better identify intent and motive. Once I pointed out the target, it would be Bliss, Midnight and Rhea's job to collect them for me since I would have exhausted my mana.

Thinking of the location with the most people collected, we teleported to the stadiums. I immediately determined that there was only 1 of the 3 stadiums currently in use. They were holding a sporting competition that looked like soccer but with some variations to the rules and the net sizes. I immediately used my skills to rule out the normal attendees at the stadium. There was a total of 15 people around the stadium with some kind of malicious intent. A few were likely pickpockets and others were possibly just scammers trying to sell a fake artifact, but the skill allowed me to pinpoint all of them. I pointed out each of the people that needed to be apprehended. I assigned 5 of them to Midnight in one direction, 7 to Rhea in another direction, while Bliss and I headed inside the stadium to collect the remaining 3 troublemakers. We found out that one of them had already been grabbed by stadium security – he was trying to throw objects on the playing field. I decided to leave him to the guards. The last two showing malicious intent were standing together hovering near a corner pillar of the building. Bliss wrapped both up while I threw a mysterious package into my Storage Vision. My Analyze Vision had already identified that it was some kind of homemade explosive kept in the package. That takes care of this district!

Meeting back up with Midnight and Rhea, I saw them both carrying over a could of goons. They were allowed to teach pickpockets and scammers a lesson with their fists while any of the targets that seemed to be accomplices to the princess had to be collected. We ended up with a total of 5 villains that we tied up. We couldn't teleport to the palace each time so we trekked over to the city guard and asked them to watch over the tied up group on behalf of the king. The city guard quickly accepted after Rhea identified herself as the elven princess.

The next area we checked was the entertainment district. There were a ton of troublemakers in the back alleys and shady areas of the city but we managed to narrow down the options by focusing on areas of importance to the city. We found 4 more villains with another pack of explosives. We did not find any opponents in the two housing districts. Perhaps the princess still had a bit of a conscience by not targeting innocent lives? We jumped to the farming and greenhouse district. The entire nation was living off the highly efficient greenhouse in Malduhr. We had no doubt that there would be a troublemaker here. What we found was a single bandit. One that we had met before.

"Monte! I knew we would find him at one of these places!"

"Should we go save the other two districts first?" Rhea asked a good question. There only remained the retail & commercial district as well as the industrial district. If we spent all our time here, we may be too late for the remaining parts of the city. At the same time, it could be argued that the greenhouses were the most valuable area of Malduhr. I didn't want to give this area up. Also, it was now reaching the end of day and people would be departing the some of the commercial and industrial districts to go home for supper. I did not want to think of abandoned miners in the industrial zone or small businesses getting destroyed in the central retail area.

"What if I send each of you to the remaining two areas? Bliss and I can keep Monte busy on our own. Once you finish with your two districts, you should be able to return to this district quite quickly – especially you, Rhea."

Rhea was able to use a rare wind movement skill that would allow her to move through the air at a super speed. Once she was done with the commercial and retail district, she would join me in the battle. I would send Midnight to the industrial district since it was closest to the greenhouses.

"Wait, Sir Airey, you will need my support! I know you are a hero, but Monte is still one of the deadliest opponents you will ever face!"

Midnight was trying to convince me to change the plan. I didn't really love the plan either. I had lost my sword in my last battle, stuck with using one of the bandits' swords. I had leveled up only once since my last battle with Monte, but I would have to make the most of my skills. If anything, the 22 days of meditating on mana should have given me a better ability to use my mana.

"With help from Bliss, I am confident that we can hold off Monte and prevent him from setting off any explosives. Just go about your role, find any troublemakers in your region and then rush back to me. It will be a bit harder without my senses there, but I'm sure you'll now know what to look for. Most of the bandits have black cloaks and they are holding the package of explosives. Bring me the package so I can store them all safely."

"As you wish Sir Airey."

"I will do as you say, Sir Hero."

"Just Airey will do, both of you. Now let's get going. I will only attack Monte when I see him acting against the greenhouses."

I teleported Midnight and Rhea to their destinations. My mana was now dangerously low so I waited in hiding, observing the lizardman from a distance. It would be great if Monte were to only act after my companions rejoined me, but my senses were already telling me that the lizardman was preparing to move. It had only been a minute since I used teleport but I didn't have much more time left.

"Looks like it's our time to shine, Bliss."

Twiiii!