Chapter 59: Second Territory War Begins

Joshua stood on top of the wall that surrounded James Town and looked on into the open plains that stretched out towards the forest near the edge of his sight. Looking at the scene laid out before him Joshua really had to appreciate how advantageous their current territories positioning was. It was impossible for them to get surrounded on all sides. The mountain range blocked off any chance of invaders outside of beast from getting around the territory. That meant the only choice any guilds would have in a territory war was to clash face to face from the front, but that wasn't the same case for the Fenrir Guild.

Although Joshua had decided to use this territory was as a chance to test the strength of the guild members he had been training up over the past month he could easily surround any approaching groups with several beast from the stables or robots from the security division of the town. No, Joshua planned to use the capabilities of his Town to give his group a great advantage without stomping the invaders before his guild members got a chance to fight at all. At the moment he had recon drones flying around high in the air observing the plains and the edge of the forest. These drones were fairly obvious without clouds as cover so Joshua expected their enemy to take notice of them as well.

However the drones weren't the only things he had out for reconnaissance at the moment. He also had some of the dogs quietly scouting the forest in smaller packs so as to not give away their positions so easily. There were also bats flying through the trees looking as if they belonged to the forest so they wouldn't grab the attention of any intruders. All of these tamed beast had cameras hidden on them to film whatever they came across making it easier for Joshua to find out who they were going to be up against.

It was just two hours until the territory would be available for challenge so Joshua was expecting whichever group was planning to take up the challenge to start setting up in the forest soon. They wouldn't set up in the plains unless they were foolish and wanted to give away more information than necessary before the fighting would start. Even so Joshua knew who they were going to be up against in the upcoming fight since Henry had gained some information from one of the broker guilds that kept track of all of the different guilds activities.

From the information broker they were able to find out that the World Government Guild was going after the alliance in more subtle ways at the moment such as territory wars, but since they couldn't go after the two big groups of the alliance they had their sights on the Fenrir Guild. Joshua chuckled a bit when he heard that. The World Government Guild might have been on the right track if they were able to challenge Joshua's Guild with a numbers advantage, but in a territory war that wasn't really possible. Of course Joshua didn't have the max number of members for a mid-sized guild, but if push came to shove he had several other ways to defend his town.

The information broker was able to find out which guild was doing the honors for the World Government Guild and Joshua smiled even brighter when he found out they would be up against the Scavenger's Guild. He didn't know much about the members of the Raider's Guild who seemed like the other likely option that the World Government Guild would try to use, but he knew what the Scavenger's Guild was known for. They were known for dungeon diving and fighting strong beast that other guilds didn't want to deal with. They specialized in it to a point where they hadn't participated in to many territory wars outside of defending their own bases. At least their knew guild members wouldn't be facing experts this time around which was perfect for letting them get used to fighting in territory wars. He didn't want them to rely completely on the town's defenses just in case they were put in a situation where the town's defenses wouldn't be enough in the future.

Joshua and Henry then went on to find any information they could about the Scavenger's Guild and knew that the leader went by the name of Dale Wright and was a berserker that was at level seventy-three. He was fairly strong, but nothing that would cause the main group members of Joshua's guild any problems in a confrontation. The other two members of the Scavenger's Guild that were decently strong were both level seventy-one. One was a mage while the other was a spear user. In the end they didn't really put any fear into Joshua that they could shift the tides of the upcoming fight.

The average level of the members of the Scavenger's Guild was level sixty at this point with a few members still being below that point. In this month Joshua's group had been so focused on training up their new guild members that there wasn't a single member in the guild that was below level sixty at this point. In fact just about every member was between level sixty-three and sixty-five with only a few stragglers that were low level when brought into the guild, but showed a lot of potential. When it came to the main group the strength gap was even more ridiculous.

The new recruits for the main group had all passed level seventy outside of Jacob and Evelyn who were both at level sixty-nine at this point. This of course got a few joking remarks from Adrian about that being their favorite number or something with a few more innuendos thrown in. Ivan and Victor were both level seventy-four already along with Robin being level seventy-three. Brook had reached level seventy-two and the Asawa sisters had both reached level seventy during their shorter stint with the group. All in all Joshua's guild had several people strong enough to destroy the Scavenger's guild even without the involvement of himself and the stronger members of the guild that had been around for a while.

After Joshua and Henry had gleamed all of the information they could from different brokers about the upcoming fight, they went to prepare the rest of the guild leading Joshua to where he was now. He was just waiting for things to get started and planned to watch most of the fight instead of getting involved at first, but if things took a turn for the worse he would jump off of the wall and join in along with the other members from the main group. For now he planned to let the new recruits handle most of the fighting.

It was around the point where there was only an hour or so left before the territory would be up for challenge when Joshua noticed activity in the forest. A bat flew over an area grabbing the attention of a large group that watched it soar by. The group was in the hundreds which instantly told Joshua that it was the group that was coming to challenge the territory, otherwise they wouldn't be moving in such a large group in the first place. Among the members Joshua could see through the camera on the bat he was able to spot out Dale Wright. The man was fully geared out in armor that looked rather brutish and heavy along with a giant battle axe that he had set up on his back.

Joshua had a few more of the bats fly over the area high enough in the air where the people below wouldn't bother attacking them. He knew they would most likely think it was a waste of time attacking such creatures and gain the attention of anyone that could possibly be in the territory they were aiming for. Joshua also had Lilly command some of the dogs that were searching through the forest to observe the incoming group from a distance without attracting any attention.

While Joshua wad observing the group Henry and some of the other members made their way over to see what Joshua was looking at. Henry had been setting up the guild members in different formation to defend the territory, they were already prepared to move outside of the town and into the plains at any moment to attack the incoming group. Joshua knew that they would have the advantage in an open field with the turrets at their back attacking the invaders at the same time. That alone would make up for the difference in numbers between the two groups, and that was all Joshua planned to use from the town's defenses in the upcoming fight.

"Looks like we'll be up against the Scavenger's Guild after all. It's kind of boring." Adrian said as he watched some of the film they were getting of the enemy force from the bats flying over the area. "I was hoping we'd be up against a group that might put up more of a challenge. I probably won't even be able to get involved."

"Trust me Adrian. In the future we are likely going to have to go through far more challenging territory wars. Especially when we eventually become a large scale guild." Joshua replied as he took notice of the large group stopping just near the edge of the forest where they could clearly see the drones flying in the air. This would let them know that they are under surveillance at this point which would make sneaking around pointless going forward. Even so Joshua had gotten a lot information on how they liked to move as a group from the film he got from the bats and dogs in the forest that would go unnoticed by the approaching group.

"The more times we win the more likely we will scare off the smaller fish, but end up attracting the sharks." Henry said with a shrug as he took his eyes away from the screen showing the camera feed that they had being shown through the system and turned to look in the direction of the forest where the Scavenger's Guild had reached. Now that they knew that they were being watched they no longer hid themselves and were visible on the border of the forest just out of the territories range.

"Well we've got a little over an hour left before things get started. Let's go ahead and start moving the troops out." Joshua said before heading down the wall along with the rest of the group. He had a big grin on his face since he was excited to see how his guild did in their first clash without depending on all of the beast and robots to carry the load. Henry soon had the guild members all set up in their different groups with the mages and ranged fighters set up at the back with a few tanks around them to defend them if anyone got to close or any spells were targeted in their direction.

Ivan was at the front of the formation since he would be leading the initial group alongside Victor and Natsumi while Robin, Brook, and Katsumi would be leading the Mages. The married couple would be at the back with the healers of the guild that weren't named Monika. At the moment they had five other healers that were getting their first taste of action. Jayce's group would stay back and watch along with Joshua's group before all of the new recruits arrived. They'd only joined if things took a turn for the worse. It was time for the Fenrir Guild's second territory war to begin.