Ascension of the elder

Chapter 137: Prepping the ground

"Why didn't you warn me you little bugger."

Kyle looked to the source of this exclamation and saw Harris alongside Landon. Harris was looking a little worse for the wear while Landon was sporting a relieved smile while his eyes kept darting to his brother with some amusement.

"What's wrong uncle? You do appear a little bedraggled there."

"Wrong those little demons you trained kicked my ass, I haven't eaten that much floor since my father first started training me."

As he said this Harris began rearranging his clothes and dusting himself off. He was still wearing the robes that are preferred in this world while all of Kyle's people and many of the guards were sporting clothing like his; this included his father who was also armoured.

"Father why are you here and what happened to the conference?"

"After you left Lady Sparrow contacted me and passed the information you were acting on. We also received additional intelligence that the Miles family seemed to be pulling out of several fronts and were heading this way so I grabbed everyone available and headed over."

Kyle looked at the arrayed forces and saw his 'death watch' was present while he could feel 'steel lotus' was nearby. His forces were reinforced by a large contingent of the Powell family guards and there were also small teams from the Black and Tor families along with their leaders.

"Do you have any idea of numbers? Due to the cramped streets we couldn't get a clear count."

"Currently we believe with the mercs and gangs they outnumber us at about 4 to 1 the gangs aren't a problem but with the mercs they should have more second stage practitioners than we have as well."

Kyle thought about this, they were in a bad place even with all 3 families joined together as they were. He could see the head of the Tor family was looking at him with anticipation and a little fear because if the Powell and Black families pulled back his family would fall quickly to the enemies' onslaught.

"Okay we need room to operate, we have magicians in our ranks and while most haven't been trained in the same way as the empires magicians if we can give them the space they could turn the tide. I hate to say it but we need to raze a large area of the slum."

When they heard this the family heads were amazed and fearful of this decision. Harris was thinking through Kyle's reasoning and unfortunately couldn't find fault. A magician's advantage was range and with all the buildings cramped together this defeated this advantage.

"What will we do about the people after this battle is done?"

Leonard asked as he knew that if the people lost their homes there would be problems and many may just leave. If the city lost these workers it was possible for the economy to fail as well.

"Once we take out the Miles family we will assign their housing to any displaced people and use the seized wealth to build them new homes. These won't be shacks or the like but rather true homes and we will work to employ everyone so they can pay for these homes further down the line."

The others couldn't refute this as the slum district had always been a problem and if they were successful in rebuilding it they would have increased their cities citizens overnight.

"Okay we'll go with your plan but how are we going to take down the slums?"

Landon asked although he had an inkling as to what his son would do due to having long tactical talks with him to help them both with their critical thinking.

"We will use those mages with fire skills to burn through the slum. I checked as we were escaping and the slums are empty but we'll keep the range close and I'll be able to check ahead to see if there are any civilians are in the way."

Kyle responded as Landon had suspected while Lord Tor had furrowed brows thinking about what Kyle had said.

"How can you check ahead to see if there are any innocents in the way?"

"Kyle is also a sorcerer and can direct his senses further than others. By the way what's wrong with her?"

Landon responded to the question but was then distracted by Susan who was looking into space and seemingly arguing with herself.

"He broke it but it was double locked that shouldn't be possible but he did it anyway. What is prophecy what is the meaning of life is it 42?"

"I just broke out of a double blind prophecy and she's a little shook up. Just leave here there she'll bounce back soon enough."

Everyone was no looking at him aghast they knew that prophecy must be followed and here he was saying he broke through it like it was nothing and even the empires former seer was affected by this so how could they not be.

"I'll explain about it later for now let's form up and get on with this. I want a continuous burn with water mages containing and controlling the flames get moving."

With Kyle's command issued the 'death watch' took point with their people assuming their pre arranged positions. This was one of the battle plans Kyle had run through with Ash before but that was for beast clearance but here it was going to be used for land clearance.

Kyle stood in the centre with his team around him and the family heads standing behind and the rest of their forces behind them. Kyle looked over his people and saw they were ready willing and able, Ash was commanding the left wing and Dylan the right. Faye and her 'steel lotus' were stationed clear of the clearance zone but were ready to move as soon as the opportunity arose.

"COMMENCE!"

Kyle shouted his command and his men focused their magic to their hands and began burning down what stood in their way. Gradually the army began moving forward and Leonards men began arriving in groups as he had sent a runner to call for reinforcement for what was shaping up to be the final battle.

Kyle had decided to limit the number of people using magic at any given time so there would always be some rested and ready to fight. As they made their way into the slums the water mages were putting out fire and the earth mages were clearing the debris by using a wave of fresh compacted earth like an ice breaker moving the debris to the side.

The control and application of magic shocked those present who hadn't trained with them as they had been told of the destruction mages can cause but not of the skill they could use in the use of their powers but the few who had any dealings with mages knew these people were the exception rather than the rule.

They were cutting a swathe through the slums until they reached a relatively clearer space towards the centre. Kyle conjectured this must have been a market area before the slums swallowed it. He directed his men to clear the as this would be a good place to make their stand.

They weren't subtle about entering the slums so the Miles family had to know where they were and what they were doing so rather than push further they would create a fighting ground on their terms and wait for the enemy to come to them.

Once the area had been cleared it didn't take long for them to see their enemies approaching. They were filtering from the alleys and Kyle had a choice to wait for them all to come out and attack or hit them before they had a chance.

Kyle opted for the former because if they moved before at least the majority of the forces had emerged they may just retreat back into the warren of the slums.

Edith and the Imperial overseer were amongst the last to appear with the garrison commander standing with the overseer. They were looking over the forces and could see a distinct difference between their respective camps.

Their force was chaotic at best with people making their own units some further ahead than others and all wearing different armours, even the Miles family guards had differing equipment. Kyle's people all were standing at attention with a small amount of difference between their armours based on their affiliations.

As these two forces stared at each other waiting for the other to make the first move when a battle cry sounded out.

"Hey f*ckers Daddy's back!"