Visiting the needle universe of Purpureus Mundi was quite an adventure, but despite the mana it offered, they'd rather not visit that pce for a while. It was f enough to know that they had access to that universe, and they could go there whehey wanted iure, grahat Timothy figured out how to open the portal again.

  Retively, the closing of the portal was great, because bugs couldn't pass through it anymore. Farmers, and their livestock won't be harassed by those any longer, so the short campaighat the guards of Runimus city developed, was nearing an end.

  “The bugs eat each other, for all I care. Isoting them in their own universe is the best way to starve those big bastards to death. If one of these tipedes got out here, they'd eat a hundred goblins before the guards put it down.” Tim thought to himself, he was beyond happy that he closed the portal.

  Anyway, they made it to the campsite afterwards, where all the guards were located, and greeted them. The guards, and volunteers were very surprised to see this group of people who were assumed dead, they didn't know how to react!

  “We thought that you folks died off looking for your friend,” A guard expressed, “Pardon my nguage, but where the heck have you been? We had search parties looking for your bodies up until a day ago!”

  Tim and the group uood that these guards were less than happy to see them, regardless of their reas, but they didn’t buing with them. They told them portions of the truth, mentiohe needle universe, and told them that the associated portal somehow ‘disappeared’.

  They didn't tell them that it was Timothy who closed it, because they wao keep this a secret for the sake of his safety. As long as an illusionist didn't relutly search through his brain, their secret was safe. They wao keep the universe for themselves.

  Gustav was on board as well, he told plenty of lies today, because he wao protect his new friend. Furthermore, he was sideriiring from his duties as a guard, because by all odds, he could've died throughout this campaign, and no one would even care to avenge his death. Despite the endless formalities that these guards spoke of, he was sure that no one had been looking for him!

  “Lousy pricks,” He thought to himself.

  Anyway, the campaign sted for two more days only, as they had to hunt the few more Demoles who had gohrough the portal retly. It wasn't an intensive hunt, but they had to follow through heless, as to not let them reproduce here, in Valporovus. They killed ten more of them.

  Ohey killed what they believed to be the st beetle, the guards hoped that another portal wouldn't appear around here anytime soon. Quite frankly, they hoped that it wouldn't pop up anywhere in Valporovus, because this has been a daunting, and dangerous task for everyone involved! This task took the lives of seven volunteers, and two guards, and this death t was a lot for them, sidering that they needed all hands on board soon if they were to kill Iron Cw the Wicked.

  Iron Cw has burned another vilge dowly, ae most of its people. He was a hungry dragon no doubt, but it was difficult to figure out why he was eating through goblin vilges, rather than livestock, or wild animals, it was almost as if he hadn't hunted wild animals at all retly. Such behavior was weird, but then again, no one po gain with him.

  The volunteers, and the guards made their way back to the city of Runimus, where they were to prepare to hunt the dragon. Every volunteer who survived this bug-hunting campaign, proved themselves to be skillful enough to handle an actual, greater battle.

  “If we all die in battle soon, then so be it, we’ll sacrifice our lives freater cause…” A couple of the guards talked to themselves, they were battle mages after all, and took pride in the mad notion of dying in battle.

  …

  The city of Runimus was just as they left it. Though it wasn't the biggest p the world, its luxurious features remained unharmed. Its citizens were happy that dragons weren't brave enough to attay big or small cities, because inwardly, none of them wao fight a rge dragon. Even though they were quite capable of putting up a fight, they'd rather avoid it.

  The guards and the remaining volunteers ehe city with a sense of pride, because they came from a campaign alive, and had achieved great results, and a great kill t. Some of them were prouder than others.

  The guards were greeted by ahat they met oreets, and the guards were beled as heroes, because they believed that it wasn't easy for them to both manage people, and hunt giant bugs! The citizens were well aware of this campaign, and appreciated the guards' sacrifices quite a lot. The volunteers weren't given as much credit, though, they were quite literally sidered war animals, just as a knight's horse would be beled, and this wasn't fun, but at least they got to e back with their lives! After flirting with death, respect seemed less important.

  Anyway, after a good night's sleep, they were summoo meet Guard Master Zedim oraining yard the very day. Every guard and volunteer were summohe lot of them, and they all knew what to expect, they khat they were going to fight Iron Cw the Wicked soon!

  There were seventy volunteers here, two-hundred and fifty guards, and the lot of them stood iraining yard quietly. Zedim's presence was valuable to them, so they did not dare muffle anything that he was about to say.

  “Men, and women, I'm sure a lot of you knoe're here. A wicked dragon is scorg the nd, he has no remorse, and he's killed well above two-thousand vilgers so far! He won't stop until he delivers a great deal of damage to the goblin kind, we have to kill him, even though no other domain offers to help us! We're dealing with an absolute monster here, he's pure evil, but retly, he made a mistake.” Guard Master Zedim spoke loudly, this was the start of his speech.

  Then, he tinued. “Iron Cw made a mistake, because he couldn’t mao wipe out aire vilge. He attacked a vilge two days ago, yes, but there were a handful of survivors. These survivors followed him, located his , and now we're as sure as ever that we know where he's hiding! He has eluded us in the past, but this time, he won't be as lucky, because we're going to hit him tomorrow at noon!”

  “Iron Cw the Wicked shall die on our hands tomorrow. I too will be joining the campaign, and with the three-hundred-and twenty of you by my side, our victory will soon be carved in stone! We're dealing with a one-hundred meter long monster here, and he's as tall as ten houses, but he shall fall! Our victory is certain, because I’m happy to annouhat our local, Floating Pupil sect, will be sending thirty, adept illusionists to fight with us!” The tter was a great annou, it made everyone feel more fortable about fighting a dragon that was above forty meters tall.

  He then added, “We will be discussing battle formations now, so I need each, and every one of you great warriors to pay attention! Battle formations will save us from losing too many people, but if you have any ideas of yours that you want to share, please feel free to do so.”

  Arvena stepped forward all of a sudden, she interrupted the Guard Master, and pitched ao him. “Our battle tomorrow won’t be ordinary, master, it will be dangerous, and we don't want to die in it, not if death is avoidable. My point is that me, and my friends would like to offer you ara, unique sort of back up, that’ll make fighting Iron Cw more effective.”

  “I’m listening,” Zedim said, and for once he appreciated being interrupted.

  “How would you like to have a few dragons in your team?” She pitched, “We tamed them, and they're hardly threatening to the average goblin, they eat fish and stuff like that. They e in handy, because with an aerial adva our disposal, we attack Iron Cw from the sky, ut some of yreatest shooters on a couple ons!”

  “I like it,” Zedim smirked, “We could use all the help we could get tomorrow…”