Secret Shadow Ops

The Calm Before the Storm

"It has been so long since the shadows had stretched far again into our lands." King Lionel sighed on his throne, his head hung on his hand. As he looked up, he stared onto the eyes of his fellow kings, and they looked at him with weary eyes. 

2 weeks after the attack on one of the farther north villages, the shadows had already breached the wall that had kept them back all this time, had been sieged and captured, claimed a good part of the continent, and they are already close to the gates of the northern kingdom. The kings of the four kingdoms, Lionel, Magnus, Thristan, and Cauldon, have already began a conference on not only just to counterattack, but to solve the growing problem that is the shadows, who were thought to have given up on their conquest.

The shadows.

Little is known about their origin, but they first appeared at the far northern part of the lands, where the mountains peaked as if to hide something dark and sinister. They are much close to the villages under the super vision of King Magnus of the Northern Side castle. They are dark humanoid creatures with red eyes and dark mists that surround their flesh, though other parts such as horns and wings vary from their ranks. They wield weapons and cast magic much like the people of this land, only are more darker, fiercer and merciless. What drives them is still unknown, though they have been invading this land for years, only in the last few years had they silenced and was thought to have given up. Once again, they had possibly recovered from multiple defeats, driven back endlessly by the four kingdoms and the wall that had halted them for years, they strike once more. They pillage villages and had taken away multiple lives. It is a given to call them an enemy, and needless to say this has really been a war for the longest time.

"The people cannot take more of this. We cannot take more of this. We must do something about this and see to it that they will never come back. This should be the last time, we will fight them." King Lionel said. "We must regain our land and recapture the wall. But we must see to it that their attacks stop here."

Everyone agreed unanimously, and began pondering for ideas. 

"Why not reinforce the wall? Make it bigger, and impenetrable and they will give up and go back to where they came from." Magnus suggested. Of course, 'reinforcing' is an understatement. This will need a lot of supplies and heavy maintenance. Most armies would need to be stationed there and may leave a lot of the villages unsupervised. But the reward would be great. If it works, the wall would be thicker, impenetrable and it would cage them, trap them off until they realize it is useless to further probe into it. 

"But to manage it until they do? We do not know what drives these things, and we know they are as smart as us, they build armies and wield magic. They would try to work their way around and to maintain it is definitely the challenge." Argued Cauldon.

"Your kingdom is not the one close to their borders, Cauldon. Do not be inconsiderate to my people. This is what we need to stall them if not keep them back. I only ask for your supplies and soldiers to maintain it. This may not be your problem, but if we fall, it will be."

"How about-" Lionel chimed, to ease the growing negative mood, "We send in our forces to where they reside?"

"That is to engage war. We do not know what lies beyond those mountains. How strong their forces are, and how much they have." said Thristan.

"We may lose too much of our soldiers, and I will not have these kingdoms fall into their hands. People will be driven back. They will be enslaved, if not killed. The crisis in our hands has not been made known in the rest of the kingdoms, but the neighboring villages of the northern parts of this land is already in chaos and cannot be supervised."