Kurt was standing in front of the main gates of the Helmbrig Castle. Next to him were Harvey and Joe. Joe was using his staff to create a simple protection barrier. A few arrows were shot at first but bounced off the shield.

Harvey was there mostly for show.

The castle had already reacted; they had cut off the pass, and once that happened various smoke clouds started to rise and start towards the castle from the mountains.

The attack was clear and simple. They had no time to send for help. They had managed to basically take them completely by surprise.

Kurt was attempting to make it easy by making a big show. The large door was still closed men were manning the walls pointing at him.

A standoff, or should have been. Kurt was bored.

It had been a while Kurt thought. He had imagined that they would have sent someone out to negotiate. The large four-headed hydra should have been enough to make the point he thought."

"Well this won't do," said Kurt, "I guess we will have to go in there to talk to someone in charge. Come on, follow me" said Kurt. He walked closer to the gate, and the men on the walls drew their bows.

About a meter before the gate, Kurt took Joe's shoulder and slipped through space. This was the crux of the plan to show them they had a way of winning.

Pillars of smoke were seen everywhere coming closer, each having an attached war party.

And Kurt seemingly just walked past the gate and appeared inside the walls in a small courtyard. The men in the area immediately surrounded the three of them. Spears are pointing at them.

"See now you pay attention," said Kurt. "Who's in charge here?"

A man came up, "Leave. I don't know how you got in here."

"Are you the lord?"

"You think we would just allow.."

"What do you two think, probably the throne room?"

"Are you listening to me?" The man shouted and the crowd of soldiers came a step closer.

"Yes, most likely," said Joe.

The three of them had basically ignored the entirety of their defenses and units. Kurt grabbed onto Joe's shoulders again and they slipped away from their capture and appeared inside the castle. Most likely all of the guards left with dumbfounded looks on their faces.

"I'm not sure where the throne room is, we should ask someone," said Kurt.

Kurt looked around for a moment.

"Hey, you?" Kurt shouted at a person

The person screamed and ran away.

"Rather rude of them don't you think?" said Joe. Harvey was behind them.

"Very," said Kurt. Two guards had come down from somewhere. "Hey, do you two know where the throne room is?" The two guards looked at each other in confusion.

They started to hear a shouting match coming from down the hall. "It's probably there," said Joe, turning towards it.

"Might as well check it out," said Kurt, and they slipped again appearing in a large room with several people, many dressed finely and others dressed in armor.

This was all Layla's idea. Using Barney's well in a certain configuration was a bit of a strain and not the best for it to stay, but the advantage was that the border for the well's slip access was vastly expanded. It now encompassed the whole castle.

This meant any of the guardians that were in Layla's domain could slip anywhere inside the castle at any time, and bring someone. The advantage of the wall was basically zero compared to.

Within a few moments, a few guardians could re-populate the entire castle wall with their own troops on the fly. The castle truly never stood a chance to begin with, it wasn't built for opponents that could bypass the defenses.

Harvey was not empowered by the guardianship very much as a result as if he were just a normal four-headed hydra that had drunk from multiple mana wells. Still very formidable.

The room they had finally entered had to be the right place.

"Good you are all here," said Kurt loudly. "I'm here to discuss the terms of your surrender."

"Our surrender?"

"I was hoping we wouldn't have to kill everyone," said Kurt. "But if you force my hand."

"I don't even understand why you are even here, or who you are?"

"Ohh of course, where are my manners?" said Kurt, "I am Lord Kurt of the Wellspring."

"I'm unfamiliar."

"You see the goblin army around you." The people nodded, "I command them. And I can get them inside your walls just the way I came, I have one here," pointing at Joe. Who looked back not liking being pointed at like a display item.

"What did we ever do to you?"

"Nothing, the war broke out."

"And you're just taking advantage."

"Yes, and I do not wish the shadow to win either."

"You know fighting us won't be that easy," a man in armor said.

"I know, but we will win," Kurt then shot four illusions at him. And the man instantly reacted to them as if they were all real, then looked at Kurt who hadn't seemed to move at all. "The reality is you have already lost, you just haven't seen it yet," Kurt spoke from behind the man, putting his hand on his shoulder, as the illusion copy that had stayed still disappeared.

The man made a move to turn around and strike. But Kurt had already slipped back to where he started causing the man to swing at nothing but air.

"This might actually be good for most of you," continued Kurt to the rest of the people there. "Joining us would have advantages. Making this easy for us more so."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," said Kurt, "we would be using this as our outpost. And we would eventually have regular gates open here. This would I'd assume make your castle more of a trading hub."

"What?"

"Yes," said Kurt, "I'm not just interested in war you know."

"And what advantages would we get?"

"Well if you choose to fight it would mean your death I suppose, or at least a high likelihood of it."

"But if we don't?"

"It would be more of a change in management than anything. We would have goblins stationed here, and some more personnel for the war effort.. We'd install a new Lord. Whoever that is would have to step down, but I'm sure we can find something for you, or arrange a dignified retirement. The rest of you would keep your positions for the most part, a few changes here and there I would guess, but that would be up to the new lord. This would be the easy way."

The option was really clear actually. If Kurt could just bring his army inside the wall there was no defending the place, they couldn't even barricade doors to hide behind. Sure there would be actual fighting but the tactical advantage would remain clearly on Kurt's side. Layla, Sara, Carla, Harvey and he could all bring them inside simultaneously. Sure there were injuries on both sides, but Kurt also outnumbered their soldiers threefold.

"You're saying if we surrender no one would be hurt."

"Yes, I would call off the attack. Just open the gates. I actually don't have any qualms with any of you, you're just in an unfortunate situation. In fact, I think we can actually grow a lot together."

The man who seemed to be in charge had been getting messages coming in from the outside. Some most likely included Kurt's entrance after the fact.

"It appears we have no real choice," said the man standing, "I, Baron Herold, hereby surrender Helmbrig Castle to you, Lord Kurt."

The crowd seemed to agree, though not completely happy about it.

"Great," said Kurt. "These two will stay here…"Joe nudged him. "Ohh you have to go through something, don't worry about it, not bad." Joe then cast the translation spell upon the entire crowd.

"Is that better," said Joe. They all nodded in agreement. "Thank you, Lord Kurt. I believe you can call off the army now. I can handle this."

"Actually, Harvey is going to get Barney."

"Yes, master."

Kurt waited until Harvey had come back with Barney and left to call off the attack. Carla was very disappointed that there was no battle at all.

"So we have won?" said Barney.

"I believe you are now a Baron," said Kurt, "I'm not exactly sure how that all works here. The castle is yours."

Barney kneeled, "Thank you, my Lord. I shall prove my worth."

"Make sure the army is greeted warmly," said Kurt.

Barney stood up, "Of course, who can open the gate?" Turning to the people in the crowd.

The Baron had come up to Barney, "I think I can help with that."

"Good," said Barney. "Harvey, come on…"

Barney took the old lord by the shoulder and started walking out Harvey following behind, "Sir Kurt, we can handle it. If you'd inform everyone. I'd hate to keep you unnecessarily.

And slipped away, and quickly called off the attack. He had taken Helmbrig without a single drop of blood.

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