Over the next fifteen days, it was the same standstill situation. I'd take about 20 individuals to help try to clear the landslide each day while the rest of the army maintained their watch over the fort. On the sixteenth day, in the early morning, the standstill was broken as 33 demons flooded out from the fort. They were only comprised of the gorilla and barky types, numbering 9 and 24 respectively. We prevailed, although their initial charge ended up taking out about 40 of our own soldiers. Their aim seemed to be merely to break the encirclement and to flee into the wilderness.

  We had plenty of time to prepare, and we thought that might be what they'd do, so we had dug trenches and piled up defensive barriers to slow any movement. They'd aimed for, and found, the weakest portion of our encirclement where the strongest of our army were furthest away. The hobgoblins they fought with followed through with the plan to simply slow them down long enough for our ogres, myself, and Zaka to arrive to end the fight. So, despite the sacrifice, we reclaimed the fort.

  There are, however, still fears that some enemies might be hiding away on the island somewhere. We were lucky enough to run into one scouting party they had sent out, and we only have 3 prisoners, and I doubt they'll tell us much for some time. So, rather than return to the city immediately, the army is going to be patrolling the island for a while. The eagles have been agitated due to the storm, but the feeding jobs were considered part of the necessary work that was restarted as soon as the storm cleared. Part of me wonders if the eagles could clear the island easier than we could, but another part of me knows that they won't hesitate to eat our own people if the opportunity arises. The only real upside they might have is if any errant demon tries to hide higher up the mountain, they're likely going to have to face down an eagle or two.

  The army split up into four groups of 30, with an additional 40 staying to occupy the fort. The 40 in the fort were also told to take turns in groups of 20 clearing the landslide blocking the tunnel. The other four groups of 30 then each had a different route to return to the city. After that, we'll start doing smaller patrols around the island, looking for signs that anyone might be living or hiding somewhere.

  We've agreed to lighten the guard around the city in order to provide escorts for individuals doing cleanup or repair duty in some places. The fisherdemons should be fine, as most of them are very high level, but some of the construction teams should have escorts helping them with their various repairs. Of course, all this will have to be relayed by whichever military group makes it back to the city first. I've fortunately been given what should be the easiest route back, following the road we came here on. That was done somewhat purposefully so that I could assess the larger situation back in the city.

  We were the first back to the city after 4 days of travel. Most of the city itself has been cleaned and repaired at this point. At least with everything made of stone and us being in a relatively level valley center, there weren't any buildings destroyed here. The first news I was greeted by was that Kao had sent us a message that the Demon Lord Malagord had landed in the central and southern coasts of the dwarven continent. That news made it to us about 10 days ago.

  According to the message, there is a lot of concern, as the demons landed with more higher level individuals than usual, and seem to be well equipped. In the past, the demons usually swarmed a few smaller cities, and then improvised their own weapons from there. In this case, some of the more well defended cities ended up falling quickly, meaning the demons have a head start compared to where they normally would be.

  Elora graciously shared more information that she had received from Elloetta. Based on initial reports, there is a pretty decent chance that most of the dwarven continent will fall before the other continent's armies can form up to begin an offensive. They're is a lot of concern that if the whole continent falls, it'll be much harder to establish the logistics necessary to retake the continent. A few thousand years ago, there was a similar invasion that occurred on part of the human continent, but thanks to that continent's sheer size, they were able to hold onto a few of the ports by the time the militaries organized a counter offensive.

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  If the mountains of the dwarven continent slow down the demons, then they might have a chance, but that can be a double edged sword. If the demons decide to travel the coasts, capturing the plains around the edges of the continent because the mountains are too much trouble for them, it could make matters worse, rather than better.

  We're in no position to offer any help either currently. That storm did a number on us, and we're dealing with potential insurgents on the island. Add in the fact that there are still some leviathans about, and we're basically in a very difficult situation. I need more information before I can make any decisions, and I'll want Zeb and Zaka's input as well. I plan on interrogating our prisoners to see what other information I can gather from them. Their information could be invaluable in helping us to develop a plan moving forward.

  Interrogation was slow going initially. The first bad news was that one of the barky-demons starved themself to death. Thankfully, the other two didn't exhibit that behavior. If we hadn't built this prison, it might have happened, however. We've got them in isolated cells, so none of them can hear or see each other, which very well could have convinced the other two prisoners to starve themselves as well if they'd witnessed one doing it.

  I tried for four days to get any sort of conversation out of either of the demons. I tried broaching all kinds of topics, ranging from trivial things like the food they eat, to their Demon Lord Malagord. Only when Zaka showed up did they finally start talking. I had relayed my difficulties, and he had a pretty clever idea, one I wouldn't have thought of. Rather than address them as we had previously, he decided to invoke a name I hadn't really heard in a while. We addressed the barky-demon first.

  "You've trespassed on the territory of the Demon Lord Gokura. You tried, and failed, to claim this land as your own. Tell me, what hardship fell upon the Demon Lord Malagord such that he thought he could claim this land." He declared in a booming voice what initially sounded like an accent, but made me realize that we've changed how we speak the demon language in the thirty some odd years since I've been introducing vocabulary from both English and Dwarvish.

  For once, the demon straightened up despite their restraints and responded, their accent was even sharper, with growling vowels and harder consonants making it difficult to understand them "The Demon Lord Malagord has left the homeland in search of more fruitful lands. Most of our homelands have run barren of crops for two years, and we've fallen from the favor of the new Demon Emperor. We turned our industry towards forming an invasion party and setting off to sea. Whether this land belongs to Gokura or not is irrelevant, he died on the continent decades ago, and no word was sent of a new territory. Malagord is no such coward, nor is he a fool like you."

  I had hoped that he'd keep talking, but that was it. He wouldn't respond to anything else. The gecko-demon wasn't much help either, simply stating, "Then take my life in the name of Gokura." Which honestly, I didn't know how to respond to that. The remaining barky-demon stopped eating after that as well, which isn't a good sign. The gecko-demon seems a bit more subdued however, and it makes me wonder if some advanced interrogation tactics could work to gather information from him.

  While torture may not work, we might be able to get him drugged up on ether and convince him that he's been rescued to gather some information from him. We'd have to learn to mimic their accent, which would be hard in and of itself, but we also only have a few gorilla-demons to work with as actors to pull such a plan off. The odds of something like that working are slim at best, and judging on how it seems like the gecko-demons are the bottom of the food chain, it seems unlikely he'd have any real info worth the trouble.