by Ryan Rimmel
“I said I’m here to deal with Grou’tuk,” I replied coldly, “when I’m done with him, I’ll help with the Wargs.”
Fenris was about to launch into a hot retort when SueLeeta elbowed him. Her hands flashed into two quick movements and Fenris examined me. I recognized that they were both using Lore on me but wondered what they were getting. With my amulet and Shadow Walking, they should have had a pretty hard time figuring out that I was lower level than either of them. However, my own Lore ability allowed me to recognize several of the hand gestures that SueLeeta were making. They were Ranger speech used by Woodsmen. She said “Jim, Negative Health, Herb,” or in longer form, “Jim’s health isn’t affected by that herb.”
I signaled back, “Herb good, Health good.”
Fenris deflated slightly as he watched my Health slowly inch up as the herb did indeed work. But unlike his Health which was fully recovered after two minutes, the two points of Health I recovered were only 2 more of my 175 hit points. It was only a drop in the bucket, so to speak. My hit point total was literally greater than both of theirs together; to Fenris, that could only be from me being absurdly higher level than them, “I didn’t realize. If you think you can defeat Grou’Tuk, it would be greatly helpful.”
I nodded, “Get that gate blocked.”
As he walked over to the gate to cover the eastern approach with a cart, I deliberated for a moment. I could reasonably bail on these people, either going out the Western gate or skirting the mountain and running back to my village. Part of me questioned why I was doing this. Honestly, though, what else did I have? Other than the village, I didn’t even have a safe place to sleep. There were goblins everywhere and each group of people I found described everywhere else as being war torn and terrible. So, either I could make my village bigger and safer, or I could wander off into the unknown alone and probably be much worse off.
“Shart?” I questioned internally. He didn’t respond. Damn demon. Looking down to where the barrel had landed, I could see some demonic tracks. They vanished rapidly, though, as the demon must have flown off to pout.
Chapter 20: Planning the Battle of the Western Gate Fortress
We only had a handful of minutes before the host of Wargs plodded up to the eastern gate of the Western Fortress. The gate to the west could be shut properly, having an oak door a foot thick. It covered a heavy steel portcullis that was unblemished, despite the long years it had stood unused. Given the unblemished walls, an attack from the west would have been impossible. Unfortunately for me, they would have to attack from the east and that was not in nearly as good condition. I’d certainly not had much trouble getting past the eastern wall.
The eastern wall had a huge crack in it, running from the base all the way up to the southern tower. I’d actually climbed in that crack to penetrate the fortress not long ago. Now, I had four men guarding the wall with crossbows and spears to keep others from penetrating it. There was a certain poetic irony to it, if you were into things like that. The eastern gate led to a tunnel through the ten foot wall that still had an impressive door on only one side. The other side of the door had been shattered years back and was wide open. We had jammed two carts into the tunnel and cut off their wheels. It would take a serious effort to break through. That would, at best, limit the number of Wargs that could pass through at one time to a hopefully manageable number.
We had thirty men and women who claimed they could fight, and my Lore skill mostly agreed with them. However, several of them were just listed as townsfolk and that was troubling. Every Warg and every rider was listed as a combatant. There were forty of them, including Grou’tuk. I finally laid eyes on my approaching target, from my perch on the eastern wall. I used Lore.
Grou’tuk: Warg Rider, Level 10
I didn’t get any other information. My Lore skill gave me a name, but no hit points and no skills. Just a name and a level. I was feeling confident right about now. Not. Grou’tuk was a nearly five foot tall specimen of goblinhood. He had short tufts of black hair on his green skin and his legs looked oddly splayed, as if he were very used to being in the saddle. His Warg, and one must consider his Warg, was also huge for the species. That translated into quite a bit more than huge for a goblin. Both were covered in scars and were wearing leather harnesses.
Mentally, I pegged Grou’tuk at between 120 and 150 hit points, and similar in Stamina. I also guessed he had skills in Crossbow, Sword, and Shield, given that he had all of those things obviously displayed on him. His Warg, cleverly named Grou’tuk’s Warg, had 100 hit points, far more than your average Warg.
Easy peasy, I considered, as I brought up my crossbow and sighted on the powerful looking goblin. The little green dot lined up with his mouth. I was contemplating what special shot to use when he called out.
“Which one of you strong kind of morons talked the rest of the weak kind of morons into doing this?” he shouted, in a surprisingly deep voice for a goblin.
“That would be me,” I replied, “Get off my lawn.” With that as my only warning, I brought the weapon back up and took aim…and the targeting dot promptly started flowing everywhere but on Grou’tuk.
“Are you the one that killed my scouts?” he yelled back.
“Well, they were annoying me and I figured you wouldn’t mind,” I replied, again trying to aim at him and failing utterly. I could see Grou’tuk with my zoom feature; up close he was uglier than I’d initially given him credit for.
“It will be a joy to kill you,” he called out, before turning to his troops. The goblin boss was giving orders. I tried in vain to line up a shot on him, but I could tell in my heart that if I fired, the arrow would miss.
“Sir, what are you doing?” asked Fenris.
“Trying to get a better look at him,” I replied, attempting to get any sort of aim point on him. I was just playing around with my crossbow at this point, and it was not helping.
“See,” hissed SueLeeta, “He’s just trying to see the enemy commander’s face. He knows you can’t fire at range at an enemy leader during battle.”
GODDAMNIT, why can’t anything be easy, I thought, as I stopped aiming and glanced back at Fenris, “He’s ugly, but don’t worry. I’ve dealt with worse.” Fenris bought it. Turning back, I commanded my 20 archers to get ready for battle, as well as the six who were to use spears if the goblins broke through the makeshift gate. I checked the crack; four men were also there, just in case the goblins got frisky.
“What is the plan, J…Sir,” he asked. For the first time, I noticed that Fenris was looking a bit worried. I was out of my depth and was just about to tell him so, when I remembered something. I possessed an information source that was chalk full of useful information and was always happy to tell you how smart he was and how stupid you were.
Bringing up my menu, I noticed there were a few prompts. I ignored them. I needed to talk to my pouting demon, and I was going to do just that. I quickly tried dumping a few more points of Mana into him via the bond but, of course, nothing happened. Desperate, I tried something I’d specifically been told not to do.
I tried to draw Mana out of the bond. The cosmic link between the demon and me was a bit like a networking cable. Inside the bond, there were many strands, including the one to transmit and receive Mana. Before, I’d grabbed the whole string and, since Shart had wanted to get power from me, he’d let me do just that. On the other hand, Shart was really fond of his Mana, so the mystical connection for taking it from him was a bit harder to grasp.
That said, I was annoyed and desperate. After a few moments in menu time, I got it. However, getting it was only the first problem. I next needed to find a point to draw from, which took quite a few more moments. I searched and searched across the strand until I finally found a point that was a bit weaker than other spots. Scratching it with my metaphysical thumb, I exposed the tiniest bit of the surface and tried to draw mana out of it.
“YOU KNEW I WAS IN THAT BARREL,” came a screech from the back of my mind, a
s the demon materialized into my menu vision. He was no longer an amorphous blob, but an imp-like avatar of himself, all black and wicked looking. The fact that he was monstrously pissed off was just a bonus.
“I thought you could handle it,” I replied.
“Every time I assume you aren’t a total idiot, I am left disappointed,” Shart glowered, “I got my Mana and I did what you asked, so I’ve been off dancing in my own tiny Mana pool, trying to forget this horrible event ever occurred.”
It's hard to point your finger at someone in menu space, but I successfully poked him in the chest with my mental cursor, “I’ve needed your help, repeatedly.”
Brushing my cursor away, which felt like someone grabbing your hand and throwing it to the side, “No you really haven’t needed it. You figured it all out on your own.”
“I nearly died several times,” I replied.
“But you didn’t, and I wasn’t worried. You could take any five creatures in the valley at this point; it’d take an army to kill you.”
“Turn around.”
“Muther Fucker,” screeched the demon, as he first turned towards the goblins and then back towards me, “You always seemed like the kind of guy who just pisses people off but seriously, why do you have a death wish?”
“I got a quest.”
“You got no brains,” screamed the demon, “Is this mass combat? Oh shit, it is mass combat. Which one of you idiots is the captain? You are? Shit! What the hell were you thinking? You’ve never even been in a mass combat before.”
“That’s why I need your help. Why can’t I target the boss?”
“You can’t because that’s against the rules. Didn’t they have war on Earth?”
“We could target commanders on Earth!”
“Seriously?” replied Shart, “Wow, your wars must have been weird. Okay, I have a plan. Go to the Mass Combat tab and find out where it says leader.”
Glancing through my menus, I found that I now had a Mass Combat tab. Also, I discovered some points to spend in Marksman, but that was beside the point. Clicking on the Mass Combat tab, I found where the leader was listed. No surprise, it was me. I also found the commander of the other side, Grou’tuk unsurprisingly, and the relative force comparisons for easy reference. There was a girthy red bar for his side and a tiny little green bar for mine. That can’t be good.
“Okay, I found it!”
“Good,” replied Shart, “Now, click on you. Then, when you receive the prompt, you can try to hand it off to someone else. Alternatively, and I highly recommend this, just select abandon field and then we can run the other way.”
“I’m not leaving these people to die,” I stated.
“But YOU will die,” cried the demon, “And if you die, I’ll have to find another person to escape with. I’m so low level, it’s going to be really hard to find someone worthwhile.”
“So, if we all die, it would be inconvenient for you,” I said, just to clear the air.
“I would be moderately inconvenienced if YOU die,” replied the demon, “I’d be stuck here for decades while trying to replace you. Why can’t you think about ME for once?”
“Yet, when you leave this place, you are going to kill me,” I said, remembering the root of our problem.
“But that’s THEN. They are going to kill you NOW.”
“Can you help me now?” I asked.
“Yes, but I don’t want to. You are a stupid asshole,” replied the demon sniffling, “but I’m great, so I’m the only one who can.”
“Cool,” I stated. “The demonic regeneration works great.”
“Of course, it does. All my powers are awesome,” stated Shart, as I felt him start knocking around in my character sheet. In case you are wondering, it felt like a demon playing around with my soul, and not in a good way, “You have unspent Marksman experience, because you are stupid. No free class Perks, though.
All at once, it felt like my soul was being torn apart, as Shart rooted further into it, “Wait, you are an idiot. A big heaping mound of buffoonery, covered in stupid, with a side dipping sauce of moronic fool. You didn’t spend your Founder perk.”
“I have a Founder perk?” I asked.
“Yes, from when you claimed your village. You have an unused Founder perk. So, I’ll just toss some demonic energies into the perk and change it to a Warlord perk. Boom.”
It felt like someone had just taken a sledgehammer to my skull. I would have collapsed, had it been possible in menu time. The entire interaction with Shart had taken less than a second in real time. Glancing back at my sheet, I saw that I now had a Warlord perk. At first level, all I could choose was War Leader talent, so I did. It was similar to Marksman, in that talents were perks with their own experience tracker and skill tree after it.
Several things happened all at once. The green bar for our humble army got bigger. Much bigger. It wasn’t as long as Grou’tuk’s, but it wasn’t a heel of bread to his great loaf of power, either. A local map appeared, showing the battlefield where several of the defensive points were listed. The map also detailed where to station people on the wall so they could earn bonuses from my War Leader talent. Then. to my shock, I noticed my new Warlord perk was oozing purple, instead of being the usual gold color.
“Why is that perk oozing purple?” I asked. It was a bit troubling.
“I infused it with demonic magic. It’s 50% more powerful than it would be otherwise,” replied Shart.
Glancing down at the War Leader talent, it was at rank 1. A brief description offered itself, informing me that War Leader allowed me to have a second in command, assign station commanders, and create auxiliaries. Furthermore, it allowed me an overhead view of the battle and the ability to grant some of my weaker perks to my men. They also got a flat bonus for me being their leader, which was amplified by +50% from my demonically infused talent.
Now that I was aware of the battle outline, I slotted everyone into place. Another nice thing about the War Leader talent was that I could instantly know who was best suited for each position. Dropping their names into the spots, I noticed that Fenris was almost always listed as the best man for the job. When I checked on second in command, only he and SueLeeta were visible. Reviewing the list confirmed what I had already guessed; they were the two highest level people here
I opted for Fenris as my second in command and placed SueLeeta as the captain of the archers. This was the only position she outperformed Fenris, and I was confident in my placement of them both. Filling up these two important roles increased my green bar further. To round out my forces, I selected the lumberjack, OttoSherman, to command the cracked south tower. I also placed one of the townsfolk in charge of the auxiliary healers, as she seemed to have some talent for both healing and leadership. I finished my battleplan and a prompt appeared.
You have completed your battle plan. Would you like to issue orders? (Yes/No)
Pausing for a moment, I switched to Marksman. It was now up to rank 2, which gave me additional damage on all ranged weapons. I also had one more talent point. I tried to push that into Magic Shot, but the next rank of that talent took 2 points. I also noticed that Magic Shot was earning experience points. It looked about halfway to reducing the cost of Magic Shot 2 by one point. However, I didn’t have two talent points now. Instead, I went over and chose Powerful Shot, which used Stamina to increase damage.
You have learned Powerful Shot, you can make a powerful shot costing 5 additional Stamina to do 5 additional Damage.
Assuming it was anything like Powerful Blow, from my Simple Weapon skill, Powerful Shot shouldn’t be complicated to execute. I figured it was better to have an ability that I knew how to use now, than to have to figure out a new one during battle.
I had no more talents, or perks, or buffs, or alerts, so I went back to my prompts.
I selected “Yes” to issue orders and returned to real time.
For me, several minutes had passed; to Fenris, I’d been standing still for about two who
le seconds. Suddenly, I felt something overtake me. It was like the spirit of Patton entered me and began issuing orders for a successful battle. I gestured with my hand at OttoSherman, “Get to the South Tower and defend it at all costs.”
The man looked surprised, but nodded, “I’ll not fail you, Sir!”
“SueLeeta,” I stated, “You will be in charge of the wall archers. I’ll need you to kill every damn one of those Wargs before they get close.”
“Sir,” she replied looking pleased, and then ran off up the stairs to where the archers were waiting.
“Fenris,” I started, looking at the man, “You will be my second. If I should fall, you will ensure that the battle continues.”
He nodded, his expression changing as he did something. I recognized it as him looking at his menus. He could access the war map as my second in command. I could see Fenris’ level on my map. However, a quick glance showed my own image as having a star instead of a level. Hopefully, that’s what Fenris saw, too. Otherwise, he would realize I was lower level than him pretty quickly.
I flipped out of menu mode just in time to see Fenris’ eyes shoot open. I wasn’t sure exactly what he had seen in his menu mode, but he looked far less dour now. He had a determined glint in his eye as he proclaimed, “We can win this.”
“Of course,” I stated.
“That’s the elite Warg cavalry,” he warned, “They should have a much higher Battle Strength than us.”
“We are in a well defended fortress. That is going to offset their advantages tremendously,” I replied. I was trying to look commanding despite not understanding what the hell he was getting at.
“When I fought them with more men, we were in a well defended spot, too, although we didn’t have near this Battle Strength,” stated Fenris, his expression suddenly shadowed. I deeply hoped that Fenris wasn’t harboring any doubts about his leadership skills, given the terrible conclusion of the last battle he fought.
