Sophie had really expected her goats to be a little bit faster. Perhaps it was the weeks of traveling on horseback and on caravan that had spoiled her. One can only ride so many beasts before one begins to think that they're actually making good time.

These goats had decided that they were not going to be having a good time no matter what she said.

As they approached the entrance to the maze, the goats radiated confusion and began to slow much to her chagrin. Goats didn't often see a tower defense maze. It just wasn't covered in goat primary school, to say nothing of goat finishing school.

There was only one person at the front of the maze that she could see. Valerie waved frantically at them trying to direct them to go around the maze. Or did she want them to do the macarena? Sophie, sure that the macarena wasn't in question, shrugged back. Then Valerie pointed to Sophie's left. She was probably just directing them to go to that side once they got in.

"Alright my little goaty boy," Sophie said. "Once we get inside the maze we're going to do a little bit of a two-step? All that means is that we're going to take a left. I'm going to lean that direction. Just bleat once if you understand me."

The goat bleated one time.

Then they were inside of the maze, turning left and going up a ramp. The goats who had been spread out began to come in single file. Above her, Valerie started counting. Leave it to the new guy to try and make herself useful in a crisis.

She led the goats, ark style onto the wide maze structure. Then they continued on driving towards the promontory. Sophie took a second to appreciate the majesty that was in Sonya's design. Each of the walls were about 10 ft wide meaning that they were just big enough for her to feel afraid that she was going to fall. The gap underneath him was about two meters deep because Sonya was Canadian. The width in between walls was again two meters, just because Sonya thought that it would be funny to make people think that they could jump over it, but unless they had a very high level class, that was not going to happen.

When she got close enough. Sophie raised a hand, hailing Sonya.

Behind her, if Valerie was correct, at least thirty goats trailed. They had decided either because she looked and might be responsible that they were going to stick with her at least for now.

"Hey guys, do you think you can all line up along the walls and help us receive our new guests?" She said, trying to get the goats to move where they might be the best of use.

There were a few goats that bleated their displeasure, but most of them took up spots nearby the front. Once Brianna and her horse were up on top of the wall, Sonya had slid the ramp down back into the Earth. There would be no easy way for the zombies to get them, but with that black smell that they were all coming out with? They would still be able to make her day bad.

"I will give you a strawberry Pop-Tart if you're able to tell me how the heck you made all these goats show up!" Sonya yelled.

"A strawberry Pop-Tart for the answer to life, the universe and everything? That seems like a fair trade."

Sonya grabbed her so hard that she felt jealous for Anthony. She just sat there for a minute, feeling safe and sound.

"Hey... Can I get one of those too?" Brianna said.

Brianna was enveloped in a hug before she could even say anything else. Of course this was from Anthony who was As grateful as Sonya seemed to be to see her. Anthony clapped Sophie on her shoulder before hugging her.

"It looked bad down there, no thanks to us," he said.

"What's going on that I'm missing out on? That was the worst scouting mission I've ever been on by the way. Terrible outcome. Has anyone seen Stella, Bob or Iggy?"

"Well, let's just say that the act of piracy got bumped up the list. And now..."

A fireball flew above their heads streaking into town. Sophie was happy that it was the first fireball of the day that wasn't aimed at her or any of her friends. At least she was pretty sure that it wasn't her. Any of her friends as the fireball struck true on Vanessa.

"Take that! Mean girl!" Sophie said.

Sonya tapped her on the shoulder.

"Did you just call that lake monster a mean girl?" Sonya said.

"Long story." Sophie said. "Where do you need me to go for the defenses?"

"Long story... Okay give me the details later. I need you on mana detail."

Sonya pointed to four towers.

At the nearest Tower was Andrew, Zan and two of the monks.

Zan formed a ball of concert and mana in her hand and then dropped it in one of the towers. The tower then lit up and Andrew cranked it, adjusting its direction. Then he launched a second fireball, watching it as it flew towards his target. Once they were done, the two monks came in and fiddled with it before they launched another attack.

Sophie was giddy, his skin prickling at the newest opportunity the caravan has presented her with.

"Do we have a fireball machine? We have a fireball machine!" Sophie yelled.

"We have a fireball tower. Four of them," Sonya said. "I need you to help me with them because they are definitely something that needs a lot of juice."

Sophie put her hands on his face and realized that she had spent most of her mana goating around. It was such a significant chunk and she didn't realize that she was still paying the mana tax at that moment. She really wanted to dispel the spell that she was casting but she wasn't sure what would happen to the goats.

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"Hey about that. You see all these goats here?"

Sonya grinned mischievously.

"I spent most of my mana creating these guys and I feel like I'm still spending it. And they cast spells of their own. So I'm out."

"If you can just rally the goat defenders then that'll be enough for me."

"I like the sound of goat defenders."

Sophie began cracking her knuckles as she fell out trying to put the goats in the places that she wanted them to be.

She wasn't kidding with these goats. Mostly because they were all adults.

----------------------------------------

Another fireball flew towards the lake monster. Anthony was impressed by the monsters, endurance, stamina or whatever kept it going in the face of everything that had attacked it.

It looked purple and bruised, but it had looked purple and wrinkly before.

If a purple dinosaur showed up to a party and left not looking purple, there would be questions. Serious questions about what had happened to Barney on the way to work

This was about when the zombies decided that they were going to now arrive and make it through the maze. Anthony was so glad that they had drilled this part so much. He had asked Andrew and Valerie to focus on the sea monster with the towers as it had the range and he didn't want any fireballs exploding in the middle of the maze.

They had pouted of course, but then realized that they got a chance to take and aim their shots, walking them towards their target. Getting to live a dwarves dream as such meant that all was forgiven at least until probably lunch time tomorrow. There would be some airing of grievances, Anthony would offer to quit and then be immediately shut down again.

Anthony examined the ones out front.

Those zombies were now mostly made of black flame and spite.

They were now within range of the long spears on either side of the walls. The standard practice when dispatching a zombie was to get it in the head or neck. One of those would be the nerve center for the other. He wasn't exactly sure which one was better just that if they got either one then they would be good. The head couldn't do much if it was impaled and even less if it was detached.

Things went fine for a while. Someone had given him a bow and he was making it sing.

When Brandon came up to him with a spear half on fire, he realized that they might have a problem on their hands. Despite flailing it around, the flames were continuing to move up the spear.

Brandon got his full attention then as he shoved just the tip of his spear into the dirt.

"Hey boss. All the spears are getting this. We need to start using magic and crossbow bolts. Then we can figure out a way to make these guys turn into ash faster. Some of them turn into ash when they get here but the rest of them are just well. You see the black flame smoke from the start of the maze."

"Well shit."

That was another wrench in his plans. He hadn't thought about the effects of the zombie dragon's breath weapon. It was now really getting on his nerves.

"Brandon, you got that water casting aspect right?"

The monk nodded. Most of their front line fighters had taken a caster class and he had gotten one that was particularly good with the water aspect. They meant that he was able to control water and bend it to do his will.

"Can you get me some water so we can put that flame out?" Anthony said, issuing more of a challenge than a command.

"On it, boss."

Brandon looked insulted as if he could not do their thing and Anthony nodded letting their monk go. He ran up the walls, and over towards the closest part of the maze to the water.

Anthony turned back to observe the battlefield trying to see where he would need to direct traffic next. He asked Sophie to shift some goats, then checked on the sea monster.

And then, the area around him got dark. Anthony looked up. Hoping beyond hope that he wasn't about to meet another green dragon. He'd had enough of that recently.

Thankfully, this shade was static and hadn't really moved. Anthony sighed looking up, towards the water and obscured the sun as a giant blob of water now floated ahead of him, with Brandon underneath it directing its actions. Anthony swore.

Of course the man would do the flashiest thing. Possible to draw as much attention as he could.

Anthony was wondering once again if zombies could or would look up to see something above their heads and immediate vicinity. He didn't have a way to check this and also since the zombies were on fire he could not prove it either way.

He pointed down the central corridor. That was the first long one the zombies had reached and we're moving their way through. There were about twenty flaming zombies and the corridor was at least one hundred meters long.

Brandon looked to him for acknowledgement and he nodded. Then, he made it rain.

Brandon sent a blast of water down the corridor, just enough to get the zombies wet but not enough to have them go up and over the maze on the other side. Side. Anthony realized for a second that he was going to have to determine whether or not she would be able to swim up and then climb over the maze. But the water was quickly lowering, as the large sphere of floating water became two feet of water that had decided to stick around on the interior of the maze. Part of the maze was slanted upwards, but it was not this part and this was one of the lower parts which meant that there were four zombies that were going to be stuck in foot of murky water from the sea.

"Won't someone think about the zombies?" Anthony said to no one in particular.

From his vantage point, Anthony ran around so he could see what was going on. He was expecting to see that some of the plants had been snuffed out and he was really hoping that that was going to . His experience told him that Murphy was going to fuck the. one way or the other, so he wanted to at least be lubed up before the god of inconsistencies and chances decided to actually be a physical force in this world. If there was going to be a goat Lord, there should be a Murphy. If not, their adventures had significantly proved that Murphy's Law was ironclad.

What Anthony saw did not inspire confidence. As soon as the zombies were snuffed out of their flames, they would get up, begin walking again and then in most cases no more than ten seconds later would once again be on fire. If the clothes were on fire then it was even faster. There weren't many who were on fire but the clothes weren't, but several floors had apparently put way too much hair product in and their corpses were definitely paying for it.

Anthony had a new core memory unlocked as he realized that he was never going to forget this. The zombies that were charging through the maze that kept him safe were all deciding that they just wanted to be on fire and that there was nothing he could do about it. Maybe the fire would eventually turn them into ash. He couldn't count on that. And if even a dowsing of water was not able to destroy the flame, what hope did the city have?

He was now hoping beyond hope that Tony could activate her other plan, carving a fault line in the center of the city to stop the black flame from spreading. He was less than hopeful now, almost despondent that they would get anything out of it. If all he got was Bob, Stella and Iggy returning he would call it a win. That would be enough in his book. Thinking of the three that were outside of his influence. At the moment, Anthony turned to look with his enhanced eyes.

Of course, Bob was moving a ship towards them at that time. The most inappropriate time to move a ship, while they were under attack and attacking a Giant sea monster. This made perfect sense to Bob of course, which is why he was doing it. There had to be no other rational explanation otherwise he was sure that Stella would slap Bob silly and then he would stop.

Silly Bob.

Then she would have everyone line up and take turns slapping Bob silly.