Chapter 75 Flagbearer.
“I’m with Sera on this.” Lenna whirled on Isaac now that her mind had finally caught up with the absurdity that had come out of her mate’s mouth. “You are not fighting my nearly immortal uncle, behind enemy lines, without support, while he’s surrounded by his advisors.” She chastised Isaac. “You once told me that with one word you would give up on an idiotic plan. Here it is: No.”
“I know it sounds insane at first but I have plans for most of it.” Isaac tried to placate her. “I can turn it into a one-on-one easily enough and there is no way that he would pull his army back to defend himself from just little old me.” Isaac explained. “His pride wouldn’t allow it. He would look weak in front of all of his men.” Isaac’s hands were raised as if they could protect him from the intensity of Lenna’s glare. “Even if it goes sideways, I can teleport and he can’t. I’ll just leave and we can just focus on winning the siege.”
“Unless he kills you in one hit Isaac!” Lenna actually raised her voice at him a bit. She wasn’t quite yelling but it was definitely the loudest most of those in the room had heard her. “What are you going to do when he nicks you with the tip of his sword and half of your body gets eviscerated?!”
“Not get hit.” Isaac replied like his smart ass comment wasn’t about to get him hit at that very moment. Lenna took a deep breath like she was about to yell at him and then opted to just let it out slowly before doing it again.
“We have resources that could make your plan more doable.” Izen explained which got him a scowl from his own wife.
Fable nodded. “In this kind of situation, opening the vaults is a viable option to ensure success.” He explained.
“Safeharbor doesn’t have a treasure trove of legendary items that a city like the capital has but we have enough that his plan might work.” Izen continued.
“The Vampiric Blade, Amulet of the Hero, Gambeson of the Guarded Soul, and Lets of Quickness should even the playing field by a lot.” Edward explained. “Add a Ten Men Potion and he should be able to handle an unequipped properly leveled demigod, or Jallen V’Nova in this case.”
“A dozen or so throwing spikes with the strongest poisons you can buy as well. They won’t be enough to kill him but the poison will help me drain his mana. I won’t be able to kill him quickly but if it is just him and me, with all of those items you mentioned, I should be able to bully him until he runs out of mana and finally croaks.” Isaac added and then turned to Lenna. “See, it’s doable.” He told her. “It’ll be even more doable with a pair of high level rogues watching my back and keeping any stragglers out of the fight while maintaining true invisibility so no one realizes it isn’t just me.”
“Marie and Shy.” Lenna said evenly and then sighed. She hated that his reckless plan was looking more and more possible.
“Exactly.” Isaac agreed. “With all of these things stacked in my favor, I am going to be more worried about you than myself.”
“If you are actually going to go through with this,” Edward began. “I will make sure she is alright in your absence.”
“And I as well.” Fable added. He knew that Lenna still wanted to kill him but he also knew that if Jallen V’Nova was dead then many more would be saved in the future. He was also confident enough that Lenna wouldn’t turn on him in the middle of combat, even if she did, Fable was confident in an acceptable outcome of the overall battle. Even if his story was cut short, many more would have a better chance at greatness.
“If Duke Arbencroft is safe, I will stand by Lady V’Nova’s side as well.” Michael agreed to Isaac’s plan.
“I’ll explain the plan to the Flame Ravens.” Edward said and nodded towards Isaac.
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Sera sighed and shared a look of surrender with Lenna. “We are out voted.” She told the elf.
“I know.” Lenna replied. “I would still be fighting it if it didn’t sound like it would work.” She conceded.
Sera nodded. “I will talk to Marie.” She agreed.
“Great.” Isaac said and clapped. “Now that that is settled. How do sieges work?”
“What do you mean?” Izen questioned.
“Explain to me how a siege normally plays out, what kinds of troops do what and how, what countermeasures are usually taken and why, how long do they usually last, those kinds of things.” Isaac replied.
“Right, you wouldn’t know.” Edward said and gestured towards the map table. Izen pressed a button on his side of the table. A mostly see-through illusion of Safeharbor appeared over the map complete with the surrounding terrain and little blue sticks in place of where guards were usually stationed.
Izen gestured to an area two hundred yards in front of the northern gate. The gate was actually in the north by northwest direction so the map wasn’t quite in line with the table in the room. “This is where the real battle will take place. We will bleed them for every inch the entire way until this point.” He gestured again, this time at an area only a hundred yards away from the gate. “Once the battle line hits this point, retreat will no longer be permitted. Under no circumstances can we allow any part of their army to touch the walls.”
Isaac’s brows furrowed. “Why?” He questioned. “Isn’t the whole point of walls to keep the enemy army out? Why would we fight them out in the open like that?”
“It takes between one and ten minutes for a mid to high level wizard to breach the walls.” Edward enlightened him. “That is accounting for the wards and runes on the inside of the walls. Fortunately all of the spells used to breach walls require close contact with them. Unfortunately there is a limit to the amount of wards and runes that can be reasonably applied to the inside of the walls.”
Isaac nodded slowly. “Why can’t an invisible wizard just walk up to the walls and make a hole while the battle is going on then?” Isaac wondered.
“Again, wards are in place to protect against such things. All invisibility of any kind will be forcibly dispelled.” Edward answered simply.
Isaac nodded and continued looking at the illusion of the future battlefield. “Why don’t we just shoot them once their invisibility is dispelled from the top of the wall?” He continued his questions.
“Reality shields and walls would make that an impossibility. As soon as their invisibility would be dispelled they would simply create their own cover for each other.” Edward replied.
“What about digging?” Isaac asked.
“That is the most successful strategy for taking cities and fortresses.” Edward agreed. “It is also the most time consuming. If Jallen wants to raid the city that plan would take too long. It would work if he was planning on taking over the city but Contantis doesn’t have a big enough standing army to hold Safeharbor for more than a month. Altia would come down on him like the hammer of Judgement, assuming the man doesn’t do it himself.”
Isaac nodded. “So a pitched field battle will take place just inside of Safeharbor’s artillery range and Jallen will purposefully engage in this?” Isaac thought it was a ridiculously stupid idea. He didn’t think that Jallen would actually do something so risky even with his six centuries of arrogance.
“The melee will be small.” Edward explained. “With only a few hundred on each side there won’t be enough clearance to actually use the artillery on his troops once both sides have made contact. This is one of the reasons the drow military is so hard to deal with. Their forces strength is too compressed to deal with effectively. With an average combatant level of ten we will be out leveled two to one.”
“What about the adventurers in town?” Isaac questioned.
“Their average level, not including those in this room, is eight. Out of all of them I will only be asking for a handful of them to help. The rest are too low leveled to engage in a real battle. They’d be overwhelmed immediately.” Edward replied.
“This looks like an instant loss on our end.” Isaac stated simply.
Edward shook his head but it was Izen who answered. “From our position we should have enough advantages on our side to bridge the level gap. We will soften them up with ballista before either side clashes. Afterwards our troops will have archer support while theirs will not. I will also be pulling in an old friend out of retirement who might be able to tip the scales of the battle by herself.” Izen explained. “This fight will be far more even than Jallen V’Nova is expecting it to be. We have taken great care to hide many of our strengths from him.”
Isaac nodded slowly. “If you say so.” He said in return. “Who is this friend of yours?”
Izen smirked. “Someone you are very familiar with.” He answered cryptically.
“Well, guessing games aside, what do you think our odds are?” Isaac questioned.
“Sixty-forty.” Edward replied before anyone else could. It was clear that he was experienced in the art of open warfare which was only surprising until Isaac remembered the military tassels on his dress coat that he had worn for Sera’s birthday. “In our favor. Our biggest problem is our weaker members getting overrun and the rest of us being surrounded.” He nodded towards Isaac. “If you can actually concentrate their forces even thirty percent more in the middle of our formation then our odds will jump by ten percent. Our center, with myself, Fable, Lenna, Michael, and the Flame Ravens will have a much higher combat strength than the two flanks of normal guards and garrison. Our average level will be higher than theirs and we should have just as much healing behind us.”
Isaac nodded in understanding. “My plan should work at least that well. If anything I am afraid of it working too well.” Isaac explained. “There are few things that I can imagine that will piss off a bunch of drow more than seeing a drider corpse used as a flagbearer.”