Gen had been preparing for this. To say he was "prepared" for an army of Lizard-men wasn't quite right, but he made great overtures towards modernizing the City of Man's military, infrastructure, and industry. Compared to how things were under Ayala's command, the city was damn near self-sufficient, even if trade was still necessary for foodstock. He had even started working on that, too, explaining to some of the smarter Gomen the process of artificial selection for plants and setting them to growing a number of test batches of edible local plants, but even the ones that were fast-growing, generally root vegetables, had only entered their second generation. The only real alternative was to hunt down seeds from the agricultural communities they bought the food from, which was much harder than he had hoped. None of those things were super relevant at the moment, though. He shook himself out of 'mayor-mode' and focused on the groups down below.
Netya, captain of the Guard, had been swift. Ever since the occupation of the city, he had grown quite sullen, and maybe a bit lazy. He didn't bother to even consider insubordination when the Kaenid were involved. Leg-centric Gomen put some of Earth's best runners to shame, quite frankly. He hoped he'd never have to outpace one. Thus far, things had been calm, but not anymore. At the bottom of the hill were two groups, charging upwards towards the city. One was a group of fourteen or so humans, scared out of their wits- some injured, albeit not so seriously they were debilitated- and chased by a thirty-strong group of bipedal Crocodiles. They weren't moving anywhere near as fast as he knew they could, at least based on the one that had slaughtered his Pod (as the newcomers insisted on calling it) all that time ago. The first of the Kaenid to spot someone (namely, him) looking down at them from the top of the Walled City's ancient walls broke the army's ranks, gawking. The croc got the other's attention, pointing him out, and the army eventually halted entirely.
One of the first projects he had established was building new ways up to the top of the walls. At first, he had wanted staircases, but Kat actually suggested taking advantage of the fact they were the ones occupying the city and making something more subtle. Instead of a ladder or stairs, they had carved out a smattering of handholds and perches that, if you followed a simple algorithm as you climbed, would take you all the way to the top. Newcomers might not even realize they were functional, perhaps assuming the dents were aesthetics only. It wasn't the most conducive to moving a ton of people up to the top of the wall at the same time, and it wasn't necessarily the fastest method, but it did take advantage of a few ways people could use and abuse internal mana. One of the handy things about knowing advanced human biology was that it helped them understand how to shift the energy about to give them an edge. For instance, they could focus on the inner-ear (which felt as weird as it sounds) to put their balance system into overdrive. Apparently that had been how Merrilyn, who wasn't naturally talented like Kat, had escaped so quickly- she had run over the chains by abusing that heightened sense of balance.
He stared down at them, and they stared up at him. The haggard group of humans made it to the (locked shut) gates, banging on the massive doors. He took advantage of the lizards' distraction to signal behind him, a short burst of hand movement that more or less told the people below to open the gates. Ideally, they'd figure out that they were supposed to shut them back afterwards. He pumped mana to his lungs, diaphragm, neck, tongue, and throat, generally emphasizing everything he knew to be associated with speech, before screaming down at the unblinking Kaenid that were staring at him from below. "What do you want?" He asked. If there was a chance that they would leave peacefully, maybe the confrontation could be postponed until Project B was completed.
One of the lizards stepped forward, never looking anywhere but at him. It shouted too, just as eardrum-shatteringly loud, but at least he was far enough away for it to dissipate a bit. "Among other things, for the city to follow the peace accords your master signed." He scowled, which was almost terrible as its grating voice. Even if the Speaking of Tongues was translating it, it didn't change their physiology. Gen still woke up some nights with that terrible 'laugh' fresh in his mind. "I'm afraid I am the master of this city, and I have signed no 'accords'" He replied, letting a little bit of annoyance seep into his voice. Predators responded angrily to haughtiness and murderously to weakness, and if he were to pick one of the two, he'd prefer angry any day. The Kaenid was suitably miffed. "The Warden has controlled this city for decades, even under threat of far greater powers, and you expect me to believe that it has been taken?" The disbelief was probably warranted. Ayala was dangerous on her own right. If they had challenged her to a proper fight, they might have lost. No, almost certainly would have lost. The amount of hubris required for the lizards to consider themselves 'far greater powers' might not have been so justified, and a certain General objected quite loudly to the idea of being belittled. Gen kept it bottled up for the moment. Well, at least he tried to.
"You will leave. We will discuss the diplomacy between our two 'countries' at a later date." He growled, a bit of legitimate anger seeping into his voice. The Kaenids had butchered so many humans, even using the stupid, terrified group of fourteen to try to smoke out more, and they came to his city, making demands? Frankly, it was sending him into a bit of a fit. The one who was yelling up at him didn't seem to take the hint. "Bring out the Warden or surrender at once. We are authorized to use force, if the Walled City has grown so weak as to fall to puny apes like you." He retorted, deadly serious. Gen had already begun throwing more hand signals back to the people below. He stalled, simply standing there without reply. The officer grew increasingly furious, reforming ranks. The army at the bottom of the hill was still for a moment, and then ran, full-sprint up the hill. Their speed was terrifying, frankly. It was quite literally inhuman. They made good speed, but not before tens and tens of goblins filed up the wall. Gen had them line up on the handholds, each prepared to mount the wall at any time- they weren't quite so 'below' as he pretended. They also each had crossbows, which accounted for another major development for the city. The strange forest that surrounded the lake had excellent timber, and with Merrilyn's help, they'd begun to treat it properly. All that was left was Gen's instruction, and a bit of hard work, and the crossbows entered manufacture. They weren't as potent as the compound bows they were working out for the Gomen, but they were great for this. They had made nearly a hundred of the things, emplacing them in little cavities near the very top of the wall, along with bags of bolts.
The small army of goblins took a well-practiced aim. The first volley caught the giant lizards off guard, striking them from above. A few even took legitimate wounds, pierced between where scale met skin. They quickly hunkered down, and the bolts started bouncing off. Gen scowled- guns couldn't come fast enough. They were still struggling to find an easy way to start pumping out actual metals from the local area, but it was hard to find any untapped deposits. The goblins kept firing, and the lizards' speed slowed down significantly- enough for Merrilyn's platoon to reach the top of the wall. They had been hard at work, and her "Programmers" had undergone significantly more military training than most of the other newcomers. A few looked wobbly from the climb, visibly horrified at how high up they were. As a general rule, nerds tended to avoid thrills, not seek them o ut. Gen wasn't used to it either, but it was only right for a General to be fearless, if only to raise morale. He waved his arm, and the programmers all bowed.
The power flowed through him. It was a pleasant sensation, almost erotic. Suddenly, Gen felt connected to each of them. Naturally, that was an extension of the fact that he actually was, but it was still alien to him. He could feel the ethereal shape of the mana spread throughout them like silhouettes, and as soon as they relinquished control, he swept it to their brains and fingertips, turning them into floating heads and fingertips as far as his magic was concerned. It had taken some great effort to learn to concentrate on the job and not on the simple pleasure that washed over him with each new person under his control, especially since it was magnified with each new addition, but he had finally gotten quite good at it. He still shuddered to think how hard it would be once he was synchronizing entire armies. He refocused, and flooded the seven of them with equal and seemingly endless measures of External Mana.
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Merrilyn bent all the way over, placing each finger-tip to the ground, and the rest followed suit. It was almost like they were preparing to start a race, carefully postured in a sprinter's bend. The goblins scattered and black ribbons shot from their hands, trailing all the way down the wall. It raced along the ground, interlinking to form a massive black wave that seamlessly covered and replaced the turf it washed over. The Kaenids, still running desperately for the wall and hunched over, wary of the volleys that had been coming their way, were shocked to see the otherwise normal terrain turn pitch black. Many of them tried to wheel away or scatter; looking about for anywhere that wasn't covered in strange curtains of void, but not before the neon lines finally reached their destination. Suddenly, their feet found no purchase. The ground was still there- they could feel it under them, and it wasn't like they were falling through, but they couldn't move from it, couldn't push their way off of its strange surface.
Merrilyn had thought desperately for a way to use and abuse her "Programming" style of 'magic', especially since it wasn't until recently that they had proven it was possible to manifest things physically from Mana- even Ayala had been essentially using ESP. She discovered that it was incredibly difficult- and draining- to make anything unusual happen at all. A perk of the advanced education of the modern era was a more firm understanding of physics than the locals. She realized that if the black surface she could generate wasn't simply an illusion, but a real 'thing' fed by mana, what if she tweaked its variables? It took her a lot of trial and error to find a property that could be used and abused, but she finally found one that was worth the expenditure. She had figured out a certain combination of 'magic assembly' that, when pumped with enough mana, would make the surfaces non-interactive. In real terms, she had shut down the property of 'equal and opposite reaction'. The surface was still real and tangible, but they could not act upon it. Something as simple as walking requires a number of forces to act upon both the person's feet and the ground itself, so this served as an effective 'snare', among other things.
It wasn't as though it had no flaws, but Gen thought it was a fantastic first step. He saw several applications to the strange spell/program. What if they applied it to a shield, would everything stop on it harmlessly? Could they apply it to their walls to make invaders slip off? At the same time, it put huge strain on the casters, and they had no idea of how the enemy could retaliate. Would it break with a single spell? If they were to fire a gun, would the projectile forces simply 'slide' them off? The surface was also effectively frictionless, and if you were informed enough, you could try to abuse the properties of air to pull yourself off.
That was all for the future, though. In the moment, the lizard-men were reacting suitably poorly. Some flailed about, tipping over, and found they were unable to recover. Others were more cognizant, carefully balancing, and wary of what came next. The lucky few had even figured out a loophole, close enough to the edges of the huge black surface to jab a spear into normal soil, struggling to drag themselves out. All the while, the goblins had returned to firing. They expended their last arrows, firing volley after volley, some even finding purchase in scaly necks or underbelly. The solid, unwavering forces of the Kaenid were starting to slip, and it would cost them. Far more important than the volleys of the goblins were the small army of humans and Gomen that flooded from the gate, who were hoping to encircle their downed group. Each was armed with spears and shields, with a few of the soldiers who had knife-training brandishing daggers.
Gen would have done his best arrogant general laugh if he could, but he was drained. Without the constant battery that was the pool of External Mana, he couldn't maintain his power very long. Still, he struggled to keep every last bit of his subject's energies focused on the spell. External Mana was something they were ill-informed about. At first he thought it was endless, a natural home-field advantage, but during experimentation it became very clear that not all magic was created equally. The spell Merrilyn and company were maintaining drained it at an alarming rate, and with all of them, they could entirely deplete it in just thirty seconds. Indeed, even as the army finally completed ranks more or less entirely encircling the small Kaenid army, they faltered. The spell fell away, and all seven of the "programmers" keeled over unceremoniously. Gen himself struggled to stand firm, ignoring both the sudden realization that he had never planned on how to get the unconscious mages back down the wall, and the pain that suddenly racked his body. If it had gone much longer, he'd have passed out with them. It was up to the people below, now. He hoped they would notice that the enemy had not used any magic, even to escape their trap. What sort of powers did the lizard-men actually have?
The human troops took potshots at the Kaenid, stabbing at any who were too close to the edge of the black pool. As it disappeared, they tightened the circle, hoping to constrict them so closely that the much larger lizard-men would be forced to fight for room if they hoped to retaliate. A few of the Kaenid actually went down from their wounds, whether it was the gaping holes left by spears or crossbow bolts still poking out of their scales and armor. The group reformed, making a tightly knit circle. Suddenly, no one was scoring any more wounds, even if the enemy was still on the defensive. At least eight lizard-man corpses were left on the ground, but they seemed determined to allow no more. In fact, the Kaenid officer who had spoken before was positively furious. The formation held, and they were trapped. Suddenly, their scales started to shine. It was a dim glimmer, but it was still hard to miss. The humans fell back, more cautious.
The Kaenid advanced. Their disappointing performance before was replaced by the dangerous speed and sheer force of the one Gen had witnessed not too long ago. They seemed to float over the ground, each blow deadly and accurate. This time, the humans were not so pliant. Gomen and Humans alike died, but so too did the Kaenid. One fell after the other, and tens of humans spread over the ground, until there were relatively few on either side remaining. Even some of the soldier boys Gen had been so hopeful to see grow under his command were down- as inane as it was, his thoughts turned to how torn James would be over the losses, if he was still alive. He had no way of knowing whether or not there were familiar faces in the pile of corpses. The encirclement held, but only just barely. The Kaenid officer was among the ranks, standing proud over one dead body, albeit wounded. The entire fight had migrated somewhat back down the hill, with the lizards trying to push free from the circle- and away from more dangerous magic or volleys of arrows- and the human troops hoping to keep them contained.
Merrilyn stirred, looking down at the carnage. She scanned the fight, taking in as much detail as she could. It was pretty impressive, as far as he was concerned. "This was an excellent outcome," she said. He had to disagree on the simple merit of people died, but also on a more objective level. "It's too early to say," he replied, pointing down at the killing field below. The Kaenid officer and his last troops made a last ditch effort to escape. They took wound after wound as they ran, mowing down whomever they could. At first there were eight, and then seven, and then four, and then just three- the officer and a few rookie troops. They weren't quite as stoic or proud as he, running desperately and frantically. They broke free, speeding away for the woods. Jim flew from the slow crowd of those still alive trailing behind the fleeing lizards, flung for the officer. His dagger sunk deep in its neck, and they toppled to the ground. Gen cheered him on silently. "That, Merrilyn," he said, "is averting the worst case."
He stepped forward dramatically, pointing now to the dead officer and Jim, who waved its decapitated head triumphantly, almost like a flag. "A good result would have been no survivors," he continued. "Without the officer, whatever information they get will be flawed, but they will- in all likelihood- make it home." He dropped his arms to his side, and Merrilyn began to swear. Gen had all but said it. They had won the battle (if nearly sixty troops dead for twenty-eight was a 'win'), but now there really would be war. Even if the real Kaenid army was not so populated as one back on Earth, they could still expect far more than a measly thirty to attack, and it would be an army that knew they were dangerous and ready to fight. They had been preparing for this day as it inevitably approached, but it had come so soon. They were undermanned, outgunned, and out of time. The first real challenge for the City of Man was coming, and it was coming fast.