Sammy had always understood that you had to roll with the punches when you worked for a large corporation as a middle manager. Sometimes you're taunting your former boss and being welcomed to your new job, and sometimes you’re crawling along the road while a psycho-bitch stabs you in the tender parts.

Still, being strangled by your new boss while being blamed for the people screaming and burning around you was setting a new standard. "You fething deceitful little turd. Why didn't you tell me they had catapults?!" Brandon was holding Sammy up in the air with one arm, his hand crushing his throat. Normally he'd use both hands, but one armed was bandaged and burned, and Sammy was pretty skinny. Sammy was desperately trying to loosen Brandon's fingers so he could breathe and explain it wasn't his fault.

A small wiry man named Kox asked Brandon politely, "Boss, you having fun killing him, or do you need some answers?"

Brandon took a look at Sammy's purple face and threw him on the ground. "Explain what just happened, and so help me if you say..."

"...ack...phut...I…I can explain. It's not my fault...Vern was...OooF!!"

"I told you not to say it," Brandon kicked Sammy hard in the stomach, tumbling him off the road. He turned to Kox, "He's all yours. Haul him over to those bushes and get me some answers. I need to know about the siege engines and any other surprises or details he hasn't told me about." Kox just nodded and smiled. Two men picked up Sammy and all four of them went into the small area in the bushes for some privacy.

Sir Timothy wasn't happy about how the attack had stalled out, but thought the massive damage done by the catapults was cool as hell! That's really doing a war right. He wondered how he could get some, and where he could use them. But for now, he'd better help Brandon get control of things. "Yo, Brandon, do you want me to lead them up the road for a charge? Or fall back and reorganize?"

Brandon purely hated the idea of backing off. It gave Billy a chance to organize some other shit and hit him with it. On the other hand, who knew what other surprises had been set up? Either choice had problems. He went with attack; he had troops enough to soak up some damage.

"No backing off. We have a 5 to 1 advantage. Just hit him hard, the flanks are coming in to help. Let's get off the road though. You take half the people on the left, I'll take the other half on the right. Stay fifty feet from the road. When you hit the town, take cover and surround the tavern. I'll have the mages soften them up.

Rather than a ten-minute march up the road, it took nearly an hour for the groups to walk through the fields and trees, cross the stream, and move into the town. It looked deserted except for the activity in the center. The flanking forces came in from the sides and took cover as well. Roughly 160 fighters, mages and healers were surrounding the 50 ACME fighters in the center. The noose was drawing tight.

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"Catapults. Cute. I don't blame you for not telling me; Sammy and Vern must have really gotten to you. That's good, don't trust anyone ever again." Layla had been delighted by the mayhem the catapults had caused. She could see Brandon holding Sammy up and screaming at him. She wondered what other tricks Billy had up his sleeve.

"Yeah, they turned out pretty effective. I'm happy about how that went." Billy had been jumping up and down with joy as he saw all the notifications of kills. Who knew that a little piss-ant guild of newbs would think to bring siege engines to a war? He'd have to talk to Jorges. The ones he built for Vern had all got nuked by lightning, but maybe he could make some more. First though, he needed to survive this battle, fight Brandon off, and gain some time. He didn't seem to have that many people coming down the road - the huge throng had been whittled down to less than 100. Maybe they could pull this off?!"

"Get ready folks; it's show time. Looks like they are heading right in. They'll be slowed up by the barriers, and will bunch up trying to get over. Block with shields, stab with the pointy things and keep them out of the center. Back ranks get ready for our little surprise."

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"I want a catapult, Squirmie!"

Ben looked interested, "I want to know what you would do with one, Rolly?"

"Not sure, but I know I want one. Maybe we could launch sedge beasts to the moon!"

Despite the possible danger when the battle got close, everyone had decided to watch the start from the small cupola on the roof of the tavern. They were three stories up, so they weren't worried about getting caught up in the melee, but spells and bows could tag them. They could always drop back through the small door and down the ladder if things started to get busy.

Suzette had moved all the alcohol up to an empty room on the 2nd floor that had been Derek's, and locked the door at the top of the stairs. The outer door they left open since the building was an objective. Likewise, all of the brewing supplies and extra empty casks were now over in the new bar.

They watched the confusion of the opposing army, and could see the various groups as they circled the town. Ben watched the events unfold. "Billy's going to have problems if all those people hit them at once. Hope he has some tricks up his sleeves. If I was the opposing general, I'd soften those hardened positions with some spells, then hit them all at once with most of my forces. I just don't see many options for ACME. Think we should get involved?"

Ozzy shook his head, "Nope, I'm betting Vern comes over the horizon with a couple hundred soldiers once Billy baits them in. There was all that drama and those announcements this morning, but seriously? Sammy playing Vern and Billy both for fools? The guy just isn't that sharp. It's got to be a trick by ACME."

Ben nodded, "That makes more sense than Billy having only fifty troops. I really don't want to get involved anyway. Expanded death penalties does not sound like fun, nor does spending several days in a room."

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Kox was quite disappointed in Sammy. Sammy wasn't trying to hide anything and he wasn't some kind of mastermind. He just wasn't that smart and didn't know how to assess threats at all. They hauled him back up to Brandon. "Got a bit of info out of him that he didn't think was significant at the time. Idiot."

"They were making siege engines to break into Gadobhra, but it didn't work. He thought that all of them were all destroyed. Vern had asked for a bunch more, but he never saw any of them, and all the workers were kept pretty busy. These must have been out of the next batch. I'm concerned they are still out there, but the players who fired them are gone. They probably had some workers with wagons to haul them off. We'll find them and use them to fortify the town."

Brandon liked that, "Yes, that will be nice. Takeover that little fortress the workers made, move in the weapons, and have an instant castle. Stupid of Billy to not build one for him first. We could have had a fun siege. Anything else?"

"A few things. There is either a group of workers who have the abilities of players, or some players ACME is passing off as workers. They aren't on our current list of active opponents. Our new manager here says the butcher is massively strong and has killed people with just his fists. The barmaid has light-based spells. And the shepherd has some type of odd powers that give him instant armor and weapons.

Something was nagging at Brandon, "The butcher? Big bald guy? Yeah, he's tough. I saw him kill a couple of people with his bare hands. If he comes at us, don't let him get close - just put arrows into him. Don't kill the barmaid though. She's the key to getting the dungeon. Just capture her even if it means losing people. Have any of our scouts found them?"

Kox smirked. "That's the easy part. I'm looking at them right now. They're sitting on top of the tavern in plain sight. Nice strategic spot to snipe with spells or drop down onto the melee. They'll probably join the war and engage when it's most effective."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Brandon didn't like that. "Pretty much cheating the system. We lose points if we attack them, but if we don't, they're loose cannons. Too bad for them ACME has already lost. We're up too many people, and too many points. I don't care. Tell the mages and archers they are fair game if they get a shot."

Brandon's army started moving forward. Flags were waved signaling to other groups it was time to move up. Wind mages put up protective spells to confuse missile weapons and priests blessed the troops. The frontline fighters held their shields up high to block anything that got through the wind spell. At roughly sixty feet out, mages on both sides let loose. A fireball landed on a shield and exploded, burning a few people but killing no one. Low tier spells peppered the front line for minor damage. Many of the spells were simply resisted. Trying to toss spells at troops protected by multiple spell casters was difficult.

Brandon's mages, on the other hand, had trained for this. And there were a lot more of them. Two of them cast hailstorm spells that targeted a wide area, creating ice and slowing the troops inside. Another cast a darkness spell across the frontline to further hurt the archers’ chances of hitting.

So far nothing had come near the workers watching from their perch on top of the tavern, so they kept watching and worrying. From nearby, but further into the town, there was a 'whummfff' sound as a large fire ignited. A column of flame shot into the sky a hundred feet high.

Ozzy looked worried for a bit, and then shrugged. He was worried about his pit, but he wasn't about to desert his friends right now, or drag them into a fight.

As if that was the signal to really get started, all the mages on both sides cut loose, and the infantry charged.

ACME only had a couple of mages left on their side. One of those was Farley the Caustic. So named for his tendency to love acid-based spells. Rain of Acid wasn't normally a great spell. Its effect was to corrode metal and make it weaker and brittle. Most monsters didn't wear metal armor, so it normally didn't see much use. Today though, he was casting it on a large group of armored fighters. And while each one would only lose some armor, it hit over a hundred people.

Brandon also had a mage that could cast Rain of Acid. Mortimer was casting Rain of Acid about the same time as Farley was tossing his. The two rainstorms combined to form a huge yellowish cloud that began to drop highly corrosive water and fog on both groups.

The workers up top got hit by just the edge of the cloud. The water stung and the fumes made their eyes burn; if not washed off, it would cause large blisters. One drop hit Squirmie's wing, and melted straight through the thin membrane.

Rolly grabbed the bug and dropped down into the room below and started using his Heal Animal ability, "Don't worry little buddy, I’ll fix it. "

"No problem. We'll get started on that in a bit. Nobody hurts my little bug and gets away with it!"

Ozzy, Ben, and Suzette also decided to go down. They'd be a lot safer below. This turned out to be a very good idea.

Billy yelled, "Heave Ho!" and five of the warriors with the best pitching arms started tossing Greek Fire at the charging army. The alchemist had charged him quite a bit for these, but they were worth every gold spent. Though far less effective than when large jugs were tossed by a catapult, the sticky napalm-like substance still killed many people or caused healers to burn through their mana.

Four of the fragile clay grenades shattered on the ranks of Brandon's fighters. One was caught by a quick-thinking rogue and tossed back. All of them burst into flames, covering many people in flames that couldn't be put out from the light acid rain falling from the clouds.

It's an interesting little fact about magic in the world of GENESIS - magical spells have a similar affect in the world to their natural components. A fire ball catches wood and paper on fire. Conjured water can put out a real fire, even if the water is only in existence for a short time. Magical lightning could be used to charge a battery, or bring a monster to life.

And magical acid that dissolved metal gives off hydrogen gas.

This led to another reaction most people are familiar with called combustion. A hundred pounds of dissolved metal makes a large cloud of highly flammable hydrogen gas. This was bad for everyone. And while the bulk of the gas and the fire was on Famco's side of the battle, the resulting explosion hit everyone.

The Battle for the Tavern ended suddenly as nearly every combatant within 100 ft of the center died. Looking quickly at the notification that one player received, we see the smorgasbord of damage effects causing their gruesome death.

You have taken 37 damage from Greek Fire!

You have taken 37 damage from Greek Fire!

You have taken 37 damage from Greek Fire!

You have lost 7 points of mitigation as your armor corrodes!

You have taken 2 damage from acid.

You have taken 37 damage from Greek Fire!

BOOM! You were injured in an explosion. Luckily you made your saving throw vs. Explosion.

You have taken 102 concussion damage from the explosion.

You have taken 53 damage from inhaling superheated air.

You have taken 21 damage from Greek Fire!

You have taken 19 damage from impacting a building.

You have died.

Once the caustic smoke cleared and the bodies disappeared, there was only a slight crater in the street and the marks of fire and acid on the nearby buildings to mark the battle. Brandon had lost over 70 people in the explosion. Billy had lost nearly all the remaining ACME fighters.

Billy and Brandon had something in common - they both liked to lead from the rear. Brandon, however, was barely touched by the explosion while Billy was on the ground, his pants on fire, missing one foot, and health down to 17. He saw Brandon walking up, pulling out his sword.

Happy Days! You have been given a quest!

Quest: Cut off one head and a smarter one will grow back!

Your enemies think they have won, but they underestimate your foresight in choosing a cunning 2nd in command. Fearless Leader will rally the ACME forces and defeat our foes! Show your great leadership by accepting this quest.

Turn over Leadership of the ACME forces to Fearless Leader? Y?/N?

PS. Make sure to have all my loot ready. I want stuff that wasn't on burning bodies.

Brandon grinned down at Billy, "Messy, but I'd say the best man won!"

Billy accepted the quest as Brandon raised his sword, "Not yet you haven't."

Brandon wiped off his sword. This little shit hadn't given up, got to hand that to him. Not like ACME had much left. Time to make some deals and wind this up.

War Update

Famco Casualties:

Attack by Guild: First Strike 51

Killed by gas, fire, explosion effects: 73

Taken captive and not expected to live: 4

Chewed to death by rabbits: 1

Penalty: Non-fatal attack upon 4 contract workers

Penalty: Damaging property - Tavern

Penalty: Damaging property - Pit

Penalty: Non-fatal attack on resident

Penalty: Theft of food

Penalty: Injured resident takes up arms for ACME

Remaining active fighters 121

Leader: Brandon

2nd in Command: Sir Timothy

ACME Casualties

Guild: First Strike 15

Killed by gas, fire, explosion effects: 51

Died by the sword: 1

Penalty: Damaging Property - Tavern

Remaining Active Fighters: 6

Leader: Fearless Leader

Second in Command: Bennie T Bunny