James and Teddy grew up playing computer games together. When they reached their teenage years there was a definitive lack of multiplayer games. That was unless you liked playing first person shooters on the internet; with eight year olds shouting about how they did your mum the night before on the mike. Some of their favourite games had been Lord of the Rings games. They felt like they had just walked into a Helms Deep scenario, in front of them was arrayed the small army.

Monsters behaved one of two ways generally. They either wandered around minding their own business acting in whatever nature they had spawned. The second was a blind rage that wanted to kill anything in front of them. Neither of these behaviours meant standing in neat rows and files facing the top of the valley.

The team were facing the back of the army, Teddy recognised the monsters at the back that shot spiky protrusions from their shoulders and realised whoever the commander was had put his archers at the back. The other thing he noticed looking at the backs of the monsters was the mechanical boxes and tubes that fed into the monsters.

The rest of the monsters were harder to see, even with their vantage at the top of the hill and the bonus from James’ aura power to their perception they struggled to see in the mist lying in the valley. What they could see were big muscly rhino type creatures making up the bulk, they had thick legs meeting heavy torsos. There heads had horizontal horns rather than a typical vertical horn for a rhino the creature. There were humanoid monsters intermingled, heads that were two or three times taller than they needed to be with long pointed teeth protruding, their limbs were long and thin with sharp claws on the tips of their three fingers. They saw some humans shuffling amongst the ranks and figured these must be the handlers. They caught a glimpse of one monster they recognised, a silver rank monster but a weak one, normally found in packs, it shifted from standing on two legs to four legs and back. It had naturally occurring armour and was fast, its danger was the nest of vine-like whips on its back that it could shoot out and ensnare prey, when in a herd as it normally was they were almost impossible for bronze rank and below to escape.

They hadn’t been seen yet as the monsters didn’t turn around. They stood there stunned trying to make sense of it.

“The raw material for the weapon…” Lucy said thinking hard. “They were after the weapon. Why?”

“It wouldn’t have done them any good. It needs to be fixed in place. It’s why we cant use it.” Teddy said.

“But thats it, we have it. Honshuraskil has one less gun to defend with. Maybe thats why. If you were planning to siege a city you would undermine trade supplies, water, power, introduce sickness. Neutralise defences.”

“Is that what the fell beasts are doing? Ragnar asked, slowly spinning his axe in his hand, looking with calm hunger.

“No… a siege makes no sense, no communication can get in or out while the storm is here, but they can’t get in either. When the storm drops they’ll attack but the city will be able to send for help, gold rank help would be here sooner than later.”

“So an invasion then, James!” Teddy called for the big man to come back to the drivers station. “What do you think?”

“Around fifty of them? Must be some commanders in there, last time they were essence users. Doesn’t seem enough though.”

“Oh?”

“Look at them, it’s all bronze rank monsters. There’s a few silvers in there but they’re not enough. Honshuraskil has gold rank defences this is nothing more than a beachhead.”

“A beachhead?” Kyra asked, joining them and leaving Koda on the bow with his hackles raised watching the monsters below.

“Remember their tactics at Greenstone? They snuck in underground somehow through the docks, this will be the same. This is a landing force for whatever is coming next.”

“Well reasoned Mr Mitchell.” A deep baritone voice spoke from above and behind them.

They turned to see a figure floating in the air behind them, they hadn’t felt his presence at all but now they were looking at him and concentrating they could feel the gold rank power coming off him. He looked like a knight, dressed in cream robes with plain smooth armour strapped over the top. His helmet was like a medieval knight’s; round at the top and completely covered his face with two smooth planes that met in the middle without holes for eyes or mouth. Teddy recognised that it was the sort of expensive armour that didn’t need fancy decorations because those who recognised it for what it was would be impressed anyway. He floated by virtue of the translucent dragonfly wings behind him, extending ten feet either side, they barely moved, their gentle wafting implying it was more magic than physics that worked. He held a huge staff, easily ten feet long, if he were standing on the ground it would look ridiculous. They’d never actually seen him stand on the floor though.

“Lord Alihan, what an unexpected surprise.”

Lord Alihan was a gold rank instructor that had come from the venerated Vitesse academy to the Greenstone annex with some of their students. The Remore Academy Greenstone Annex was founded not for the local population but as a location to allow the Academy students to come and cut their teeth on the lower rank monsters than could be found in the Vitesse area. The students were the children of kings and rulers, the top of aristocracy from influential families. So of course they received a high ranking escort at least relatively nearby to ensure they didn’t die when thrown to the wilds. The Greenstone syllabus was a happy by-product of the annex’s purpose and some local need for formal teaching.

“You are correct, this is a surprise meeting. This is a surprise.” He motioned at the arrayed monsters. “And they are not the only surprises you are going to have today. There is a powerful enemy fast approaching. They cannot be allowed to make it past us to the city. The weapons that protect it during the storms are recharged by condensers that collect the magical storm energy, if these are depleted then the city is at the mercy of the next storm which can come at anytime.”

“Lord Alihan, this enemy approaching, it’s gold rank?” Lucy asked.

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“They are.”

“They, plural?” Teddy confirmed and the faceless man nodded. “Ok, we’ll need you to counter the gold rank threat, we’ll dig in the Serenity here and go for a two up, one, one back with a stinger to funnel. When two up gets overwhelming we’ll go three up and four up respectively with the one back being the last player. Understood?” Teddy rattled through the orders, when he finished he could feel the aura leak out of Lord Alihan, almost to remind him who and what he was. “Sorry Lord Alihan, of course I mean, what would you like us to do?”

The faceless gold ranker looked from left to right across the valley, then over his shoulder.

“The threat is unknown but a gold rank anything is not to be underestimated. I will have to use my sole attention on the gold rankers. The fight will be dire for you young adventurers. I see four silver rank abominations amongst them and their essence users are powerful. Do what you can to destroy the forces here, the city’s survival may depend on you ensuring my fight is not disturbed.”

With his ominous warning he turned and floated a few feet higher, keeping watch on the way he had appeared from.

………

Teddy made sure the team didn’t waste any time, they still had an element of surprise and time to move into position. The mouth of the valley they were in was narrow, only slightly wider than the Serenity was bow to stern, Teddy parked it across the mouth and settled it onto the ground, folding the wheels away. The armoured panels appeared double thickness on the side facing down the valley as they didn’t need to armour the other side. He rushed to the rear, collapsing down the large table they had spent many happy nights eating around so Lucy had space. He saw his job as facilitating everyone else’s right now. He was confident everyone knew their jobs but having him go over it meant that firstly nothing got missed and secondly people weren’t thinking about what was to come.

When Teddy and James had moved in to fight the Hydra before Arngo he had done his best to coordinate the teams, James had been a team leader for the heavy hitters but Teddy was still overall coordinating it. He hadn’t had the same pressure then, apart from him and James up front he knew his family was safe, they could run away. Here they were now, pinned between a literal army albeit a small one and a gold rank threat.

………

Kyra watched Teddy drive the Serenity into position then leapt off the back, she conjured a reinforced wall of earth from her Earth essence that would funnel any approaching enemies into the side of the ship rather than behind them. As the wall power was on cool-down she used her Terraform power now the Serenity had bottomed out on the ground. She ramped the earth up against the hull to better protect it from any attacks and closing her eyes and sought out any nearby plants or seeds. To her delight she found some aggressive magic thorny vines and dragged their seeds through the earth and laced the soil, anything trying to climb it would get a nasty surprise.

She looked up at her husband giving orders to the others, all business. He had never been like this in their old life and she was proud of him, the pressure of keeping the family alive had brought out the best in him.

………

Ragnar knew his role in the preparation of the battle. With the Earth and Forge essences he was well suited to setting fortifications. He moulded metal over one of Kyra’s earth walls and then another when her power came off cooldown. Lacking a wall power of his own he hastily strode forward and started laying trenches out, digging them hastily to slow anything coming uphill.

He knew this battle was not going to be the usual fare. This was not a monster battle or killing bandits. This was a well organised enemy that had planning and agenda, the fact that they were here was a spanner in their works but that only meant that all the enemies planning an preparation was coming towards them instead of the city.

………

James didn’t have a lot he could do. He saw Kyra and Ragnar busily shoring up the Serenity as a redoubt incase they needed to retreat and was slightly jealous. He wouldn’t trade his powers as he had grown to love each one of them but he felt useless sitting on the bow of the Serenity. He had settled into meditate, the most useful thing he could do right now. For him it wasn’t solely about essence power advancement but an active bonus from his Hibernation power; whilst meditating he accrued instances of Integrity, the more he stacked the better. Each instance would give him a heal-over-time and a mana-over-time effect. He also made sure that each member of the team and Lord Alihan were covered by his Ursa Family power. The power at iron rank made each member of the group stronger anytime they were attacked, at bronze rank it added a measure of protection. If someone in the group got hit then an instance of Family Blessing was applied to every other member, when someone who had this boon was hit it negated a portion of the damage.

The only other thing James could do to help was with his aura; Rise. Everything had happened very quickly but they suddenly realised they were standing between a very powerful and organised enemy and the fate of the city. His aura raised the spirit attribute of anyone within it and they were going to need every bit of encouragement they could get.

………

Lucy was busy working out mana consumption strategies for the upcoming battle. She quietly thought to herself sometimes that she had never met a bronze ranker with quite the same mana pool as her. She had multiple powers that boosted it and then several notable items on top, one of which was even a divine relic gifted by Hero. The problem was she could also empty it so fast it made her head spin. The one attack spell she had was capable of being boosting to peak bronze and even low level silver rank levels if she really went all out, the challenge was enduring battles. For her rank her martial skills were solid, bronze rank strength and speed put her above any natural human capabilities but that would not be good enough in the fight to come. She scribbled on hands and knees on the solid crystal aft deck, the table folded away giving her a large space to work. The chalk was precise despite her rush and she had mana accumulation rituals in place. Teddy had set the swivel guns on the railing in front of her and she placed rituals underneath them, they were simple force rituals that would effectively be remote firing switches while she stayed where she was to fire from the deck, Teddy had aimed the cannons so that a pair fired left and a pair fired right meaning that the safest option was to travel up the middle.

………

When all the preparation was made they stilled themselves. They had been silent in their work and careful with aura control. With no time like the present they took a long hard look at each other, hugged and clasped hands then moved out. Teddy had called a two up, one, one back and a stinger. This put Ragnar and James (with Koda) up front as the heavy hitters, Kyra behind them to catch stragglers and take opportunities as they came without being decisively engaged and Lucy on the deck of Serenity as their back line to hold the redoubt and fire artillery over their heads. Teddy would be the stinger, being everywhere at once buzzing about like a wasp, forcing the enemy into killing zones. Before they moved into position they had added Lord Alihan to the interface group.

Temporary group: [Epic Battle] has been established.

Lord Alihan has been added to the group.

Custom permissions and settings have been created.

Error.

Lord Alihan permissions and settings have been restricted by his inherent nature. Views on this member are limited.

“Well thats odd.” Teddy muttered to himself.

[The secrets of gold rank are not yours to hold yet young Mr Mitchell.] Lord Alihan put on the group, Teddy had thought him out of earshot.

[All righty then, we’re ready to start. Taking the fight to them Lord.]

[I will do what I can until the challenge arrives.]

[I’ll clap ‘em round the ears to wake them up then we’re game on guys.] Teddy said. [Best of luck.]

[Pick risks wisely.] Kyra put.

[Lord Hero, watch over us in this endeavour, giveth strength to our arms and foul footing to the enemy. Wrath and ruin be with us today and see us through to many battles to come.] Ragnar prayed on the interface for the others benefit.

[… a day may come where the courage of men fails, when we forsake our family and all bonds of fellowship… but it is not this day! This day we fight!] James put up on the interface. Ragnar who was standing next to him was delighted and clapped and arm round his shoulders and punched him in the chest than they ran down the hill together, Koda materialising in his bronze and gold armour running with them.

[Oh what the hell, I’m never going to live this down; may the force be with you guys.] Then Lucy started concentrating, swirling mana towards her.

Teddy was stood next to her watching it all unfold, he felt Lord Alihan’s gaze and he turned to face him. The gold ranker just nodded and Teddy ripped open a rift and disappeared in. The destination rift was right in the back row of the monsters. He was completely undetected by the monsters who he knew had their senses dulled by the alchemical drugs to keep them complacent he didn’t waste any time and crashed his forearms together, the divine relics he had been gifted by Hero sending out a shockwave which ripped the mechanical tubing from the nearest five or six monsters on the back row. Throwing a black hole hand grenade to either side of him he jumped back through the portal.

Orientating himself on the top deck to witness the reaction he saw the grenades detonate, sending bits of monster flying and shrapnel from the contraptions. The whole mass of monsters shifted towards them. He saw the humans walking among the monsters turning them about and beating them into position.

Lord Alihan drifted down net to Teddy but not actually touching the deck. He raised both his arms and golden silver flames burst along the ridges of the valley, further funnelling the monsters.

“It has begun.” He said and shot off to the rear to a huge clash of power.