“How many dogs is “a whole bunch,” Rache?”

  “Roundabout thirty.”

  Presumably the dogs can scramble up the slope just fine, and obviously pack tactics are going to be highly effective in pinning down individual combatants. They probably aren’t counting on the dogs to kill anyone by themselves, but pinning them down will be plenty. That, and keeping Miyuki from shooting. Speaking of-

  “Miyuki, priority target is the people with the dogs. God, they are so, so damn dumb.”

  “Tower Master?”

  “Versai, when you want a dog to come, what do you do?”

  “Call it?”

  “Or?”

  “Whistle?”

  “Yep. And did you know that dogs really don’t like loud noises? And they can hear a broader range of sounds than humans?”

  “I didn’t. The hounds make a racket. Pretty sure you are wrong about the noise thing.” Versai didn’t sound sure. Othai just kept her mouth shut. I could see her looking downslope with interest.

  “Just watch.”

  There was a twang, followed by terrifying high pitched whistling. Followed by the sound of thirty dogs directly freaking out and running off.

  “How… the whistling arrow!”

  “Yep. Got it in one. Plus you have to figure that those dogs were trained for aggression, not obedience.”

  I had the sudden image of a youtube video of dogs running through obstacle courses. Was that a real thing? It seems cracked enough to be a real thing. I wouldn’t know, we never had pets growing up and I knew I couldn’t be trusted to keep even a potted plant alive.

  “That’s my experience, at any rate.” Othai agreed. “Aaannnddd… it looks like a few of them are just running off.”

  “Wait, they can do that?”

  “Retreat? Yes? They are raiders, I’m amazed they are still attacking with the losses we are handing out. Not to mention all the actual magic we are using.”

  “Eh?”

  “The arrows, my Lord? The ones that scream endlessly so long as they are fueled by the lifeblood and suffering of a living creature? That inspire terror merely by the sound they make? Those arrows?”

  That’s a valid point. Not to mention Mrs. Hungry’s magic pot that she could materialize to haul people into, or Versai’s speedhack, or the ghost horse/motorcycle Rache rides around on… actually, even Versai’s shield is magic- it turns into a cape when she isn’t using it.

  “You might just have a point there. Still, I’m surprised they can retreat.”

  “Why?” Versai looked like she had given up on guessing things for a while.

  “Because they popped up out of nowhere, attacking with tens of people, uphill, to get shovels and hoes. Does this sound like raiders to you? Or anyone moving on any kind of voluntary basis?”

  My bodyguards quieted down for a minute. I kept loading the tools.

  “Rache running down the runners?”

  “Yes, my Lord.”

  “That’s alright then.” Last thing we want is them returning with reinforcements, or tipping off the opposition about our ‘magic.’

  Mmm. I kind of wish Othai had just said “Yep.” That feels like something you could “Yep.” She didn’t say it in a cold way, but it’s kind of a cold phrase, right?

  “Let me know when they are all dead. And do keep checking around the back. I’d be sending people around the back.”

  “Yes, Tower Master.” Versai jogged off to do just that. There wasn’t a road back there, but given that the road had turned into an absolute killing field for the raiders, sneaking a few guys around the back and infiltrating just made good sense.

  “They are dead, Tower Master.”

  “Really? All of them? That seemed suspiciously easy.”

  “They scattered and ran when the dogs bolted. Rikka and Rache were mostly limited by the speed they could move between targets. And Miyuki was picking them off easily, of course.”

  Hmm. “Alright, everyone reset. Rikka, take a few minutes and really trap the road up to us. Put a good number of traps on any obvious looking infiltration routes too.”

  I took a seat. There was just the last hoe to load before the final wave. I might as well enjoy the beautiful view. The countryside around Verton was gently rolling. I could see farms growing wheat and vegetables, with a few of the steeper slopes covered in orchards and vineyards. Harvest time, when everything was at its ripest and the raiders could do the most damage.

  “Hey Othai, do people use signaling mirrors here? Or, like, flags or something.” Ships hung flags to signal each other, right? And semaphore is a thing, though damned if I know how it worked. Smoke signals too, though I knew even less about them than I did about semaphore.

  “Depends what you mean by ‘signal,’ My Lord. Each company will have its standard in a large-scale battle, if that’s what you mean. Or you could use a flag to signal parley or surrender, though that’s not relevant here.”

  “More like hanging a series of flags that would tell you “Two hundred enemies northwest- fighting retreat” or something.”

  Othai laughed. “I can imagine it, but I don’t know how practical it would be in reality. Wouldn’t you need hundreds of flags for every situation?”

  “Nah, you have a few dozen or less. If you think about it, “Enemy Sighted - East” could be two flags.” I disagreed. “You would need a code book, though. And telescopes.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  Not nearly enough sailing anime, now that I think about it. One Piece definitely does not count. I would watch the hell out of an Age of Sale Captain Harlock though. Just take it full circle and make him a literal pirate of the Caribbean.

  Othai grunted. “Telescopes are damned expensive. There might be only one or two of them in Verton. And they would belong to either a scholar, or Truso. If the Mayor owned one, he would hide it and lie about it.”

  It didn’t really matter, I suppose. I don’t know how the codes work, and we don’t have time to make the flags. The mirrors use… I’m going to guess Morse Code, which I don’t know either.

  I sort of expected someone to ask me why I wanted to know about that, and nobody did. The silence stretched. I don’t know if it was the feudalism or the game that was keeping them from being curious, but either way, it bummed me out. Eventually I cracked.

  “It’s like this- Verton is the highest point around here, by a lot. If I can stick Miuki up on the walls with a way to signal us, she can spot enemies coming way, way before we can. That means we can set up ambushes and stop them from reaching their objectives.”

  “Usually we would have messengers run back and forth with that information.” Versai sounded thoughtful. Othai nodded along with her. “At a shorter range, you could use signals or drums. If all you wanted to communicate was something like “Enemy Attack,” you could light signal fires on the walls.”

  I shook my head. “Not nearly precise enough. That Merchant guild guy, Pastet, or whatever his name was?”

  “Pastet.” Versai confirmed.

  “He’s got a great map. I’ll wind up buying it off him today, as soon as we finish up here. But I guarantee it won’t have a grid system, which means I can’t have Miyuki signaling “60 Cav. D7.”

  “What does D7 mean my lord?”

  “Imagine a grid covering a map. Each row is marked A, B, C, and so on. Each column is marked 1, 2, 3 and so on. D7 gives you a coordinate- four down and seven over.”

  “Brilliant!” Othai gasped. I could see an awful lot of dots connecting fast.

  “I wish to hell I had thought of it.” I snorted. “Unfortunately, they figured that one out… I don’t even know how long ago. Hundreds of years.”

  “You know there is nothing stopping you from doing that now, right?” Versai’s voice was alarmingly dry.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean he is giving you the map. You can copy the map. You can draw your little lines on your new copies. You can give one of them to Miyuki. I don’t know how you do the signaling, though.”

  “Easy.” Othai butted in. “You don’t use letters, just numbers. One flag red, one flag blue. Red for row, blue for Column. Then you just need nine of each, well, eighteen of each lets say, I can’t imagine there would be a hundred coordinates. Every signal will be enemy spotted, and you can have flags for “less than ten, less than fifty, and less than a hundred, less than a thousand and so on. Simple enough, but highly useful.”

  “And then we combine it with our hopefully-now-available mounted scouts, or we send in Rikka and Rache, get an accurate description of the forces we are up against, and set up an ambush, make defenses, evacuate, whatever.” I smiled and nodded along with them. Holy crap, I have never seen them suggest things this way! Incredible.

  Wait. Wait one goddamn minute. Versai I can slightly believe because I’ve progressed the relationship a little bit but Othai? Could this be because she is thinking about ordering around mercenary units?

  “So Othai, do you think you could do that at our Tower?”

  “I’m sorry, my Lord, I cannot do that. I can only take direct command of the awakened assigned to me.” Her voice went a touch flat there.

  “And if you were commanding mercenaries in the field here, could you see the signals and deploy the troops appropriately?”

  “I don’t see why not?” She gave me a look.

  I kind of wanted to laugh, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It was just so… this game. It’s not even an exploit, or it’s barely one. But there was absolutely nothing to suggest that this was even an option that existed. Nothing to hint that my Six Stars would have literally better brains under the right circumstances. Or at least Othai would.

  “Goddess save us all. Everyone ready for the final wave?” There was a chorus of barks. “Alright, here we go.” I tossed the last hoe in the wagon.

  A moment later- “Cavalry! Raiders on horseback Boss!” Rache came zooming up the hill, yelling her report.

  “How many?”

  “Ten, Boss. Thirty pikes, thirty sword and shield, twenty crossbows.”

  And now I’m regretting not hiring mercenaries to accompany us on this job. Well. Damn.

  “Alright. Tell Rikka to focus on putting down traps that will stop the horses if she can. Ideally we take at least some of them alive and unhurt. MIYUKI! Put a couple of arrows into that pike block, then focus on the cavalry. Try not to shoot the horses! Rache, once the Cavalry is committed, clear out those crossbows and run down anyone trying to run away.”

  I took a deep breath and continued. “Versai, Othai, how did you come on the speed hacking?”

  “I didn’t manage it, my Lord. Just didn’t click for me.” Othai sounded grim. And embarrassed, but mostly grim.

  “Guess we do this the hard way. Your job is dealing with cavalry that makes it up here. Versai is on infantry. Once we clear out the cav, you go help her.”

  They acknowledged the orders and got set up by the road. I could hear Miyuki firing, letting her fear arrows break up the formations. It didn’t stop them from trying to come up, but it made killing them much, much easier.

  At the end of the day though, it was five super-ish humans versus ninety armed raiders. That’s not great odds. And it would only take one to kill me. I squeezed my dagger. I killed that monster because I ambushed them. They were so high on victory, they got sloppy. These guys? After the losses they have suffered? It’s going to be kill-on-sight with them.

  I started looking around for something I could hide under, but other than lying down on the wagon bed, there really wasn’t anywhere good. I’d just have to… hide behind the wagon and use it to stop crossbow bolts?

  I don’t have a better idea. At least it would stop a horse. They’d have to come around the side, and that would slow them down. Probably. I’m not a horse guy. I looked curiously at the horse attached to our wagon. After all the trouble I went to to get the blasted thing, it was oddly hard to fix my attention on. I had Othai drive it, as she was from the area, broadly speaking. And drive it was the right word. The horse barely acted like a horse. Even now, with the screaming arrows and the death and all of that, it’s standing in harness, not moving an inch. That can’t be normal horse behavior, right?

  Game logic. Fantastic. This wasn’t even a Red Dead Redemption level horse, this was Gacha Game horse. I’m amazed they rendered more than a bit of the neck and the head. I shouldn’t complain. This worked out way better for me. But it’s still kinda creepy.

  Am I deflecting? Yes I am. Deflect, deflect, de- DAMN!

  A bandit burst onto the mountain top. He looked around wildly and saw the three of us. “DAMN YOU!” He roared. He had a sword. I don’t know why I fixated on that, but he had a straight sword, not a saber. He charged forward- straight at me and the wagon.

  Two armed and armored women right in front of him, but no, he goes for the wagon full of shovels and hoes. Some people just get what they deserve, I guess.

  He came racing in, the horse moved a hell of a lot faster than I thought it could. The sheer mass of it, the size of him coming crashing down on me. The noise of the hooves hammered on my heart, screaming at me to run. I didn’t. I knew how that story ended. And besides, my Awakened were here.

  Versai rushed in, her sword waving wildly as she speedhacked her way to the raider’s side. He had his sword up, ready to chop down. Versai got her shield up and hacked at his elbow. The sword and forearm bounced off her shield with a thud.

  The raider screamed and yanked his horse to the side, steering with one hand on the reins. His forward momentum practically stopped, and when he lurched forward again, it was directly into Othai. The halberd stabbed at the raider’s face. He managed to duck. Or he thought he had. She drove the hook into his back and yanked him off the horse. The halberd raised once more and fell a final time- ax side down.

  “Miyuki, any other cavalry coming?”

  “No, my Lord.”

  I nodded, not even trying to pretend I wasn’t relieved. “Alright you two, good job on this guy and… I can’t help but notice his horse is standing completely still next to where he fell.”

  “Yes, they do that.” Versai looked at me like I was the weirdo, which was some damned slander if I ever saw it.

  “Reckon you could ride him?”

  “Yes, Tower Master.” There were harmonics to that answer. I’d gotten pretty good at picking up on her signals at this point. “Why wouldn’t you ride the horse?”

  “I’d be slower and a bigger target for crossbows.”

  That brought me up with a jolt. She was completely right.

  “Othai?”

  “Yes, My Lord?” There were harmonics there too, but a bit different. I tried to think of what I was missing. Both of them were looking at me like I was an idiot, so it must be something big.

  “Pikes! Damn. Alright, I’ll bring the horse over here with me. Waste not, want not and all that. You two slaughter anyone that makes it up. ALL AWAKENED! If you see anyone with a feather in their hat, try to take them alive.”

  The rest of the battle took place where I couldn’t see it. I hung back, not wanting to be a target for the crossbows. My Awakened executed their orders. I had a bit of a fright when Versai and Othai both ran down the slope, but apparently they were just breaking up a desperate, last ditch charge by a mixed group of pikes and swordsmen. Miyuki’s arrows stopped them from holding a formation, and against my Awakened, well. It was a purely one sided slaughter. The two came back a bit scuffed, but only to the level of a few artful smudges of dirt.

  God bless broken industry collab skins. You could see how OP that fear effect was with every wave. Anyone even halfway paying attention on the Balance Team would have caught that and called it out. But no, it’s in the game now. It’s part of the meta until the Devs patch it out in favor of some other brutal scam.

  Can’t wait to find the next one, really. I can see Yoko looking absolutely devastating in some Incense Master outfit, or possibly (fingers crossed!) miko cosplay. I’m not one hundred percent sure I want to see Mrs. Hungry’s outfit, but if Rikka is anything less than a super cute kunoichi I will riot.

  “That’s the last of them, Tower Master. No feather hat man. No officers of any sort, actually.”

  “Hmm. Odd. Rache, Rikka, do a good scout around! See if anyone is hiding around here!” I looked back over at Othai and Versai. “You two stick close. Last thing I want is for their boss to pop up and shank me.”

  A shiver went down my spine as I realized what I had just done. I immediately spun around and stabbed. Hitting the air. Nobody was behind me. “Huh. I was kind of certain saying that would make someone pop in behind me. Glad I was wrong.”

  “Err, not as wrong as I wish you were, Tower Master.” Versai looked over to the side of the slope. There was a wild eyed bandit leaning over the top with a crossbow aimed at me. The big yellow feather sticking out of his hat should have given him away well before now, and yet.

  “Now then. Nobody move, and your boss lives to see sunset. I want that wagon. And you all are going to give it to me.”

  I sighed. “Buddy, just… surrender. It’s going to be so much easier if you do.”

  “SHUT UP! You don’t get to talk!” He snarled.

  I shook my head. There is just no helping some people. I raised my hands to calm him down. But what I actually said was “Rikka? Sic ‘im.”