Chương 161: Chapter 160 [Plan Of Action]

The room settled while they waited for Mike to continue.

"Stonehall's scouts just got back. There's a large force moving south, made up of goblins, kobolds, hobs, and various other things often seen wandering round the wilds. The size of it is the issue more than anything else." Leo watched the room take this in. Frank had his arms on the table. Gary was already looking at a map on the board behind Mike that Leo knew he'd obtained from Stonehall. John had his chair angled toward it.

"Something's driving them south. We already knew that, but we're still unclear on what that thing is," Mike continued.

"The scouts are keeping watch close to the border, but the few groups further out spotted the horde moving with speed a few days out. It stands to reason the thing causing them to flee isn't far behind. I'm sure we'll know what it is soon enough." Phil leaned forward.

"Are they fighting each other?" Mike checked the notes he'd written down from the UI chat with Jeff.

"No. They're moving as one mass. Their fight or flight instinct is squarely in the flight column as it stands." Kai sat back.

"That confirms whatever has spooked them is a larger threat than anything else they're used to. Goblins are one thing, they scare easily. Hobs though? They're smart. Whatever's behind them has managed to convince them it's less risky heading towards us where they know they will only find death. We need to know what it is so we can prepare." Frank picked it up.

"The horde's bad enough. We're going to have to set traps and get working on quick and nasty defences. Any idea on how long we have?"

"Few days," Mike said.

"Maybe more. They're not heading directly south yet, Yara thinks some of the old instinct about the border is still there. But that won't hold." A few days. Not a lot of time if this thing is hundreds or thousands strong. If only the wall was finished.

"Yara's working on the start of a plan as we speak," said Mike.

"So far she thinks fast groups of fighters with bows working the edges of the horde could thin it out a little. The real aim is to try and break it up into smaller groups. If they can force the horde in different directions, then it means no one village or, god forbid, ourselves will have to deal with the full force of the whole mass." Kai nodded.

"The monsters won't turn on the scouts. Their full focus will be on getting as much space between them and the threat behind them. It's a smart plan. Whether it has much of an effect remains to be seen."

"Let's hope that works, even if it only breaks the horde in half," Gary said.

"We're lucky we got this now, with days to plan and build rather than hours. The fact we have more than a few people who can move earth with their magic, even if it takes a lot out of them at the minute, could make all the difference." Sam nodded.

"True. The more the horde breaks up the easier it's going to be to funnel them into kill zones. A full stampede is going to overrun anything we put in place to stop them." Frank looked at the map.

"The wall's more or less finished in the south, but that still leaves the north, north-west and the west. We have a lot of open space to cover between here and the treeline. We're lucky we're on the coast." Mike moved on.

"Village representatives are supposed to be arriving today or tomorrow. Some of the villages who had people at the festival wanted to see the town and get started on making connections. I've spoken to a few people who want to do the same thing Jeff's doing in Stonehall. We'll have to wait and see if they still turn up given what's happening, but if they do that's going to be good for us. The more people we have on the border with a way to contact us the moment anything happens, the better." Shai's ears twitched.

"I'll tell the guards to watch for anyone heading toward town." The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Good. Okay as far as I see it, we have two options." Mike looked around the table.

"We send people out to help split the horde or we fortify here. We could do both, but the manpower being split with option one makes option two harder."

"Sending people to help split the horde sounds good on paper but we don't have enough people who could do it well enough to risk it," Frank said.

"I agree. We could coordinate sending a few with the other villages, so we have a larger force to help the people from Stonehall," John said.

"But then we can't guarantee anyone shows up. We still don't know where it's going to hit so people are going to be reticent to split their own forces."

"We have to fortify," Gary said. The room settled on it without a vote. Guns would be amazing right about now. Trenches and barbed wire, with a load of guns would make mincemeat of most things here.

"How?" Mike said. Sam leaned forward slightly.

"We have a few easy things we can use. Pit traps, areas of grass filled with water to bog it down, fill that with stakes. The earth mages can make holes we can then cover. If we have time, a trench running round the treeline, deep enough they can't easily climb out." Frank looked at him.

"That's good. We can funnel them as well. We don't need to hold a flat line, if we can force them into channels we set up. We have enough lumber with the forest to do that. It's a shame we can't just rig a load of explosives, I know we have the chemicals needed for that in storage." Diane nodded.

"True. Though we could still use some of the chemicals we have. Combustion doesn't work but the base acid reacting to skin should. They won't kill much of anything but they'll cause enough pain to maybe cause disarray, which will help if they're all funnelled together." Sam smirked.

"That's pretty grim, even for you." Diane grinned back.

"Cars," John said. The table looked at him.

"We have loads just sitting there doing nothing. Why build wooden defences to block their path when a hunk of metal will do that even better? It'll take a bit of effort getting them moved, but it's still going to take less time than building a load of the wooden stake things."

"Cheval de frise," said Parmo.

"Yeah, that," said John, pointing at him.

"It's going to be a lot of work without machinery," Janet said.

"True, but we're no longer average humans," Mike said.

"As long as we start today, we should be able to get it down before we start bogging the fields."

"What about a moat?" asked Luka.

"If we have the trench dug up to the sea, it'll fill up pretty quickly." Frank shook his head.

"For all we know, most of the monsters can swim. A trench makes more sense." Gary crossed something off his notepad.

"I think we can cut trees down and pile them up in sections in the treeline," Frank said.

"Those can be where we start the funnelling. It also makes it easier to keep track of what's going on. With no idea on numbers, it'll be easy to lose one or two monsters with everything happening. That makes it clear where we need to focus. One or two people on the roofs of buildings with binoculars can keep an eye out for any stragglers that manage to climb over."

"We have a few trump cards we can use as well. My fog can be used over a pretty big area and I've just unlocked a new spell that'll make keeping groups of them stuck in place," Sam added.

"We have a load of AOE as well."

"AOE?" asked Frank.

"Area damage," said Diane.

"He means Phil's fireballs and Leo's lightning."

"We could bundle up smaller bits of wood, and have them dotted around. I can hit them with arrows if I light them, Phil can hit them with his magic. That should buy us time as well," said Rika, speaking up for the first time since the meeting began.

"Good idea. I can help with that too," said Parmo, summoning his quiver.

"Fire arrows are easy enough to make with this thing. I'll try making some and seeing if they can be used by others. Infinite arrows is nice but it'll be way better if I can stockpile them."

"That's a great idea," said Sam. Ronan had his chair pushed back, arms folded.

"It'll be worth sending a runner to Stonehall for spare weapons. They've got plenty spare with those of us stationed here. With the walls and the people we have left there, they'll be fine. They should have some gear we can use." Shai glanced at Leo before she spoke.

"Leo and I can go. He's got the storage and I can get things moving quickly once we're there. Message Yara now and she can have it ready." Mike nodded and his eyes glazed over.

"What can we expect?" Frank asked.

"Spears mainly. Possibly a few bows." Shai paused.

"Spears are the right call if we end up needing to use the people who haven't taken part in the training. It might be worth trying to get everyone old enough to take part in that going forward." Leo had nodded readily when Shai offered them to take on the task. Six weeks ago he would have probably refused. Now it just felt like the next thing on the list. He was nervous, but he didn't feel afraid. That surprised him. Mike looked around the table.

"Right. Let's get some of those plans sorted in more detail. Janet, go see if you can find some people to start moving the cars. We've got a town to protect, let's get on with it."