Chương 162: Chapter 161 [Preparations]

Stonehall felt like a different place. That was Leo's first thought as he walked into the village. Gone were the colourful decorations, the food stalls, the air of excitement for what was to come.

"It's so different now the festival's over," Leo said. Shai glanced around.

"This is closer to how it usually is. We don't fully relax, even during the festival the guards on duty were doing their jobs." She paused.

"I'll admit this isn't totally normal either. It's a little more serious than usual with everything happening to the north." Leo watched a group of guards cross the far end of the street at pace. These people have been living on the edge of danger their whole lives and they just get on with it. The barracks sat at the north end of the village. Through the open yard, pairs were working through forms, someone being corrected on their footwork by a guard Leo didn't recognise.

Yara was near the entrance, watching the training. Her eyes moved to Shai first, then Leo. She gave them a brief nod of greeting.

"Nice to see you both." She looked at Shai.

"Congratulations on finally getting Koss off your back." Shai laughed.

"Word travels fast."

"It always does." Yara turned and gestured behind her.

"Come on. I had everything pulled as soon as Mike's message came through." The weapons were arrayed along the far wall. Spears racked in rows, bows stacked beside them, bundles of arrows on the ground. More than Leo had expected. Less than they'd need to outfit everyone, but that was never going to happen. The trainees had their own weapons already, the trainers had brought them when they arrived, knowing they'd be needed sooner or later. They'd held onto them until the trainees were ready.

This was for everyone else. He started transferring them to his storage while Shai moved alongside Yara behind him.

"The scouts are still out," Yara said.

"Still no sign of whatever's driving them south. But we found more prints." Leo kept working.

"They're large," Yara continued.

"Bipedal. Nothing native to the southern wilds. Not something any of us have seen before."

"Thoughts?" Shai asked.

"Could be a troll variant. Larger than anything recorded, but the behaviour fits, brute force, no real strategy that the scouts have picked up on. Doesn't seem especially intelligent." She paused.

"There are things further north that nobody's catalogued. Rumours mostly. Giants. Snakes the size of rivers. Birds large enough to block out the sun. Things that look like they belong at the bottom of the sea." She looked at Shai.

"I don't think it's magic-capable. Everything points to something that solves problems by walking through them. But I don't know. And I don't like not knowing." Shai nodded once. Leo slotted the last of the arrows into his storage and straightened up. Yara looked at him. Her expression didn't change exactly, but something in it did, he'd seen it at the tournament, and again briefly at the festival when she thought no one was watching.

"Look after each other," she said.

"We will," Shai said. They left the barracks and headed back through the village.

Phil had his hands flat against the side of a Vauxhall Astra and was pushing. It moved. Slowly at first, then with more momentum as Luka got his shoulder into the back end and Parmo took the front corner.

"This would've taken more of us before," Parmo said.

"Yeah," said Luka.

"And we'd have either given up or found a way out of doing it in the first place."

"Pretty hard to do that when you have this world's version of the animal kingdom all coming to pay a visit and you'd made the stupid decision of making yourself indispensable to the town's defence," said Phil.

"Man, so true," agreed Sam with a nod. They got it to the marker Gary had spray-painted on the ground and stopped. Phil straightened up and looked at the line of cars already in position, a rough chevron pointing from the gap in the treeline, wider end closer to the trees and getting thinner the closer to town it got. This would slow the enemy and bunch them up nicely. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Right," Phil said.

"Next one."

"Can we have a minute?" said Luka.

"Don't give me that. The UI makes this light work and you know it. You're fine."

"Just give me five. I want a drink."

"You've got one in storage right? Just drink and move." Sam was already walking back toward the next car. Phil fell into step beside him.

"You reckon your fog covers enough ground?" Phil asked.

"Depends on where I use it really. If I use it over the boggy ground then maybe I can cover it. Using it at the treeline won't work though. At least we won't get the most out of it. Combining it with the pit traps is the best idea though."

"Your new spell though should be good regardless."

"Yeah, but these things have less intelligence than people." Sam thought about it.

"So it might confuse them. Might do nothing. We won't know till it happens."

"That's comforting."

"You asked." Phil got his hands on the next car.

"Can't wait to use the coat properly. In a real fight, not on a dummy."

"Try not to enjoy yourself too much," Parmo said, coming up on the other side.

"It's a monster attack, not a showcase."

"Can't it be both?" Luka appeared at the back.

"My shields are going to do most of the work. Gravitas I'm still not sure about. It'll work, but I'm worried about how it stacks up against so many enemies. Will they all turn towards me? Will the effect be enough to combat the fear that's causing them to come here? You know what I mean?"

"Or it stacks," Sam said.

"They're already panicking. Add disorientation, things running into each other, tripping..."

"That's a fair point. It might work even better than I thought," Luka said.

"Parmo, you reckon those walls of yours will hold? We haven't had a ton of time to test them yet. Might be worth trying it out later once Leo gets back and we've got these cars into place," Phil said. Parmo was quiet for a second.

"I'm not sure. If I can get a few casts in, I'll be able to stack them." He shrugged.

"The fact it's made of ice is going to make it too slippery to climb over and too cold to stand in front of for long. It might make the ground slippery as well, depending on how long it stays up for."

"Nice. I didn't think to stack it. That's pretty huge right? As long as the enemy coming along is around the same height as the goblins, we should be fine. The hobgoblin we saw before was bigger, but still shorter than us, so a wall we'd struggle to climb without the UI upgrades should do the trick," said Phil.

"I had the same thought," agreed Parmo. Well, we still have a few days to get all of this sorted if the reports are right. Let's hope that's enough.

The axe was lighter than it had any right to be. Danny wiped his forearm across his forehead and looked at the tree he'd just dropped. Six weeks ago he couldn't have swung an axe for ten minutes without his arms giving out. Now it was the third tree this morning and he wasn't breathing hard.

"This is still mental. I used to work in Primark, hanging clothes up was about the most I did physically," he said. Connor looked over from the next trunk along.

"Right? If Katie saw you now, she'd regret the breakup."

"Nah," said Ryan, not looking up from his work.

"Looking ripped doesn't suddenly make her less of a bitch who cares more about what her boyfriend earns than anything else." Danny laughed.

"Yeah, fair enough." They worked in silence for a bit. Further along the treeline, a guard was up in the branches, still, watchful, completely at ease forty feet off the ground. Another one further along was doing the same.

"Still weird," Connor said, nodding toward them.

"The guards."

"Weird how?" Ryan asked.

"Just, not what you'd expect, is it? Half of them aren't human."

"I like it," Danny said.

"Nessa's class." Ryan looked at him.

"Nessa, the otter one?"

"Yeah. That sounds like a shite way to put it though, man."

"Calm down. I didn't mean it in a bad way. It's just easier for me to remember the race of animal they have going on."

"I think she's pretty fit. She's got those cute little ears." Connor glanced toward the guard in the nearest tree.

"Rika's fit in a completely chaotic way. Like she'd either be the best or worst night of your life and there'd be no in-between."

"She's obsessed with that Parmo guy though. Can you believe everyone calls him Parmo? I thought it was a joke when I first heard it. What a fucking nickname," Ryan said.

"Yeah." Connor grinned.

"I'd let Shai step on me," Danny said. Ryan snorted. From the nearest tree, Mars looked down at the three of them. The corner of his mouth twitched. Growlie, perched on his shoulder, tilted his head. Mars decided to remember these three. Names and faces. Nessa was going to hate this.

"Bex is alright as well," Connor said, nodding further along the treeline where a woman stood with her hands out, the earth in front of her moving in a long, steady line.

"I spoke to her the other day actually," Danny said.

"She's sound. Her magic's pretty cool."

"She's fit," Ryan said.

"And her magic's cooler than anything I've managed." Connor straightened up.

"Hey, you never know when shapeshifting comes in handy. Might not be great in a fight, but if we ever end up in a foreign town and need to blend in..."

"You should change your skin blue and your hair red," said Danny.

"Maybe my magic that lets me find ore will upgrade. Then I'll just need a cool helmet. And a cape."

"You're an idiot. You know that, right?" said Ryan. Connor nodded along like he'd just said the wisest thing he'd ever heard. Bex kept her hands steady and felt the earth move. It was easier every day. The sparring pit had taken everything she had, two days that left her hollow by the end of each session. She could do that in half an hour now. The trench was different. Longer, more sustained, following the line Frank had given her. She'd been at it for a few hours now and was a third of the way along her section.

The earth peeled back cleanly on either side, the walls holding straight, the base levelling as she went. She glanced left. Two other earth mages working their own sections further along, visible as small figures against the open ground. She'd been at this the longest, got the magic first, put the hours in. Which meant she had the longest stretch of earth, and that was fine with her. After the trench there'd be pit traps.

Frank had been specific about placement, she'd seen the diagram, knew exactly where he wanted them. Stone was harder than earth, pulling it up from depth instead of just shifting what was already loose. That would also be her task if they had time. Filling the cars with rocks to weigh them down was just as important as the trench. Everything was just as important, really. She turned back to her section and kept going.