Chương 65: [Cheval de Frise]

The five lads agreed to meet Shai and the others once she finished speaking to Mike and handling the cleanup. They went ahead to the flat first to get washed up.

"Man, I can't get that fire coat spell soon enough," Phil said as they walked.

"The risk of my spell hitting anyone is pretty high. It was okay today with us at range, but if we find ourselves in melee, I don't think I'll be able to use it without fear of hitting someone."

"Phil," Sam said.

"When you were on the dummy earlier, you were shaping the blast, right?"

"Yeah," Phil said.

"I've been able to do it for a few days now."

"So if you can change the shape, what about the size? A smaller blast means less spread and less chance of catching anyone beside you. It might cost less, too, if the size scales with the mana." Phil looked at him.

"I hadn't thought about that. I assume there's a minimum cost, and mine is higher than everyone else's, but maybe the cost of the enhanced version is scalable? It's definitely bigger than the original."

"Worth trying before we assume the coat spell is the only fix."

"Still getting the coat spell."

"Obviously. But this might help in the meantime." Luka rolled his shoulder, working a knot out of it.

"The dome felt worse than it should have today. I took hits on Standfast during the goblin fight before and it was fine. Every impact today felt like I was being punched in the gut. It sucked. It could be that the dome costs more, or maybe my mana was just too low by the time I used it. I need to test it properly when the well's full."

"I think today showed us the pool needs to expand a lot more anyway," Leo said.

"Not just for more options. We ran dry too fast. Pushing the new spells is the priority—not just for what they do, but for what grinding them does to the well."

"Well, my shard spell was exactly what I wanted it to be," Parmo said.

"First time using it on something real and it did what I hoped. If anything, it worked a little too well. I didn't expect the collateral damage to be so high. I'm happy with it, but it does make me feel a little similar to Phil."

"Shroud worked perfectly," Sam said.

"I think that was due to the nature of the enemy, though. Against a thinking opponent with more than two brain cells, it needs more—at least if we use it on ourselves rather than the enemy." They came through the gap in the barricade. A handful of trainees were standing just inside, watching them come through. Their faces were pale, a stark difference from how they had looked during training. The UI would help; Leo knew that. It just needed time. The crowd opened for them, and nobody said anything as they passed.

The walk up the stairs to the flat was quiet. The moment they stepped inside, Leo called first on the shower. They rotated through the bathroom in a practiced, weary routine until, about half an hour later, they were finally gathered in the living room, clean and changed. Phil walked out of his room last, tugging a fresh T-shirt over his head. He looked more human now that the soot and grime were gone, but the exhaustion was etched into the lines around his eyes.

He dropped into the last empty spot on the sofa and exhaled a breath that seemed to deflate his entire chest.

"You think anyone's actually going to show up for training tomorrow?" he asked, looking at the group.

"After seeing that?"

"I think most will," Leo said, leaning back in his chair. He was watching his own hands, still marveling at how steady they were.

"The UI will do its thing. Today, we fucking nuked those kobolds and I'm already thinking about what's for dinner. It's like it smoothes over the jagged edges of the memories before they can really set in."

"It's not fixing the anxiety," Luka added, rubbing the back of his neck, "but it's definitely buffering the trauma. If everyone else is getting that same mental aid, they'll probably be back. They'll be rattled for a bit, but it won't break them."

"I bet a lot of them try to pivot to magic, though," Parmo pointed out.

"Range is safety. It's basically the 'gun' of this world. Why stand close enough to smell a goblin's breath when you can drop a spell on it from twenty yards away?"

"Maybe," Phil said, looking down at his palms.

"But there's something about melee weapons, man. Learning the sword... it's like we said. It's like finding a game with a massive learning curve and a sky-high skill ceiling. Most people back home never get to touch a real weapon, let alone learn how to use it properly. There's a rush in seeing that progression. The possibility. It's awoken something in me I didn't know existed. I know I'm competitive, but that can't be it."

"Nah, I know what you mean," agreed Leo.

"It won't be everyone," Sam cautioned.

"Some people are going to see what happened to Lucian's arm and decide that laying bricks or planting crops is a much better way to spend their time. We're going to lose some to the civilian side, and honestly? We need them there too. The town can't just be a barracks."

"True," Parmo agreed.

"But the ones who stay... they're going to be different from here on out." Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Luka pushed himself up from the armchair with a grunt.

"I'm putting the kettle on. Anyone want a cuppa?"

"Yeah, please," Leo said.

"Sure man, sounds good," Phil added, still leaning back with his eyes closed.

"Oh yeah, nice one," Parmo said.

"Yeah, go on then," Sam added, looking up from his spell diagrams. Luka disappeared into the kitchen, the familiar sounds of the tap running and the kettle clicking to life drifting back into the living room. As the water began to boil, a familiar, rhythmic knock sounded on the door at the bottom of the stairs.

"I've got it," Luka called out, wiping his hands on a tea towel and heading for the landing. As he headed down the stairs, the conversation in the living room turned back to the mechanics of their recovery.

"I've been thinking about the food," Sam said, leaning forward.

"If we're going to be pushing the mana well this hard every day, we should probably look at our diet. If it's like a physical muscle, maybe a higher intake of the meat and fish—the protein—helps the recovery? Those weird-looking neon fish we've been pulling out of the river... they're definitely dense. We should probably start eating more of them."

"They do taste good, even if they look like they're from the deep Pacific," Parmo agreed. The front door opened, and a moment later, the sound of footsteps climbed the stairs. Shai led the way, looking weary but offering a relaxed, genuine smile as she cleared the threshold. Rika was right behind her, darting past and hopping onto the arm of the sofa with a restless flutter of her wings. Torren came in last, ducking his head low to clear the frame.

He caught the tail end of Parmo's comment as he straightened up, a warm look on his face.

"Oh, those little river-jewels have a lovely sweetness to them, don't they?" Torren said.

"But it isn't just the meat that helps. The mana in this world's harvest feeds the spirit as much as the belly. Anything that grows in this soil or swims in these waters carries the pulse of the world. It's why beast-kin can march for so long; the mana in the food helps with their innate mana stores. It would make sense for it to help with your own. Come to think of it, isn't mana food a big thing in the core? You don't get many round here, but I've heard tell of people who got quite wealthy cooking for nobles.

Maybe they can enhance the mana in the food somehow..."

"That'll help a ton if it works for us the same way," Luka said, following them into the room.

"You lot want a tea? I just made a fresh pot."

"I'd love one, thanks Luka," Shai said, moving to a spot by the window. She leaned back against the frame, letting out a long, grateful exhale as she relaxed.

"Please!" Rika added, tucking her feet up under her. Torren gave a slow, graceful nod of thanks and took the large armchair. It groaned under his massive frame, but he settled into it easily enough.

"So the fish is actually a mana buff," Leo said, leaning forward as the group got comfortable.

"We just thought it was the nutrition. We definitely need to stock the inventory with them then. It keeps everything fresh and warm, so we could have a steady supply of mana-rich meals ready to go."

"It is a very smart move, Leo," Torren agreed, his appraising gaze soft but focused.

"A warrior who ignores his fuel is like a gardener who forgets to water his roses. You won't bloom when the season gets hard." Shai blew across the surface of her mug, the steam curling around her face. She looked at the five of them, her gaze lingering for a moment on Leo before she settled back.

"You shouldn't have been out there," she said. Her voice was quiet, stripped of the 'Captain' edge she'd used on the field, but there was a weight to it that made Parmo stop mid-sip.

"I gave an order to get inside. You were running on fumes, you didn't have your gear, and if that dome had flickered for a heartbeat while those arrows were in the air..."

"But it didn't flicker," Rika interjected. She was vibrating on the arm of the sofa, her tea forgotten on the table.

"Shai, they were incredible. You didn't see it from the flank, but I did. Lucian was hurt, the line was at risk of buckling, and then the kobolds appeared. I couldn't kill them fast enough, Shai. Someone was going to die. Then suddenly, ice, fire, and thunder were everywhere. If they hadn't jumped in, we'd be digging graves right now." Shai didn't look at Rika. She kept her eyes on Leo.

"I know what they did. I also know how close it came to being a disaster."

"We knew the risk," Leo said. He didn't look away.

"We saw the threat. If we'd stayed behind the barricade and watched them get overrun, we wouldn't have been able to look any of you in the eye. Or ourselves. The risk of the line collapsing was also reason enough. If that happened, well, I don't want to think about the knock-on effect that would have..." Torren reached out a massive, calloused hand and squeezed Leo's shoulder. The pressure was steady and grounding.

"Mettle," he rumbled, a small, knowing smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"I heard the story of that first goblin. To act the way you did today... to not only hold your ground but to fight a way deadlier enemy? You've grown. You aren't just surviving anymore."

"Still," Shai sighed, the tension finally leaving her shoulders as she took a long drink of tea.

"Don't make a habit of ignoring me. I just want the best for you all."

"Well, we have some ideas that may stop that from happening in the first place. We were talking about defenses on the walk back," Sam said. He reached down and pulled a crumpled piece of paper from under a stack of spell notations. He smoothed it out on the coffee table, pushing a few mugs aside to make room.

"The wall in the south is a good start for the farmers, but the north is still wide open. Murray Street is basically just a few cars and some scrap wood right now." Shai leaned in, peering at the sketch.

"What is this? A spiked fence?"

"It's called a Cheval de Frise," Leo said, pointing to the angled timber stakes.

"Think of it like a giant, wooden hedgehog. We build them in sections and plant them in the approaches to the north. If a horde tries to charge, they have to slow down to climb through them or get funneled into the gaps. It turns an open road into a series of bottlenecks."

"I'm still amazed you know the name of this thing. The fact it's French makes it even weirder. How the fuck do you remember that?" asked Phil.

"Dunno, just one of those things that stuck when I googled it. They're actually made to stop cavalry, but if we make them smaller and more compact, they should help against the sort of thing we faced today."

"It's like the Hot Gates," Phil added, leaning forward.

"We make it so they can only come at us three or four at a time. Then Parmo and I just ventilate the gap."

"We're going to take it to Gary Kowalski," Sam said.

"See if he can get a crew together to start pre-fabbing them as a stop-gap until the stone wall reaches that side of town. We can get the timber from the southern treeline where it's safer." Shai looked from the sketch to the boys. She nodded, a short, sharp movement.

"It's a solid plan. Mike mentioned Gary's been looking for a way to reinforce the north without using more stone. This sounds like what he's been looking for." The room lapsed into a comfortable hum of conversation until a sound cut through the chatter. The now-familiar UI chime rang out, bringing something new. The five lads' eyes went glassy as they looked at what was appearing on their screens. A new icon was pulsing in the corner of Leo's vision, glowing steadily. [COMMUNICATIONS UNLOCKED]