Kingdom Of The Weak

First off, with the help of practically all the factions in town, Arnold completed the XXL Ballista with parts from the Tier 5 Burning Bull. This new weapon was instantly nicknamed the "Bellower Ballista" and more than delivered on the 10x power request. According to Arnold, the Bellower Ballista should actually reach 12x.

Second, all four major factions of Frontier Town dedicated 25 people to the new Frontier Defense Force. These specialized troops from the Iron Legion, the Burning Steel, the High Rock clan and the Harvest Sun clan trained together under Legion supervision, using Burning Steel gear. All of them were armored in Tier 3.5 reinforced leather armor made from pieces of Tier 3 and Tier 4 Wilds hide. For weapons, the Burning Steel actually made them Bone Spears from the skeletons of Tier 4 Wilds. They also had training in Tier 4 heavy crossbows, but there weren"t enough of those to equip more than half of them yet.

On top of that, each major faction still offered to send out volunteers for the regular town militia as and if required. Remian took no chances; he called for full militia deployment for that crucial Fryday. Consequently, no less than three hundred people showed up Fryday morning with whatever weaponry they could get their hands on, including pitchforks and saucepans. The mines, the farms and the Iron Legion camp were practically emptied out.

Still, Remian called on the Wilds. One team of bears, four herds of boars, twelve packs of wolfcats, thirty packs of lynxmice and a Tier 5 Spike-Back Lizard a.s.sembled for battle by lunch-time. Looking at the flood of Wilds on his side, Remian briefly wondered if these guys alone were enough to stop the incoming Beast Wave. He also wondered how the heck he was ever going to keep them fed.

Meanwhile, Mindy and her crew launched the half-finished Tug. It was barely functioning, but it flew and it could tow the Sky Barge around. With the XXL "Bellower" Ballista mounted on the Sky Barge and the XL Ballista on the Foresight, Mindy"s fleet of three airships was already able to provide some serious air support.

Even so, Charlie brought in his Roving Albatross with no less than eight new cannons, each with the power to shoot down Tier 4"s. He arrived in the late afternoon, having been delayed for the upgrades.

Hundreds of Lynxmice and three teams of Adventurers were deployed as scouts. All four airships were in high alt.i.tude with spygla.s.ses and magnification wind magic employed for lookouts. By sunset, the militia, the FDF and the Iron Legion were all geared up and deployed in full battle formation around the Pit of KarGoth. Traps and barriers were raised at either side of the Pit, ready to catch oncoming attackers in a four-way crossfire from the main battle lines blocking the north, the airships above, Kara on the left and Goth on the right.

The forces of Frontier Town were ready and waiting…

And waiting…

And waiting…

Night fell, and still there was no smoke signal. An hour pa.s.sed, and there was no signal fire. Charlie set out in the Albatross just to make sure the scouts and lookouts were okay and that they really didn"t see any incoming Beast Wave.

Two hours pa.s.sed. Charlie reported back; all scouts were in good condition and alert, but there simply wasn"t anything to report.

There was no Beast Wave.

At that, four hundred people let out a cheer that almost deafened Remian. While he himself felt oddly disappointed, it seemed that taking out the campsite at the Black Ruins had stopped the persons responsible from bespelling the next victims of the Wave Call.

Just in case, they kept their stations for a third hour, and a fourth. But by the fifth hour, DD and Spike called off their alerts. Buff grunted and left with his team. Remian likewise released the militia volunteers. The Iron Legion, the FDF, the wolfcats and the lynxmice maintained watch, but it was clear they did so in a much more relaxed state.

The lynxmice scattered by midnight. Most of the wolfcats were dismissed around that time and the Iron Legion also called it a day.

Just in case, though, Carrie and Red"s pack stayed up with the FDF. n.o.body was expecting a Beast Wave at that point; they set up campfires around the Pit and had a night.w.a.tch barbecue, with soft chatter and low laughter filling the air.

Remian and Mindy joined their midnight feast without worrying.

When the sun rose the next morning, they were still awake, and there was not a signal fire or smoke pillar to be seen.

"We should celebrate!" Mindy said, sleepily. "Fifteen days without a Beast Wave! It"s the first time in my life… that… that I…"

She fell asleep with her head on Remian"s shoulder and snored softly.

Remian worried she might drool on him.

So ended the first official deployment of the newly minted Frontier Defense Force and the largest defense operation Remian had ever joined. Not a shot was fired, not a drop of blood was spilled. The enemy simply didn"t show up.

To that, Remian and everyone with him was more delighted than disappointed.

***

"What shall we do, now that there is no Beast Wave?"

The man asking the question was named Song Chen. He was a Slayer originally from the Dragon Empire, one of those previously employed by the Burning Steel Forge. Since Burning Steel became a company and turned toward economics rather than thug tactics for profit, Song Chen had been offered position of chief of security, but he turned it down to look for a more exciting job.

In joining the Frontier Defense Force, Song Chen pretty much became the publicly acknowledged strongest fighter and thus, their leader. He was one who would give orders to all 99 of the others, taking orders only from Remian himself.

"For now, protect KarGoth and the High Rock clan. Keep an eye out for a giant tortoise." Remian directed. "Keep training to face the next possible Beast Wave."

"Do you think there really will be another one?" Song asked.

"It"s best to be prepared." Remian didn"t tell him the future prospects of a Wave-less scenario; that they would soon be training to face human formations in combat, that the next field of battle was probably going to be the north rather than the south.

Still, they should never neglect the south. Just because there was an interruption with the regular Beast Waves, it didn"t mean their troubles from Wild attacks were over. Shadowflash Fief was just the tip of the Wildlands. There were countless Wilds out there stronger than anything Remian had faced so far, including Spike. Dragon Lake alone supposedly had hundreds of Tier 5 dragons, some even Tier 6.

Or at least, that was what the Crazy Fisher said, years ago at the Circling Ravens tavern. He might have been just telling the children a fantasy story to entertain them, but Remian wasn"t about to ignore the possibility that it was accurate, or worse, an understatement.

A lot of people seemed to think the FDF was a fine fighting force in good standing, but to Remian, one hundred fresh troops with Tier 4 gear was barely pa.s.sable. Thinking of possible hostilities with the neighboring Fiefs, he wanted ten times more troops. Thinking of an oncoming war with Fal"Herim, he wanted a hundred times more troops.

Anyway. KarGoth and the Pit was currently the strongest defense point Frontier Town had. Any Beast Wave coming from the south would either have to pa.s.s between Kara and Goth (and around the Pit) or go around the hills to the east or west. Eastwards would be the shorter detour, whereby they might pa.s.s between the hills and the river zone where Spike guarded the fishermen. Westwards would either mean trekking over the highlands, or going a long way around the hills and then making a direct march due north to the quickly-expanding farms. But that was a really, really long detour.

In other words, it made sense to fortify the bottleneck at KarGoth against attacks from the south. If they could cut off access to the western route and prevent trekking over the hills to the east, they could really secure the entire territory between KarGoth and Fort Spoas.

Of course, there was the distinct worry of attacks from the east, and definitely, definitely, they had to consider the north. But those would be issues for tomorrow. Today, all Remian wanted to do was build a wall and carve out some hills so that n.o.body at the bottom of the hills on the south side could climb over to the north.

For that, the man of the hour would be Spike. When it came to taking out chunks of hillside, Spike"s club tail was Remian"s demolisher of choice. Just commanding him to do it didn"t seem fair, however. Remian always paid his workers. Always.

So he asked Spike directly, along with an explanation of what he wanted. "What sort of payment do you want in return?"

Immediately, Spike replied, [I want to go home. You can call me for help when you need it, but I don"t want to stay around here any longer than I need to. I want to go back to Craggy Falls.]