The fire ravaged the grasses outside of the gate for hours, lasting until morning. The smog hung over the city, a reminder of the chaos of last night. Surveyors took stock of damages and casualties, sending investigators to nearby villages to assess the state of the war at large, now that the Hammer Tribes had retreated for now. Mages on hand as well as those with the class [Architect] were deployed to the field post-flash fire to investigate the tunnels from where the spiders emerged from, as well as a small task force dispatched in the direction that the metal golems went.

Vetrean especially hated this part. Now that the excitement and adrenaline of the battle had been quelled by time to rest and recuperate, he was now forced to do all the paperwork, reading through the nitty gritty details. Of course, being informed of the state of the city was always important, but having to dig through towers of papers to get the general gist of it was time-consuming, tiring, and not least of all diverted his attention from the most vital interests to the city.

The Missileer swept open the door to Vetrean’s office, noticing the new bright windows to the left and right of the door, illuminating from wall to wall, especially since the room was placed high up in the Tower. A beautiful view of the city and plains below. Knick knacks lined the wall as always, medals and commandments of his achievements and trinkets the man found to be interesting. Little metal figurines sat polished on shelves, of heroes past and present. Runed jewelry hung from hooks, labelled with their respective purpose and powers. Drawers stood silently along the walls and under the windowsills, lit by the sun’s gift to the world, light like rain upon the wood grain.

“Hello, Vetrean. I’ve come to report on the anomalies we encountered yesterday. A shame, too. If they hadn’t showed up I bet I could’ve pushed the barbarians back with a super spell I was preparing.”

“Why are you here? Normally you would have sent a letter, or one of your students to deliver news for you.”

“These are no normal circumstances. You and I have both never encountered something so beyond imagination, I reckon. How could something so powerful deign to exist, to wipe out such a powerful threat in such little time?”

“A new weapons test from the King’s Research Division? Perhaps they have discovered some metallic artifact in their expeditions, and this is the first combat test.”

“If that is true they would have wiped out our opposition much earlier. They only floated idly in the air until the spiders showed up and nearly broke down the gate. Without them I’m not quite sure what would’ve happened. I have no doubt there would have been many more casualties, so we can at least thank them for that.”

“Call me paranoid, but I doubt the state has anything of that magnitude. I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life. Moving forward, we’ve got to be much more careful with how we handle the situation. I most definitely do not have a strategy on hand to deal with… yesterday.”

“I’ve begun putting together a few ideas. The Tower Council already dispatched a team to investigate the ground just past the gate. There lies a shallow network of tunnels close to the surface, with some hastily constructed pitfall traps and a long tunnel leading far away. [Detect] yielded no results; it's safe to assume the spider monster fled down the escape tunnel.”

“Use earth magic to seal the tunnel, preferably reinforced a little as well. Also ask the alchemist for a great many containers of acidic fluid. If we can [Detect] them in advance next time, flooding their tunnels with the stuff should be sufficient to cull their numbers.”

“He’s tied up right now with recovery potions. As expected, healing brews are in much higher demand than ones intended for offense. I’ll pass on the request to him, though. Anything else?”

“I would ask how good your magi are with fire spells, but I figure you’ve probably already got a variant of spell to deal with it.”

The sage sat down in a velvet chair, placed on the other side of the desk, raising his hand to reveal a glowing orb of power swirling in his palm.

“Burst Missile. I can scale up their size to apply more or less force to the resulting explosion. More efficient than a typical [Explosion] spell too. Plus I’ve been quite conservative with my mana usage early on. If I can get half-a-minute to prepare, I could swarm an enemy position with missiles, including variant-variant Penetration Burst Missile, which directs the explosion in a specific direction. You could say I was inspired by our resident flame aficionados.”

“I suppose you’ve got a handle on it. Do you think you could destroy the golem things, given preparation time?”

“If I spent a lot of mana I’m sure I could puncture or crush them with a Condensed Burst Missile, but it would take at least a few moments. In that time I would be extremely vulnerable to being roasted alive by those things. I’d need, at minimum, a barrier mage on hand to protect me, assuming a barrier is capable of blocking their attacks.”

“I can assign to you a few barrier mages, though you could probably do that yourself, with your influence.”

“I’ll look forward to it. Also, off the record: the hunter division has lost track of the metal creatures. They can fly much faster than the hunter mages assigned to the case. I would have personally requested the participation of much more experienced members of the hunter division, but they are still on duty at the Void front.”

“Then we’ll just have to make do with what we have. Have any nearby cities to our flanks been the subject of an assault?”

“Not yet. The Hammer King appears to have singled us out as the linchpin of his invasion strategy. It is to be expected, since we are the main obstacle in his way.”

“We can’t let him get his hands on this city. If he takes it over, everything I’ve built here will crumble by his hand, and he shall have a launchpad to attack the unguarded interior. What we need are more elites, strong and brave men and women I can count on to stand steadfast against the enemy. It's the best way to preserve morale and to blunt the aggressive charges typical to the Northern Tribes.”

Their conversation was interrupted by a gentle rapping on the door, three quick knocks and two slow knocks. Vetrean shuffled across the room to open the door for his guests. On the other side stood Perience, out of breath from climbing the really long flight of stairs, and Foile, carried up the steps by his exoskeleton. Even now, the chrome nanomachines slowly creeped over his skin in metallic waves. Anyone looking close enough might realize that they numbered a bit more than last time, reinforced by extra nanomachines from the portal fragment, lying dormant in the Endless Plains in order to conserve energy.

Perience drank from his flask, recovering from his long trek up the tower.

“Why’d you call me up here? And what’s with the kid?”

“Hello, Perience. I called you up here because everyone knows you as one of our most reliable adventurers, and I just so happen to have a job for you I can’t bear to entrust to someone less… worthy.”

“I’ve got my hands full with city defense right now though.”

“It’ll pay well.”

“I’m listening.”

“I’m thinking of a counter attack on the Hammer Tribes, but I wasn’t quite sure who I’d hire to lead it, until I saw you holding the position on the wall by yourself. Your performance was quite remarkable.”

“Thank you for the offer, but I’m not one of those strategist types. I can only work with several people at most, since I’m an adventurer.”

“Then can you lead a small advance force to scope them out? I would give you free reign over who you may bring, and you shall be compensated handsomely. You need not even fight if it is unnecessary. All I really need is detailed information of what forces and defense they may have. And if you do decide to go above and beyond and practice subterfuge, I’ll be in your debt.”

“I’ll do it. Not solely for the money, but because it’s my civic duty to protect the city. I’ll do my best.”

“Then you are dismissed. Good luck.”

Perience bowed and shut the door behind him on the way out, leaving only Foile behind.

“As for you… I’ve been told that you were the one who loosed the first arrow.”

Foile looked guiltily at the ground, awash with shame from his mistake. He knew he should not have fired so quickly, but he was but a budding archer and warrior, entirely untrained. He did not possess the proper discipline to be a good soldier or adventurer yet. All he could do was prepare to be scolded.

“You’re not being scolded.”

He wasn’t being scolded?

“You’re so young you look like you could be my grandchild. I couldn’t yell at someone that young, especially with such skill with the bow. How long have you trained to become so accurate?”

“Um, I didn’t train. Someone showed me and I just copied it.”

The exoskeleton, more numerous in number, formed supports along his body, pulling him into the typical archer’s stance. Vetrean and his sagely friend were very intrigued by its function, noting the familiar color scheme.

“Say, where’d you get that strange armor from? Is it a skill?”

Foile did not know what he meant so he just said

“Yyyyes. I think.”

The two old men had their interest piqued.

“I think you have potential. How would you like to train as part of the city garrison? I could pulla few strings to get you in, even if you’re young.”

“Really? I can train for free?”

“Sure, I can cover expenses. Just sign some paperwork I have on hand and we can get started right away…”

While the city cooled down from its most recent battle, the robots responsible for the attack landed in the fields just outside the deserted village, desecrated and looted by passing raid parties. The dirt parted, revealing a small entryway for them to file through, leading down to the dungeon, completely hidden under a layer of dirt. Down in the depths of the earth, swarms of drones carried materials to and fro, hollowing out great underground spaces through the stone. Massive cavernous expanses, supported by giant pillars, stretching from wall to wall.

Underground was an entire factory, constantly refining input minerals for use later on. Storage silos contained many rare ores and metals, awaiting allocation. Drone commanders inspected equipment carefully, ensuring maximum efficiency, while harvesters formed a supply chain from the branch mining happening up to miles away. As the crust was drained of its natural resources, Pion sat limply upon a large plated throne.

[...Optimization complete.]

[All systems are a go.]

She reactivated, electricity once again surging through her circuits. The short break had offered her time to recuperate, undoing the minor wear and tear unavoidable from continuous operation. Simultaneously analyzing the feeling of fullness derived from gaining the [Privacy] skill proved to be ultimately fruitless. It was more being instilled within the proverbial soul than an easily explained physical phenomenon, especially frustrating for a creation of pure logic.

The drones she had dispatched earlier entered her personal chamber, resting on the throne, recharging by merely making contact with its surface.

[Dumping info…]

Pion received a log of video footage denoting what the drones had been up to, along with other feedback from audio logs and pattern recognition data. Poring over them revealed a wealth of combat data, and tests involving the damage potential of available weaponry. It was a shame she had to reveal her hand so early, but risking the destruction of Bulwark would be too big a setback.

Now that she was rested and ready to go, it was time to counterattack. Letting undesired elements continue to persist would only hamper her operation. She could already picture the Northern Barbarians bending the knee to her.

[Emotion Emulator: Glee]

Let the games begin!