I watched the invasion timer tick away from the top of the northern gatehouse. I’d already doled out my excess armor and weapons to the villagers.

I’d held off on crafting up a bunch more armor; with the next zone about to become available and the progress we’d made on the village, it seemed like burning all of our materials might be overkill.

Faye and her husband had gotten the better stuff—he was rocking a full set of golemplate, alongside a few other soldiers, and Faye had gotten all the uncommon cloth gear I’d found that she could actually equip.

The only thing that hadn’t gone to plan was that we hadn’t managed to secure any Repair Stones; the merchant had been out of stock. Apparently those were a limited resource. Not ideal.

Time to invasion: 3 minutes 5 seconds

Time to invasion: 3 minutes 4 seconds

I said.

Ezzie hesitated.

I said.

Ezzie laughed.

I said.

Ezzie said.

Ezzie said.

Every single villager—all two hundred plus of them—turned to face me at the exact same moment. It was pretty eerie, until they started flicking me off. Then it was just rude.

she said.

The villagers moved as one, effortlessly organizing themselves into ten separate groups to make use of the ten Fish Feasts I’d spread out near the center of town, close to the mortars. Mara hadn’t had any issue picking up the spices, and I was pretty thrilled with the result.

Having eaten their fill, all of the villagers stood at the same moment and headed for the north gate. When all was said and done, the entire northern wall was lined with mages, a group of soldiers kneeling in front of them, and with archers crowding the two towers to either end.

The clerics were standing behind the mages, where they’d be out the line of sight of the targets below.

The mortars, too, spun and got into position. Our new, automated cannons were a bit below the walkway, bristling from about two feet beneath our assembled forces.

Ezzie said.

Time to invasion: 26 seconds

Time to invasion: 25 seconds

I said.

Ezzie said.

Ezzie said.

Maybe she had a point. At least I hoped she did. I took up an elevated position atop the north gatehouse, and Ezzie retracted all of the drawbridges simultaneously.

Faye waved from the wall, her husband at her side, both of them looking grim but determined. Faye tossed me her Inner Fire buff, then took to buffing all of the nearby soldiers in rapid succession.

The air chilled and everything went utterly still.

Regional Quest Update: The Creeping Ice

Spawning wave 1/10

Seven Bloodhounds, one Warhound. An absolutely laughable attack given our defenses. The dog-like creatures charged just as they had before, showing no awareness of the gauntlet that lay in front of them.

All six of the mortars boomed and six smoky arcs painted the sky, black projectiles leading the way. Ezzie had timed her shots perfectly; all six of the tar balls smashed into the tightly clustered mobs, killing the entire wave instantly.

Ezzie said.

She cut off as a new prompt popped up:

Regional Quest Update: The Creeping Ice

Trivial difficulty detected.

Adjusting…

This encounter has been set to Hard Mode.

All waves have been substantially upgraded.

All rewards have been substantially upgraded.

Spawning wave 2/10

I said, shaking my head. This was one of the rare situations where I’d been really, really hoping I was wrong. But I wasn’t at all surprised.

Ezzie said.

I said.

Ezzie said.

I said.

I said.

Ezzie said.

The next wave spawned, all of it centered on the northern gatehouse: three of the huge, bear-like Siegebeasts, the better part of a dozen Warhounds, and countless Bloodhounds. Probably a three-fold increase from the first time we attempted the second wave.

Ezzie said.

Three of the mortars boomed and sent a trio of black projectiles arcing through the air. The second wave of blasts followed up before the first mortars had even hit the ground.

Three tar balls exploded across the enemy lines, instantly killing several of the weaker Bloodhounds and knocking almost half of the health off the Warhounds.

The Siegebeasts only lost about ten percent, but the second wave was incoming, and the third wouldn’t be very far behind.

The enemy mobs seemed to cross an invisible line, and every mage on the wall blurred into motion, their hands weaving in complex patterns as dozens of fireballs formed, then lanced across the battlefield.

The remaining mobs disappeared beneath the resulting explosions, and when the smoke cleared, only corpses remained.

Ezzie said.

Regional Quest Update: The Creeping Ice

Trivial difficulty detected.

Adjusting…

This encounter has been set to Very Hard Mode.

Adjusting…

This encounter has been set to Insanity Mode.

This encounter has reached its maximum difficulty setting.

This encounter has been specifically tuned for the Tier I class: Mirror Knight.

All waves have been drastically upgraded.

All rewards have been drastically upgraded.

Spawning wave 3/11