I woke up in my former office and now new bedroom, which pissed me off to no end. My mechanical alarm clock said the time was one in the afternoon and I could smell frying squid. I was starving and thirsty. In fact it was so bad that I only put on my bathrobe before using my legs to push myself out to the kitchen in my office chair. I should have kept my rake; I could have used it like an oar.

Jennifer was cooking in a pan that was being held by Grace, who was using her fire magic. I probably should make some magical hot plates soon. I looked at the women and growled. “Please feed me now.” If they are going to live in my house then they had better learn to promptly feed and water the angry Hermit that they are imposing upon.

Grace and Jennifer looked at Vince and both ladies thought the same thing; that he looked like shit. He was extremely pale, his lips looked like dried leather and his eyes were sunken. The girls had been making their own lunch but they decided that they could wait. There was more than enough food. In fact, there was actually far more calamari than the village had storage space for. A few minutes later Faith came inside for her own lunch but Jennifer took her aside to speak to her quietly.

Faith looked at Vince and quickly left; she came back as he was finishing his second large plate of fried squid. Gloria Bennett who was a healer and nurse practitioner was following along behind Faith. She walked up to Vince; who looked at her suspiciously while putting his arm protectively around his plate of calamari. This was his fried squid and he wasn’t sharing it with anyone else.

Gloria put her hands on his shoulders, she seemed to meditate and then spoke. “There’s nothing seriously wrong with him, he’s just a little malnourished and dehydrated. Keep feeding him and he should be fine in a day or two. The Boss still has things to fix in his pelvic region but he can probably do a better job of that, than I can.”

The small gathered audience breathed out a sigh of relief. Vince used that momentary distraction to steal a plate of calamari and fried sweet potatoes that had been sitting in front of Isabella and resumed eating. Gloria continued talking, “Mister Standish, Peggy and I believe that there is a problem with some of the wounded flyers from the Long Flight Clan.

We’ve already fought two different types of the Night Stalker Monsters. I don’t imagine that Peggy and I are alone in thinking that with the Stalkers’ ability to cloud minds and their very descriptive names, that they have at least a little semblance to the vampires from our own legends. You, Peggy and I have all healed people bitten by the bat variety. Both she and I have found it difficult to heal people bitten by those monsters, it’s like there’s something else inside of them that has to be fixed beyond their wounds. Thankfully we’ve gotten to all of our own people in time. But twelve of the wounded flyers are very sick with high fevers. It’s a wild guess from both Peggy and I, but we both fear that there is now a virus inside of them that’s attempting to change those seriously ill flyers into a new variety of Night Stalker. We’ve been able to hold the virus at bay but both she and I don’t have enough power to clean it from their systems, at least we don’t have enough with having to take care of twelve patients at the same time. I know you’re still exhausted but so are Peggy and I. Do you think you can take a look and see if you can help any of them?”

I nodded my head but I kept eating and drinking. Finally I paused to speak. “I can’t walk very far yet. In fact it would be better if I didn’t walk at all right now, I just find it too debilitating. So either someone has to carry me to the infirmary or some of your patients need to be brought here to my cave.” I pointed at the interior door leading to the garage.

Jennifer spoke up, “Gloria have two of your patients brought here. Vincent needs to recover his strength as quickly as possible and we can look after him far better if he remains in his own home.”

“I’ll send over our two youngest patients, as soon as I get back to the infirmary. They’ll be accompanied by our new nurse.”

I decided that I’d better stop eating for awhile and give the food time to digest. I pushed myself back to my room and struggled into my sweat pants. Jennifer then pushed me back to my hermit’s cave. While I was waiting for the flyers to arrive I used my healer’s sight to take a look at my own injuries. I did some low energy tweaking on my repair job. Not much but every little bit helps.

A woman came through the side door. “Hello Mister Standish, I’m Denise Murphy, the new nurse. I’ve got two young flyers outside, but they and their escorts are a little wide. Do you mind if I open up the large garage door?”

“Go ahead but you’ll have to do it yourself. I can’t stand up and I don’t want to waste any energy trying to perform that task.” I pointed to the garage door pull cord. She walked over and tugged the heavily insulated door open. Outside were four flyers carrying two young ones on improvised stretchers. Jennifer had just walked in and she had an armful of thick blankets and quilts. She laid them out on one of my new large worktables and made a sleeping pad with them. The young Flyers were so small that only one table was needed.

I put my hand on one of my patients to determine its condition. I immediately found out it was a female and that there was indeed a nasty virus inside of her. I checked the other one and discovered it was a male. He was in worse shape but I first gave the girl a quick jolt of healing energy to hold her stable for the time being. Then I rolled my way back to the boy.

Denise suddenly spoke. “I wish I could do that.”

I paused before starting to work on the boy because I had a sudden thought. “Denise, I’ve got a dumb idea, it might not work but who knows. I’ll put one hand on the boy and you’ll take my other in hand in one of yours, then you’ll put your free hand on the boy like I’m doing. I’ll not only push healing energy into the lad with my own hand but also through your own body as well. It will sort of be like we’re completing an electrical circuit. It shouldn’t hurt you, and at worse I’ll just waste a little energy. But if we can get another healer out of the deal, it will be worth it.”

She eagerly nodded her head and grasped the hand, I was offering to her. “Close your eyes and try to sense what I’m doing but don’t do anything and most importantly don’t try to fight it. It will probably take several attempts for you learn to heal, so don’t expect any immediate results.”

I ignored the adult flyers for now. I wanted to first spend some time healing the youngsters and I would talk to the grownups after I was done and while I was recovering my energy.

The boy was extremely ill; I hoped he was the sickest of the lot, because if he wasn’t then someone else was seriously fucked up. At first all of my healing energy was just entering the boy through my left hand and nothing was passing through my link with Denise but towards the end, of this first session, I could finally detect a trickle of energy that was flowing into him through her hand.

After about forty minutes I felt the need to take a breather, and I stopped. I checked on the girl and found that she was holding steady but I had little extra energy so I gave her body another slight healing boost.

“Jennifer I’m going to take a break for about an hour. Can you please rustle me up a snack?”

“Sure Vincent, I hope that calamari and potatoes are okay because we’ve got a lot of both.” She said with a little laugh.

“That’s fine Jen, thank you.” I finally turned to the adult flyers who were watching me anxiously.”

I am the rude and nasty Professional Hermit, Vincent Standish. I think I can help both of these children. The boy is sicker than the girl, so I’m concentrating on him at first. I have done two minor healings on the girl and she has responded well to them. Do you have any questions or anything to tell me?”

The largest adult female began speaking; the tips and edges of her wings were black instead of the all brown that seemed to be much more common among the flyers. “Vincent Standish, I am Night Storm. I am the second chief of our clan. This is my husband Metal Grinder.” She pointed at the only adult male flyer in the room. “This little girl is our daughter Smokey Night do you honestly think that you can help her? If you can save her life and prevent her from turning into one of those monsters, my husband and I will spend the rest of our lives repaying you.” The male flyer nodded his head vigorously in agreement. I had to wonder if they had the same gesture or if he had already picked it up from us?

“I don’t charge for healing kids, for that matter I have never charged anyone for any healing that I have ever done, so don’t worry about that. As for your daughter, she’s sick but I do think that I can help her. However, because of the boy’s condition it’s necessary for me to concentrate on him. I’ll get him completely well first and then finish curing your daughter. If you will check on her, I believe you can see that even with two small healings that I’ve given her, that she is already breathing easier and her fever has gone down.”

The couple did examine their daughter and visibly relaxed when they saw that my words were true. I turned towards the other two flyers who were both females.

“Chief Vincent Standish, I am Autumn Blaze and this is my younger sister Fish Diver. Thank you for treating my son, Star Bright. I have heard your words to Night Storm but I too owe you a great debt. I lost my husband the other night and I don’t know what I would have done if my son had died as well or worse yet became one of those monsters.” She bowed her head to me and I nodded back. Both tiny families resumed watching over their sick loved ones, anxiously. As for myself I hate a date with plate of fried calamari, potatoes and a cold beer. Please let there be beer.

After my second session working on Star Bright, I had some visitors. Steve, Glen and George came by to see me. Steve was the first to speak.

“Boss with that battle last night, we’ve used up half of our black powder. I know you wanted to personally operate our powder mill but I don’t think you have the time to do it, not when you have so many other jobs that only you can do. We’ve got a new man in the shop named Sean Murphy he was a gunsmith in the army and after he retired he continued to work as one while a civilian. According to Glen, Sean seriously knows his shit.”

Glen interjected, “he sure as hell does know his stuff.”

Steve resumed talking. “Mack has got a building out by the gun range which we can use for our little powder mill. I know you stockpiled a lot of sulphur but back when Glen and I were buying things, we scoured local stores for both potassium nitrate and charcoal. We didn’t get as much as we would have liked but we found enough potassium nitrate to make fifty to sixty pounds of black powder. So, is it okay if we go ahead with the production without you?”

I didn’t want to say yes because I thought my potential alchemist ability might aid in making gunpowder, but Steve was right. I didn’t have the time right now to make any black powder especially since I had patients. On top of that, I was still fucked up myself and I had so much other shit to do, that I didn’t know where to start. “Go ahead, but be careful and don’t let anybody blow themselves up.”

Glen was next to talk. “Boss, you know Scott Blaine that blue screen machinist you freed from prison? Well he’s got an idea on how we can conserve our gunpowder. Have you ever heard of a Holman Projector?”

“No, is it some type of film projector?”

He chuckled, “Nope, it was actually an air or steam powered anti-aircraft gun that the British used during World War One. It was really more of a light artillery piece or mortar that could shoot out improvised anti-aircraft shells. The projectiles were made by placing hand grenades in metal cans. It could shoot as high as a thousand feet though the early models only managed six hundred. We were thinking that if we starting making Holman Projectors and aerodynamic shells out of wood, that we might have an effective defensive weapon. Our idea was to put a hole down the vertical centerline of those wooden shells, just big enough to hold an iron rod. Then if you would hopefully enchant those pieces of iron with your new explosive heat spell; we all think that the resulting weapon system could probably replace our mortars. The Holman Projectors should be capable of firing faster and of course not use up any of our precious stocks of black powder. On top of that the new weapon could function as it was originally designed to, and that is as a close range anti-aircraft gun. Well, what do you think?”

“I think you’re all fucking nuts but did the British really use these things?” I looked at him doubtfully.

George spoke up. “I’ve heard about them too Vince, but I don’t know how to build one. I know that while they only downed a few enemy planes, the projectors successfully scared of many attackers and were mainly mounted on ships.”

Glen jumped right back in. “And they’re a lot easier to make than a gun.”

“Okay, you can make a prototype but I’m going to have to rework my enchantment for anti-air use. Remember whatever goes up must come down, and I don’t want one of those shells falling on our own heads when they inevitably miss a flying monster. Once you got something that actually works, I’ll enchant some of your iron rods of death and we’ll see how they do.”

I thought I was done but then George began talking. “Vince, when Steve was running appraisal on you last night he saw a title he didn’t know you had, ‘Awakener of Talents.’ Almost everyone in this village who has any magical abilities has got them, in some fashion, through you. You knighted me and I got a shitload of upgrades out of it. I would like you to knight my two lieutenants. Just giving them true sight would dramatically improve their fighting and command ability.”

“George when I knighted you, you gave me a rather strong oath of allegiance. Also I didn’t mention it at the time but when I knighted you it sucked a lot of magical energy out of me. I’m low on juice now and I haven’t even bothered to finish healing myself yet, because of all the sick flyers. How critical is it that I knight your two lieutenants within the next day or two?”

“Vince, it’s a crap shoot you know that. We might not get attacked for another week or it could happen in the next five minutes. If Boris and Candace get any abilities out of the deal, then that just might make the decisive difference in our next battle. As your only dedicated military officer with true sight, I feel that I have to get them that same ability or I might never get any sleep.”

“Okay, you convinced me, sleep is important. I’ll try and knight, one of your lieutenants in two hours time and the other one, three hours after that. But they’ll probably have to make some kind of powerful oath of loyalty because I’m pretty sure that was part of the magic, that got you your gifts or at least I got that impression from the Ding-Ding System. Does that sound acceptable to you?”

“Thanks Vince, I’ll have either Boris or Candace here in two hours.”

“Oh, another thing spread the word among those that are helping me run things here, like Faith and Mack for example. Tomorrow around mid-afternoon I’m going to be having a meeting. We need to get things better organized in this compound and stop running around so half assed. What I have in mind for us will probably need a lot of tweaking but it will do for a start. So spread the word and I’ll see you all here tomorrow.”

It took another long treatment spaced over two hours to finish healing Star Bright. As for Smoky Night it took me six hours to cure her, because when the boy was healed Gloria sent over another patient and the new one was in such bad shape, that I had to dump a full healing session into her or bad things would have happened. That forced me to delay in knighting Boris by an additional hour. But eventually, he was kneeling down before me, as I sat with my Professional Hermit ass in my chair, my green and red plaid bathrobe wrapped tightly around me. I listened carefully, sort of, as he made his oath of allegiance.

“My Lord Standish, I Boris Khan do faithfully swear to serve you, during these dangerous times, to defend your lands and to protect the people who peacefully reside upon them, so long as they obey your rules and commands.”

I didn’t have my carbine with me this time, so I used my rake, which if I closed one eye and squinted with the other, sort of looked like an oddly shaped pole-arm, something that I imagined all the best ninjas would probably like to own. I touched his right shoulder with the handle and then his left. “I accept your oath and I dub thee Sir Boris Khan and name you a Lieutenant in the Hermit’s Guard, may you serve long and honorably.”

DING

Don’t you idiots ever learn? Boris just swore almost the same oath as Gorgeous George. And you Vanessa knighted him. By the way how is your penis working? Has it turned black and fallen off yet?

Sir Boris Khan, for swearing such a powerful oath and having it accepted by the Professional Hermit and Landowner Vincent Standish, you have been ennobled and granted the following skills and enhanced attributes to help you fulfill your duties. Betray your oath and you may lose all of your new gifts.

True Sight: Every good military officer needs to be able to tell truth from fiction; and accurately see what lies all around them.

Water Magic Level One

Earth Magic Level One

Quick Thinking Level One: When things go to hell and “quick thinking is required” your thoughts speed up by ten percent.

+55 Percent Increase in Strength.

+15 Percent Faster Reflexes.

+50 Percent Increase in Stamina.

“Congratulations Sir Boris, now get the fuck out of my cave and get back to work. You’re interrupting my nap time.” I had found that if I actually slept instead of just sitting quietly or meditating, I regained energy much faster especially when I was completely exhausted and couldn’t keep my eyes open.

When Smoky was finally cured Denise got a DDS announcement that she was now a level one Healer. She was happy but looked absolutely wrung out at that point so I sent her inside to get some sleep on my couch. I was dragging ass too but I figured Peggy and Gloria had to be in worse shape. In an act of extreme stupidity, I told Jennifer to get the two Healers to send me their worst three patients. I had my one remaining patient on the mend, and I thought I could keep three more stable if they weren’t too bad off, while at the same time sneaking catnaps and regaining my own magical energy. Ooh magical energy, I wondered if it was all sparkly inside of me and maybe looked like something from the teleporter scenes in the old original Star Trek series. Man, I really needed some sleep. I had to postpone knighting Murphy, I was just too tired. She looked like I had just killed her puppy when I told her about the delay.

I guess, I had gotten a little too big headed and arrogant. I just barely managed to keep all four flyers alive and I wasn’t able to get any real rest until Denise finally woke up and was able to pitch in and help. I got almost three hours of uninterrupted sleep before she shook me awake and told me that she was out of energy and our patients were starting to get worse. I told her to stay inside, grab a bite and to take another nap. Isabella fed me while I worked on the four feathered fowls. I put fifteen minutes of energy into each one of them, rested for an hour and then repeated the same treatment. At that point I could start concentrating on one of them and I did so.

I was settling down to take another catnap when suddenly my garage started to fill up with people. Damn it, I had forgotten about the meeting I had arranged.

We met in my kitchen and I began speaking.

“I don’t like people being here on my property and I don’t like being the boss. But we’re all fucking stuck with this situation. As of today I’m creating a Village Council. Your new jobs are just going to formalize things that you have already been doing. Jennifer is now my chief of staff and personal assistant. Steve is in charge of logistics and everything else that isn’t assigned to someone else for the time being. Mack, you’re in charge of construction and maintenance. Peggy, I want you to head our medical services. Isabella you’re in charge of every bit of food that we grow. Clyde, every vehicle we have including tractors is your bailiwick. Glen, obviously you’re in charge of the machine shop and manufacturing. Captain Mesquida is in charge of our security and the Hermit’s Guard. Faith, in addition to being a peace keeper, you are now my minister of justice. I want very brief written summaries every afternoon for what you did the previous day. And by brief, I mean a paragraph or less. You might want to rope someone into being your clerk or secretary. Jennifer is my intermediary; please send all those summaries to her. My goal is to delegate as much of this bullshit as I possibly can and thus get back to being the hermit I want to be. I figure with my true sight ability that I can hopefully get away with it. Does everyone understand the new order of things?” I didn’t give them any time to reply. “Good and fine, were done here. Now get the fuck out of my house, I might still be able to get a nap in.”

People started standing up when Peggy timidly spoke. “Boss, I don’t want to be in charge. I think you should make Denise the new head Healer. She’s got a lot more experience as a nurse than I have and Gloria respects her. I know she’s new here but Denise is an orange screen.”

I looked at her and because of my true sight I could tell that she was being honest with me. “Fine, I’ll tell her but you’ll be number two. Oh Steve, I nearly forgot. If it’s not too late please try and get me a sample of the Sky Kraken’s lifting gas from one of their corpses. I don’t think it is hydrogen gas or just hydrogen gas alone. I’m kind of curious what kind of properties it has, in terms of buoyancy and flammability.”

Glen interjected, “Vince, Ron was curious too, so he got several samples of the gas this morning. I’ll have him send some over later.”

“That’s good Glen, give Ron my thanks.” I growled some polite goodbyes and they all shuffled out of my home, except for Jennifer. I was just ready to shut my eyes when.

DING DING

Because of the large number of people, from two different sentient species, that have come to you for protection, safety, food and justice; and since you are a sole monarch, who is responsible to none and a consummate asshole. You are awarded the new title of Hermit King not to be associated with Hermit Crab. Good luck you are going to need it. For further information about your new status please read the fine print. As a Hermit King you are a rule breaker but you still retain all the rights, skills, abilities and powers of a Professional Hermit. Go out and break some rules you cretin, don’t worry we have complete faith in you and we’re sure that you’ll still manage to screw this up in a spectacular fashion. In fact we’re betting on it.

Additional Authority for a Hermit King, they may legally claim vacant lands as part of their Kingdom. Lands that are populated by sentient beings may also request to join your Kingdom.

I looked up at my kitchen ceiling and the sky beyond. “Are you nucking futts?” I must be delusional from lack of sleep.

Steve had requested more of the freezer/fire stones but I couldn’t take the time to make them not with the sick flyers. So he was forced to shuffle the two I had made earlier, from container to container in order to save as much meat as possible.

Another six hours passed before I mentioned to Jennifer that I might now have enough magical pixie dust to knight Lieutenant Murphy. Or it could be flatulence, maybe if I strike a spark while ennobling Candace if it might work just as well. I could just imagine looking at Lieutenant Murphy’s shocked soot covered face while at the same time she was holding her nose. I suddenly got the giggles and nearly choked while eating, I really missed my bed.

I must have spoken too loudly to Jennifer because before I could get ready and while I was still eating and maybe still giggling but only a little and in a very masculine way, Candace suddenly appeared kneeling at my side.

“My Lord Standish, I Candace Murphy do faithfully swear to serve you, in these perilous times, to defend your lands and to protect those sentient beings who peacefully reside upon them, so long as they obey your laws and orders.”

Shit, I couldn’t reach my rake. Why the fuck, did this impatient bitch just rush in and kneel down right away? The only thing I have right now is my fork with a piece of fried squid already stuck on it. No way am I getting my food dirty. I stuffed my mouth full and using the fork I touched her right shoulder and then her left. I mumbled out, because I was still chewing. “I accept your oath and I dub thee Lady Knight Candace Murphy and I name you a Lieutenant in the Hermit’s Guard, may you serve long and honorably.” Damn, I got class. I hardly spit any food on her at all. If only I could scratch my buttocks. But if I lift up a butt cheek, I might cut loose with a stinky. Using my Hermit like superpowers I resisted that urge, which was especially hard since Murphy was still kneeling alongside me. This moment should be immortalized; maybe I should have a tapestry made to reflect such a solemn and dignified occasion?

DING

Well ladies, you are both a couple of real winners. You know Vanessa, when you knight someone you should use something that has at least some slight resemblance to being a weapon or a scepter. Are you going to have your fork gold plated now and maybe add some diamonds to it or is that too classy for you? As for you Cross-eyed Candace, couldn’t you see that your future liege lord was stuffing his face? You should have at least given the man time to fetch his rake. You’re doomed I tell you, you are all doomed. But remember if you’re going to die, do it on a Tuesday. I’ve still got that bet; and I’ve mate and 412 children to support. Or is that 412 mates and a child?

Lady Knight Candace Murphy, for swearing such a powerful oath and having it accepted by the Professional Hermit and Landowner Vincent Standish, you have been ennobled and granted the following skills and enhanced attributes to help you fulfill your duties. Betray your oath and you may lose all of your new gifts.

True Sight: Every good military officer needs to be able to tell truth from fiction; and accurately see what lies all around them.

Fire Magic Level One

Air Magic Level One

Quick Thinking Level One: When things go to hell and “quick thinking is required” your thoughts speed up by ten percent.

+40 Percent Increase in Strength.

+40 Percent Faster Reflexes.

+45 Percent Increase in Stamina.

2.8x Telescopic Vision

“Congratulations Lady Knight Murphy the Ding-Ding System seems to hold you in as high a regard as it holds me. You must really be a fuck up. Now that you’ve become all magically bad ass, get the hell out of my cave and get back to protecting my royal behind.”

The Lieutenant jumped to her feet and it looked like she was trying to think of something to say but couldn’t. I am a hard act to follow. Jennifer ended up pushing the stupefied girl out the side door.

Three hours later Glen was bothering me. Evidently they had gotten a Holman Projector to work and they wanted me to enchant the thing and a couple of rods for testing purposes. I engraved them but he would have to get some people with fire magic to charge the iron rods of death. The rods were about twice as big as a 20mm bullet and thus should hold more of a charge. Glen reported to me that the projector was consistently putting shells well above eight hundred feet and they expected to improve on that. The rods I engraved for him used the same enchantment that I had put on the 20mm bullets. I hadn’t figured out a failsafe for them as of yet. I would do that as soon as I had time. For the time being they had to be careful.

It took me over twenty-four hours before I had the four bedridden bird brains better. That was because my rest periods were constantly being interrupted by Glen or Grace asking me to engrave more iron rods. I guess George had really liked the results of the first two that were tested. I think Glen mentioned something about a four foot crater but I couldn’t swear to it. He also had me engrave steel bands that would fit at the end of a Holman Projector instead of enchanting the whole tube. In that way, they could easily move the enchanted bands from old tubes to new tubes. That is if they were successful in building improved models of the projectors which is something they expected to do. I was able to do two enchantments per break hour while still regaining enough magical energy to heal the sick flyers. But just as we had done earlier they had to get someone else to charge the rods.

Grace had been fascinated by the flyers. She had been worried ever since the Sky Krakens had shown up. Being a former naval petty officer who served on an aircraft carrier she well knew the importance of airpower. She was worried that the massive flying monsters would wise up, stay above ten thousand feet and just start dropping rocks and trees on the compound while ceasing their attempts at close range combat. She had hopes that the Long Flight Clan would join their little community and thus give them something she thought the village desperately needed a combat air patrol. But they would have to figure out a way to arm the flyers.

Now that his daughter was finally cured, Metal Grinder was indulging his fascination with the human’s machine shop which was right next door to the large room in which all of his clan was now staying in. He had been a blacksmith and a maker of machines on his home world and he longed to give the human’s more advanced tools a try. So desperate was he that he had even dragged his wife away, from their daughter who was playing with her friends, to interpret for him. His wife, Night Storm, luckily had the gift of understanding, the same as their chief did.

When Night Storm looked in the shop she found the place quite intimidating with all the noise, smells and occasional sparks. As Second Chief she could not show her fears but she felt far more comfortable with approaching the smaller female shop worker than the large men working in that scary place. Her husband could have cared less he just wanted to talk to one of them and get his hands on some tools.

Grace, Metal Grinder and Night Storm started a strange three way conversation while she worked. They talked about tools, metalworking, aerial combat and their respective pasts. While Night wasn’t the tool fanatic her husband was, she was an accomplished warrior and she relished those pieces of knowledge that Grace gave her; when the former petty officer started talking about naval airpower, wingmen, finger four formations, squadrons and combat air patrols.

Their long conversation finally resulted in Night Storm forcibly dragging Storm Wind into the talk and then Glen joined who in turn brought in George. Ideas began to flow amongst the six of them. Storm Wind had long since made up his mind to do everything possible to convince the Hermit to let his clan stay in this village. Beyond that Storm wanted a better way to strike back at the monsters that so terrified his people.

Several hours later, George watched through his binoculars, as four flyers used practice shells to dive bomb a large target out in the center of the ruined wheat field. Grace and Glen had made a bomb carrier that strapped to the chests of the flyers. It had been tricky to design because it was critical that the shells, once they passed through the arming ring, did not come into contact with any part of the flyer’s body. It had taken three attempts but they finally seemed to have gotten it right. None of them had wanted to bother the Boss to get him to change the enchantment on the iron rods, especially the flyers since he was working so hard in healing members of their small clan.

What was nice about this target practice session, was that because of the soft ground and the flyers own abilities, the bombers were able to retrieve their own dummy shells thus reducing the need to make more of them. George was already thinking about giving the flyers firearm instruction. He knew that the flyers were strong but he was concerned because they were so light of body and he didn’t know if they would be able to use firearms effectively while flying because of the recoil. He just hoped that some of their skill with bows and arrows transferred over.

Peggy and Gloria were absolutely dead on their feet; their spy had just informed them that the Boss had healed his sixth patient. They knew it wasn’t fair but they had to get some real rest soon, so they sent him two more of the sick flyers and without even asking his permission. They felt badly because he had already handled the sickest of their patients but they honestly believed that they had no choice. Despite the little trick they had developed of healing one another when their exhaustion got too great for them.

Candace with her new telescopic vision and Vince’s binoculars was keeping a lookout from the Boss’s water tower which was the highest structure in the village by ten feet or more. Just at the horizon which was almost eight miles away she saw some large shapes bobbing up and down amongst the trees. Every time she saw them they came a little closer. She hit her air horn button and sent a runner to find Captain Mesquida and warn him that the krakens were returning.

A minute after she pressed her air horn button, the emergency steam whistle gave three long toots. Soon, villagers started streaming back into the Hermit’s courtyard and taking shelter in the slit trenches once again.

The armored vehicles started their engines up. The Holman Projectors weren’t quite ready for wide spread deployment. But twenty-four mortars were already loaded and had been ever since their gunners had cleaned the stubby cannons and reloaded them, the night of the big Sky Kraken attack. Since then the mortars had sat, covered with protective plastic and their pans left unprimed.

Sean Murphy was working in the machine shop with Glen and Scott. He was trying to finalize his design for a proper bolt action. It was going to replace the simple solid pieces of metal that were currently being used to make the 20mm rifles work as crude repeating firearms. He just wished that he had his own reference books, tools and firearms.

Clyde had been getting things organized in what he was beginning to think of as his motor pool. He raced for the Scorpion and met his two other crew members there. He knew that if he survived this battle that he might have to give up his armored ride in order to concentrate on his new job but he would miss his tank.

When Storm Wind heard the alarm go off he immediately turned to Captain Mesquida and spoke.

Knight Captain Mesquida I know your valiant Guards have practiced diligently with the new Holman Projectors but in target practice my own flight has done much better as you well know. Please, instead of putting those three enchanted rings on the projectors let my flight put them on our bomb tubes. There are only sixteen of the precious shells completed, shouldn’t we take care and use them with what is currently our most effective means for delivering them?”

Captain Mesquida couldn’t believe the effrontery of his new ally. Puppy dog eyes, the young Chief of the Long Flight Clan was making puppy dog eyes at him. He was tempted to tell Storm Wind no just because of that but Storm’s argument made too much sense.

George just wished that he had one more of the enchanted steel arming bands, so that he could send up the entire flight of four with bomb tubes. A bicycle messenger sent by Lady Murphy had just arrived. Candace told of eight or more krakens approaching who were apparently in her own words, “playing leapfrog over the trees in an attempt to disguise their approach.” She went on further to say that at the squids’ current rate of progress she expected them to arrive in no less than thirty minutes

Because of his new air force, George decided to run with a forward defense instead of retreating into the Vince’s private yard. The main reason for this was because he didn’t want any of their own bombs dropping on the Boss’s house. The Captain also wanted to be in position where he could support Storm Wind and his flight.

Reluctantly, George decided to leave the Priest where it was, as a last ditch defense for those hiding in the slit trenches. The Scorpion would also remain, just north of the machine shop in order to defend that approach. It had finally been equipped with the fifty millimeter cannon despite Clyde’s objections.

George decided to take the Hellcat and the Sherman just outside the outer fence line and fight from there, while the flyers dive bombed the attacking the squids. He just wished that he was capable of shooting a real fireball with his magic. As of today the best he had managed to do was launch a large spark the size of a golf ball which could just barely succeed in igniting some extremely dry wood at a distance of fifty feet.

It had been a couple of days from their last battle and the guards had since then, trained in the use of signal flags and air horns for simple communications. Even Storm Wind’s flight knew the meaning of the flags and had smaller versions that they could wave in their hands to communicate things back to the compound.

Moon Eater had a simple plan. Sneak up on the evil murdering monkeys and then rush in at the last moment while firing air blasts until everything was flattened. He would avenge his mother and siblings!

Candace remained up in the tower since she and her fellow officers had decided that information would be the key to winning this battle. Boris was in the Priest.

She was actually getting most of her intelligence from the flight of flyers, who were communicating things back to her with their own small signal flags. Her vision was so good that she didn’t even need to use the binoculars, to see the color and markings on their little flags.

The krakens hopped closer, so far there had been no altering in their course. They were coming straight in from the west, that poor field of wheat would probably never get a chance to grow.

Storm Wind was not equipped with a bomb tube no matter how much he wanted one. His success rate had been equal to Metal Grinder’s but behind that of Tornado Challenger’s and Fish Diver’s. Diver’s ability with the bombs was significantly greater than anyone else’s and had made her fiancée, Tornado Challenger a little envious. Because of his own low scores, Storm Wind had decided that it was better for him to fly above the action in order to better direct the attack by his flight and to communicate with Lady Murphy. His flight had a total of twelve of the bombs and as far as he could tell there were only eight krakens. His flight was to start their attack when the squids were four hundred yards from the Captain’s tank. When Storm Wind judged the appropriate distance had been reached, he called out to his clan members and ordered them to attack.

The bomb tube was a rather simple device. One shell or bomb was loaded in the top of the tube by the flyer. When the flyer pulled out of their dive they squeezed a pilfered bicycle brake lever, this action released the bomb down the tube and through the arming ring. Upon getting clear the flyer would then take another bomb from their newly manufactured vests and reload the bomb tube for another attack upon their foes.

While Sky Krakens have no blind spots, that’s only true if they don’t have their complete attention focused on one location, like a village, and also if they’re not ignoring what’s in the air above them, simply because no Sky Kraken has ever been attacked from that direction. Who would be crazy enough to do that? A Sky Kraken is instant death with a bottomless appetite. Besides being the ruler of the skies as well as all the oceans.

George saw the flyers start their dives and prayed for them. All three of the armed flyers were diving as one to give them the best chance for success but it also gave them the best chance for disaster. The flight was diving at almost one hundred miles per hour and approaching from the side. According to Steve Monet’s appraisal, if both of the kraken’s eyes are focusing to the front then they are also focusing to the rear as well. That means, that they won’t be paying much attention to the sides, that’s just the way their eyes work.

Fish Diver was in her element and she was ready to show her fiancée, Tornado Challenger, just who was the wickedest wind rider in this clan. Ever since she was a little girl she had adored eating fish, that’s why she had gotten so good at fishing and diving. And as far as she was concerned, what was in front of her were eight big tasty fish and she was feeling hungry. She was supposed to pull out of her dive when she was one hundred and fifty yards above her target this was because of the monsters’ air blast ability. But she knew that they couldn’t see her and she was only worried about their nasty looking tentacles. She dropped her bomb on the big monster that was at the southern end of the kraken line.

The two test shells had made steaming craters that had been over four feet wide and just as deep in the muddy earth. Diver’s bomb hit the relatively soft kraken flesh at almost one hundred miles per hour.

The krakens heard the screams from three of their brethren and immediately launched their attack, racing for the monkey camp. They broke the tree line and right into the waiting guns of the two tanks who knew where to approximately aim their guns, thanks to the dive bombing flyers. Cannons and 20mm rifles thundered; it was a déjà vu moment for the squids. But the krakens’ attack was too swift and only one kraken was seriously wounded during their charge. Four, largely unwounded squids attacked the tanks, with air blasts. One blast caught Captain Mesquida as he was closing his hatch. He might have been killed by the extremely short range burst, if not for the recent physical enhancement he received when he was knighted.

Jeffrey Vargas was the commander of the Sherman, and being a sergeant he was smarter. He had his hatch already sealed by the time the krakens attacked. While he might have missed with the 20mm rifle that was mounted by the commander’s hatch, the three inch gun on his tank had succeeded in striking a deadly blow.

Two krakens attacked each tank. They couldn’t quite pick up the Hellcat and its armor was proving to be a formidable defense. If the squids would have cooperated better they might have actually gotten the tank destroyer off the ground. As for the Sherman tank it laughed at their efforts. The krakens latched onto the tank and it pulled them both hither and yon over the muddy field. Destroying more of that poor wheat crop and eventually drawing the anger of Isabella Gomez. Jeffrey Vargas would come to regret his exuberance as he encouraged his driver to pretend as if he was in a NASCAR race.

The 20mm rifles were ripped off of both tanks but every once in a while the gunner in the Sherman saw squid out his gun sight and in response, fired off the seventy-five millimeter cannon.

Storm Wind longed to have his flight launch another attack but he had been specifically ordered not to once the krakens got within one hundred yards of the compound. George had carefully explained to him, how friendly fire wasn’t a good thing for either of them.

The tanks were shooting and holding the attention of the flying sashimi family but finally their wounds got too much for the squids and three of them squirted away in retreat. That’s what Storm Wind had been waiting for, he ordered his flight back in to attack. Ten minutes later Tornado Challenger was thoroughly disgusted when after missing his target Storm Wind called him back. Metal Grinder had missed as well. A frightened and alert giant squid proved to be a much more difficult target than an overconfident one.

What was worse for Challenger was the way that his fiancée, Fish Diver was gloating over her second kill. She was proclaiming to all that she was going to open up her own seafood store and that it would specialize in fresh squid.