“Alright. And step back. Left foot first. And go… go… go… go.”

I clapped my hands with each go while I watched the stumbling mess in front of me. One part too fast, one part too slow, and the rest bewildered by the surrounding mess. Some even dropped their spears to prepare for the fall.

I sighed.

Still not good enough.

Although tripping over their own feet was already a big step up from tripping on flat land. After all, most of them never even held a weapon before, let alone marched backwards in unison. So maybe I should rather be proud of myself?

“Okay. Everyone grabs their weapons, we start from the beginning.”

Complaints and moaning, but nobody stopped his feet. Everyone involved understood how important these few hours of training were. They might become the difference between life and death. Their death. And Elder Rolf must have felt the same when he decided to lure the leprechauns to this village, jeopardizing everything he and his ancestors had built up.

Simply risking your own home to save strangers who might not even show appreciation. To me that would be too daring a choice. And his 'others would have done the same' rang too hollow in my ears. No, they wouldn't. A lot of them didn't even send one man.

But no matter the reason, his gambling with their homes allowed for these precious days of training.

“Remember to overlap the shields,” I instructed the first row, correcting the position and the pose of the nineteen men in front. “Every gap is a weak point. And every gap is a wounded comrade. Some leprechauns attack with slingshots and strike at the smallest opportunity, so don’t give them any. Try again.”

Two hundred and fifty leprechauns were approaching, with not even a hundred farmers standing against them. But as each leprechaun’s strength was akin to three or four of the untrained farmers, the numbers read a lot worse. A small force of a hundred defending against a thousand enemies. That wasn’t the realm of a farmers skirmish, but the domain of legends.

And so I borrowed from their stories.

One of the most well-known legends on earth was the Battle of Thermopylae, the desperate defense of the Spartans against the sheer endless Persian army. A handful of men stood their own against the enemy, only equipped with shields and spears, using the landscape to their advantage.

And so I borrowed their idea of a phalanx.

But as I didn’t have three hundred war-hardened elite warriors, I split the responsibility in two. The nineteen men in front carried ten massive shields, each one meter high and around two and a half meters wide. Nine pairs and Drew, who claimed one for himself.

Their only task was to stand the shields up on the earth wall, creating an additional wooden wall on top of it. Mount, overlap, and hold it in place against the force of the attacking leprechauns. Afterward, the remaining farmers would use their spears to attack the leprechauns.

“Don’t press against the force,” I instructed them while I threw my body against the shields, looking for weak points. “Cushion the impact with your legs and keep the shields steady. If you push yourself, the shield will fall out of the wall when the pressure weakens. Remember, you don’t want to push the enemy away. You just want to keep your shields in place. Drew!”

“Spear group. Ready,” Drew bellowed, following my sign. “Attack!”

And seventy spears, their heads covered, tried to hit me.

“Attack! And attack! And attack!” Drew’s voice echoed. He would be the troop’s commander during the battle, giving the commands for their attacks and retreats. It was just that unlikely I would end the battle inside our makeshift defenses.

“Don’t try to hit your enemy,” I continued their training, dodging the spears. “You are neither fast nor experienced enough to hit your enemy. And if everyone tries to hit my chest-” A simple sidestep. “Nobody hits. The leprechauns are fast and your eyes can’t follow them. So attack with your spears parallel and create a wall of spikes. Even if they are faster, they can’t dodge if there isn’t any room left. Don’t look at your enemy. Only concentrate on the person beside you and listen to Drew’s commands. One more time!”

Nobody here was ready for a full scale battle.

Some showed potential, some were good at following orders, but only a handful would survive longer than a minute in a head-to-head confrontation. But even if we couldn’t beat our enemy on their turf, we could still pull them down to our level, forcing them into a brawl.

The Spartans had used a narrow pass to their advantage, while we would use those four semicircular earth walls to balance the battlefield. Torphin’s arrows would force the Leprechauns to attack us, and we had four chances to get it right, four chances to inflict enough damage, and four chances to force the Púca into action.

If we forced a duel between the Púca and me, we might win.

Because while leprechauns posed a threat to untrained humans, they were still low-level monsters who found strength in numbers. A display of overwhelming power would be enough to scare them away. And I had to become that display.

“And retreat,” I commanded the farmers, once more turning their orderly formation into a stumbling mess. The retreat from one wall to the next, walking backwards while keeping your eyes on the enemy, was the linchpin of our plan. And we had to make it work before the enemy arrived.

Torphin’s arrows could force the enemy to attack. Drew’s strength could stabilize their ranks and offer protection. And I might even force our enemies’ defeat. But their survival was something everyone had to achieve on their own. This was already a massive gamble, and we had no effort to spare.

Which was also the reason I incorporated my experiences with the leprechauns inside the game into our strategy. I still wasn't sure that all mobs would act the same or whether an unknown enemy might exist. But a wrongly trained farmer wouldn't fare any worse than an untrained one. Hence it became only one more gamble on top of all the other gambles.

I just tried to find more ways to keep these men alive. But for now, my only answer was training. And more training.

Until sunset.

With the day of the battle nearing, the women and elderly had left the village this morning. They would live in another village to the north, anxiously awaiting news. With them gone, the remaining men slept in the huts surrounding the central building. We didn’t know when Torphin would return, but we had to be ready to fight within minutes.

The central building was covered in mud as protection against fire and filled with linen, herbs, food, and water. Enough to treat the wounded and survive for a few days. Not that the battle would last that long.

We had buried the remaining food, so if the Leprechauns didn’t beat us fast enough, they would have to leave in search for food. Though that would put the other villages at risk once again.

The ideal outcome would be a short and frantic battle with an active Púca. But that entire plan depended on the normal leprechauns’ value. If they were part of a scouting force, the Púca would value their lives. After all, more tasks would follow. But if this was a raiding force, it might use the other leprechauns’ lives to strangle us to death.

I sighed, sitting on one of the earth walls, playing with the smooth stone.

There were alternatives, different ways to solve this problem. Although they would lead to a lot more deaths or were even less likely gambles. If possible, I didn’t want to use them, but it wasn’t my call to make. The enemy would dictate our future steps.

With more useless thoughts running through my mind, I just sat there and gazed at the stars above.

“I’m back,” a soft voice called out from behind me. Less lively than usual. Hushed like the voice of a child who understood it did something wrong.

I let out an exaggerated sigh.

“Why are you here,” I asked Thea. “You should have left with the others.”

“I know,” she answered, sitting down on another wall. “But I didn’t want to lose to her.”

“Lose? Why would you lose?” I didn’t understand her meaning. And with her back turned towards me, I also couldn’t search for the answer in her facial expression. “And who is her?”

“It’s nothing. Only… the other village is where my mother was born. And if you hadn’t stayed in Gladford, it would burn with no one knowing why.” She stood up, walking up and down the small wall. “I didn’t think there was an army. I didn’t even believe you when you came back. But… I was wrong. There is an army and you’ll fight it. I said you would die in some ditch… and now you might die here. So… uhm…”

“Don’t sweat it,” I interrupted her mumbling. “An apology won’t improve the situation. I just have to pull aggro. Some cards would also be nice though…”

I chuckled at my stupidity.

“Aggro? Cards?” Thea looked at me in confusion.

“Oh! Uhm… don’t worry about it. You wouldn’t understand.” I brushed her question off. “The battle won’t change, whether or not you are here. So you can stay if you want… you might die though.”

With Thea reaching level two, she should be strong enough to stand beside the men and wield a spear. But she wasn’t like Torphin, or even Drew, who might change the course of the battle. Only one more pair of hands, one more spear on the wall.

“Then I’ll stay,” she responded, now sitting next to me in the darkness.

The stars shone above our heads. Unknown formations, different colors, and a lot more visible than on earth.

Thea hummed a song I didn’t know.

And my thoughts returned to the approaching battle.

One more life to protect, one more death I might behold. One more chance to fail.

Would I have to use it?

Would I be able to use it?

“Ah! Look.” Thea jumped up, laughing, and gestured towards the dark village. “Fireflies. There are fireflies!”

“Are they rare,” I asked in confusion. Weren’t it only fireflies? Their dance through the night was mesmerizing to behold, but that was it. I rather wanted to see torches, swaying with each step of our reinforcements.

“They are Foy’s messengers,” Thea responded. As if that should tell me something.

“Foy?”

“Foy! The godmother.” She looked at me. “You don’t know Foy?”

I shook my head. Who would remember all the useless background settings?

“Foy is the godmother. And the patron saint for lovers and homes. And the fireflies are her messengers, bringing blessings to her believers.”

“Well, can’t be me.” I laughed. “And I would rather want a blessing by the god of war.”

“You’re an idiot!” Thea laughed, chasing after the fireflies, running through the village.

Probably a way to cope with the strain and her fears.

Hence I sat there and watched her dance under the lights, knowing that these peaceful moments would soon find their end.