Watching the patrol spot the incoming Undead and start to panic was strangely disconcerting. I had set this in motion, knowing full well that they would get into trouble and likely panic but watching it happen didn’t feel right. A part of me wanted to immediately jump in and help, while another part wanted to wait to let them grow on their own while ensuring their growth was reasonably safe. Not completely, there would be wounds that Luna or I could cure, but they would experience battle and hopefully, it would make them realise that their current behaviour couldn’t continue. With a little luck, the people I considered to be capable of taking charge would do just that and I’d be able to manoeuvre things in such a way that they would be seen as heroes. People thinking that you saved their lives and the lives of their children was usually a good foundation for trust and leadership, so it would give Sian, Lars and Sonja something to build their platform.

“What’s the plan, Mother?” Lia asked, remaining next to me so my magic would keep her just as concealed as I was. If we didn’t attack, nobody would notice us, not even Silva unless we made deliberate noise.

“We remain hidden,” I replied, while the people below had retreated to the apartments, likely to ready the defenders. “If necessary, I’d like you to intervene, but the people here need to stand on their own. I’ve got no doubt that Silva and Luna will help but neither of them is terribly offensively minded, they can support, they can protect, but they won’t simply make the enemies disappear with the wave of their hand.”

“As you say,” she nodded, accepting my reasoning and settled in next to me, watching the slow approach of the Undead. The defenders had some time, but not a lot of it, especially if they wanted to fight with the Undead in a chokepoint, preventing them from using their biggest advantage, that of numbers, to their advantage.

Just as I had expected, the people didn’t dawdle. The speed at which they had gathered, and just how many of them were taking the field, was quite surprising. I would have thought that the locals would dither, that some would suggest running or something like that, but it didn’t look like that was what was happening here. Instead, the entire community, other than children younger than Luna and likely some sort of minder, were moving towards the approaching Undead.

Looking closely, I could see a faint sheen of divine magic around all of them, some sort of buff and unless Lady Hecate had chosen another cleric quite recently, it had been cast by Luna. I couldn’t read the effects, not without a better and somewhat invasive look, but given that the entire group was marching and working together, I had a feeling it was something supporting that.

I continued to watch, as the locals prepared, with Luna acting yet again, using a few of the seeds she carried around to summon a thick and thorny hedge to slow the Undead down. Intelligent foes would simply avoid the obstacle, but if Undead were one thing, it was persistent. To make matters worse, the Shattered commanding this whole thing was acting according to my program and that had nothing about evading traps. Just to push the attack until the morning came, at which point the programming would and the thing would likely start hunting for me. It wouldn’t succeed, of that I was confident, but the sheer amount of commands I had stuffed into its skull made it hate me. It just couldn’t act on that emotion, it could only stew until the programming ended, or the thing died. At least that was what I had concluded after quite a few tests, but given that the Shattered I had tested this on all tried to kill me, I only had sparse observations.

Nodding along, I watched as Sonja took aim and confidently launched her first arrow into the approaching Undead, she had come a long way. Though, maybe I should add some extra training in tactics. Sure, she could shoot down the initial wave of basic Undead like nobody’s business but she wouldn’t be able to last. Once the serious enemies came, she’d be quite tired, with both her stamina and Astral Power low to the point that she couldn’t continue fighting. That was far from ideal, her arrow could quite literally make the difference against the Shattered. Well, unless Silva decided to simply take that thing down, maybe with some of her divine abilities. Those should be easily strong enough and she was actively using them, as I could observe down below as she let out a growl that made all the humans stand a little straighter, giving them some extra confidence. Not a terribly powerful effect but an excellent force multiplier in this situation.

Bolstered by divine magic, the defensive battle continued, projectiles keeping the Undead at bay, preventing them from even hitting the conjured obstacle, but it wouldn’t last forever. Soon, the first Undead got to it, only to be slowed down and smashed with stones and similar short-ranged projectiles, allowing those with a longer range to take care of those still further away. By now, I was quite impressed, they were managing to leverage their strengths quite well, but, at least to me, the star of the show was my little Luna. Her obstacle kept the Undead at bay and I could see her radiate some Life Magic, keeping it strong despite the Undead’s best attempts to push through.

That became doubly true when the Undead started to actually get through, only for the locals to bash them while still restrained, using the obstacle to its full tactical advantage. It wasn’t as easy as it had been while at a distance, the Undead were perfectly happy to take a destructive hit if it meant they could harm one of the defenders. Again, Luna and her aura demonstrated their worth, the healing was quite impressive, far beyond what I had thought her capable of.

It was here that I started to observe carefully and even intervene when needed. Not openly, merely with simple, invisible blasts of Mind Magic, nothing that would be noticed. But if an Undead was stunned for just a second, right before it could get a deadly strike in, the deadly strike would be averted, or at least changed into something that wouldn’t do more than injure. I didn’t want to openly intervene, but I also didn’t want anyone to suffer a wound that neither Luna nor I could cure. It was a delicate balance, and I realised that balancing those scales was becoming even harder when the obstacle Luna had conjured came crashing down. Too many Undead bodies had died within, adding their weight and ultimately bringing it down.

Watching Silva step up on one side of the road, with Sian supporting her was quite impressive, though I had a feeling Silva was pacing herself. I was quite confident that my companion could have torn through them a lot faster, but kept holding back. Maybe to make sure she remained close to Luna, I wasn’t sure but it played well into my plan.

The other defender was Lars, coated in his rocky armour he was quite useful against the mindless Undead. They didn’t try to strike at open areas, they were happily battering their hands and claws against the unforgiving stone of his arms, only to get crushed by his brutal counterstrikes. It was an incredibly simple tactic, but one that worked perfectly against these kinds of enemies.

The two of them were anchoring the line of defence, while the rest of the locals were plugging the gaps. Occasionally, I had to help out, either by adding Mind Magic to keep an attack from causing serious damage or by using a nicely invisible combination of Mind and Death Magic to strike down individual Undead that would have broken through otherwise. Luckily, I doubted anyone could actually keep an eye out for every combatant, so my contribution remained undetected. Maybe Silva, but she seemed more focused on the enemies ahead than those that bypassed her.

Finally, the last Undead fell and the Shattered took the field. A part of me wondered what had gone wrong with the programming, I had only intended for a single Shattered to be present but there were two. Maybe the second one had simply followed along, I wasn’t sure and it didn’t really matter. They were in the endgame, Silva looked fresh enough to take down one and if the defenders couldn’t cope, Lia could take the other.

But no, the defenders managed to rally for that last battle, mostly thanks to Silva’s divine magic, though I also added my own, still carefully hidden, effort to the fight. The end result was exactly what I had been aiming for, Lars took down one Shattered, while Sonja took the other, likely cementing their positions of influence. Hopefully, they would see this attack and realise the danger their community was in. They needed to shore up and start to seriously prepare for the future, or they wouldn’t have one. But for now, they had won and looked incredibly relieved and proud. As they should.