He finally reached the balcony where he expected Edwardson would be standing. He opened the door just in time to hear the end of the man’s speech.
“And what is a good battle without a speech? There are over fifteen thousand players here today, but literally only one of you chose to be a bard! This goes to show how under-represented that class is.” He paused and allowed for laughter to sweep through the crowd. “But fortunately for us, I have made the acquaintance of a bard who has the skills necessary to buff us all up before this fight! His name is Semimodo!”
The crowd clapped as Edwardson gestured for Van to stroll up. “Oh uh, I’m doing what?”
“Just do your Rallying Speech,” Edwardson muttered. “And if you’re funny, make a joke or two. Just keep it light.”
Van looked at the sea of people and NPCs. He couldn’t believe that he was standing in front of so many of them. And they were all expecting him to say something clever. Normally, he was somewhat of a funny guy, but standing in front of so many people, he had no idea what to say. He took a deep breath, activated his Rallying Speech ability, and just started talking.
“Greetings, seasoned warriors of Melvania! Today is a great day!” he said. “For today is the day that we fight the Kyrissians for the first time ever!” This elicited a great deal of laughter from the crowd. “Now, I know what you’re thinking: you’re wondering if we have what it takes to fight our foe; you’re maybe worried that our inexperience at fighting these jerks will somehow slow us down. But to this, I say, yes, our inexperience is a huge problem!” This elicited more laughter. “But let’s really be honest here... how many times have we kicked their asses?” Van asked. “How many times have we been forced to beat them so hard that they had to change their flag to black and blue?” Everyone cheered at that.
“We’re not here to let them take this tower! We’re not here to let them take anything except for our excess arrows!” The crowd cheered again. Van could see the words Inspired hovering above the heads of every single player at once. This was crazy, to see how powerful this effect was! The inspiration would increase their stamina regeneration, give them +5 to every skill use for an hour, and give them additional hitpoints known as Vigor.
“Nice work, Semimodo,” Edwardson said as he grabbed Van and pulled him away from the crowd.
“Are you kidding me? I was just getting started!” Van said as he tried to scramble back to the limelight.
“It’s always better to end a speech early rather than to let it go on for too long,” Edwardson said. “Besides, the speech I already gave was a good one. Now then, we’re going to have several thousand warriors pouring at us any minute. I suggest you grab your team and get ready to earn your keep.”
“What’s the assignment?”
“It shouldn’t be too difficult. As you can see, the tactical value of this tower is the fact that it is sitting in an empty field with no higher ground. This means they’ll be forced to come from all directions or, better yet, they’ll be forced to pick just a few flanks to charge down. If they spread too thin, we’ll easily be able to route them.”
“Got it,” Van said.
“So, what I need a strike force to do is to cause some trouble in the rear flanks of the opposing forces that are waiting to serve as relief. No army is going to send all of their forces at once. My question is: what are those rear flanks looking like? Our scouts have unfortunately been killed, and so we can only estimate the size of the initial force.”
“So, do you want us to go out and scout the position of the rear flanks? Count their numbers?” Van asked.
“Not at all. I want your team to go and disrupt them. I’m not a micromanager, so just do whatever it takes. Stop the rear flanks from moving in when they are supposed to.”
Van saluted the captain and turned to leave.
“Oh, and Van? That joke about this being our first fight was hilarious.”
Van silently did a fist pump as he moved out to inform his team of what the big plan was.
“Man, if this works, I’m going to have to reconsider all of my life choices,” Kylian said from beneath his tarp.
“Shush it!” Van whispered as he steered the cart toward the large horde of soldiers. The mission he had come up with, unfortunately, wasn’t the best one he’d ever thought up, but considering the circumstances, it wasn’t the worst idea either. He had dispatched Dolly and Sang to get some information about the rear flanks, only to discover that, indeed, the flanks were composed of nearly 7,000 players. If they struck at the right time, it would be a disaster for the defenders of Tower Banesfield.
Their side would have no ability to fight off such a large force, and Edwardson had been dismissive of any request for additional forces, so that meant Van would have to use all of his wits to disrupt the forces. And his team hadn’t been terribly happy with the decision to pile into the back of a wagon, as they were handcuffed.
“You know the drill, right?” Van asked Kenwar, who was sitting next to him.
Kenwar sighed heavily. “Yes, I know the drill.”
“Don’t screw this up,” Van hissed.
“I’m sure it’ll work,” Kenwar replied. “Now, you better get in the back before they see you talking to me.”
Van climbed into the back and hid underneath the tarp with the others. He grabbed the extra shackles and cuffed them around his arms loosely. Kenwar’s Discrete ability prevented players from figuring out what his name was or what his allegiances were, meaning that he could pose as a member of the Kyrissian army. Everything hinged on this one detail working.
“Alright, you all know the drill,” Van whispered. “We all have the same story.”
“We’ve been going over this for almost an hour,” Sahara fussed. “I can repeat it in my sleep.”
“Van, I really do trust you here,” Sang said. Her tone indicated, however, that she was skeptical as hell about his brilliant plan.
“You know, people only say ‘I trust you’ when they aren’t sure,” Van replied.
“Can it!” Kenwar hissed. Everyone lay perfectly still and began to moan as if they were in agony.
“Halt! You are approaching the King of Kyriss’s forces!” called a stern voice. “What do you want?”
“Greetings, friend, I am but a simple journeyman who has acquired some goods that I thought you might be interested in,” Kenwar said. Van could hear him shuffle to stand up and pull the tarp off.
The entire party writhed and moaned some more.
“Prisoners of war!” Kenwar said. “I captured them! They’re beat up pretty bad, but this one over here,” he pointed to Van, “was by the side of Captain Edwardson. I believe he even gave a speech.”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” the man said as he looked at the group. “What good fortune is this? How much for them?”
“In this wartime? I’m charging 20,000 gold pieces.”
“Are you kidding me?” the guard replied. “You’re a lunatic.”
“I might be nuts,” Kenwar said, “but even a crazy person knows how much the right information can be worth during a battle.”
“Lemme get the boss,” the guard said as he hustled off to find his superior.
“Great work, team,” Van whispered. “I think he bought it.” The make-up from his disguise kit was a good touch. His Disguise skill was so good that it had even fooled a player’s UI, convincing them that each player was only at 10 hit points or less. Jet had been safely stored away in a barrel back at the base. They had thrown a few live chickens in the barrel to keep the dragon sated while they were gone, and since the dragon didn’t seem to do much other than sleep, it had barely seemed to care when Sang had promised to return.