Queen Matilde summoned us to a war council when she received my dispatch about the possible Legion, or more, of Crispenwell troops arriving in Sinestelos. A few of our spies in Sinestelos managed to cleverly arrange for several witnesses from both the Empire, and Prittoni to observe the arrival of some of the Crispenwell troops.
We arrived at the palace and were immediately led to the Queen’s War Room. I’d never seen a royal war room before, except in ruins. She had maps on the walls. She had a three-dimensional landscape map on a huge table of what I assumed was the entire world. There were figurines and flags and such objects as young children might play with, or in a fancy board game. Some of them were positioned on the map, and some in places around the edge of it. It was wild.
“Deirdre, can you show us the state of your defenses on this table map,” Matilde said.
I arranged the military symbols and figures on the map as they were currently deployed.
“We have defense units and shielding in place arranged like this. We are currently adding electrified shielding along the border of the Shelobian Forest. We have reason to believe a legion, or large part of a legion of Crispenwell forces will trek though the forest and drive the monster spiders at us. The electrified shielding should kill, and, or, drive the monsters back into the forest to attack the soldiers. Even if the monster spiders are eventually forced into the shield. The electrification should keep the shield from failing. We hope this will cause massive losses by the Crispenwell forces,” I said.
“That’s a brilliant bit of planning, but what will protect the defense forces on the other side of that electrified shield?” Celes asked.
“We are activating an ordinary shield inside that shield.”
“Excellent work. Do you expect to need any of our forces?”
“We have forces defending the Sinestelos border, and the Crispenwell border, but if you can send more forces to the Crispenwell border, and keep some forces in the south close to us, that might be best. The other nations are unlikely to join in. Waiting instead to see how strong we are. But only time will tell if I am making the right call there,” I said.
“We will send what troops we can. To back you up. We will let your troops defend, but if your troops are in trouble we will be behind you come to your aid to stop the invasion. Besides, I can tell my court mages want to see this new electrified defense shield of yours. You and your companions are a constant source of innovation,” Matilde said.
“I think we might have a few other surprises, for not only your mages, but your knights as well,” Aoi said.
“Now let’s see where best to station our troops to back up yours, and where we can suggest changes. Knight Commander, if you will,” Matilde said.
Matilde’s brother Setanna stepped forward and examined our defense for several minutes. Then he began fine-tuning our plan.
“This terrain is trickier than it looks, you need more troops here. Next, you have too many troops there. They will just be wasted, or worse, too densely packed. This location over here will put your troops into a shooting box, station them here, here, and here instead. Now you will control the box, and you can just snipe away at the incoming troops.”
Setanna continued fine-tuning our forces for the better part of an hour and making suggestions, which Kanae and Darby were taking careful notes of. His long and active career held much more than the stock education of the Academy. Then he began placing the Queen’s forces. She was sending in a lot of troops. If we decided to later invade, they would not be a part of any invasion forces.
“Your defenses were really well thought out. Given the limited knowledge you have of the landscape you did probably the best you could have. Only a few weaknesses and a few places that could have been more efficient. You will make formidable Knight Commanders Sir Darby and Dame Kanae,” Setanna said at the end of our planning.
The Queen was sending two Legions. We already had four legions deployed, in addition to having fortified all our borders in secret. All of this was supplemented by the national shield we had up, that we had painstakingly built over the past year. No shield that large would be able to withstand a full out assault, but it would slow them down, and also alert us to the coming invasion location. We might still be outnumbered, but we had many advantages.
Then a little more than two weeks later, the Sinestelos students at the Academy disappeared overnight. The shops run by Sinestelos citizens didn’t open in the morning, and the attack began. The Crispenwell border was silent, but a slow trickling of soldiers arrived at border stations and forts. We had already been forewarned that these new forces would likely be arriving, and we were already prepared to counter.
“My queen, we are receiving reports of border crossings and attacks by the Sinestelos forces on our Southern border. There is movement in the Shelobian Forest,” Hestia reported.
“It begins. How long before the monsters reach our shield?” I asked.
“We estimate they will arrive after nightfall, my Queen,” Hestia said.
“That’s perfect! I will be there,” I said.
“You! Your Majesty, you mustn’t!” Vulcana said.
“I have a little surprise of my own for those Crispenwell dogs. It has been too long since humans have seen what it means to attack a dragon. I will remind them, with just a minor point they seem to have forgotten. Don’t worry, I will not be entering the fray, but I will raise up some minions, who will,” I said.
“Yes, your majesty,” Vulcana said, with understanding.
As we went to our classes, during the day, we informed our teachers we would be away to handle some domestic affairs.
“I’m afraid you cannot be excused because of so-called domestic affairs,” Professor Mordeacaizha said.
“You really should pay more attention Professor. We were trying not to broadcast the news, but we have all been called into active service. Sinestelos, invaded this morning. We are at war,” I said.
“Oh. Well, you’re excused,” the Demoness said.
A handful of students left the class on hearing the news. We made note of them, and I set some of my spy wasps to follow them. Some of them were known spies. Some were new targets. News spread over the campus and the city. At the end off classes we all left in official carriages. Once outside the city we went into flying mode. Some curious individuals followed us in their own flying carriages, but we sped up until we were outpacing them. Once we were out of range we opened up and went full throttle. I was flying in my full dragon form. When we were safely in my domain, I took off with my personal guard for the Shelobian Forest. We arrived at the dusk hour. They were close now. We could hear the shrieking and chittering of an army of monster spiders now. With the last rays of daylight they burst out of the forest and quickly crossed the clearing to our shield and were promptly aware of the powerful electric field.
“My queen? What are they doing?” Daniel, a dragonkin and one of my Knight Commanders asked.
“They are making webs, it seems, and they are working in unison with each other,” I said.
“But why?” Daniel asked.
“I haven’t the faintest idea. I was expecting to see a lot of corpses by now, that I could re-animate and send at the invading army,” I said.
Roughly fifteen minutes later electricity started flying off our shield and onto the webbing of the Monster spiders. A minute, or so, later we could hear the screams of humans inside the forest.
“What’s happening!?” Daniel asked.
“Fascinating! I’ve completely forgotten, spider silk transmits electricity. I’ve seen static electricity fly across webs before, and have even seen spiders use it to stun prey! They are using our shield to attack their attackers!”
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Sure enough a few minutes later soldiers started to infrequently exit the forest, stripped of their metal and weapons and armor in scorched clothing with electrical burns on their skin. It was a sad fate for those few. With all the electricity flowing into the webs, as soon as they were in the clearing our shielding attacked them and electrified them. My plans here were completely shattered by this morbidly amusing and unexpected result. I don’t know how many of Crispenwell’s Legion, or more, of soldiers were destroyed by the Spider Offensive. But this part of our border was now safe from attack.
The enemy territory was now effectively our shield. The Queen’s mages were disappointed to not see how well the shield worked against ordinary monsters. But we were using this shield in other places as well, and I re-assigned the Queen’s mages to those units. I returned to our base camp, which was one of Aoi’s flying islands far enough away from the front line, but easily accessible to our entire front. More or less. We had thirteen such military bases manned by dragonkin, and other members of our forces. Each floating mobile base had armed flying ships to transport military forces who did not fly.
“How goes the defense against the monster spiders?”
“They didn’t attack us, or the shield. They are stealing the electricity off the shield to electrify the entire forest,” I laughed.
“What!?” Kanae shouted.
“It was quite hilarious, but we need to warn all our forces in the area. There might already be a stampede of beasts and monsters fleeing the Shelobian Forest. If not currently underway, it is likely to begin soon. The Hunted have become the Hunters, and woe to the Crispenwell soldiers. We are retrieving the few that escape this side of the forest, and are killed by the field. A few we are preserving in place. So, the Shelobian Forest is secure, but to be avoided at all costs,” I said.
“That’s bizarre, but wonderful news. On the other fronts. The boxing in that Setanna warned us about has been a learning experience. The Sinestelosan soldiers entering the box are being easily picked off. Everything Setanna told us to change has, so far, been working,” Darby said.
“So where are we at?” I asked.
“We have lost two mages and twenty-one knights. We’ve treated seventy-six wounded. We wiped out two companies of the enemy, and severely reduced several other companies. We estimate six or seven hundred enemy deaths and four times as many wounded. They all retreated shortly after dark, but are likely merely resting for the night. We expect sporadic attacks on our positions overnight. We also expect numerous attempts at infiltration overnight,” Kiera added.
There were a total of seventeen infiltration attempts during the first night of the attack. We captured members of half of them, and killed two teams of eight and five infiltrators from other teams. We had two watchmen killed and attempts on three others. The sporadic attacks overnight had no effect on us, but we suspect we took out a few dozen of the enemy forces.
The invasion lasted four more days, before Sinestelos retreated.
“Now comes the quiet before the storm,” I said.
“They gave up too easily,” Setanna said.
“They are trying to lure us in to attack them,” Darby said.
“It does appear to be so,” Setanna said.
“They have another trick they are hoping to pull on us. Unless, they are completely inept and hope to try the same thing a second time. I’d like to know what they are making of the disaster in the Shelobian Forest. That was a total shocker. Our reconnaissance estimates the spiders have covered about sixty-five percent of the Forest with electrified spiderwebs, in a three sided box. They may have boxed in the entire legion of Crispenwell soldiers,” I said.
“That’s very improbable, but they likely took out a very significant portion of that force,” Setanna said.
“Why do you say that?” Kanae asked.
“Reports from my agents state evidence of a large scale force leaving the forest, and intercepted messages indicating significant numbers of survivors,” Setanna said.
“You have your own agents in the field?” I asked.
“Naturally. No commander worth his salt goes into a conflict blind,” Setanna said.
“Point taken, Lord Setanna,” I laughed.
“I haven’t had this much fun in ages,” Setanna said.
“If only this was a sporting event and killing wasn’t the goal of the battles,” I said.
“That’s an interesting concept. A battle competition between nations as a sporting game, but killing is not the goal. It might be some sort of competition to bring nations closer,” Setanna said.
“It’s a worthy concept. Something to consider once this conflict is resolved,” I said.
“However, now we must choose what to do. We can’t just keep all our forces here, with Sinestelos having retreated fully, but if we retreat fully, we won’t be able to react fast enough, if they make a new surge,” Darby said.
“Perhaps, this is a good time to build some new cities with fortresses? We can also, keep some forces here to repair and rebuild from the conflict. The rest of the forces can start a slow return. Also, we have a number of gate artifacts we’ve been crafting for some time, that could be used to return some forces much faster. Using this combined strategy, we should be able to draw out their next move, and be able to respond,” I said.
“We need to cover the details of this plan to determine if it will work,” Setanna said.
After spending four hours discussing, building, and refining a detailed plan, we were ready.
“Alright let us begin. Forces move out!” I commanded.
My guard and I flew off, as we had arrived, along with a large component of our forces in the latest flying carriages. Four of our larger contingent units separated with some alchemist support units to build four cities which made logistical, and military sense. This would actually benefit the nation greatly once relations returned to normal. We were of course paying some of the Queen’s forces to assist with the work. We were already planning to build these cities over a much larger time frame. Some forces remained and began repairs and rebuilding. Some forces remained to protect the units doing the repair and rebuilding. The rest of the units began the long slow march home. All of the retreating groups had been given gate artifacts. It was a costly use of magik, but we had been making these artifacts for quite a long time now.
We arrived in Shin Shirochi, in a relatively short time. We decided to go here rather than the Capital. We hired the local pubs to put together a feast for the forces that came with us. Then we settled in, to wait.
Eleven days passed before the Sinestelosans sprung their trap.
“My Queen, we are getting reports from our spies of stampedes of beasts, and monsters behind them, headed for our borders. They appear to be herded from behind by mercenaries,” Vulcana said.
“So this is their surprise. Send out the return orders. Summon our forces to assemble,” I said.
Shortly after our forces had assembled, and we prepared to return to the border, to deal with the monsters and beasts.
“Alright, it looks like the final battle is coming. Gate! Forward!” I commanded, as our casting circle opened a large gate for our forces to advance through.
Our forces were pouring into the gates, and we saw other gates opening as well, once we were through the Gate. We joined up with the units we’d left in place, and then a horde of beasts and monsters approached. Sinestelos had somehow manufactured multiple Monster and Beast stampedes. These stampedes had one peculiar characteristic. They were all being driven from behind by a large army of what, on the surface, were adventurers and mercenaries. It was obvious though, that this was the highly trained combined armies of Sinestelos and Crispenwell, in clothes other than their uniforms, or disguised armor.
Such an attack would have been disastrous if only our regular troops were in charge of the border. I made sure to spread out our top personnel. Every defending spot had S ranked or higher personnel. Some of the monsters were S ranked themselves. The Sinestelosans had somehow hypnotized or enchanted the monsters. This was going to be a long fight.
“Send word to all our forces to build several small infiltration forces to attempt to find a route around the monsters. Once there these teams need to seek out the mages controlling the monsters and take out as many as they can. They are to use hit and run methods. If a pursuit becomes too dangerous, they are to evacuate. We don’t want to lose any spies if we can help it. Knowledge of how they are controlling these monsters is the primary objective,” I said.
“Yes ma’am!” Knight Commander Daniel said.
Eight hours later, we got our first report from an infiltration unit. Daniel came to report to me the findings of the first team to return.
“My Queen, we have a report from an infiltration team. The team returned with two dead. They reported that mages were leading the drive, with just a few knights in front of them. It is their belief that a team of assassins could take out that front row, and easily take out the mages. The mages are all equipped with devices that each appear to control a number of strong monsters in the rear, and these are the monsters responsible for the stampedes. Taking out a mage, results in a fraction of those monsters to break free of the control. This seems to be a temporary situation. Once a mage is lost, another mage comes forward to take up the artifact. Destroying an artifact however, requires another mage to take control of the monsters,” Daniel said.
“Excellent work! We have found an attack strategy! Recall the infiltration teams. Get me my elite Dragonkin sniper squad!” I said.
Fifteen minutes later my elite dragonkin snipers arrived.
“I have a job for you. Follow me!,” I said.
I launched off in my full dragon form from our floating base, and the squad of eight snipers followed me.
“My Queen! What are you doing !?” Daniel yelled at me, but I was already speeding away.
As we flew, I instructed my squad,
Our goal is the artifacts being used by the mages who are controlling the stampede. Your job is to destroy them, and if the mage dies along with the artifact so be it. The mages aren’t the target, but it’s fine to take them both out. Use any force necessary.
Yes, my Queen! My snipers said.
We flew around the stampede from high up.
Cumulo! I cast, and a cloud enveloped us giving us some obscurity, white we could still see below us.
We spread out once we were past the stampede.
Attack!
We dove down, and I targeted a line of ten mages,
Sol blades!
Eighteen mages fell to our first assault, and their artifacts were shattered. The associated monsters turned on their controllers, and the remaining mages couldn’t recover control fast enough. The stampede was now devastating the line of soldiers and mages.
Retreat, our job here is done. We need to get back to camp and report our results, I commanded my snipers.