The Bathrobe Knight: Volume 2 (42 page)

              “None, sir. Perhaps you, in your great wisdom, have a solution to offer?” Alex’s tone was polite, but it was just off enough that the way he said it made Darwin feel like he was actually trying to say ‘Why do you expect me to solve your problems for you?’

              “I . . .” Darwin wracked his brain for an idea.
Wait! That’s it!
“Alex.” This time he straightened his back and spoke confidently. This time, he’d be the commander that his people needed, and not just some guy with two swords and a knack for grinding. “Alex, if we don’t have swords, what weapon do we actually have in abundance?”

              “Spears, sir. Even after selling a good portion of our stock, due to the possibility of hostile conditions, we have enough spears to arm four times our current population, the risen included.”

             
The risen? That’s an interesting way to refer to the monsters I converted.
“Good, and how many craftsmen do you have capable of making armor or working with wood?”

              “Working with wood? Given proper instruction, roughly anyone over twelve years old could handle the wood. We’d have to allocate project managers to make sure the quality was uniform, but that shouldn’t be a problem. No more than one project manager for five to ten workers, and we can easily afford that.” Alex tilted his head to look at the trees that were now situated behind Darwin as the two talked. “As far as armor, I believe we have only ten or twenty people capable of manipulating metal with fire.”

              “Good, good.” Darwin’s smile grew bigger as he put the numbers together in his head. This was exactly what he was hoping for. “Alright, I think we should be able to actually do this then.”

              “Do what, sir?” Alex raised one eyebrow.

              “Win, and win by a landslide.” He grinned, one lip pulling up higher than the other.

              “What do you need me to do, Lord Darwin?” Alex returned his grin. He didn’t even know the plan, but his confidence in Darwin’s abilities was not to be shaken.

              “First, I need you to take as many men as you can and split them into two groups. One group needs to clear out these woods. I don’t mean kill all the living creatures in them. I mean chop down every tree and haul it up here. We’re going to need all the wood we can get. The second group needs to go into the dungeon and start harvesting the dead Blue-Drakes. Strip them of their scales and their bones, and make it a priority to get those both gathered up before bothering with the meat. There will be plenty of respawns for meat, but those scales and bones are a must,” Darwin said as he began to unfold his plan piece by piece to Alex.

              He knew the basics of it. There had been great empires that rose and fell by the edge of a spear. He remembered hours and days of playing games where he had been forced to command armies and forces into battle that had devastated their enemies with a spear. If this was going to be a war, he needed it to be a total war. Not to mention, years of playing real time strategy games as a zerg-style commander against terrain had given him intimate familiarity with what made and broke a base’s defense.

              A lot of people made the mistake of thinking that a good defensive position was one that sealed off all possible attacks. This was a misconception. For a fort to be able to stop an enemy no matter which side it attacks on, it must be stronger than the enemy on all of those sides. Sure, with preparation and time you could easily reinforce the position’s defenses on all sides, but there was a reason most people believed the best defense was a good offense. It just simply wasn’t cost effective to play the ‘Defend All Sides’ card. Instead, Darwin had learned early on that his greatest fear when trying to decimate an enemy’s ranks was not the commander who was prepared for anything, it was the foe that either knew what point he would strike at or lured him into striking a certain point. That type of opponent, the type that could control the battlefield, would always stop him. That’s the type of leader Darwin needed to be, the one who could force the Panda King to fight on his terms at his location and at his pace, and he had just the experience and role models to help him do it.

There was only one problem left: the Panda King likely didn’t get that position from being an amateur. If Darwin were going to win, he would have to use tricks from a world that the Panda King had never been to.

“ Also, we’re going to need a few people to scout ahead, let us know when and where the enemy is going to be coming from,” Darwin said, looking at the soon-to-be-demolished tree line. He knew where they would attack, and he knew he didn’t have much time or men to spare, but he also didn’t want their siege to have the advantage of being a surprise. One thing his Demon people had going for them was that they never got tired or had to sleep, an advantage he would absolutely need if he were to sustain a siege as large as the one he feared would come. Now, all that was left was to farm ZombiDrakes and pray that he could muster a large enough army in time to stop any force from taking the mountain.
Too many pieces on the board,
he grumbled as he pulled out his blades.
Too many pieces on the board moving too quickly.

Chapter 9:  Phallic Force

Qasin
:

              “So we can’t kill the panda because we need his help. We can’t wait with him because he doesn’t trust us. We can’t go off and just talk to your brother because he has a ‘soul-stealing’ woman with him. You have explained this all thoroughly, but there is a missing piece you still haven’t told me about.” Qasin looked around annoyedly at the cityscape strung out around him. It wasn’t just the stares, the snide remarks under the breath of the passerbies that were still audible enough for Qasin to hear, or even the pungent smell of a hundred animal people desperately needing a dunk in the river that bothered him most about the area now. He had gotten used to all that.

              In fact, their resentment almost made him smile. Thoughts of how he would repay their ‘kindness’ wormed their way through his mind and pulled his lips into a grin.
Slice, dice, chop and grind,
he thought to himself as the images floated through his head. It was taking a great deal of self-discipline to prevent the grim fantasies in his mind from actually being carried out. He needed to bide his time until Eve was done with the animals here, until they had served their purpose. Once her goal was accomplished, she would have no problem if he dealt justice to these beasts who dared to look down on Humanity with such hateful eyes.
I will restore order for mankind in this barbaric land,
he told himself, grinning as he glared back at the leering menagerie in the streets.

              “If you understand all of that, then what is there left to say?” Eve kept walking through the marketplace, head held high as if nothing were wrong.

             
How is she comfortable here? How is it that these people don’t irritate her too?
“Perhaps the thing that I want to know even after understanding all of that is, why are we still standing in this forsaken den of dogs? The Panda King, to whom you went for help, isn’t interested in us right now, so why do we have to wait around in this city?”

              “Because, dear Qasin, they will want us. In fact, as soon as their scouts arrive, they’ll be back, and we need to look confident in our prediction.” Eve continued to strut around, pausing only occasionally to look at items on display around them.

              “If they don’t, if we’re stuck waiting for nothing, I’m personally going to go and try to reason with that brother of yours,” Qasin said.

              “Qasin, why do you think my brother is worthy of being reasoned with instead of killed when you are already holding your blade and eyeing these citizens like prey?” Eve turned around to look at him. “Why is it that you insist on talking to him, helping him understand, but these people aren’t worth even a moment of your time?”

              “The same could be said for you. You constantly nag me to talk instead of kill, yet you force me to talk to the people I want to kill so that you don’t have to converse with the people you want to murder,” Qasin grumbled.

              “I don’t want to kill my brother, I just--” Eve protested, but was interrupted by a messenger from the Panda King before her excuse could be voiced. It didn’t matter though. Qasin was sure he had heard it along with every other excuse she had dozens of times before.

              “Ma’am, sir, your attention is required in the royal courtyard,” a giant Ursine warrior said as he appeared behind the two. “The King wishes to speak to you.”

              “Tell them we’ll be there when we finish up here.” Eve tried to wave off the guard, much to the ire of Qasin, who wanted to conclude the business as quickly as possible, but the guard was persistent.

              “Ma’am, the King expressed his desire to see you immediately. We should proceed to the royal courtyard without delay,” he pressed again.

              “As I said before, I’ll be there when I finish here,” Eve said, looking at Qasin with a smile. He couldn’t be sure, but he was almost positive that the smile said, ‘See, we were right where we needed to be when we needed to be there. You were upset for nothing.’

              “My Lady,” the voice grew deeper and more hoarse, “I believe your business here is concluded,” he said as forcefully as an Ursine might. As he spoke, several dozen Ursine and Panthera warriors began appearing on all sides of Qasin and Eve. Each of them was fully armored, and they were all grouped in a circle surrounding the pair.

              “I see, so it’s that type of invitation. Does your King still not trust me? Sending so many people to rush me away . . . Well, I suppose if I must. Let’s go, dear,” she said, turning to Qasin. “We shouldn’t keep our host waiting.” Eve sauntered past the original guard in the direction of the royal courtyard, the entire group of additional guards still surrounding them as they walked.

              “So was this all part of your plan too?” Qasin mumbled in a voice that would be audible only to Eve. He didn’t like the idea of guards listening in on his conversations, a distaste he had developed and fostered when he was constantly forced to guard against the Human Council back in his days of only being a puppet monarch.

              “I don’t wish to delay this meeting any more than he does. We need him still, Qasin. Remember that. Yet, we can’t let it seem like we’re happy about being called back,”

              “Why not?” he asked, the foul taste from his earlier experiences at court welling up in his mouth. “Why can’t we just state our intentions and be done with this game?” His disgust was growing with each passing moment. Not just with the animals, but with Eve as well. He was beginning to wonder how much of what she said and did was really just part of her games, part of her attempt to move him like a pawn.

             
Here I thought that I was free of your kind,
he thought as he stared at her, his contempt for the people around him slowly finding a new home.
Perhaps even now, all I need to do is kill. Will you leave me and play your games elsewhere if I just start murdering your other puppets? It worked once, it worked twice, and it hasn’t failed me yet. If a problem exists, I just need to kill.
As his two feet carried him blindly to his destination, these old thoughts flooded Qasin’s head with memories of Wilhelm bleeding out against a wall. He was following Eve for now, but his mind was quickly looking for reasons not to, reasons why he should trust his gut and butcher the people who threatened his kind.

             
“You were right,” the Panda King said, interrupting Qasin’s thoughts. He had been so concentrated on his anger that he hadn’t noticed the time fly by, and they had already reached the King’s residence. They were standing in front of a courtyard that was at least the size of a small town. Empty, flat and stone, the square arena was filled with hundreds of troops of all races and breeds scattered about in an odd, disorganized fashion. Some of them were sparring within rings composed of the other soldiers gathered around them. There were even soldiers who were clearly gambling in front of or with their superiors.

             
This rabble . . . This is the rabble that subjugated and beat the Humans of this land?
He cursed in his mind in disbelief. From what he had heard and seen in the towns they had passed through, the Humans on his island had never known any semblance of true organization. They had only ever charged at their enemies, facing off in a flurry of mismatched weapons from swords and shields to axes and mauls, yet even they were more unified than this group of louts.

              “Word arrived from the scouts hours ago,” The Panda King continued watching his soldiers from where he stood in front of his over-cushioned throne, not even bothering to turn to face them as he spoke. They were now waiting on a three-story-high platform erected against the east wall. Qasin and Eve, who had just arrived, had already managed to draw the attention of fifty to sixty of the closest soldiers.

              “And?” Eve pressed, but anyone who saw what was going on would know that the troops wouldn’t be assembled if it wasn’t exactly as Eve had spelled out earlier--if there wasn’t a clear and present threat.