Author's Nightmare: Chapter 145 (Patreon)

Beam POV: Day 137

Current Wealth: 276 gold 41 silver 48 copper

The two weeks still left went by like blurs, and I barely even kept days separate in my memory. When I wasn’t training new recruits- who’d shot up in number to twenty two early on- I was sparring with Arthur. When I wasn’t doing that, I was helping Solitaire with heavy lifting, or Ardin with metalworking. I wasn’t in a unique place to complain, though. Everyone was busied up with something, and most of us were with several things. 

And behind it all there was that sudden worry of Shango, Arthur and Alora being left to hold down the fort by themselves. 

Still, that preparation wasn’t for nothing. By the time we were ready to leave our new recruits had gone from “homeless people” to “decently trained, violent homeless people”, and they’d been equipped with the best gear we’d been able to manage on short notice. Each one had a spear tipped with tool steel, sharp enough to skewer a man clean through lighter armour, and tough enough to hold that edge for a good long while. Their armour was brigandines made from our own scrap metal, and I’d seen for myself the demonstration where even thousand-pound crossbows had failed to penetrate them without hitting soft spots. 

I wasn’t sure how they’d measure up against the professional soldiers of this world. Their training had been a step above the norm, with Helena having one hell of a knack for it and things being made smoother by my presence. But it had also been just a mere few weeks. Not very long at all, really, to pick up more than the basics, even with a full five or six hours dedicated to it daily. But they were well equipped at least, and bolstered by some of the heavy weapons Solitaire had coined I was convinced they’d make a very strong defensive force.

We just couldn’t use them to swarm any positions. Morale was the main issue at this point. 

Setting off was an unexpected inconvenience, with us now travelling with around five times as many people as we were used to. In the end we had to use carriages, simply for the speed and shelter, but hiring them cost us a pretty penny. It bothered Solitaire, I knew, to not be seated exclusively in pre-prepared armoured vehicles. Poor guy was twitching like a fresh corpse the whole trip, even after we’d already been at it for a few days. As we got closer, he became more erratic, snappy, angry. It was a familiar pattern that all the regulars were used to, but it terrified the poor recruits who, for the most part, genuinely thought he was some dark wizard.

Powerful, evil magic and violent instability. Not a reassuring combination. 

On the second day of our journey, I was surprised to be approached by no other than Lord Appleberry himself. The man seemed hesitant, almost awkward, as he came over, a reaction I’d certainly not come to expect from Redaclans who stood higher on the social totem pole than whoever they spoke to. 

“Beam Belahont.” He greeted me, using my full name but without any sort of formality to his voice. A weird combination. 

“Hello.” I replied, awkwardly. I wasn’t sure what he wanted, but I mentally prepared myself to explain that whatever Solitaire had threatened to do wouldn’t actually happen unless he touched him. 

“I’ve been meaning to speak with you.” He continued, seeming to grow more friendly with each word. “Terribly sorry for taking so long, but you’d seemed preoccupied with your men until now.”

Well, I’d spent a lot of the journey trying to keep their spirits up, or at least keep them from actively fleeing before we arrived. I couldn’t blame him.

“It’s fine, what did you want to discuss?”

He chuckled, nervously.

“Oh, no, nothing in particular just…Well, I’ve heard the stories you know? I wanted to speak to you in person, just the two of us. Not often one meets a hero in the flesh, eh?”

“Hero?” I replied, before I could stop myself. Appleberry beamed wider.

“My, and modest too. Yes, of course, have you  not heard what they’re saying? I know of your deeds. Rinchester, battling that vampire, going toe-to-toe with the King of Blades. Even allowing for the usual exaggeration, I dare say there are few men who’d be your equal.”

It didn’t happen like that. I wanted to say, but we were marching to fight ten, twenty or even a hundred times our number in orcs. Somehow the idea of correcting him, of denying him this small reassurance, felt cruel. Maybe he needed to believe he was fighting next to another Arthur. 

Appleberry continued praising me, bringing up one feat or another- none of which were ever quite how I remembered them actually occurring. It was a relief when I was finally called on to sprint off ahead and scout the area out beyond us. 

The thing with being me, or rather the thing with being me in excess of level twenty and with a Speed stat of seventeen, was that it meant I was actually the better option for such things even compared to a man on horseback. I cleared a mile every other minute, and by the time I’d swept the area for geographic features and potential hostiles to return, less than half an hour had passed. It made me realise how easy it might be to be seen coming by our enemies, too. After all I was far from the most physically powerful man in the world, hell even this region alone boasted Arthur, the King of Blades and a few others above me. My performance in the tourney’s final round had been…Weird. A fluke, that I barely recalled. There was every chance we were having our movements reported back by some scout able to sprint faster than I could.

It was fortunately only one more day before we finally came to Swanhen, or at least until we were close enough for me to run into it while scouting. The town was, as we’d heard, bigger than Rinchester, though clearly a few steps removed from true city status. Its cities were squat and somewhat packed together, and running along its outer edge was a tall wooden wall reaching maybe fifteen feet off the ground and looking thick enough to stop a car. 

The first bit of good news was there was no siege camp outside. Orcs in Redacle had a tendency to be smarter than humans thought, and Solitaire in particular had always gotten a sick glee from writing stories about upper-class gentlemen finding their armies torn apart by so-called animals with a great deal more ingenuity than they’d expected to face. There were orcs out there who’d have had trebuchets to bring to this attack, let alone other siege engines. But those did not seem to be the ones we’d be facing.

In fact, there didn’t seem to be any orcs at all. 

I circled the city, slowly and carefully, ready to sprint all the while as I studied its surrounding environment to see what features it boasted. The ground around it was vaguely flat and level, which was definitely good for farming but not ideal when one was being attacked. It meant the enemy had plenty of space to work with in doing whatever they wanted to beyond the walls. Those walls in question were periodically dotted with siege engines. Catapults for the most part, but the occasional ballista too. 

It didn’t look like a great defence, I had to admit. The Velaharo Manor probably would’ve stood up to an assault better after Solitaire’s renovations, but at the very least the city had plenty of spots we could deploy some of our new weapons on. 

That was, assuming we were allowed in past the walls. As I looked closer I could see those walls had taken more than a few batterings, and their gates looked like they were replacements of replacements of replacements. From what I saw of the buildings poking over the top, the place had taken some battle-damage too. Evidently the orcs had gotten inside before, and maybe not just once.

With everything I could hope to glean already taken in and processed, I gave it all one last study to see if I’d missed anything. Then I turned and started the journey back, raising my pace a shade beyond the usual, comfortable effort I went out scouting with to compensate for the extra time I’d spent studying our destination.

Before nightfall, we’d be at Swanhen and ready to help. But I wasn’t sure, now, how much we could do. It all felt so real all of a sudden.