DD 304 Ch 20 (Patreon)

"Alright, class," Crimson clapped her hands together. "Now we've had lessons on war and lessons on dwarves. Now, it's time to put them together. For the rest of the day I want to split the class in half." From her lectern, she held out a hand, as if physically dividing the room. "Those of you on the left will be representing the dwarves. And I've decided…" she pointed to her eyes, then out, scanning the room, "...Candice is very specifically on the dwarven side, to make this exercise as hard as possible."

There were groans from several people around the room. Meanwhile, I ended up crossing my arms and looking forward. At least Helen was on my team.

I paused and internally checked myself that I’d just actually had that thought. But the library had been a decent place to get work done and I ended up sharing the booth a decent amount with Helen. Apparently, Crimson opened a portal between Haylon and Star City a few times a day to allow anyone in our class to go between the two.

Helen and I had had enough conversations that I thought we'd be on the same page. I paused momentarily, wondering what I'd done to think Candice being on the other team was going to work out well at all. I held back my own groan.

"As for the rest of you, you'll be a team of adventurers that happens to look very similar in composition to our class, as well as some of the most well-known adventurers in the world." She told us.

Harley raised her hand, and Crimson leveled a gaze that indicated Harley’s question better be important.

"So… are we, I don't know, going to war?" Harley asked.

"War? No, Harley. However, there's a good chance you will be fighting a large number of dwarves in the coming days."

There was a heavy groan from the class.

Candice raised her hand. "What happens if one of the teams wins?" she asked.

"Well, obviously, you win," Crimson said, in a tone that challenged Candice to ask for more.

"Is this being graded?" Candice asked more directly.

Crimson smiled. "Yes. Given that the position for your final has already been taken, I can't make it your final. But know that it will be a substantial portion of your grade. I don't do this because I take any joy in giving Harley failing marks —"

Harley yelped and then covered her mouth before Crimson made her pay for the outburst.

"— but because this is a very important exercise. Our class, whether we like it or not, is a substantial portion of the UG's and humanity's current strength. Ken has negotiated on humanity's behalf with the Orkai, and one of the areas they'd like our assistance is cleaning up what appear to be a dwarven hive now infected by Threadspawn." Crimson flipped her hair. "You will all be fighting alongside some of humanity's strongest and most famous adventurers. It is a wonderful learning opportunity, because you won't get many chances in life for a trial run of a battle of this magnitude or importance. It's critical you understand just how dangerous this will be and go prepared."

Harley stuck her hand in the air and, for once, looked very serious. "Will you be there?" she asked.

"I will be. But it's likely I'll be preoccupied with a number of tasks around the battle. There likely won't be many people who could take on an infected dwarven queen, so while I will be there and will do my best to look over my students, I cannot promise I'll be there to bail you out."

Crimson let out a sigh and shook her head. "Honestly, at your age, when I was in those seats, something like this would have been utterly unfathomable. And while some of you certainly need some work," she glared directly at Harley, "many of you, despite being students, have already grown into fine adventurers. The kind of adventurers I'd happily have at my back. So don't worry too much about everything, and simply do your best to prepare with the time we have."

Harley gave a slow, grave nod with the rest of us. I was feeling confident and the lessons only helped me feel more prepared for what was to come.

"Good. Now, if I haven't completely killed the mood," Crimson clapped her hands together, "let's get started, and do our best to make this fun. There's no perfect system. However, those of you in the center of the room, shove your desks together. I want the classroom split in half for discussing strategies. Meanwhile, I'll lay out a grid, and we'll do this like a tabletop game." She said the last part with a strange tone, and pulled reams of sheets out of her CID. "These were prepared at my request by the UG. While not perfectly accurate…" she held up one, frowning at it, before handing it off to my side, representing humanity, "...it'll do for our exercise." She held another set out toward the other team, which Candice snatched and began going over with laser focus.

My group huddled back around. "Alright. Plan?" Helen asked.

Harley shook her head. "We're gonna lose. How can we beat brainiac Candice in a strategy game?"

"Given that we represent humanity in a fight we're about to actually do, I sure hope you're not already ready to lose," Des grabbed Harley by her ponytail and pulled her head back until she was face to face with her.

Harley was surprisingly flexible. "No, I'm not planning on losing."

"Good," Des snapped. "Because we're not going to lose, right?" She looked up to me.

"Of course not. We've definitely done our reading, so we know a decent amount about the dwarves, as well as several aspects of war. I think, in this scenario we still have the advantage of surprise. That means we don't have to fight them head-on. We can try more creative strategies." I gestured at the sheets. "We could even hang back and pick a bunch off before we fight seriously." I threw the idea out there, seeing if the suggestion would get any interest from the group.

"I don't know if that's necessarily going to work," Des offered, and Charlotte looked between us with wide eyes. But I was open to others’ ideas, and I let silence linger as I looked at the board and considered our options.

"Anyone else have thoughts?" I opened it up, rather than let our tight-knit group run over everyone else with our decisions.

"Well, if we work the problem the way we've been taught," Helen said. "What's their weakness?"

"The Threadspawn, or the dwarves?" I asked.

"Both," Des said before Helen could give her own answer.

"What she said," Helen tipped her head, and Des looked absolutely scandalized by the agreement.

Wendy raised a hand. "Well, I'm not certain, but aren't the drones fairly weak individually?”

Myrtle piped up. “They should be wandering the area collecting loot and food to bring back to the hive pretty much constantly. So, if we pick off drones, can we starve them out?"

I shook my head. "I have no clue how much of a stockpile they have, or how long it'll take for drones not coming back to starve them. Even then, it’s hard to know how they would react to that problem. They could very well have years of storage."

Helen cleared her throat, and I gave her my attention, which happened to make the rest of the group stare at her too. "I think cutting off the drones can't hurt. Worst case, we lose some element of surprise,  but I doubt we'd really have much surprise anyway. The second we show up, everything we understand about the dwarves says they're able to communicate quickly, quietly, and across long distances. So chances are, the second we enter the hive, the jig is up."

"All right," I said, meeting Helen's eyes. "Then the plan for round one is trimming the herd to start."

Helen seemed taken aback that I would simply go with her idea. But it was good enough with what we knew at the moment.

"We're ready," I raised a hand.

Across the room, Candice’s group looked like they were ready to flay us all alive. "We are ready as well."

"Good. Let the first scenario commence!" Crimson clapped her hands together.

The first scenario lasted all of twenty minutes. We made a general plan, then our group split up, each person controlling a number of tokens individually to speed the whole process along. Meanwhile, Candice sat back and coached her group one by one.

I was a little concerned before we started that everyone would cheat to some extent, but to my surprise the class all seemed to be taking this practice very seriously. There wasn't even a hint of cheating from Candice's side. She was meticulous, and only made decisions on her side of the field based on what they should know. All in all, it was set up to be really great, except that we got our asses handed to us.

I scowled at the board after our first loss, and met Candice's eyes. "You're very good at this."

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked, pulling back her hair.

Helen grunted from our side. "You guys do realize she's like a RISK champion, right?"

"Fuck," Harley cursed. "Can you be bad at more things? Please, Candice," the bard pulled at her hair. "Or if you're going to be good, can you be on my team?”

“Just think! Maybe playing you will be harder than actually going against the dwarves for real," Wendy tried to sound hopeful.

I waffled my head, not sure if that would be true, but this was valuable training. "Come on, guys, we got this," I rallied my team. "We're just going to play another round."

***

It was demoralizing to admit, but Candice was fantastic at war tactics. We lost almost every game we played. The final score was twelve to three. At that point, Crimson flipped the teams and put Candice on the side of humanity, and our team took over the dwarves.

Over the week, we played a multitude of games. Once we switched sides, the game went well for about two rounds, before it ended extraordinarily poorly. Candice had managed to win, despite the odds, though as soon as the game ended, it was apparent why.

"You can't do that," Harley shot back. "You made the character that's clearly supposed to be me suicide."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I simply played my role," Candice said, folding her hands in her lap with the faintest of smirks.

I watched for a moment, ready to step in.

"Yeah, well, when I was controlling little Harley and you were the dwarves, you went after her multiple times.”

“I was targeting critical supports, not you,” Candice retorted and I saw a glimmer of what she’d been doing.

"It's not how this works," I frowned at Candice. "Candice, you have to play the game, not the players," I said, realizing what had happened. She was smart enough to not only play the game, but start to pick at our members and get them angry enough to make mistakes. That wasn’t really applicable to what we were trying to learn.

The blonde blinked, looked at me, and immediately dropped her head. "Apologies. I was getting competitive and not giving this game—" she said the word with a heavy touch of irony, "—the attention it deserves."

"It's just a game," Harley said, crossing her arms and leaning back.

"It isn't," Helen snapped at her.

"Of course it is. Look at the board," Harley waved her hands at the combined desks.

"Maybe to you," Helen stabbed an accusing finger at her. "It's  just a game. We're all about to go and do this fight for real. This is practice that could save our lives."

“We’re just going to go and do what the UG tells us, this isn’t that important.” Harley spat back.

"Yeah, then what about fucking Ken?" Helen used me to raise this a notch.

Harley jumped, and most of the class sat there silently.

"What about Ken?" Helen pushed.

Harley gave a dismissive wave. "Yeah, Ken's fucking awesome. He's also fucking Crimson. But that doesn't mean—"

Helen slammed her hand into the table, her passion as fiery as her hair. "Are you really that dense? Do you not get it?"

Harley guffawed, then looked around the room, realizing she was on an island. She hesitated, then sighed. "What is it that I don't get?"

Helen pointed a finger at me. "Ken took over the UG because a bunch of assholes were causing problems for them that would have absolutely rippled out to us and a bunch of the other adventurers. Those heirs were assholes that were killing adventurers in droves with stupid decisions. Him taking over likely saved a good number of lives. Our lives!"

I hadn't expected that from Helen, but stayed quiet.

"Now the UG is going on the offensive. Guess what happens if it all goes tits up? If a bunch of people die here, who's everyone going to turn to and blame?" Helen asked.

"The UG, right?" Harley answered proudly.

"Great. And now Ken's the head of the UG, so who does he get to blame?" Helen asked.

Harley understood then, and swallowed. "Probably no one."

"Exactly right. So step up and be something other than a burden to him and this class," Helen said, then turned on Candice. "Which is why you're going to play this like the dwarves, and not simply to win. But good job messing with Harley."

"Hey," Harley shouted.

"Oh, you brought that on yourself," Helen said. "If you want me to stop picking on you, stop reacting so much because you clearly love the attention." She snapped. "Now let's do this right so that maybe, just maybe, all this practice is more than just a classroom exercise and makes some real-world impact." Helen sat down with her arms cross and an angry glare for everyone.

Beside me, Des muttered, "Did not have Helen coming to your rescue on my bingo card today."

"Yeah, well," I paused and stayed my tongue before it caused any reaction from Des. Whatever this was, I would take it. Maybe we were managing to form some sort of odd friendship. Though I had lied to start this and was a little stuck, it didn’t entirely suck.

The class was still frozen from Helen’s outburst.

"Helen's right," I said, stepping up and taking the reins. "We're practicing for a real fight. And we're not only trying to save other people's lives," I met Candice's eyes, "we're trying to save our own. The Threadspawn are a very real threat that's already caused issues on Earth. If we don't take out the hive closest to Earth, there's a chance it comes back to bite all of us. We could lose family. Heck, we could lose ourselves. So I'd appreciate it if you did your best to play the dwarves authentically, and not antagonize Harley so that she makes mistakes. Understanding the potential risks here helps all of us be more aware in what’s likely to be a very chaotic battle."

I could tell Candice had half a dozen excuses on the tip of her tongue, but she was also smart enough to realize they were all just excuses. Closing her mouth, she nodded.

"I apologize," she said, bowing to Harley. "I was antagonizing you, because that's how I could ensure my side won the game. But Ken is right. The game is practice for something far more important, and I will take it more seriously."

"Good," I said, and dropped the subject. She had agreed, and now we had work to do to finish this exercise.

"Back to the game," I said. While some of them had been treating it as a game from the start, I had understood the importance of this exercise and had been practicing and playing with the pieces as if they were my own party's lives. I was not taking this lightly in the slightest. I would preserve as much human life as I could manage while we removed the Threadspawn threat.

"Sorry," Harley mumbled and scratched the back of her neck. "I guess you must be going through a lot," she said, and I smiled.

"It's fine. Just do better." I told her.

***

After we had finished the exercise, I found myself standing with Director Amatto going over a final plan to move forward. It felt eerily similar to the games, but the stakes felt so much higher.

"Everything alright, Ken?" she asked, glancing at me. I must have been making a face.

"Peachy," I said with a smile, and turned back to her, Sandra, and a host of adventurers standing ready and waiting.

"Given this safe zone is at the center of their activities, we're going to split the units into four main groups and close the net about one safe zone away. We will attack them from each direction." I told them, the weight of responsibility hanging heavily from my shoulders.

Sandra raised a pen to get everyone's attention. "We've already secured transport to each of those safe zones," she explained.

"Thank you for the clarification," I said. "Our elven allies will be taking this direction," I pointed to one line in the diagram, representing a path down into the dungeon. "Meanwhile, our second team will be led by the Harem Queen—" I pointed to another path, "—and the… former president of the UG," I nodded to Scaredy Cat, who was present, though no longer standing in a position of authority. "The final team will be with me and most of my class. We'll be coming up from deeper in the dungeon. We expect there might be stronger forces on that end, and this group is our highest combat potential." I glanced at Crimson, who was for once being serious, watching the proceedings with her arms tucked tightly behind her back.

"Individual failure is unacceptable," Crimson intoned. "Each side is being given substantial resources. Though I'm certain this won't go perfectly, it's on each of you to make this as successful as possible."

"It will be done," several people voiced in unison, and Crimson's attention didn't waver.

"Everyone's assignment is being sent out to their CIDs separately, and we will report to our units shortly after this meeting. Understand that each group is to be broken into thirds based on strength. Once you clear successfully to the safe zone, I want the weakest contingent of your group to hang back and protect the entrance to the safe zone, while the more capable adventurers push in with the rest of us."

"What about unexpected situations?" Someone asked.

"That's up to you to handle. I'd suggest having some capability to fall back ready in case they have significant reinforcements or your zone gets pushed hard. And a reminder for everyone present. The goal here is to remove a danger to humanity. There's no sense in holding it back, or using this as a training ground for members of your guild." I offered.

I didn't think any of them needed the reminder, but the solemn nods all around were at least comforting. The chances that someone died today were decent. I just hoped we came out of this in good enough shape that we'd be able to revive them once it was done.

All of the scenarios we ran through were rough estimates, but the one thing that stood out was that the harder and faster we pushed from the start, the less loss we suffered. Going in from four directions was necessary to split the dwarven forces and prevent the Threadspawn from escaping and moving their operation.

"Any final questions?" I asked, as most of their CIDs began chiming as the packets Sandra had prepared began arriving.

"None here," Elysara said, looking quite official in her ornate armor. Neldra stood beside her, hand never leaving the pommel of her sword, staring down everyone like a fierce guard dog throughout the entire meeting.

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