The news from the King and Lilith were worse than I could’ve imagined. Though we’d defended the city and repaired the outer walls, the world outside the city was a dark one. From what I’d been told by Lilith, that hadn’t always been the case.

  Bandits, thieves and outlaws were virtually gone, everywhere, but rather than being good news, it was only a natural consequence of worse news. In the few weeks since the Battle of Tooth and Claw—a name I begrudgingly used, even though it sounded unwieldy and more than a little silly—attacks had risen to almost a daily occurrence all throughout the Kingdom. Reports from other cities and countries weren’t as scarce as you’d imagine, and we had the mages to thank for that.

  If not for the gate network, we’d be cut off from all our real-time intelligence, and the cities—to say nothing of Wolfport—would’ve already been on the verge of famine, if not well into the dying.

  As it was, things were becoming more dire, but we were in a better spot than we had been. A large solar array was our primary way of generating power, and so far we’d managed to keep our base secure and the defenses online around the clock. Carver kept insisting we needed more power, in every respect, though.

  We’d already suffered a dozen attacks leading up to the day of the mission and word had certainly got around. The corpses had to be disposed of, so we’d had a gate setup inside the main compound. It was both faster, and much safer, now that attacks were becoming more frequent.

  We weathered almost our entire kill count every two or three days, and not just in hounds, but serpentine creatures that slid around and spat spines at us, too. It was an interesting experience fighting the things that had taken me out of action. Their spines went straight through the softer portions of our armour and were coated in some sort of toxin.

  Another type had been popping up at specific times and places outside the base, which showed an alarming degree of intelligence. That was the sort of thing you did to ascertain an enemy fortification’s strength, their reaction times, positions and defenses. It was eerie, honestly and it drove me to ask for any written materials Eric might have. He’d promised to get back to me, but Tomlinson, the Royal Archivist had to promise to get back to him, so I didn’t know when I’d get what I’d asked for.

  Before started to come at us in droves, we’d erected walls and only added to our rings of laser turrets. Creating molds from nanites and filling them in with compacted Earth was the work of minutes, rather than hours, so the walls could be much thicker and quickly erected. The turrets however, those were a problem. Something we’d failed to consider initially was that anyone not wearing armour would be blinded by the sheer intensity of the beam. We’d temporarily stalled our production of certain components and parts to get the laser’s focusing crystals something to actually slot into. The turrets were easily the most time-consuming and expensive part to produce, the crystals being relatively easy to

  It brought up interesting possibilities for using it against human enemies, but annoyingly, the little buggers we were fighting didn’t seem to use eyes and they didn’t seem to care at all unless we hit them with the beam directly.

  While support from the Kingdom had waned quite a bit in regards to food and other critical supplies, what they had in abundance was people willing to fight for food and pay as well as military supplies. Recruiting had gotten so bad that I’d contacted Lilith to get some qualified personnel down to the fort so we could process them all. For every one we took, though, there were a hundred more we simply couldn’t accept.

  Food everywhere was growing scarcer and being hoarded more jealously. As such, our mission was of even greater importance and the recruits had focused on their training with a renewed determination. Still, for all their determination and eagerness, they were nowhere near ready. Three weeks wasn’t enough time. Hell, three months was the minimum I wanted before I’d take any of them into the field with me.

  Ultimately, while I’d wanted to bring them with us, they weren’t ready. I supposed I should’ve accepted that sooner, but I’d been hoping hard to have some backup on this run, some familiar backup, I mean.

  Regrettably, that wasn’t going to be the case, and the three of us, minus Larsen, were going to be poaching six mages from the Kingdom to take with us instead. Rather than attending the briefing, I’d had the recruits return to their training under Larsen’s tutelage. They were disappointed, I could tell, but I tried to impress upon them that it was too dangerous for them given their level of training and our lacking technology base and equipment. They seemed to accept that easily enough, but I’d underestimated how long it would take to get them to a level training comparable to even just that of a green recruit right out of basic.

  So, in the end, I stood around a large tank of nanites, the majority of them transparent. Affectionately termed ‘the fish tank’ by some, it was a large three-dimensional, hologram-like display designed for planning missions. More commonly, it was referred to as a holo-tank, though even that was a misnomer because there was nothing truly holographic about it.

  I used it to great effect, highlighting different sections as the mages we’d borrowed from Lilith watched me tinker with the holo-tank in the centre of the room. Three mages lined the edges of the room, standing in their rugged robes and leather.

  Larsen stood off to my right, taking in the mages’ expressions as I continued the briefing I was giving.

  “Our primary objective is to eliminate the threat of the Vitaru. Our secondary objectives are to gather intelligence on the Drakitha’s state of affairs and internal politics. However, the primary objective takes precedence.”

  I noticed a few of the mages shuffling nervously, while others whispered excitedly. I ignored them. They weren’t interrupting, so I didn’t mind.

  “Over the past three weeks, my team and I have been putting together a detailed picture of the Empire and a plan of action. There is an ancient artifact—some kind of sword, maybe—buried somewhere on August inside a temple. Information is hard to come by, and even harder to verify.”

  “Shouldn’t we wait for better reports from our spies, then?” One of the mages asked. He had a beard, rough and haggard features and a scar under one eye.” I nodded to him respectfully.

  “I wish that were possible, but we need to deal with this situation as quick as we can. Given a few months, they’ll control most of the Eastern World. Now, I don’t need to tell anyone what that means, do I?”

  I continued after solemn expressions overtook them. “Reports do indicate however, that a woman named Sefira acts as something of an advisor and powerful political figure in the Empire and she has had a confirmed encounter with the weapon if our intel is accurate. So far as we know, she left it there for reasons unknown. She is our only solid lead at the moment, so the plan hinges on her giving us what we need.”

  At the somewhat doubtful and unsure expressions on the faces of the men around me, I continued, first addressing their concerns.

  “This all comes from His Majesty King Valebrook, and High Commander Shroud, as well as their trusted spies so the information is as reliable as we’re going to get.”

  At that, they relaxed and took me at my word, the sceptics among them calming down.

  “Now, we’ll be hiring ourselves out as mercenaries to the Empire in the hopes of making it into the capital itself and getting close to this Sefira character. Once we make contact with her, we’ll negotiate to learn the location of the sword and its history.” One of the mages raised his hand.

  “Are we sure that’s the best approach to take, my lord?”

  I smiled humorlessly. “Believe me, if there were better options, I’d take them. Unfortunately that is our only option right now. We can’t wipe them all out one by one, they’ll just reproduce faster than we can kill them. From what I’m told this weapon is the reason these things were vanquished the last time, even though it doesn’t feature prominently in your mythology.”

  The mage spoke again. “No, I meant, negotiating to learn the location of the sword? Is that the wisest approach? Couldn’t we sneak in and get the truth from her forcibly, or see if she has any writings or written information that could help?”

  I nodded. “All valid questions, but again, this is where the lack of solid information bites us in the ass. We have no reason to assume she’s got lacking magical defenses or is any pushover herself. We’re going to bring along copies of particularly valuable magical research and see if that tempts her. If not, well, we’ll have to get creative, but by all accounts—and those accounts are few—she’s not someone who’ll be tempted by riches, fame or power, since she has all those in abundance. Now, any questions?”

  Immediately hands shot up, but I was pleased to note that the recruits remained at parade rest and didn’t devolve into a bunch of clamouring school children, shouting to be heard over the top of each other.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  I pointed to one of the mages.

  “Does the weapon actually work? How did it help in the war, the first war?”

  I inhaled deeply, steeling myself for their reaction. “We don’t know.”

  Surprise and outrage rippled through the room. Some of them shouted, too, until I raised my hand.

  “Look, I know it’s not optimal, but what did you expect? We’re chasing a myth. You don’t usually have accurate information on myths, almost by definition.”

  I answered a few more questions, mostly about the mission and how we’d operate undercover as an up and coming mercenary group, and then began to wrap things up.

  “Alright, I think that covers about everything. Larsen?” I handed it over to my second-in-command, stepping aside before she threw up a projected map of August on the holo-tank.

  “This is a map of August from high above, collated from high-resolution images taken while we were in orbit. The data isn’t completely reliable and it’s not real-time, so bear that in mind. We’ll be taking a gate from here,” she highlighted a section to the north of Wolfport, “down to the major teleportation hub in Wolfport and from there, through to the Dominion and on to the Empire.”

  I examined the map with a critical eye. The path from the Mistpoint to the Empire wasn’t exactly well-travelled, but it was there and according to the map, it extended a fair distance, at least until it was swallowed by sand.

  “This should come as no surprise to any of you, but they don’t much like outsiders, so I’d remind you all to tell us if we’re about to do anything stupid. We can’t afford to get held up in the wrong country before we even really begin.” Larsen paused for a few seconds and when no questions or comments were forthcoming, she said one final thing. “You’ve all got an hour to get your affairs in order before we leave for the Mistpoint.”

  The briefing had been short, and a good chunk of it had been recapping what we’d all already known, so within short order the mages had pulled what supplies they could from our base stores and I’d checked in on Larsen and the recruits.

  I’d be leaving her behind to train them and keep the place secure, which she’d let me know she wasn’t pleased by. Still, there really wasn’t anyone I trusted more for the job and it needed to be done.

  I walked into our armoury finding Chen attaching a truly obscene amount of magazines to his armour via pouches attached to various hardpoints.

  “Are you… can you even walk in that thing?

  He looked like the prototype for an armoured suit that used magazine pouches as armour plating. In other words, ridiculous.

  “Hey, I’ll be able to dump magazines as fast as I want, and I’ll have spares for both of you.” His tone brooked no argument.

  I stood there, silently staring at the spectacle, before loading up my pouches with extra magazines and grenades. We were all running heavy loads of ammunition, under the assumption we’d be shooting a lot of rounds. When—not if—we encountered the Vitaru, it was sure to proceed like our last encounter with them, only worse. They’d only multiplied since then, if our theories were correct, and there were new variants popping up all the time. Suppressive fire didn’t mean a damned thing to them.

  Really, so many of the tactics a rifleman normally employed were useless against an enemy that truly didn’t care if they lived or died. I’m not saying they were radical religious zealots, I mean that they truly didn’t appear to have a fear response, even physiologically speaking. We’d torn their bodies apart, reviewed combat footage, even set up tests for them over the last two weeks or so. All of it pointed towards the fact that they’d been engineered and designed, and that fear for their own survival wasn’t something programmed into them.

  All that meant was that to actually come out on top in any given engagement, we’d have to kill every last one of them that came at us. There’d be no surrender or scaring them away, unfortunately. It was odd to think about, because I’d distinctly remembered them avoiding us and retreating at one stage. That wasn’t out of fear, but something else.

  I had begun to develop my own theories on if there was something intelligent driving these creatures, but I’d found no evidence so far, just conjecture.

  “Hey. I said, are you ready?” Chen rapped his armoured knuckles on my shoulder.

  Shaken from my thoughts, I nodded, responding still half-distracted. “Yeah, just thinking about the enemy.”

  “Come on, don’t want to be late.” He waved me forward, exiting the armoury a second later. I followed, still mired in thoughts on the psychology of our new enemy. I needed to know how they thought. That was one of the keys to defeating any organised enemy. If you didn’t understand how they thought, you couldn’t hope to understand what they would do next or why.

  Still, I had more immediate matters to attend to now. Our hour was soon up, and we all trudged towards the gateway we’d set up. It wasn’t pretty, just a mesh of polished stone and Kerrenium. We’d had to have a mage come out and build it for us and while the process had looked interesting at first, it had taken almost six days to complete the runic matrix and six more to ‘attune’ the mass of stone and silver-alloy.

  All I really understood was that it allowed us access to the city’s gateway in their military headquarters and that we had to go through them to get to anywhere else. We were all there and the gate was intentionally built quite wide, so we even had a few horse-drawn carriages pulling supplies. They’d be slow, but a blitzkrieg wasn’t in the cards this time. Something told me this wouldn’t be the work of days, but weeks or months.

  It took us a few hours to get our supplies moved through the international gate network. It was an interesting concept, most comparable in my mind to airports, just a lot quicker, obviously, and harder to intercept.

  I stepped through Wolfport’s main gate and emerged into a city that had seen better days. Crumbling buildings, evidence of charred wood and scorched rubble, demolished buildings. It looked like a warzone, just with less evidence of explosives. My threat scan came up negative, though I did notice thin red outlines around practically everyone around us.

  We’d arrived in a partially collapsed stone tower. It looked stable, if only because all but seventeen metres of it had collapsed and the remainder of the structure was solidly built. My suit scanned the structure and added its own annotations and assessments, the weakest points glowing an amber-red. It didn’t think much of the construction, classifying it as medium strength soft-cover. Perhaps passable against most civilian kit that had neither the benefit of an armor-penetrating core, explosive payload or a large round diameter, but against modern military kit?

  Even as I’d been pondering the local construction my eyes and brain had swept my surroundings automatically. My suit augmented the range of my natural senses with its own. Fortunately, no one was hostile to us, or at least not physically. They were staring though.

  “What in the Barrens are you?” A man stepped up to us, clad in lamellar armour, steel of some kind from my scans. It was a mostly form-fitting and deep-bronze colour.

  “We’re the mercenaries sent to deal with this Vitaru problem. I trust you don’t take issue with that?”

  He scowled, stepping back. “Get on with it then. I don’t want you in my city.”

  I regarded him with a stony glare beneath my helmet. “Good, because we’ll leave just as soon as you show us the door.”

  He growled, ordering his relief, as he stalked out into the streets. They were no better than the building we’d arrived in, misshapen, cracked and ruined wrecks. You wouldn’t be able to pull a wagon more than a metre or two. It almost reminded me of an earthquake, though more because of of the sheer level and severity of the damage to the terrain, not the actual look of it all.

  The man, who’d neglected to give me his name, looked over his shoulder at us and shot us irritated, dirty looks as he led us down one of the ruined streets. I would’ve commented on it, but I didn’t think bringing attention to it would help matters. He clearly wasn’t in a friendly mood.

  We reached the edge of the city in no time, and I took as many scans as possible. No doubt, the data would be appreciated by Lilith. I doubted we’d get many military secrets from what amounted to a casual stroll, but military battle armour recorded more than most people realised, and the recorders were never off.

  Where Ebonwreath was all rolling hills, grasslands and forests, the Mistpoint seemed quieter and darker somehow. I’m not sure if it was in my head or not, but there was a definite tension in me as we made our way out of the city and onto the road heading west.

  “You think we’ll make it there without a fight?” I asked, more to Chen than Carver.

  “The chances of that are about the same as a stripper passing up tips.” Chen chuckled, then turned to the mages that were travelling with us. “What do you boys think? What’ll we find on the way?”

  A mage with rough hands and a rougher look grinned. “Ten silver pieces says we find a dragon.”

  I stiffened. “Those actually exist?”

  “Oh, yeah, they’re huge, too.” He laughed mirthlessly. “They breath fire and use magic to fly, real swell time. Real pompous bastards, they are. They say a dragon’s scale can turn back the strongest spells, but I’d be curious to see what your thunder-weapon can do.”

  I hefted my weapon slightly, looking at it with a grimace. The rifle I’d been using up until this point was an infantry weapon, designed for taking out lightly armoured targets. It didn’t have the punch for heavy armour and it’s raw destructive power wasn’t the equal of a huge mass lightning strike like the one Lilith had conjured up.

  Fortunately, Carver had completed my request on time and given us all a handheld railgun. We’d only had time for some practice down at the range so it wasn’t the well-tested, rugged piece of equipment our normal rifles were. Still, if they failed we had our old standard rifles and ammunition aplenty included in our supplies. I hoped we wouldn’t need them.

  I was glad for the extra firepower. With our old rifles, I wouldn’t have given us great odds if we came up against a dragon. With railguns though? I’d not measured their actual kinetic energy, but short of a main battle tank or an orbit-to-surface missile, a railgun was a pretty solid choice to pit up against a big flying lizard with legendary scales.

  We had nine men to face whatever was out there waiting for us. Three Marines, six mages, and four horses pulling supplies. My hope was we’d make good time to the Empire’s border and we’d slip past any patrols they happened to have, or alternatively convince them to let us through.

  On the other hand though, I knew that was a false, deluded hope. I was growing too wise to August’s tricks by now to believe that we’d get across the border without something happening along the way, or soon after, but I did hope we wouldn’t have to fight off a swarm of arthropod, insectoid, or arachnid creatures. I'd take a more conventional enemy any day of the week, if there were any to find on this godforsaken rock.

  The skyline caught my eye and I examined the rising sun. It had long since made itself known, but having travelled such a large distance meant we’d actually gained a few hours of daylight. It was time I hoped not to waste. Travelling at night, especially with the Vitaru out there really didn’t appeal to me.

  Conversation filtered into my thoughts, then, and I checked on Chen reflexively, who was roaring at some joke by an elderly looking mage.

  Carver meanwhile, stepped over to one of the horses, examining some softly glowing filigree on its armour with interest. A slightly built mage—Rovald, I think his name was—walked over and began to converse with Carver. I swept my eyes across my HUD and then the horizon again.

  The dull tedium of being a soldier came in many forms, but today it seemed destined to come in the form of boots hitting the ground. The poem of the same name came to mind and I let one foot trace the way for the other. My mind soon slipped into an easy rhythm as we continued onwards, the sound of boots filling my brain.