A wooden cart careened down a mountaiundra, rattling loudly and pig up speed as it went. Pyers, not wanting to be fttened, hurriedly split to the sides to allow it passage; one pyer who was te to take notice of it let out a girlish yelp before diving out of its path. The cart tinued, barrelling faster and faster down the slope, until it abruptly fred with light and disappeared. The emptied space revealed a fair-haired man with intricate white-and-gold armour, who gave off a solemn, regal air as he passed a ring to one of his subordinates.

  “Well, this is assuredly not what I anticipated.”

  Virtus watched the ongoing battle with a deep frown. While it was ohing for the heroes to fail, the manner in which they failed was also signifit. As things seemed, not only were they pletely thwarted in all attempts to breach the pound, but they even actively infought and sabotaged each other.

  “Indeed. It’s rather... unsightly, isn’t it?” The casteln, Stewart, ented beside him. “Even the on peasantry fights better than this.”

  Virtus sighed. “They just raining is all... they also needed more siege dders than the amount you provided – this se is parable to livestock lining up for culling.”

  “...You’re right, I apologise for that ht.”

  “No matter. There is a silver lining, which is that a rge proportion of the heroes seem to have magical affinity. Although they won’t be very powerful now, they should be quite fearsome after being fully-fledged mages, especially in those sorts of numbers.”

  “That is true. Though, in trast, there seem to be very few archers on the field; I see scarcely any arrows flying from our side.”

  “Yes, I did notice that. However, the arrows from our principal archer are actually not visible to the naked eye.”

  “...Pardon? Not visible, you say? There was someone like that?”

  “Ah, right, I didn’t introduce you. I’m referring to the grassy-haired man who eaking tood friend Lemonade a few minutes ago. Er, rather, the one wearing a ‘western hat’ might serve as a better descriptor.” Virtus gestured to Lemonade, who was listening from the side.

  ‘Grassy-haired?’ Lemonade recalled Max’s short, somewhat- hair. ‘What does grassy hair even mean: is it soft, or is it spiky?’

  One sharp viewer took notice of Lemonade’s fused expression.

  —Does Lemon not know what grassy hair is because he’s bald?

  “Iing... Then I shall look forward to witnessing this archery.” Stewart rubbed the air under his beard in thought.

  ‘What is he doing?’ Lemoched this peculiar a of Stewart’s, and his fused expression intensified. ‘Actually, e to think of it...’

  “Uh, pardon me for interrupting...” Lemonade addressed the two men formally. “Both of you gentlemen pn to partake itle, yes? If so, do you have helmets to go with your armour? It’s just that I worry for your safety.”

  her Virtus nor Stewart wore helmets. While this would be an uandable decision for fort outside of bat, the NPCs looked as though they would mar the pound at any moment.

  “Oh, well you see... we are wearis.” Virtus tapped in front of his face.

  k. A metal sound rang out.

  “Eh?” For the third time in a ten sed interval, Lemonade’s face was ced with question marks.

  Virtus expined, “High-ranking officers typically wear helmets with ‘invisibility’ entments. That way we and more effectively by maintaining visibility, identifiability, and capability to foil assassination attempts like you witnessed earlier. This is somewhat of a secret among the military though, so I would ask that you don’t go yelling it over the hilltops.”

  “I see...!”

  Lemonade quickly pulled up his stream tab and ran a 30-sed ad, inwardly praising his decision to use a slight stream dey.

  [Current Viewers: 47,876]

  —Ah no! Noo!!

  —Father, I’m blind

  —Whyyyy

  —Nonsensual ad; am pressing charges

  ‘Phew.’ Lemonade was relieved. There was no reason to lose the prirust the same day they met.

  Looking away from his chat, he went back to watg the assault on the orcs. From the looks of things, the melee pyers were pletely useless, being skewered by long polearms whehey tried to climb over the pound’s defensive palisade. While the mage and archer pyers were more useful, lobbing spells and arrows up at the defenders, they were also uo inflict substantial damage. This being the case, although the number of defenders on the wall seemed to be steadily decreasing, the pyers were dropping much faster.

  “Hm...” Stewart observed the battlefield. “The morale of the heroes is quickly falling. We should move in immediately.”

  “I agree. Go and give the and; I will stay with the battering ram as we discussed.”

  “Yes.”

  ...

  Pew! Pew! Pew!

  On the distant wall, orc archers were being blown away every time they revealed themselves.

  “Oh!” Max realised something. “Did you guys notice the b has been phasing through my hat this whole time? Haha, that’s a really funny bug.”

  —THE HAT IS NOT WHATS IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW

  —CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY

  —This is hacks, right?

  —No, but why does it feel like the knockback is increasing with each shot?

  —I think he’s killed over a hundred now??

  —ASSAULT RIFLE MODE ACTIVATED

  —I think this is aim hacks...

  —Dude stop, the devs are gonna cry

  “The devs are not going to cry, they’re grown adults. And no, I’m not hag, this is just a really strong ow.”

  —H–he’s reading chat?!

  —HES STILL READING THE ENTS WHILE FIGHTING

  —WTF

  “Hm?” Hearing a faint chorus of ctterial, Max gnced over his shoulder and saw that the NPC army was moving in. “Gh, damn. So much for the ‘no NPC deaths’ milestone.”

  A rge number of melee pyers were retreating from the battlefield. Max attempted to call out to a passing group, “Hey! Use the log there as a ram!” He gestured to the dispced battering ram, which sat unused in the grass after its wagon had beeroyed. “You carry it and ram the gate!”

  No oopped. One swordsman, drinking a HP potion, shot him a g kept moving. Another shifted course in an attempt to steal his hat, only to be sent flying by a well-pced fist.

  “Unbelievable,” Max shook his wrist and muttered, “these pyers are hopeless.”

  With a resigned sigh, he turned back to the wall, drawing his b as another head peeked over the battlements. If the pyers weren’t going to break through, he’d just pick off the defeo lessen the load on the NPCs.

  Quickly running out of arrows, he used his [Arrow Retrieval] skill, and a storm of translut arrows came streaming toward him in a wide e, directly entering his iory.

  “Only a hundred back... the rest must’ve broken, damn.”

  Max transferred the arrows into his ring and waited a few seds, watg the palisade cautiously.

  “...Nope. As expected, even a hundred verging arrows ’t draw their attention.”

  Orcs were really stupid.

  ‘...’ Max heard an armoured person approag him from behind. Pyers wouldn’t be able to afford heavy armour at this stage in the game, so he addressed them without turning around, “Howdy. Still pnning to storm the gate?”

  “Yes,” Virtus responded. “We’re moving the sed ram now. I must say, I’ve been watg your archery and while I’m not well-informed on the subject, I tell you’re a highly skilled expert; that bow is surely not wasted on you.”

  Max’s eyebrows raised as he turned and smiled. “Thank you, sir, that really means a lot to me.”

  “Stop addressing me formally, I dislike honorifics.”

  “Ah, sorry. I wasn’t trying to be formal, it just felt right to address you as my anding officer.”

  “Oh. Well, I suppose I am your anding officer currently... Anyways, we’re approag the gate so provide us with suppressive fire if you’re able.”

  “Certainly.”

  Max followed Virtus and cast his eyes over the NPC army. At a g was obvious they were well-equipped and well-ahe vast majority of them wore partial pte with red gambeson poking out from underh, while lines of pikemen at the vanguard also carried regur, semi-drical shields which offered substantial prote from arrow fire. Max was very impressed. The soldiers looked intimidating enough that the retreating pyers didn’t dare to pass through them, instead fanning out to the sides to pass them at the fnks.

  tinuing the assault, a sed battering ram was being pushed up to the fortress, heavily guarded by infantry and a bald man who trailed behind it.

  “Gun!” Lemonade called to Max. “How many orcs have you killed; over a dozen?”

  “One hundred, eighty-seven.” Max suctly replied.

  “Haha, it wouldn’t be surprising from you.”

  “...?”

  Max felt like something had been misuood, but Virtus asked some questions before he could crify, “Gun, by your estimation, how many archers do they have left? Also, how accurate are they and have you seen their leadership?”

  “It’s hard to say, but about y archers remain on the wall. Half their shots are accurate at twenty metres and y pert at the foot of the palisade. I’ve seen a tall leader with a bck mask who is likely a high orc, but there might be more leaders who have yet to make an appearance.”

  Lemonade’s eyes wide the uedly detailed response.

  “Good. Thanks for the intel.”

  Max paused to shoot an orc before responding, “My pleasure. Though, I assume you saw what happeo the first battering ram earlier. Do you have a pn for if they e barging out again?”

  “Yes, we have ah mage on standby to block their retreat if they do so. The soldiers with us now are elites who should have little problem fag the orc warriors, the only problem is the-”

  “The what, sir?” Max loosed another arrow.

  “You said there were y archers, correct? Yet, we have advanced quite close to the wall without receiving any ratacks. This is rather peculiar.”

  Max also found this odd. The orcs were practically hiding themselves behind the palisade and were only shooting pyers who climbed up the siege dders. It was as though they didn’t even perceive the battering ram as a threat. That, or they were afraid of something.

  ‘I don’t see anything they would be afraid of, so it’s probably a trap.’

  A head peeked over the palisade and was immediately bloart by an arrow. Max really ehis [Successive Speed] skill he’d acquired; it was immensely fun. His arrows were now in the same speed range as assault rifle rounds, so he could py a game of high-stakes whack-a-mole with the orc defenders.

  “It is strange.” Max tapped his fingers on the limbs of his bow. “Would you like me to go up and scout? It could be a trap.”

  Virtus thought for a moment. “I suppose that would be prudent, yes. Go and check. I will pensate you if you happen to die.”

  ‘That’s a really strahing to say.’ Max nodded and approached the palisade. ‘Now let’s see... If I just btantly peek over the stakes, they’ll spot me. I might o use my ultimate.’

  Max grabbed an abandoned siege dder. There were only a few hundred pyers still attag the palisade, which was quite shog because they’d started the battle with four or five thousand.

  Several metres along the wall from the gate, Max quietly propped the dder against the palisade and began climbing up with his hands free – that way he could still shoot if an orc spotted him.

  As he he top of the dder, a loud voice bellowed out.

  “Idiots, why did you stop firing? Shoot the shieldless ones!”

  “Captain! Our men be afraid, we think the humans use high-pic on!”

  “I don’t care! I didn’t train a bunch of pansies, so don’t fight like pansies!”

  Max peeked through the gaps in the spiked top of the palisade, surveying the se behind. The battlements were made of wood and looked to be quite flimsy – probably built as a rushed job. Numerous orcs were crouched in wait, ready to slid diy pyers who tried to climb over the wall. There were also a number of lit braziers, presumably used to provide lighting for the night which had just passed.

  ‘Wait, why are they using fire braziers fhting on a wooden wall, are they stu- oh.’

  Yes. Yes they were stupid. Regardless, he decided to keep listening in for information.

  “Pathetiyways, are the humans within ra?”

  “Nearly, captain. But how many should we throw?”

  “Ha! Good, do four. Four sticks bombs should be enough to destroy their poking toy, and them along with it.”

  ‘Stibs?’ That sounded important, so Max decided to unleash his ultimate ability here.

  Swish!

  A rock went flying over the battlements, captivating the eyes of all orcs that saw the incredible dispy. Max quickly raised his head and peeked over the palisade.

  Above the gate, a group of orcs surrouhe leader who wore a bck metal mask, each of them carrying a devi the shape of a long red der with a cord on one end.

  ‘Dynamite? They have dynamite here?!’

  Max’s thoughts were abruptly cut short upon realising the masked orc had detected him. ‘...Uh-oh.’

  “Y-you! IT’S YOU!!”

  Swiftly drawing an arrow, Max loosed a shot at the orc’s eye. Unfortunately, the orc moved its body just enough for the arrow to miss the eye slit in its mask, instead striking above and leaving a wide crack where the eyebrow would be.

  Briefly sent sliding, the orc recovered and broke into a sprint, full e. Max became armed as the orc reached him uedly fast.

  “YOU BASTARD!! I’LL GET MY R– URGH!”

  With a fsh from his ring, Max took four more arrows between his fingers and, somehow managing to nock all of them, fired a vertical burst at the orc. Struck by the entire quartet, the orc’s mask broke off as he was knocked off his feet a falling over the edge of the battlements.

  “Q-quick! The captain is down! Light the stibs!”

  Max wao finish off the leader but was forced to turn his attention to the subordinates, who po throw dynamite at the battering ram. Despite him quickly shooting a few, one mao light a stick of dynamite using a nearby brazier.

  “Oh boy.”

  ...

  BOOM!!!

  Virtus watched as the pound’s gate, along with a rge se of wall, was blown open by a rge explosion. Soldiers raised their shields to block the debris which flew dozens of metres away.

  “Wow, it really was a trap... That archer is truly useful to have around.”

  Abandoning the battering ram, Virtus ighe smoke and fmes as he treaded over the splintered wood to ehe pound, crag his knuckles as he went.

  “Well, now it’s my turn to have some fun.”