Born a Monster

266 Servant of the Axe – To Spear the Spearmahapter Type: Social Interactiohe axe and the spear are both aggressive weapons, though they can be used somewhat defensively. As I may have said earlier, though, the fire was far more successful than the caltrops. It led to a shorter engagement and no friendly deaths, at least, even if every single one of our defenders on the rooftop had an injury of some kind.

It didn’t make sense. Until, suddenly, it did.

"Leng Li?”

"How are you doing, Little Monitor?”

"Something confuses me.” I said.

"Only one something confuses you? Truly, the heavens show you favor.”

"What is Xinyi Shi doing by attacking the gate nearly every single night?”

"You mean other than slowly defeating the entire garrison here?”

.....

"Well, yes. If that were his goal, shouldn’t he be fighting in a way to kill as many of us as possible?”

"I like to think it is a flaw in his strategy caused by his Heroic Vanity.”

"Well, yes, but would he not be coached by those in the inmate army without that flaw?”

"I will not waste time theorizing what sins the rebel army is up to. Get to your point.”

"I think he is deliberately wounding our heroes, forcing us to focus healing and medical supplies here.”

"That sounds like you want us to disperse the champions back along the wall. That would cost us our heads, the gatehouse, and the outer wall, in that order. I see no advantage to this scenario.”

"No, I’m not saying we should surrender the gatehouse. Not with just a few days until the fields in this section of wall are harvested.” I said. “I’m just making certain that I understand what is going on. Xinyi Shi keeps the champions here, at the gatehouse, and their champions strike at other places along the wall, certain that they are opposed merely by normal troops.”

"Yes, it is a bad arrangement all around. Do you have a better one, or should I assign you to scrub pots?”

"Ay-ya. I will scrub pots and see if I can find a better solution to the problem of Xinyi Shi.”

"You are dismissed.” He said.

"I know what we are doing wrong.” I said.

"I am tempted to send you to scrub pots anyway. Speak.”

"It’s team maneuvers.” I said. “We need to train to work together. That’s why such things as the arrow cover and the fire traps are working so well. He can defeat individual champions, but not an entire team.”

"We already do this, to strike as one rather than at different times. It’s how we hold him off without being eliminated entirely. Go scrub pots.”

I went to scrub pots, which I’d been planning on doing anyway. But I was certain I was right. There was something inherent to one person attacking a group that was how we would defeat him.

Statistically, I had a higher ranked brain than most adult humans had. In practice, it just took less time for me to find dead end after dead end after something they’d already thought of. It was frustrating, even if my now-higher Resolve score meant I could stay at mental activities longer.

But if statistics alone ruled the world, then the civilized races would never have thrown off the yoke of the dragons and giants. Actually, looking around the world, humanity in particular seemed to be successful at re-populating and re-colonizing.

Why should that be? Did they have different Systems than the rest of the world? It didn’t seem likely, if every System known to exist fell within a mere twelve categories.

And it wasn’t the Legendary Weapons, if Rakkal was the only one in the past centuries to successfully use one.

The weapons! Xinyi Shi was wielding a weapon capable of dealing rank seven damage. You didn’t get that performance out of oak or ash. But when I asked around the barracks, nobody seemed to know what wood his spear WAS made out of.

Could Tang Ning’s Vengeance, another magical weapon... no, he’d just block it, like he did all the... arrows...

If we could break his spear... IF we could break his spear, he wouldn’t have a spear to twirl and deflect all the arrows fired at him during his nightly withdrawals.

But, something capable of standing the pressures of inflicting 24 base points of damage HAD to be durable. Perhaps magically so.

Actually, how HAD he gotten his spear back, after having been captured? I wasn’t expecting to see Heart’s Defender again anytime soon. Given the passing of the moon, it had probably lost its defensive mana. It was nothing more than just another well-made sword.

Damn it. Whether through the hand of Fate, or the hands of the nine, or through other hands we currently didn’t even suspect, he’d gotten his hands on a spear of sufficient quality to use.

Largely through my own folly, I kept losing my weapons. Mostly by fighting at low health, like I had right now.

[You have 29/80 health remaining.]

Heh. Low health. It was less than two years ago when I considered my current total to be exceptional health. I was still with Eihtfuhr...

Eihtfuhr who had fallen to a force of six centaur, only two of whom were champion levels. True, Eihtfuhr had said he was only level eight, so he himself was a champion, not a hero.

But... clearly, we had the power on our side. Didn’t we?

If we employed centaur-type tactics, could we defeat Xinyi Shi?

There just wasn’t ROOM; not on the roof of the gatehouse. It would be like taking a bow to hunt a bear, and then find out that both of you were confined to a single bathtub.

At that range, I could actually USE my Pankratios abilities more effectively than he could use his spear. But the roof was too large for that... unless it wasn’t.

With proper application of the fire oils... maybe...

Maybe his spear wasn’t as resistant to flame as to physical use? No, that was too much of a stretch.

At this point, I was just letting the gears of my mind spin idly; and I needed to re-clean this frying pan. I’d left my System to do it, which you’d think as many dishes as I’d done in my lifetime...

Had I left too many of those to my System? I think it may have been the other way around. The things I did on my own, I was still good at, but the System just couldn’t automate them properly. For example, I wouldn’t trust it to position my shield properly. Well, maybe to hold it in place in a shield wall.

On the other hand...

The pan could wait. “Lieutenant Leng, I think I know how to hand Xinyi Shi a defeat that lets our champions support the wall afterward.”

"Ugh, enough! I don’t have time to play guessing games. Out with your stupid idea.”

"I Taunt him, to direct all of his attacks at me rather than other champions. Obviously, I’ll want as much health as possible.”

"Are you that eager to die? Everyone who has taunted Xinyi Shi has been killed by the power and speed of his attacks.”

"Put us both inside a ring of fire so close that he cannot effectively use his spear.” I said.

"This plan is getting more and more suicidal as you reveal it. No, this is not approved. Go start learning teamwork with Kang Shi. AFTER the cookware is clean.”

Okay, true, I hadn’t yet worked out how to survive my plan, either. It relied on too many things going right.

Teamwork is more complicated than you would think. Verbal cues, hand signals, body posture, and above all not colliding with your teammates, even when it seemed they were trying to be in your way. Worse, most of the skills seemed to be based on Charisma for some System-damning reason.

It was two hours just to unlearn the lessons I’d learned fighting with my own group. But, as I went to sleep that first night, I wasn’t quite hopeless. The next night, I was only slightly out of position with regards to the others.

On the night that was before the first dawn of Harvest Week, Captain Feng came to me. “How is your health?” he asked.

"Sixty-five of eighty, sir. I’m just about ready to face Xinyi Shi.”

"Outstanding, since we face him together after dusk tonight. I hear you are not entirely worthless at your teamwork drills.”

I flexed my hands. WAS I ready? “The concept fills me with fear, but I find Fear is energy.”

"Ah-ah, that would be adrenaline. Don’t waste it all now, we have time before...”

"XINYI SHI HAS ARRIVED!”

Captain Feng blinked, but only once. “All champions on shift tonight! To the roof, we fight him NOW!

Kang Shi was quicker to the staircase than I was, but I was close enough behind that I almost took a foot to my nose, even as I was strapping my shield to my arm.

But no, I had meant that Fear was a Power, something that could be tapped for divine faith.

I released that power, unformed, in Xinyi Shi’s direction. It affected him as much as rainwater might a duck. A living duck, not one plucked and butchered.

"I remember YOU.” he said, “Tonight, your destiny ends.”

Oh, crap.