"We can't just let you go, so… you can either serve, or die." George summarized his offer to the guards of the dead bully's airs.h.i.+p. "What would it be?"

Despite the clarity of the offer, half the guards actually tried to attack.

"Fire." Song Chen instructed.

Crossbows tw.a.n.ged on every side. A dozen men were riddled with bolts before they could make three steps.

"Hey!" George protested. "That guy wasn't even moving!"

"He was holding on to a wand. He didn't drop it." Song Chen explained. "The ones that surrendered dropped their weapons."

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"Oh. Never mind, then. Empty the airs.h.i.+p's cargo, and load it with munitions. Prepare it for battle." George waved at it vaguely.

One lynxmouse poked its head out from a side port. [Not much cargo. Just some food and munitions.]

"Well, load up the crossbow bolts and get a crew on it." Song Chen instructed one of his subordinates. "Fifth Crossbow Squad, Ninth Crossbow Squad, you're up."

"The Ninth? Are they really ready for air-to-ground bombardment?" George asked.

"They'll have the Fifth with them. They'll be fine." Song Chen shrugged.

The airs.h.i.+p was readied quickly, and then it took off slowly.

"Is this the last airs.h.i.+p in the airport?" George asked then.

"Yep." Song Chen said, as the airs.h.i.+p cleared the docks.

"How are we doing for supplies?" George asked. "Can we hunker down until the Tide pa.s.ses?"

"If we close everything up and stay underground, we should be able to hold out for three weeks at our current consumption rates. Double that, if we ration."

"I doubt it'll come to that." George mused. "Two weeks is plenty. Any word on what's coming?"

"Word from Three Pines is there's some debate going on as to exactly which King is leading the Tide this time. The Eagle Lord is betting on either the Storm Pegasus King or the Earth Lion King, but there are over thirty Kings who want the job because they want to tear us to pieces."

"Thirty…?!" George gulped.

"All we know for sure is that it won't be Doom, and they're not going to stop with just trampling our farms into the dirt." Song Chen added. "We're going to lose everything we haven't harvested, you know."

"That's not for certain. Something might survive. Especially if they don't come after us specifically." George mused. "We've already destroyed Rocky Ford, so crossing the river to come at us would be difficult for land-based Wilds. I'm thinking we'd mainly have to worry about amphibians and flyers. Especially flyers."

"Then we better hope it's the Earth Lion King or something similar in charge rather than the Storm Pegasus, because otherwise, we'd be up to our necks in winged horses."

"It could be worse." George mentioned. "It could be the Roc King."

"No, that shouldn't be a concern. According to the Eagle Lord, that won't happen."

"It's so nice to have friends telling us of our inevitable demise and how it'll occur."

"Any chance Spike and Jujar might succeed in talking us out of this?"

"The Earth Lion King has acknowledged Spike as the Lord of Craggy Falls, and the Great Ape King has acknowledged DD as the Lord of the previous Shadowflash Fief, but they're still going to try to eat us for dinner tomorrow. If our Wild friends get in their way, they would be dinner too."

"Not if I can help it. I want the wolfcats protecting herb valley. We'll shelter all our people underground, and there are almost no structures on it, so now that we've pulled down those structures ourselves there's no reason for the Beast Tide to attack the valley."

"Wish we could save the farms like that."

"There's not enough time. There's just too much to do, and the Beast Tide arrived much, much more quickly than we expected." George explained. "Speaking of arrivals, any word from the La Vive colony?"

"They're not coming." Song Chen grumbled. "They said they'd rather take their chances with the Ashdale Colony. Apparently the Ashdale settlement has a Level 6 Battle Mage."

"What exactly is a Level 6 Battle Mage?"

"It's a mage specially qualified for battle. As I understand it, Level 6 is quite high." Song Chen took out a list. "From what we can tell, to qualify for level 6, the Battle Mage needs to be able to instant-cast Tier 1 and 2 spells, write ten-word Runic Sentences, employ permanent magic barriers while casting magic, and have three campaigns worth of real-life battle experience."

"That sounds rather formidable." George admitted. "What level would Remian be, in such a system?"

"I don't know. I actually asked them once, but they said a mage who can instant-cast any spell of any Tier with one word doesn't exist." Song Chen spread his hands. "Also, the highest level Battle Mage in La Vive is a Level 7. The highest in Ashdale is Level 8."

"That means that Level 6 is actually very high up."

"That's what I just said."

"George!" someone yelled from the air traffic control tower. "The Red Fang is coming!"

"Remian and Mindy?" George perked up.

"They'll be here in ten minutes!"

"Great! That means we have a Super Battle Mage on our side!" George exulted.

"I'm not sure that's how it works." Song Chen scratched his head. "Apparently Battle Mages have exams and certification and everything… none of which Remian has."

"Who cares about exams! Remian could wipe out that Level 6 any day, any time!" George insisted.

Song Chen didn't refute it. "Still. That sort of categorization could be useful. We have a lot of scroll-casting Adventurers going around who only think about earning Guild Points. Putting up a formal system of recognizing Battle Mages could have them pay more attention to increasing their magical combat abilities. It could be a good motivation."

"Then we may as well categorize everything, not just magic. Marksmans.h.i.+p, melee combat, artillery… all of it. We may as well categorize cla.s.s types!" George snorted.

Funny how an off-hand comment could affect so many people in the future.

***

When Remian and Mindy arrived, a crowd had gathered at the airport.

The first thing they did was to unload the rifles.

"Nice gun!!" Eriane leapt up in excitement. Remian handed her one before she tried to s.n.a.t.c.h it and damaged something. Eriane held it confidently, easily hefting it and lining up a shot. She fiddled with the reloading system for exactly five seconds before she figured it out, and then she started to examine its insides…

"She's been learning about all sorts of rifles, including similar breech-loading types." Song Chen explained to Remian. "In fact, there aren't many people around here who's better than her with a rifle. Everyone here is familiar with bows and crossbows, but not many know what to do with a rifle."

"They have one day to get familiar." Mindy advised him. "We have two hundred of these. In terms of reload speed, power, and range, they have every advantage."

"Range isn't the issue with this coming Tide." Song Chen pointed out. "We're basically going to turtle up and huddle down in the mines. We won't even fight the Wilds unless they manage to break in."

"The sole exception would be the airport." George added. "So long as the Tide doesn't have too many flyers, we can still use it to bring in supplies and people from the air. Also, we have a plan to close it safely when it's not in use."

"Really? How?" Mindy had to ask.

"We're going to use Spike's grandpa's sh.e.l.l, with Spike's permission." George said. "It's big enough to cover the whole airport like a cap."

"Spike's grandpa?"

"He's long dead, and the sh.e.l.l is much bigger than Spike himself. We brought it all the way here from Craggy Falls."

"Excellent." Remian nodded. "What about the other mines?"

"They've been prepared with underground housing long ago. There's enough s.p.a.ce for everyone and about a month of food and water. Don't worry, KarGoth and the mines are well prepared for an extended underground stay. The only place I'm worried about is Three Pines."