The battle had reached a grinding phase. The tower had become the central shaft of a meat grinder, and the screw was Carousel and the Blue Roses. Around and around they go, and as the Final Revel descends into the moat, the monsters spin and spin until they die. They are already packed so deep the ones above have crushed the ones below. It is a very thorough extermination.

  The Toads finally reached their effective range under the meat-shield of standard monsters. There weren’t too many of them that managed to hop that far. The Mikas were having an absolute field day with the Toads. It’s hard to say for sure, but I think they enjoyed the explosions. Corporal Mika, that absolute menace, had noticed that their bolts could one-shot a Toad if they waited for the belly to start swelling. So she started focusing her fire on the accompanying monsters. Once the Toads inflated to a certain size and luminescence, the bolts would come racing out. And pop!

  A pillar of yellow light would rise, and a rain of death would fall. This had the nice bonus effect of creating acid barriers along the side of the moat. It didn’t kill anything outright, but melted feet are certainly enough to slow anyone down. Of course, anything caught in the acid rain wasn’t long for this world, or any other. That stuff was absurdly strong.

  Strong. Acid. What am I missing here? Why is that thought tickling my brain?

  Oh. Now that is quite cruel. And insanely dangerous. But maybe not impossible?

  “Miyuki, try to pin a few of the Toads to the ground but keep them alive if you can. I won’t be upset if they die after you shoot them, but try to aim for their legs and hands.”

  “As my Lord commands.”

  I wanted to rush over to the council bell and summon Sebastian, but controlled the impulse. It would keep.

  More smoke pillars rising from the forest, but not a ton of them. Rikka could only move so fast, of course. I hadn’t redeployed Rache. So Rikka was definitely missing some. Could we be missing some baboons?

  “Miyuki, resume sweeping around the Tower and checking for stealth units.”

  Mmm. So far there was nowhere for my melee units to shine, but that was fine. That was a good thing, really. Could we get through this without-

  Four giant monsters came out of the woods. One was of the two-headed variety, the other were the standard giant horrors. Not so big that they qualified as titans, but more than big enough to qualify as a problem for people not named Versai.

  The quartet came rumbling into the clearing, coming up behind the ordinary monsters and the toads. I had a faint hallucinatory fear- that the giants would step on the fast monsters partially filling the moat and use them for a boost up.

  “Artillery, Miyuki, prioritize the giants. Pomorois, work together on one and burn it down as fast as you can. Dora, Othai, Mrs. Hungry and Versai, get ready to deploy.”

  I should really have Versai teach Othai the speed hack. No reason it couldn’t work for her, right? And the two seemed to get along well enough.

  The monsters came barreling in. My recollection was that, in defiance of all laws of nature, these big guys could tank a couple hits from artillery. Still better to burn them down at range, obviously, even if I was just softening them up for my melee troops. Which led to a question- why? Why now? They didn’t really synergize with the other waves, unless the idea was that they come in at the end to crush any final resistance. If the wave was balanced for, at minimum, two six stars and seriously developed fortifications, that could make sense.

  It didn’t quite add up though. I felt like there was something missing. I saw two cannon balls pound the two headed monster in the chest. They knocked it down, but it wasn’t dead. Miyuki put a long arrow in a giant, and the noise was shattering. The other giants and monsters immediately moved away.

  No. I was definitely missing something. I raked my eyes across the battlefield, trying to think of what I wasn’t thinking of. The monster with the long arrow in its chest ran forward, fast, far faster than I thought its size would allow. It grabbed a Toad, stood on its hind legs and threw it straight at Miyuki.

  “DAMN! Miyuki, cover now! Medics-”

  I didn’t have time to get the order off. The toad flew like a glowing yellow bolt across the clearing, tens of yards through the air and smashed against our parapet. The acid blasted across the stone. Most of it stayed on the outside. A lot didn’t. I bit off a scream, unable to even pray.

  Where was she? Where was my Miyuki? My eyes looked everywhere. I couldn’t see her. “MIYUKI!”

  “Oh no, where’s the ouchie?”

  “Pain, pain, fly away!” Pammy and Maria barked in their cute voices, the battlefield medics descending into Hell once more. If they were moving, it meant that Miyuki was alive. There was no death animation. Two medics on one person- as long as they could keep ahead of the DPS, she was safe.

  “Mrs. Hungry, Family Dinner for Miyuki. Yoko, make sure she is buffed. Carousel, Mikas, new job- the instant you have a Toad in range, you shoot it. Corporal Mika, I want you on standby to shoot any Toads that come flying in. Carousel, the same goes for you. I want those green freaks blowing up over the enemies, not our walls!”

  “Yes, my Lord!” They yelled.

  “Miyuki, report! How bad is it?”

  “Your servant will live, my Lord. Miyuki thanks her Lord for his concern.”

  Damn them. Damn them!

  “Versai- no. Stand by.” I wanted to send her out. Go be a human blender. Chop them up! That’s what I wanted to order. Immediate, brutal vengeance. I bit it off. The Toads. The toads blew up in puddles of acid a few feet across, and the explosion wasn’t time lagged. It happened practically as soon as they died or had their guts poked open. The Pikes would have the reach to survive that, but they were pretty much the only ones who would. Even Othai’s halberd wasn’t long enough to keep her safe.

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  Another Toad came flying towards the parapet. Right now, the only people doing damage to the monsters was my artillery, and that meant the Giants were mostly coming in harassment free. Fortunately, Carousel was ready. I grinned as the air burst acid munition rained down on the screaming monsters below. Then frowned, because we were about to get into the crunchy end of game mechanics.

  The Awakened had a ‘lock on’ system. In order to attack something, they had to lock on to it. And something had to be a valid target for them to lock on to it. Valid targets were defined as ‘enemies’ although they could also damage trash and resources.

  A valid target didn’t necessarily have to be in their attack range, though so far, only Versai had really used that particular exploit. Early on, the Mikas refused to fire at things that were beyond their range… I think? I was struggling to remember at the moment. But anyway, we had the following math problem:

  If Carousel has a range of (for the sake of easy math) a hundred Commie Yards, and a Giant Monster throws an exploding, acid filled giant Toad at her at Fifty Commie Miles an hour, how long does Carousel have to lock on to the target, activate her spell, and have the spell reach its target once the Toad enters her range?

  Seven and a bit seconds before it hits her, is the best I could come up with. But I was never very good at math under pressure. This is so much easier in eagles per cheeseburger, but it lacks that C.O.D.BL.OPS snap to it.

  Just because a target was locked on didn't necessarily mean that they would hit it too. Though the accuracy of the Awakened was literally inhuman. Mika might not get all her bolts under a quarter in terms of grouping, but she’d probably fit them under one of those little plates they give you for your bread and butter at the Cheesecake Factory.

  Shave a little of that available time off, because the last thing you wanted was to blow up the Toad within a couple of yards of you. That would really defeat the purpose, and momentum was a thing. You would get a full coating of the acid that way. Then factor in Carousel’s firing rate, which wasn’t exactly machine-gun like. Maybe once every ten seconds or so?

  So. This could get spicy. Then you need to factor in that Corporal Mika’s range was considerably shorter than Carousel’s. That would reduce the time to acquire and fire on a target even more.

  The other factor being, obviously, how often the monsters could scoop up a Toad and throw it. Not the highest rate of fire, but even with everything, there were dozens of Toads still hopping around, swollen with hate and bright yellow acid.

  Guess we are going to have to keep them distracted.

  “Miyuki, are you fit to fight?”

  “Your servant is completely healed, My Lord.”

  “Good. Put one arrow in each of those giants. Try to pin their feet to the floor or an arm to their body. Once you have an arrow in each, start over again. I want them immobile as quickly as possible.”

  “Yes, my Lord.” She sounded determined. She wouldn’t have good angles on all of them, of course. But knowing her, she would do very well regardless.

  The Pommoroi’s had been pounding on the same monster over and over again. I was starting to get kind of spooked. At this point, it had eaten six cannon balls to the chest and legs. That’s either the most horrific damage pool imaginable, or the giants get some kind of resistance against artillery.

  Which… was actually possible, now that I thought about it. The light projectiles fired by ranged units only seemed to obey the laws of physics selectively. Wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to learn giant monsters got a buff against artillery.

  The cannons roared yet again, and this time, the monster’s chest exploded. It could stand up to six rounds, but not eight. Good to know. Three monsters left, and one of them was the two headed brute. Who was scooping up a Toad in each hand, blast him!

  A yard long arrow pierced through the hand and the toad, nailing both to the ground. The results were colorful.

  The monster jerked to a sudden halt by the magic of the arrow, but the momentum of it carried the monster forward, making it do a flip over the pinned hand. As that happened, the Toad exploded. This removed everything below the elbow on the monster. Just… gone, in a spray of yellow gore. All well and good, but what was really interesting was that the spray didn’t just neatly go up and down, some of it got on the monster’s side as well.

  Two heads, screaming. Trying to reach across its body to rip away the corroding meat and bones. Reaching into its side to rip out yellow-flecked organs and entrails, flinging them to the side and stomping the trailing guts that connected them to their old home. The noise of it! The absolute horror and rage of it! It raised its remaining hand and pointed at the Tower. It howled in fury, in outrage.

  “Oh. Only we are supposed hurt and be scared. This is too much, hmm? You have just enough brains in there to feel that what just happened to you wasn’t fair.”

  I smiled. Kindly.

  “Artillery, don’t shoot at the two headed one. Miyuki, only shoot it if it tries to grab another Toad. Let it get closer if it can.”

  It was an open question. The ground was starting to be wet with acid puddles. Like a rainstorm had come through, soaking the churned earth.

  “In Flanders Field the poppies grow… I don’t know the rest of the poem. But I’m going to kill you with artillery and chemical weapons regardless.” I muttered.

  One day I’d plant poppies. I don’t know why the idea popped into my head. But I’d plant poppies, and I’d walk through the field with all my Awakened and try to explain why it mattered. Try to explain why those poppies bloomed so red.

  Carousel blew up another Toad in the air. I glanced over at her. The monsters were still advancing, and the clearing, big as it was, wasn’t that big. That attack seemed suspiciously quick. She wasn’t speed hacking though.

  I had a look around the field. The Giants were spread out now, two pinned and the third, the two headed one, still marching forward. The Monsters and Toads were still pressing forward too, meaning no more ammunition for the pinned giants. Anything else coming out of the forest? I didn’t see more smoke rising, so probably not.

  It felt like the inverse of choosing a Pope- there’s smoke until there is no one. “Rikka, make sure you have a captive alive out there and come on back. I have a little project for you to work on.”

  “Artillery, and I’m including you too, Radz. Kill the pinned giant monsters.”

  “Radz raining death.”

  Yeah, I just bet you are. This battlefield probably looks like a little slice of home.

  The two headed monster lurched closer and closer to the moat, but it was dying. It was smart enough to pick its way around the puddles of acid, but it was missing a lot of not-optional organs. It was weak. Stumbling.

  I watched its foot slip. You could see the expression on its face. Even with a bird’s beak and all the bestial distortion of its faces, you could see the fear. There was a moment where it tried to get its balance back, and couldn’t. It fell backwards into a puddle, and I looked away.

  I didn’t have to watch what came next. I could hear it well enough.

  It was getting wrapped up at short range, now. Once the scattered Monsters and Toads reached Mika’s range, they were torn apart. The Toads are useful little helpers for that. Their final act is one of betrayal, killing their meat shields in an explosion of acid. Miyuki and the artillery finished off the giants. Once they were immobile and with nothing to throw… well. That was that, really.

  “Carousel, you and the Blue Roses are back on moat clearing duty. Keep running Final Revel. I don’t want to find out later that we missed one and it undermined the whole damn wall.”

  “Yes, my Lord.”

  “Ick. I know it’s the rules, but you really shouldn’t have to talk to him like that. Like, he totally should know his place or whatever?”

  I’m just going to pretend that’s how they say “YES, MY GLORIOUS GOD EMPEROR! WE LIVE TO SERVE YOUR TYRANNICAL RULE! ALL HAIL! ALL HAIL!”

  I looked around the battlefield. Miyuki had managed to pin one Toad. It was… damaged looking. Clearly not as tough as the normal Monsters, it was tearing itself apart trying to pull away from the long arrow. Which wasn’t ideal, to put it mildly, but it would have to do.

  “This hunter returns. How may she serve her Lord?” Rikka emerged from a shadow. I know I don’t have a heart, but somehow, she gave me a heart attack. That’s a top quality Awakened Soul right there. Always producing miracles.

  “Coordinate with Sebastian. Grab some clean glass bottles, as well as some of whatever the alchemists use to hold their strongest acid. We are going to test if we can collect the acid the Toads leave behind.”

  The slaughter was rapidly finishing. The artillery and our lone sniper tidied up the pinned monsters in just a couple of rounds. Soon, it would be quiet again.

  I hadn’t had to send out my melee units which was good, but it meant benching three of my four Six Stars. That… well. It worked. But it felt wrong. I’d think about it some more. There was just something about that endless swarm of Fast Monsters backed by all those Toads. The immediate image of Versai and Othai and Mrs. Hungry brought down by hunting dogs, then melted by the acid of demonic toads made me sick.

  No more Kim’s. No more getting my people killed by leaving them cut off from the Tower with minimal support. No more letting a monster get my Awakeneds’ back.

  “Yes, my Lord. And the still living… Toad, as you call it?”

  “Well. If the glass bottles hold the acid, we will need to find a way to milk the vile thing. Waste not, want not, and all that. It might be dangerous, and it will certainly be agonizing for the monster but you know what?”

  I looked out across the charnel house horror of the battlefield. Corpses of monsters lay scattered across the ground like leaf litter in the autumn. It should make me vomit. I should feel nauseated. I should feel my mind breaking at the sight of all this.

  I smiled down at Rikka. “I’ve never been a vegan. And I’m starting to get more used to this place. Jump to it. The night is long, but not forever. We have a lot to do before we welcome the dawn.”