Darius was quite pleased with his reaction to the unexpected tactical situation, all things considered. Hou Zheng was, of course, a threat that everyone had anticipated, even Josh and Ruth. The small army of mercenaries, likewise, had been well within his predictions.

  The tanks had been... outside the scope of his plans. Incredibly outside his scope. But once he took a deep breath and thought about it, he was able to just treat them as high-level artillery mages with high-level Defenders, who couldn't move very far. From there, he could find a better tactical solution than just cowering.

  He was proud of the firebombs. They had made them earlier. Clay and ceramic were common, as earth and fire mages could work together to make it easily enough. Making a large number of clay pots filled with biodiesel had been a nice, simple suggestion that Darius had been able to give to the village. It was one of those things that didn't need much more than a decent number of people working together. Mayor Hawkins had encouraged a selfish, profit-based mindset that did not lead to those kinds of ideas.

  So when Josh signaled for them to do something, Darius had immediately thought of the firebombs. They would be a reasonable weapon against the mercenaries, of course. Even if they had a large number of fire mages, they would still do a good amount of damage. Darius wouldn't have been surprised if the enemy had broken entirely once burning liquid covered the battlefield. People often underestimated fire as a weapon, especially the terror aspect.

  But Darius had not been trying to fight the mercenaries. Not yet, anyway. The walls would hold them off well enough. No, they needed to fight the tanks.

  His original plan had been to use some sort of catapult system to launch firebombs, but he had given up that idea almost as soon as he had it. Catapults were too complex to build and maintain for what they needed. If they already had a blueprint and could build them with the citystone, then perhaps it would have been worth it. As it was, he came up with a simpler answer: Throwing them.

  Each firebomb was about the size of a human head. They were heavy on their own, and heavier when filled with biodiesel, but not so heavy to a mid-level fighter with decent points in Strength. Darius gathered a few Thugs and other people who didn't seem to be doing anything important, taught them about shot put, and watched them work. They learned quickly.

  When Josh called for him to enact his plan, Darius was ready. All he had really needed to do was find the people he had trained over the past few days, get them into place with some spotters, and let them go. They activated the delayed fire runes on the bombs, spun a few times, then threw them over the walls and onto the tanks.

  “Why did you have them aim at the tanks?” Ruth asked, incredulously. She was standing right next to him, and he could barely hear her. The sounds of battle, of gunshots and screaming people and roaring flames, were so loud they drowned out all else. “The fire isn't going to do anything to them.”

  “Terror,” Darius said with a satisfied smile.

  She looked at him, then in the direction of the tanks, then back at him. “Gonna need a bit more than that, Big D.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Don't call me that.” Another firebomb was thrown. More screams and shouts and sounds of battle were heard. “Do you know how hard it is to train a tank crew?”

  She hefted her massive hammer over her shoulder. “Can't say I do.”

  “I suspect that our friend the orc doesn't know either. Which is why I am quite confident that the people piloting those tanks are not skilled professionals.” He shrugged. “It's not as though we have any classes that would make it easier.”

  She didn't speak for a moment as she thought. Darius resisted the urge to make a snarky comment about her actually thinking for once. “So you're saying... the fire makes them panic. More prone to making mistakes.”

  “Exactly. Especially since I am quite sure that having a few gallons of burning liquid come crashing down is likely blinding more than a few of their instruments.” Another strongman threw a firebomb. Darius watched it go sailing away, heard it shatter when it landed. He heard a scream, and smiled. “Besides, if we miss, it's likely still going to hit the mercenaries.”

  “I guess... I'm not sure this will be enough.”

  Darius allowed himself a quiet chuckle. “I promise, this is merely the first step. We needed to buy some time. Have you heard any of the main guns since that first shot?”

  She cocked her head to the side, as if listening. “Huh. No, I haven't.”

  He nodded. “I don't care how well-preserved those tanks were, it's been eighty years.” At minimum. Nobody was using tanks much near the end. “There have to be mechanical and systemic flaws, likely many which they failed to catch before deployment. If anything goes wrong, the crews won't know how to deal with it.”

  A slow grin spread on her face. “Anything like, say, a firebomb dropping on their heads?”

  “Exactly.”

  Just then, another of the main guns went off. Another bit of the wall exploded into splinters. At least it was distant, so whoever had fired hadn't had the presence of mind to shoot somewhere more tactically advantageous.

  Darius sighed. “But it is, ultimately, a delaying tactic. We'll need to deal with them soon.”

  Ruth hefted her hammer. “Leave it to me.” She didn't run off, though.

  He considered for a moment. Ruth was far from the only heavy-hitter in town. Anna had plenty of decent Mages working under her. The Pyro Artilleryman could probably give the tanks a run for their money in sheer damage output. Unfortunately, most of his spells wouldn't do much against metal armor. At least, not more than what the firebombs were already doing. Darius had already sent him to reinforce the flank and fight the mercenaries. There were other Mages with other elements, of course, but he was their best fire Mage, and fire was the most common element. Being able to burn back the Jungle always made you popular.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “How confident are you that you can breach tank armor?” he asked at last.

  “One hundred percent!” she said cheerily.

  He glared. If she was really that confident, he doubted that she would have waited for his permission.

  She rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine. I really do think I can break a tank easily. I can turn this hammer into a black hole bomb and crush one of those things like a tin can.”

  He saw the problem. “But your hammer will be destroyed.”

  She nodded. “Bingo, baby cakes.”

  “Never say that again.”

  Ruth scrunched up her face. “Yeah, that felt off to me too.” She shivered, but calmed down. “Anyway. I think I can batter through the armor with my hammer, but it's going to take a lot more than one hit. I can't do it while the mercenaries are there to slow me down.”

  Darius adjusted his glasses. “A fair point.”

  “Do you have a pretty little solution for them, at least?”

  “Oh, yes.” He smiled. “We dealt with them days ago, really.”

  Ruth looked at him. She looked towards the walls, with the screams and gunfire and flashes of light. She looked back at him. “They don't look dealt with.”

  “Every single soldier defending San Juan Bautista is wearing one of my Improved-tier shrouds,” he said. “They are likely better protected than almost everyone in the enemy army.” He shrugged nonchalantly. “Mid-level Basic-tier shrouds are easy enough to find, as I am sure you know, but anything above that is much more rare, and much more expensive. Not what I would expect random mercenaries to have access to.”

  “Wow. I guess that's one way of looking at it.” There was a pause. It was filled with a sound very much like Mary cursing loudly over her own gunfire. It was gone in a moment. “Not that I'm, uh, doubting your shrouds or anything. But even in the best case scenario, that advantage is going to take some time to win the day. I don't think they're going to give me a chance to batter at the tanks.”

  Darius sighed. He had been enjoying the firebombs sailing through the air, but he supposed he should pay more attention to Ruth. “Apologies, yes, the shrouds are far from a guaranteed victory, and a slow one at that. We need a faster solution.”

  Ruth looked towards the wall again, but she looked more contemplative this time. “Mary has that Vareo Shot spell. It's usually better against heavier targets. Do you think that will do anything?”

  Darius sighed. “Unfortunately not. That's what she was swearing about.” Whether it was the sheer mass of the tanks or especially strong armor, it sounded like her spells weren't strong enough to make a dent.

  Ruth gave him a quizzical look. “Wait, you could hear what she was saying?”

  “I have a high Perception.”

  Ruth snorted. “Not compared to Josh.”

  Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. That was hardly a fair comparison.

  “Still, gravity magic seems the way to go. How fast can you make more disposable gravity weapons?”

  Ruth shrugged helplessly. “A couple hours? I only know how to make the hammers. I might be able to rig something up, but it won't be as strong as the hammers anyway.”

  “Perhaps a simple distraction will be enough,” Darius mused. In fact, perhaps they were distracted enough already. He needed to get a good look at the battlefield. “The tanks have not breached the inner wall.”

  That, of course, was the exact moment that the inner wall was breached.

  Not by the tanks. That, at least, would have been ironic enough that Darius could have been slightly amused even as he scrambled to react to the emergency. Instead, it was something else. Something that Darius had actually been preparing for ever since the walls went up in the first place. Something that Darius had managed to forget about when four armored war machines arrived.

  The wall was breached by the mercenaries.

  Mercenaries didn't have siege magic, as a general rule, since they generally didn't need to fight in sieges. But that didn't mean that they were helpless against a sturdy wall. Clearly, someone in the army had gotten close enough to unleash a powerful spell.

  Splinters of wood the size of his forearm went flying. He heard cries of pain, and could only hope that they came from the enemy. Even if not one single person on his side was hurt, it didn't matter. Mercenaries came pouring over the wall like ants. His meticulously crafted line of volunteer soldiers, everyone's position chosen based on their abilities, buckled in the face of that assault.

  Buckled, but held.

  Still, he felt every splinter as though it was a personal failing. He couldn't have reasonably anticipated the tanks. As bad as they were on a tactical level, emotionally they hardly even registered. No one, not even himself, would blame him for failing to plan for tanks.

  The mercenaries, though? He had absolutely planned for the mercenaries. They were everything they had planned for. They were the reason there were firebombs, and a line of defenders behind the second wall, and why he was giving orders here instead of on top of the wall.

  And yet he had forgotten about them, and let them get those enough to breach the wall. Exactly as he had planned for them not to do. He'd had contingencies if they got close enough. Traps and mines planted in the dirt. He hadn't even had them activated yet. He had been distracted by the shiny new threat like an amateur.

  “Ruth, go find Mary,” Darius ordered. “Tell her to go after the orc. Then, you go after the tanks.”

  “Understood,” she said, the flighty girl gone in favor of a warrior who was happy to obey if it meant she would be able to help. “What about you?”

  “I'm on support duty.”

  She looked hesitant, then nodded and ran off towards the wall. She jumped to the top, not bothering with the stairs, in a single bound.

  Darius pulled his shield off his back and readied his shroud. “Keep throwing firebombs,” he ordered his recruits. It was probably unnecessary. They had continued working through everything that had happened. Even so, they were less than halfway through the pile. “Only stop if the mercenaries get within direct range.”

  Relaxation time was over. Now, the fight began.