Otherlife Nightmares: The Selfless Hero Trilogy (28 page)

Well, if she were real. Wait. Could she? Technically she can access any other system program as if she were real. It’s not as if she’d need any hardware.

Technically speaking, everyone here could actually log in again with another character if he provided them with a virtual-reality setup.

“That’s…that’s actually a really good question. I—”

I’m creating my character now.

“Ah. It seems Srit agrees and is creating her character now,” Runner said with a concerned edge to his voice.

I’m going to make my avatar look like Thana.

“Er, I agree Thana is very beautiful but perhaps you should create an avatar that represents you? Maybe take a comprehensive view of many faces and decide what you like and don’t like? Perhaps catalog what you like about Thana’s face?”

Thana looked shocked at that little exchange. Everyone in the tent was staring at him now.

Yes, that’s a good idea. I’ll do that. I’m done. I’m going to make my way to you.

With the speed that she’d completed the task, Runner could imagine she had gone from idling her resources to ninety-nine percent in a heartbeat.

Runner blew out a breath and looked around the room with a sheepish smile.

“So, it looks like we’ll be having Srit joining us. Uhm, we should probably start collecting gear and supplies for her.”

Secretly he held a fear in his heart that he couldn’t speak aloud. Srit had apparently mastered the complete usage of contractions. On top of that, she was now logging in to an environment she could interact with directly.

Good thing I was aiming for sentience, because whether I like it or not, it’s coming.

Chapter 11 - Best Laid Plans -

11:34 am Sovereign Earth time

11/15/43

“They’re coming,” announced Stefan flatly.

“Of course. I’d be disappointed if they didn’t stop over. Should always greet the neighbors when moving in to a new area, Sarge,” Runner agreed. Sitting cross-legged on the ground, he had his chin resting in the palm of his hand.

A moderately sized force marched its way to his own troops. It wasn’t quite a one-to-one ratio. Pretty close though. It had all the appearances of a true attack.

Except he actually knew the enemy numbers. And those who were now on approach looked only lightly armed and armored. Those who could flee quickly should the attack fail and wouldn’t be missed if they couldn’t retreat
.

Reserves, really.

“Sarge?”

“Yep, Sarge. You were a sergeant. Now it’s your name. People I give a crap about or feel are important get new names. Be thankful I put a modicum of thought into it. I could very well have named you Cuddles McSofty,” Runner explained.

“You seem unconcerned about the battle.”

“Indeed. I am. This will probably be a light touch. Nothing more than those they’re willing to lose. Followed by a little heavier one later, I imagine. Could be wrong. Probably not.”

And honestly, this is probably the one thing I can truly solve right now. It has an answer. Destroy them. Everything else requires an answer I don’t have.

He curbed his thoughts before they ran him straight back into a depressing spiral. Reminding himself of the futility of his current situation didn’t help at all.

That wasn’t quite true actually. The medical server was on the last system update. It would be up and running by tomorrow morning. Now all that he needed was the password and he could start transferring people over to a normal medical server.

Everyone would be safe.

Providing they don’t kill me before I can save them. Lousy ingrates. Kill a few people to save thousands and you’re a murderer.

Though he did have a concern or two about the actual system procedure. The manual seemed to suggest the actual process would be simple enough that it would only take a query and a batch request. Transfer the data and boom. But nothing that simple ever worked out exactly as planned.

Runner forced his mind out of that line of thought and back to the task at hand.

Battle. War. Death.

They were watching from the ridge of the hill that they had fired on earlier. They weren’t able to hide the destruction done to the grounds and the large number of bodies, so the encampment had been forced forward. It would serve his purposes. They were more easily seen from here and there wouldn’t be any question as to what the enemy general could see either.

Based on the information they gleaned from the interviews, the general was a woman, extremely intelligent, and happened to be a caster.

Her forces were only a level or two higher than his own. The number of her troops was the problem. She had twice as many as he did at the very least.

“You sound so certain,” Stefan grunted. Outfitted in new gear, the once sergeant now looked more the part of a full knight. Outfitted in heavy Basic Plate and given a new two-handed Great Sword, he cast a striking figure. Didn’t hurt that they’d dyed everything black.

“It’s what I would do in her position. I have to assume she’s as smart as I am, or smarter. Probably smarter,” Runner said. Glancing around, he made sure no one was around them. The rest of his party had departed to prepare for Srit’s arrival.

“Your plan is to…fight them? Here and now?”

“No. Actually, yes. They’re going to probe to see what surprises they can spring. What mysteries they can solve. After a few skirmishes, and the fact that I don’t use the cannons or magic, they’ll assume whatever it was I did was a onetime thing or not easily used. At some point, when they launch a real attack, they’ll push hard. Use their numbers to their advantage. And when they do, we’ll have our center start to fall back like they’re buckling.” Runner ripped a handful of grass out of the ground with his left hand and tossed it in the air.

He watched the grass flutter in the wind as he thought about the upcoming few days.

“The trick is making it look believable without making the troops actually flee. That and honestly whatever plans I make I have to assume will fail. No plan ever survives contact with the enemy. We may never even get the chance to try and encircle them. For all I know we’re being encircled right now.”

“I see. Do you believe a direct contest between the bulk of both forces will occur today?”

“Possible, unlikely. Really depends on how aggressive the general is going to be. She could be passive and play for time and this could carry into tomorrow. Though I doubt that it’ll go beyond tomorrow before she engages. The longer we have her facing us, the more she’ll get worried about the Barbarians sallying out to kick their side in. Let us hope the Barbarians figure it out and join us, no?”

A horn sounded from the infantry line down below them as each side began the final preparations before the clash.

“That’s your cue, Sarge. Do what you need to do. Don’t die,” Runner said, gesturing at the enemy soldiers with his left hand.

Stefan nodded to Runner and moved off to take his place with the line.

With a huff, Runner lay down in the grass. Turning his head to the side, he watched as the two lines met each other. Line warfare wasn’t particularly successful when people could take multiple hits.

He had a number of dirty tricks he could employ but he held off on that. They were one time only tricks and he’d need them later.

There wasn’t much for him to do now. Everyone had their orders.

A furry rodent scampered his way through the grass. Popping into clear view was a squirrel. This one was level six.

“Goodness. You guys are everywhere. Bigger too. I don’t think I have any blueberries but maybe…” Runner said, trailing off at the end.

Lifting his hand from the grass, he popped open the inventory window. Doing a quick scan of his foraging, he found a strawberry food item.

“Oh, lucky you. Your little brothers only got blueberries.” Runner proffered a strawberry in his fingers. He didn’t really feel like exerting enough energy to throw it.

Moving in close, the squirrel took the strawberry from his fingers and began eating it.

“Brave little shit, aren’t you? Braver than me at least.”

Runner slid another strawberry out and held it up with his fingertips. Pulling it from his fingers, the squirrel took it and then bolted away.

Runner was grateful for the momentary distraction. Today was a bloody day.

He lay there alone with his thoughts. He soaked up the sun’s warm rays as the grass in turn soaked up the blood of his soldiers.

The battle proceeded much as he’d predicted to Stefan.

Engage, probe, retreat. It took little more than an hour. Runner lost a handful and the opposing side lost double. A small consolation to those who lost their lives.

The second, third, and fourth such encounters merely reaffirmed his earlier belief as to the main goal of the attacks. They lasted longer and the period between them stretched out but they were the same.

Engage, probe, retreat.

His opponent was very wary of whatever had happened to her troops in the initial encounter.

Several times she’d used cloaked units to harass messengers and those found outside of the encampment. She gained nothing he wasn’t willing to let her have.

He did regret the butcher’s bill he had to pay for giving her poor intel.

He had to respect her. She did everything she could to ferret out whatever tricks he had up his sleeve. Up to the point of even risking a day’s delay to make sure that he wouldn’t be able to decimate her forces.

Early in the evening the enemy force turned and left the field. They left their dead behind as well as whatever hope they had of successfully completing the siege of Kastell today.

Runner’s scouts returned to confirm reports that the enemy had indeed returned to their blankets and bedrolls.

Throughout the day he noticed his party members rummaging through gear and inventories and bartering with others. Srit hadn’t yet made her entrance, but he didn’t doubt it would be sooner rather than later.

When she did make herself known it was now apparent the ladies would make her feel welcome and prepare her for the world.

He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. Maybe both.

Probably both.

Yep.

6:08 am Sovereign Earth time

11/16/43

Runner was roused from his sleep when Isabelle pinged him with her private signal. They’d set her up as an assistant Raid Leader so she could make personal, group, and raid pings.

No one could enter his personal campsite without his permission. Which meant if he was sleeping no one could enter except a player. Since there were no players in his forces, it made the pings a necessity.

In addition to that, Isabelle had taken it upon herself to sleep at the perimeter and act as a doorbell. She filtered out useless information from the worthwhile. He hadn’t asked it of her, though he now greatly appreciated having it filter through someone.

Runner removed Thana’s arm from around his torso, stepped lightly out of his bedroll, and crept over to Isabelle.

She sat with her blankets pulled up to her chin. Runner could only assume she was still dressed for bed. Hopefully whatever the situation was could be solved relatively quickly.

That or it was so important it couldn’t wait.

“What’s up, Belle?” Runner whispered. He hoped it was an easy situation rather than the worst-case scenario. Squatting down next to her bedroll, he gave her an easy smile.

“Enemy camp is waking up after a messenger came in. The scouts missed his approach and only noticed when the person unstealthed in front of the general’s tent. A few of the scouts reported that there has also been no movement from the castle,” Isabelle outlined for him. She held her blankets close to her shoulders.

“Right, then,” Runner said, blowing out a breath. Looking into the distance, he combed his left hand through his hair. “We’ll assume this is the push to worry about and that we’ll get no help from the capital. Cowards.”

Runner grumbled to himself as an ill temper snuck into his morning. Apparently the Barbarian king planned to see Runner spend his own forces before risking his.

It wasn’t a bad tactic to ensure his country’s safety. Though it was a guaranteed way to alienate those who’d come to his aid. That or squander their support as they simply left him to his fate.

He couldn’t do that though. Pressing ever onwards happened to be his only option. He was also pretty good at it.

“Get a messenger off to Hannah. Use a stealthed one. I know we don’t have as many but this is one of those things that needs to be kept a secret as long as we can. Get yourself some breakfast. I’ll get the morning call going,” Runner said with a grin. Patting her lightly on the shoulder, he left her to her privacy.

Rubbing at his chin, he made his way to the center of the camp.

A messenger. Barbarian king offering terms? Maybe.

Grunting, he veered off from his original route. Now making his way over to Stefan’s tent, he felt it would be good to have him up and moving. Runner was getting itchy. Nervous. Paranoid.