“How do you do it?” Mason asked, coming up behind me.

  I leaned against the railing of the Phoenix’s Feather, looking down at the forests below. There were some giant bears moving through the trees, looking like they were stalking the herd of elk that had run off as we passed by. The airship’s passage caused the top of the trees to sway. The bears looked up, growling at us for making the elk scatter.

  “Do what?”

  The ship wasn’t close to full, but it was the only one that had been available. We’d sent the scouts off with the smaller ship. They were heading far north, looking for the Grimdar’s main camp. My small force had a simple mission. Clear the first of three Dungeons.

  Mason leaned on the railing next to me. He was still in his armor but no weapon. That had gone back into his inventory.

  “Lead and still be the protector,” he said. “The question you asked me back at the Port. I said why I couldn’t do it, how do you?”

  “Delegate,” I replied, and chuckled. “That’s it. Simple but complex. The problem is in finding the right people. I lucked out in finding Katrina Anderson and then everyone else along the way. I trust them all to make the decisions, and they loop me in on the big stuff. Kat’s great at preparing reports for me to read when I’m around. It leaves me free to do what I really need to do.”

  “I had the chance,” Mason said, sighing. “Back when Payton first formed the Gray Wolf Clan. I could have taken it from him, but I didn’t, preferring to not deal with all the politics and logistics. I just wanted to help protect people. And Payton wasn’t bad, not at first. He did a good job, but as time went on….,” Mason shrugged. “He changed and started being surrounded by nothing but yes-men, and I was always too busy out here,” he waved his hand at the land beneath us. “To do anything about it. He was too entrenched and I had no desire to start a civil war in the Clan.”

  “Smart move there,” I said. “There was a Clan to the south that joined us about two, maybe three years ago, they’d been in a similar situation and…,” I shook my head. “The winner didn’t really want to join the Fellowship, but they’d been left in shambles and had no choice.”

  I leaned back and looked up at Mason. He had a couple inches on me.

  “Thinking about taking over?”

  He shook his head.

  “No, not anymore. I’d take a look at Culpepper,” Mason said. “I don’t know her well, but haven’t heard anything bad.”

  “Thanks. I’ll have her checked out.”

  We fell silent, the ship sailing on.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, maybe fifteen minutes later.

  “For what?”

  “Dragging you away from the fighting.”

  “I get it now,” he said. “And yeah, I was angry but…,” he shrugged. “What’s the Nexus like?”

  I smiled.

  “Come on,” I said, turning away from the rail. “Let’s go find the elves, grab some beers and play some cards and we’ll tell you all about it.”

  ***

  The next day, we came up on a series of hills in the middle of a grassy plain. The hills were different sizes, shapes, some big, some small. Rocky and grassy, with some steep sides. There was a small valley in the middle of the hills with a small pond, fed by a river coming from the top of the largest hill. On that hill was a small pool, surrounded by standing stones.

  The Dungeon was in the valley, a path led down from the standing stones, the only relatively easy access down to the valley. A path led up to the standing stones, the only relatively easy access up to the top of the slope.

  And surrounding it all was a large army, leaving just enough open space at the bottom of the path. Just enough space so that when the Dungeon surged, and hordes of arcanebeasts came streaming out of the Dungeon, there was a nice convenient gap for the monsters to go to. Also nice and convenient that the gap faced the nearest village.

  Which was in the process of being evacuated.

  The airship hovered about a mile back. Close enough that we could use binoculars and Abilities to get an idea of what we were facing. They had some kind of anti-aircraft weapons. They looked like giant cannons on mounts. I knew they didn’t fire just cannonballs, there would be some Essence involved. Mason hadn’t seen those in action, so had no idea what they were capable of.

  “The Sunrise Formation has similar,” Geralio said. “They have an effective range of 1000 yards.”

  At least I thought he meant yards. Distances were hard to translate because everyone based them on different measurements. A yard was three feet. But what did the elves of Cerim use as their base measurement? It was close enough for us to get an idea of what he meant.

  “They are strong enough that a couple hits would crash this vessel.”

  “So we stay out of the range,” I said. “For now.”

  The airship did have some shielding. An energy field. We held no illusions that it would take a sustained barrage for long. The AA cannons were positioned on the south sides of the hills, facing where the Grimdar thought the opposition, us, would be coming from. Most of their troops were amassed on those sides, more in reserve around the back. There were a couple hundred, too far for us to get any kind of idea what their Levels or capabilities were.

  Most likely a lot of melee damage types.

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  That’s what Jeriyan’s information crystal had said the bulk of the Grimdar forces were. Melee fighters were a dime a dozen. That was no knock on them, some of my best friends were melee-centric, so was my new bestie Mason. But those were the most common Essences found, which meant more people got them. And honestly, melee was far easier to learn than throwing spells and such.

  Give someone a sword with minimal training and set them loose. They might not be that effective, but they’d get some hits and probably a couple of kills due to sheer luck.

  Also, who didn’t want to be a knight, swinging their sword against the dragon, when they were growing up?

  But because of the relatively common melee-centric Essences, a large planetary Faction could send out hundreds, if not thousands, of warriors. The mages and such would be kept back, the elite forces. It was like any war, even those back before guns and tanks were invented. The grunts always went first and made up the bulk of the army.

  From our angle, we couldn’t tell if there were any Grimdar forces inside the valley. But we assumed there were. The Grimdar would be stupid to not have anyone there. It wouldn’t be a lot of forces. Access to the valley was pretty tight and couldn’t move a lot of numbers up and down quickly. They wouldn’t want a ton down there when the Dungeon Break finally happened.

  At least, that’s what we were counting on.

  “Captain Nichols,” I said, looking at the captain who was standing at the front railing next to me, Mason and Geralio. She was looking extremely nervous, but held a straight posture. I felt bad for her. She hadn’t signed on for what was coming. All she’d agreed to do was ferry a bunch of people from Solacetown to Darren’s Port. But I’d asked, and she had said yes. So here we were. “Is your ship ready?”

  “Yes, Lord Howell.”

  I looked at her. She held herself solid but could see the tension.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yessir,” Captain Nichols said. She looked around her ship and then back at me. “The plan is solid and the ship is more than capable. As is the crew.”

  “Good to hear,” I said. “Let’s make sure everyone else is ready too.”

  They followed me as I walked back to the ship’s central area. Which was very crowded. Sailors lined the railings, standing next to the hastily installed cannons of our own. Three down each side. These were small, not much range and wouldn’t do much damage. But that wasn’t the point. The whole middle was filled up with the small troop that I’d brought with me.

  Sunie, Nathan and his team, were at the front. About two dozen soldiers were standing at attention behind them. Sergeant Parker, who was in charge of the squads, and I had no idea how many soldiers made up a squad, stepped forward.

  “We’re ready Lord Howell,” he said, saluting.

  I saluted back.

  “Excellent,” I said, moving to the side a bit so everyone had a decent chance of seeing me around Nathan’s big form. “You all know what’s coming and why. I’m not going to lie. This is going to be rough but I’ll be right there with you. Who we’re facing is not monsters born from the System, or bandits. They aren’t from Earth and they are here to take this planet from us. Will we let them?”

  “NO!,” the whole group, including the sailors, shouted.

  Not bad for my first pre-battle speech. I’d improve as, sadly, I’d have to give more.

  “Everyone get ready,” I shouted. “We go in five.”

  ***

  The airship lurched as Captain Nichols poured on the speed. We had been at a pretty full stop and then we weren’t. The ship groaned as it strained against the impulse to go slower. Airships like the Phoenix weren’t made for this, but Nichols said she would hold and I trusted the Captain.

  I stood at the left side rail, soldiers and sailors spread out around me, Sunie immediately to my left. I could feel the Arcanum in the air as the sailors primed the cannons. The ship shifted, almost knocking us all off our feet. At these speeds, even the slightest shift as the pilot adjusted to get the right course, was going to be a major one and we’d feel it.

  From where I was, I couldn’t see the hills and the valley, or the enemy, but I heard it as soon as we got in range. The Grimdar cannons started firing. Loud, streaks of burning energy shooting past us. I hoped we were moving too fast for them to zero in on. If we weren’t, this was going to be a very short operation.

  More explosions to the sides, rocking the ship. Others arced past, whistling through the air, to land in the plains behind us. The ship kept going, some of the blasts coming pretty damn close.

  “One thousand feet,” Captain Nichols Ability augmented voice rang out over the sounds of the explosions and the wind tearing at us.

  “Get ready,” I shouted, the command moving down the line.

  I couldn’t hear if it had been repeated by Nathan on the other side, but I’d assume it was.

  The ship’s cannons started firing, blue globs of energy lancing down toward the ground.

  I moved closer to the rail, looking down. Green grass, some rocks, the land rising. And then it started to rise steeper and quickly. Grass gave way to rock, which was extremely close below us. We passed over the top of a hill, the standing stones and pond about a hundred feet in front of me, to the ship’s left, the hill only about fifty feet below.

  The tops of the hills passed, the rocky slopes starting to descend. They were below us, and then everything was on an angle. I had to hold onto the rail to keep myself steady, hearing a couple people cursing as they lost their grip and slid down the decking. The airship was pointing sharply down and then it leveled off, more people cursing.

  Tops of trees appeared only ten feet or so below us, a couple of really tall ones scraping against the bottom of the airship. The river meandered through the small forest.

  “THIRTY SECONDS!,” Captain Nichols shouted.

  “Here we go,” I yelled, smiling.

  This was incredibly risky and crazy, and not what the Grimdar had been expecting.

  “TEN!,” Captain Nichols yelled out.

  I couldn’t see the target, had to rely on her.

  “ONE!! GO! GO! GO!”

  And I went.

  One hand on the railing, I vaulted over, seeing soldiers on either side of me doing the same, casting out the rappelling lines. Besides me, Sunie was the only one that I could see not using a line. The ships cannons fired into the air, taking out whatever the Grimdar were able to get airborne.

  Kat was going to be so pissed at me for this.