Chapter 81: Chapter 79: Brooding Hero

Anala sat in her chair, watching as people scurried about, preparing themselves for what was to come. They had lost more than Anala would have liked in the battle. While the casualties of actual people had been kept to a minimum by the presence of the tanks, they had instead lost a majority of the tanks, which was a not-insignificant decrease in the firepower on the side of Haven.

And it wasn’t one that could be made up for in time for the next siege. The frontier towns were quite a distance apart, yes, but those monsters had been moving fast. The current estimates were projecting the army’s arrival at the next frontier town to be in three days, provided the army didn’t stop to lick its wounds.

Anala didn’t see why it would. The army of monsters had received remarkably little consequential damage from the siege, losing only a few of their powerful monsters. Whole hordes of lesser monsters had been annihilated, yes, but those were little more than cannon fodder. The army would likely swell in size again just by marching to the next town. It likely wouldn’t be as big as before, but their reinforcements would be a step above the peons that were lost.

Really, Anala wasn’t sure where the Queen of Monsters had found such weak underlings. Goblins and the like had been known to exist, and had started popping up near the frontier towns somewhat regularly, but not in the sheer number that was contained within the Queen of Monsters’ army. And even if those monsters weren’t killed by adventurers, they would quickly be done in by the surrounding wildlife.

The Queen of Monsters must have gone out of her way to keep them safe from the other monsters, just so she could raise their number and use them as foot soldiers. That was the only thing that made sense. Apparently, in the rare occasion that goblins or kobolds had been allowed to flourish, they had multiplied at an astonishing rate, so just by spending a couple of years protecting the pockets that popped up near her, the Queen of Monsters would have been able to build up an army of that size.

But that wasn’t that bad, not really; those monsters were more than manageable. What really scared Anala was the implication of the Queen of Monsters raising a group of monsters like that. That meant that this invasion was something she had been planning ever since the Shift, and she was probably more than prepared for the defenses that would be arrayed against her.

She had chosen to make the monsters target the tanks. It was entirely unnatural for monsters to be so single-mindedly devoted in choosing to fight something that wasn’t edible when such good food was so close. The tanks were distracting, yes, but they weren’t that distracting. The monsters could have easily ignored them whilst they gorged themselves on the people the tanks were protecting.

That could only mean that the Queen of Monsters had been targeting the heaviest hitters first, softening up the people so she would have an easier time taking the next city. It also meant that the next attack would be soon; the Queen of Monsters had to know that people could just make more tanks. She was going to push her advantage, and push it hard.

It was beginning to feel hopeless. It felt like everyone was just dancing on the Queen of Monsters’ palm, and there was nothing they could do but –

“Chin up, Anala.” Eve said, holding out a hand to the taller girl. “We haven’t lost yet.”

Anala gave her a weak smile, accepting the hand and standing up. “I’m glad to hear you say that, but you must admit this looks pretty bad. I don’t know how we’re even going to begin to approach our next fights.”

“It’s going to be bad for a bit,” Eve admitted, “but it will get better.”

“You…sound so confident about that, but I’m…not so sure. We…we’re not getting the people back that died, Eve. Our army is going to dwindle and dwindle while hers grows.”

Eve shook her head. “That’s not necessarily true. This attack was bad, but it’s also doubtless the worst of the attacks she’s going to stage. That wasn’t the type of thing she can afford to replicate, and while she may gain more monsters, they’re going to be relatively weak. The important parts of her army aren’t going to replenish that easily. It might take a while, and it will sting our pride a little, but we can do this.”

“You’ve lost me there.” Bruce said, standing up and walking over to the two of them. “Care to explain?”

“It’s simple; we have something the Queen of Monsters will never have.”

“The power of friendship?” Bruce asked, smiling wryly.

Eve rolled her eyes. “No, not the power of friendship. As much as you people from Earth seem to forget it, this isn’t some story where the world will gather together and send their energy to the protagonist. We don’t have anything as convenient as that.”

Bruce chuckled. “You have to admit that sentiment is working in our favor, though. The army probably wouldn’t be half this size if it wasn’t for people thinking they had the opportunity to go ‘be a hero’ like in those stories.”

“Whatever. The point is, we have the gates the High Arbiter set up, and those are a big deal.” Eve replied, holding up a hand and counting off on her fingers. “They provide instantaneous transportation that the Queen of Monsters can’t hijack, in a form that she can’t destroy. That means that, effectively, each gate is a highway directly into any lands she’s taken.

“Even if she straight up demolishes the cities around the gates, we can still use them as ways to fight a guerilla war. If she wants to prevent that, she has to leave the gates guarded, otherwise her army is going to get harried at every step.”

“That’s…true.” Anala said slowly. “I hadn’t really thought about it in that way. But…will our harrying even be effective? It’s those big monsters I’m worried about, and I don’t think it’d be easy to nip in and just assassinate one.”

“That’s not the point.” Eve said. “The point is that, even though it’s made of monsters, it’s an army. Armies need to feed their soldiers somehow, and most monsters can’t just go without eating, especially those big ones. If we make the monsters ration their food, then even if we don’t kill any of the big monsters, it’s still going to dramatically reduce the army’s effectiveness. And if the Queen of Monsters doesn’t want that, she has to leave at least a few big monsters at the portals.

“She knows we can kill those big monsters if they’re alone. If that happens, then not only is she down a big monster, she’s stuck with that same problem I mentioned before. She has to commit to the portals, which means her army has to get weaker with every town she takes. And she wants to take all of the frontier towns. Even if we have to focus entirely on defending the three major cities, her army will slowly dwindle until it reaches a manageable level.”

“You’ve thought about this quite a bit, haven’t you?” Anala asked. “I…was really starting to panic there, so thanks for pointing that out to me.”

Eve shrugged. “She wants us to be afraid. The more afraid we are, the less rational our decisions are, and the easier her job is. I –”

“Eve, you’re okay!” Ava said, bounding into the room and scooping Eve up into a hug. “You had me worried sick!”

Eve wriggled out of Ava’s embrace. “Stop treating me like a kid!” She huffed. “I’m a full-grown adult, thank you very much!”

“I know…but I can still be worried about you!”

“Sure, but, even so, it’s still stifling. You don’t treat anyone else like this, so why me?”

Ava sighed. “I suppose you deserve to know that much. I’m…completely infertile. The doctors tried and tried, and no matter what we did, we couldn’t get anything to change. Physically speaking, I’m perfectly healthy, it just…doesn’t work. Now that the Shift has happened and I’ve been able to meet up with Bruce, we’ve been trying things with doctors again, but it’s not looking good.

“We’ve been talking about adoption for a while, but we decided it just wasn’t a good idea until things were…well, safer. And then you came along and sorta…triggered my maternal instinct, and you were good enough in a fight that I didn’t even have to worry about you being in danger from just normal monsters.

“I know it’s selfish, but I’ve sorta been…playing out some of my fantasies with you. I’ll…stop if you really want me to, though. I get that we can’t afford this sort of tension during a war.”

Eve was silent for a long moment. “I…suppose it is fine in moderation.” She finally said. “And don’t do it in public, either.”

Ava gave Eve a grateful smile. “Thank you.” She said.

“It…is fine. We need morale up as much as possible, after all. If we get dispirited, then the Queen of Monsters has already won. We will probably have to sacrifice a few towns, and it’s going to look like we’re losing badly for a while, but we cannot let that get to us.”

She dusted herself off a bit, casting a glance at each member of Anala’s party. “I have to get back to my own party, but do not let yourselves get this dispirited again. Others may not see your potential, but I can tell you’re abnormally strong. I’m not going to ask what your secret is or judge you for keeping it from me, I’m much the same. I just…want you to know that I feel that if we give up hope now, then any chance of winning would truly be lost.”

And with that she left, heading out of the room, leaving only Anala, Bruce, and Ava inside.

“How…did she know to come find us?” Anala asked, shaking her head in wonder.

“I’m not sure, but I’m thankful for it.” Bruce said. “I didn’t want to say anything, but I was getting pretty dispirited, and it seems like you were too.”

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“Yeah.” Anala confirmed. “I was wondering what chance we had, because the Queen of Monsters has clearly been preparing for this for a long time, and she seems to have a good idea of how strong people would be. But…I’ve come to realize, she doesn’t know about us. We have to be the thing that messes up her plans, we don’t have the luxury to be down.”

Bruce nodded. “You’re right. Shall we get back to it, then?”

Anala and Ava nodded. “Let’s go.” Ava said. “We don’t have time to sit around any longer.”

---

“How’d it go?” Jameson asked.

“They bought it.” Eve said, plopping down into her chair and letting out a sigh of relief. “They seem to be getting ready to go train again.”

“That’s good.” Jameson replied. “When are we planning the next attack?”

“Five days from now.” Eve said. “I want to give them a little time to regroup and stop panicking. As important as the morale of the heroes is, we can’t neglect the general populace, either. Plus, it’ll give me a little more time to round up the last few monsters in the area.

“I’m planning to leave a bunch of really weak monsters as the only ones in the areas near the towns, to make training easier for people who are low level, so it wouldn’t do to have a bunch of relatively strong monsters nearby that would just exterminate them completely.”

Jameson raised an eyebrow. “When did you think of that? Actually…when did you get those weak monsters anyway?”

“I made a bunch of them with the dungeon.” Eve replied. “Nuwa grumbled about wasting DP for something like that, but we have more than enough.”

“How is she doing, by the way? I haven’t talked to her in a while.”

“She’s fine.” Eve said. “Just holed up in her core, as always. Honestly, I’ve been considering asking Lilith to help me stage an intervention. Ever since she managed to integrate that computer into the dungeon so she could use it without the help of the spare avatar, she’s checked out from everything even more.”

No! Nuwa said frantically. Anything but that!

“Oh, now you show up.” Eve said. “Seriously, would it kill you to…I don’t know, come out at least once a week?”

Not happening! Nuwa replied. That’s way too much effort for no benefit. You and Lilith basically have social interaction covered, so Mae and I can just relax.

“And what do I tell our daughters, that their mom’s too busy playing on the computer to come say hi to them?” Eve snapped.

There was a long silence before Nuwa spoke up. I suppose once a week is doable, then. Just so long as you don’t stage an intervention.

“That’s acceptable.” Eve replied, then turned back to Jameson. “Sorry about that. That must have been…kinda awkward to sit through.”

“A bit, yeah.” Jameson agreed. “But I’m glad it all worked out, I guess.”

Eve nodded. “By the way, do you know where Anna got to?”

“She’s off with Carmen. Carmen really wanted to be able to tame things like her mother, so Anna’s seeing if she can’t teach her how to do it.”

“How’s that been going?”

Jameson smiled faintly. “Carmen’s not good at it.” He said. “She’s just too rambunctious, and she doesn’t quite understand all of her lessons, either. Still, she’s trying her hardest, and I’m proud to say she hasn’t given up yet.”

Eve pondered that for a moment. “Well…if she sticks with it, I’ll have to gift her some monsters when she gets older, make some new ‘dogs’ for her.”

“Don’t spoil her too much.” Jameson warned. “I don’t want a kid running around with anything close to as strong as the dogs; that sounds like a recipe for disaster.”

“I’ll wait until she’s at least thirteen and she’s proved herself responsible enough before letting her have anything even approaching strong, don’t worry.” Eve replied. “I’m not eager to put that much power in the hands of a kid either.”

“Yeah, I –” Jameson cut off, looking towards the door, “oh, Aria, what are you doing here?”

Aria shyly closed the door behind her and walked up to Eve. “Um…mommy?”

“Yes, sweetie?” Eve said, reaching over and ruffling Aria’s hair.

“I…I…” Aria struggled for a bit, trying to force the words out. “I…think I’m ready.”

Eve was silent for a second. “For the talk with Errus?”

Aria nodded. “I’ve thought about it for a bit, and I think putting it off any longer isn’t going to help.”

Eve looked up at Jameson. “Sorry to do this, but do you mind if we continue our conversation later?” She asked. “We have to take care of this.”

“Don’t even worry about it.” Jameson replied. “I get it. I’ll be out in the fields with Anna and Carmen, come find me when you’re done.”

Eve nodded, reaching down and grabbing Aria’s hand. “I’m very proud of you, you’re being very brave.” She said. “Come on, I’ll go grab your mom, and then we can talk with Kali, okay?”

Aria gave a hesitant nod. “Will…you be there with me while it happens?” She asked.

“Of course.” Eve replied. “I won’t leave you unless you tell me to.”

Aria buried her face in Eve’s chest. “Thanks, mommy.”

“Of course.”