Chapter 19: Directed Energy Weapons

  dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 continued spreading south while scouting with a harpy. The harpy had better long-distance sight than the goblins, which made it possible to observe the town of Riveg from a long distance. He let the harpy fly directly between the sun and the settlement, to test their sensors and speed of detection. Being spotted was inevitable if they had any surveillance equipment.

  Unlike the village of Esterland, Riveg was a walled settlement. The wall was composed of wooden segments and separated by guard towers. Each segment had snaking runic coverings of metal emanating from a central point. It might have been a decoration, but dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 suspected there was something in that central location which was vital to the operation of the wall. Existence of miniaturized shield generators made it likely that walled settlements were also shielded, although it was something he would have to confirm.

  Three rivers met on the eastern side of the town, one from the north, one from the north-east and one from the east. A series of bridges crossed all three, with each crossing having its own towers and gates. The town was split into two segments, and there was an internal wall segment separating a section of the town which had unrestricted access to the river and the rest of the city. Large gates connected the two segments, allowing for traffic between the river and city center.

  The obvious weakpoint was the section of the city adjacent to the river, which was not surrounded by walls. However an assault would expose the attacking force to fire from the guard towers at the ends of the wall sections that reached the river, the guard towers along the bridges, and from atop the internal wall in places where buildings did not block line of sight. The section of town would only be vulnerable to long-ranged attacks, meaning his current complement of troops was unsuitable. If the javelin proved itself as an armor piercing weapon, then the next demand was for some form of artillery or explosives suitable for demolishing reinforced structures.

  The terrain was unfavorable for a direct assault on non-river sides as well. The area surrounding the town was extremely flat in a large radius, leaving little cover for approach aside from a few buildings and fences. The area was agricultural and contained large fields of crops as well as animals, which he could grab and harvest for mana.

  dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 counted no viable options for a direct assault, which meant he would have to attempt infiltration and sabotage of the town's defenses. The level of fortifications was unexpected and spreading north to gather mana from the village first would have been the optimal choice instead, but he had already exposed his presence here. The level of fortifications would only rise without his interference to counteract it.

  There was only a single avenue of infiltration which had cover from the guard towers and walls while approaching. It was the river itself. dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 ordered a goblin to jump into water, and measured the effect. Spawned creatures did not seem to suffer from exhaustion or an increased need for oxygen based on their activity, but they apparently still drowned while underwater. Goblins started taking damage after 5 minutes, became impossible to control after 6 minutes, and expired after 7 minutes. A covert underwater approach was not viable, based on the distance between the forest edge and the town.

  The last possibility was a tendril similar to the one used during the village assault, but due to the fortifications, the troops would have to be produced within the town itself. Because of the time required to produce cores and spawn creatures from them, this would mean any ability to detect the tendril would make the attempt an enormous waste of mana, although with considerable potential gains to even out the risk.

  dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 decided to continue reconnaissance, probe for weaknesses, and harass supply lines. A lengthy siege was undesirable, but without artillery, it would be the only option for gaining access to the information and resources of the town. A new upgrade might allow for new strategies as well, if the harassment resulted in a sufficient surplus of mana.

  The harpy was spotted after 14 minutes. One of the guards on one of the northern towers had left its post at that time, and returned after 11 minutes with what was presumably a commanding officer. The harpy's sight was not clear enough to tell where the guards were looking directly, but the newcomer had initially shielded their eyes with their left hand and angled their head away from the sun, before removing it, raising their head, and not moving for several minutes.

  With the harpy exposed and the local area mapped, he instructed it to grab the biggest animal it could, just to gain some mana before they moved the livestock away from the area. The reaction from the guards confirmed that the harpy had been spotted, as the commanding officer left when it began flying north.

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  dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 returned with the harpy to the edge of the forest several hours later, after depositing the animal and slicing its neck for mana. It approached the town without flying and from a different angle, to hide its position. Analyzing the area had revealed a thicker and slightly elevated part of the forest as a good lookout position, although he lacked the ability to see the other side of the city as it was lower than the walls. The harpy stood there, holding onto a tree, with only its eyes visible to any onlookers.

  It took six hours for a squad to emerge from the city, heading north along the road. There were seven of them in total. Six of them carried spears and shields, along with bows and packs slung over their shoulders. They carried a different style of armor to the mercenaries, but it had similar coverage of vital regions and despite a different coloration, appeared to be made of the same material. One of them was wearing a lighter set of armor and no helmet. The last person was an anomaly, as they periodically flashed brightly in the harpy's vision without illuminating the surrounding area. It was obviously not light, and the rest of the party did not react to it, meaning it was visible only to the harpy. Unlike with the village elder, dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 could detect no external interference. The person was carrying light clothing and no equipment.

  The party continued forward, and he repositioned the harpy to track them better. The harpy had poor hearing, making non-line-of-sight tracking much harder. Instead it followed their tracks. They were heading north along the road, but at their current pace it would take them four hours to reach his area of control, leaving plenty of time to set an ambush.

  The harpy headed back to its city lookout position, weaving through the trees to avoid any chance of the party seeing him through the spaces between them. It couldn't track them without being spotted so the attempt would do nothing except waste resources.

  "Gotcha!" came a voice from atop one of the trees, allowing the harpy time to react before the thrown net reached it. The harpy jerked its wings in a violent motion, forcing it into a backflip in the air. The harpy was holding core knives in its legs, and positioned them so it could do a leg split in the air, cutting a large hole in the net in the process. Another violent jerk of its wings launched it through the gap and out of the net, tearing the muscles in the process.

  The harpy crumpled into a heap as it fell out of the air, before rolling onto its legs in a smooth motion. The ambusher was already in motion, leaping down from the tree while wielding a spear, but he had not accounted for the harpy's rapid recovery. The harpy grabbed onto a tree with the sharp claws on its left leg, dropping the knife in the process. Its wings were too damaged to truly fly, so instead it leapt into the air by pushing against the tree and glided over the attackers head. The knife in the harpies right leg sliced into his cheek, but his reflexes were fast enough that the damage was minimal as he dodged out of the way.

  The harpy was unlikely to be able to kill the assailant in its damaged state, so dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 made it retreat. The harpy leapt from tree to tree without stopping, heading north, using its damaged wings to glide and give small additional bursts of speed. The ambusher was slower and got left behind in the process.

  The harpy saw the rest of the group through the trees as they moved to intercept, but they had begun to move too late. It flew through a gap in the perimeter, and looked back to detect and dodge any incoming arrows. Instead it saw the seventh unarmored and unarmed member of the squad. She glowed brightly enough to be visible through the foliage, and the harpy saw her gesture in its direction. The direction was not entirely accurate, possibly requiring visual contact for accuracy, but it seemed to be close enough for what came next.

  The feedback from the harpy glitched entirely, starting from vision, as all data streams were overridden in sequence by a single value. Fire.

  Vision returned less than half a second later. A swathe of the forest was burning as if every part of it had been simultaneously set ablaze, before the fire abruptly cut off. The harpy itself had also been set on fire and practically all of its nerve endings had been burned off. Possibly a directed energy weapon of some sort. An ordinary animal would have died from shock, but the expensive core of of the harpy proved its worth as it survived without immediately dying, although it was at risk of expiring any second. dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 did not want them to recover the dagger it was still carrying, and the expensive core of the harpy itself, so he dedicated all excess processing power to controlling the harpy, powering through the lack of feedback from the harpies limbs through raw computational power and his instincts on how to control a body. Doing so caused the rest of the troops to revert to their base behavior while he concentrated on the harpy.

  The fire had burned away all capacity to fly or hover, and so he was stuck running with a body that was not suited for it. It healed rapidly though, freeing up resources over the course of the 2 hours it took to reach the area under his control while sprinting at the maximum possible speed. He despawned and respawned it to rid it of its injuries, and sent it back to detect the location of the squad by running aerial scans of the surrounding woods. Spotting the rest of the squad was unlikely, but the energy weapon wielder's glow would be visible through the forest canopy.

  dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 began planning how to eliminate the new priority target. Her presence would render swarm tactics ineffective.

  Was just two slots off until The Golem Lord got in front. Sounds cool from the synopsis though, will probably read it. EDIT: Welp, looks like the whole story is gone somehow. Weird.