“Do you think it would be better if we played musical units? You know, keep transferring and building them up, then leaving before anyone causes trouble?
It wouldn’t create the sort of truly capable Witches we’re going for here, but it would create a lot of low-level magic users and increasingly more competent defenders.
In theory, we just need to last five more months, or a little less than that, and we’ve completed our service and can safely settle down somewhere in Sylvan Coven territory.” Wolfe suggested.
Priya shook her head. “While that sounds good in theory, you’d just be increasing your chances of trouble. The army doesn’t transfer personnel between units without a good reason, so others would be suspicious of either you or your competence, and you would stand a chance of running into trouble with every new deployment.
I think it’s better to stay here, and we will try to keep our portion of the line quiet about anything strange they see. Three units are within direct line of sight, counting our own, and that’s a manageable number.
If they don’t say anything, the units on the far sides will just think we have a habit of deploying our officers to the flanks after they see magic in use by the regular troops on the line.”
“Alright. Then I will try to be subtle with the spells. We should probably keep working on the unit’s magic power on the same schedule though. They won’t be happy if we try to tell them that their chances for growth are being neutered just to avoid attracting attention.” Wolfe agreed.
“We can deal with the issues when they arise, but in the meantime, we can just maintain the status quo while you work on finding a working [Lightning Array] to serve as a scapegoat the next time there is thunder during a battle.
They can be improvised by setting the circles in the same pattern as you do for the barrier but using attack spell circles. In theory, you only have to tweak them until they work together. It will be good practice for you since you have so many Witches around you to help out.” Priya explained.
Their conversation was cut short by the logistics team running up to talk to the Lieutenant.
“Ma’am, all of our existing storage areas are full, and we’ve still got more meat cured and waiting.” She announced.
“Ask the units beside us if they have space. If they’re in the same position, radio down the line and have them send a transport to come get the excess.”
The girl ran back out to find a radio, and Priya sighed. “I know they need permission from an officer to actually do anything, but shifts when only rookies are on supply duty always have the most questions.”
The teams on either side of them were almost full as well, but they were willing to pass it on to the next groups. That many edible beasts were a rarity, and everyone along the flank would be happy to see that much extra food between supply runs.
The excess was sent out, but it didn’t even have time to be properly stored before the next waves of attacks were on them.
The pattern seemed strange to Wolfe. They had just made a huge ruckus, which should have chased away basically everything, but there were more monsters coming so soon.
“Is this normal? What causes the monster tide anyhow?” Wolfe asked Priya, whose face showed a mixture of concern and annoyance.
“Overpopulation mostly. But this time, I’ve heard it’s a change in leadership in the Frozen Waste, and the losing side is being driven out.” She shrugged.
“Is it possible they’re being herded? Something about this feels very off and forced. I just can’t shake the thought that there is some level of intelligence behind these attacks.
The way they target the more defended positions, how the undead avoided our unit in particular but attacked the main line and caused crippling damage.
When I was a kid, there was a Turf war on our floor, and the first thing they did was knock out each other’s strongholds, then they began on the remnants of the opposing force.
If the monsters just wanted to escape, they would pick the easiest way out of the Frozen Waste, but they’re doing the opposite. It feels more like they don’t want out, and they’re not focusing their attacks enough to be trying to take any particular region. They just want us weakened or gone.”
Priya nodded. “It is strange that we aren’t getting much warning from the forward scouts either. Normally there is more information than this, even at regular monster volumes when there aren’t many of the scout teams out.
They haven’t been killed, I still hear them checking in, but the information on attacks is far too vague.”
“I’ll go work on that [Lightning Array], and I will try to master the art of enchanting either the rifles or the ammunition. Now that most of the unit can use some mana, they can make the most of the stockpile of rifles we have.
When things get really bad, it will be better to engage from a distance, and magical bullets should still take out monsters well enough.”
With their conversation finished, Priya returned to the office on the main floor of the keep to check crew rotation and casualties while Wolfe headed to the bunkhouse he shared with the witches to work on his spellcraft.
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It was no big deal to him, they could do it all shift at that rate and not draw his Mana Focus dry, plus it had the added benefit of letting him stretch the one in progress when some of the mana was removed and replaced.
Then the draw increased and increased again until he was sure all ten of them were fighting at the same time. That shouldn’t be right, they were on three different shifts, and half of them should be asleep, but inside the bunkhouse, he couldn’t tell what was going on.
He just had to finish tweaking this spell so that the rest of the units could use the version of [Chain Lightning] that he had deployed earlier. If they needed every Witch to fight right now, it was even more important that he finished his work quickly.
The Bloodline Skill he had gained allowed him to regain mana as if he were always meditating, so as soon as he had a workable Array, Wolfe went looking for Priya.
The camp was empty, only a few members of the support staff were inside, with every fighter deployed, and Wolfe heard battle from every direction.
Priya stuck her head out of the tower and called for him as soon as he came into sight.
“Come up to the roof. We have a situation. There is a breach somewhere, and we are under attack from the back.”