The Bathrobe Knight: Volume 2 (44 page)

              Darwin was still admiring the craftsmanship of the pike-wall when Alex approached him. “Lord Darwin, several groups of Humans are approaching from all directions. Do we send the Blue-Drake riders out to greet them?”

              “No, we invited them here.” Darwin’s mood improved significantly upon hearing the news. His army was going to be even bigger than anticipated. The fact that they were approaching from all directions meant that it wasn’t just one of the groups he or Daniel had visited earlier, but several others as well. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be ‘from all directions’ so much as from just two very specific directions.

              “Very well. I’ll let everyone know to let them pass safely. We still have a standing kill order on any of the Animal Kingdom that come into the woods, correct?”

“Yes, maintain the kill order.” Darwin looked back at the wall. This was going to be beautiful.

“As you command, Lord Darwin,” Alex said, turning to depart before pausing momentarily and adding, “Oh, and that liquid you wanted us to drain from the sacks you found inside the Blue-Drakes, we have it gathered and are ready to start spreading it across the battlefield in the locations you suggested.”

“Excellent! While you’re there though, how are the other preparations coming along?”

“Well, the special troop you have training right now, they’re starting to fall into formation, but we’d like more time if possible. They have the basic idea of what to do, but it’s still an entirely new style of fighting. They’re not yet comfortable with it,” Alex said as the two looked over what would soon be the front line of his new army. “Even the Turtle-Wolves, who have likely spent their entire lives fighting with spears, found it odd to use it in such a basic fashion.”

“What do you mean?” Darwin asked, trying to understand the root of the problem.

“Well, when we think of battle normally, it’s an endless series of small skirmishes across a long, drawn-out position. The person on the front line is almost guaranteed to die as a result; but, as long as he holds his spot, he’s only fighting the man directly in front of him. If he dies, then someone else takes his spot and that man is only fighting the man in front of him. Sure, there is a lot of pressure as the men behind him continue to press forward, and the frontline bleeds into the enemy ranks creating an awkward area where it’s hard to tell who is friend or foe, but, for the most part, everyone is fighting just one person, and that is something that they can manage to do.”

“And?” Darwin failed to see the issue yet. He had a hunch about what it was, but he wanted to know clearly what was at the heart of Alex’s reticence with the new combat approach.

“Lord Darwin, you’re taking away the men’s freedom to fight man to man with honor. You’re forcing them to fight a guy they can’t see two or three people behind the man in front, not the target right before their eyes,” Alex finally put it bluntly. “The soldiers will no longer be fighting so much as repeating the same action over and over again. Not to mention, no one has gotten used to either the shield or the spears you designed. I don’t understand why they have to be so long or large. The troops won’t be able to maneuver them easily with their size and weight.”

Darwin smiled. “That’s because this war won’t be won one-on-one. If our troops engage just the enemy that is in front of them, how many more will take their place? If they lust for blood and rampage, what will happen with the front lines? Even if they get a few kills, which they very well might if they were trained by you, the line will still be compromised eventually. Gaps and weak points will inevitably form given enough time. There are too many factors that can’t be controlled if the soldiers all have the freedom to act however they want. They need to learn--they must learn--to rely on their brothers and sisters in arms, a trust that has kept me alive a lot recently.”

“And the extra large shields and long spears will do that?” Alex continued his hunt for answers. When Darwin had first laid out the plan, and showed him the designs for how he would need a shield to be constructed, Alex and the others listening had been more than a little confused. They had been befuddled and bewildered. They were used to the idea of a long spear being taller than a man, but not almost taller than two men. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Darwin needed--spears long enough to reach over several men and continuously stab at and push off the enemy. That’s why the dory, a kind of spear used by Greek hoplites, had been so long.

The second detail that had shocked those currently training with the new weapon was that the spears felt frail and flimsy, especially when compared to the ones they had held and wielded their whole life. The people of this area were used to thick and heavy spears capable of blocking or withstanding hits from the sides, spears that were built to be two handed. The dory, however, was designed specifically be much lighter, only weighing between two to five pounds each. The major differences that made such a feat possible were the type of wood and the fact that the shaft’s diameter was barely two inches wide. The differences left the soldiers feeling uncomfortable and insecure as they held a weapon they had trouble trusting to withstand even the first series of blows from the enemy.

“Yes, they will.” Darwin answered Alex’s question, looking over in the distance at the group's training. They were lined up in phalanx formation, five men deep and twenty men wide, practicing charging at each other with safety-tipped spears over and over again as they worked out how to get the dory spears to fall so that they hit their enemies square on. “The more they practice, the more they will understand exactly how important they are to each other. They will understand how important their comrade’s shield is and how little they are without it.” He nodded as he saw how much they had already improved. They were slowly starting to get it. The important part of the formation was the shield that protected everything from just above their ankles to over their heads. It was just like his reliance on Minx. It was like his need to have Kass and Kitchens at his back. They were his shields in the previous battle in the dungeon, and if the StormGuard Alliance was going to make it through the upcoming fight, each member would need to rely on more than just himself. They would all need to rely on the shields of their comrades.

“Very well, Lord Darwin. I shall trust you on these matters.” Alex nodded as well, both of them watching the training. “Though I still think you’re a bit crazy.”

Darwin let a big grin break out across his face. “See, even you are learning to trust me thanks to that spear and shield.” He started to laugh. Alex joined in on the chuckle after a moment.

“Lord Darwin, my apologies.” Alex bowed his head ever so slightly. “With the coming siege, I am sure you are very pressed for time, and I am sure I have taken up a great deal of it up by dawdling around here unproductively. Please excuse me,” he finished, and just like that he was gone.

Here I am bringing the technology of my world into his, and he hasn’t even bothered trying to teach me the most fundamental tricks. Am I just supposed to pretend like I’m the commissioner in a masked crusader movie?

“The disappearing thing, it’s crazy, isn’t it?” Kitchens said, walking up behind him. Unlike Alex’s, Darwin could hear the footsteps coming from a distance, a thing that somehow comforted him more and more as days passed.

“Yeah, it really is,” Darwin said, admiring the ability. Even if he were upset, Alex hadn’t offered to teach him the trick yet. “I wish I could do it,” he just blurted out what was on his mind. It was a thing he found himself doing more and more as time passed, being honest and straightforward with his friends.

“Disappear or be invisible?” Kitchens walked up to the spot where Alex had formerly stood.

“Both? I don’t know.” Darwin shrugged. He couldn’t really think of too many practical applications for either of the abilities as he searched through his mind.

“Disappearing can be tricky. Being invisible, not so much. We all are, all the time, to almost everyone.” Kitchens looked around then pointed to a random woman that was helping set up the pike-wall. “For instance, do you see that woman?”

“Yes?” Darwin said, looking at her, she looked like almost every other person in the camp. They all looked almost identical--the same black hair, the same red eyes, the same outfits--but her face was slightly different than the others. She had a mark on her left cheek like she had been cut just enough to leave a scar.

“Good. Now, close your eyes,” Kitchens instructed.

“Okay,” Darwin did as he was told.

“Can you tell me the gender of the two people next to her? Was there anyone in front of her?” He asked.

Darwin, searching his memory for a moment, found that all of those details were missing. He had been so focused on the girl with the scar that he hadn’t noticed anyone around her. He couldn’t even remember if there had even been other people there or not

“You see, we’re all invisible to almost everyone at any given time. It takes more effort to be noticed than it does to be unnoticed,” he said, wrapping up his short and impromptu lesson.

It wasn’t exactly the stealthy trick that Alex was using, but it was definitely useful to think about. “It hasn’t been that long. I thought you would be asleep still,” Darwin said when he remembered that it had barely been six or seven hours since Kitchens had logged off.

“A glass of water before bed serves as a great alarm clock when you start to get older,” Kitchens sighed and smiled at the same time. “Well, that is only the reason for why I am out of bed. The reason I’m up is a very highly caffeinated cup of tea and a nice coffee blend.”

“How old are you again?” Darwin poked fun at him, remembering full and well the rough age of both the old man and his daughter.

“Enough to know a whipper snapper shouldn’t worry about what year a bag of dust expired.” Kitchens’ grin spread wider. “That said, did you even sleep? It’s like you’ve been up all night working on the base.”

“Would you believe me if I told you that I never slept?”

“Maybe. Depends what type of demons you have crawling around in your head.” Kitchens’ smile flattened out and disappeared. “You don’t grow old without locking a few upstairs.”

“Or just ending up as one.” this time Darwin chuckled alone as Kitchens just looked at him funny.

“So what’s going on here? I expected town building, but it seems you skipped everything and went straight for defense,” Kitchens said, noting the surroundings.

“Kind of had to. ‘Bout to be attacked and all,” Darwin offered with a shrug.

“Do we have a rough idea of when?”

“No, nor do we even have a rough idea how many people are actually going to come at us.”

“I see. We don’t know when or how many people are going to attack us, but we do know we’ll be attacked. That’s good. It basically makes us like every country in every region of the world during the middle ages,” Kitchens laughed. “Well, if we’re going to play a simulation game, at least we picked one that hits the mark. After all, what fledgling nation isn’t birthed in blood?”

Darwin tried to think of one for a minute, but, after coming up short-handed, just admitted defeat. “I can’t think of one.”

“Well, you’re in luck. There is still a chance we won’t be attacked. After all, it’s not written in stone that we are going to be sieged within the first twenty-four hours of being established, is it? There is still the possibility that the attacking forces will be beleaguered and show up unexpectedly late. If you push too hard you may lose your momentum.”

“Hmm.” Darwin didn’t know how to explain that he was a seasoned grinder. Getting burnt out just didn’t happen. He spent years pressing the same five keys in rotation as if he were a well-written code himself. “What happened to Miyamoto Musashi’s resolute acceptance of death speech?”

“Even I abandoned that thought when I had a daughter. A man will find that every year he spends on earth he inevitably sends down roots that make it harder for him to think of moving on, and some roots make it almost impossible,” Kitchens spoke slowly as if he were trying to imitate a fortune cookie.

“Like Minx?” Darwin asked, guessing at the root.

“Or video games. Definitely video games and bad television. Every year I think: ‘Welp, curse you, cliffhangers. Now I can’t be reckless for another year or else I might wind up tossing and turning in the grave, never knowing who really killed Kenny,” he chuckled.

“Hmm. I can definitely feel your pain. Even now I am plagued with uncertainty. Will Sherlock ever find out that Watson is the one secretly killing everyone and framing other people?”

“Would that be counted as Watson betraying Sherlock, or helping him?”

“Tough call. Either way, mind helping out around here? I need to get back to the work,” Darwin said, the topic about having too little time hitting too close to home.

“No problem. Mind running me through the basics of the plan?”

“Actually, it’s a really simple idea. I’m creating two walls on each side of the mountain to direct the incoming attackers into the central gap. To prevent them from just climbing up the walls and hitting us from any angle, we’re building a pike-wall in front of it.” He pointed to the ten- to twelve-foot tall wooden walls with pikes laid out at an angle to properly keep them from being scaled.

“I see you’ve done away with the idea of a gate though?” Kitchens noted the fact that where the walls should have turned inward to form a recession in which a gate would normally stand, they instead extended all the way back until they nearly touched the mountain, leaving a narrowing gap between the walls--and the gap wasn’t small either. The walls turned in toward the mountains at roughly 135 degree angles rather than 90, creating a funnel shape, although the walls eventually curved enough that they started running parallel as they got close to the dungeon’s entrance.