Liar King (Tower of Babel Book 2) Page 11

  "That isn't entirely true." Roberta interjected.

  All three players looked in her direction, and the petite Elan girl straightened her spine so as not to wither under their attention."With respect, Field Marshall, I'm not known as Roberta the Builder for nothing."

  "Roberta the..." Cayden started, groaning in unison with Silver as the simultaneous thought struck them.

  Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Is there something wrong?"

  "Just the Developer's sense of humor." Silver explained. "What is it that you are capable of doing?"

  "Ah, I understand," Roberta replied, even though she clearly did not. "I am a creationist which-"

  "Does that mean you believe the Developer created Babel in six days?" Michael snidely interjected. A backhanded smack from Silver shut him up and allowed Roberta to continue.

  "-is the discipline focused on the magical creation of materials and objects." Roberta continued. "I can use my personal magical energy, what you bloodline families call MP, to aid production in the city."

  Cayden studied her for a moment, before gesturing to the War Frame. "Was that already factored into the amount of production listed?"

  "Yes, I believe so," Roberta said softly. "It is a bit difficult to estimate, but if I had to guess, I think my abilities account for roughly five points of the listed 'Production.'"

  Michael whistled at that and earned himself another swat in the process.

  "And you can use the city's magic power to fuel your abilities?" Cayden pressed, his mind already abuzz with new possibilities.

  Roberta smiled, "Yes, on a roughly one to one basis of magic to production."

  "That certainly changes things." Silver murmured.

  "All of it?" Cayden asked.

  "Hmm? Oh, no, Field Marshall!" Roberta vigorously shook her head. "There is a limit to how much power anyone can channel. As a novice, my limit is rather low. At best I believe I would be capable of refreshing myself once, which would allow me to double my output for the day"

  Cayden's heart fell, but he did his best not to let it show. Dreams of completing the first round of construction overnight fell by the wayside, but even still, a bonus was a bonus. "If I wanted you to do this-"

  "You would simply direct me through the War Frame." Roberta smiled. "I cannot tap into the city's source without such express permission.

  "Which brings us back to where we started." Silver observed. "We've got a big pool of magic, and nothing to spend it on."

  "Unless," Michael grinned, looking to Valserys. "You don't also happen to be holding out on some hidden powers, do you?"

  The military man bristled under the accusation, drawing himself up to his full height and resting a hand on the guard of the long blade sheathed at his hip. "I resent the implication."

  Michael began to retort, but Cayden physically interposed himself between the two before a playful argument could erupt into something worse.

  "Silver does have a point." He mused. "What would we drop points from?"

  "Civilization." Silver and Michael said in unison.

  "You can't cut back on civilization. You will regret this!" Cayden snickered. When the other two stared at him blankly, he rolled his eyes in response. "Philistines, no wonder you want to cut back on civilization." Despite his taunts, Cayden reached out a finger and adjusted the civilization slider downwards, then devoted it's two remaining points to the Magic category. "Done and done."

  He hit the confirm button, then swiped away the menu entirely. "Now where was I?"

  Silver rolled her eyes. "Cayden, you have the memory of a goldfish."

  "And like, a particularly absent-minded goldfish," Michael added.

  "Hey-"

  "The Wayne Szalinski of goldfish." Silver interrupted.

  Cayden raised an eyebrow at that. "Obscure reference much?"

  "I'd have said the Ronald Reagan of goldfish, but that seems in poor taste." She retorted.

  It was only then that the three realized that their Elan companions were still standing in the wings, alternating between exchanging baffled glances and looking at the players like they had lost their minds. Cayden often wondered just what Elan must make of humans when they went off on tangents like that. Probably something similar to the way they felt whenever an Elan started rambling on about the Great Emperor.

  "You were preparing troops for mock combat," Valserys said at last, once it was clear the players were waiting for one of them to say something.

  "Yeah, I remember now." He admitted, reaching for the display once again. The storeroom menu proved easy enough to navigate, in part because it was largely barren. It contained a listing of their arms and armor, their horses, a smattering of siege defense weaponry, and little else. That was going to have to change.

  Equipping the troops proved as easy as selecting the items in question, then selecting the units to which he wished to assign them. He briefly experimented with assigning archery equipment or horses to his existing troops, but in each instance, the system kicked him back with a notification that the unit in question was not trained for that method of combat. Likewise, attempting to alter the equipment of soldiers outside the keep itself resulted only in a notification that a unit could only change their equipment when adjacent to the armory.

  Once he knew what he was doing, it didn't take Cayden long to alter the equipment of the twenty soldiers he had sent to the keep for his experiment. Their smattering of axes and swords were uniformly replaced with wooden blades from the keep storeroom before the soldiers themselves were marched into the empty courtyard that had so recently been filled with shambling terrors.

  "So... uh. What now?" Cayden asked.

  "I would recommend forming the men into discrete formations." Valserys replied. "As it stands, you have them in groups, but not formations. A group without discipline is little more than a mob and just as easy to disperse."

  "Form them up. Got it." Cayden replied though he did not actually 'have it.' He knew how to select multiple units, and how to direct them from place to place, but it took him nearly a minute of awkward fumbling and touching at the War Frame before he finally stumbled on how to organize them into a formation. He had to press and hold on the summary of the collected units until a sub-menu spawned with two options. Create a Formation and Add to Existing Formation. Seeing as he didn't have any existing formations, it was a rather easy choice.

  His selection drove the creation of yet another new window, along with a small floating keyboard. This one an empty, save for instructions along the top of its frame. Please enter a name.

  "Suggestions?" Cayden asked,

  "Silver's Raiders?" The shameless mage offered, before crossing her arms at Cayden's indignant look. "What? Like you've never wanted to name something after yourself?"

  "1st Formation?" Michael proposed.

  "Any good suggestions?" When no offers were forthcoming, Cayden studied the keyboard for a moment, then began to type. "The Fighting First."

  "And the other?" Valserys asked.

  "My request for suggestions was open to you as well," Cayden replied.

  The very idea seemed to take Valserys momentarily off guard. The regal officer scrutinized Cayden for a moment, judging his intent before at last replying. "If you would, I'm sure the men would be honored to be known as "Bastion's Second."

  Cayden smiled. "Absolutely."

  With names selected, Cayden studied the first of the two identical formations before him.

  The Fighting First (Formation)

  Type: Infantry (Elan)

  Level: 1

  Unit Count: 10/10

  Formation Bonus: +2

  HP: 100/100

  MP: 0/0

  TP: 100/100

  Move: 8/8

  Attack: 120

  Defence: 120

  Special: None

  Resistances: None

  Weaknesses: None

  "Formation Bonus is new." Michael said as if both of his fellow players hadn't not
iced that the instant the information had been displayed.

  "Yeah. It looks like it applies to each unit in the formation." Cayden continued the thought, looking to Valserys. "Is this just a generic bonus, or?"

  The soldier looked somewhat wounded as he replied. "Difficult to say, Field Marshall. The vagaries of the War Frame are not entirely familiar to me." Before Cayden could press him for an answer, Valserys continued. "In combat, having multiple soldiers in formation provides a significant improvement in the combat abilities of the whole, which is likely what this represents."

  "So the more soldiers we have in a unit, the better?" Cayden solicited.

  "To a point." Valserys cautioned. "At a certain point, a formation can become unwieldy, with too many men to properly direct."

  Silver gestured to the War Frame. "Rather than picking his brain based on his best guess, wouldn't it be easier just to add more troops and see what happens."

  "She has a point," Michael smirked.

  "Silver always has a point," Cayden admitted. The worst part of it was, they were often too accurate for his liking.

  Cayden selected a handful of random troops from elsewhere in bastion, adding them one after another in groups of ten. The next increase was at 25 soldiers, then another at 50, again at 75, leading to a final +6 bonus at a full 100 soldiers. Past 100 the bonus fell off immediately, dropping to +5 with 101 units in formation, +4 with 126 and so forth.

  "So our ideal formation would be one hundred then, huh? Easy to remember, I guess." Michael said as Cayden's experiment came to an end.

  "Not alway-" Cayden and Silver both began in unison. The two exchanged glanced, with Cayden eventually deferring to Silver. "Not quite." She continued. "It'll depend on a lot of factors, how many units we need in the field, what other bonuses we might be able to apply, and so forth."

  "I'm not following," Michael admitted, squinting a little as he tried to run the numbers again in his head.

  "A group of one hundred gets the higher bonus." Silver explained smoothly. "But a group of one twenty-five has an extra twenty-five members getting the smaller bonus. It isn't a huge difference, but they would be the stronger unit."

  Michael continued to narrow his eyes, one hand waving awkwardly in the air as he worked through his mental map. "Carry the one and... okay, yeah, I'm going to take your word for it."

  "You should." Silver smirked.

  "Don't feel too bad," Cayden added. "You're still correct that we're mostly better off running units of one hundred. You can field five groups of one hundred, instead of four groups of one twenty five. Probably better in almost every instance." With that said he looked to Valserys. "What now?"

  The Elan had been waiting for the question and responded without hesitation. "The formations you have would be functional combat units as they are. But I recommend leadership."

  "Always nice to have that." Silver said, giving Cayden a sidelong glance that he promptly ignored.

  "Do we have any existing officers?"

  "Only myself," Valserys replied. "You can assign me to a unit if you wish. Indeed, once the battle is fully joined, I recommend it in fact. For now, however, I suggest you promote from within."

  "And how do I...?" Cayden's question trailed off, his eyes ignoring the stubborn glances of his fellows as he turned his attention to the War Frame.

  This one was easy to figure out. He needed only to select an existing unit within a formation and hold his finger there until a new menu arrived. There was only a single option. Promote. Cayden touched it without hesitation and was met with a warning.

  Promoting this soldier will cost 5 Influence. Are you sure? Y/N

  "Is there any difference between the various soldiers?" Cayden asked. "Or should I just promote whomever I want."

  "Some soldiers would likely be more suited to command," Valserys admitted. "Unfortunately I am not familiar enough with any of the soldiers the Duke has entrusted to you to make any suggestions."

  Cayden nodded, then began to zoom the map out far enough that he could see the city and its outskirts. He selected two units and directed both of them to return to the keep, expending most of their remaining movement in the process. Once there, he promoted each, and couldn't help but notice a certain smile of satisfaction on Valserys face at his choice.

  He'd used the two as his guinea pigs already, so Aleph and Zerald had earned their promotions.

  "Leadership +2 and +1." Cayden read aloud as he inspected each of his new officers in turn. "I'd ask if you knew if that was good but..."

  "I couldn't begin to guess," Valserys replied, cracking another smile.

  "Figures. We'll promote some others later to see what we can see. For now..." Cayden navigated back to the keep, and ordered each of his new officers to take command of a Unit, with Aleph in charge of 'The Fighting First' And Zerald, the leader of 'Bastion's Second.' "Let's see what happens when they fight."

  There were two options in the formation menu that seemed like they could serve Cayden's purposes. The first, demonstration turned out to have more to do with parade marching than combat, but the second, Practice Drills was precisely what they were looking for. Giving the order to one formation gave Cayden a warning that they would be unavailable for any other purposes for the remainder of the turn. Selecting it with two, however, brought the Combat log to life at long last.

  Do you wish these two formations to engage in mock combat? Note that any damage sustained during simulated battle will not be healed until end of day? Y/N

  There was only one answer to that.

  The moment Cayden touched the floating query, the two units formed up into solid lines across the field from one another. There was a moment of shouting and posturing before each began to advance on the other in slow, methodical steps. Soon enough, the two clashed, shield against shield, wooden blades striking down on their foes, sending men sprawling. Eventually, the din of battle began to die down, with Bastion's Second beginning to withdraw a short distance, harried by their opponents farewell attacks.

  In the aftermath, the Combat Log told a tale all its own:

  The First Company attacks Bastion's Second - Attack Value: 1800 vs. Defense Value 1700.

  The First Company deals 27 damage to Bastion's Second.

  Bastion's Second attacks The First Company - Attack Value: 1700 vs. Defense Value 1800.

  Bastion's Second deals 24 damage to The First Company.

  "In real combat, the losing formation would be forced to flee the field," Valserys explained as the players studied the results of combat. "Or the losing army in an instance where multiple formations are engaging in combat in the same area."

  "What determines which side is the losing formation?" Michael asked.

  "I'd say the one that received the most damage?" Cayden said dryly. He was about to say more when a soft buzzing in his pocket drew his attention.

  "Largely correct." Valserys agreed. "With a few small caveats. Any side lacking leadership will almost certainly cede the field to their opponent on anything but an outright victory. In addition, there are a few tactics that can be used to alter the winner or loser in a particular engagement."

  "Tactics?" Silver asked though Cayden was no longer listening.

  It was his mirror that had buzzed. Without his usual AR display, a simple vibration function was the only way for the device to get his attention, to alert him to his new skill:

  Leadership

  Type: Passive

  Skill Level: Level 1.

  Effect: Leadership Bonus +1. Access to Level 1 War Tactics.

  The words War Tactics were highlighted on his screen, and a single touch took him to a new section of his skills menu, where a series of four new abilities awaited him.

  Blitz

  Type: Tactic

  Skill Level: N/A

  Effect: Increase unit attack strength by 25%. Reduce defense by 15%

  Defensive Stance

  Type: Tactic

  Skill Level: N/A

  Ef
fect: Increase unit defense strength by 25%. Reduce attack by 15%

  Combat Screen

  Type: Tactic

  Skill Level: N/A

  Effect: Select one friendly formation in the same hex. Melee enemy formations must engage this formation before engaging screened target. Enemy tactics or special movement type (Flying, Teleportation, etc.) may override this tactic.

  Full Withdrawal

  Type: Tactic

  Skill Level: N/A

  Effect: Increase unit defense by 50%. Reduce attack by 75%. Unit loses combat regardless of damage inflicted or received. Increase chance of leadership survival.

  "-Cayden?"

  He looked up at the sound of his name, to see all four of the room's occupants looking his way expectantly. He'd missed something. "Uh, mind repeating that?"

  "She was asking what had you burying your nose in your mirror," Michael explained.

  "Ah," Cayden said, covering up his slight flush of embarrassment by handing the device over to his fellow players. The two studied it for a moment, Michael looming somewhat unnervingly over Silver's shoulder as the latter surveyed the same options that had kept Cayden's attention fixed on the screen.

  "Well, those will be useful." Silver said, handing the mirror back. "Assuming you don't have to lead the units directly to benefit from them."

  Cayden considered that for a moment, then shook his head. "No, just from the wording, I think they'll work with the War Frame."

  "One way to find out." Michael offered.

  Before Cayden reached out for the board, he turned his attention to Valserys once more. "To be clear, this mock combat doesn't put the troops in danger. Correct?"

  "Not directly, no," Valserys replied, before choosing to qualify his statement further. "It will still cause damage as the War Frame registers it, so it would obviously be unwise to engage in any practice in a situation where our troops could be at risk."

  Michael arched a brow at that. "Wait, but if it's damage, shouldn't there be wounds? Deaths even?"

  The pink haired Elan officer shook his head. "The battle is rarely the source of most casualties." He explained. "For every soldier that dies in the clash of shields and blades, ten more die during the rout. A damaged unit might have lost some of its soldiers, but the damage is mostly to morale and organization. Otherwise, a unit with one of its one hundred health would be a single soldier, an absurd concept at best."