Orrin’s plan was simple: kill the Demon Lord.

  Simple if they ignored the thousands of enemies between them and their target. Simple if the Demon Lord wasn’t at level one hundred. Simple if a dozen things didn’t go wrong.

  The Quest only required the Demon Lord to be defeated, not the entire army. Orrin assumed that meant all the people mustered up in front of the Demon Lord would scatter at his death. Using [Camouflage], he could sneak into the middle of the army and incapacitate their leader.

  “Walk me through it again,” Silas said as he rubbed his eyes. “But tell me why you need to go alone?”

  “He doesn’t,” Daniel grumbled, his arms crossed. While he had originally agreed to Orrin’s plan, once the topic of his demon lodestone issue was raised, everyone unanimously voted the [Hero] was to remain back on the Outer Wall. “He just likes being the center of attention.”

  “You know me so well, Golden Daniel,” Orrin shot back but cringed when Madi narrowed her eyes at him. “Sorry, D. You know that if you go, it puts the entire attempt in jeopardy. You said yourself that you were having a hard time staying away from the demons from this far away. What happens if you get close and lose control? You need to stay here.”

  Silas raised his hand to interrupt. “Why you? We have people at higher levels and with better subterfuge spells than you. If it is as you say and the Horde will disperse at the Demon Lord’s death, we can send multiple attacks in at the same time.”

  Orrin agreed with Silas in theory. Multiple attacks would allow for contingencies that he alone couldn’t pull off. The problem was with the information brought back by the various trackers and hunters watching the traveling Horde.

  “You heard Leanthun’s man. Nobody could get close enough to the army. Every single time, they were spotted. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have them ready to attack but there’s a better chance that I can make it through.”

  “Why you? We have others that have [Camouflage] or can move quicker than you. At least take Madeleine. Her powers are growing daily,” Silas said, trying again.

  Orrin held down his smile. That was Silas’s angle. He wanted Madi to be part of the attack group. He wasn’t stupid and knew the reason it had to be Orrin. Leanthun saw it at the first explanation and accepted it with cold stoicism. Sure, he’d asked Orrin if he was okay with taking the risk but he’d moved on to getting all the information gathered on troop movements and layout that he could.

  “Orrin explained it already,” Madi spoke finally, exasperation in her voice. “We have individuals who are better at one area but nobody can move quickly, heal, dodge, [Teleport], and take someone down. He’s a team in and of himself. Stop arguing and help figure out things he might have overlooked.”

  Silas might as well have been slapped. His daughter talking back against him in front of hundreds of onlookers was not a good look for one of the men in charge of the defense of Dey. Lord Catanzano recovered quickly and nodded his head toward Madi. “As ever, I’m amazed at how well you grasp the problem at hand, Madeleine. Blunt and to the point as well, when it is needed. Your mother would be proud,” Silas raised his voice. “Orrin, I give you this task and ask that you protect Dey and all the life beyond that we defend. Strike into the heart of the enemy and destroy the Demon Lord. End this threat to our families and return victorious.”

  Daniel’s mouth dropped open and Madi rolled her eyes.

  Of course, Silas tries to take credit for the idea, Orrin thought as he ignored the clapping behind him. If I come back with a win, he looks like the genius behind it all. If I die, I’m an expendable part of the army. I’m not the [Hero].”

  Orrin forestalled Daniel’s disconcerted response before he could begin. “Daniel, it doesn’t matter. I’ll be back in an hour or less if I’m lucky. Madi, I’m counting on you two.”

  Madi’s role was simple but could mean the difference between Orrin surviving or not. Daniel had [Map], the same skill that Orrin used more than anyone else they’d heard of. With a single ability point, Daniel could now find anyone in his party with [Party View]. His range gave him enough to watch that Orrin’s dot on his [Map] should stay visible.

  Orrin would cast [Camouflage] to avoid some of the troops but it was his combination of [Gust] and [Boost] that would let him move quickly enough to find the Demon Lord. The multitude of different wards that he created around himself would hopefully stop any attacks that landed. Plus, he had [Side Steps]. The skill only had a small chance of activating and making an attack miss but every little bit added up when facing an entire demon army by himself.

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  Leanthun and Silas’s spies were trying to pinpoint the exact spot where the command tents were set up. If somebody could confirm the Demon Lord’s whereabouts, the mission would be much easier.

  “I still think you should increase my stats and let me blast them all,” Madi said as she moved closer to him. Daniel was going over a map with Brandt and arguing about the location of the next chokepoint wall. The crews would continue to build as many stopgaps in the Pass as they could.

  “It’s not about killing them,” Orrin said, sitting back and taking a bite out of a sandwich. There was a table of food set up nearby for the leadership but Orrin didn’t see anyone else eating the food and helped himself. “They’ll have a dozen ways to stop spells and another dozen ways to catch you.”

  “What if they can stop you?” Madi whispered hesitantly. “You convinced my father and Leanthun because you can move so fast and you can [Teleport] but the demons have had all morning to set up their defenses. They’ll have teleport wards and guards watching every direction.”

  Madi was worried for him. Orrin pulled an extra sandwich that he’d stolen out of his [Dimension Hole] and offered it to her. “They’re pretty good. Eat.”

  When she took the bread and cheese layered together, he told her the part of the plan that he’d kept hidden. “If we can’t find a way for me to [Teleport] into their camp near the Demon Lord, I’ll try to run in while invisible. If they try and stop me, I’ve got [Way of the Water] to avoid them. If I can’t find the Demon Lord and need to escape, I’ll blood cycle and drop half the army. I don’t even need to spend a lot of mana to do it.”

  Orrin bounced as he got into the math. “With my stats all maxed out, I can cast a level three [Decrease Strength] that normally costs fifteen mana points for only one point five… well, rounded up to two points, because of my intelligence. Instead of dropping the target by four strength points, it should reduce each person’s strength by forty because of my will. I can use [Split Spell] for a single extra point and bounce that off a few people each time. I tried it with the Hospital people we fought and took them down quick.”

  Madi crossed her arms and stared unimpressed at Orrin. “So, you can take down a hundred enemies. That’s not enough. You’ll be overwhelmed before you make a dent in their forces.”

  “It’s a lot more than a hundred people. I have almost five hundred MP in my mana pool. I can do close to a hundred and sixty casts, each hitting a few extra people. Even if it only bounces to two each time, that’s four hundred and eight enemies that are down. That’s before I blood cycle. But I don’t need to make a dent in their army, just a line to escape. That’s where you come in. If you see people falling, you need to cast your spell and put a wall of fire down. I can push the prone bodies out of the way and we’ll avoid killing anyone if we can. That’s for the worst-case scenario. If I fail and have to run, we don’t want to murder half the army and have them rush the new wall here. We want to keep our strategy the same. Keep them away and pick them off a few dozen at a time. Wear their spirits down. They are the invaders here and don’t have the infrastructure that we do. They don’t have enough food for a siege but now that we have the Outer Wall and all the other traps set up, they can’t rush straight through to Dey.” Orrin tossed the last bit of bread in the air and caught it in his mouth. “If I can drop the Demon Lord, we win. If I can’t, we demoralize them. Either way, Daniel doesn’t have to fight as many people.”

  Madi took a single bite from her sandwich before answering. “You have a habit of rushing into danger. I’m not sure we should let you do this. Daniel is going to try something, I know it. When you suggested an assassination attempt on the Demon Lord, he thought you meant as a group.”

  “That’s why Brandt is going to have to keep him back,” Orrin said, checking on the other two members of their party. “Daniel needs to stay on the wall. How far can you cast your new spell? Did I give you enough constitution?”

  Orrin’s new spell [Increase Constitution] was a give-and-take spell unlike anything else he had. For every ten points of mana he sacrificed off his total mana pool, he could increase a target’s constitution by one. When he’d tried the spell on himself, the plus one turned into a plus four. He’d forgotten to fully buff his stats. A mistake that he’d rectified before casting another twenty points worth of the spell on Madi.

  “Twenty extra points of constitution? Yes, Orrin. I think that’s enough. I can cast [Sunbeam] for almost two minutes like this,” Madi said, preening. “I’ll use up most of my mana even with the increased will and intelligence.”

  Daniel and Brandt walked up. Orrin noticed that Brandt was taking his guard the [Hero] job seriously. He never looked away from Daniel.

  “Have the scouts reported in, yet?” Daniel asked, handing the rolled map up to Brandt. “It shouldn’t take this long, right?”

  “Not everybody has your stamina, Daniel,” Madi chastised. “As long as the demon Horde stays put, we have time. They weren’t expecting to find a new wall built up. I don’t think we’ve ever had this much advance notice of a Horde in the history of Dey.”

  Brandt made a series of knocks on his leg and another knight ran to him. Brandt spoke out of the corner of his mouth and the woman took the map before darting off again.

  Daniel turned at the sound of armor moving. “Who was that?”

  “One of our squires,” Brandt told him. “She’ll bring your markups and changes to the builders.”

  “I was hoping you could do that,” Daniel sighed. “I explained it to you so that we could get it right.”

  Brandt shook his head. “I’m not leaving your side, no matter how hard you try to get rid of me.”

  A moment of awkward silence fell over the four of them as the whistling wind pushed its way down the ramparts.

  Daniel grumbled something but everyone ignored him.

  Orrin patted his back. “If I can’t kill the Demon Lord, I’m sure you’ll get the chance. It’s not like this plan is a sure thing, either. If the scouts can’t find him, then the entire thing is off and—”

  “We’ve found him,” Leanthun gasped as he ran up the stairs. “We’ve found the Demon Lord and have his location. Let’s go.”

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