“The initial rush of solo players in NEMO were bitterly disappointed by the large-scale combat. Many had dreams of routing armies by themselves and lording over the battlefield. Alas, the game world was less battle between apex combatants and more organized formation work. It wasn’t until more powerful skills developed that a single player could terrorize hundreds.”

  From “Skirmish vs Rank and Flank, a Discussion of Combat Tactics in NEMO”

  Year 1, Month 2, Day 10, 20:00

  Callum the Courageous was a coward. He freely admitted that to himself. He hated fighting and wanted to avoid it as much as possible. He believed that the best way to avoid being bullied or taken advantage of was to join up with the biggest bullies around.

  His cowardice served him well as a scout. He sat motionless observing the forces of Risk of Injury as they killed undead. He noticed a small group joining the fighting and he froze completely. He shot a message off to the leadership of SPQR, “I’ve spotted Torgon. He’s joined Ovarrix’s group. Dusty, Hyperia and Allestor are with them. Their entire team is together.”

  Gaius Marcus, the head of SPQR messaged Ron Don Morgan of the Red Hat Raiders and Velvet Fist, head of the One Percenters. “Morgan, Fist, I need all your available people to head out now. We can cut off Torgon and his leadership team.”

  Ron Don Morgan replied immediately. “I’ll send everyone I can. I want him dead. I want him to watch everyone in his guild die and then I want to slit his throat myself.”

  “That’s a bit dramatic,” Velvet Fist replied. “My people are forming up and heading out. If we kill him, we’re taking his loot.”

  The encampment around the Temple of Unclad Bone stirred into life. Nearly ten thousand players began a disorganized rush to head towards the sighting report. Curious Kate lay stealthed atop a hill, watching the madness. “Ovarrix, you have a problem.”

  Ovarrix sighed and answered, “What is it Kate?”

  “Ten thousand players from the Temple just left and are heading out towards Camp Alpha,” she said.

  Ovarrix cursed softly, “You didn’t see them organize first?”

  Kate shook her head, then stopped remembering that Ovarrix couldn’t see her. “No, it was a mad rush. Something stirred them up.”

  “Got it. Someone must have seen Torgon and the others slip into our group. Thanks Kate.” Ovarrix walked to the group and yelled, “Listen Up! We’ve been spotted. At least ten thousand players from the One Percenters, SPQR and the Red Hat Raiders are coming for us.”

  Groans rippled across the group. Ovarrix continued, “They’re coming to kill Torgon and the rest of the leadership group.”

  A few random shouts could be heard from the group,

  “They can have Torgon if they each pay us a gold!”

  “Not our Dusty!”

  “Put Allestor up front and see how many it takes!”

  Ovarrix chuckled, “We’re going to run towards Camp Alpha and see what happens. Unfortunately, they’re inside our loop and will cut us off unless we get lucky. Move out!”

  The Risk of Injury force moved out in formation. Scouts ranged ahead to screen the unit from surprises, and the bulk of the force ran at a pace to conserve their energy. Torgon jogged next to Ovarrix and asked, “Any clever plans?”

  Ovarrix gave him a look and said, “Not really. We could force a larger fight and see what happens, but I can’t guarantee a win. It would cost us a lot of consumables to fight and I’m not sure it’s worth it.”

  Torgon considered his words, “We can just take our lumps. I don’t mind dying again. It’s easier than running and less wasteful of our time and resources.”

  Ovarrix gritted his teeth, “I hate giving them any sort of win. They want to kill you, and they want to steal our gear. It’s my nature to do anything possible to deny them what they want.”

  Torgon laughed, “If we dropped any epic items they would crow about it for weeks. How many people in the group here have them?”

  Ovarrix thought about it and answered, “Only six in total including me, you and Allestor.” Ovarrix took his sword out and handed it to Torgon. “Give me your rare sword, I have an idea.”

  Torgon furrowed his brow but did as Ovarrix asked. “I’m not going to like this am I?”

  “No, you’re not.” Ovarrix called the rest of the leadership team plus the people who carried epic items over. “I’ve messaged Digger and the War Wagons he’s using for construction are diverting here. They’re going to take you guys to Camp Beta and get you back to the Guild Base without risking drops and without them killing Torgon.”

  “You’re right. I don’t like it,” Torgon said.

  “I don’t like it either. I want to kill something,” Allestor added.

  Hyperia took a moment to consider it and said, “it would deny them their primary goal. It’s a risk though. They’ll frame it as Torgon running away.”

  “I am running away in this scenario,” Torgon admitted. “It would be a smaller loss than dying to them though.”

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  Ovarrix grinned and addressed their small army, “There’s a slight change of plans. Our new mission is now called “Brave Sir Robin” and it’s going to end with nearly all of us dying. The War Wagons are going to come here and rescue Torgon, Allestor, Hyperia, Dusty, Stabitha and the other players who are carrying epic items. We’re all going to charge straight into the enemy force and kill as many as we can without using any consumables.”

  A younger boy, no older than eleven asked, “Why is it called Brave Sir Robin? They’re just running away.” A few of the older players laughed, but most seemed as confused as the person asking the question.

  Torgon sighed heavily, “Everyone that dies gets moved up in the gear queue. Also, we’re going to have a movie night so you can understand the reference.” More groans came from the younger members of the group. “Ok, you can skip the movie if you want. We will take steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again and I am sorry for endangering you all.”

  Ovarrix shooed Torgon away and issued new orders. “We’re not going to win this fight so don’t try to keep yourself alive. Just inflict maximum damage and enjoy the quick trip to the guild base. This is going to be a painful lesson, but an important one. You can’t win every fight, and you don’t want to throw good resources away when it won’t make a difference.”

  “Keep your eyes open and watch how they fight. Look at how they work together and remember it. When we face them again, and we will soon, use that to your advantage. I’ll be holding a training session as soon as we are back at the guild base and anyone is welcome to join.”

  The mood of the players ranged from grim to eager. Knowing that they were going to lose, cut away some of the anxiety and tension. The War Wagons arrived within fifteen minutes and spirited away Torgon and the others. Ovarrix’s force was less than half an hour away from Camp Alpha and less than fifteen minutes away from contact with the enemy.

  Ovarrix focused on the scouting reports with the VIPs away. SPQR had taken up the center of the formation with the Red Hat Raiders on the right flank and the One Percenters on the left flank. He suspected that Gaius had studied the fight against the Midnight Maiden’s forces when they crashed into the Silver Hearts. Being outnumbered more than 10 to 1 left Ovarrix with few options and none of them were good.

  “Aim our charge at the center. If one of flanks shows weakness we can change to that side and try to break free. I doubt we can punch a hole, but we can kill a lot of them.” Ragged cheers sounded as they closed in on the battle. They grasped at any chance of victory they could.

  When they sighted the forces arrayed against them, Ovarrix and his troops picked up speed. Units on the flanks of the enemy pushed forward and revealed catapults. The small SPQR formations used torches to light the loaded ammunition, and it caught in a brilliant blazing fire.

  Ovarrix cursed again and said, “For what we are about to receive we are truly thankful.” He put his head down and ordered the charge directly into the center of the enemy line.

  Flaming spheres of oil-soaked wood crashed and splintered along the edges of their charge. Players went down and missile fire from the enemy flanks picked up. When they reached just a scant 50 yards from the SPQR line, thousands of javelins slammed into the formation. Ragged holes were torn in the Risk of Injury formation.

  Javelins kept pouring into their force as they sprinted the last fifty yards. Over half the formation died before they crashed into the line of shields and spears at the front. Dozens more found themselves impaled by the long spears and shortly afterwards found themselves back in the guild base. Ovarrix and those with him hit the initial shield line, broke through, but were quickly surrounded and died.

  The entire fight took barely more than a minute. Cheers rang out from SPQR, the Red Hat Raiders and the One Percenters. Gaius smiled grimly at the slaughter. He turned to Ron and Velvet, “See, they aren’t so tough when you have a proper formation. Discipline and strategy are all that is required to deal with upstarts.”

  Torgon and the others arrived at the guild base to see several hundred players gathered at the training yard. Ovarrix ran them through drills against a team of players armed with spears and shield. They watched as he demonstrated ways to break through a shield wall with various weapons until he dismissed the group.

  He walked over to Torgon while his trainees went to the fields to burn through their xp debt. “Torg, it didn’t go very well. They had flaming catapults and we barely killed any of them.”

  Torgon shrugged, “It happens. They had over ten times as many people than we did, and sadly the power of anime and friendship doesn’t make that big of a difference.”

  Ovarrix sighed heavily, “I know. I just hate losing.”

  Hyperia patted Ovarrix on the back, “It wasn’t a complete loss. Knowing about the catapults they used against you is going to help us a lot. Although now we need to worry more about what other trump cards they might have squirreled away.”

  Dusty said, “Come on Torg. Let’s go plant the Repository by the Library. I want to show Regulus his new home.”

  Torgon alerted the guild that they would be putting up a new building and warned everyone about Regulus and his appearance. He planted the Archway near a side entrance to the library and activated it.

  “Congratulations! You have activated the Basic Repository of the Forgotten Empire. This building provides a bonus of one level per tier for all crafting attempts for automatons, golems and undead inside your guild base. It generates 500 hours of crafting research per tier towards undead blueprints daily. New lore information about the Morzeshi Empire is available in the library.”

  Torgon fiddled with the settings and granted Regulus permission to leave the repository and wander the guild base. The towering skeletal mage emerged and waved at the assembled crowd. Children gasped and ran forward to touch his robes and hands. The ancient scholar seemed flustered by the attention.

  Dusty dragged the bemused mage and a gaggle of children off to the library to show him around. Torgon turned to Ovarrix and asked, “What do you need to make the coming battle easier?”

  Ovarrix tapped his chin then stared at Torgon directly. “I want permission to use every automaton we have. I know they’re not easy to make, but we have enough. We can burn them to crush their garrison faster and demoralize them.”

  Torgon looked at Hyperia and she nodded in agreement. “It’s a good idea Torg. Use every automaton we have plus any undead we happen to create between now and then. They won’t stay current and they’re still higher level than most of the players that SPQR has.”

  “I really want to hoard them, but I get it. I do.” Torgon said. “We’ll deploy all the war wagons as well. Every consumable can be used, every siege engine and every trick. We’ll find new surprises in the ruined city and the final raid.”

  Hyperia grinned, “We should bait them. Offer some diplomacy and take a more conciliatory tone on the forums.”

  Allestor raised an eyebrow, “Do you think they’ll fall for that?”

  Ovarrix smiled coldly, “They’ll take the bait, hook, line and sinker. Gaius is the kind of person who smells his own farts and talks about the pleasant bouquet. His sense of superiority is bigger than Torgon’s need to craft.”

  Torgon cocked his head to the side, “Eh, I really love crafting. We’ll lean into the idea though. Cut back on combat formations and increase our crafting. Everything we can do inside the guild base and away from prying eyes will help. Run groups away from where they’re operating and encourage everyone to chase down the quest lines they have up from the cities. If we have diplomatic meetings don’t involve me though. Every chance I get for diplomacy I end up starting a brand-new war.”

  The group laughed and Allestor patted Torgon on the back. “You’ll be our secret weapon against boredom.”