Chapter 208: Just Like Fishing

“They started it.” Bee said, hands held up in faux innocence as will observed the scorched-out building.

“They started the fire?” Will asked.

“Yeah, one of them slammed into the lamp and FWOOSH!”

“Why did he slam into the lamp?” Will asked, already knowing the answer.

“Dunno.” Bee shrugged, averting her eyes.

Will tousled her hair in the way he knew she didn’t like. The tiny thief crossed her arms and pouted but didn’t say anything, because she knew she messed up.

“Well, it’s fine, they got the message.” Will said, releasing Bee’s head.

And the house was made of stone so there was no structural damage.

Will turned his attention from the aftermath of yesterday’s intervention and made his way to the main square of the Stronghold, where he himself had nearly been executed only a few short years ago.

Even now, Will still felt weird assembling everyone there to address the Stronghold in the same place he’d almost died, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. it was the best place to address a large crowd.

Besides it’s not like anyone who was there is still alive.

Will made his way to the back of the stage, where Anna straightened his collar and wiped some soot off his face before ushering him onstage, grabbing Bee as she tried to follow him.

Will trotted up the stairs and stood in front of the hunters.

They were a stoic bunch, with hollow cheeks and unflinching stares.

“Good morning gentlemen. I’d like to thank all of you for volunteering to help hunting the worm that’s been eating away at our stores.”

“The plan is going to require a fair amount of precision and a damn lot of footwork on your part, so get sit down and get comfortable. Anna made bread and gravy for everyone here. It’ll give you the energy you need to make this happen. Anna?”

There were excited murmurs among the crowd as a platoon of Anna materialized and began passing out the very last of Will’s stores of flour.

They didn’t need to know that. As long as they killed the damn thing, they would recover.

Map.

Will created the largest physical copy of his map that he had ever created, nearly fifteen feet on a side.

Ria held the map up behind Will straight up and down like a tapestry, so everyone could see.

Over the course of owning the map, Will had become adept in using the legend and the labelling feature to modify the look of the map.

“This is where we’re at right now.” Will said, pointing at the Stronghold, making it pulse with light.

There was a hushed murmur as the map shifted in front of them, changing focus to the east.

“Every hunting team that has tried to track the worms back to their source has lost their target when the worm inevitably scatter in every direction.

Will made dotted lines detailing the direction these teams had been travelling, then an X where their prey scattered

“If you’re paying close attention,” Will said, “You’ll notice that you can draw a perfect circle between these places where our hunters lost the worms.”

Will did so, creating a large circle connecting all the dots.

“This tells me that whatever is controlling this worm has a detection radius of about three miles.” Will made a blinking dot in the center of the circle. “It’s smart. Smart enough to understand when its offshoots are being followed and instruct them to scatter, but not smart enough to understand that we can discern its location with this information.”

“Here’s the plan:” Will said. “We’re going to form a wall of men-“

“Hey!” a singular knot of leathery grandmas glared at Will from near the center of the crowd.

“-and women, and drive this thing north into this valley,” Will said without missing a beat, showing the route he wanted them to take.

“This thing has an aversion to being discovered, so once people start getting close, It’ll start moving away from them.”

“It’s lazy though, and doesn’t seem to like moving, so I think we can pinpoint where it’ll be if our human wall forms a chevron, like so-“ Will showed it on the map, looking like a flattened V pushing the dot upwards.

“If everything goes right, the Raid Boss will settle about three miles north of this bottom point here, in this valley.”

“Why there!?” one of the men in the back shouted, having already inhaled his bread and gravy.

“Because that’s where our nukers are going to be on top of this mountain, about three and a half miles away.” Will said, creating a second chevron on the mountain.

“From that vantage point, they should be able to observe the entire valley. I’ll be handing out range enhancing Kit, so they can pummel the thing if it slips away and tries to escape.

“They aren’t gonna be the killing blow?” One of the Climbers asked, belatedly raising his hand after he spoke.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“It’s a Raid Boss,” Will said, scanning the crowd. “I want those Sacrifices, and I want them whole.”

There was some low muttering among the crowd.

“Where are you gonna be?” another Climber asked.

Will made a dot on the southern chevron, then moved it up north to catch up with the raid boss.

“Right here. On top of the damn thing.”

“Are you saying you’re gonna have our nukers rain fire and lightning down on top of you while you fight this thing?”

“That is exactly what I want, yes.” Will said. “Don’t worry about me. There’s nothing the Nukers could do that would actually harm me.”

“God-damn.” Will heard one of the Climbers mutter and tried not to smile.

“Alright, up against the back wall, you’ll see nine Ria with numbered signs. Nine squads for the south group assemble over there. I want people light on their feet. Each squad gets a Ria to help coordinate their spacing. Sort yourselves.

As people started moving, Will raised his voice above the murmur.

“We only have seven Nukers capable of striking out at that range, so each of you form a group to support you! Take the slowpokes along with a Ria to coordinate your positions!

Once everybody’s formed up, let Ria know. We’re going to march you out like so:”

Will demonstrated on the map, where the southern group would swing wide around to the south, the north group mirroring their movements, adding over five miles to their trek in order to give Attrition the proper distance.

“The faster southern group will arrive first, then when the slowpokes give us the signal, we’ll start pushing Attrition up.” Will said, scanning the milling crowd as they began sorting themselves out.

They might seem unruly, but they were veterans of a hundred battles, and when it came time to organize, they did so with haste.

Will glanced up at the sun.

Not even noon yet. I’m impressed.