At 6:30 PM, after dinner, Lila, Hazel, and Kael headed up to the second-floor conference room.
Lila projected a map onto the main screen. "Tomorrow's event zone is locked. It’s a restricted instance starting five miles outside the eastern forest. Non-participants will be walled off by the system."
She tapped a laser pointer against the map. "There are three main chokepoints leading into the forest: A, B, and C. The WarChief's forces locked them down yesterday, so expect heavy resistance."
"We're focusing our main push on Point C. The terrain there is a nightmare, and it's too far from Point B for them to reinforce quickly. According to our intel, C is also their weakest link. After that..."
She finished breaking down the tactical assignments and turned to Kael. He had stayed quiet through the entire briefing. "Anything to add?"
"We have moles in The WarChief's ranks," Kael said, leaning back in his chair. "They definitely have spies in ours. Do you have a contingency for that?"
Lila nodded. "Already handled. I checked the roster. Aegis Prime and Sovereign grabbed slots, which means those thousand players are dead weight. Luckily, none of Caleb Mordant's direct cronies made the cut."
"And the rats he planted in your guild?" Kael asked. "What's the play?"
"Nothing special. I'm just keeping them out of the command channel," Lila replied. "I've been wanting to purge them for a while, but just kicking them out feels too easy. It doesn't sting enough. Got a better idea?"
Kael smirked. "We could use this op to wipe them clean. Camp their accounts back to level one."
Lila blinked. "Wipe them? How?"
Kael waved it off. "Details later. Right now, you've got a bigger blind spot. One that could cost us the entire campaign."
Her eyes narrowed. "Which is?"
"Your entire strat assumes the war starts the second we hit Chokepoint C, right?"
"Right."
Kael walked up to the screen and swiped, dragging the map away from Village 9139 and centering it on the perimeter of Starlight Village. "This is our staging ground."
Lila nodded slowly. "You think The WarChief is going to spawn-camp us here? That's suicide."
"No," Kael said. "You're looking at the wrong enemy. Who said The WarChief is the only faction we're fighting today?"
It hit her instantly. "Caleb Mordant. He won't let us march out uncontested. He's going to ambush us on the road!"
Kael nodded, letting the silence do the work. Lila and SkyVault had been so hyper-focused on the siege mechanics that they'd completely ignored the transit phase. Caleb was exactly the kind of petty bastard who would torch his own resources just to ruin someone else's raid. Seeing that Lila was already recalibrating, Kael stepped back. When it came to large-scale logistics, she outclassed him anyway.
"We can set up the trap for the moles on the way," Kael added.
Lila gave a sharp nod. She quickly wrapped up the meeting and logged in to rework the deployments.
It was a long night. Sleep was a luxury no one could afford, whether they were stationed in Starlight Village or the Grom'kar Outpost at Village 9139.
7:30 AM – Starlight Village
With ninety minutes left until the instance barriers dropped, twenty thousand players and ten thousand Deployment Points' worth of NPC troops stood ready.
Kael, who had been ghosting the general public for weeks, was right there in the formation. Tens of thousands of spectators crowded the streets and the village outskirts to see them off. The Starlight Town locals who hadn't scored a raid slot had emptied the general store of fireworks, setting off a deafening, crackling barrage of colors to hype up the march.
Lila broadcasted the final marching orders over the raid channel. "We have too much mass to move as a single unit. We're splitting into three detachments and taking separate routes through the outer forest to establish our forward operating bases.
· Team A, led by Draevan: You're escorting the Boss-class units.
· Team B, with me: We're taking the frontline combat NPCs.
· Team C, led by Dawnbreaker: You're on escort duty for the logistics and support NPCs.
"Acknowledge!"
A roaring "Copy!" echoed across the plaza.
Lila then cut through the crowd to address Team C directly. "Your route is the shortest. You'll hit the frontlines first. But you are the most critical piece on the board today. Every single Builder and production NPC is in your caravan. If you wipe, our siege is over before it begins. But with Dawnbreaker on point, I'm not worried."
She pulled a few core members of Crimson Bloom aside. "Rena, Argent, Carys, Briony—you are Dawnbreaker's direct support. Carys, Briony, you two haven't run with him much, so don't try to predict his plays. Just follow Rena's calls."
"Understood, Guildmaster," they chorused.
Lila turned back to the rest of Team C for one final warning. "Your route follows the river. If you get engaged, anchor your formation against the water. Do not let your lines break!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Satisfied, Lila marched to the front of the army and threw her hand forward. "Move out!"
The three columns surged out of Starlight Village in unison. A massive crowd of spectators trailed them to the edge of the forest. The Starlight Town locals were practically vibrating with paranoia, scanning the treeline to prevent a repeat of the ambush outside Village 99. But the perimeter remained clear.
The army pushed into the forest without a hitch, splitting into their three designated lanes: left, center, and right.
Crimson Bloom's main fighting force held the center lane, flanked by a phalanx of elite combat NPCs. Fired up by Lila's speech, adrenaline spiked through the ranks. Half of them looked like they were praying for an ambush just to draw first blood.
Near the vanguard, Hazel marched with her weapon drawn, staring intensely at the road ahead. But after a mile of dead silence, she dropped her guard and sidled up to Lila. "Hey, you said we were expecting an ambush, right? Which team do you think they'll hit?"
Lila reached over and playfully tugged the girl's braid. "If you were the enemy commander, who would you hit?"
"Uh... let me think..." Hazel scratched her head, her face scrunching up in concentration.
Lunara fell into step beside them. "They won't hit anyone."
"Why not?" Hazel asked.
Lunara laid out the logic. "Think about it. Team A is escorting literal Boss monsters. Only an idiot would suicide into that. Team B has the strongest guild on the server, plus our heavy infantry NPCs. We'd slaughter an ambush before they even breached our front line. And Team C? Sir Dawnbreaker is on point. Who in their right mind would mess with him?"
Hazel nodded slowly. "Yeah, that makes sense."
Lila chuckled. "Is Dawnbreaker really invincible? Has he never taken a hit?"
"Of course not—" Lunara started to say, then froze dead in her tracks. "Wait. Outside the Plague-Heart Mandrill Cavern. He got locked down by that Water Prison spell."
Hazel's eyes went wide. "Oh crap. Team C is marching along the river!"
Lunara's voice dropped to a whisper. "If they CC Dawnbreaker..."
"...and slaughter the squishy support NPCs while he's trapped..." Hazel finished.
The blood drained from all three of their faces as the realization hit.
Team C was the target.