“Sieges in NEMO carry a weight not seen in prior games. The sounds, the sights, the smells and everything that makes a siege a terrifying prospect grow in proportion to the sheer numbers on display. No longer are the battles a few dozen to a few hundred on each side. Teeming throngs of thousands drive home that the players aren’t chosen heroes. They are just meat for the grinder.”

  From “The Quality of Quantity” forum post

  Year 1, Month 1, Day 15, 07:00

  Torgon and the rest sprinted up the stairs of the city wall and took places behind the crenellations. They looked out upon the massing monster army. Large formations of goblins and orcs gathered, ragged blocks of ill-disciplined troops struggling to maintain cohesion. Dozens of mantlets rolled forward, ready to provide cover for the army’s advance on the city walls. Ladders, grappling hooks and other siege tools were visible with the groups. Units of wolf riders could be seen ranging behind the ranks of infantry.

  Catapults and trebuchets opened fire at the walls, forcing Torgon to duck behind the stone atop the walls. The monster siege weapons provided counter battery fire to suppress the towers and archers on the walls. The horns rang again, and the enemy units began to move forward. At least ten thousand goblins and half that number of orcs marched mismatched steps towards the walls. Crossbowman on the walls unleashed bolts down upon the throngs of monsters. Long bows soon joined the deluge of death. It was a one-sided slaughter for almost a minute until the goblins reached the range of their own bows.

  Return fire pushed the defenders on the wall to shelter once more. The monsters pressed forward again, this time with greater ease. They attacked only the east side of Miller’s Crossing and brought far more troops to bear against the sections of wall they faced than they had defenders. Players and city guards rushed frantically to repair the defense towers. Their durability fell rapidly under the heavy impact of stones smashing against them.

  Torgon’s vision narrowed to the gap in the crenellation before him. He popped up, rapidly fired arrows into the horde and then moved back into cover to avoid the return fire. He took an arrow or two every time he exposed himself. He used his healing spells while he waited to fire again, regenerating his health and energy.

  Ovarrix eyed him while they waited for the latest rain of arrows to pass. “Still want to wait on using the area of effect arrows?”

  Torgon nodded, “I do. This isn’t a full attack. It’s just the biggest one so far. No ogres, gnolls or giants were committed. I don’t notice any spellcasters. I think they’re just testing our defenses.”

  Ovarrix shrugged, “It won’t matter if we let them breach already. They’re getting close to using their ladders.”

  When the enemy forces came within fifty yards of the wall, the goblins halted and raked the battlements with missile fire. The orcs rushed forward with ladders and grappling hooks to begin the assault on the walls. When the rushing horde reached twenty yards from the wall, they began to collapse into a hidden trench that circled the city. Hundreds fell more than twenty feet onto the stake lined ground below. They were crushed as orc after orc piled on. The monster army cried out in anger and shock and the orcs that survived scurried back to the goblin lines. Missile fire exchanges continued, but the force began to pull back under cover of the mantlets.

  Hundreds of bodies littered the no man’s land between the city walls and the fortifications of the besiegers. Strangely, the bodies remained on the field. They didn’t disappear as they normally would after a while, leaving just piles of loot. The behavior struck Torgon as odd, and he wasn’t sure what to make of it.

  “Ovarrix, all the bodies are still there. They are dead right?” Torgon asked.

  Ovarrix leaned over the wall and looked around, careful not to be too exposed. “They’re dead. This might mean that filling the trenches with bodies is a valid tactic. It might mean that the bodies carry some disease or curse. Hell, they could be raised as undead for all we know.”

  “That’s a pleasant thought,” Allestor sarcastically replied. “I’d love to have the chance to kill them all over again.”

  “Did we lose any of the siege engines?” Torgon asked.

  Ovarrix checked his messages, “They were all saved but it was a near thing. If they commit the giants to an attack, we’ll lose the siege engines in whatever section of city they go for.”

  Torgon ran his fingers through his hair and rubbed his eyes. “Our enemies will know that now. If they deploy a large strike with the giants, we’ll need to deploy our own war weapons to counter them. Let’s get off the wall and move back to a ready state. It’s going to get busy I fear.”

  The guild base danced with the activity of the players coming and going. The new adventurer’s hall provided quests of varying difficulty that the players could compete for rewards such as guild contribution points, bonus experience points and coins with the chance for gear, blueprints or skillbooks on the hardest missions. The coffers of the guild were quickly recovering and Torgon made arrangements to pay back the 200 gold coins they owed from the auctions.

  Several children were waiting for the party in the main courtyard of the base. They stood quietly, expressions of confusion and resolve on their faces. Curious Kate stepped out, obviously nominated as their spokesperson. The words tumbled out of her in a rush, “Why didn’t we use our big weapons? We could have killed so many more monsters?”

  “Let’s all go to the park and grab some seats. I’ll explain it to you the best way I can.” Torgon waved Ovarrix and the others away to go about their own tasks. He led the children near the fountain where they were all able to take seats on benches or on the ground and waited for him to start speaking.

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  “How many of you have watched shows or read books where a character conceals his power in a fight, only to reveal it later and the enemy does the same thing, and it just escalates until one of them wins.” Lots of hands shot up in the crowd. “You’re probably wondering why not just go all out at the start, right?” Heads bobbed up and down in agreement. “Sun Tzu, a famous general, shared the wisdom that if you know your enemy and know yourself you need not fear the result of 100 battles. That doesn’t mean you’ll win, it’s just you won’t be surprised by the outcome.”

  One of the older children straightened up, “So, if you hide your power, the enemy won’t know you and you’ll have an advantage?”

  Torgon nodded, “That’s part of it. What the enemy doesn’t know they can’t plan for, and it can turn the tide of a fight. Another part of it is that sometimes there’s more than one fight. If you go all out at the start of a dungeon, blowing your consumables like potions, you’ll be crippled later. Tournaments, where you hide powers from future opponents are like that. Today, at the siege, the enemy sent a force for a probing attack. They sent enough creatures that we had to take them seriously, but they kept many of their forces in reserve. They were testing our defenses. Their goal was to see what hidden cards we had to play like our portable siege engines or the new arrows. They managed to discover the hidden trench trap near the wall and so they can plan for that in the future.”

  A young boy blurted out, “Why not just meet them in a big battle, have a huge fair fight and let the best team win?”

  “Fairness is for sport. In warfare, the winners decide what was fair and what isn’t.” Torgon’s gaze sharpened, and his intensity rose. “There’s a phrase that we, and by we, I mean myself and the rest of the leadership team, use to guide our actions on the battlefield. A fair fight is the result of poor planning. We always want to be able to meet our foes with overwhelming force and never give them a chance for victory. Failing that, we always want to have a pathway to escape to deny them that same victory. When you’re competing in a tournament or playing games with your friends or out on a sporting field, that’s the time for fairness. Defending Miller’s Crossing from a monster army intent on destroying it requires us to use every advantage we have and to do our utmost to find advantages where we can. The enemy will assuredly do the same. You honor your foes by doing everything in your power to defeat them. Don’t toy with them and risk giving them an opportunity.”

  “In the next few days, they’ll be sending more attacks, trying to tease out more of our hidden defenses. Sometimes they will succeed in doing so. Every time we stop them, they are forced to reveal more of their own planning and thinking. When they believe they can beat us, that’s when they’ll send everything. They’ll come at us in one large overwhelming wave and then we all pray that we have enough to stop them.”

  The children seemed stunned, not expecting the level of openness from their guild leader. Kate spoke up in a hesitant voice, “We can make a difference right?”

  “That’s what we’re going to find out.” Torgon breathed in slowly before speaking more. “The stronger we are, the more preparations we make and the longer we hold out and grow, the more likely we are to win. All of you have an advantage over the average player. You’re here all the time. Our lives are in this game and in a perfect world, the actions we take to progress will bring us the enjoyment and fulfillment we need. I know you’re all being very serious right now, but you are just kids. You’re allowed to enjoy yourselves and not spend every moment on what you think you have to do.”

  “Well said,” another voice chimed in. Dr. Masters approached and shared a few words of her own. “Adults need to remember that they’re allowed to enjoy themselves too. We aren’t slaves to any system no matter what the system might want. All of us are individuals with our own wants and needs. Part of growing up, something that every single person continues to do for their entire life, is balancing what you want with what you need. Now, follow me, we have a short class for you near the kitchen. Chef Bridges has prepared some desserts for everyone to try while we go over history.”

  Torgon watched as Dr. Masters led the children away. He realized that he was different now. Living in this virtual world with his full physical capabilities had reignited the fire inside of him. He felt decades younger and his ambition was returning. His goals and dreams were once more something he could pursue. In that moment, he knew he had more in common with the kids that were being given a second chance than he ever believed.

  Torgon’s newfound spark led him to breaking rocks while monitoring reports from the city. He noticed more of the children out gathering or crafting than normal. It looked like his talk had spread amongst them. They took breaks to play games, but they were pushing themselves harder. He was conflicted, they were kids, and they should be allowed to be kids, but he thought back to his own time as a child and knew that he wished he could have been part of something like this. They had the rare opportunity to make a difference in a meaningful way. If they succeeded it would give them confidence in everything they did for the rest of their lives. He slammed the pick into the stones with extra force. He would do everything humanly possible to make sure they won.

  An hour before dusk, Torgon called a meeting with the senior guild members. Torgon’s eyes glinted with a fire that put hungry smiles on the faces of the group. “The main enemy attack will start tonight. I expect a large push to infiltrate the city under cover of darkness and destroy our supplies. Their final push will come the day after tomorrow. They want to end the siege and crush the city before we can acquire more supplies at the auction in Deep Harbor.”

  Hyperia cocked her head, “Did you get some new intel from the baron?”

  Torgon smirked while shaking his head, “No, the is purely intuition based on the circumstances. Mark, Ashford, I want both of you to keep making siege engines but be ready to commit to the fight when called for. Everyone else, we’re going to be in the city for the next 48 hours. Dirk, I want you to organize with the tourist players to block off the next 8 real world hours for being in game. This is when it will happen. After that, they can rest and recover. Call in to work if you need.”

  “On it boss,” Dirk saluted.

  “Ovarrix,” Torgon shifted his attention to their strategic commander. “Put together a strike formation of our hundred best players. I don’t know if we’ll use them, but I want them ready.”

  “Can do Torg,” Ovarrix gave his own wry salute.

  Torgon sent out a guild wide message, “Attention all members of Risk of Injury. If you have free experience to spare, dump it into your combat skills. We are going on a guild wide combat alert for the next 48 in game hours. Starting tonight it is my expectation that the monster army will do their level best to destroy Miller’s Crossing. No matter how much we suffer, no matter how many times we die, we will deny them victory.”

  “Stabitha, do we have enough potions to keep everyone topped up?” Torgon inquired.

  She nodded, “We do. We’ll distribute them now. We even have several batches of the spider venom coating ready to go.”

  Torgon eyed everyone in the room. “You know your tasks, let’s go save a city.”

  Allestor stood up, a lopsided grin on his face, “On it Torg, we’ll carry out our orders like the Devil himself commanded us.”