“Warchief! Got someone for you to meet.”

  I slumped a little as I heard Bhaarrt call out to me.

  “What next?” I mumbled under my breath.

  Turning toward him, I caught sight of someone coming our way that made me do a double-take. No…not Bhaarrt. I was used to him. It was who was following him.

  The man was almost as tall as Ingrid, dressed in blue and yellow slashed puffy pants that ended halfway down his thighs over white tights. A long-sleeved Tudor jacket matched the color of the pants but on the opposite side.

  Finally, short blue cape lined in yellow draped over his left shoulder. Under it hung a three-ring rapier. A dark blue, floppy beret with long yellow feathers sat cocked jauntily to the left. Add a lute slung across his back, a small leather drum on his right hip, and the long, unmistakable points of Elven ears.

  REVEAL STATS confirmed what my stunned eyes suspected, an Elven Bard. “Just what we needed. For real!”

  Whipping off his hat, he gave me a formal bow. “Gaylord Nimblefingers, at your service, Warchief.”

  Returning the bow, I replied. “Just William of Brinsford,” I said. “A Bard is most welcome. Another Rennie helps, too.”

  He smiled as he straightened up.

  “He sings at Faires and plays guitar in a local rock-fusion band. Studio musician when he gets the gigs. That’s pretty often,” Bhaarrt said. “If it’s got strings, he can play it.”

  “This is better than I hoped.” I turned to Gaylord. “Do your Bard buffs depend on the song, or are they fixed?”

  His face went blank for a moment…checking the Game Rules, no doubt. “Intent and content,” he answered. “Why?”

  “How well do you know Queen?”

  “I have played for Her Majesty occasionally,” Gaylord said with a smirk.

  “Not Good Queen Bess,” I told him. “Queen. Freddie Mercury.”

  His eyes closed as he facepalmed. The Renn Faire accent dropped. “Shit. Yeah. I’ve played their hits. Why?”

  “We Will Rock You.”

  “Of course. It’s perfect. Buff and debuff in one. It’ll work.”

  “What are you two talking about?” Bhaarrt asked, blinking at us.

  I clapped twice and stomped once. Clap, clap, stomp. Clap, clap, stomp.

  Bhaarrt’s eyes lit up.

  “Think of all of us doing that as we round the corner and form up,” I said. “Add Gaylord’s Bard skill and singing, plus Father Stoddard’s blessing? We have a better chance of coming out of this not just the winners…but alive.”

  “I can do that. Yes. I love it.” Gaylord swept off his hat again and bowed. “I take off my hat to you again, sir,” he said, straightening. “I see why they call you Warchief.”

  “Thank you…I think. You’re the Bard…make it scary as hell. I got the idea from a video of soldiers marching. Two steps, slap their rifle to their chest. Two more steps, repeat. Sir Andrew is in charge of the front line and shield wall. Talk to him. Get everyone ready. We’re almost out of time.”

  Bhaarrt grabbed the Bard’s arm and pulled him toward our people, who were starting to form up into lines. I glanced around. No one else was headed our way. I could faintly hear cars on the other side of the building.

  Hurrying off and angling toward the street behind us. I wanted a quick look at what was coming, without being seen looking around the corner of the building.

  Slipping my hat off, I held it at my side, away from the building’s edge. Across the grass, then the street, I saw cars and a few pickups pulled into a lot. Men loitered near them. A few were armed with rifles, most others with pistols tucked into waistbands. A few looked unarmed, but that meant nothing. So far, we outnumbered them. They were too far for REVEAL STATS to work.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  Another car rolled up. Four more armed men stepped out. Time to head back to our group, which was beginning to look like a shield wall.

  “Sure, as hell hope this works.

  Chief Brown was standing off to the side of the closest end of the line by the time I returned. “Will!” he called, waving me over. “Over here.”

  Technically, he was my boss when it came to adventurers in Eddington, so I crossed over to him quickly. “What’s up, Chief? What are we facing?”

  “I’m not sure yet. They’re still arriving. They took over a bus. One of my patrol officers saw it in a convoy heading this way.”

  “It can hold, what…thirty, forty people?” I guessed.

  “Something like that. We don’t know how many are in it, what they’re armed with, or what powers they’ve got,” He said.

  “If we can’t do anything until they get here, we don’t worry about it. I’m hoping to out-Magic them, not out-gun them.”

  “Most of your officers stuck close to what they already knew,” I added. “Their gear, tactics, whatever. Some were smarter, or just lucky. Doesn’t matter now. We work with what we’ve got.”

  “I know.” He shook his head. “Don’t like it, but you’re right. We play the hand we’ve been dealt. Agent Pozarkova said you had something for me to do?”

  “Weeeeell…” I drew the word out. “Depends how lucky you feel…or how much you trust me. Or both. You know what Blaze did with PokerRun when we helped the Orcs, right?”

  He nodded, eyes narrowing.

  “We’re thinking the same trick. But this time, I want them to shoot at you.”

  He blinked, twice “Come again?”

  “Or really, at our shields,” I clarified. “That way, we get a read on their weapons and force them to spend ammo and MANA. The twist is, you’ll keep your gear on and fall back…or we’ll yank you behind the shield wall.”

  “Sounds dangerous.”

  “You’ll be shielded personally, as well as having other shields in front. I checked…shielding can stack. We’ll layer everything we have in front of you right before the shooting starts.”

  “Thanks for that much.” He gave me a dry look. “Why do you think they’ll shoot at me with everything they’ve got?”

  “Because you’re the face of authority. You’ll tell them to drop their weapons and go home. Which, I think, is what you want.”

  “It is,” he said, then frowned. “But they won’t do it.”

  “That’s what we’re counting on. When they think they can’t hurt us, but we can hurt them? Some will break and run. Less for us to fight. Less ammo for the ones who stay.”

  That’s when I noticed Blaze approaching.

  “Will, I just caught the tail end of that,” Blaze said. “One of the other Fire Mages has a SMOKE SHIELD spell instead of FIRE SHIELD. It’s good for blocking sight, but not projectiles. If he throws it up before Bhaarrt pulls the Chief back, the Chief vanishes behind the smoke. Then the other shields appear behind it. They won’t know what blocked them until the smoke clears.”

  “Isn’t this getting too complicated?” Chief Brown asked.

  “Probably,” I admitted. “How about you stand behind the shield wall, or in a gap, give them a chance to surrender…then step back and duck?”

  “I like that better,” he said. “We’ll do it that way.”

  “Yes, sir,” Blaze and I said together.

  More noise echoed from the other side of the building. There were more voices, more vehicles. It was nearly time. There were people gathering off to my right past the end of our shield wall. Noncombatants, by how they looked. That and all the phones and fingers pointing at us. Spectators is not what we needed right now.

  As we hurried back toward the forming line, I stopped beside Shadow.

  “Shadow, do you have your Healer set up?”

  “Yeah. I feel better about this.” She nodded, pointing toward a woman in hospital scrubs talking to two of her rogues. “Nurse Melissa says she can take two shields to protect her if we’re out of range?”

  Nodding, I smiled.

  “Awesome,” Shadow said. “You legit in what you promise.”

  “Not all of us old white guys are bad people. Don’t take this wrong, but I need you to drop party and form a new one with your four. You need private comms. When it’s over, I’ll invite you back. It’s not personal, it’s command and control. We can DM each other if we need to.”

  “I get it. You ain’t tryin’ to ditch me. It’s part of givin’ me command.”

  “Exactly. You’ve got your own squad now. You’ll have a target, maybe more than one. If you find a better one, take it. Hit and STEALTH. Rinse and repeat. Stay alive. All of you. Got it?”

  “Got it. Damn…Me, responsible for three, four, maybe more people. Whoda thought?”

  “I would.” I smiled. “When the line starts moving, STEALTH and get out ahead. Have the Healer follow us as we move. I want their attention on us while you go around the building. Get behind them from the side…out of their path and ours. Stay low. It’ll be a few minutes before we get you your targets. Wait for the shooting to start. We won’t see you.”

  “Thank you,” she said, her voice quieter now. “Thank you for trustin’ me. Ain’t many people done that in my life ‘cept my family.”

  She turned away. I thought I saw the sun catch a glint at the corner of her eye…and heard what might’ve been a choked-off sniffle.

  She disappeared from my party roster.

  Heading back to the shield wall, I took my place in front and facing it.

  Musical Interlude:

  Swiss Army Dance - We Will Rock You