Running down St. Michael’s Way, it was not far from my shoppe before we neared the enemy. We all came to a halt and began to spread out across the road. I needed to make some quick decisions. The fog was thick, and our visibility was low.

  Being good with strategy when you are criticizing decisions made by actors on a vid, or when sitting in the calm of your home playing a game, is certainly not the same as being thrust into a battle. My nerves were on edge, and my blood was pumping so hard I thought I could hear it flowing in my ears. Whether real or imagined, I sure felt it beating hard against my chest.

  “Those with officer rings, on my command, send out water elementals through the damp fog into the bay to damage any goblin ships they find. Three, two, one, now!”

  It was not a very spectacular view. Jets of water shot out into the fog without disturbing it at all. But before I cleared the fog, I figured I’d use its wetness to our advantage. We were not very close to the harbor, and shooting out water elementals on dry land was a losing proposition. But the fog was water vapor, and it worked like a charm.

  Which, it was.

  “Officer rings, second volley on my mark. This time, we use air elementals to sweep the fog away from us as far as they can go with it. Three, two, one, now!” I shouted.

  Eleven rings and a spell from Adriana sent forth minor and lesser air elementals to clear the fog. It worked even better than I had expected.

  The fog parted all down the street and was even wide enough that the building and warehouse roofs were cleared on both sides of the street. This also worked to our advantage, because a few of the archers had already begun scrambling up on those roofs to secure their positions, but had gotten caught in the thick fog.

  The cleared space showed us a couple of hundred goblins, momentarily frozen in their tracks at the sudden loss of fog cover. They had filled up the square and had begun to move north toward us and east toward the East Gate. More could be seen arriving in the harbor and were running north toward their fellows and us.

  “Oh dear,” Adriana said. “That's a lot of goblins.”

  “And they see us,” Biff added.

  “Officer rings, third volley on my mark. We use earth elementals to turn the road into deep mud and slow the goblins down. Three, two, one, now!” I shouted again, my voice already starting to crack slightly.

  The earth elementals shot forward from the rings like beachball-sized bowling balls. As they got to the goblins, they rolled into the ground as if there was a smooth ramp down rather than just solid level stone. Immediately, the stone cracked and pulverized, and the ground became like sand and then quicksand.

  A few of the brawlers cheered.

  We had just bought maybe a minute of breathing space.

  Speaking of breathing, I took a long, calm breath. I knew my rings and the resources we had made. My gut told me one more defensive move was important before we go all out offensively.

  I shouted, “Officer rings, if you do not already have protective armor, use the blood armor in the ruby to protect yourselves and drink a healing potion. If you already have magical armor, share the ring with an inquisitor or Watch soldier nearby. Do it!”

  I didn’t think I needed to count that down since it was not a coordinated attack.

  Instead of using my own ring, which I would have needed to hand to Biff to use and then give it back, I used a 14pt ruby in my staff for an even stronger rare blood armor effect for my best friend. I was wearing a very powerful Blood Armor from a 28pt ruby given by the jewelry guildmaster when I visited his shop. In fact, I had a complete ring of five, 28pt elemental gemstones bound in a Dwarven Copper band. Because I used it over twenty-four hours ago, it had recharged, and that meant I could get another use out of it. I looked around quickly and used its new charge on Sergeant Benjamin. My instinct told me he was the senior military man present, and boosting him could save additional lives. It would not wear off, and that meant he could still have additional armor protection after today.

  If we made it past today.

  The sergeant was not thrilled with the delay, but he took my magical ring and followed my directions. His eyes grew wide when he got the armor, and he did not stumble like most everyone else does when they first use the blood armor power. I gave him two Lesser Healing potions. He had to be decked out in armor, given his health.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  I chose correctly.

  He gave me back the ring, and I saw everyone around me taking similar actions. All the journeymen had some sort of potion belt or vest. They would use one or two minor healing potions to replace the health lost in the spell for themselves or whoever they shared with.

  The front ranks of the goblins were free but had turned to help others get out of the mud before charging. That also bought us time.

  “Time is our friend. Allies will be on the way. We slow them down here or drop them. None gets past us.” I said just loud enough to carry to the nearby rooftops and the archers

  The group around me gave a single, loud cheer that made the goblins jerk back and stare at us in fear. It was brief, but inspiring.

  I continued more loudly. “They attack in groups of three. You will never have just one goblin on you. Take that into account when you fight them.”

  The front ranks of the goblins began to rock back and forth like they were working up courage. There were a couple of dozen at the very front, growling at us, and they were about to charge.

  “Officer rings, on my command, launch fire elementals to burn down the goblin ships' sails and hulls. Three, two, one, Go!”

  The rush of fire from us had the desired effects I was looking for. The goblins all dove for cover, fearing a fire attack launched at them. And the fire elementals soared through the air and out to the ships. They started with the ones already docked on shore first.

  Elementals were literal beings. You could not give them very complicated instructions, especially the weaker ones. I hoped that maybe it would slow the landing process down a bit.

  And that's when I saw one of the ships approaching the harbor simply disappear under the water in an explosion of wood that flew a hundred feet in all directions.

  TUF was on the job!

  I used one of my own SUS staff rings. This time, I used a ring to create a low, three-foot wall of fire in front of us that blocked the goblin's approach except for a five-foot space on each end that went up against buildings. I did not want to set the city on fire, and my archers were on those roofs.

  Seeing the gap, some of the goblins slowly began to move around the edges.

  I reached out to Bella. Bella, can you please tell the archers to use exploding runes as best they can in groups, and if they see any goblin spellcasters, follow Adric’s adage, “See a robe, send a probe.”

  She must have sent it because from the bell tower I heard Adric yell, “Hey! That’s my line!”

  “The rest of you, let’s set up a defensive line here. Take out the goblins at the edges from a distance for as long as we can. Use Mage Blasts or anything else you have.

  “Crap,” I said.

  Biff smirked. “Potty mouth.”

  “I forgot to bring along more magical restoration potions for the casters.”

  Biff shrugged, “Ask Bella to have runners bring us a box or two.”

  “Well, that’s,” I hesitated, “a good idea, actually.”

  On it. Junior will fetch two boxes and return for more when you need it. Bella told me, having heard Biff’s suggestion.

  I raised my staff and began shooting off area of effect Mage Blasts along with the other journeymen, who included Magebolts. Some of the Watch soon joined in. It took two bolts to take down a goblin, and we had five bolts per maximum casting. It was not as efficient as I had hoped, despite how easy it was to fill the rings because nearly every mage learned either Mage Blast or Magebolt as an apprentice.

  If we had many thousands coming at us, we would need a better plan. It's a good thing the team was already on top of it. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t help us much today.

  But we made good use of the spells for now.

  The archers must have spotted some robed goblins because there was a barrage of explosions that had all the telltale signs of explosive runes. I knew the sound quite well by now.

  Disappointingly, the minor and lesser air elemental magic was not very strong, and the fog began to slowly close in again. It would provide cover for the archers, but it would also make it hard for them to see anything.

  A voice suddenly spoke in my head and made me jump. It was Davon using his speaking stone, somehow. “Don’t respond. I see you fighting, but I also see that you are coordinating our defensive efforts. I am using sorcery to view the harbor and your part of the city.

  “There are ninety groups of three goblins per ship; they work in triples, which you probably know. And thanks to your clearing the fog, I see three ships already unloaded. There are three more ships at the docks about to unload.”

  He laughed. “Oh, nice work with the fire elementals. They reached the ship's sails. The goblins don’t like that.” More chuckling. “A sea monster has decided to pick off a ship or two of goblins. THAT certainly has gotten their attention. Mages are sending fire at the creature with minimal impact.”

  He continued, and I began to relay what I was hearing to the others. “There are three more ships approaching the rear of docked ships that are already on fire, presumably to use the ships as extended docks. Clever little beasts, although the fire might slow them down a bit.

  “Uh oh. A shaman is putting out the fires on the docked ships, but the elementals have moved on to the ships still sailing. Those sails must be dry; they are going up like kindling.

  “There are six ships veering east and six ships veering west of the docks with flat hulls. They appear to be landing on shore. I’m not sure if they will head to the harbor or to the walls.” He paused until they landed. “Ok, from the direction of the first few goblins jumping off the ship’s low hulls, they are moving toward the harbor, but slowly, the marsh vipers are having a field day to the east. I love rangers and druids.” He added.

  “Hmmm, a group from one ship appears to be heading to the large caged sewer pipes that dump into the swamp outside the city, to the west of the harbor. “Uh oh, the gates just opened up and they are heading inside.”

  There is a long pause. “More to come as I have news. Sorry, I feel-” And he signed off suddenly.

  “They are entering the sewers beneath the city?” Bido asked.

  “Yes,” I confirmed.

  “And we know that the sewers go everywhere. There is no telling where they are headed.” Steven said. I had not noticed him arriving. He brought with him a dozen cleric brothers of different ages; several had to be faculty members.

  The fog tunnel was nearly closed, and while my short wall of fire was still up, it would not last much longer.

  However, the thick fog and goblins skirting around the fire wall were not our immediate concerns. The invading force had magic of its own, and the archers had not found all of its casters…