Three days had passed since the attack on Redwater Crossing.

The flight had been a blur of gray skies and endless mutated forests. Ashwick wasn't far—at least before the apocalypse—but in the current state of the world, distance was measured in danger.

It was still a week of travel away from the smoking ruins of the research facility.

They had flown without pause, landing only when they needed to rest.

They had spoken little since leaving the survivors. Seeing what they did, the cages, and the experiments gave them a bad mood.

But they were surely thinking, and Jake, Jake was actually curious.

"How are we going to do it?" he asked. "Ashwick. The survivors said, it's a fortress."

Reidar looked at the boy.

"We'll find a way," Reidar said.

"But how? The guy said the walls are made of mana-dampening stone. He also said, they have guards at Level 300."

Reidar nodded. He had heard that too. The intel they got from the survivors painted a grim picture.

Ashwick wasn't a repurposed industrial park like Ashford or a hidden lab like Redwater. It was much bigger.

The survivors described walls made of a stone that absorbed mana, and they also tried to explain what it did, but they didn't have much information either. As things were at that point, the walls were just a minor problem.

<None of that would be happening if there weren't system-bound people helping those bastards…>

The guards were another concern. The Church had stationed more than just common Zealots at Ashwick.

According to the survivors, Elite Sentinels patrolled the grounds. They were more than average fighters, and they were equipped with armor that far exceeded standard issue.

They weren't fresh recruits power-leveled by Aaron. These guys were strong on their own.

And the defenses went beyond walls and men, as there were summons of many kinds and traps that used spells to create the most various effects.

It was a fortress designed by someone who knew what they were doing.

"It sounds impossible," Jake said. "If we can't use magic on the walls, and we can't fly over..."

"We need intel," Reidar said. "We don't know the layout. We don't know the patrol routes. The survivors saw the outside, but they didn't see the defensive grid in action, and whatever they heard might be false. Something said just to make them despair more."

He looked at the Vorathid Sky-Hunters flying in formation behind them.

"If the external assault is off the table, we find another way," Reidar said. "For example, I have the Vorathid Sky-Hunters to sneak in."

He ran through the scenario in his head. "I can shrink them down. Make them the size of wasps. If I can get close enough to the gate or find a ventilation shaft that bypasses the dampening field, I can slip them inside. Once they are in, I can trigger their growth. I can flood the streets with Level 340 monsters before the alarm even sounds."

It was the Trojan Horse strategy. Bypass the hard shell and rot the fruit from the inside.

"If I summon thousands of them inside the barracks while the guards are sleeping, the fight ends before it begins," Reidar said. "At least in theory. Of course, I don't know if that's possible."

In practice, things might go completely differently.

Lena shook her head. "It won't work," she said.

"Why not?" Jake asked.

"The mana dampening stone," Lena said. She pointed at Reidar's raven. "These aren't real birds. They are mana constructs. They have physical mass, yes, but they are held together by mana."

She looked at Reidar. "Although I know yours was just a hypothesis, keep in mind that if that stone absorbs mana, your summons won't be able to enter."

Reidar frowned. "The connection might destabilize."

"Exactly," Lena said. "Yes. The moment your wasp-sized Sky-Hunters cross the dampening field, the mana fueling them gets sucked out. They'll unsummon instantly."

She gestured to the imaginary walls. "You can't sneak a summon past a mana vacuum. Unless you physically walk in there and summon them after you pass the field, your army stays outside."

"We don't know if that's how the stone works."

"But it's the most likely scenario," Lena said, to which Reidar could only grit his teeth. She was right. It was a simple cause-and-effect issue he had overlooked in his desire for a clean solution.

Summons required a mana upkeep or a stable mana environment to exist. The dampening walls killed that environment.

His strategy of overwhelming force had worked at Redwater Crossing because the defenses were far lower-level than they were in Ashwick. At least on paper.

It had worked at Ashford because the guards were even weaker, and the facilities in both cases weren't much either.

Ashwick was different. It was the main center of operations for the Church in the region. So, if Silas or whoever was in charge stayed behind those walls, Reidar couldn't touch them.

And if he tried to smash the walls down with the Twin Boulderback Behemoths, the dampening effect might weaken the stone giants before they could land a hit. Of course, there were alternatives. Using physical attacks by throwing rocks could work, but Reidar would need to say bye-bye to the element of surprise.

The map in his head was turning red. Every option led to a chokepoint or a kill zone.

But there was one variable that trumped tactics: raw levels. The gap between him and Silas was still there. Silas was at Level 370. Reidar was at Level 339.

That 31-level difference meant Silas moved faster, hit harder, and tanked damage that would kill Reidar.

It wasn't just about skill anymore. Silas's A.C.U.M.E.N. score likely dwarfed Reidar's, allowing for spells that altered the battlefield on a scale Reidar would have trouble facing.

He needed more.

He needed to close the gap. If he could reach Level 350, or even 360, the attribute disparity would shrink. His summons would scale up. His survivability would increase.

He couldn't rely on a clever trick to kill the Level 370 Archdeacon. He needed the raw power to put him in the ground.

"The only thing we are sure of is that we need levels," Reidar said. "We can't besiege Ashwick if Silas can just walk out and vaporize us."

He scanned the forest below. He was looking for movement. He was looking for C.L.A.S.P. points.

"We need to hunt," Reidar said. "We clear every high-level threat between here and Ashwick. We don't arrive at the city until we're strong enough to break it."

Then he saw it.

A disturbance in the canopy below. Trees were snapping, toppling over as something massive pushed through the undergrowth.

It wasn't the wind. The movement was directional. Reidar narrowed his eyes. A flash of scales. A tremor that reached even this height.

"There," Reidar pointed.

"I see it," Lena said, her daggers already in her hands.

"Follow me," Reidar said.

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