As the Florida Panther Queen finished speaking, James saw what looked to be a hatch on the roof open up, and climbing out of it, he saw what appeared to be an extremely roided out version of Dean.

  I guess he went through Race Evolution, James thought. He looks like he’s ready to be in a 1980s movie or something…

  James wondered what the Race was. But he guessed he would never have the chance to find out, since there was a high probability that Dean and all of his comrades would die here.

  It was nice knowing you. I wish you had joined me. We probably could have done great things together. Well, maybe I’ll wind up avenging your death.

  The Hulk-like Dean on the roof stepped forward, almost to the edge of the rooftop, perhaps so that he had a clearer line of sight on the Panther Army. At this range, it was possible with the Panther Scout’s senses to examine Dean’s expression. James could see, because he knew Dean’s face, that the latter was afraid, but he hid it well behind crossed arms and a scowl.

  Rather than doing something sensible like surrendering, Dean yelled back at the Panther Queen, his voice booming despite being unaided by any magic.

  “Do you think we are defenseless?” Dean shouted. “We have been preparing for your arrival for weeks! Do your worst here, and when you fail to make a scratch, go and find softer prey.”

  With a contemptuous expression, he turned his back and walked back toward the entrance to the interior.

  Way to play your losing hand like you’ve got pocket aces, James thought. I doubt the bluff will make them go away, but at least your family will feel proud of you as the building collapses in on them.

  “Well, some are proud before they fall,” the Queen said with a smirk and a shrug. She turned her head to shout at the soldiers behind her. “Let them taste the sting of our catapults!”

  The Pantherfolk yowled and roared with excitement, and as the Panther Scout turned to watch, they loosed their catapults and ballista bolts, along with an array of magical missiles of various elemental compositions—apparently the Panther Queen’s army included a substantial contingent of Mages as well as Warrior types and some form of Job that was essentially equivalent to a siege engineer.

  That looks devastating, James thought.

  He watched closely as all of the attacks arced through the air, neared the old firm building, struck—and were deflected.

  Wait, what?

  The Panther Scout seemed to have a similar reaction as the person watching from behind his eyes, as the scout’s mouth gaped open slightly at what he saw.

  “Reload and prepare to fire again!” the Queen ordered instantly. “With more force this time.”

  The Panther Scout turned back and watched as dozens of Mages began charging elemental magics of various types, while the more mundane members of the army grabbed nearby rocks or long ballista bolts for the catapults and ballistas respectively.

  Can the building do that again? James wondered. How many of these attacks can it shrug off?

  How long the attacks would continue was another key question, but it was such an ominous one that James preferred not to speculate about it. He would probably have an answer very shortly—or he would witness Dean’s shelter reduced to rubble.

  A minute passed with the attacks charging, siege weapons being loaded, and the Panther Queen looking impatient.

  She seemed to have a pretty good gauge for how long magical attacks took to charge, because as James was thinking they might be done, she spoke up.

  “Ready. Aim. Fire!”

  At that final word, all of the attacks were unleashed, and this time, the Panther Scout turned and watched even more closely. James thought it had actually activated a Skill of some sort, because the movement of everything it observed seemed to be advancing more slowly. This was very convenient for James as well. He saw the missiles clearly up until the moment when they struck the building.

  For a moment, as the attacks impacted, James saw it—a thin, transparent barrier that rose from around the building in all directions. It was only visible for what must have been a fraction of a second—it felt like an instant in the scout’s slowed down vision—before it faded away again.

  This Skill is similar in nature to Basic Non-Elemental Magic. It has to have a limited supply of power or some other similar weakness. If the Queen keeps up these attacks, the barrier will fall. Right?

  The Panther Queen seemed to have the same idea as James.

  “Another round!” she ordered immediately.

  As the Queen waited, she paced back and forth, her expression stiff and—to James’s eyes—dark. She looked as if she might strike down anyone who dared to approach her. Perhaps the scout saw the same thing, because he did not approach the Queen to share what he had undoubtedly noticed. She had probably seen the barrier herself, since she had also watched the attack, but it had also been a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment. Even James could have missed it. Whichever Mage had prepared the barrier had undoubtedly been more practiced, and certainly more subtle, than James.

  But did they have James’s insane level of Mana reserves?

  The Panther Queen ordered another barrage of attacks launched.

  This repeated a dozen more times, with similarly minimal effects.

  Although James thought he could spot some weakening in the barrier in the last two attacks—the Mana when it became visible seemed to flicker subtly—he thought he was probably the only one who noticed, possibly including the Panther Scout itself. That was the difference between simply having extremely good sensory Skills, which the scout possessed, and also having the experience of regularly using Mana, which gave James more of an understanding of how it worked and what it looked like when in use.

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  The Panther Queen ordered a halt to the attacks, and she gave further instructions telepathically.

  All non-drummers, we will temporarily withdraw and rest. Drum corps, advance as close as you can safely manage, and play your drums as loudly as you can. Drum corps leader, arrange shifts. I want you to play the drums all night and into tomorrow. Play continuously until you wear them down. Do not let them sleep. An enemy that has not rested will be much weaker than an enemy on a full night of sleep.

  Well, shit, that might actually work, James thought.

  This was worrying. He wasn’t even thinking about Dean’s fate now. He was just concerned that the Panther Queen seemed clever and resourceful enough to pose a real problem for him in the near future, assuming that she came after the Fisher Kingdom as he expected. Using music as an instrument of war was an idea that he vaguely remembered from the Bible, and he had no doubt it would help the besieging force in some situations.

  Of course a Mage would be less effective if his skull was pounding from loud drum music and a night without sleep. It was likely that Mana regeneration was slower without sleep too, if James had to guess. Healing from significant injuries required sleep, so it stood to reason that efficient Mana recovery would too. The System-initiated world was not that different from the pre-System world.

  In compliance with the Panther Queen’s orders, the drummers split off from the rest of the group and, while the rest of the army looked on, they advanced toward the firm building, talking quietly among themselves as they did so, probably working out shifts.

  The scout did not watch the drum corps advance, though. Instead, he walked over to the Panther Queen and simply stood a few feet away, looking at the ground and keeping a respectful silence until she deigned to notice him.

  “Oh, scout Whisper,” she said. “Did you have something to tell me?”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” he said quietly. “If you will forgive my presumption in assuming that I observed something that you may not have noticed.”

  The Panther Queen let out a short, sharp laugh. “Tell me what you observed. If it is something that I actually failed to notice, consider yourself forgiven.”

  The weight of her words hung in the air between them like a sword above the scout’s head. Whisper Wind swallowed a lump in his throat. James could feel that, despite the absence of any deliberate pressure from the Panther Queen this time, the scout felt tremendous physical symptoms of nervousness. A terrible weight had settled over his body, he had somehow dropped to a cooler temperature, and his paws shook slightly.

  He spoke: “I think I saw the barrier weakening with the strike of that last attack, Your Keenness. Please forgive my impertinence.” He dropped to his knees and kowtowed like he was meeting an ancient Chinese emperor.

  The feeling of being in this subservient scout’s body began to grate on James.

  Have some balls, man…

  The Florida Panther Queen gave a longer, more mirthful laugh. “I did see that, scout.” The Panther Scout’s blood froze for a moment. “I was uncertain if what I saw was real, but it is a relief to have some confirmation. Thank you.”

  For the second time that day, the scout’s mouth dropped open in surprise.

  “Come walk with me, scout,” the Queen said. “While we lead the group to a distance that makes it harder for us to hear those accursed drums, I will take your thoughts on our next move.”

  “Y-yes, Your Majesty!”

  The Panther Scout sprang to his feet and followed the leader as she led the group away. There was a distinct sway to the Queen’s hips as she moved now, which James only noticed because it stood out to the scout. James thought it was strange that the scout was basically staring at his boss’s rear, but perhaps it was a panther thing he did not understand.

  Then she sent a telepathic message, clearly for the scout’s hearing only.

  Do well here, and with your next mission, and I may look to you in the next breeding season, she sent quietly. You are not one of our strongest, but I have noticed your intelligence and sensory abilities—and I have brawn enough for the both of us.

  James felt a palpable excitement surge through the Panther Scout’s body, but it was tempered by another feeling that was difficult for James to identify. There was some kind of uncertainty in him.

  As if reading his mind, the Queen added, I assume you have enough vigor to breed with me and your mate.

  Wow, James thought. So that’s how things work in panther society…

  For a moment, he wondered if there was a similar dynamic at play in his wolf pack. Then he decided he really didn’t need to know that.

  He listened to the two Pantherfolk converse back and forth. After the scout reassured his Ruler that he had plenty of vigor, the conversation returned to the more professional subject of capturing Dean’s fortification. The Queen seemed to be very interested in strategies that would not require actually destroying it, which James gathered was because she was impressed with how well it held up—albeit with magical reinforcement—against their bombardment.

  The scout’s advice boiled down to the sort of tips a stereotypical Rogue might offer: sneak in, use subterfuge, dig underground, and the like.

  James thought these ideas were thoroughly unimpressive, mainly because they were the sort of things that he would have come up with on his own already, but the Panther Queen nodded and looked thoughtful as she listened to the Panther Scout’s suggestions. Listening to this conversation gave James another layer of understanding of his adversary.

  Even though he found her intelligent and resourceful, she was not the type of person to think of underhanded strategies like these on her own. At least, that seemed to be the best explanation for why she was genuinely—as far as James could tell—interested in these lame ideas.

  “All right,” the Queen said at the end. “I want you to come with me, and at just past sundown, we will make an attempt to sneak in. Just us and a few of those who are the stealthiest among the army. If I can gain entry, I can cut my way through to the front door and just let our Warriors in.”

  She makes it sound so simple, James thought. As if Dean and his people won’t have thought of something so basic.

  After the Panther Queen finished conferring with the scout, she sent another order out, instructing the Mages to begin periodic bombardments of the building, aiming at the opposite side from that where the drummers were camp. The idea was that this would also prevent the defenders from resting.

  James continued to believe this attrition strategy was what would ultimately pay dividends for the Panther Army.

  He did not get to see the bombardment resume, because the scout stayed near the Queen while the Mages marched back to the site of the siege and resumed their attack. James wondered for a moment if they got through, but then he guessed from the fact that the army did not all suddenly receive word to rush back and attack that the barrier was still up.

  I wonder how someone has enough Mana to do this, he thought. Is this person high level? Do they have a Skill like Pillage, to bulk up on Stat points? Or a quick Mana regeneration thing? Is it possible to have infinite Mana? Well, probably not for a mortal…

  James observed for the hours that remained until nightfall, although nothing that happened gave him any big additional insights.

  Then the Queen approached him—approached the Panther Scout, that was—and said that it was time.

  “Let us give the humans in their hiding place a surprise they will not soon forget.”

  And the Panther Queen’s smile with the words seemed to bare all of her fangs at once.