As Anna had promised, at the front of the crowd was Hou Zheng, the orc [Healer]. He stood at the center of the line, flanked by the four tanks like an honor guard, and had his arms crossed in front of him as he looked up at the wall.

  Gone was his leather full-body armor. Instead, he wore long, flowing robes of red and white, layers intricately folded around and within each other. Despite how seemingly ostentatious they were at first glance, Josh soon realized that they would offer a full range of movement in a fight. The sleeves were wide to let him move freely, and while the lower bit was long, it didn't drag on the ground or bunch up around his legs.

  Josh had definitely seen this type of clothing before, in Chinese dramas and the like. He had a distant memory of them being referred to as Taoist ritual clothing, and he had a strong feeling that this was what Chinese priests were expected to wear. The outer robe was red with a few dashes of orange, evoking a clear feeling of fire. The inner robe was white, clean and pure.

  All that paled in comparison to Hou Zheng's face.

  He wasn't wearing a helmet, or a mask, or even a hat. A quick scan told Josh that he was a [Level 80 Healer], which was worrying all on its own. He looked up at Josh, grinning around his massive tusks. He was making no attempt to hide his identity now. Everyone could see that he was very much not a local human, and no matter how this battle shook out, people were going to have questions. Hou Zheng's own mercenaries kept glancing at him, as if they still couldn't quite believe what they were seeing.

  Josh didn't think he was doing it to show off, though. Josh was pretty sure the burns just hurt too much.

  Hou Zheng's face was a mass of pale green burn scars, flesh twisted as though melted. The scars all looked ancient, as if he had been healing for months if not years, and his eyes were still bright and strong. They still looked painful, though, even more so considering that Josh knew exactly how much magical healing must have hurt to heal them that fast. One commonly quoted truism was that healing a wound hurt as much as getting it in the first place. That wasn't actually true, but it was close enough to be quoted, and fast healing universally hurt more than slow healing.

  Josh thought back to their various fights. Hou Zheng had never fought like a support caster, and rarely acted as anything but a front-line combatant. Josh didn't know what class he had now, but it was likely some hybrid Attacker/Healer class designed to let him fight up close and personal. Most [Healers] could easily fix burn scars at such a high level. Biodiesel burned hot, but not so hot as to permanently scar beyond what even magical healing could accomplish.

  Josh felt his missing fingers throb in pain. He clutched his ax, then forced himself to calm down.

  “Oi, you didn't need to go to all this trouble!” he called, once his friends had assembled beside him. “You want some burn salves, our Alchemist works for fair rates!” He had no idea if Sarah had any burn salve recipes yet. Probably. She had already invented some sort of magical toothpaste.

  Hou Zheng chuckled, and a low, uncomfortable laugh reverberated through his mercenaries. Jael, Josh noted, did not laugh. She was not wearing a mask either, and kept her eyes on Ruth, standing next to him. Josh scanned her. [Level 72 Attacker]. Of course. The good news was that she was out in the open. She was stealth-focused. As long as they kept an eye on her, her primary advantages were nullified.

  “I can deal with a little bit of pain for a while longer,” Hou Zheng said. The orc's voice was deeper, raspier, than before. Perhaps there had been some damage to his throat, as well. “I am, however, officially done offering you deals.”

  Josh nodded. “Fair 'nuff. Why'd you ask for me, then?”

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  “Perhaps I simply wanted to make sure that you were within my target radius.”

  So he was done with deals, but not done with games. Josh could use that.

  “Speaking of your radius...” he said, as he gestured behind his back. “Where'd you get the tanks? Not the kind of scrap you find locked up in an old garage.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he noted Ruth moving away. She could do the most damage with some silent time to prepare. Mary, meanwhile, stayed next to him, hands on her guns and eyes on Jael.

  Jael definitely noticed Ruth leaving, but she didn't move. He didn't think she noticed Darius leaving as well.

  Hou Zheng's grin broadened. “You would be surprised what you can find if you know where to look.” He patted one of the tanks. A resounding clang echoed around the walls. “There are three old military bases less than a hundred miles north of here. Outside your City's famous Burn Line, but not so far into truly dangerous territory. It was not hard to bring them here.”

  Even assuming he had somehow found four tanks in perfect condition just waiting to be oiled and fueled, there was no way he could have driven them down here. Not without the City noticing. The scouts, guards, and reclaimers would be high enough level at this point that they'd have to be dead to miss something that obvious.

  Honestly, Josh wasn't sure that Hou Zheng could have driven them down here even if they were in perfect condition with full teams of repair crews and the entire City unanimously deciding to look the other way. There were no roads that ran that entire way without breaks, and driving any vehicle through the Jungle was an exercise in futility unless they were designed specifically for it. The trees were thicker than walls in many places, they resisted any attempt to clear them with active force, and trying to do so would attract legions of monsters.

  There were ways to solve or avoid these problems. Josh had two ideas, one of which was half-assembled in Abraham's garage, and another which was parked on the south side of the village. But there was a reason that the City used the Burn Line, and expanded it so slowly.

  “So,” Josh said slowly. “You drove a few tanks out of a dungeon.”

  Hou Zheng grinned so wide that Josh was genuinely worried he'd split his face. It definitely looked like it hurt, with those burns. “Well,” he said, “it was a little more complicated than that. But yes, essentially.”

  “No, you're going to need to explain that one,” Josh said. He was curious, but he mostly was just stalling. He had no idea what Ruth and Darius were doing to prepare. It wasn't as though they had considered tanks when they made their plans. Still, he trusted them to figure something out. “You can't drive anything through a dungeon.”

  The only way to get anything into a dungeon was for a person to carry it in. Normally, that wasn't an issue. Storage rings and large Strength scores meant that people could carry a lot into a dungeon. Still, people had tried to get vehicles in before. Josh had heard a story about a full party all sitting in a vehicle and activating the dungeon entrance in the hopes that it would be carried with them. It hadn't worked.

  “That's actually remarkably simple,” Hou Zheng said, as if he was explaining a cooking fire to a child. Josh almost thought that he had forgotten he had led an army of mercenaries to attack the town. “If the majority of an object is overlapped by a rift when the dungeon forms around it, then the object will be drawn inside the dungeon.” He shrugged. “It also influences the shape of the dungeon. There are now three Metal dungeons and an Explosion dungeon up north.”

  Josh stared at him. “All right, even I assume I believe that heaping pile of nonsense, what? You drove them through a rift and popped out right here on our doorstep?”

  “It was more difficult than that, but yes, essentially. The hardest part was finding a dungeon that was broken in the proper way to allow everyone to leave through it.” His smile turned to something more genuinely amused. “I'm sure that part doesn't surprise you. I know you like playing the fool, but you're smarter than you look.”

  “Would be hard not to be,” someone on the wall muttered. Muted chuckles bounced around his forces. He decided not to engage.

  “Why don't we get down to brass tacks,” Josh called. “No use dancing around it. Wot do you want?”