“In hindsight,” Hou Zheng said in a casual tone, “I regret bringing the tanks.”

  Josh breathed heavily, leaning against the cave wall for support. He had pursued the orc here, across what felt like half the bloody Jungle, back to the dungeon where Hawkins had dragged him earlier today. God, was it just earlier today?

  “What are you on about?” he asked between breaths. He had actually already recovered, but he played it up. Let the enemy think you were weaker than you were. If they underestimated you, it was always to your advantage.

  “I spent quite a bit of effort finding those tanks,” Hou Zheng continued. He, annoyingly, looked perfectly fine and composed, despite the fact that he had run through the same Jungle as Josh, while wearing significantly more thick leather. His horrifically burned face wasn't even sweating, which was just unfair.

  “Yeah,” Josh said. He let out another breath. “Yeah... woo... I figured as much. How many did you have to pull apart to get a few working ones?”

  Hou Zheng sighed deeply. “More than I would like to admit. But even if I had found four tanks ready to go, even if I hadn't needed to have them cleaned, repaired, all their oils changed out and the rust cleared out...” He shook his head. “It still wouldn't have been worth the effort. I should have just taken a page from Mizuno's book and driven a few especially large monsters in your direction.”

  “Monsters cannot be controlled,” a new voice called out. Josh immediately straightened, his grip tightening on his new ax.

  From deeper in the cave, two more men stepped out. Former Mayor Hawkins and his large Thug of a bodyguard, Michael. Hawkins looked insufferably smug, but then he always did. Michael at first looked expressionless and impassive, but on second glance he seemed somewhat subdued.

  Hou Zheng gave Hawkins a sideways look. Like he was something he had stepped in and hadn't managed to scrape off his shoe quite yet. With his burns, it looked almost sinister. “I am not going to argue the merits of control and predictable chaos with a slaver,” he said. His tone was polite, even though his words were anything but.

  Hawkins sputtered. “I'm not—I hardly—” He gestured at Josh. “He's a criminal!”

  “So are you, by your own world's laws.” Hou Zheng turned back to Josh. “My point is that the initial shock of the tanks was their only true benefit, and not worth the cost. I believe your girl has already destroyed three of them.”

  Josh didn't actually know who his “girl” was in this context. Hell, that could mean Anna for all he knew. Still, he got the point. “I'm gonna take a long bet on a short roll here and assume that your tanks would be doing better if they had enough training to find their butts with both hands.”

  “Correct,” the orc said, to Josh's surprise. “They have no training on tanks, no experience with anything comparable, and they had little time to practice before you escaped and we had to accelerate our plans. Have you ever tried to operate a tank, Mister White?”

  “Can't say that I have,” Josh lied. Well, it was mostly true. He had been inside a tank, but it hadn't been running at the time. “I at least know how complicated the damn things are, though.”

  Hou Zheng nodded. “Weeks of training to get a few green dwarves to even be able to drive the things.” He shook his head. “We could have spent that time trying to lure the dracobeast down from the ruins of Gilroy. It would have saved everyone ever so much trouble.”

  “My plan was flawless!” Mayor Hawkins insisted. “If you had just let me collar the right people—”

  Hou Zheng conjured a spark of white flame on his finger, then flicked it at Hawkins. Hawkins yelped and dodged away gracelessly. His bodyguard looked down at him, and did nothing to help.

  The orc ignored this. “I wanted to give you a chance to surrender,” he explained. “In particular, an indiscriminate monster attack would have no guarantee of leaving any survivors. I had already promised that Miss Moore would be spared, and I could not risk breaking my word.” He sighed, then winced and rubbed his face. The burns looked like they had broken open in one spot. “And I would not have to deal with this... inconvenience.”

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  “Sorry about that,” Josh said, with slightly more energy than a dead fish.

  Hou Zheng glared at him, and seemed about to make an angry retort, before he took a deep breath and mastered himself. “I will admit that you have made me angry,” he said in a calm tone. “I will admit that if I were a weaker man, I would want to kill you for that alone. However, I have accepted that you were simply defending yourself. I will not hold that against you.”

  “Uh. Thanks.” Josh stood there awkwardly for a moment. “Are you... not going to try to kill me, then?”

  “Oh, no, I am,” the priest said, his voice serene as a mountain lake. “I just wanted you to know it was for practical and pragmatic reasons, not base revenge.”

  Josh actually believed he was being genuine. Somehow, that didn't make him feel any better.

  “Enough of this!” Hawkins snapped. He pointed at Josh. “Take him out! The Healer will provide support.”

  Michael looked at Hawkins, then at Hou Zheng, then at Josh. Then he looked back at Hawkins. “I don't know, boss,” he said, in a slow and gravelly voice. “I'm not sure this is such a good idea.”

  Hawkins stared at him. “What!?”

  “He's trying to kill the town,” Michael pointed out. “It's hard to rule over a dead town.”

  Josh had been thinking the same thing this entire time. He still wasn't sure how Hou Zheng had managed to hire so many mercenaries. Did he really just have enough money that he could smooth over those issues? Or perhaps it was simply enough money to keep them from asking questions.

  Hawkins rolled his eyes. “Not this again.” He waved a hand in Josh's direction, though he didn't look at him. “This is all his fault! If he had just given up, no one would have needed to die, including him! He's making a principled stand against bribery, and getting hundreds of people killed in the process!”

  Josh was about to say something to defend himself when Michael shrugged. “I mean, yeah, maybe he's a self-righteous prick, but he's not the one killing hundreds of people. How can you even rule over the town after all this?”

  Josh decided not to put himself in the middle of that. Insults aside, Michael seemed to agree with him well enough. Though, really, he was a little miffed. What had he ever done to Michael to make him think that way about him?

  “We don't need the town,” Hawkins said. “I'll admit, I would prefer to be able to keep that Improved-tier citystone, but it's not important, in the end. We have the bloodstones. That's all we need to set ourselves up for life.”

  Michael frowned at that. “I have family in the town. Plenty of the boys do.”

  “Obviously we'll evacuate them.”

  Josh wasn't sure that their mercenaries would be able to evacuate anyone specific in the middle of an active invasion. He remained doubtful that Jael could get Ruth out, and she was one of the best stealth specialists in the world.

  Michael was clearly thinking along the same lines. “Who did you send to protect our families?”

  Hawkins blinked in surprise. It was clear he hadn't so much as considered doing something like that.

  “...Did you even give the order?” Michael asked. “Did you tell the mercenaries that there are people they are supposed to save?”

  Hawkins scoffed. “They are not some mindless barbarian army. They will hardly slaughter everyone they see. Your families, the family of everyone who still serves proudly, know better than to put themselves in danger. They will be fine, and they will be compensated for any property damage.”

  Josh raised an eyebrow. Hawkins was talking in circles and contradicting himself. Were the mercenaries expected to destroy the entire town, or not? Were the people perfectly safe, or could they be evacuated?

  Really, at this point Josh thought it was pretty obvious that Hawkins was operating largely out of spite. Even if the mercenaries conquered the town, they wouldn't be able to hold it for Hawkins. Sooner or later, a monster horde would attack, and Hawkins wouldn't have enough people left to defend it. Maybe Hawkins was too short-sighted to see that, but Josh thought it was the opposite. He had written off the town entirely.

  Michael nodded. “Thank you for explaining, Mister Mayor. I feel much better.”

  “Good.” Hawkins reached up to pat the man on the arm. “You're a good man, Marshal. I'm glad you're on my side.”

  That was bad enough that even Josh flinched. He saw Hou Zheng wince as well. He'd caught the mistake too.

  Michael himself, on the other hand, didn't so much as blink. “Thank you.”

  Hawkins turned back to face Josh again. “Now, this will be easier if he gives up command authority, so try not to kill him—”

  He never got to finish his order, as Michael stepped up behind him, grabbed his head, and broke his neck with one strong twist. Hawkins collapsed to the cave floor like a sack of rocks.