Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 193: Ch191. ... And countermoves

Chapter 193: Ch191. ... And countermoves

The smoke had barely begun to clear when Mara’s voice sliced through the chaos, calm and unflinching.

"Everyone, stay where you are."

The air shimmered, the lingering force of her wards forming a faint lattice of blue and gold light over the council table. The crystalline glow danced in fractal patterns, slowly fading as the last threads of her protective weave unraveled.

No one had so much as a scratch.

The glass dome overhead had cracked but not fallen. The explosion, while brilliant and loud, had met a fortress of layered arcane protections, a dozen spells laid one atop another, woven by Mara herself into the walls, floor and ceiling, in anticipation of something precisely like this.

Mara exhaled through her nose, still standing, her fingers curled subtly as if she’d caught the edge of the detonation and thrown it sideways. Her coat fluttered around her like a banner as she turned her sharp gaze across the council table.

"We are not children, and we are not amateurs." She said coldly. "Whatever that was, it failed. Because we are prepared."

A few heads nodded, slowly, still stunned. Guildmaster Koji of Flame-Eater was the first to rise from his crouch behind the table, brushing ash from his red lapel.

His dark eyes met Mara’s with the faintest glimmer of respect.

"Not a hair singed." He murmured, his lips curling up ever so slightly.

"That’s the point." Mara gave him a nod.

"Who would dare strike us here?" hissed Delgrin, the scaled and cloaked master of Hollowroot. "This place was declared neutral ground by Circle edict."

"Neutrality is only sacred to those who still believe in rules." Mara replied. "And you know who is the person who don’t believe in rules among all the players."

Tala of the Nightwardens, arms crossed and unshaken, tilted her head.

"So... Shinji does make his move..."

"But he’s not among us, is he?" Master Cindrell of the Gilded Thorn narrowed his eyes. His golden earrings swung like blades as he turned toward the others.

"No." Mara’s smile was sharp as broken glass. "And you know what this means."

She didn’t need to elaborate, because every single guild master in the room knew what it meant.

The air held its breath around her.

Then she took a breath, rolled her shoulders, and straightened. Her voice turned brisk.

"He did this to split our forces, to fracture the hierarchy of power between us. But he’s not going to succeed, is he?"

None of the masters disagreed.

"The rest of you, you came here for a reason. Let’s get back to it."

"After that?" Harvin, of the Riftwalkers, barked. "You expect us to go on like nothing happened?"

"Yes." Mara said simply. "Because nothing did."

Silence ensued.

She placed both palms on the surface of the table, letting the firelight catch the sigils inked faintly into her gloves.

"That wasn’t a targeted strike. It was a message, one meant to fracture us, delay us, distract us. Letting it succeed, letting it pull us off task... That would be doing exactly what they want."

She paused, and then, added quietly.

"We do not flinch. Not now."

Across from her, Koji leaned back in his seat.

"Alright, Forge-Master. You’ve made your point. What now?"

"The Dungeons." She said. "The ones we’ve already cleared."

That refocused the room like a snap of fingers.

"Each of you will take responsibility for a set." Mara continued. "They’ve been surveyed and logged. The Union will share the maps. You’ll establish base camps around each one and begin conversion of those areas into strongholds. I don’t care if you use tents, towers, or prefab arcana-bunkers. Just get it done."

"The wilds aren’t exactly friendly..." Delgrin muttered.

"They won’t be." Mara agreed. "But the Dungeons are safe enough areas, and we can also use the surroundings to our favor. All that remains is pressure, force, direction, and will."

"And monsters." Cindrell added dryly.

"Yes." Mara said. "Some cleared Dungeons are still spawning monsters."

A fresh ripple of murmurs passed through the room.

"Something’s different, and like I said before, the [Dark Forest] isn’t the only one behaving like this, although it’s the most recent and notorious." Mara interrupted.

"Someone’s sustaining them." Tala said flatly.

Mara nodded.

"Either that, or Shinji has found a way to rewrite the rules entirely. And I intend to find out. But until then, our job is twofold. To hold territory, and purge instability."

She tapped the table once, and a hard-light map shimmered to life in the center. Territory lines etched themselves in slowly shifting color. Orange for Flame-Eater, silver for Nightwardens, emerald for Hollowroot, indigo for the Gilded Thorn, crimson for Riftwalkers, green for Shooting Star, and white fire for Union, blazed in the center, spreading outward from its towering hub in Mara’s Forge.

"We’ve marked known cleared zones." Mara continued. "Most are small and fortifiable. You’ll receive allocation suggestions based on proximity and force composition, but this is a negotiation, not an edict."

"I like that." Harvin muttered. "For once."

"Take it up with Tristan." Mara’s voice was dry. "He did the math."

The room bent again toward seriousness. They studied the map, lines of supply, terrain advantages, deployment times.

"And you think this is the right play? Spreading us out to secure territory, even with these anomalies?" Tala crossed her arms again.

Mara’s expression turned grim.

"If we don’t hold the ground we’ve already bled to take, foreigners will when the [Dungeon War] begins."

No one argued.

"The monster respawns are irregular." She added. "Which means it’s not random. And if it’s really Shinji who’s behind this, we root it out by forcing him to respond. Pressure the monsters on all fronts. Set ambushes, place sigils, trap and trace. No more blind defense, we fight forward until we lure him out of his hiding."

"War doctrine." Koji grunted.

"It’s always been war." Mara said softly. "We were just pretending otherwise."

Cindrell leaned forward.

"And what happens if a Dungeon breaks mid-purge? If we split our forces and one of us is too far to respond?"

"We adapt." Mara said. "We rotate rosters. We build emergency rift points. And we trust each other to act without waiting for consensus."

She looked around the room.

"The Dungeon War alert wasn’t a warning, it was a declaration. We’re in it now. We move fast, and we move together. Or we die one by one."

"And you, Mara?" Tala asked. "What will you be doing?"

"Playing chess." A slight smirk touched Mara’s lips.