"I suppose you are correct," Martin said. "In this world, and this situation, the demons will surely dig you out of any hole you dug yourself into. So. We fight."

　　"We fight," echoed Kumbanaka.

　　"We fight together," said Fred. "So I`m gonna listen to you guys. You`re my smart guys. I need your expertise."

　　"I`m not a war dragon, Fred!" Martin said. "I know a great deal, but not about armies and combat."

　　"And I am well read, but neither am I some sort of general."

　　"You guys have helped me every day. I know you`re the smart ones. Throw some ideas at me."

　　"Okay," Kumbanaka replied. "I suggested a wall around your Forest Temple. Where is it?"

　　"Oh, shit, yeah. I forgot about that." Fred immediately set to the task. He built a high ring wall around the entire Forest Temple. The land was very uneven, but he kept at it, and the result was a surprisingly high wall, especially on the downslope side. He had to push many big trees aside to place the wall, and he saw the problem of trees being too close to the wall.

　　He added the normal crenellations, and stairs on the inside, and a big gate that covered the end of the road, and had a big bar, just like the other gates he`d already made.

　　"I`ve got a lot of trees real close to the wall up here. Isn`t that dangerous? I mean, won`t the demons climb the trees to get inside the wall?"

　　"Yes," Kumbanaka said. "Cut the trees down. Knock them over. Make a flat empty killing field in front of every wall, with nothing that can be used to block your arrows. That`s how one is supposed to use a wall."

　　"That`s a lot of good wood," Fred grumbled. But he saw the truth in it. So he set about pushing over all the big trees outside the new wall. Once again, the process was very loud, and disruptive to the humans inside the Forest Temple, even more so since it was the middle of the night. Once he was done, the near trees were all thrown down, and scattered radially away from the outside of the wall. Fred thought that it was good, an extra hazard that would be hard to move over. It wasn`t flat ground, but he thought it was fine.

　　"Okay, what else?" Fred asked Kumbanaka and Martin.

　　"You`re good at digging holes, Fred," Martin replied. "I assume you were planning to drop the demons into trenches?"

　　"Yeah, something like that."

　　"Then get started now. Make the trenches, with thin coverings. When the demons walk over them, you need only remove the cover, and the demons fall in."

　　"You`re right. Good idea."

　　Fred spent the rest of the night making trenches throughout the east fields. He made rows and rows of them, each covered in just a span of rock. He shored up the covers with thin rock pillars. He didn`t want them to cave in prematurely. He wanted to surprise the demons himself. He had to work around all the latrines he`d made. He thought about making them fall into the trenches, too. But he didn`t want to offend the noses of the demons. He wanted to squish them.

　　An hour before sunrise, Kumbanaka asked him for a new token, and Fred obliged.

　　In the morning, the east field was more foggy than ever. As though it were now her job, the blue-robed wizard showed up on the wall, and cast a breeze that blew the fog away. A great cheer rose from the army when she did it. "Mebbe she`s just working for the applause," Fred mused. Fred hadn`t expected any change to the fields, because of his pit digging. But he was still pleased to see that the field appeared unchanged to the humans..Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author`s consent. Report any sightings.

　　Bang! went the teleporter pad again. Another greasy smoke cloud, another failed attempt at connecting the teleport magic. Fred looked at the site, and saw that the wizards had taken more precautions, and hadn`t stood so close, so no one was hurt. "Good," he thought. "At least they seem to be learning. And they`re up so early. I wonder if my work on their wall woke them up?"

　　Hello, Fred.

　　Fred told Jim what had happened in the night. He asked Jim if Michael had learned to use his magic sight correctly.

　　Yes, as far as I know. I know he never found any infiltrators, and yes, that does bother me. It`s possible the demons have overlooked him. His domain is a bit higher up the side of his mountain.

　　"But he has humans inside him, right?"

　　Yes, he does. The humans found him, and yes, that suggests the demons found him too. I just don`t know for sure.

　　"Okay. We`ll all ready to fight. And I asked Kumbanaka and Martin for ideas on how to get ready, and they gave me some good ideas. So I want ideas from you too, Jim. We gotta win this."

　　When I have some, I`ll be sure to pass them on. Believe me, Fred, you`ve been doing everything right. Now, Uamanth is still fighting. The demons have protected themselves from falling into holes by spreading their own blood over the battlefield. The number of demons who sacrificed themselves for this tactic is outrageous; two-thirds of that demon army are already dead.

　　The demons also have special units that can burrow underground, but the ground is the very domain of the Earth Spirit, so Uamanth has been able to crush them without any trouble. His wall still holds firm. I will let you know the latest this evening. I`ll go now. Stay strong.

　　"Okay. Bye."

　　A second day dawned with the encamped army on the plain. No more troops came, but throughout the day, the road hosted more pilgrims and more refugees. At least, Fred thought they were. They looked as sad and pitiful as the pilgrims, but they had a bit more visible wealth; more colorful clothing, and more pack animals. Fred saw that they were being efficiently guided to camping spots by a combination of acolytes of Sharfroen, army privates, and town officials. "I`m glad they`re working well together," Fred thought.

　　Back in the domain, the fighters continued their regular battles with Fred`s creatures. He watched Kumbanaka die again, in a fierce battle that left several men with severed limbs. Their teammates took the severed limbs back to the Healing Complex, and Fred watched them argue about which arm belonged to which fighter, as the healers re-attached the limbs and berated the adventurers for their recklessness.

　　The JorMgumo also died. Her webs were surprisingly fireproof, until the mages started throwing around a special magical fire that burned white-hot. It filled the lair with poisonous white smoke, but it got the job done, and the JorMgumo finally perished, cornered in the back room of her lair. Considering all the coughing that the fighters did afterwards, Fred again assumed they wouldn`t have been so reckless if they didn`t have a Healing Complex to rely on.

　　Around noon, another large group of fighters and mages got together to attack the Celestial Wurms. They fared much better than the previous group, mostly because they had been made fire-proof and lightning-proof by various magic spells and gadgets. It was still tough to fight in those narrow passages, and the SIlver Wurms took full advantage, rushing down the tunnels, knocking humans around, and savaging them with powerful claws.

　　When the battle was over, the humans had retreated with a few losses. But they had managed to kill one of the Silver Wurms, and they were in high spirits when they emerged into the sun and started with the boasting. Thirty minutes later, Fred watched the Silver Wurm pop back into existence, in front of the other two Wurms. They greeted each other like the closest siblings, and the Golden Wurm keened with (what Fred thought was) relief. Then all three Wurms settled down into a huge cuddle puddle over the eggs. Fred thought this looked a lot like what Shelley`s brood was always doing.

　　Throughout the day, Fred`s thoughts returned to what Jim had said. The demons used their own blood to suppress the control the Earth Spirit had over the ground. And they had digging units. In the afternoon, with nothing else to do, Fred looked underground to consider some of the remnants of the demons he had buried and squished. The effect was still there; it hadn`t gone away or even gotten less. Fred felt a distinct numbness in that earth, as though a limb had gone to sleep.

　　He tried to move a clump of demon, and it worked, but it was slow and difficult. It was as though the demon lump was super sticky, and didn`t want to easily slide through the rest of the earth. At the same time, it seemed slick to him, like it wanted to slip out of his grasp. At least, that`s what it felt like to Fred. Next, he wrapped the clump in a bigger ball of earth, and tried to move that. No dice; it was still very hard. He tried moving the earth above and below the demon lump, and that worked no problem.

　　Then he had an idea, and made a void underneath the lump. By pushing down from above, the lump fell into the void without problem. "Huh," said Fred. Next, he made a void above the lump, and then pushed up from below, shoving the lump upward into the open space. That worked too. So long as he was trying to directly "grab" the lump, or the earth around it, the demon magic worked against him. But he could push the lump into open air pretty easily.

　　So next he tried pushing the lump all the way to the surface, by opening a hole above it, and pushing the earth below it. This worked well, and the gross, dark, tarry lump of demon remains was now parked on the grass. It was about twice as big as one of the hot stones, but otherwise was completely different. Without really thinking, Fred pushed again from below, and was startled when the lump jumped off the ground a span, before falling back down with a sad wet thump. Fred pushed sharply, a few more times. Each time he got the lump higher into the air. It was kind of fun, like dribbling a giant basketball with no air in it.

　　Still, it was disgusting, and felt like a seed in your teeth (Fred thought), so he considered throwing it so hard it would leave his domain. He wound up, and shoved the ground under the lump upward, trying to aim the lump outward, towards the east. The big lump flew through the air, landing a few hundred spans away, closer to the stream in the east field. Fred was excited about this new plan. He considered each of the demon graves in his domain, and one by one he brought them to the surface and started shoving/throwing them to the east.