Strangely, none of the reporters asked Serenity for an interview; instead, they each wanted to record a short introduction about who they were and why they were there, along with Serenity introducing himself and his team so that they could use it later.

Serenity was very tired of introductions by the time he was done. Why they couldn’t all record him doing it once, he wasn’t sure, but he had to do it for each of them.

It didn’t do much to pass the time while they waited. Despite the slow buildup of forces, the centaurs hadn’t attacked; they were now surrounded, though there weren’t enough troops to be strong everywhere even with the Sterath.

Serenity and the reporters were on the Denver side of the encirclement. The plan was to attack from the west and push whatever centaurs weren’t killed back towards their portal; if all went well, it would be a battle won by weapons, not people. The fight was not supposed to start until well after dark, to take advantage of their superior night fighting capability.

There was probably more to the plan, but that was all any of the reporters had heard. What they knew was that early on, they’d watch the battle from a distance, able to watch the information being transmitted back to them but not actually getting in close. Later, they’d head out in a caravan once it was safe enough; no one wanted to put civilians in an area that was actively being attacked, after all.

The reporters had been promised partial video feeds to use later, but it was no secret that they’d be recording the entire time as well.

Serenity knew only a little more; he knew that the Sterath were the primary ground troops. Azav had filled him in on that much, then explained that he’d been asked to not share details with anyone. He seemed concerned about whether or not it was right to keep secrets from his Lord, but Serenity told him not to worry about it; he didn’t need to know.

Serenity was fairly certain that Azav would have given him all the details if he asked. That made sense, given what he knew of Sterath culture, even if Serenity was starting to believe that it wasn’t nearly as monolithic as he’d always thought it was.

Serenity knew everything he needed to without Azav sharing what the Sterath would be doing: he knew what he’d be doing. If he ended up doing anything other than just guarding the reporters, it would mean something had gone wrong and he shouldn’t then count on the original plan’s accuracy anyway.

After dinner, Serenity headed to the bunkbeds to catch a nap. The reporters didn’t seem to have caught on yet, but two of the cameramen definitely had: the attack was scheduled to start at two AM, which meant they all needed to be awake earlier than that. They’d all be napping on chairs or the couch soon; Serenity wanted to grab one of the beds before they were taken. It wasn’t large, but it would fit two people as long as they were very friendly; it would fit one person and a hatchling dragon without any difficulty at all.

Yes, his enhanced Phys and Mind meant he could stay up longer if he had to, but it still wasn’t a good idea to depend on that for long stretches. Fatigue caused mistakes, no matter how good your attributes were.

Even undead had to deal with mental fatigue; Serenity could remember finding that out the hard way. Sapient undead didn’t sleep the same way as the living, but they still needed downtime.

Tranquil Conviction watched the battlefield. Only maneuvering had taken place so far, but he didn’t like what he was seeing. The plans were not what he needed them to be.

Too many loyal Kaelitha looked likely to survive.

He didn’t care about the Sterath who’d pledged themselves to the other Shameful One; he was clever but still weak. If anything, he’d prefer some of them survive; while there were very few females among them other than the one who’d never been Kaelitha, Tranquil Conviction would be pleased if they spread his species to another world. After all, those pledged to any Shameful One could often be redirected to himself, especially in later generations.

No, it was the ones still pledged to the Kaelitha Lord that needed to die.

He couldn’t interfere directly. It was an annoying rule, but he had to admit that even if he could have, it was unlikely that he would. Indirect interference was so much more deniable, after all.

When he took up the mantle of the Lord of Strategy, Tranquil Conviction hadn’t thought he would be giving people nightmares, but it was amazing how often something as simple as disturbing someone’s sleep could change things.

The Sterath needed a present, and he should send one to that new Shameful One, as well. So far, Tranquil Conviction overall approved of him, but that didn’t mean he didn’t need to be tested. Perhaps he’d even get his old Name back; it wasn’t necessary, but it would be a nice bonus.

The sound of tearing metal woke Serenity from his nap.

Serenity twisted, rolling out of Rissa’s arms and onto the floor. He should have woken up long before the fighting started, but he was pretty confident there was gunfire in the distance. Closer to hand, there was shouting from the other side of the partition.

No, not just shouting. Screaming as well.

Something had gone very wrong and it must have caught everyone by surprise; if they’d seen it coming, whatever it was, they wouldn’t have left him asleep.

Serenity pushed himself to shift. He wouldn’t do much good as a hatchling; he simply didn’t have the mass for the type of physical combat he knew, and magic wasn’t fast enough. It seemed to take forever before he stood on two legs instead of four.

As Serenity opened the curtain, he saw a pair of large slices in the side of the trailer. A sword tore through the side, creating another jagged line as Serenity watched. It smashed into one of the chairs, fortunately the only thing near the opening. This one was nearly vertical, crossing both of the existing more or less horizontal lines. It looked like something was trying to create a hole to come into the trailer.

It wasn’t large enough for a person to stand, so it definitely wasn’t tall enough for a centaur. Maybe it was more of a large window?

The journalists had scattered away from the attacks. Serenity couldn’t spare them much time, but several of them had plastered themselves against the far wall of the trailer; that would be very little safer than near the point currently being attacked if there were more attackers.

Serenity wanted to move around the back and get an idea of the situation before jumping in, but there obviously wasn’t time for that. If he’d been in the room when the first attack happened, maybe, but not now.

He yelled “Stay away from the walls!” and pulled his ax off his Quick Belt as he charged forward. There was a sharp tug as the curtain caught on his wing, but Serenity kept going. At Tier Three with nearly-maxed Attributes, it would take more than a flimsy privacy curtain to stop him.

Serenity hopped right before he hit the damaged trailer wall, pulling his legs up, ducking his head, and shielding his face with an arm. He was confident he could go through the damaged side of the trailer; all he had to do was bend the already cut away part. That still didn’t mean he wanted to hit it with his face or run into the parts that hadn’t been cut yet.

The metal bent forward and right, pivoting along the still uncut side.

As he barreled through the newly-created opening, he smashed into the side of a blue centaur, obviously the one cutting a window into the wall. It had one of its arms raised, using its sword to cut the opening in the side of the trailer.

Centaur wasn’t really the right word for them; the beings were far more sensible than a man’s body stuck where a horse’s neck should be. If anything, they looked more like blue six-legged dogs with very flexible rear legs and longer mid-legs. They could, if they chose, run on all six limbs or settle back on their rear haunches and use their foremost limbs as arms.

Serenity knew “blue centaur” was going to stick as a description after the first time anyone saw them fight.

There were four centaurs outside the trailer other than the one trying to cut a hole in its side. They were obviously hostile, so Serenity didn’t waste any time trying to talk to them. The metal that was originally part of the trailer was between Serenity and the first centaur, so Serenity turned to the others.

Speed was key; there would be more centaurs coming, and he wanted to move the reporters to somewhere safe before they arrived. He stepped forward and hit the next-closest centaur with his ax, carefully avoiding its arm. The ax thunked solidly into its side. It wasn’t dead, but it wouldn’t be moving quickly with a collapsed lung.

A sword flashed towards Serenity, but it seemed painfully slow. He moved just outside its reach and sliced upwards, gouging the arm carrying the sword.

That was two of the five down.

An arrow thudded into Serenity’s armor, not reaching his scales. It hurt; he hadn’t realized that he could feel in his armor form. At least it seemed to be more of an awareness that he was hurt than anything that would actually hinder him.

Serenity leapt over the body in front of him, still weakly waving its weapon in his direction, to reach the one just beyond it. It swung at him, cutting horizontally through the air with all the speed of a child playing with a stick. Serenity recognized the effect; his Perception combined with his knowledge made the fight much easier.

Serenity simply ducked when he landed, letting the strike fly over him.

Another arrow thudded into Serenity’s side as he struck the centaur’s forelegs out from under it. Three down, but he really needed to deal with that archer.

Serenity charged his ax with Plasma, then threw it towards the archer. This time, he nearly avoided the arrow; it scraped along his armor and didn’t feel like it had done much damage.

The last centaur should be free of the metal by now, so Serenity risked a glance behind himself. It was headed towards him, apparently intent on trampling him. Serenity was far stronger than a Tier Zero human, but that still didn’t mean he wanted several hundred pounds of animal running over the top of him; he dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the centaur’s paws.

He jumped to his feet, recalling his ax. The archer was a flaming husk; Serenity hadn’t expected a Plasma Essence Strike to work quite that well, but he was glad it had. The one that tried to run him down was the last one left on its feet, and it was circling to come at him again. Serenity threw his ax at its head, hoping it was going fast enough that it wouldn’t be able to dodge.

It wasn’t. The ax skidded off the centaur’s sword; Serenity thought he saw a nick form in the sword, but he was too busy running to the side and recalling the ax to stop and check. The last thing he wanted was to have the centaur run into the trailer, and he was nearly directly between the two.

Serenity watched the centaur turn to follow him; good, it worked. He waited a little longer and aimed a little lower, this time; he wouldn’t be able to watch as it hit, but it was less likely that the centaur would be able to dodge.

When Serenity rolled back to his feet and looked, the centaur was halted, staring at his sword. No, half of his sword. Serenity wished his knives weren’t with his human form; duplicating one would be faster than recalling his ax.

The ax flying back to Serenity caught the attention of the centaur, and it pulled a nasty-looking shorter knife and once again started to charge. Serenity decided that twice was enough; the centaur was clearly good enough to deflect a thrown ax. A different plan was needed.

Serenity discharged the Plasma-based energy in his ax as a Far Strike. The centaur clearly thought he was trying the same thing, and seemed to sneer at him for striking so early as it moved to deflect the strike.

A Far Strike was simply energy, magic twisted in the way of a Path Skill. It was low-tier, but that still didn’t mean it could be deflected by a nonmagical weapon used without a Skill for deflecting magic. It enveloped the centaur’s arm, then seemed to explode in a small ball of fire as it hit the centaur’s body. It fell and skidded, stopping about ten feet from Serenity.

Serenity checked for any that were still alive; it looked like he’d handled all of the current active threats, but he’d want to make sure none of them unexpectedly healed and got back up.

As he was looking for threats, he saw one of the cameramen hop out of the hole in the side of the trailer, camera pointing around the scene of carnage.