For a while, Faro just watched with the rest of his men while the winter red bulls traded constant fire with the hands of Carthax. The two sides filling the air with boulders and exploding berry birds. Faro's could see that the winter red bulls were avoiding being hit by constantly moving, and the fact that there were only two hundred and fifty meant that they could be spread out in front of Carthax's walls.

  Making themselves a hard target as they laid down wave after wave of berry birds at the walls. Several of which were intercepted by the boulders that were sent to crush the winter red bulls, though the intercepts seemed to be a mistake from what Faro's could tell, ironically enough. Though eventually Faro's had to turn away from the current battle and go and meet with the other commanders to discuss what to do now that Carthax had shown just how powerful their first line of defense actually was.

  Faro, while on his catacomb smasher, made his way over at an even pace to the gathering where four other men were waiting for him. Once he joined them, they were now a group of five on horseback. The ones expected to give orders to the catacomb smashers, scythe men, and players while the winter red bulls engaged the enemy. How they were going to get such forces to fight effectively against an undead wall, they weren't really sure. They had expected to be able to bust through one of the forts gates with a combo of winter red bulls and catacomb smashers charging through together.

  To have their plans foiled right out of the gate was unexpected, especially so literally, though they couldn't have expected that Hargal's forces would have turned an entire wall into an undead construct. "So what do we do now?" Faro asked the obvious, figuring they should get the ball rolling while the winter Red Bulls were still in a stalemate with the hands of Carthax.

  For a moment no one said anything as they all looked to each other to see who would start with their plan on how to take down the hands of Carthax. None in the circle of commanders were forthcoming with such a plan. Though this didn't really surprise Faro as he started to look at each man in their little circle of command, starting with his left, where an arrogant young commander by the name of Nero sat.

  Nero was known to be a skilled strategist, but he, like all the commanders gathered, had only fought defensive siege battles or offensives in the grasslands. No commander among the Detreon had ever laid siege to a fortress of Hargal, much less one whose outer walls were one giant undead. So it wasn't a surprise they were all stomped with the current situation.

  The man next in the circle to the left of Nero was another man called Greco. He was a thin man who looked like he would be carried away by a small breeze, but despite his rather thin stature, he was a lethal and eager commander. Greco was well known for leading his men outside of his fort in a cavalry charge against the undead long before they could encircle his fort.

  The two men looked stumped on how to start the next part of the siege, though for different reasons. Nero was stumped because he had no experience to draw on, and he didn't have any special maneuvers he could make against a giant undead wall besides what we'd already done by having the winter red bulls engage it. Greco was stomped because he couldn't charge at the gates again. Well, he could, but he wouldn't get anywhere just thrown by giant skeletal hands again.

  So Faro's started looking right to see if the other two in the circle had come up with any ideas and just hadn't said anything yet. The man to his immediate right was Retero. Retero was a big guy with an always dark look on his face. He is a hard man known for working his men harshly, always keeping them on the brink of cracking. His methods, though harsh, made his men the most disciplined force in the entire army.

  The man to the right of Retero and the final man in this little meeting of the minds of theirs was Tako. Tako was a man of average height for a Detreon. Which went a ways to hide his ferocity from anyone who didn't know him. But usually his ferocity was revealed pretty quickly once you looked into his eyes and saw the burning hatred for all of Hargal's creations.

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  The rumor going around was that Tako was a descent from one of the few survivors of Hargal's early victories. Those early victories that led to the wholesale destruction of whole farming kingdoms. Though now they lived in an age of military empires. Faro looked at the two men, hoping maybe they had an idea, but no luck on that front, as they were just as stumped as the rest of them.

  Retero's disciplined force could march up to the wall easily enough, but what to do once they got there would still be a problem. Tako's usually raw hatred for the undead that spread throughout his men, causing a berserk ferocity, wouldn't work because they'd probably be crushed to death by boulder fire long before they could reach the hands of Carthax. So they were left at an impasse as none of the commanders usual tricks would work, and they didn't have any new ones to use.

  Well, that wasn't entirely true, Faro thought. There was one new trick the goddess had bestowed upon them. They were just hesitant to use it this early in the siege, but sadly Faro's didn't see any other way. "We're going to have to use the siege seeds that our goddess, Detrei, gave us. if we're going to beat the hands of Carthax." Faro said surprising everyone at the meeting. They all looked at each other, none happy about it, but nodded their agreement, knowing if they were to move forward, it must be done, as it was their only option.

  So each commander went to their respective part of the army and then proceeded to put their hand into the air where a large seed would suddenly appear in their hand before the seed would then disappear in a flash of light and a siege weapon of Detrei would appear before each commander that varied wildly from one to the next.

  The army looked at each in collective awe at each of the awesome plant-based war machines. They took in the collective details of each war machine that was sitting before a respective commander. Sitting before Greco stood a giant flower with a yellow center and giant pink petals spreading from around it. At its base was a series of roots to allow the machine to move into a safe launch position.

  Sitting before Nero was a giant tree with giant branches zigzagging at the top of it, forming a strange hexagonal shape with multiple needle-like leaves the size of a human arm sticking off the branches. At its base were two wooden wheels, and from the look on Nero's face, he already had a few ideas on how to use his new toy.

  Now looking to Tako, who was staring at his siege weapon with a dark, malicious smile. The weapon he was looking at was another giant tree, though this time it had large leaf stalks with large golden peas being visible in each stalk. Many in the army were very curious what the pretty tree with golden stalks could do to make the viscous Tako happy.

  Moving from Tako to Retero, his weapon was a small wall of flowers combined together. It was a beautiful wall of golden flowers, though why the goddess Detrei had decided to give the strict Retero a flower wall for his siege weapon, no one was quite sure. Though Retero himself didn't seem bothered, he just started getting his men ready to form up behind the flower wall and charge the hands of Carthax from the looks of it.

  The final weapon belonging to the greatest warrior of the army, Faro, was perhaps the strangest of the lot, as it was just one giant shrub tree. That was it, and no one in the army was quite sure what Faro was supposed to do with it, but to be fair, that was with all the strange plant siege weapons. As only the commanders were told by Detrei as when their weapons were taking shape, Detrei would whisper into each of their ears and tell them what their war machines did. Now the commanders made ready, each getting their war machine into position to break the hands of Carthax.

  The red winter bulls seemed to be quite happy at this move by the army. As they were growing tired of the constant back and forth that had been going on most of the day with the hands of Carthax while the commanders made up their minds on what to do next. So the winter Red Bulls stopped their constant attack at the walls by their use of their berry birds and retreated to their original divisions to make the push together with the rest of the army.

  Mark and the other players watched in shock as the commanders began to push their siege weapons against the hands of Carthax. As they watched in stunned silence at what the commanders were going to unleash on the hands of Carthax, the rest of their respective divisions were advancing. So once the players took notice of this, they began to rush to join the army in the push against Carthax.

  "It would seem, my dear Robert, that your little Detrei has just as many tricks as Hargal does." Simon said with a hint of amusement in his static-filled voice as he watched through the monitors the chaos and destruction being unleashed by both sides during this siege.

  "Yes, she does." Robert simply stated that he was not paying all that much attention to the battle as he was making sure the expansions that were soon to happen were planned out properly. From the looks of them, the planned-out expansions looked like they would bring a boost in ratings, Simon thought.

  "Well, it's a good thing your kids are so creative. It keeps this war interesting as they go back and forth in their war." Simon said to Robert, who just simply nodded, still not paying all that much attention to the conversation. "Well, alright, Robert, I'll leave you to your work as we have a siege to get back to, don't we, viewers?" Simon said with a mischievous smirk somehow coming through his static-filled voice as he refocused on the siege of Carthax.