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group. The General's priority is to take the basement dungeon before the enemy has had the chance to destroy evidence or move the prisoners. So that's where the HQ group and the Drow will be heading, followed by the HQ staff and a dozen reserve guards. We need to exercise extreme caution. We must capture as many targets as we can alive and hand them over to the second wave. Keep your eyes and ears peeled, listen in to all communication channels, stay put if you're killed as the clerics are under orders to reincarnate all corpses within two minutes of death. That's more or less it. Now," he looked me and the others over, "hurry downstairs and join the raid, then form a group with several support teams. Lt. Brown is in charge during the first stage. Once he's gone into battle, you're responsible for yourselves and the cutthroats."
    They refused to take Taali along. Instead, they entrusted her with the equally important but safe task of monitoring real-world newsfeeds as well as the Cats' and Olders' guest forums. We needed to know how fast they'd react and who would be the first to start making waves.
    Everybody had something to do. I received two invitations, to join the group and the raid respectively. I accepted both. I spent the following ten minutes on my feet in a solid shoulder-to-shoulder formation as the wizards cast buffs on the entire raid. Their spells had doubled my power: hits, strength and magic resists of all levels. Perfect time to do some solo leveling! I got a word that the total cost of the buff ingredients was about thirty thousand gold.
    As I waited, I played around with my chat boxes creating and saving unique raid settings. The sheer number of channels made my eyes water: raid chat, group chat, HQ staff, battle and private chats and the location chat for whoever happened to be around. Mind boggling.
    Then their quartermaster issued me, as a hybrid class, ten elixirs of life and mana each. He reminded me to return the surplus after the op and submit screenshots of respective log entries to justify my expenses. Yeah, right. Finders keepers, losers weepers. Those were top elixirs restoring nine hundred points each. Hardly any surplus going to remain, I thought as I spirited the vials away into quick access slots. My inner greedy pig grabbed a clean cloth and began wiping the vials lovingly checking the result against the light like some otherworldly bartender.
    Finally, our group of twenty-six sentients detached from the rest and teleported to the Cats' territories. We landed at a spot chosen by our recce, less than a mile from the castle. A quick invisibility spell, and we sat down on the ground waiting for the signal to move up. I think I even had a quick nap.
    A nudge to my shoulder brought me back to reality. The whole group was ready, waiting for me.
    Lt. Brown posted an order in the group chat:
    Attack in fifteen minutes. Renew invisibility, then continue to the staging area.
    I glanced at the raid chat box half -expecting an Armageddon. As if! The Vets never failed to surprise me with their discipline. The chat was perfectly organized, staff reports interspersed by the occasional flicker of senior officers snapping orders. Just like in some space mission control center.
    We jumped about a bit, checking for any rattling gear, then trotted off to the position chosen by the rogues.
    A hundred and twenty feet. It felt horribly close. The castle walls seemed to loom overhead, the shadows of the guards flickering in the crenels. The sharp sting of the glaive thrower glistened in the torch light. Already the castle was surrounded by a good fifty warriors. In a moment, that number would grow manifold.
    Lt. Brown moved his lips watching the timer mete out the seconds. On his sign, we drank our mana elixirs. We were going to need them.
    A taste of cinnamon lingered in my mouth, the popping of stationary portals so loud in the night. Spells hissing. Fog thickening around us. Let the party begin!
    Immediately