Chapter 2

"Never forget how sharp the sword is. You can cut yourselves or your friends as easily as you can cut anything else. I can help you if you accidentally cut off a finger, or even a leg, during practice, but I can't do anything for you if you are killed, so I'll remind you, again, BE CAREFUL!

"You will be issued the special sword and shield to start with, so that you don't develop any bad habits from practice swords. There is only one correct way to use this special sword: stab into the gut and rip up. This is not a slashing weapon, and that will be a hard habit to break. Remember, stab, stab, stab. Anything else can get you killed!

"As a last resort, if you are injured or too tired to fight any longer, there is one last defense. I have noticed that the ghosts will not bother you if you lie on the ground and pretend to be dead. So, if this should happen to you, fall to the ground, cover yourself with your shield, and don't move! You can get up and walk away after the ghosts have passed.

"Sergeants, issue the weapons!"

Three days later, the newly armed troops were led into battle by Fire Bringer. He was sure that they now knew what to do, but were not yet really sure of themselves. He wanted them to see that his fighting techniques really did work and made them superior to the ghosts in fighting ability. The ghosts were as startled as such creatures could be when they were attacked by humans. Each man had been told to kill three ghosts and then lie quietly on the ground under his shield until Fire Bringer commanded otherwise.

There was some stumbling around at first until the troops discovered that Fire Bringer did, indeed, know what he was talking about. Fire Bringer had taught the men to stand shoulder to shoulder and stab, stab, stab. An isolated man was easily dispatched by the ghosts, but a group of men were capable of withstanding any attack that the ghosts could mount.

As a man killed his quota of three ghosts and lay down, the ranks closed to maintain the solid wall of shields and stabbing blades. The battle was over in a few minutes, and the humans retired in a state of near euphoria; they had beaten the ghosts! Each of these men was now convinced that the new weapons and tactics did work, and he was ready to teach the next group.

Five days later, Fire Bringer had an army of 420 men who were convinced that they could beat any ghostly hoard that was foolish enough to attack them. Fire Bringer knew that this was false confidence, but he did nothing to dispel the notion, since this attitude was a big help in this sort of battle.

The 400 newly trained men were assigned to defend a sector of the front, while the original 20 instructors trained a new group of 400 men. Once Fire Bringer had his new army of 800 men broken in with a successful skirmish against the ghosts, he tried a new tactic. The ghostly army was used to wearing down the humans so that the men simply got too tired to fight and had to drop out of the battle to rest. Thus, the ghosts could win just by continuing to move new bodies into the battle until the humans wore themselves out.

The new troops, Fire Bringer called them his legion, were arranged as three groups of 120 men, plus one group of 40 men to act as a reserve. Fire Bringer sent in the first "phalanx" of 120 men to fight for 30 minutes. They were relieved by a second phalanx of 120 fresh fighters. After fighting for 30 minutes, the last phalanx was sent in. Thirty minutes later, the first phalanx was sent in to resume fighting. In this way, a man fought for 30 minutes, rested for 60 minutes, and returned to the fight.

Fire Bringer found out that 30 minutes of continuous fighting was simply too much to ask of a man with only 60 minutes of rest before he had to return to exerting himself that much. Sure, as the men became battle hardened, they could fight for a longer time, but Fire Bringer just didn't like putting that much pressure on a man. By the end of the day, even the heartiest individual was exhausted by this much fighting. However, the principle had been proven, so the solution seemed to be one of recruiting and training more legionnaires.

Fire Bringer trained and equipped 400 more men and tried again. This time, he went for 15 minutes of fighting and two hours of rest. Ah, this worked out much better. Men actually complained about being pulled from the line before they had made their quota. "Quota?" Where did that come from? Then he found out that the various groups were competing with each other to see who could kill the most ghosts in each group's alloted time slot. Wagers had been placed and a lot of money was changing hands!

This new system took more men than the rifles did to kill the same number of ghosts, but this way of fighting could be maintained indefinitely, whereas the rifles were out of action when the bullet allotment had been used up. Fire Bringer visited the local generals and rulers and discussed the progress of the war with them. They could all see that the only place where the ghosts' advance had been stopped was where the legion was posted. Therefore, they agreed, sometimes reluctantly, to convert all of their soldiers from muskets to swords and shields of the new design and to follow Fire Bringer's new tactics.

It took nearly a year to get the entire army converted, since they came from different countries, and there was some suspicion among the leaders as to the ultimate ambitions of their opposite numbers. However, between cajolery and threats, Fire Bringer finally had everybody changed over to the new legionary type of army. It was at that point that the humans began to win against the ghosts.

"Well, Baal, what do you have to say to me this month? It looks like you have made some progress in the USA. I been able to take some pleasure from events there, but I have been getting mixed signals from Central America."

"Yes, Dread Lord Satan, Things have been going well since I have been able to distract the two superheroes to move south, but there have been some unexpected events taking place there, and I need Your most Satanly advice.

"Certainly, I am always pleased to help. What is the problem, this time?"

"The humans have found a way to defeat my ghostly army. I know that I have nearly an infinite number of ghosts to feed into the conflict, but I have to be present to do that. If I attack to two fronts, I cannot devote full time to both attacks, so I can feed in new ghosts in only one place, and the other battle has to get by as best it can. Up to about a year ago, this was not a problem, because my ghosts could not be defeated, but now, that is not true."

"WHAT? What are you saying? Can the humans actually defeat one of my finest minions? How is that possible?"

"Dread Lord Satan, that is exactly what I am saying. I have been forced to give the ghosts a very limited range of duties—anything more just confuses them. The humans have switched tactics to something I cannot counter. They are using swords of nearly infinite sharpness that never get dull and shields that are light in weight, but easily withstand the pounding of the clubs of my troops. The humans fight for only 15 minutes and then rest for two hours before fighting for another 15 minutes. They rotate their men into battle this way, so they never get too tired. If a human is injured or gets tired, he simply lies down under his shield and waits to be rescued by his fellow humans. The fools have even made a game of it, wagering on how many of my ghosts that they can kill in one 15-minute shift."

Satan glared at Baal and said, "How dare they insult me this way? This cannot be tolerated! Change the orders to the ghosts. Have them kill the humans, not just reduce them to a miserable existence!"

"Yes, Dread Lord Satan. It shall be as you order!"

The change in the tactics by the ghosts was immediately apparent. Men started to die as the ghosts quit ignoring the men who were lying on the ground. Fire Bringer answered this by enlarging the shield so that it completely covered the body of a man lying on the ground. For some reason not understood by the humans, the ghosts were unable to realize that they could kill the humans lying on the ground if they would just pull the shield aside. The ghosts simply beat on the shield until they thought the man was dead before moving on. The problem was that a man might move enough to attract the attention of a ghost, and the pounding would start all over again.