(One Week Later)
Arthur, Sylvie, and I were on the coast far outside of Eitistin, our first mission was to stay with this division of soldiers. Elder Virion told us that the odds of Alacryan ships landing near us were low, but I knew differently. I knew that they would be here, and that I would be ready for them.
The temperature was freezing here, luckily, I had "Blood Oath" activated, and was able to protect myself from the cold, using my mana barrier and blood magic. I think Arthur was jealous of my blood magic, he looked like he was a little cold.
I had my normal tights, armor, and white cloak on, they tried to get me to wear something with more protection, but I refused. I was so used to fighting in this, I didn't want to change it now.
"I think that's the main tent." Arthur pointed at the tent up ahead with a soldier guarding it.
"Yeah." I agreed with him, it was in the safest area of the camp we were in. "Arthur, what would your plan be if Alacryans did show up here with a small force?" I asked as we continued walking.
"You don't have to worry about that, but if there was, I would trust in our force." Arthur responded. "Why? Are you worried?"
"No, why would that worry me?"
"Because a thousand troops, is a large difference from a hundred." He was right, and I didn't even know how many were going to be here.
"I could take a thousand troops." I spoke honestly, now standing in front of the guard.
"Is this the captain's tent?" Arthur asked the guard, and the man looked angry for some reason.
"Get lost kids." The guard told the two of us. "This is no place for you two to be running around." Arthur pulled out his Lance medallion, I kept mine in my pocket, not needing it. "General, I --"
"Generals." I corrected.
The guard stared at me, then my brother, then me. "You're the Devil of Dicathen?" I nodded my head. "I'm sorry, generals." He moved out of the way and motioned for us to go inside.
We stepped into the tent, which had a lot of space inside of it. In the corner of the room was a large hawk, a hawk I knew, oh, I forgot, Professor Glory was the person in charge here. Arthur and I faced forward, behind the desk, Professor Glory sent us both a light smile.
"Professor Glory?" Arthur said questioningly. She was wearing light armor, her brown hair was tied back, and she had two giant swords leaning against a drawer.
She got up and I could see that the sight of the two of us made her day. "It's good to see you two, General Arthur, General Virion."
"Call me Arthur, no need for formalities." My brother said.
"Same, Virion is fine." She was my professor, there was no need for her to call me a general.
"Then please, you guys can call me Vanesy." She stood now two yards from us. "I'm not your professor anymore, so it doesn't seem right to call me one."
"Okay, Vanesy." Arthur said.
"Wow, both of you have grown, the last time I saw you guys was at the attack at Xyrus." She examined us. "I still remember that first day in my class where the two of you sparred, it amazed me, I knew that day, that the two of you were special." I saw Vanesy nod to Sylvie, who was on top of Arthur's head still.
"That feels like forever ago." I admitted, trying to lighten the mood before we talk business.
"Yeah." Arthur agreed. "Could you give us the report on what's going on here?"
She went back to her desk, got a piece of parchment out, and handed it to Arthur, then began to speak. "It's just my division here at the moment, Captain Auddyr and his division are making their march here right now. Currently, we have three thousand troops, fifty eight mages in total."
What? Only fifty eight of the soldiers were mages? I forgot that Dicathen had such a low mage rate.
Vanesy continued to speak as Arthur examined the sheet of paper. "Twenty of those mages are conjurers, and ten are long ranger augmenters. Would you like for me to send a transmission up to the other captain?"
"No need, I don't think any ships will be showing up here?" Arthur told her, I wanted to disagree, but I had no reason to at the moment.
"I heard you had a big plan for those bastards up the coast." She was staring at Arthur; he had an idea that would sink a couple ships if it worked. "You think it will work?"
"It definitely will slow the ships down, with luck, a few will sink." Arthur handed the parchment back to Vanesy.
"I wish we could see that?" Vanesy told the two of us as she went into a drawer in her desk.
"Yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing that as well." I shrugged, thinking about the ships sinking.
That's when our old professor pulled out a flask, then ripped the cork out with her teeth. "Care for a drink, General Leywin." She was talking to Arthur, not me. "Arthur, not you Virion, I believe if you are old enough to go into battle, you should be able to drink, but what are you? Ten? Nine?"
"I'm eleven, but I'm good either way." I didn't want to drink the alcohol in the flask.
Arthur took the flask from her and took a sip, he coughed a little, and handed the bottle back to her. "It has a kick to it."
"Yeah, but out here, you need a lot more to stay warn." Vanesy took a sip, then continued to talk. "I feel bad for you Virion, you must be freezing under that cloak of yours."
"Nope, all good." I told her honestly. "I have my blood magic going right now inside of me."
"Ahh, I see." She sent me a smile. "You took down a Retainer, what was that like?" Vanesy asked me as she placed the flask down on the desk.
"To be honest, it was fun." I had no other way to describe it, I mean, I was scared at the start, but I pushed past it. "I'm looking forward to meeting another."
"That's what I like to hear." She gave me a head nod. "Commander Virion said that you wanted to speak to the soldiers, for motivation or something, should I set that up?"
"No, wait until the other Captain shows up." Arthur grinned. "Veer and I are going to have a little fun in the camp."
"Oh no, what are you two planning?" Vanesy tilted her head at us, honestly, I had no clue why Arthur wanted to do this.
"Is that how you are supposed to talk to you superiors?" Arthur smirked at her.
"Fine, don't kill any of my men."
"We won't?" Arthur spoke as he ran a hand through his auburn hair. "Will anyone recognize us?"
"Well, Virion is eleven, and there is only one eleven year old fighting in the war, and he is a pretty well known individual." She was right. "So, probably, but you, most likely not. The two of you are dressed like any ordinary soldier, Virion doesn't even have armor visible."
"We'll work with it." Arthur and I gave her a smile, but that's when I stopped him. I didn't know when the attack happened, however, I sensed the approach of a large force, maybe a day out. "What is it Veer?"
"Vanesy, I would prepare the troops." I said aloud, causing the two of them to look at me questioningly. "This was what I was afraid of coming here." I had to add in a little lie to make this believable.
"What are you saying?" Arthur turned to me, and Vanesy took a step closer.
"Yeah?" Vanesy said questioningly.
"There's a force of Alacryans coming our way, at this very moment, maybe a day out." I said, and their two faces dropped in shock. "What? You can't sense them?" I asked Arthur, knowing that he couldn't.
"No." Arthur shook his head. "Are you being serious? Are there really Alacryans heading in this direction?"
"They would have had to cross the dwarven territory though." Vanesy added and I sighed.
"Yeah, I'm counting five thousand men." Vanesy's expression turned to one of being worried. "However, with the other Captains division arriving up on the cliff, we will outnumber them, not with mages, but with soldiers."
"How do you know that?" Oh, yeah, they don't know about Alacryan's high population of mages, because of Agrona's experiments.
"I can sense the mana in them." I rubbed my head. "I think we may have to cancel sparring with the other soldiers." Arthur nodded his head, agreeing with me. "And, if I can suggest something, I think Sylvie and you should go, and fly above the clouds and spot them if you can." Before they could respond, I added. "However, they may be underground, for some reason I have this weird feeling."
"That's not a bad idea." He agreed with me. "Vanesy, go prepare your men, Veer do you want to come with me? Maybe, you can spot something I miss, you seem to be pretty good at observing and sensing things."
"That's fine by me, I can lead you to them." Arthur and I made our way out the tent, Vanesy ran to her troops and started to spread the word. It was nice that they believed me, I was treated like a kid here.
"Let's go." Arthur told me, and Sylvie transformed into a dragon. I flew up into the air, and Arthur jumped onto her back. The two of us flew up into the clouds, allowing us to overlook the entire area. "Lead the way."
"On it." I started to fly where I sensed the men coming, we couldn't see them yet, but if I had to guess it was going to be a couple of minutes.
After about five to ten minutes, they came into sight. "Over there." I started to see little dots down below, which I assumed were people.
"I see." Arthur and I stopped flying, and just looked down at the troops. "Looks like you were right, around five thousand did you say?"
"Yeah, it was an estimate though." Could Arthur and I take them on? It would be extremely fun to fight with him, I shook my head, I shouldn't have fun fighting these men. "Arthur, any ideas?" I had a few.
"Maybe."
"I have one." I said, remembering the cliff back at the camp. "I have a way we can win this battle, and only lose a small number of men." I smirked at him. "But I'm going to have to borrow Sylvie from you."
Arthur looked at me as we both flew in the air, slightly in the clouds, making sure the Alacryans didn't see us. "Why's that?"
"Well, I'll admit, my plan is kind of merciless, but this is war." It wasn't something that would bother me, but it could bother my brother. "I say we use the cliff back at our camp."
"Veer, you can't be thinking what I think?" Arthur said, Sylvie and him seemed to know what I was going to suggest. "How would we get them there? They're not going to just walk up to it."
"Oh, I suggested the plan, you don't think I have an idea for that?" I laughed. "Of course, I do." That's why I needed Sylvie, it was going to take a lot of concentrating, not a lot of mana, but I needed to focus on the spell rather than flying.
"What is it?"
"Let's head back, there's no reason to stay here, we know they are coming for us." I started to move slowly. "I'll tell you on the way, and then we can discuss the idea with Vanesy and the other captain."
"Sounds good." Arthur, Sylvie, and I started to fly slowly back, so that I could speak without having the wind block our voices.
"Before I say it, what if you and I just go down there and kill them all?" Arthur examined my face to see if I was being serious or not. Sylvie turned her head slightly as well, to see me.
"Now I'm worried to hear your plan."
"Haha." I laughed. "I'm just joking, even though, I think we could." I shook my head. "Anyways, here's my plan..."