Althea walked into what could only be called a high-level strategic meeting of the county. The entire cabinet was there. So were the commanders. The two city lords. And any other people of any prominence in the county. Village heads, anyone that had reached Apprentice 5 or higher.

A massive table stood in the center, showing the county. A large oval, with three cities running through it vertically. Althea could travel from Marile to Sentinal in a day. But to travel horizontally would require nearly a month. The land was settled largely in the middle right of the oval, drawing a somewhat straight line from the pass that led to the Zun Empire, and the Bern march though the cities. The other areas were uninhabited, and largely forest.

Althea wondered what beasts and threats lay in those forests. Did she even want to know? But she had a threat much closer to home.

"Has the survey been completed?" she asked.

"Yes, your grace." an old looking commander said. A peak Journeyman, he was the most powerful in the room other than the Emperor's guards and Steward Ven.

The old commander kept a large brown pin near Sentinal. "The survey shows that this is where the strongest beasts are, and the area of least worry, your grace. "

"Why is that?"

"The Northern Fortress can handle the beasts easily, there are several Master stage mages there. The tide will not threaten them." he said.

"I see. So, what do you think is the most dangerous are, Commander Ner?" Althea asked.

"That I cannot tell, your grace. The beasts are still in migration, I simply cannot predict where they will end up. I do not think anyone here can." Commander Ner looked around as they nodded.

"I can, however, say where the first incursion might happen." he said. A tide was a bunch of hordes, an incursion was like a mini-version of that, and only appeared if the tide was too big.

"I do not expect the tide to be too powerful, but we are looking at a very large tide in numbers, your grace. The increase in mana hasn't only powered us, the remaining animals in the forests are nearly all mana beasts. The forests here cannot contain them anymore, so they will rush out." Commander Ner said.

"The first incursion should come at Deadre. There are too many forests here, and this is the area with most mana in the county. " Commander Ner said. "The palace specifically, it should attract the largest number of beasts."

"What timeline are we looking at?" she asked.

The Commander hesitated. "That is where things get bad, your grace. The previous surveys were mostly centered around the villages. Now that we have more people, especially the plentiful reserves, we did a deeper probe. A kilometer or so in, the forest is chaos. There are too many predators, and too few prey. There are rabbits hunting eagles and plants eating leopards. I am not joking, your grace, these are two actual events that have been witnessed."

Althea frowned. That meant the tide was soon. How had things gotten so bad so soon. Just which predator had moved in, and how much area was it occupying to cause such a chaos.?

"I think we will be seeing the first rush within a week, your grace." Commander Ner said. "The tide can come anytime there, even today. That is my estimate."

"I think we should call the army back then. And move more people to Sentinal and Marile." Althea said. "The cities are more in danger, correct?"

The Commander nodded. "Yes, your grace. A tide will go for the largest source of mana nearby. The biggest feast they can detect. And that is nearly always cities. But there is still danger from rogue beasts that got left behind."

"How powerful would these beasts be?" she asked.

"Novice. A few weaker Apprentice stage ones, perhaps. The more powerful will come to the cities. The numbers will be the problem, your grace. Not the cultivation." Commander Ner said.

Althea turned to the Village heads. "Can the reserves handle this?"

"I think so, your grace. A bunch of Novice stage beasts should not pose a problem. The recent hordes have given us a lot of beast meat to eat." one of them replied.

Althea nodded. Eating beast meat would give you mana, just like the Fae had emitted it. There was bound to be a surge in strength with so many beasts to hunt. The Apprentice stage was mostly accumulation and basic usage after all. Althea had already broken through to Apprentice 6, and expected to breakthrough to Apprentice 7 in the match today.

"Then I will release a notice of emergency. The merchants are to return to the city, and the gates will close by tomorrow." Althea said. "I will also inform the Empress of the events here. If Deadre falls, the Empire has to be ready to step in."

Althea took a deep breath. "But I would very much like that situation to not appear at all. Now, who here has suggestions on our battle strategy?"

There was a commotion as people began speaking over each other, eager to make their point.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

sc

Zerolian palace, Zerolian Duchy.

Serel stood in the shadows, waiting for an opportunate time to intercept the Duke. The Duke had spent the last half hour staring into space. Not really the compromising position Serel wanted to find him in.

"Are you going to step out of the shadows?" the Duke's lazy voice said.

"So, you did detect me." Serel stated, stepping out while acting his plan didn't just get ruined.

"What do you want, Serel Elara, King Consort of the Elara Kingdom?" the Duke asked. Serel's heart sunk as he tried to keep his expression level. The Duke needed to die. The bastard clearly knew how much that title irritated him, and yet insisted on using it.

"I hear you are having some problems with a particularly irritating Countess." he said, acting mysterious as he walked towards the chair in front of the Duke. "The trade ban not working?"

"Hurting the Diery county's interests is not an easy endeavor. I take it you want to collaborate, somehow?" the Duke asked, his voice monotone.

Serel smiled. "Yes, in fact. I would like to cooperate with you and the Zun Princess. How nice would it be if the county fell to Zun Empire, and then you rescued it? The Countess would be out of the way, and you could have it entirely."

"No." Duke Zerolian said, his tone final. "I will not betray the Empire in this manner. The Diery family will not die out under my hand. Please leave before I am forced to kill you."

Serel's smile stiffened. This was not part of the plan. But he had a plan b.

"How about something less serious then? The Diery county is dealing with a beast tide." Serel took out a map. "If we move a few things around, the county could easily fall into crisis and force the Emperor to step in."

The Duke looked up, finally showing a positive reaction. "Tell me, what is this plan of yours and how much damage will it do?"

Serel smiled. As long as it wasn't total failure. Master wouldn't like that.

sc

Althea stared at Verest as he stood in front of her. The battle could be considered ill-advised given the pressing situation, but a Countess could not walk back on her words, and she needed the breakthrough. Not to mention she recovered mana fast enough for it to not matter too much. As for Verest…she would love to have the ability to exhaust an Adept, she just didn't.

"Are you ready, your grace?" he asked.

"As ready as I am going to be, Lord Verest." she replied.

Verest smiled as a little mana gathered around him. So, starting with mana from the get go. And then he shot forward at inhuman speeds, heading right for her. Althea was prepared, a propel spell on her fingertips as it lashed out, flinging Verest's legs from beneath him. The half-elf tied to dodge, but failed. This was not a normal propel spell. There was a special property that she could add to the spells. Targeting. The spell targeted his legs, consuming a little mana to catch the dodging target.

Verest yelped as she propelled him vertically, lifting him entirely into the air. Althea wanted to let him drop down by himself, but the guy wasn't having it. Verest twirled in the air, breaking her spell as a golden slash shot towards her. Althea conjured a shield in place, letting propel spells fly towards Verest.

But the swordsman had levelled up his actions. The propel spell dissipated as it met his sword, but the next one still made the elf lose his balance in the air. Verest still landed on his two legs.

Althea smiled at him. The half-elf had been forced to use his higher cultivation a bit. A normal person just wouldn't know how to move in the air so well. But a Master could fly using sheer mana, let alone an Adept like Verest. Althea would not be able to react like he just did.

Verest came back to fight again, but he was even more random than before, zigzagging unequal lengths, so she would find it harder to propel. Althea waved her hand, as green light swept out her hand and at the cost of mana, a massive force propelled Verest horizontally. And then a smaller, more accurately used force propelled him upwards diagonally.

Verest tried his old trick, but Althea was prepared. The wind followed her command and twirled around, bringing the elf for a twirl in the air and then tried to slam him down to the ground. Verest began rolling in the air, the mana dispersing as he took over. Althea wasn't going to let him take it so easily. Willing things around was free anyway.

"Mana, oh mana, be free." she chanted in her mind, envisioning the cycle mana usually followed. The wind struggled, flexing under Verest's control as the half elf looked at her, and smirked. If he had been able to show his full power, the mana would have easily returned to his control. But he wasn't. And Apprentice stage Verest did not have as much control as her.

Rolling in the air, Verest landed onto the ground, bleeding from his shoulder. The wound healed soon enough, his physique something that was hard to suppress. And then the match began anew.

Verest charged at her again, zigzagging around like last time. Althea frowned, using the same tactic as before. But this time, the spell fizzled out. A force field of some kind. No, a cover. The mana around the half-elf was vibrating, dispersing her mana by giving it a hundred different things to do.

The base of anti-spells like this lay in telling mana to do something other than what it was already doing. Two mages would compete in a straight-up contest of will. But clearly, the half-elves had tricks of their own. If she were more powerful, mana might follow her, but right now mana was like a child being pulled by hundreds of interesting things.

Verest would be on her by the time she managed to resist every one of those hundred directives. So, she turned to something more elemental. The capture spell marked the air around her as vines appeared from the ground. Verest widened his eyes in surprise, not accepting that tick. The vines shot towards his legs, impeding his movements and reducing the effect of his anti-spell.

But Verest wasn’t so easily defeated, he sidestepped around the vines, jumping and leaping away from the obstacles she put in his path. Althea was already planning ahead, conjuring shields as Verest approached.

The golden sword flashed as he jumped slashing right down at her, with a real sword this time. The power of the attack was considerable, certainly more than anything she could conjure up. The shields crumpled one after another as they reduced the sword's power. Althea poured mana into the final shield, rotating it at the tip of her staff as she met Verest's sword.

The sword glowered, blinding her as it pushed against her mana, the surroundings fading away as the world seemed to be consumed by an influx of golden light, pushing at her. The shield grew brittle fading away as the golden light grew increasingly brighter. The battle seemed to have been decided.

And then Althea spewed fire in Verest's face. Following closely by a propel on the staff, that was currently holding clashing with the sword.