Chapter 259 – A Battle Plan

Everyone looked at Michael expectantly, waiting for him to explain things. He was claiming he had a plan, and they wanted to hear what it was.

Toni was having none of it. “Tom’s right we won’t be allowed to backstab anyone.”

“No, no, no,” the healer said hurriedly. “Under no circumstances are we going to fight our nominated allies, but we need to be clear about our aims and objectives. We’re here to get through the zone as fast as possible and not to maximise experience. No offense Tom, but relying on our own might to solo the other species won’t achieve that.”

“That isn’t what he said,” Thor interrupted. “We won’t be doing it by ourselves. The devlishs will support us.”

Michael hesitated. “Just hear me out. You’re thinking of this as being what can I personally do to achieve my outcome. But that’s the wrong attitude, instead the question to ask is what system quirks can we exploit to realise our aims.”

“Like sending our allies forward and making them ridiculously overextended, so they are crushed.” Keikain volunteered.

“Basically yes…” Michael agreed. “But we can do better. Imagine if we could draw one group away from their favoured and fortified terrain to a neutral zone and when they get there, we, in turn induce the other three species to attack them. They’ll be destroyed in hours instead of days. Then, once they’re eliminated, we repeat the strategy with another victim. If we do it right when there are two left, we should be able to engineer it that one force is almost untouched, and the other depleted and then the final battle will be as quick as the first ones.”

“That’s…” Tom said, considering the plan. “Genius. But how would we go about doing that?”

Michael smiled. “We’ll have to see how it works in practice, but the wording of the quest suggests it’s possible. It says and I quote…” Michael’s face lost all traces of life for a moment before it snapped back to his normal expressive features. “Generals drive strategies via majority vote. The fact there are three native generals makes this far more annoying than if there had only been the one, but the line I quoted means that if four of us join a single team, we can completely dominate that species. My recommendation is that we get a majority in one faction and then we control it. We then march the entire army into the centre, including defenders. Once there, they will be vulnerable. The remaining five of us are then spread over the other species. They won’t have control of the fractions but they can influence decision, stuff like launching a raid on the exposed army and hopefully we can get all three armies to attack the one we’re sacrificing out of their preferred habitat. Once that first force is finished. We seize control of two other species and repeat. The one left free for the longest will become the victor in the end.”

“That seems very underhanded.” Tom said doubtfully.

“It is,” Rahmat agreed. “But also brilliant. We’re in a trial, not real life. This scenario is one of eternal war. You need a few specific conditions to achieve that. Primarily a mindset not to overextend on the attack and favourable territory to defend. For a war to be eternal, circumstances need to be such that the defending species can defeat all three other enemies simultaneously. Michael’s proposal removes that defensive advantage, meaning they can be eliminated.”

They threw themselves into planning and debated the exact strategy they would implement. Twenty minutes later, with all the timing and actions agreed Tom found them sneaking cautiously to the centre of the battlefield. Once they got there, he, Michael, Keikain and Everlyn were sent to seize majority control of the amphibium infenus while the other five went to approach their own targets.

With a thought, each of them assigned their alliance. Now that they were formally aligned with one of the species they kept an eye out for others. The area they were in was at the edge of the new friendly zone, so it should be safe, but there was always the risk of a raiding party catching them by surprise.

They moved forward, and the landscape shifted to become marshland. Given what he knew about the new allies the changes were not a surprise. They were water-based creatures which specialised in fire attacks, which were strange but not the weirdest thing he had ever seen. Deep pools of water became more common as they progressed, and Tom’s battle instincts were screaming.

Everlyn he was pleased to see was similarly affected. She eyed the water with a look of apprehension, but no enemies emerged to confront them, though they occasionally saw large shapes moving through the water. They knew intellectually that it was the amphibium infenus but their engrained instincts kept screaming to them about the presence of monsters.

Luckily, they did not have to wade into the pools. There were regular hillocks that let you step from one to the other without going into the deep ponds. They were awkward to navigate because the centre was filled with large green ferns which forced them to pick a path around the edge rather than going straight through. It was not perfect. While they could avoid the deep water, they couldn’t avoid the puddles. They could navigate without getting their knees wet, but feet and ankles were a different matter.

Nothing attacked them, despite how their instincts screamed at them. Monsters were everywhere, according to them. In this case what he was picking up on was his allies, not enemies. Everlyn led the way, using a fern stem to probe the puddles before sneaking through them.

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They kept walking, and Tom noticed slight changes were occurring. The pools of water became more pronounced. At any point in time, multiple pools could see them when they walked along the dry paths. The barely glimpsed shapes under the water were slightly larger than they had been.

Stronger monsters and better placed defences. The kingdom structuring was similar to what he had observed with the goblins. Lots of weak creatures on the outskirts that got stronger as you penetrated deeper into their heartland.

Everlyn froze in front of them. Her bow appeared in her hand as if by instinct as opposed to a conscious decision. While one of her magical projectiles was there, she managed to stop herself from drawing the bow. A large number of ferns ahead rustled, and a monster emerged. The arrow on Everlyn’s bow vanished.

The first amphibium infenus he saw outside of the water was very much as he had expected. It was a bit like a legless, spherical frog. The same big head, massive legs for springing forward and the continuous wet look. The four of them stared at him, and then it turned and waddled away. Nothing was said, but it was obvious that they were supposed to follow it.

That’s exactly what they did, and there was no hopping. But it seemed to understand their aversion to the water pools and the route they were being led on became windy and more twisty, but the ground was firm and when they learned to trust the guide, they increased their pace to a jog. The guide sensed their intention and began running with a two-legged gait that was surprisingly graceful for such a strange shaped creature.

They ran for almost an hour, which, given the number of pools they passed, Tom found himself becoming more and more concerned. The size of the challenge they were facing to complete the quest was larger than Tom thought. As the crow flies, they had covered over ten kilometres. Tom did the calculations and decided that the dimensions were similar to the goblin and Sprite zone. A square with twenty-five to thirty kilometres long sides, but the monster density felt like it was considerably higher.

The guide slowed down, and they saw a significantly thicker bunch of greenery than usual ahead of them. It waved its head toward them and waddled over to the ferns before throwing itself on the ground, and wiggled under the leaves and disappeared.

“That was clearly an instruction to follow.” Michael said after a moment.

Nothing more was said. Everlyn followed their guide and Tom, with a frown did the same. The gap was narrow, and he was forced to resort to a commando crawl. The ground sunk under him and squelched. Tom could feel the sticky wetness instantly soak through his skivvy. He pushed forward and emerged into what must have been their war room with thick mud covering his elbows and knees.

The open area was high enough that it was comfortable for all of them to stand, but not much more and it was cosy. It was ten metres wide and as a result it felt like it was packed with amphibium infenus because there were over twenty of them. But he had eyes for only four. The largest was clearly the king, and there were three other oversized ones near it. Despite having never noticed the download of information, he knew those three were the generals they needed to interact with.

No one was saying anything, and he took the opportunity to examine the mud covering him. It was thick.

Clean was great, but it couldn’t deal with that much mess. Not unless he cast it dozens of times and emptied his mana pool many times over.

Everlyn saw him, winked, and then ran her hands down her legs. Water spirted out of the side and the thick mud sloughed off her. She repeated the action with her arms and then the clean spell washed over and left her spotless.

Tom shook his head partially impressed and equally dismissive of the demonstration. Clearly, the lack luster attack spell she had got had utility uses. If he was in her place, even if it was sort of for free, he would have chosen a more specialised offensive option.

Michael covered in mud stepped forward toward the king.

The creature stirred. “Yous honour us, with yous presence.”

“We’re here to guarantee your win.” Michael said with a straight face.

“Yes, yous bring much valued experience.”

Michael smiled like a cat looking at a mouse. “All four of us have discussed the stalemate in detail and we agree on the best way to progress the war. Currently, we’re in a losing position. We are sitting back and defending our lands and making no progress at annihilating our enemies like our honour demands.”

“Tat’s inaccurate.” One of the general’s protested immediately. “We’re strong and aggressive. Many raiding parties.”

“Psst.” Michael rudely waved away the claim. “They do nothing. If we’re going to win this, we need to go bigger.”

“And Yous all concur.” The king asked, staring at the three of them.

“Of course.”

“Absolutely.”

“Definitely.” Tom said a heartbeat after the other two.

“But, tat’s too risky.” Another of the generals claimed. “We’re strong in water. Leave we’re vulnerable. We’ll be slaughtered.”

“Rubbish,” Michael reprimanded the general sternly. “The water reduces the effectiveness of your fire breath. If we mass up and they strike us in a non humid environment…”

“No, no,” the general protested. “tat’s doesn’t make sense.”

“We’re all firm in this belief.” Michael stated with a hint of anger.

“Agreed.” Tom chimed in hurriedly with the others.

“My king you can’t accept this. It’s madness.”

“Is what yous suggesting madness?”

“Bold and inspired is what this is.” Michael said smoothly. “The only way to win.”

The king did not look at all happy. “Maybe yous humidity thing is valid.”

“It’s not.” A general argued desperately.

“Four to three,” the king said firmly. “The strategy is therefore approved. In which case, we send a third of the army and test the effectiveness.”

“No, that’s not how this will go.” Michael said. “The strategy requires commitment. To split our forces is suicide. We must all march forward or we will be collectively doomed to failure. All of us, including everyone, in this room.”

“Yous expect me to go?”

“Yes.” Michael said definitely.

“Agreed.” Tom chimed in unison with the other two. He could see that the semi sapient part of the generals and the king both disagreed with what Michael was claiming, but the awful weight of the four of them, all insisting on the plan, overwhelmed their ability to resist.

In short order, it was agreed as Michael got better and better at shutting down dissent and a plan was formed. They had an official plan to win the wall. There was a coming moment of opportunity that the combined wisdom of the humans had identified. They needed to act quickly to exploit it. They would mobilise everyone and go to war to destroy the other species.

The generals and the king had alien features. They were frog like, but they still managed to look like they wanted to fold over and cry themselves to death.

“We will do yous plan.” The king proclaimed his voice cracking. “To war, all of us go,”