“What are our losses?” Lucas asked dejectedly, trying to silently count the survivors.

“We have three confirmed deaths, two more people missing” Chen reported.

“Five deaths, then. A quarter of our forces” Lucas said with weary voice “they thoroughly whipped our asses back there” he finished.

“We killed ten of them for every one of our dead, at the very least. I would hardly call it “ass whooping” Ted interjected himself into the conversation, leaving the group of adventurers he was with, probably there to inform them of the deaths of their two colleagues that Lucas led to their death. The adventurers took the brunt of loses, so Lucas wasn’t surprised to see they were giving him angry looks.

“Should I be worried about something?” Lucas asked Ted, his eyes darting towards adventurers, hoping Ted would catch his meaning.

“No, I don’t think so. They are just a little overwhelmed, but I don’t think it will affect them any further” Ted responded, his gaze fixated in the direction of the shore, Lucas aware he was waiting for Maggie to return from her scouting trip. As much as he would like to join him in waiting, Lucas knew he had more to do, so he put that matter aside, trusting that Maggie was skilled enough to come back unscathed. Instead, he approached the adventurers, watching as they started shifting nervously with his every step.

“How are you holding?” Lucas asked

“How do you think? We lost some good friends back there” a woman Lucas remembered as some sort of earth mage responded.

“I’m sorry for your loss” Lucas said sincerely “if anybody wants out, you can go back now. I consider your duty fulfilled, so the quest is done” he finished, quickly navigating towards his settlement menu and marking the quests as finished, the rewards transferring to every surviving adventurer. There was a brief silence for a moment as they read the System notification informing them of quest completing before they engaged in heated debate, a cue for Lucas to leave them be. They will either stay or they won’t, but this assured Lucas that they will not start a fight in a middle of the next phase of operation.

“Speaking of the next phase, I ought to talk to my party” Lucas thought, his eyes looking for Chen and Margaret, finding them in middle of conversation. He discretely approached, trying not to startle them.

“…too reckless, both of them. Mimicking Lucas will get them killed” Lucas heard Margaret speaking, her voice on a brink of desperation.

“I know, but what can we do about it? We are all adults here, capable of making our own choices and they chose to do that” Chen responded, trying to calm Margaret down. Lucas decided he has heard enough, so he announced his presence after backing a few steps, a slight feeling of shame from eavesdropping the conversation, but he quickly clamped that feeling down, focusing instead on his friends.

“We have to be ready to move at moment’s notice, hopefully Maggie would soon be back with news” Lucas opened the conversation

“What were you thinking, sending her alone like that?” Margaret almost shouted, Lucas not really surprised by her reaction.

“I haven’t sent her, she volunteered. And I think she is capable enough to avoid getting hurt” Lucas responded, trying to sound as calm as possible.

“You are aware she only volunteered because she is trying to keep up with you. Same reason why Ted charged back at the shore and that had cost two lives” Margaret retorted, her voice spiting fire.

“You think I like sending her alone? But, I have no choice. I don’t know have you noticed, but we are at war, not on evening stroll” Lucas shouted back.

“Hold your horses, now is not the time nor the place for this” Chen interjected himself into conversation before Margaret managed to respond “I think our original plan is scrapped, seeing as our old acquaintance is careful making me highly doubtful she will fall into the trap”.

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“We could still lure the other part of the army, it is more numerous after all” Lucas responded, hoping he wasn’t having fool’s hope.

“I would be pleasantly surprised if the other commander doesn’t adopt the Ice Witch’s approach after the humiliation he received back at the shore. If not for the Ice Witch, their assault would be broken back there by twenty people” Chen spoke, Lucas agreeing with that assessment.

“We don’t exactly have a plan B here. If we find ourselves unable to trap them, we should immediately retreat and raise the shield” Lucas responded, these words hurting him more than they should, especially as this time he didn’t plan on leaving anyone behind. Chen nodded in agreement, agreeing with Lucas’s words, leaving them in silence, which luckily didn’t last long as the adventurers finished their discussion, Lucas noticing two people leaving in the direction of Camp Heart, while the rest approached them.

“We are with you to see this through” the woman Lucas spoke to earlier announced, obviously taking a role of speaker for the group. Lucas thanked them and brought them to speed about the plans, not leaving anything out. There was some nervousness and murmurs when he finished the details of his first meeting with Pyra, the people clearly not believing him fully he would be able to beat her. To be honest, Lucas wasn’t so sure about it either, but if his memory wasn’t fooling him, he managed to outlast the Ice Witch in their first duel, his resources pool only getting bigger after that. His introspection was cut short as Maggie appeared, looking ragged and battered, forcing Margaret to dive in head first and immediately activating her healing skills.

“Thanks, Marge. I have some good and some bad news” Maggie reported, Lucas immediately picking the bad news.

“They have started utilizing their seers a lot more, at least based on their tracking abilities. I put down at least three patrols on my way back” she reported.

“And the good news?” Lucas asked, worried about this new development

“The two parts of their army are disjointed and the bigger unit is still unruly and headstrong” Maggie responded with the smile, Lucas immediately realizing the trap could still be sprung. He voiced that much, Maggie agreeing with him, but the opposition came from Chen and the adventurers.

“They may be fractured, but I still think their seers could outmaneuver us. We still don’t know how exactly they function” Chen voiced his opinion, adventurers fully in agreement with him, even admitting they probably aren’t a match for the invaders in open combat, as a lot of their frontline units either died or left the mission.

“I could hold them in place” Ted shouted, sounding as frustrated as Lucas was feeling.

“How many? Thousand? Two thousand? Even if you manage to stop ten thousand, they have some thousand more to encircle you? Be reasonable, Ted” Chen pleaded, Margaret finishing healing Maggie and now siding with Chen.

“You told us not to waste our lives. We now tell you the same” the adventurer woman backed Chen’s word up, forcing Lucas to pause. Margaret was right in one thing, his bad decision did already cost two lives today and if he was wrong, the tally was sure to get bigger.

“What do you think, Mags? Are their seers an insurmountable problem?” Lucas asked.

“I don’t know, maybe. They did manage to find me pretty quickly after they realized I was watching them” Maggie responded

Lucas sighed, knowing he had a judgment call to make. If their plan succeeds, they would be able to deplete the number of invaders, making it easier for them to defend the Camp Hearth. But if they failed and died here, Camp Hearth was almost sure to fall, as Lucas doubted anyone left there would be able to stand up to Ice Witch, not to mention that their warmaster was on his way, judging by the words of Pyra. Alternatively, they could retreat now, hunker down and wait for the invaders to inevitably come, hoping they are not familiar with the terrain, as they would be unable to defend New Flame from the siege if it comes to that.

“Lucas, you are not seriously thinking about giving up. We can still trap them” Ted pleaded. That was the last word anyone from the group spoke, all eyes now on Lucas as he went over his option again and again, analyzing every aspect of the three given option, unable to decide what the best course of action is.

Suddenly, a group of three invaders entered their field of view, surprising the group. Luckily, the invaders were equally surprised, allowing them the time to collect themselves and launch a flurry of skills to deal with them. After a momentary flash of lights, the invaders were sprawled on the ground dead.

“Lucas, we are running out of time” Maggie shouted, immediately running to the direction from which the invaders showed up.

“Lucas, please” Margaret said, her eyes pleading Lucas. Remembering the words he overheard, Lucas finally decided.

“We are retreating, so let’s get moving” Lucas shouted, everybody immediately following his orders although he could see Maggie and Ted being pretty frustrated by this new development.

“Thank you” Margaret said to him softly, leaving him alone to ponder whether his decision would prove correct.