“Let’s stop at that clearing over there. If we get to close to the city it might cause a panic.”
The driver shifts levers into position. We start to slow down then come to a complete stop mid air. With the shifting of another few levers we slowly descend at first… We’re going too fast!
“Slow dow-.”
BAM! We slam into the ground. We were too high up when we started to descend. I'll need to make adjustments for slower decents. It looks like a few people are hurt but nothing too serious, I’m more concerned about the black dragon right now. We get outside and check to make sure everything is in tact… Damnit, we’ve completely destroyed one of the legs and another is severely cracked. Thankfully those are both small problems that are easily fixed.
Shit… Besides the rough landing that was almost a perfect trip. We could have moved up another gear for speed but it could have busted the wing off. We’ll need to test when it’s not in the middle of war time. I don’t trust it, if we could have made it here in just first gear I would have but it would have taken at least a day and a half.
“Someone take the portal slab back to the fortress and start bringing parts through to fix it. I need to go see when the war meeting will take place.”
I rush off towards the capital. I decide to not change into a dragon or griffon and just run the rest of the way there. It has been a long time since I really got to stretch my legs without any weights on. When I get back I should increase the amount again and only take them off during combat. When I don’t have weights on… I feel like I’m doing nothing to get stronger. If the elemental lord tries anything I need to be far stronger than I was yesterday.
The quickest way to get stronger would be fighting in this war. Perhaps I should find a few more raid areas and take some of my generals out to fight some giant monsters before the war officially starts. Strengthening the overall army would also make me feel better with the 2 giant threats looming over my head.
On the outside of the city there is a huge amount of troops living in a shanty town. I had the dragon land just out of sight of them but once they fix the legs enough to walk they will make their way towards the capital. That might draw far more unwanted attention than I want but I decide not to turn around and tell them. A few seem to notice my approach and act guarded for a moment until they see I have no weapons exposed. I quickly pass through the shanty town to the very base of the city.
It doesn’t look much different from the last time I was here. Possibly slightly cleaner than it was before. It appears that someone has tried to add some gravel on the side I had came in from to make the streeets less dirty which really helped. As long as I’m not ankle deep in raw sewage it is an improvement to how it was before I showed up.
I avoid the slums mostly, there isn’t anything of value here besides manpower. Perhaps if I have the time it would be nice to get several thousand more men ready for this war. I guess this is how I’ll always think though. I want myself to always be in the favorable position during any battle. I make my way through mid town quickly as well. If I had more time I’d have liked to search the shops but perhaps later I’ll visit the slave auctions and do some shopping with Leaf.
I make my way to the castle at the top and I’m stopped by a group of guards at the front.
“Halt! No one is to go into the castle, the king isn’t seeing anyone today as he has set the entire day aside to meet with the commanders of his army.”
“Can you tell him I’d like to be a part of that meeting please.”
“And who are you supposed to be?”
“Tell him that Kite is here. Kite the man who defeated the pirates.”
One of the guards runs off into the building. A few awkward minutes pass while the guards try act casually but I can tell my intrusion has interrupted what they thought would be an easy job. He comes walking out again with a more confused look on his face than I’d like to see. He says.
“Well… I couldn’t get a hold of the king since he’s in the meeting right now but one of his advisers suggested that you come and speak with him about the war after today. He’ll likely have a role for your mercenary group to play later on.”
That’s not the answer I wanted to here. The information I could provide to this meeting is too important to just be brushed off by an adviser. I say to the guard again.
“Please, go ask the adviser if I can participate in the meeting. I have valuable information about the advancing army that could potentially shift the tides of war.”
He disappears again for another 10 minutes. I continue to wait around, the men seem to have become a little more comfortable with my presence as their conversations become more heated. Soon enough they’re ignoring me entirely and have an argument about which blacksmith sells the best arrows. One pulls an arrow out of his quiver and the others and asks me.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“Look at both of these. Which arrow do you think is the better one?”
“Well… The feathering on that one could have been done better. The shaft is also not completely straight. That one does have better metal though, the blacksmith is probably more experienced with metal than wood while the other might outsource his arrow shaft crafting to a woodworker or he might have the woodworking job. Have a look at my arrows though.”
I pull out 2 of my normal arrows from the void bag. I’m not wearing any of my equipment so everything is hidden. I hand one to each of the guards. They look at them with amazement, one runs his finger across the tip and cuts himself.
“That’s a poison arrow!”
I quickly cleanse him but he lost 10% of his health that quickly from the arrow cutting into his finger. What an idiot, I should have told him to be careful with it. Each looks at the arrows more closely now. That arrow I'm using is large in comparison to their arrows. About 50% longer and twice as thick. He appraises it.
“It’s hard to judge this compared to the other arrows but if I had a bow that could fire this big thing I would rather use that over my bow.”
I pull out my bow now and hand it to him. He tries to pull the string back but it seems it’s too difficult for him… That is understandable, my draw weight is over 150 pounds (68 kilograms). He hands it around and no one can pull it back, they all look somewhat embarrassed when the guard who ran to talk with an adviser comes back. He looks down as he says.
“For now, only the high ranked officers and advisors are speaking. It would be better if you told me the information and I can relay it to the advisor to see if it's valuable.
I think about weather or not it would be worth forcing my way into the meeting when Wayne passes by the door and notices me.
“I thought it was you. When he was talking about the person outside he said something about red hair so I just assumed. Come on! You can be my plus one GAHAHAHA!”
I’m oddly relieved to see him now. For some reason he feels like an old friend more than he should. I smile and walk in behind him grabbing my bow as I pass the guards. He walks quickly and talks to almost everyone as we head to the meeting. Often stopping to flirt with a maid or grab food off a tray that is being carried to other higher ups the king had to postpone meeting with because of this war meeting.
He barges through two big double doors and I can see now that this is the war meeting. On the very end is the king who is sitting in a chair that makes it appear that he is above everyone else. He doesn’t even have to move his head any to look at us. About a dozen other men all turn their heads towards us as we barge in. He finishes off the last plate of food he had stolen and tucks the plate into a satchel on his side.
“Don’t mind us, go ahead and continue.”
He motions for me to follow and I do but I also get a good look at most of the people at this table. I recognize a few of them now. One being the man I talked to when the king’s son had died. Another one of the officials I had seen the first time visiting the king. Another person sitting at the table was Lance, he most likely climbed through the ranks with his own ability and is now a general. I do see someone I didn’t really expect to see, it’s Leo.
I catch his eye, he is intently staring me down as I sit at the table. The silence is broken by someone I don’t recognize.
“As I was saying, we are tremendously outnumbered by the north western continent. We have 80,000 capable men who have been trained to fight. Perhaps another 80,000 men who have no experience and will be very little help on the battlefield aside from detracting the enemies.”
He stops for a moment to catch his breath, he doesn’t look like a very strong person. Even talking seems to be burdening him.
“Where as the enemies army consists of over 100,000 trained soldiers and with their sultan finally taming the forest wilds he has an untold amount of exotic creatures to throw at us. Considering that, the only way to truly win this war is to fight extremely defensive and try to hold our ground in castles while they siege and run out of food.”
One of the other men I don’t recognize begins to speak. Judging by his clothing and age, he might be Lance’s commander.
“The most suitable solution would be to mix experienced troops with non experienced ones to try and cover a larger area without having any extreme weaknesses.”
Everything said so far seems to make sense. Another one of the men I don’t know speaks up. Judging from his clothing I would guess another adviser to the king.
“Depending on the size of the army, it might be better to burn all of the supplies leading up to the capital and just defending that. If all goes well, by next winter they will have ran out of supplies and they will be forced to fall back or starve.”
That is a very extreme case but if we are completely outnumbered that would save many lives on both sides. All of these men are extremely smart… But they are missing some crucial data. Data which I’ll now impart on them.
“The estimates my spies are telling me, it’s much closer to 113,000 trained soldiers with an unknown amount coming behind the main force. Judging by the size of the army outside the city… I’d put the number of trained soldiers around 83,000. Our best strategy because of this would be to hit them hard from the start and then fall back once their secondary force makes their way forward.”
One of the other generals I’ve also never seen before speaks up now.
“Who is this person speaking now?”
“My name is Kite. I was asked to deal with the pirate situation. My men have been closely following the enemy ar-.”
He cuts me off.
“As has ours. The last report we had from them was over 2 weeks ago. It takes an entire month of travel to get from here to where their army is stationed. So unless you have some magical devise that lets you travel long distances instantly you are no more informed than we are.”
I know this guy is just trying to be a smart ass but.
“Actually, I do have something like that.”
I stand up for a second and pull out one of the teleportation circles and place it onto the table. It crashes down even though I drop it less than an inch from the table. The 200 pound (90 kilogram) slab makes the table creak for a second before I continue.
“This is a teleport circle. The god of life had guided me while I was traveling the ocean to find a half sunken temple with a dozen of these circles. I’ve taken to using 2 sets for myself and I’m willing to let the other 4 sets go to the army.”
The smart ass speaks up again.
“We are clearly giving you the benefit of the doubt by letting you take part in this war strategy meeting. You can’t possibly have more than 5,000 troops, that lion beast over there has 8,000 troops and he was barely given the right to take part here. So instead of giving us some of the teleport circles, you clearly don’t know any good uses for them if you are using them to spy on the enemy instead of assaulting them directly. You should give us all of the teleport circles.”
“Don't missunderstand, I’m willing to sell the other 4 sets, I'm not give them away. I am a mercenary leader. Whatever I do is for the betterment of my army. The only reason I’m here is to secure the future of my men.”
The smart ass seems to be the only one who is upset by me being here for this meeting.
“What would stop us if we were to take them from you and your-.”
SMASH! I smash the teleportation circle apart and the table splinters and creaks underneath about to break.
“You don’t seem to understand how this works. What I hold right now is a finite resource that gives one army a huge advantage over the other. I’m only offering it to this side but if you think for a second you can take something that belongs to me you will quickly come to regret it...”
This entire farce would be completely ruined if Lance decided to speak up and call my bluff… I hope he doesn’t for a few more moments as I let the tension settle again. I finally speak again.
“With that… Unpleasantness out of the way. Lets discuss the best strategy for this war.”