The council room of the mayfires looks like any other room in the place. It is just like the room that has become our quarters here if a bit bigger. the only difference in the room would be the people that are here.

I can recognise a few of these figures. Most of them are popular figures in the mayfire family famous in black mountain and the surrounding regions. I can't recognise most of them. That can only mean that the mayfires have hidden their strength quite effectively.

I am standing to the side, waiting for me to be called upon. I certainly have no desire to speak on my own among these people. The men and women in this room are the truly powerful people of the mayfires. The weakest here could kill me in a couple of minutes.

Each of them is at the stage beyond mine. The only figures that could be comparable to mine would be the lizbeth and Alfred, who are slinking to the back and ensuring that they will not be noticed.

Looking at Alfred the first thing that I did was to check my link with my sword. I still cannot feel the link that I have had with my sword, which means that the man has taken appropriate measures to separate me from the sword. I am sure it is within the absolute barrier.

Focussing back on the room, there is a table at the center of the room holding a map of the inner keep and it has been the most used thing in the room for a while now.

Over the last couple of hours they have been discussing about the status of their defensive line. While I have not understood much of their discussions, the thing that I have understood is that things are not going particularly well for the mayfires. They have been losing many rooms, though none of them seem to be very important.

They have been undergoing a pretty strategic retreat trying to keep back the vampires and the necromancers back for as long as possible. It has been a losing battle from the start.

Up till now, the family head has shown no sign of speaking or even moving. He has just been quietly hearing the many reports that have been made here and looked at the map.

The man's mood has affected the room to such a degree that even I, an outsider in all of this can feel the silent pressure in the room. It is a sense of quiet foreboding.

This continues on for a while until the family head finally speaks.

"Well, I have been hearing of all your worries and to all of your fears for a while now. In that period, I think it has become clear to you and to me that our present plan of action has failed completely.", speaks the man. "Is there anyone that would like to speak against this? You can raise your hand if you believe this plan is working."

Naturally, nobody raises their hand.

"Well, this naturally means that we will be needing a new plan of attack. Thankfully, just a couple of days ago a captain of the black mountain appeared in our castle.", he spoke. "I am sure you all must have considered it to be a rumour since the outer wall had not been breached. I will assure you that the black mountain has given us aid and he is in the room with us."

At this mention of me, I can feel a few of the figures finally take a look at me. They have finally connected the dots, linking the unknown stranger in the room to me. I can even feel a sense of hostility in the room too. Without the family head, I have a feeling that things would have been very different for me.

"Well, I am sure that some of you must find it awfully convenient that a man appeared like this in the inner keep, but the man has been helpful in our defenses.", speaks the head, looking at the people looking at me. "He is a formation master with an understanding of how to breach our defenses. If the man wanted to, he could have caused us pretty serious damage if he wanted to. Instead he has been helping us bolster our defenses."

Hearing this the people looking at me with hostility retract their gazes. They have no desire to offend this family head. Somehow, I feel that this is more a threat to the family rather than a assurance.

"You must have even felt it in the last couple of days too. How the pressure on our troops has decreased a bit. This was partly due to the suggestions given by this man.", the man speaks. "Still, even this child will not be able to turn the tides of this battle unless we do something drastic."

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With this, the people looking at me return their focus to the family head again. There is clear fear in their eyes about this drastic thing.

"We can either escape the inner keep or we can strike against the necromancers.", speaks the family head. "The formation mage will be able to explain why the former will be such a bad idea."

Saying that he points to me. I can feel the view of the entire room on me in a instant. Hoping that I am not stuttering I speak.

"Well, both the plans have their pros and cons, family head. I feel at the moment that escape is the riskiest option.", I speak. "Right now the only outer keep is completely in the control of the blood heart gang. We know how difficult it was to keep escaping them. We were not able to escape the place even when we had our ship. Without our ship we have no means of escape left. Then there is the problem of the barriers."

"Why, what would be wrong with the barrier?", asks the family head.

"Well, an absolute barrier is like a piece of fabric. Different formations interwoven together to get the desired affect. The only way that I can pierce the defense of the place is to create a hole in it.", I reply "the vampires and the necromancers must have made massive holes and I made a small hole to enter into it. Too many holes would be quite dangerous."

"Well, there is no sign of the barrier having any hole in it though. It is still working quite smoothly.", the family head spoke.

"That is true, because the barrier will naturally be able to heal any damage that is done on it.", I tell him. "Too many holes and there will be failures in the barrier. I would not be surprised if the entire thing fell if we were to poke the thing too many times. You do not want to fight a horde of necromancers in the city. Why they haven't done so already is beyond me."

"Well, then what would you suggest that we do, young captain?", asks the family head.

"Well, the only thing that can be done. We will have to destroy the formation that the enemy is using to block out my communication with the black mountain.", I reply, not missing a beat. "once that is broken, it will be quite easy for us to request for reinforcements from the black mountain."

"Thank you, young captain. Your insight certainly has been quite useful.", the family head spoke. "As the young man has spoken, retreat would be quite dangerous. That leaves us with the final option of an assault."

Hearing this the people return their focus back to the family head. It takes me a moment to realise that my back is full of cold sweat.

"As the young man said, our main focus has to be disable the blocking formation which is right in the middle of their territories.", he continues. "that naturally means that we will have to mount an assault on the necromancers. Not a very large force, but one that should be able to survive under the assault of the enemy. Our goal is stealth and precision. We are not going to be having any heroics there."

Hearing this, there is dip in the atmosphere of the room. Somehow I feel like I am missing some politics that is going on in the he background here. I wish Trevor was in the room with me right now. He understands this better than me.

"Naturally, I can see that you are worried about the defenses of this place.", the family head speaks. "For that we shall rely on the formation mage. The man has managed to strengthen our defenses just by giving a few suggestions. Now, we shall provide him with a group of soldiers with which he can go about strengthing our defenses."

Hearing this is just as much of a shock for me as it is for the people in this room. That is a dangerous amount of power being given to me. I could just as easily screw up the mayfires as I can strengthen them. Not that I will, I have no desire to go down with them.

"Well, it is a bit of a gamble, but the captain has proved himself worthy of our trust.", speaks the family head. "How long would it take for you to strengthen our defenses, captain."

"Well, I can do that forever but I think that I should be able to get the formations into a more defensible state in a couple of weeks.", I reply.

"So we have an assault to plan men. Firstly I will be needing volunteers to work on this for me. I will pick the remaining myself.", speaks the family head.

And thus they begin their politics, which I don't really understand again. There were a few volunteers but most of the group that joined the assault group did so under orders.

I guess I should have heard their assault plan with more interest but I already had the gears turning in my head. The assault will be managed by people that know what they are doing. My work is set. Restructuring defensive lines is not particularly easy and we are in the middle of an active warzone here.

Still, I do have a few ideas though it is more dependent on the people that I have been assigned for a proper idea to form. After all, moving formations can be quite a dangerous piece of work.

Other than that, I guess that I should also record on the assault plan being made. At least the part that I bothered to listen to.

A group of seven people have been chosen from the group. They each are at the stage beyond the foundation stage. That leaves only five people at the stage beyond the foundation stage behind to help us out in our defenses. This group of seven naturally includes the family head.

The seven people that I am seeing here should be an equal split of two opposing factions in the family. That is my assumption at the very least though I won't speak concretly on it. As they say half knowledge is more dangerous than no knowledge.

The assault is going to be conducted in a couple of weeks, giving double the time that I had requested for in the process. That certainly reduces the pressure on me though it certainly is not going to be an easy task.

Fuck, why do I have to be the one that has to build all of this in the middle of a battlefield. Even my previous mission was just like this.