Alon’s plans were to concentrate his forces and push towards the fortress, making it like a spear formation; upon contact with the enemy, the front holds the line or retreats if the enemy forces are too much and the sides surround it; do that until they arrive at the fortress.

Those kinds of movements were only possible because of the communication they had; the radios opened up a vast amount of strategies that couldn’t be implemented before at a larger scale, and the device became pivotal to the coordination of his forces. Now the radios had multiple functionalities where they could talk without talking over one another. Edmund called channels.

At the tip of the formation, the Bartel platoon was looking around and moving forward carefully because of the uneven terrain that they were in. One of the soldiers spotted an ork pulling back a bow, aiming at one of his comrades and instantly aimed and fired his rifle. The sound alerted everyone and right after, the same soldier looked at his squad mates.

‘Enemies up ahead.’ He shouted.

As soon as his words ended, Arrows stated to fly in their direction; they all took cover behind what they could but the terrain didn’t help much and some were caught right in the open, with the only option being to run to the closest cover.

'3-6, this is 3-1. Contact on the left flank, over.’ The sargent hid behind a rock.

Everyone in the platoon heard the transmission and tried to find cover immediately, hiding behind fallen trees or rocks.

‘3-1, hold your position over.’ Bartel looked around, trying to find a monster.

‘Undestood 3-6, 3-1 out.’

He heard a shot before someone shouted; this time goblins with swords and shields were coming down a small hill to their right; the battle had begun.

‘Angel-6, this is Angel-3; we have contact and we are holding our position over.’

Alon heard the transmission and looked at Edmund and Eliza that were right behind him for a moment and turned forward.

‘Angel-3, if you have any difficulty, fallback, over.’ Alon looked around like the soldiers close to him.

‘We got this Angel-6, Angel-3 out.’ Bartel pulled his rifle and shot at a goblin coming down the hill.

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Alon opens a grin. Now he thought it was a really good idea to put the most experienced platoon on the tip of the spear, but his mind returned to the moment quickly and he took his radio again and spoke.

‘This is Angel-6; execute the trap, Angel-6 out.’ He continued to look around.

All platoon leaders started to move as soon as the transmission was over; the first to make contact was to the left and them to the right, making it impossible for the monsters to encircle Bartel’s platoon.

‘3-6, this is 1-6, were are to your right, over.’ A gray-fur Shafran gestured for his team to advance.

‘Undestood 1-6, 3-6 out.’ Bartel hid behind a fallen tree.

‘3-6, this is 2-6, we have your back in the left, over.' A brown-eyed Chatzi looked at an arrow hitting the ground next to him.

‘Glad to see you 2-6, 3-6 out.’ Bartel ran up the hill ahead of everyone.

Before reaching the top, he looked behind, and he was glad to see that nobody that was with him was injured.

‘All squads, this is 3-6; be advised 1-6 and 2-6 are guarding the flanks; move forward, 3-6 out.’ He waited for his man to come to his side.

The battle continued to rage the moment the other members of his platoon came forward and started to advance, throwing grenades to disrupt the creature's formations and at the same time, the two other platoons that weren’t engaged in the battle moved to the sides doing an arc; they encountered one another and started to attack the monsters from behind.

‘Angel-6, this is Angel-4; we are already shooting at the backs of the bastards, Angel-4 out.’ A blond-hair A-Dam smiled.

‘Angel-6, this is Angel-5, already executing the trap, Angel-5 out.’ A blue-eyed Shafran pulled his rifle and shot a goblin running in his direction.

Alon nodded while looking at the deep forest ahead and the sound of the shots echoed with explosions following behind. Behind him, Eliza was leaning against a tree, with Edmund sitting on a rock right in the open while looking at her, using his sword as support for his hands. The other soldiers were all behind cover.

‘Edmund, why are you even here?’ Eliza crossed her arms.

‘Because of you, it looks like you don’t know how important you are.’ Edmund shook his head.

‘I understand that is because I can heal people.’ She sigh.

‘Ah so you do know the reason I’m here, and if you weren't, I would still be here, but in a different position, scouting ahead maybe.’ He looked at his sword while speaking.

‘I only asked because it looks like you don’t want to be here at all.’ She made a confused expression.

‘Well, I don’t think I need to be here; you have all of these soldiers; you can maintain them in the fight for a long time, but the duchess wanted to be safe; you were there; I don’t understand why you are asking.’ Edmund tilted his head to the side.

‘Maybe it's because I don’t feel the weight of my abilities yet.’ Eliza kicked a rock.

‘If this helps, all of the people will give their lives if it means you return in safety. Your importance is absolute; to be honest, you being here is really dangerous, so again we return to the reason why I’m here.’ Edmund chuckled.

Eliza looked around and to the faces of the soldiers around her, each one nodding in agreement with Edmund’s words. A feeling came rushing over her body but it wasn’t fear or anxiety, more of the simple weight of the power she possessed. She took a deep breath and looked at Edmund with a serious expression and he nodded at her.

‘Well, Alon, if this is just one group, I can only imagine the size of the fortress.’ Edmund looked at the captain.

‘You are right, we will put your new weapon to good use, but let’s move out; they are already finished.' Alon started to walk forward.

The sounds of shots and explosions were disappearing as they walked forward; the radio was silent, one of the things that were recommended by Bartel because he imagined that in a larger-scale battle, too much talk over the radio would confuse the chain of command.