‘Sarge, are we going to do that suicide charge like last time? That wasn’t good, I tell you that much.’ Asher asked, looking at Egor while hiding behind a fallen tree.

‘No, the plan is different; how did you forget? I told everyone here what was going to happen.’ Egor sighs while rolling his eyes.

‘You worry too much, Asher; last time wasn’t that bad.’ Smiled at the combat medic.

‘You almost died, you idiot; what are you talking about?’ He lowered his voice, trying to hide his anger.

‘You two, go to Alon; the field hospital is going to be two hundred yards behind us.’ Egor pointed at Asher and another soldier.

The two nodded at the sargent and walked back to where Alon was, but Egor thought that this kind of configuration wasn’t good; now he had two men less in his squad to shoot and to carry injured, not a good look from his perspective.

Ethan was concentrated on the mission at hand, so much that he didn’t really talk much with his squadmates from the moment they were in battle; he was more concerned with keeping his promise with Ruth to not die, but the conversation between his colleagues and his thoughts were interrupted by Bartel’s voice coming from the Egor’s radio.

‘3-6 to all squads; the operation is about to start; pick a target if you have one.’ Bartel’s voice was sharp and decisive.

Egor signaled to his squad to get into position; they just waited for the exact moment everything was about to begin. Bartel’s platoon were the most calm about it, calmly waiting.

‘Yeah, we need people just for this field hospital thing.’ Alon was looking around.

Eliza sat on a rock, waiting for the battle to start. She saw two soldiers coming in their direction, but her mind was on the task at hand: healing those soldiers so that they could go back and fight again. That was the plan anyway; it made sense in her mind anyway.

‘Sir, we are the medics from the 3-3.’ Asher spoke as he saluted Alon.

‘You two will need to assess those that need priority so that she can only focus on healing, ok?' Alon nodded at the two.

‘Yes, sir.’ The two spoke in unison.

Alon walked forward and stood next to Edmund, who was looking around, even closing his eyes, looking like he was trying to hear something, and that made the captain curious.

‘What are you doing, Edmund?’ Alon patted Edmund’s shoulder.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

‘Trying to sense how many of those mages are inside of this one; I can’t put my finger on there are too many of them.’ Edmund held his chin for a moment.

‘This is bad.’ Alon pulled his radio again.

‘I think I’m going to be needed in the end; there is something more inside.’ He closed his eyes, trying to concentrate.

‘Angel-6 to all platoons; be advised there is a large concentration of mages inside of the fortress. Angel-6 out.’ Alon spoke while looking at Edmund.

The platoon leaders were surprised by the information, and as they passed the information down, all soldiers became more nervous about their situation. A mage was something out of a fairy tale; nobody there, aside from some people on Bartel’s platoon, saw one.

‘What a bunch of idiots! You hunt these creatures for a reason; they become stronger if in larger groups, but the kingdoms didn’t care at all about this.’ Alon clenched his fist.

‘Lavan hate for Ariadne and Velvent hate for Lavan created a big problem for us, but don’t worry, Alon, we are going to make it.’ Edmund gave a pat on Alon’s back.

The captain nodded at the young man and took a deep breath before again pulling his radio and pressing another set of numbers.

‘Command, this is Angel-6; we are about to begin the operation but it is worse than we thought, over.’ Alon stroked his hair.

‘How worst, captain? Over.’ The young lady's voice sounded concerned.

‘Multiple unknown creatures inside of the fortress; I’m requesting all available personnel in the area for immediate assistance.’ His voice was firmer than before.

‘Negative captain, all personnel in the region are currently engaged.’ She was scrolling through her tablet.

‘Undestood, Angel-6 out.’ Alon took a deep breath.

On the front, Bartel saw with his spyglass a strange movement on the walls. He gasped as the memory came rushing through his mind of the creature he saw inside the fortress, but this time now they were among the goblins and orks, beginning to walk around on top of the walls.

‘Angel-6, this is Angel-3, visual confirmation of the mages, over.’ He continued to observe.

‘Undestood, continue to wait for the signal, Angel-6 out.’ Alon looked at Edmund.

In the back, at a distance, the mortar squad was prepared and just waiting for the orders as three more soldiers that were with Alon were helping guard the position. The ten soldiers were nervous for the simple fact that they were so distant from the front line alone, around a thousand yards, the only place they could set up the weapon with safety.

‘Mortar squad, begin the operation, over.’ Alon’s voice was heard from the squad leader's radio.

‘Undestood, Mortar squad out.’ He spoke with a firm voice.

The soldier on the left of the weapon checked the position, and another got one round and gave it to the one on the right side; he then held it, just waiting for the order to start, ready to drop it inside of the weapon.

‘Three rounds, three rounds.’ The squad leader spoke.

The weapon started to fire with one round after the other being lauched until the total of three were shot, and they all looked at one another with a smile on their faces but quickly prepared to shoot again.

On the other side of the fortress, the blue-eyed Shafran was waiting for the signal like everyone else, but he heard a long wistle, and suddenly one of the walls of the fortress exploded, making creatures fly. This was the signal they were waiting for.

From the forest, a rain of blue traces emerged and flew toward the fortress, at the same time hitting the creatures on the wall, but the majority was aimed at the patrols outside of the fortification; all of them fell in an instant. The other explosion was inside the fortress, but the last one landed outside of the walls to the right.

‘Mortar squad, this is 2-6; your last shot was a miss; adjust based on my mark, over.’ Calb pressed two marks on his tablet.

‘Undestood, information received, adjusting for the next volley, Mortar squad over.’ The squad leader looked at his tablet.

Using the position of 2-6 and all of the other platoons around the fortress, they adjusted the next shot. It was something Edmund made so that the platoon leaders could give their locations to help the mortar squad calculate the distance if they didn’t have a detailed map of the area. It wasn’t perfect; it needed to be manually pinged, but it helped a lot.

‘Three rounds, three rounds.’ The squad leader spoke.