Following Heirina’s orders, everyone dashed to the horses… When they began to mount them, they saw the first few enemies’ horses at the top of the first hill. They saw them too and began to climb down the hill to chase them… However, as soon as they were about to teach the first base of the hill, the horses stepped on something and then tripped… two of them and their riders fell on the bodies of the bandits that Zelos and the others had moved and were hidden thanks to the tall grass.

The other riders moved to the sides and avoided the obstacles, but soon, they tripped again when they fell into the holes that Zelos and Kaitrine used to hide before attacking the bandits. Edea saw that happening while looking over her shoulder.

“The traps are working, but it doesn’t look like they are dying, thanks to that.”

“It’s fine. We didn’t have time to prepare that much, anyway. They will find a bunch of obstacles, and it will take several minutes to leave the area of the traps.”

Kaitrine soon confirmed that as the enemies began to fall behind, and their ranks began to split thanks to the confusion. Still, they couldn’t relax, and they kept going non-stop. They only stopped when they reached the other side of the area half an hour before sunset.

“What should we do, Captain? I can still set some extra traps.”

“No need. We will keep retreating. The territory ahead will be good for them to chase us… we can’t take any chances with those numbers. We will return home and alert everyone.”

Everyone nodded, and then they left the area… while they were moving, Heirina considered their options. Her orders were to inform her father about the situation, but splitting his focus could be dangerous to him and the warriors of the clan. At the same time, trying to solve the problem by themselves was very unlikely… it was two hundred vs six people. They would need help… They could only get help from the people from the town, but they weren’t trained warriors. Besides, the guys at the frontline were fighting to keep their families away from harm.

While Heirina was thinking about that, Irlan wondered if the enemies might change directions and attack the other villages in the south and north of the town. That seemed like the type of thing they would do to lure them out… Thanks to that, he wondered if he should bring that to Heirina’s attention, but she looked like she had a lot in her mind. At the same time, Zelos was trying to come up with a solution to the issue.

“Do you think that we can try that again?”

“The ambush? It worked because there was grass and darkness was on our side. Their numbers weren’t that high either. It is very different from now.”

“Still, what other options do we have?”

Kaitrine raised her eyebrows… Zelos had a point. In situations like that, they have to find solutions where they are hard to find. Moreover, she would rather do something dangerous like that instead of involving civilians.

“For situations like that, we have the armory at my home. It has plenty of reserve weapons like bows. Even if they aren’t experts, most people can use them, and in a large group, a volley of them would cause a lot of damage… The real issue is what happens after that.”

If things became a huge melee, Heirina had no idea what would happen. All she knew was that they couldn’t risk letting civilians die. It was in situations like that that she wished the place had tall walls.

Before noon, the group reached the town, and then Heirina passed the order for the others to bring all the bows and arrows from the armory and then eventually pass them down to the population… At the same time, Heirina decided to pass the message using a raven. However, much to her surprise, when she arrived in the messenger’s office, the old man welcomed her with a wry smile.

“Young miss, I have some bad news… the Ravens died overnight. They probably have been poisoned.”

Heirina let out a long sigh after she briefly showed an astonished expression. There was no point in dwelling on that, but she couldn’t help but feel exasperated. She should have seen that coming. They had spies in their territory, and they were helping the enemy. She could send a rider to the front lines, but that would be too obvious… the enemy should be waiting for one along the way.

In the end, Heirina returned to the others and shared the news with them. They were as surprised as her, but they didn’t have to worry about it… the enemies were coming, and they needed to prepare for it.

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“You guys should spread the word about the enemies and tell everyone to come to my house to get the weapons. Kaitrine, you have the best chances of escaping a trap or encirclement that the enemies could have set here. You should go and look for my dad on the front lines. I didn’t want to do this, but if he sends at least fifty warriors, we should be able to handle this situation.”

That was questionable, since it would take at least one week for her to go and come back. Although Kaitrine didn’t want to leave the town and Heirina alone, she knew that she had to follow her orders for many reasons… Hopefully, they will be able to hold their ground without her.

The farm was a bit out of the town, so Zelos went there to warn the old man and his wife. When they heard about the news, they couldn’t help but sigh. They weren’t exactly surprised, and Zelos couldn’t tell why. The old man’s wife smiled at him.

“Don’t worry about it, Zelos. We will pull this off. At times like these, it is only natural that messed up stuff happens now and then.”

“Thanks to the sacrifices, we lived in peace for too long, and because of that, people who live far away from the front lines end up relaxing too much. Unless we are all equally suffering, we can never work together with the same goal in mind.”

Zelos could understand that the existence of bandit groups, people trying to profit from the conflicts from the deaths of others, and so on… were all clear signs that a country was about to fall. Zelos truly hated what that country had become… not like he had seen any other part of the country that was better.

“Just keep the cows out of their field of vision. We will move to where the enemies are and stop them. I can’t let my investment here be destroyed after all. Or my business partner and his family.”

“Hahaha, you got your priorities very straight.”

The old man farmer felt a bit better after hearing that, but he didn’t want to make a boy risk his life for him. All that, aside from their lives, were material things that they could recover if they lost. Lives were a different matter.

Before long, Zelos returned to the training grounds in front of Heirina’s house. There, he saw a massive line of people forming to obtain weapons and other equipment, all in order to fight. Edea was helping Heirina with that, and then Irlan called Zelos a bit farther away.

“We need to keep an eye on the enemies to alert when they will attack and where they are. They will probably come at night, but we still need to make sure that they will come here.”

“All right, let’s go.”

They grabbed fresh horses to return to the direction they came from. One hour later, they stopped, and then Zelos tried to focus his ears on the surroundings. Eventually, he put his ears on the ground, and he was able to pick up the sound of the horses’ footsteps in the distance. They looked for the highest vantage point in the area and found a large tree, which Zelos climbed with brute strength alone.

“They are coming… around one hundred riders and one hundred foot soldiers. They are taking their time to rest the horses.”

Irlan began to think about what they could do… they only had a few horses left that were actually trained for battle. When it comes to cavalry, only heavy infantry or other cavalry could stop them. They didn’t have it either. Archers will probably miss their shots against them thanks to their speed.

“They will probably surround us with the cavalry to make sure that no one will escape at night while the infantry takes us directly. They will give us a good chance to dispose of their numbers… we will have to take some chances to get rid of all of their infantry in one single swoop.”

“They should be aware of that as well… so it won’t be easy for us.”

“Nothing is easy in war, I believe. While war horses are more trained to deal with them, there are some things that we can use to make them less effective. Return to the town to tell Heirina to prepare all those things. I will keep my distance from the enemies.”

Again, Irlan felt that their positions were reversed, but he didn’t argue about that. Zelos was lighter, and he had some talent for horsemanship, so that he would be fine. The real issue was his exhaustion. He didn’t sleep that much on the previous nights or days, after all.

Zelos kept his eyes on the enemies the whole time. It almost looked like they were heading to a picnic, considering how unconcerned they were. It reached a point where Zelos thought that it would be nice to use his club to smash some of them without hesitation. Even now, he didn’t think much of the people that he had killed at night or before. From his perspective, they deserved that, and he was fighting for his life as well, so there was that.

After noon, they finally stopped moving five kilometers away from the town, and while Zelos already could see the place over his shoulders, he still decided to keep watching as they set their temporary camp. It was in situations like that that he felt that he should improve his archery skills a bit… that takes time to develop, and only now he had access to bows; before, he only had access to stones.

In any case, around midafternoon, Irlan returned to look for Zelos, and he was surprised to see him so soon… the enemies also didn’t look worried at all about sending their people to attack other places. Irlan furrowed his eyebrows while thinking about that.

“Why are they so nonchalant?”

“They had spies here that killed the ravens, so they must have spies in the villages as well. Those spies also must be located at some points where they can kill the messengers without being found out.”

“... That makes sense… the enemies aren’t playing around here.”

“Did Heirina say anything?”

“She told me not to engage, and she also told me to bring some food since you will need it, considering how long you have been up.”

“I can handle this much. Working while exhausted and hungry is literally my forte.”