41 A New Plan
And so now we are surrounded…. Not that it matters. With me here, there is no way for anyone to be able to penetrate our barriers. I was able to figure out where this other group of Norian soldiers came from. It seems the battle to our north ended with the small group of Gravos soldiers losing. It’s sad, yes, but there is nothing that can be done. The ones that were fighting the Norian armies were no different than the men at Cyrilia village.
And as I said, we are now surrounded by over sixty thousand soldiers at least. Maybe even more. I was currently sitting around a campfire drinking tea one of the soldiers had in their pack. Yes, I was drinking tea. Why? Because it was the best way to not only boost morale for my men if I was calm and relaxed but also cause the enemy watching us hang around like we were not surrounded would begin to get impatient, and when people get impatient, they do stupid things. At least, this was what I was hoping for. I mean, if I can get a few of those soldiers to barge into barriers I have set up, I can make it so they can indeed enter but never get out, well… not alive anyway.
But currently, I need to come up with a new plan. When fighting a prolonged battle, it is the one who runs out of supplies and ammo first that will lose. I had a long stick and was drawing a map of the field in the dirt in front of me. I was surrounded by my father, Silminian, and the squad leaders. The other soldiers were busy gathering what supplies we had. We would need to begin rationing if this fight goes on for too long.
At least on the surface, this is what it looked like. I currently had a few mages good with earth magic making a tunnel to our camp. It will just take time for them to get there. As long as we have a connection to our camp to resupply us, we can last in this encirclement for a long time. Although we could also retreat through this tunnel it would be a foolish move and would end up killing us all. One earth spell would be all the enemy would need to kill us.
I am actually splitting my thought process into three different directions. I have two detection magic spells going, one to watch the enemy and one to keep an eye on the mages digging the tunnel. And while doing that, I was trying to come up with a counterattack.
“From what I can tell, they have quite a few mages, at least a thousand of them. Maybe more, as it is hard to pinpoint them if they are mixed in with the soldiers. The commanders of both armies are currently talking under a barrier that wards off detection magic. The Norian soldiers are watching us like we are rabbits waiting to be captured and brought home to be stewed. Now that I think about it, rabbit stew does sound good….” My mind wandered a bit, but this caused the big smelly men around me to laugh out loud.
The issue I was having was the tight formation both armies had around us. With how outnumbered we are, it would be difficult to try to push our way out. I could try to make a clear path for us, but that would mean trying to be in two places at once and risking the lives of my men. I already asked my father if I should just take things into my own hands since it came down to it, but he told me no. I should try to make it so that the men under me will get a sense of pride knowing they helped take down a huge army. It would also look better on me when the report is sent to the king.
This, of course, made things more difficult for me. As I ran over scenario after scenario, I kept ending up with a large number of losses on our side, and I refused to allow for that. And as a commander, I should be in the back directing and not taking action myself. I could be considered the final line of defense. A good commander can bring their troops victory without ever stepping foot on the battlefield. And since I have added becoming a commander to my list of things to do, I will not do things half heartedly.
Now, if I were still just thinking of going out and wandering the world like some lost soul, I would just do what I needed to do, but now it was very different. Coming up with proper strategies that will overcome all odds is something I really enjoy.
“Hehe…. I think I just thought of something good….” I realized that I was thinking too inside the box. Just like with magic and how I have always thought outside the norm, like with fusion magic, I could easily do the same here and now. Fusion magic does not need to be cast by a single person. No…. A spell combined with someone else’s spell can be considered a placebo fusion magic as well.
“Faith, you got that smile on your face that tells me you are about to break the normality of society again.” My father teased. I turned and stuck my tongue out at him.
“I guess you could say that.” I stood up, pulled him down to my height, and whispered into his ear so he could understand where my idea came from. I couldn’t help but smile when I saw his eyes shoot wide open.
“Can we do that?” My father asked. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
“We can try. The worst that can happen is that the spells clash, and it all fails. Then we just need to hide out in our little area and work up something new. But if it does succeed, we will have a way to wipe out the entire Norian army or at least a good portion of them.” I explained.
“Young Miss, can you tell us what you have planned?” Silminian eyes were glowing once again as he hovered over me. I kinda wanted to take a few steps back away from him, but I needed to explain things clearly to everyone. So I quickly moved back to my seat.
“Gather all our mages, they all need to hear this as well.” This was a plan that involved them, so they needed to hear it in fine detail because I will not be able to go over it during the fight. Because in order to pull this off, I will be very busy taking over the job of shielding my men.
It took five minutes for all the mages to gather together. And only then did I begin explaining things. “Okay, first off, we will be doing what I like to call elementary fusion magic.” I pointed at the ground with my stick and made a few holes. “In these locations, we will have fifty mages at each location casting wind magic that will blow out in a wide cone in front of them. The other mages will split up and join the other mages who are casting wind. You will then cast fireball and stone spear into their wind magic. You will keep casting them until you run out of mana or the enemy has begun to retreat. Basically, how this works is we will use the wind magic to increase the damage and speed of the fireballs and earth spears.
“Now, I am not saying this will work one hundred percent. This plan might fail, and we will need to huddle up under the barrier again. But if it does work, we will be able to deal a decisive blow to the enemy. If it does not work, we will sit back and relax while you recover your mana.” I looked up at all the mages and asked: “Are you all willing to give it a try?” This was important. While they would be forced to do it anyway, even if they did not want to, but forcing them to do something could also cause them to secretly reduce the amount of mana they used in their spells which was not something I wanted them to do.
“We will follow Young Miss’s plan!” One of the mages yelled. This was followed up by more yells. Hearing so many willing to cooperate let me breathe a sigh of relief.
“Good, I will need you to pump each spell with as much mana as you can without it blowing up in your face. We need to make sure we do as much damage to our enemy as possible. And do not worry about the enemy barriers, I will take them out.” High ranking spell Dispel… A magic that not many could cast due to its high mana consumption. The stronger the spell you are trying to dispel, the more mana you needed to use, which was why it was hardly used on the battlefield. I had no idea about this spell until earlier when Silminian mentioned it to me. He even knew the equation for it. It was a spell all commanders needed to know about. Of course, this kind of spell could only be learned in the academy.
“Young Miss, what will our soldiers be doing?” Silminian asked.
“They will be defending the mages. All soldiers who have mana will be on barrier duty to keep the mages safe as they will not have time to cast defensive barriers. All soldiers who can not cast spells will be on clean up duty. If any Norian soldier breaks through the attack, they will take them down.” I took a deep breath and focused on my detection spell that was watching the mages underground and smiled. Things were going smoothly so far. I let out my breath and clapped my hands. “Alright! Let’s get into formation!”
While everyone else was breaking to get into positions, I pulled on my father’s sleeve. “Father, I am not sure if this will work or not….”
“It’s fine. It is worth a try. If it works, we will be winning a losing battle if not, we can just think of something else.” My father ruffled my hair, causing me to close my eyes and clear my thoughts.
“Then let’s pray it does work. I do not want our morale to drop any….”