"Throughout history, many had attempted to build an unconquerable stronghold. If one only considered mundane armies, many would have qualified for such lofty claims. Mages, and especially Archmages, often threw all these defenses out of the window, however." - Stradvar Reyianes, Military Historian.

Rafiqa bey Leung felt as if the past month might have been a dream. Events had just moved so fast, from the incident at the party, to the traditionalist faction's evacuation and call to arms, to the present day.

She had just been freshly inducted into the military a year ago. Never had she expected that a mere year later she would be promoted to Shàngxiào and named a lieutenant in a military expedition.

Yet here she stood now. Aboard an ocean-going ship, one of the over fifty ships in the fleet, forty transport ships each capable of carrying five hundred soldiers comfortably, plus another ten or so warships as their escort.

The navy was in the Empire's firm grasp, so the chances that the warships would be required at sea was low, but they were nonetheless included as a precaution. A wise precaution, thought Rafiqa.

Other than the eighteen thousand troops under their command and another two thousand under her father's, the second royal cadre of mages were also present in the ship alongside them. Most of them were youngsters, some around her age, accompanied by a few older mages who acted as mentors to the rest.

"Officially" in the lead of the second royal cadre was a young mage by the name Youssef Al-Jian. He was a tall, strapping young man with bronze skin and mixed Aqwa and Huan heritage who looked positively boyish with his mop of curly hair, despite being a couple years older than Rafiqa herself.

Supposedly he was promoted and groomed to be the future leader amongst the court mages because he was responsible for detecting the presence of the monstrous Kraken Rafiqa had seen at the Emperor's wedding, which led to the pact the Empire sealed with it.

Also with them was a small group of tacticians and strategists, two of them experienced, senior ones who had fought in the civil war, while the rest were younger ones out to gain experience. Rafiqa's younger sister Ayesha was amongst the latter group.

It was already late spring then, almost early summer, as a week had passed since the ceremony where they were conferred their ranks and tasks by the Emperor and set out. Another two, maybe three days and they should reach the waters of Tian-Mao island.

Rafiqa was filled with equal parts excitement and nervousness at the prospect of her first real battle.

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They arrived on schedule to Tian-Mao, the large north-eastern island where the Traditionalists had turtled up. The fleet faced some meager resistance - four mercantile ships modified to carry soldiers in a suicidal ramming attack - that the navy's warships handled with little trouble.

The port town itself was abandoned, with its residents long since evacuated and all items that might be of use removed from the premises. There were only empty, deserted buildings where the army disembarked, without a single living soul within.

Interrogation results from prisoners of the naval battle revealed that the town's inhabitants had left except for them, who were volunteers. The traditionalists had clearly chosen to trust their famed impenetrable defenses.

The strategists and tacticians had called for a meeting as they rested in the port town for the night. The only feasible way into the caldera and the main cities of Tian-Mao was through Bloodriver valley, named as such after an engagement where tens of thousands of Aqwa invaders had assaulted the island centuries ago and left a river of blood in the valley from all their dead.

There were three gates built in the valley. One a short distance from the valley's exit that led to the port, another at its midpoint, and a third at the other end of the valley, right at the border of the caldera. The third gate had never fallen to an outside invader in its long history.

Each of the gates were massive structures, easily fifteen meters tall, and nearly as wide. They spanned the narrow valley completely, a hideously solid defensive position, even if each gate was manned only by a thousand men. History had proven that a thousand men in those fortifications had defeated enemies that outnumbered them more than ten to one on a regular basis.

The younger tacticians and strategists debated, but failed to find a good method to breach the gates, to the obvious amusement of their older mentors. Rafiqa had found that to be odd, and thought the mentors must know something they did not.

"Yes, Miss bey Leung, the space mages amongst my cadre, myself included, are capable of opening portals directly into the walls," replied Youssef with a smile on his face. The mage had been present as well, representing his cadre, and Ayesha had gotten the idea of borrowing their capabilities for an assault by teleportation. "However, we would not be able to send many people that way. If all the space mages in my group were to exhaust our mana and we were to do it from just outside arrow range… I estimate we could send twenty-five, maybe thirty people at most."

"Oh," said Ayesha as she deflated with disappointment. She had thought that she found the crux on how to solve the issue of the walls they faced. To learn that her idea was unfeasible wasn't pleasant, and made her think all the harder on the issue.

"That said, your train of thought had approached the true solution closely. I believe the seniors would approve of your ingenuity," added Youssef as he consoled her. The two senior tacticians nodded to his words, both wearing large smiles on their wizened faces.

"Could you tell us the answer, sirs?" asked Ayesha with some hope. She even gave her best puppy eyes impression as she asked the old tacticians.

"No. Go ponder on it more when you sleep tonight," said one of them with a laugh, the other also chuckled but hid his laughter politely under one hand. "You will find out on the morrow anyway."

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Early the next morning, Rafiqa woke up, got herself dressed in her clothes and armor, and walked out towards the command tent. The smell of hot, meaty porridge and pickled vegetables was everywhere in the encampment as the soldiers prepared their breakfast.

When she entered the tent, she had found the command staff - her father, Faizal, Ying Xiao, Youssef, and the tacticians - already gathered, and her sister had passed a hot bowl of porridge to her when she saw her arrival.

Ying Xiao caught her attention right away. The younger girl was not wearing the elaborately designed general's armor she had worn the past week, but instead wore a jet-black armor of simpler design, though the circular plate over her chest still had the Empire's emblem on it.

The armor was composed out of what appeared to be interlocking plates of armor in the shape of the Huan character for "mountain", and it gave off a strange shine despite its dark shade. It was bound together with dark leathers and silk of a familiar dark blue shade.

It was also a display of wealth that would have been impossible for someone of Ying Xiao's background to own, unless she received it from a different source that had been kept secret. Given how the emperor seemed to favor her Rafiqa wondered if he was Ying Xiao's benefactor?

"Since you all probably had trouble sleeping trying to find the answer last night, we will let you know today," said one of the old tacticians after everyone was done with their breakfast, with a smile on his face.

"What the young Miss Ayesha had suggested was correct, she had merely chosen the wrong target to transport," explained the other old tactician. "All of you here already learned of the tactic used during the civil war. Where we'd have the space mages drop the Blood Demon literally on top of the enemy leadership, have you not? That is your answer right there."

"But, sir," protested one of the younger tacticians, a young man around Ayesha's age. "We do not have the Blood Demon with us. While I do not intend to disparage general Zhang's capabilities, I do not believe he could face a thousand men on his own either."

"A fair assessment, young man," said Rafiqa's father with a kind smile as he caressed his silky beard. "Although we have to amend the number to at most two to three hundred or so. I doubt there would be more from the top of the walls to where the gatehouse was located. They wouldn't fit."

"That's still two to three hundred more than any one man can handle," said the young man. "Even if we used the maximum capacity of the mages, and managed to send thirty of our best elites, I do not think they would make it."

"Also a fair assessment. It is good for the young to be cautious," praised one of the old tacticians. "In this case however, the caution is rather unwarranted. Miss General, care to enlighten them?"

"The Blood Demon is my Shīfù," stated Ying Xiao nonchalantly, to some surprised looks and gasps from the younger tacticians. Rafiqa noticed how her father seemed completely unsurprised, however. "And I too, am a blood mage. Does that satisfy your questions?"