Chapter 69: Plans

Scitus calmly looked over the map of the surrounding areas. His territory was larger than it once was but his citizens hadn't spread out too far from the city since it was still dangerous for them to live in the outskirts alone. He needed to build a trained civilian force to help protect smaller towns and only then could he expand.

On the map, Scitus spotted several key points. Several hills dotted the surrounding landscape and could be used for smaller-scale battles. Some heavily forested areas were ideal for guerilla tactics. There were also some cave systems that were close to the city; it was possible that trained mages could use the caves as some form of hideout or even an under-land passage to escape any overhead attacks.

"At the moment our military force is around 1000 elite forces and a little over 50,000 civilian forces, the rest are either too old or too young to help in the war. And I'd rather not send children to war either." The life span of the average goblin was a little over fifty-five years but most goblins tribes considered goblins fifteen and above adults. Goblins began to lose their body effectiveness near fifty years of age and so goblins would be very healthy most of their lives, up until the last years of their life.

"Father, I've gotten reports from the harpies that several minotaur colonies and even the lizardfolk are mobilizing armies. They may be preparing to attack us." Hera calmly walked into the room and explained the reconnaissance report from the harpies. The harpies had dark vison and during the night very few monsters could spot them in the darkness as their black wings easily camouflaged with the night. Most importantly, most monsters don't bother to look up. The only place that could not be spied on was the godless kingdom, they were far too vigilant and were on constant alert; especially after the wyvern raids. However, "several humans have been spotted in both minotaur tribes and the lizardfolk territory" the godless were very cautious and decided to send some of their forces to the other tribes to coordinate more effectively. The minotaur's especially needed help with war tactics.

Scitus frowned and then he straighten his back, the look on his face was fierce and it chilled the others present. “I offered them an olive branch and this is how they repay me.”

“Sia.” Scitus turned to Sia who was standing beside him, helping him choose battle locations. “I’ve heard from the lamia that there is a secret doppelganger tribe that exists, is this true?” Sia was startled for a moment by the sudden change of pace and attitude but she quickly composed herself and nodded. “good. If you can, please find three and… convince them to aid us.” The room became colder, it was clear that Scitus wanted to force others to join the war effort. “we can’t fight Mern with daggers in our back, so its time to remove these problems before they begin.” The people present almost couldn’t believe their ears, the only person still completely unaffected was Hera who understood her father very well.

When he played the game Kingdom domination, there were often multiple attacks once; these attacks usually occurred when he was gaining too much power too quickly and others began to fear his growth. At those times, Scitus would send his armies, one by one to destroy the nations that planned to fight him, usually before they could properly mobilize a force.

"Eveline, was it?" Scitus looked to a young woman with fangs that ever so slightly exposed themselves to the world, her eyes were a deep shade of golden red and her skin was a deathly pale white. She was a vampire who had taken a liking to Scitus's mana. "I'll allow you to stay here but I'm going to need you to silently eliminate some people, bring their bodies back here if you can."

Killing others, even by proxy, wasn’t something Scitus wanted to do. If he could do it his way, no one would have to die but his only choice was to retaliate otherwise the people who put their trust in him would die an equally terrible death. “such is war.” Scitus thought to himself. “if they think I’m going to take their attacks lying down simply because I haven’t killed them yet, they are sorely mistaken.”

Eveline gave a sharp smile. "I can turn them into my slaves. Though that takes a lot of energy." She looked at Scitus with dazzling eyes as if requesting something. "one drop of my blood." Her eyes widened and she almost couldn't stop herself from nodding but just before she accepted his offer, she stopped herself. "three drops and a mana container so it won't lose its mana vitality" once exposed to the outside, the mana inside blood would quickly dissipate, however, Scitus's mana was so potent that it would remain in the blood for a couple of seconds before completely vanishing. This was why vampires often drank blood directly instead of just feasting of donated blood or natural mana excretion, though some vampire did survive by simply touching others and feeding a little of their excess mana.

Scitus looked at Eveline for a few moments and nodded. "I can't creature perfectly sealed container but I'll see what I can do." Eveline had a cheeky smile plastered on her face as if she had just won a grand competition and she had gotten first by a large margin. She even gave a small playful kick in the air and gave light fist pump rose just above her soft white cheeks.

"look for someone important, bring them back here, then we'll use the doppelgangers to switch places with them. the doppelganger will give us regular reports and tell us when they are preparing to move against us. Though this is only if we can find the doppelgangers. Now that I think about it, why don't we check our people first, there might be some doppelgangers here. Sia, please go search the goblins and kobolds for a doppelganger " Sia nodded and headed out.

Doppelgangers were a secretive race, they did not like being exposed and they especially did not like being controlled. All doppelgangers had a natural ability to spot their kind and they would naturally spread out to different races and different tribes to seek shelter amongst them, however, they were rarely loyal to those people or places. Rather they preferred to help their race and they did this by relating information to one another. They would tell one another when wars would break out and it was a good idea to flee, or when they spotted a dangerous person, even basic economy, and merchant discussions, where to sell, where to buy.

This all stretched back to a long time ago during the monster era. Of the many kingdoms to fall, the doppelganger kingdoms were the first targeted and the first destroyed, ever since then they have been living in secrecy for fear of being hunted down and killed because of their ability to even trick gods.

Powerful mages like Sia could easily identify doppelgangers but Mages like Sia were rare and populations in some god kingdoms could rise to several million people, it was impossible to scan all of them and on top of that there were some doppelgangers with such a high level of transformation that only beings like dragons with linage sense could possibly discover them.

"back to business. We have 1000 elite soldiers 50,000 or so able-bodied civilians, 100 wyverns, one 100 medusa, 200 lamia, 500 or so lizard men,1000 harpies,100 minotaurs, and 100 ogres. There should also be 1000 fairies that will arrive in a few days." Hera looked over the count of their army and furrowed her brows. "why don't we request for more help. If we ask, the harpy, medusa, lamia, and wyverns"

Scitus gave a soft look at Hera, his eyes were filled with sadness, his words were soft, gentle, and filled with melancholy, “this is all I can afford.” He didn’t clarify what he had meant and to Hera, this was all she needed to understand.

"our main force is comprised of 4,100 soldiers, these will people will determine our successes or failure. The civilian population is large but they are untrained and significantly weaker than the enemy it will take at least 100 civilians to take down one soldier and even if we win in the end, our enemy can simply send another force in after a few months, or maybe even within a week if they are desperate to destroy us."

“Mern may think we are sheep for the slaughter, but this is our home terrain. The oasis is filled with dangers, rabid animals, strange phenomena, and sudden mana fluctuations. There was also the mana hail storm last month that destroyed our crops. ”

"We won't meet them head-on, no we'll lure them into these danger zones here" places all around he oasis were filled with danger, certain places were dangerous zones, even if everything for a thousand miles was safe and harmless, a small little five-by-five foot square area could be deadly even to war beast. These places were rare however, Scitus's planned to move the enemy into mana swamps, places in which mana would lose its effectiveness outside the body. Internal mana would function normally but if spells or even some skills were to be used, the power and speed of the ability would significantly drop.

"then we'll move them here." Scitus pointed to a close-by location, "this place here is useful for guerrilla warfare." Scitus quickly began listing several different battle locations, it was possible that only a handful would be used but Scitus was planning for every contingency he could think of. If the force was stronger then expected, if it was weaker, if it was made of primarily mages, or warriors or assassins.

He named several locations of note, “lizard hill, snake valley, the meandering river, and the Guardia cave network. We need to move the enemy into one of these locations. The duergar have helped us make some traps for the Guardia cave network so that is the most ideal location for our battlefield, but it is also the hardest place to push the army into.”

“Robin, I want your core to scout our perimeter and inform us of land movement, anything suspicious report it to me.

William, you and your core will practice with the new weapons set.

Juliet, I need your core to scrounge every single medical plant and herb you can find and start preparing medicine, blood clotting, pain relief, whatever you can think of to make.

Cecilia, your core will go to the harpy outpost a few miles outside the city, there your core will train with the harpies on how to shoot the bow more effectively in more varied situations.

Thomas, your core will train with William and the new equipment. Your core will also take some special lessons from Sia.

Arcana, you and Merlin will do physical training, on top of your normal lessons.

That's all for now. I'll inform everyone if there is a sudden change in plans.

”

The meeting ended the core leaders quickly began to follow their instructions

“Hera, what has Thoth said about his situation?” Scitus sat in his chair looking out his small cabin window with a solemn expression. Hera gently smiled and said, “he said, give me six more months.”

Scitus furrowed his brows, “good.”