The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

              When Zaos headed toward his room, he found his lieutenants waiting for him. Since he had some serious things to talk about with them, he decided to let them enter his room.

"The commander gave the permission to do as we see fit, but we can't rely on the other soldiers, at least for the time being," Zaos said.

"That is probably for the best, many of them are recovering from the previous battles, and some of them are still considering deserting. We certainly can't afford to worry about that kind of trouble," Cohnal said.

"Still, there isn't much we can do with only five hundred when the enemy has more than twenty-five thousand mercenaries on their side," Melisse said.

"Trying to face them directly is too dangerous since they will be on high alert after the invasion," Cohnal said. "What is the plan, Captain?"

            Zaos wished that he had one. In the end, he was someone who got used to dashing around toward the enemies and then swinging his soldier without thinking about anything else. The simplest options weren't available. Facing them on the field was suicide, and trying to recover the town was impossible. Neither could be achieved because they lacked numbers. So, what could Zaos's unit do?

"We delayed their plans for a little bit, but they still can recover if they manage to obtain some supplies and horses from their country," Zaos said. "For the time being, we need to prevent that and any communication between the mercenaries and their home country."

"Considering that several families of mercenaries are constantly at war, they can't just invade our lands without leaving a good number of people guarding their territories, so they indeed might ask for help," Cohnal said. "Still, it might be risky to move away from the base and allocate our unit between the town and their territory."

"Yeah, but if we manage to avoid massive battles, we will make the enemies divide their attention," Melisse said. "If they hesitate, we might even kill hundreds of them before they can realize that they have to do with a troublesome group."

                                                                          Zaos rubbed his chin and considered his options. After thinking for a while, he decided to play it safe since his soldiers still needed some training.

"We will need to send some men to keep an eye on that town for the time being," Zaos said. "Based on the enemies' movements, we will decide how to proceed."

"That is the safest thing to do," Cohnal said and then looked at Melisse.

"I will do that and take some of my friends to do that," Melisse said.

"It seems you are good at that. I will count on you then," Zaos said.

                                                                          After that, Cohnal and Melisse left Zaos's room, and he was left wondering what else he could do. Preparing some ambushes might work, but since the group as a whole wasn't used to that. Zaos decided to meditate and then recover his mana as much as possible.

                                                                          The next day, Zaos didn't find Melisse. It seemed she was quick to work. In any case, Zaos decided to train with his soldiers in the morning, improving their basic skills. Then he spent the afternoon studying some maps of the region. Zaos should have asked Melisse to draw one more detailed map as she moved around. Zaos and his soldiers would need that if they wanted to use the terrain better than the enemies. When the enemies were many times larger, they didn't have any other choice but do so.

                                                                          Zaos asked for permission to take those maps to his room. While he couldn't find many details on them, he could more or less imagine the terrain and then draw a new one on his head. He needed to look for the best spots to hide his army in case of an ambush. While it was difficult to hide so many men, it wasn't impossible. While Zaos was studying, Nyana suddenly nocked on his door.

"Zaos, can I talk with you for a moment?" Nyana asked.

"Sure, come on in," Zaos said. "Is something troubling you?"

"No, I was just wondering if it wouldn't be better for the others if I could teach them how to enhance arrows," Nyana said. "I am not a master yet, but I am learning, and I think that they can learn as well."

"Your friends can use bows," Zaos asked.

"Not exactly…" Nyana forced a smile.

"Since that is the case, I would think that is a waste of time," Zaos said. "Crossbows are easier to aim, but without a rapid-fire crossbow, they will have to waste too much time reloading. Also, if their skills don't reach a certain level, using rapid-fire is also a waste of time, since even the enhanced arrows needed some time to be prepared."

"But what if they enhance their bodies?" Nyana insisted.

"That kind of magic, only enhances one's physical skills. Suppose the physical skills of the caster aren't that high, to begin with. In that case, it will only make the caster become as fast and as strong as an ordinary soldier," Zaos replied. "Since they weren't trained to fight up close, it won't be of any use."

                                                                          After hearing that from Zaos's mouth, Nyana realized that his skills weren't something that could be learned that easily or that it could make anyone stronger in the blink of an eye. While Nyana was pretty talented, she couldn't see herself using those techniques effectively in the next battle. Now that Zaos thought about it, it was quite weird that Ameria was more skilled than Nyana when it comes to magic since she began to learn much later…

"Well, sorry about that," Nyana said. "I will be more careful in the future not to waste your time with nonsense."

"No need to feel depressed," Zaos said and then patted her head. "If you have any idea, feel free to talk with me about it. I can only think of so many things at the same time. If I could, I would rather use the opinions of everyone about several things. Perhaps you can help me with that since most of the guys aren't comfortable in talking with me yet. Be my eyes and my ears."

"Okay, I will," Nyana said and then smiled before leaving the room.

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