BXBX NOVEL Chapter 128 Final Problem
"If you can do that, then we should use that," Vanessa said. "What do you think?"
"It seems a feasible plan… but it puts too much of an important role on a single person. You should try that in case he fails," Jagger said.
"My fire magic isn\'t that user-friendly. At max power, I can barely control it not to wound myself," Vanessa said. "Still, I can offer the group some fire support and keep ordinary soldiers away by doing what I am best at."
"In that meantime, I guess we are going to face those two by ourselves…" Jagger said.
"What happened to the other guild masters? Surely they are strong enough to give us a hand," Aion said. "In any other situation, I would like to duel against those two, but right isn\'t the best moment for that."
"Those that came died protecting people during the evacuation. The others in the area didn\'t answer when Richard asked for help," Jagger said.
"Lord Richard to you… and I demanded they to come to help. I didn\'t ask," Richard said.
At that point, Aion considered that kind of nonsense a comedic routine, so he decided to ignore it… Aion truly wanted to overwhelm those two to make sure that the mages would have their chances to attack the walls freely. Still, it seemed that he would have to follow the difficult route… that would be dangerous since it might cause problems to his final goal of keeping his sisters safe. They also might realize that something was off with his actions...
"Attacking tonight will be our best bet," Vanessa said. "When the city fell, at least fifteen thousand soldiers entered it that day, and those numbers keep increasing… we should tell everyone to rest without making any suspicious movements."
"We still need to think of what to do with the army stationed outside the town, our soldiers still are weakened, and they won\'t win a direct confrontation," Jagger said.
"There isn\'t much that we can do aside from sending the mages to help once they finish their job," Vanessa said.
"The enemy soldiers don\'t use formations to attack. They fight mano-a-mano… our own soldiers will get caught by the spells," Jagger said.
Several seconds of silence passed after that. They had no idea how to solve the problem. They didn\'t have enough resources or manpower to use any decent strategy, after all. In his lesson in battle tactics, Aion learned that in such kind of situation, the commander should make some sacrifices, and by sacrifices, he meant making some soldiers die to buy time… the mages won\'t pull that off if they attack the enemies from a distance, but if they attack them from behind… Regardless, some sacrifices will have to be made.
"... What do you think about taking the battle outside and right into the enemy\'s army?" Aion asked.
"I thought that Lexus kids were supposed to have military training and education from an early age, but it seemed that I was wrong," Jagger said.
"I know it is crazy. It will be even more dangerous for us, but I thought the confusion would make the army split their focus, and that would give some leeway to some of our soldiers," Aion said. "If we push the enemies against the wall and make them struggle, their minions won\'t be able to focus on attacking our soldiers. I am putting myself in danger, so I am not a fan of such a thing, so either way, it is fine for me."
"If we try to pull that off, the attacks of those two will lose a lot of power," Vanessa said. "One might say that the safest place to be when in danger is the eye of the storm."
In the end, the whole group had to agree with that since they would be in equal danger. Those three had their obligations and lord, guild master, and headmaster, so such a plan could only be considered as reckless, but considering how much close they will be to helping the soldiers and how much of a load they would take from their shoulders, it wasn\'t a bad idea… their actions will save a lot of lives.
"I suppose… that is what we need to do," Jagger said. "The final problem is who is going to command the army. We have many captains left, but no one is experienced enough to command all of them."
"I will command my people and reclaim our homes. There is nothing else to say," Richard said.
If one considers failure an experience, then Richard had some experience in leading an army. Some soldiers might not be feeling that eager to follow him. Still, he was their best shot and probably the only one around who could understand how much they wanted to recover their homes.
\'If you don\'t have anything to say, then prepare yourselves until night," Richard said. "I will talk with the captains and tell them how we are going to proceed. You are dismissed."
He had some nerve in dismissing those of equal rank. Still, Aion decided to ignore that… it was all for the sake of recovering that town as soon as possible and then returning home. To be sure that such a thing would happen, the archer and the swordsman had to die, which would make the enemies lose their morale… Still, Aion won\'t have many chances to turn them into death knights in the middle of a battlefield. After thinking for a while, he got his answer, though.
"I need to check my classes and decide which one I will use in this situation…" Aion thought. "We won\'t be able to choose a target before the fight, so I need to be ready to face both of them… I don\'t know how much stronger Jagger got in the last two years, but the previous him wouldn\'t be able to do much against Caelis… I really can\'t let the battle drag on for long…"