“They’ve begun moving.” Shao reported as soon as she jumped back through the portal.
I took a deep breath. “Alright, let’s begin.”
Although Terra had finished one layer of the wall around Chalm, I wasn’t confident that it would be able to hold against magical attacks. In that respect, fighting in the city would only bring chaos. It’d bring death and destruction to the citizens, and there was no saying that it’d do us any good. Instead, we selected a place to engage with the Dioshin army several days travel from the city.
Various portals opened via the girls. Siti was naturally able to create the largest and most stable portal, which was where the majority of the army traveled through. The travel guild also aided in moving large quantities of supplies needed to maintain the army. Although officially, the traveling guild was under the same restrictions as the adventuring guild, that mostly went to such things as transporting armies directly into enemy territory. The wilderness was a neutral area, and I had already staked a claim on it and mapped it out, so in that respect transporting troops and supplies was allowed.
As the army marched through, I tried to remain optimistic. Although we still had fewer soldiers than them, we had the home advantage. We were selecting the battlefield, and in the day it took them to arrive, we’d have numerous surprises built and ready. The location we picked was a break in the wilderness, a large area with basically no trees. According to the lore I could access from Karr’s blessing, this location would roughly be the spot of Astria’s original fairy spring. After Karr had burned the forest to the ground, for some reason, it had not regrown in these last twenty years.
The reason I had picked this spot was that there were no trees. The Dioshin lived in the jungles and forests of Dioshin, and in the wilderness, they’d be at a significant advantage. Thus, I figured plains would work better. Plus, this allowed Terra to work on creating walls and other obstructions for us to take advantage of the terrain.
“As Master commands.”
“Yes, Master!”
Celeste shrank and flew up into the air, disappearing in a blink. Shao melted into the shadows.
“Miki... set up a triage unite. Collect some blood from our top soldiers down. If they break, resurrect them immediately.”
“Yes, Master...” She nodded. “Although, wouldn’t it be better that I’m on the field with Master.”
“In time,” I responded, looking slightly uncertain. “I feel we’re all going to be pushed to the edge soon enough.”