The situation appeared, in all its complexity, to be fairly simple.
For now and at least the next two days, the camp would remain as it was, with only the surviving mercenaries manning it up. After all the causalities brought by the courtesy of NeuArms Inc. and my raid, there were still four to five thousand humans left in the camp.
In two days, though, the main force of the entire campaign would arrive. The Golden Imperial Legion. A unit that my female prisoner of war uttered with utmost respect.
Or, in other words, a proper army of five thousand frontline veterans, all assembled from the elites grown in the other legions of the empire.
Five thousand men whose one and sole purpose in life was war. And a day or two after them, two more legions would arrive, bringing the total number above what I had any hopes of handling.
Over the rest of the next two weeks, more and more forces from the imperial tributary states would arrive, bumping the total number to several times as much as I could handle with my tricks, tactics, and strategies.
"The moment the golden legion arrives, we are fucked," I took a step forward, freeing myself from Fay's possessive hold, and standing in the middle of the high-ranking celestials. "If there's any truth to the rumors our prisoner spoke about, they should be able to conquer this forest all on their own."
Despite the resounding success of my raid... I dared not to underestimate the enemy.
If only that powerful mage from before managed to finish her spell and set that massive, powerful storm upon the forest...
I didn't even want to think about the consequences of it.
"Then what are you suggesting?!" Loraz finally lost control over his emotions, slamming his fist into the ground in a fit of powerless fury. "For us to just charge to our deaths? To at least make our last stand full of bravery?!"
Despite the man clearly using me as a scapegoat to throw all his worries at... I simply couldn't bring myself to hate him.
"For this war to happen, everything has to work exactly as the human leaders expect it to happen. Sure, details may vary. A clash of their forces might result in more casualties than they expected... but it doesn't affect the full picture."
Lost for breath, I cut my voice and took a moment to gather the air in my lungs and to calm my thoughts down.
'There's no reason to get all agitated. Calm down,' I told myself, keeping my lungs empty to calm my heart down a bit before slowly filling them back up with air.
"For this war to happen, everything has to happen, more or less, as expected," I stated my point again, only to finally reveal a hint of a smile.
I've kept everyone tense for long enough. Now, the time was ripe to finally reveal what made me think I could face such an overwhelming number of invaders.
"The reason for our attack won't be to kill as many humans as we can before their reinforcements arrive. Doing so would only start a war of attrition, a war we don't have the numbers for."
I shook my head with a solemn expression taking over my face.
Sure, every single celestial and divine appeared to be a small army on their own, more than capable of singlehandedly dismantling entire units of humans.
But what about the elite humans? People who fought in wars and learned how to behave to keep themselves safe? People who wouldn't walk into obvious traps that a bunch of newbies would happily stroll into?
And what if there were five fucking thousands of them, all used and trained in cooperating with their companions?
"When we attack the camp, you guys are free to burn it to the ground. But it's not going to be our priority" I announced only for a vile smile to finally take root and blossom on my lips.
"Our target, this time, is to kidnap as many humans as we can so that when the first set of exchanges and handshakes comes to an end, we will have more cards to play on the negotiating table."