'This is the least I can do, huh?' Fay thought to herself while caressing the lock of the neugarand with just the tips of her fingers.
Once again, Peter convinced her to stay back while he went in to lead the charge.
And as much as he claimed he was simply going to be at the front rather than leading it... Fay wasn't gullible enough to believe this half-truth.
Sure, officially, Uler, an old and wise celestial was in charge of the sneak attack from the right. Peter was simply responsible for making use of his terrible weapons to break through any resistance humans would mount in the spur of a moment, letting the elites of the forest do the rest...
But again, Fay wasn't stupid enough to believe this.
She saw the call for blood in Peter's eyes. Back during the ambush at the clearing, it was only a distant echo. Then, during his barrage, it was as clear as the trees around her.
And what it would become once his terrible weapons would claim scores upon scores of lives... Fay didn't even dare to think about it.
Yet, in war, people rarely get to have their way. What was necessary took precedence over what people desired. And just like before, Fay was the only one who could provide support from an extremely-long range, eliminating either the greatest warriors from the enemy camp or shattering the main centers of resistance with just a few, well-aimed shots.
She was the only one who could do it, just like Peter was the only one capable of effortlessly creating a gap in the enemy line necessary for the forest elites to steamroll through the human camp.
And as much as she hated it, Fay remained on the hill, nestled on several layers of cushions and blankets and with the muzzle of Peter's rifle pointed right at the center of the camp.
'It should be starting about... now,' she judged the progress of the series of bullshit shows, nailing the timing up to the second.
To her right, the darkness of the night appeared to suddenly move, slighter around right at the edge of her eyesight. And yet, whenever she tried to spot any clue, any detail that would hint at Peter's position... she couldn't.
The disguise spell didn't differentiate between an ally and an enemy. And there was no way Fay would've asked Peter to give up on this important piece of protection just so she could track where he was!
The corpses of her kin didn't bother the girl. She was detached from their community, shunned by them for long enough not to really care about anyone in particular. And without the emotional attachment, Fay could tell that the losses, although painful, were insignificant in the greater frame of things.
And so, after shooting twice in quick succession, Fay glued her eye to the scope, taking a moment to simply watch over Peter.
Just like the girl expected, she found him at the very front of the elite unit, unleashing fires as he shot and reloaded his weapon again and again and again, showering the little resistance that humans managed to mount with power greater than even the one Fay wielded.
As the dark figures of the forest elites spilled into the forest and instantly scattered all over the area, Peter gathered only about a fifth of his force before rushing them... to the very center of the forest.
'I knew this would happen,' Fay thought, gritting her teeth as she hurriedly reloaded her weapon and aimed it to provide support... Only to watch how her beloved took a turn, giving up on attacking the center of the camp's defenses, opting to move in a great hurry right behind their back.
In mere moments, half of the forest elites hunted down anyone who failed to appear on the defense line yet dared to carry a weapon. The other half that remained, quickly circled through the very center of the camp, setting the few impressive tents in the middle on fire.
And by the time the defenders of the camp, all gathered to push back the desperate charge of the forest monsters, realized what was going on, they were stuck between Loraz forces from the front, nearly half of the elites from the back-left, and Peter's detachment from the back-right.
A perfect and complete encirclement. One that came at a bloody cost of mostly Loraz's forces.
'What now, Peter?' Fay asked herself, squinting her eyes and steeling herself for the ugly sigh that was about to come. 'How are you going to turn this advantage into an actual victory?'
Fay pressed her lips into a thin line.
She had no idea what would happen next. Her point of view was too far removed from the chaos of the battle for the girl to give any judgments to how humans, stuck between three forces, would react.
Fay had no idea what would happen next. She never needed to know this kind of details so Peter simply never brought them up. And now, all she could do...
Was trust that Peter would somehow manage.