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After taking the rest of the evening and the entirety of the night to gather up everyone she could, Madam, according to my advice, split them up into three groups.
First, the strongest one would continue to do as it did before, roaming the forest to hunt down small groups of humans.
This group consisted of the elites, tasked with overcoming any powerhouses that accompanied the fodder of the human army. This was also where I and Fay decided to claim a spot so that the process of bringing the bulk of the enemies to a state of terror could smoothly progress under our watchful eyes.
The other group, consisting of the bulk of the forest folk's forces and Makary's group headed for the edge of the forest, with the simple task of reinforcing the area and laying down traps.
All for the sake of manipulating the movement of the humans that would try to retreat, so that they would funnel into narrow passages, spitting out of the forest in a nice line for Makary's gunners to... Well, gun down.
The, most controversial thing about this split came with how the third group, one tasked with defending the children, the injured, and the old, was... tiny.
Sure, with just how much stronger locals were than the attacking humans, the numbers Madam assigned to this task were actually overkill, an overindulgence in a force that was supposed never to take part in any fighting at the cost of those who would actively contribute in battle.
Still, the controversial thing about this split was how the defense force...
Was way too little to have any shot at holding any kind of ground.
Their task was to lead all the non-combatants away from danger rather than confronting the threats head-on. And that meant, leaving all their homes and most of their possessions behind.
Any deserted village humans would find would obviously end up ransacked and likely burned down to the ground.
It was this cost of my operation that made me put up this cheeky act back when I talked with Madam. The cost was potentially so great that I had no other choice but to do my best to distract everyone, averting their thoughts away from this obvious reality.
"Here," Fay threw as she reached the very front of the group of the elites. And by how she only stopped here and now, she clearly had no intentions of letting anyone outdo the two of us while on the task.
"Everyone ready?" I casually asked, ignoring all the looks locals gave me when watching Fay drag me around.
A series of murmurs and muted moans came as my response from the small crowd of roughly two hundred celestials and divines gathered around.
Most of them, I fought with before, back when we first challenged the mercenary camp. And now we were about to fight together once more.
"Let's get going, then!"
I saw with my own two eyes how much of a pain in the ass it was to gather all of the local forces together, especially with all the interference of the humans roaming around. And now, we are splitting apart again.
In a sense, I felt slightly bad.
'This is how maneuvers work,' I thought, trying to convince myself I wasn't overestimating my ability to command the field and the people on it. 'Trying to organize any sort of move while everyone was away... It would be hard to pull off with a modern army. Doing it with a bunch of warriors who never heard of technology or organization?'
I shook my head before taking the very first step ahead.
And while on its own, it wasn't much, it was the move that finally pushed everyone to stop just standing around and get going.
"I will lead the way."
To my surprise, Syie appeared slightly to my left before making her way just a few steps ahead of the entire group. Yet, before she could fully dive into the forest, Syie turned her head and gave me a small smile.
"I can feel the general flow of aura throughout the forest. Let me guide you, and I shall bring you to where the humans are."