The Amber Sword

It was three o’clock in the morning when Brendel finally met with the Archdruid named Wochik, who looked exactly how Brendel remembered him to be. The first impression Brendel had of him was that he was just like a blend between man and crow. His face was long and sharp, and was covered in dark, lined patterns. He wore a raincoat made of straw which resembled the feathers of a crow. His arms and fingers were withered and slender, similar to claws.

Had this person been a character in one of those television shows that Brendel was oh-so-familiar with, he would be the typical classic antagonist in the show. In spite of his looks, though, he was the complete opposite. In history, he was cold, but strictly neutral, just like a non-player character. Of course, this was a virtue that most druids possessed.

Wochik had rushed back from Ampere Seale, exhaustion clearly visible on his face. Even if he claimed to be capable of fighting one or two more low-intensity battles. Brendel quickly had him rest. With the addition of this Archdruid, he soon realized that the group of mages under him had an unparalleled lineup.

There were at least four Gold-ranked sorcerers: Archdruid Wochik, Conjurer Ciel, Sea Monster Bridget, and Andrea the Lord of Night. Then there were the twenty mages of the Nagas, a few wandering wizards of Count Audine, Felaern, and the Tia sisters. While they lacked a person who could act as an Elemental user , this group of thirty mages –  whose weakest link was still a silver rank – could still crush basically all of Aouine’s forces.

It was such a pity that in Brendel’s opinion, the group was still a little too small. Thirty-plus mages were only just enough to be scattered among an army of thousands. It was not like the War of the Great Demonic Wave in the future, in which one army could mobilize a group of mages comprising over a hundred people. Excluding those scattered around the army placed in charge of defense, they could also mobilize specialized mage groups consisting of dozens of people to act as long-range support.

Of course, this was just a pipe dream for now. A wizard without a Silver rank had extremely low survival rates in large-scale battlefields, but Silver-ranked wizards or higher were pitifully scarce due to the current situation in Vaunte.

It was four-thirty in the morning.

The break for the Royal Cavalry Academy’s students’ was over. Following that, the Nagas, as well as the nobles’ private soldiers, woke up one after another. Brendel took out the map that he had been strategizing with overnight and had them put up the defense lines as required. This caught everyone by surprise as they did not know Brendel had long since familiarized himself with the terrain here. They had thought their commander had personally surveyed the land himself at night in order to let them rest well.

Surprisingly, it was Enrique who was standing at the side who remained unbothered by the enemy’s numbers. The young man shrugged and said, “It doesn’t matter how many people they have. They’d be lucky if the valley allows fifteen hundred men to attack together. But they sure are taking their time to prepare.”

“But they could conquer the two southern mountain tops, Marchenko and Leviko, first.” Freya frowned in worry, standing beside Brendel fully-armored with a sword in her hands.

“Then there will be a good show to watch.” Brendel chuckled.