213 The Strategis (1/2)

”How's Luca?” I asked.

”He's in recovery, Commander,” Berrian Berrygrove answered. ”I've healed him enough that he's no longer in critical condition but I don't think he'll be ready for the plan…”

I patted Berrian on the shoulder. ”You've done great, thanks. But you and your team might be working on overtime later.”

”We'll be prepared, Commander,” Berrian insisted right before he gave me the fairy salute.

I glanced over my shoulder and grinned at the man in bandages behind me. ”You can rest too if you want… don't know if a mummy will be useful in this next half of the battle.”

”You're funny,” Azuma growled. ”I'll be ready. Just point me where I can have a rematch with Garm.”

It relieved me to hear Azuma was up for another round despite his wounds, and since I couldn't express enough how thankful I was that he'd saved Luca, I decided I'd give him exactly what he wanted instead.

”Conserve your strength then,” I said quietly. ”You'll get your turn.”

Then I glanced over at Arah and asked her to begin the briefing while we had room to breathe.

”We've successfully lured Great General Garm into the gorge,” Arah reported to the gathered group of squad leaders from both my Foolhardies and the Pilgrims. ”His scouts are already probing the paths and they'll report back that there are five routes along what they'll discover is actually a series of interconnected canyons surrounded by these sheer cliffs that are larger than the cliff entrance of the gorge.”

”It's basically an ant farm,” I noted.

Arah agreed. Then she pointed her stick on the map laid out on the ground before us.

”These five points is where we make our attack,” she said, pointing to the middle of each path. ”Two thousand soldiers at each path to repel the forces Great General Garm launches at us.”

A hand went up. It belonged to Edo who I'd never seen act polite at any of the strategy meetings I was in-charge of.

”We all know Garm's a strength-type general,” Edo reminded us. ”What's to stop him from leading his entire army down one route?”

”The paths are too narrow to accommodate a large force,” I answered. ”He'd be leaving his sides and flank ripe for an ambush that would overwhelm them…”

”That also means he can't ignore the other paths in case we decide to flank him,” Arah added. ”No, he'll have to plug all paths with his own soldiers.”

Another hand was raised. This one belonged to Qwipps, who, like Edo, had never shown me this kind of courtesy before.

”What if he just waits at the mouth of the gorge until he has more reinforcements?” Qwipps asked in a polite tone that really was unlike the potty-mouthed bastard I was used to.

”He can't,” I answered for Arah. ”He knows that if he waits too long we'll just slip by and escape.”

”Which it is,” Aura supplied.

”Which it is,” Arah agreed.

”Who'll be taking command of the different routes?” Liu Xiang asked.

Finally, here was someone who didn't need to raise their hand or show politeness to Arah. I know, I was being petty, but everything academic was a competition between me and Arah. Strategizing was no different.

Arah pointed to each of the routes from left to right while mentioning who would be in charge for each one.

”Lieutenant Edo will lead the left-most path as it's the widest one of the five,” Arah said. ”We'll give you two thousand soldiers divided into heavy infantry, light infantry, archers, and cavalry to go with your original squad.”

”Being the widest path means Garm will probably plug it with the most soldiers,” I added.

”Which also means it might be the bloodiest next to whichever path Great General Garm is on…” Arah looked over at Edo with an apologetic smile. ”Dean tells me you're the best one to hold a tide back?”

I swear that if Edo's skin wasn't so grey he'd have blushed at her compliment.

Of course, there were a lot of pronounced coughs as many of my squad leaders disagreed with Arah's pronouncement.

”Moving on,” Arah cleared her throat, ”Commander Liu Xiang will lead the second path on the left… As it's the narrowest path among the five, you'll receive one-thousand-and-five-hundred troops divided into heavy infantry, light infantry, cavalry, and archers as well.”

Liu Xiang bowed his head. ”You are most generous.”

Arah pointed to the right-most path on the map. ”Miss Williams will lead another two-thousand forces to secure this route. We made sure you received soldiers most used to the shield.”

”Thanks, and you can just call me Ashley, Arah,” Ashley replied. ”We're both from midtown so there's no need to sound so formal.”

Arah acknowledged her request with a nod before moving onto the second to the right path.

”Thom will be in charge of this route,” Arah said. ”You'll be supplemented by two thousand soldiers composed of light infantry, cavalry, and archers. You'll also get the bulk of our archer units because the path you'll be on is elevated toward the middle.”

”Making a ranged unit more useful,” Thom concurred.