A black snake slithered out of the underground base where the Elven Teleportation Gate was located, under the cover of darkness.
When it felt that there was no one around it, it turned into a black mist and traveled outside the city.
Half an hour later, Ezio stood on top of a tree while looking at the capital city of the Zelan Dynasty. He immediately wrote a coded message on his wrist before sending it to both of his disciples.
After doing this task, he once again turned into a black mist and made his way back towards the city. He needed to gather more information about the current hierarchy of the Elven Forces. Ezio knew that this mighty army would head towards the Hellan Kingdom in a few days, and formally declare war on those that resided behind the walls of the City of Gladiolus.
—-
William felt an itch on his wrist, and knew that a message had arrived from his Fourth Master, Ezio.
A frown immediately appeared on his face after reading the message. He thought that there would still be two to three more weeks before the Elven Reinforcements would arrive.
“Sorry, but I’m short on time right now,” William said as he raised his hand and aimed it at the Elusive Mist Wildebeest that was struggling to get back on its feet.
“Beast Taming!”
—–
“Are you sure about this?” Conner asked. “This is not a good joke.”
He was currently looking at William’s projection with a dumbfounded expression on his face. The Leader of Deus was just about to rest when the red-headed boy’s unexpected call made his drowsiness go away completely.
“I wish it was,” William replied. “Unfortunately, I have a trusted acquaintance that is currently snooping around the Capital City of Briar Glen. I trust him with my life, so this news is credible.”
Conner clenched his fist in frustration. There were still so many things that he was working on, but this sudden turn of events made him feel helpless.
“How is the defense of Gladiolus?” WIlliam inquired. “Is it ready for a siege?”
William’s question broke Conner out of his daze. Although most of the preparations are in their final phase, they were far from complete. Moreover, there was still one piece of information that he needed to share with William.
“The countermeasures for a siege are well underway, but I still need a few days to wrap things up.” Conner admitted. “Also, I discovered that a member of the Royal Family is needed in order to activate the true defensive capabilities of Gladiolus. Unfortunately, Prince Lionel and Prince Rufus didn’t know how to activate it. This was why I sent them to the Zelan Dynasty as hostages.
“I doubt that King Noah didn’t pass this information on to someone of the Royal Bloodline. My guess is that he didn’t trust his two eldest sons and didn’t impart this information to them. Perhaps, the Youngest Prince knows how the defensive capabilities of Gladiolus were activated.”
William was quite surprised by Conner’s revelation, but he was sure that the Leader of Deus wasn’t lying to him. This was a crucial moment, so the latter was more open about increasing the defensive capabilities of the capital city.
‘The only member of the Royal Family we can count on is Prince Ernest,’ William thought. ‘However it would take a week of travel from the City of Gladiolus and back from the Kyrintor Mountains. The Elves could arrive in the borders of the Hellan Kingdom in five days’ time.’
While Wiliam was deep in thought, Conner also informed him that a member of the Royal Family was needed to deactivate the Teleportation Gates, which the Elves could use to speed up their travel towards the core of the Hellan Kingdom.
“Okay, you said that we need Prince Ernest’s help to disable the operation of the Teleport Gates and raise the defenses of Gladiolus, right?”
“Yes.”
“In that case, tell Prince Alaric to travel to the Kyrintor Mountains,” William replied. “Brianna, the Daughter of the Great Chieftain will recognize him. Brief him of the dilemma that we are currently facing. I’m sure that he will make haste in his travels to bring Prince Ernest as soon as he can.”
Conner nodded his head. He had long wondered where the Young Prince was hiding. Fortunately, they could use the teleportation Gates to speed things up, and get the Young Prince return as soon as possible.
“I will try to delay the advance of the Elves,” William stated. “I might only be able to delay them for a day, but do your best to speed things up at your end.”
“You will delay them?” Conner asked in disbelief. “Only you?”
William smiled, but didn’t say anything else. Conner understood that he wouldn’t be getting any more information from William, so he decided to end their meeting and mobilize Prince Alaric as well as the defenders of Gladiolus to double their efforts because they only had a few days before the Elves came knocking on their doors.
—–
After his dialogue with Conner, William gathered everyone in the Thousand Beast Domain to share the latest information that he had acquired from Ezio. Just as he expected, everyone’s faces paled, with the exception of Celine and Kasogonaga, when they realized that they didn’t have much time remaining.
“So, what do you plan to do?” Celine inquired. “Are we going back to the City of Gladiolus, or are we going to use guerilla tactics to delay the Elven Army’s advance to the Hellan Kingdom?”
William looked at his Master and nodded his head in acknowledgement. He wasn’t surprised that Celine had thought of this matter as well. Having her around gave William a certain confidence that they could buy enough time for Conner to finish the preparations on his end.
The Beasts that were listening in their conversation kept their silence and waited for William to elaborate on the plan in his mind.
“Erchitu, you are quite familiar with the geography of the Zelan Dynasty,” William said. “Can you tell me which of these locations have teleportation gates in them?”
William projected a giant map hanging in the air for everyone to see. It was a very detailed map of the Zelan Dynasty’s North West Regions that bordered the Hellan Kingdom.
Unlike the Hellan Kingdom who had invested heavily in the creation of teleportation gates to allow fast travel to the different territories of the Kingdom, the Zelan Dynasty had fewer teleportation gates.
If William could destroy them, he would be able to delay the Elven Army’s advance drastically. The Half-Elf knew that if he was fighting against a regiment of Elves that numbered between a thousand up to three thousand, he might be able to fight them off.
Any forces that exceeded that number would be avoided at all costs.
If William had his way, he would just fight hundreds of Elven Soldiers at a time. That way, he would be able to overpower them with sheer numbers, and maximize the blessings of his Quick Shot Shepherd Job Class.
Erchitu pointed at several cities on the map where he believed that Teleportation Gates had been built.
“They’re quite spread out.” William rubbed his chin. He wasn’t worried if there would be Elven Defenders there or not. Even if there were, he was confident that he would be able to take care of them without problems.
‘The problem is that if we attack one of them, the other gates will be alerted, and more reinforcements will arrive,’ William thought. ‘If we do this, we have to do it simultaneously.’
William stared at the map long and hard , while the System helped him formulate the probable team compositions that would yield the best outcome.
After an hour of calculations, William presented the plan to everyone in his Legion. They would attack the four outer Teleportation Gates nearest the border of the Hellan Kingdom. This was the best they could do for now.
Once they succeeded, they would delve deeper in the Zelan Dynasty to destroy more of these Teleportation Gates.
William hoped that his diversionary tactics would be enough to delay the Elves from their advance, and give them a few more days to fortify the defenses of Gladiolus, where they would make their last stand.
