The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

                                                    In the end, Cailu decided to leave once he realized that words alone wouldn't scare Zaos. Despite that, some of his people stayed behind to keep an eye on Zaos. Still, he ignored them and received one hell of a thick book from Fyran's hands. He opened to check the interior and confirmed that it was the real deal. He wanted to study it more, but he closed it since he had a lot of work ahead of him.

"These mountains are pretty tall and large, with that in mind, I don't think the army will try to circulate this place and find better spots to invade, that will take too much time," Zaos said.

"Are you sure about that?" Derenus asked.

"If the commander were Ruvyn alone, he probably wouldn't attack a single point since he would lose too many soldiers, but since Vitalar will be here, then I am certain that he will try to invade by using the main path and the ones close by," Zaos replied. "He might try to do that if he has the chance again in the future, but that is not a problem we need to worry about right now. Well, then, your people have some secret passageways in these mountains?"

                                                    Derenus and the others looked at each other and hesitated about how to answer that. It was obvious that they had a few, but they didn't want to tell that.. If something were to happen, they would have to use those to escape, after all.

"You don't need to tell me where they are, but you will need to put several guards in those places," Zaos said. "We have some of them in the northern base as well, so the commanders will use people specialized in finding those places and remember, they will have two weeks for that."

                                                    Derenus nodded. It seemed logical now that he thought about it. He never considered that in the past because he never knew how many years the hunters had ventured this far in the mountains. Everything seemed to be an effect of the revival of the demon god. It granted them power, but it also increased the fear and the rage of their enemies, and that was why they planned that expedition.

"Fyran, you should take care of that," Derenus said.

"Understood," Fyran said.

"Remember, only use earth magic," Zaos said. "… Unless the soldiers are too close and your lives are on the line. If that were to happen, then you can go all out. However, I won't tolerate brainwashing or using their bodies to become your zombies."

"Don't worry, I will make sure to keep things under control," Derenus said.

Zaos really wanted to believe in the old man, but in the end, after hearing so many lies in his life, he couldn't bring himself to trust others that easily.

            Derenus gave his people the orders that Zaos said. Unfortunately, on the first day, they realized that things wouldn't proceed that favorably. Zaos asked them to find suitable rocks that could roll down the mountain and hit soldiers, but finding them was kind of hard since they were buried in the snow. Zaos thought for a while, and after looking around, he found other things that would do a better job than rocks.

"Tell your people to chop down some trees, we will use the trunks as projectiles," Zaos said.

"Interesting idea… it will take a while to carry those up here, though," Derenus said. 

"We have many free hands around these camps, so it doesn't matter," Zaos said. "Maybe I should help as well, it will be a good exercise for me."

            Zaos decided to do it, but only after a while when he thought of other measures that wouldn't kill the soldiers when they tried to climb the mountain. Zaos watched and analyzed most parts of the mountains several times for the next few days and gave orders with the things he realized. After that, he chopped down some trees. Doing that with magic was pretty easy, but Zaos decided to use that chance to build up his strength.

After two other days, Zaos and the others finally had the chance to see the soldiers' army approaching in the distance. They were raising so much snow that the people in the camp couldn't help but worry. They had ten thousand people on their side, but only one-third of them had experience fighting.

"They will attack tomorrow night," Zaos said.

"Even though they will arrive pretty early in the morning?" Derenus asked.

"Yes, they use the day to rest and they will attack at night to wear your people down," Zaos replied. "Their plan is to send just a few soldiers to make all of you stay on guard and then start a real attack the next morning."

"I see… what do you think we should do?" Derenus asked.

"Divide your forces into two groups, those that will fight at night and those who will fight during the day," Zaos said. "While you said that you didn't want to fight, perhaps you should stay here and give the orders to raise the morale of your people. There won't be much fighting Anyway, so you don't have any reason not to stay here."

"I thought you would stay here," Derenus said.

"I will, but it will be faster if your people follow the orders of someone they know," Zaos replied.

"I guess that is fine, if no one is going to die, I can stay here," Derenus said. "I also need to make sure that no one will make any mistake and enrage you, after all."

"Mistake, huh…" Zaos said.

            Zaos couldn't help if he was making a mistake as well helping those people. Who knows what they will do once they become powerful enough to defeat even soldiers at the same time? Zaos let his thirst for knowledge get the better of him. Still, he wasn't that regretful because he might learn something about the demon god by learning his language.