After a few tries, the female Captain managed to replicate Lith's spell, but between the long flight and the imminent fight, she needed to recover her strength so she had to let it fade away.
"What army base do you serve in, Major? With your permission, I would like to apply for a transfer. There's a lot that I could learn from you."
"I'm not back in the army, Captain. Once we are done with our mission, I'll go back to being a civilian." He replied, leaving her quite disappointed.
Studying standard spells from a book was one thing, being taught by an Archmage was quite another.
While the soldiers rested, Lith discussed with the officers what the best approach to surround the city with their limited numbers and keep anyone from escaping was. All the members of the regiment could fly, but very few could use dimensional magic.
On top of that, Lith had no notion of military strategy. Despite the fact that he was an officer, he had always worked alone. The one thousand mages under his command were a powerful tool that he had no idea how to properly employ.
As soon as Zeska was in sight, the regiment split into four 200-men units that stood in front of one of the city gates each while the remaining soldiers formed a circle in the sky right outside the city arrays to keep anyone from escaping unnoticed.
The guards patrolling the walls sounded the alarm the moment the army of mages started its descent, but the siege was completed even before the noise of their horns could die out.
"What was the original plan, Captain…?" Lith asked.
"Timeka Ahria, sir." She gave him a brief salute before answering his question. "Zeska is equipped with air and earth blocking arrays. Flying, Warping, and even taking down the walls with magic is impossible.
"The best course of action is to combine our powers to conjure a snowstorm. The cold will clear the battlements from the guards and allow some of us to infiltrate the city. Once inside, we just have to open one of the four main gates and Zeska will be ours once again."
"What if before leaving Quaron changed the locks' passwords?" He said.
"Worst case scenario, our contingency plan is to keep the storm at full power and the city will fall in a matter of days. The citizens had no time to restock for coal or firewood and not even a stone house can keep out the cold for long." Ahria replied.
"It would be a great plan if the Royals didn't order me to avoid violence unless absolutely necessary." Lith shook his head.
"There would be no fighting nor the shedding of a single drop of blood." Estar pointed out. "We will remain outside the city and cease the attack the moment the enemy surrenders."
"That's where you are wrong." Lith dismissed his argument with a wave of the hand. "There is no enemy here. Just people afraid of starving. If your original plan succeeds, Zeska will not fall without a fight.
"Resorting to your contingency plan would be even worse. Hundreds of farmers would freeze to their death, leaving too few alive to take care of the fields. Even the survivors would need time to recover from our siege. A time that we don't have."
What both the soldiers atop of the city walls and those behind him saw was Lith taking a stroll while everything that was thrown at him refused to stand in his way, lying orderly on the ground like a silent honor guard. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Supreme Magus