Searching the first battle

First, we had to get a plan. Simply walking into Götterfels would be suicide, the leprechaun capital was full of ores and gold, the chances of the demons not using it was very low.

There is a small chance that the demons left it open, but a bigger one that they know about our plan to bond with the leprechauns. If they did, their guard on it would be very high, a battle in it certain death. That would be the case without our newest ally.

Obviously, Laurin told us about several defensive mechanism, which we could activate. It doesn't focus us and should be able to give us an enormous advantage. The problem with it is, that the activation takes a few seconds, can only be performed by a leprechaun and the biggest one of them all: It was deeply inside the tunnel system.

We weigh our options, sneaking past them casually won't be possible, charging in was even worse and not attacking didn't even leave us with a chance in this war. Thinking about our strengths compared to demons, there is only our even higher diversity.

They might have more magic, but we had more species, similar high varied magic and several types of fighting. If our strength is diversity, then surprise is also a part of it.

A plan using our differences to get to the mechanism safely, would be optimal. Lyght could take up the stealth mission, Laurin and Servve can distract them and Rhage Christian and I can join the fight as the mechanism activates to surprise the demons even more.

To plan it out better, I call Laurin to draw a sketch of their capital. Turns out it had a very big hall close to the entrance, perfect for the distraction maneuver. Due to the high and wide entrance door, coming in later would be easy aswell. Finding a gap to sneak through was harder.

Laurin and Lyght start talking about the necessities. There was no way around that hall, so them sneaking through would be hard. That's where I get an idea. We do have a dragon, if we simulate him going rampage in our formation, the demons might think of it as an opening, but instead we can use the distraction to throw Lyght and Laurin over.

Why not use them as the distraction? They were both skilled enough to survive the fall after being thrown by a dragon, so if Catalyt throws them across the hall and then fakes his rampage, they would be long forgotten.

The risk of losing Lyght or Laurin was pretty high, but I knew that both had fought in many battles and trusted them to survive. Inmidst our discussion, a human soldier walks up. Or rather, he is being pushed by a few others.

Ce:" What are you doing?" My scepticism was audible.

" S-She has a good plan, your majesty. We... we wanted him to state it" The biggest of them stuttered

I doubted them a little bit, but I raised my eyebrows again. I didn't even notice that I narrowed them.

Ce:" Is that true?"

The soldier blushed and turned away. God, just go ahead. If your plan is bad your 'friends' behind you are at fault anyway.

" I was... well.... hunting there a few times..." the little guy? Was it a guy? Started.

We look at each other, doubting he could say anything the ruler in that capital didn't know.

Ce:" Slowly. Give us your name, calm down."

The guy? takes a deep breath then talks slower and less stuttery.

?:" My name is Cecilia, I was born in the demons domain, after my mother got banished. I... I hunted there quite often."

Cecilia? Well, looking at her closely, she does seem to be female under all that armor and her helmet.

Ce:" Cecilia, huh? Nice name! Go on, please."

Cia:" Well, in the mountain that Götterfels is located, there are a few tunnels. Not built ones, but places where the ceiling gave in."

Laurin seems kind of insulted.

L:" Our building collapsed?! Damn, those demons have no respect at all!" He takes a deep breath after almost shouting at the end. Then starts anew.

L:" Did you go in there? Maybe we can find out where the opening was."

Cecilia touches her chin a bit, then answers:" It was a pretty small room, the only thing I found there was old books and stuff. There was no other exit and no guards, I think to remember."

A room with no entrance and no exit? I look at the sketch once again, looking for a room which looked seperate. There was none... Luckily, Laurin knew.

L:" That was the king archives. It contains the biography of all our kings. Its entrance is hidden pretty well, but there is one." He taps on a room while saying that, then circles two spots.

L:" This one is the entrance of the room you saw" He points at one of the circles, then at Cecilia.

L:" And this one" He taps the other, rather far circle. " is the mechanism. If we take this route from there" Laurin draws a line on one of the corridors, it was a really big one. " then we have enough places to hide from guards and we don't have to cross the hall at all."

I stare at the sketch for a bit longer. This opened way better options than sneaking and distraction. We had the chance to surround them, to make them split their focus. I decided to take this idea to the discussion.

Ce:" What if we didn't just get the stealth attack going from there, but attack from there slightly after the frontal attack? We wouldn't rely on concealing you two. And the position we have after activating the machines would be perfect to clean them up."

Cecilia tries to walk away during our intense conversation, but I tell her to stay. She added this possibility, so we have to integrate her in our use of it.

Rhage starts talking for the first time in this meeting

R:" If we do that, the demons have less time to react, our army has low range aswell, so we would prevent the demons to use theirs against us. The risk we pay is: If we split our army, the demons might overwhelm one part. We should take utmost care with that."

Indeed, only the leprechauns had enough defense to hold on against them. All others relied on attacking. A simultaneous attack might be better.

Ce:" What about this: We conceal ourselves, take out a few of them silently then activate the mechanism, then you attack from the front. Even less time to react, less time for them to rampage one half of us."

R:" Are you sure the stealth plan will work? One misstep and the plan will fail."

Ce:" This is also an advantage, if we get discovered, we can still run. We will take light units to invade them anyway, so we are able to run - and you weren't involved at that point. Our loss would be kept at a minimum."

"You might want to have a look at Cecilias mana, little friend." It echoed in my head. The fairy king was back again? Right, he did help me out before.

Ce:" An unknown feeling tells me that Cecilia can be quite useful for that."

They look at me confused. How was I supposed to explain that? Come on guys, just trust me...

Ce:" Cecilia, what is your magic?"

Cia:" Wind..."

" She does think that, but she is wrong. Her magic is sonic, seems you have to train her first"

Sonic? What kind of magic was that?

Ce:" You might want to test that again, I'm pretty sure it is sonic."

Don't you fail me fairy king. "I would never fail my successor!"

The others still seem worried about my mental stability, but they do get an orb here. Cecilia lays her hand on it and it looks like wind, for quite some time. As she already tries to take her hand off, I get a feeling.

Ce:" Not yet. Keep it on, the orb needs more time to find it."

The orb doesn't change for five minutes, now it's getting embarrassing. I almost stop her, but my voice doesn't work. I am sure that I am speaking, but there is no sound at all.

Cia:" Guys. Guys! Stop speaking at the same time I can't understand!"

As talking had no effect, I walk up and lift her hand off. My voice regains.

Ce:" See? You heard us, but we didn't hear each other at all. This magic is called sonic magic, it might be our trump card in this battle."

After they got the proof, they all looked really surprised. I would've laughed, but my grin doesn't allow me to. We just won the stealth game completely.