Preparations

As Leo started giving out orders he didn't notice the two women beaming at him with pride. The first was of course Iris. She was never sure about the plans to turn Leo into a king, and had said her fair share against the idea due to Leo's reluctance. The other was elder grandma, who had heard everything even though she was just outside her house. She never doubted her plan, in her opinion Leo's capability as a king would come out eventually regardless of his intentions. Unaware of the twos looks, he continued giving orders.

"I want the hunters to start setting traps in the forests surrounding the entrance to the village. Nothing too elaborate, snares or tripwires. We need to get them on edge so that they'll be twitchy. The traps will also serve as a way to alert us of their arrival." The hunters left softly to carry out his orders and Leo turned to Luna.

The young wolf pup had continued her unreasonable growth and her head now stood even with Leo's. She had gone on many trips to the forest by now, and had reported that no matter which pack she ran into, all the high wolves would submit to her. Leo knew it was a testament to her bloodline, and now he planned to use it.

"Luna, go out to the forest and gather as many packs as you can. I want you to keep tabs on the soldiers, and harass them as much as possible. We don't need unnecessary deaths even with the wolves, so just pick off a couple at the outer edge of the group. Hit and run only, absolutely no direct engaging." Luna didn't reply to Leo, only throwing back her head and letting loose a bloodcurdling howl. Seconds later dozens replied to her, and they kept growing further into the distance. She then took off to lead them.

Leo then surprised everyone present, and turned to the gardeners led by Lucy.

"I need all of you to help me with the most important trap. Those best with magic relating to earth and water, follow me. I'll also need your help Lucy, for your gift with plants." Led by Lucy, almost all the gardeners stepped forward. Leo then led them to where he wanted them to work, and explained the trap he wanted them to set up. When he finished his explanation, all the women had evil grins on their faces, and they set to work. Leo then walked back to the village while thinking about the information Natalie gave him. From what she told him it would probably take them 1-2 days to arrive since they didn't use the trees. When he returned from his short walk, elder grandma and Iris were both waiting for him.

"All of this preparation, is it really necessary? Why not have the hunters pick them off with arrows, or the wolves clash with them directly?" She acted as if she these were the obvious answers to the current problem, and that he had taken a more complicated route. He knew she didn't really think these ideas would work, she just wanted to know why he didn't use them.

"Regardless of numbers, the wolves wouldn't be able to take on an army of two hundred chi users dressed in armor. All we'd be doing is mildly culling their numbers, while also sacrificing Fenrir's children, I don't really want to explain that one to the god beast. Same with the hunters, they'd eliminate a few, but the superior numbers would win in the end. They would've already been wiped out if they didn't focus their attacks on Iris before. It's better to get them in a position where they can't fight back properly before utilizing these tactics."

Both elder grandmas and iris's eyes went wide hearing Leo's explanation. Iris was because she hadn't thought of those facts, while elder grandma was surprised at how he went for the mature way of doing things rather than the hot blooded ways she had half expected from him. She had one more question for him however,

"Why not just send me to take care of them then? My power may be declining, but I can still take care of some small fries." Leo shook his head at her words, and explained that as well.

"For two reasons, first is that I don't want to risk alerting Arthur needlessly. The second is that we can't always rely on you to take care of us. Though I'll probably ask if things go bad, until then it's better to try on our own first." Elder grandma was very pleased with Leo's answers. She couldn't help thinking to herself, 'and he thinks he doesn't make a good ruler?'. What neither of them know though, was that Arthur was avoiding the mainland for the next fifteen years. Even if elder grandma went wild, it still wouldn't draw him to them.

Leo then gave the rest of the people the orders he had. First he wanted all the stoves in the houses and the bonfires going, he wanted to use the smoke to draw the soldiers into the traps. He then wanted Jack to collect and smith using a certain metal that confused people; and he told anyone left that used mana, that he wanted them to train using ice magic until the attack started. And so, the preparations for the upcoming battle continued.

***

Marshal was growing irritated. They had marched the rest of the day, and even halfway through the night to follow the mutants they found. They then got up at the first daylight, and continued their march. It wouldn't be that bad, if it wasn't for the traps that they kept walking into, and the constant wolf attacks they suffered. Even though some of the traps were non lethal, by the time they freed the ones caught in them, they would already be dead from an arrow. The wolves were what annoyed him the most though.

He thought this was a trial from Artemis, if that was the case then why were her sacred animals attacking him? He was forced to give the order to defend themselves, and it was only when they killed more than ten of the beasts that the attacks stopped. By this point he had lost almost forty of his men. The rest were tired from their constant awareness. It didn't look good that he had lost nearly a fifth of the forces he brought.

Following the smoke they had seen all morning, they finally saw what looked like a village up on the cliff edge. There was a trail going up the cliff, and a small clearing of trees between them and the trail. There was a wall of dirt running along the cliff on both sides of the trail though, so Marshal figured that there would be a trench or something on the other side to hide in. On the edge of the cliff, was a group of the villagers with bows in their hands.

Marshal sneered at them. A dirt wall, and archers? He knew there was probably some fighters behind the wall, but there was no way this small village would be able to have enough to fight back properly. He looked to his men, and shouted out,

"GET THEM!!!" His men had started to grow irritated and angry like him. They wanted to earn some quick accomplishments and return heroes for killing the freaks. Instead they had been ambushed by beasts, and had to watch as friends were caught in traps or died by fangs. When you also considered the half nights sleep, they wanted revenge.

YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

They shouted in fury, and rushed towards the flimsy dirt wall, only for the ground to give way beneath them. They all fell into a giant pit of watery mud, and watched as several people, appeared from behind the dirt wall, and froze the mud with mana.