Disappointment

"So that's the village." Nix commented as she settled on a tree that overshadowed the village Mother Moon spoke of.

The structure itself was pretty simple. Wood walls that stood at three meters each held tightly together by nails and leather straps with a gate large enough to allow two cars to travel in and out easily. Willow counted 40 functional buildings, with 3 left abandoned or used as a storage facility. As the tree stood at 6 meters, she could see the innermost area made a small circle, with the largest building standing directly in the center of the village.

She could only guess that this was a town hall of sorts, with what looked like a blacksmithing, commerce, woodworking, and butchering station circling the larger area. After a few scans, Willow detected about 87 living organisms that resembled those in the army just a day out.

[It seems our guess was far off. I doubt these people will be able to last an hour.] - Willow sighed as she ran more calculations.

"Doesn't matter. We will have to wait for the peak of the battle before making our introduction. How long until they arrive?" Nix asked as she took her helmet off and reached into her freshly made fur pack.

[About 3 hours from now. The scouts are already below us and observing the village. It seems they plan to push through the front gate as a show of power.]

Nix pulled put a few strips of fresh meet from a rabbit she sniped from above and reached for the left half of her weapon. Instead of pulling the whole thing, she tapped a button on her thigh to pull only a knife out and lay the meat over the blade.

"Well, might as well see how this world fights. The Generals might be greedy, but I doubt they will forget the basics." Nix drooled at the smell of cooking meat, licking her lips happily.

[Seriously, can't you do that away from where the battlefield will be?]

"How about no. I doubt those guys below will think something is amiss anyway, what with the same smell coming from the village already." Nix chuckled softly as she flipped the meat over her heated knife.

[Be lucky no one came with us. I would've ratted you out in a heartbeat.] - Willow retorted with a huff.

Back in their old world, using Aether to cook meals was highly forbidden given how rare the resource was. This was also because of how easily one could be spotted by a tracker or sentinel of one of the God's back then.

"And I would've shut you down before I started cooking. Now stop being envious of my food and run a check again. If we wanna make an entrance, it's gotta be flasy as hell." Nix chuckled softly as she looked down at the village again.

[Ah yes, make the rules so you can break them. It's a wonder how our armies managed to survive with a commander like you.] - Willow sighed as she ran diagnostics on Nix once again.

As this could take up to an hour given how Willow runs every scenario, Nix leaned back against the trunk and watched the villagers below go about their day without a care. She had half a mind to go down and warn them, but she knew she would be outted as an accomplice or a traitor to the coming forces.

Best to leave it as a savior arriving when it matters, and not one who dropped from above like some sort of angel.

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[Nix, it's starting.] - Willow called out, making Nix jump a bit from her sleep.

Letting out a small groan, she grabbed her helmet and slowly slipped it over her head before rolling her neck. "They're late."

[It seems they did a few recons before setting up. The villagers have already taken up defenses as the army below gathered into their formations. As we've guessed, their style of war is also like the ones of old.]

As Willow spoke, Nix stood up to look over the two armies. In the village, soldiers dressed in leather armor and some plating gathered both on the walls surrounding the gate, with most standing behind wielding bows.

The armies outside the walls had made several formations, but mainly in two rows. To the front were footsoldiers wielding shields and various dangerous looking melee weapons. The back line was filled with those wielding bows and staves.

[Let's see. The army below holds 273 soldiers, while the village only has 50 defenders at the gates. The rest are all holed in the town hall, mostly consisting of elderly and children. Given what I've heard, it seems 20 more people are supposed to be living in village, but they are out trading with a nearby village.]

"So they are attacking because the best fighters are out right now. Given how little they are able to gather, that's rather surprising." Nix smirked as she folded her arms over her chest and leaned back against the trunk of thr tree.

[I would say they are lucky instead. And it seems only 5 in the caravan are fighters, the best of the village as well. The ones left behind seem to be the best under the one that had left. Though this number only consists of three.] - Willow said as she marked the three she spoke up and gave data on them.

[Name: Ju'Shal

Gender: Female

Race: Beast-Kin/Grey Wolf

Rank: Captain

Strength: 12]

[Name: Vela

Gender: Female

Race: Oracian

Rank: Captain

Strength: 14]

[Name: Stoll

Gender: Male

Race: Stone-Folk

Rank: Lieutenant

Strength: 11]

Nix raised her brow as she saw strength was updated. Before she could question it, two more notifications popped up over the formations below.

[Village Strength: 158]

[Forward Army Strength: 478]

[As you can see, I've based the data around the original strengths our army had at the beginning. You've played enough city builder games to know how this works, correct?]

Nix nodded as she sighed. Since the data was easy to read like this, she could see why Thu'Tal requested more troops. Had he not recieved the additional troops, they would've been at a stalemate until the larger army arrived.

Though this would've been smarter, the village would've been heavily damaged and wouldn't serve as a suitable base until the army properly fixed it up.

Nix's thoughts were interrupted when she heard chanting below. Looking down, she noticed half of the mages in the offending army holding their staves up and drawing in Mana. As they did, Ju'Shal shouted something, causing a wave of arrows to be shot out at the mages.

A second wave was shot just after the first, flying past the arrows that bounced off an light blue bubble and making it pop. This wave hit a stronger barrier that held true, allowing the mages to sent out a barrage of fireballs at the gate.

Some spells hit the ground infront of the gate while others either flew over or hit the gate directly. The wood shook and groaned from the impact, but this didn't deter the defenders at all. The instead kept returning fire at whatever target they were told to hit.

After roughly 2 minutes, another wave of fire spells were shot out at the gate. This signaled the footsoldiers to form a shield wall and slowly march towards the gate. Three formations were made, two small ones acting as reserves while the main formation walked a makeshift battering ram towards the gate.

As soldiers dropped from the rain of arrows and thrown stones occasionally mixed in, they were replaced by those in the other formations to keep the march going.

20 whole minutes. This was the time it took for the ram to make it to the gate, only for oil to be poured on the soldiers below and set aflame by their own fire spells.

As the soldiers retreated, Nix could only sigh and shake her head in irritation. Had this been her own army assaulting this village, it would've taken mere minutes for them to take the gate, maybe half an hour to clear the village and start camp.

But this? Nix never felt so much irritation from watching a battle happen.

[Given their tactics, it seems they have no idea how to properly fight in a war.]

"I wouldn't say they don't know, I would say it's more along the lines of infancy. If they used their mages to make a wall of ice, they could've avoided the arrows."

[I would say that the villagers are more in tune with the rhythm of the battle. They've already killed 3 of the 20 mages, as well as 20 foot soldiers.]

"Just give me a simplified report." Nix sighed as she stretched her arm over her chest.

[Village: 50 defenders. 5 dead, 7 critically wounded, 6 lightly wounded.

Defenders available: 38.

Assaulting army: 273 attackers. 37 dead, 20 critically wounded, 18 lightly wounded.

Attackers available: 216.]

"Let's see. Let's let the villagers kill 30 more before flying in." Nix sighed as she grabbed the handles of her split weapon. Pulling them up, she formed them into pistols while the chain around her waist loosened and withdrew itself. After a few moments, both ends of the chain attached themselves to the bottoms of her pistols.

[About that, it seems the ram was a ruse. I suggest getting started in your approach.] - Willow spoke as she pointed out a massive surge of Mana converging around the mages.

[Data suggests a spell powerful enough to leave the gate in shambles. No better time to intervene than now.]

"After it hits, we will approach as agreed. What's the time I've got?" Nix asked as the cloth on her formed into wings again, allowing her to over over the branch.

[10 hours of fighting if you conserve energy. 8 hours if you fight as you please. 3 hours if you find a decent opponent that can actually last that long against you.]

Just as Willow finished, a large ball of fire was formed above the remaining mages. The defenders began to scramble around desperately, trying to get away from the gate on Ju'Shal's order.

They were a step to late though. Ju'Shal couldn't even jump off the gate as the massive ball of fire hit the gate directly. Rather than a blast of fire, a massive explosion shook the earth and caused creatures everywhere to scatter.

Birds in the distance flew up into the air to avoid the commotion, but the sound made from the explosion drowned out any sort of noise from either army.

The gate itself shattered to smithereens, throwing wood and metal into the air or into the village behind it. Ju'Shal and several others were forced into the air by the blast and brought into the middle of the battlefield along with the debris that followed.

The army also felt the force of the blast with the front line mostly falling on their ass. Given how everyone was reacting, it seemed no one on either side was expecting that amount of force.

This didn't matter much, since the battlefield lulled to a silence, allowing her to float over as she popped her neck.

"Alright Willow, show time." Nix smirked as he blood began to rush.

[Preparing all defenses and weapon formations. I suggest testing all available weapons to gather data on both yourself and those below.]

"Can't you just admit you're as excited as I am for this?"

[Yes yes, very excited. Just make sure you get samples from the designated targets.] - Willow retorted as she highlighted a few in the army to gather samples from.

"As you wish, Princess." Nix rolled her eyes as she floated to the center of the battlefield.