Chapter 41

Ash had been thinking about the way General Gurg had been going about things and had formed a strategy to deal with him, but he hadn't thought someone would hear it. He was also surprised how Michael had no plan of his own and was asking his advice so blatantly.

"General Gurg hasn't declared outright war, and he doesn't seem like the kind of person who would, gathering from how he planned the whole secret tunnel and how he was going to act like it was there all along and lie to our face, he likes playing games. He has been taking advantage of the complicated situation, as you said there are too many parties involved, and he has had much more time to think things through and plan his moves, we have so far been trying to simplify things which hasn't worked, so our only other option is to complicate them further, pull in more parties and variables to catch him off guard in his own game," said Ash, he was proud of himself for thinking this strategy.

"it sounds nice, so you plan to let him come and think he is on top of things, then tell him that the humans have decided to help and are sending a big army, we don't need to evacuate or fight, just stay put and hold down the city and once we'll be there we can easily take care of the goblins together," said Michael. At least he caught on pretty quickly, thought Ash.

"Exactly, he will be forced to think of some other plan, I am sure he will suggest several things to make things explode before you guys arrive, but we have a majority in decision-makers, with Aria, Silv, and this Akash on our side, we can just delay or refuse his ideas," said Ash.

"Still, this plan has two major flaws, first you are trusting the elves too much, if we decide to march and enter the battlefield we will be putting human life at stake, let's say even if we manage to defeat the goblins with minor losses, even then there will be three armies present and we have no surety which two might side together," said Michael, Ash was annoyed at that. He was only saying those things because he hadn't seen the dead bodies, he hadn't seen the despair of the citizens, of Amyra and Kevin. Ash was only thinking of the people here and how to save them.

"The elves here won't side with the other houses," said Ash.

"You are forgetting, some of them already are with this secret tunnel, and what about the missing scouts, someone must have already known about the goblins and they were so loyal to Gurg that they risked thousands of their own people's lives," said Michael.

"Fine, I'll handle that responsibility," said Ash.

"How? You are just a kid, I can't trust my men's lives on your word only," said Michael.

"I am your inside man, I am always around Aria and the others, and I will stay there until the whole situation is resolved," said Ash.

"I imagine this plan will still work, even if we don't start marching right away," said Michael.

"What are you talking about? Gurg is too powerful they won't be able to handle him alone, we need you here," said Ash already dreading what he might have planned.

"No, you are taking this the wrong way, this will improve the plan, you don't tell Gurg that we have just started marching, you tell him that we started marching a day ago and can arrive there anytime, this will make him even more nervous, we should not underestimate him, even with just a day and a half he might come up with something," said Michael.

"And you will be coming?" asked Ash.

"Yes, but you don't tell the elves that, tell them we are still thinking and talking to our king, and we plan to lie to Gurg, this will prevent any traitor from our side from planning anything against us, and in the meantime from, you should think about killing Gurg off silently, this would solve all our problems," said Michael.

Ash wanted to slap both Michael and himself in the face. How can someone make such a terrible plan, he butchered his perfectly normal plan completely, he was talking about his plan having more variables doesn't he see how many things can go wrong in his, where did this guy come from? thought Ash. Actually this was an okay from the point of view of someone who only wanted his own advantage and didn't care about others and wanted no risk himself. It was clear Michael was not the brain type, he must be good at fighting otherwise god knows how he became a commandor. 

"I am going with the original plan, your plan is too complicated for me, I might fuck it up," said Ash hoping this would not offend him and he agrees.

Michael thought for a while and then.

"Yeah, fine then, let's go with yours, I anyway hadn't thought of what I was going to do with Rorin, he would know that we are marching since he is here and would inform the elves," said Michael. Ash again wanted to slap himself, even though he hadn't thought of that, the stupidity was rubbing off on him.

Ash called the group back in, and Michael on the other end, and the whole plan was laid out. Aria was happy to hear that they were going to have more help and this time it will be actually on their side. Farin and Silv, who would actually have to lie to Gurg weren't looking so convinced. It was true that Gurg was the biggest variable, Ash had formed a really bad image of him from the way everyone talked about him. 

"Just remember, we need to extra alert the next couple days, our first responsibility is with the people, and then with the houses," said Rorin.

They said goodbye and closed the mirror they needed to prepare to leave on the other end after all. Silv started calling out duties and the room was empty soon, leaving Maya and Ash.

"Geez, it feels like so much has happened since we last met," she said.

"Yeah, listen, I think we need to find a way to deal with Gurg, you said he was really powerful, but you are like an assassin too, isn't there a quick way to kill him?" asked Ash.

"You don't think people have tried before, he has many enemies in the elven kingdom, he probably knows every trick in the book by now, maybe there might be a human way to kill him," said Maya.

"I can't think of anything unless I see him first," said Ash.

"Well that shouldn't take long, a scout reported he saw an army coming here from the north, they will be here within an hour," said Maya.

"Fuck me!" exclaimed Ash.

"Gladly," said Maya and jumped on him.