Reader Mage-Stubbing August 10! Chapter 124: 124-You Think You Can Freeze Me?

Read chapter 124 of Reader Mage-Stubbing August 10! by A_Random_Turtle on NovelPedia.

Preparing for a war was daunting. Merlin had never experienced one before—Dungeon raids excluded, if they could even be classified as ‘wars’ in the first place—and, as a result, wasn’t quite familiar with the processes that went into it. One had to consider their opponents' reasoning, see things from their perspective, and come up with simulations of the possible ways they could launch an attack. It was only through this process could they figure out how exactly they could counter. A day had passed since Merlin and his teammates had made their decision to fight with the village of Blatt, and three days since they had begun their preparation. However, in that time, they had focused on burrowing into the mind of the chief of the village to the west, Stein, Chief Rivale. Baba and Chief Rivale had once been close friends during the times when the first floor of the Tower of Xéros had been flourishing. They had shared trade secrets and fostered growth between their two villages much more than the others which were now lost. And that was why it was easy for Baba to decipher what ways his old buddy, Chief Rivale, could attack. The battle was for the forest of Gruen, the last surviving prosperous piece of land on the first floor, and it was the place where Merlin and the rest had camped. It was a day’s journey from the village of Blatt, but three days' journey from the village of Stein. In other words, Chief Rivale had already begun his approach for the war to begin. The chief of the village of Stein would obviously camp at the forest of Gruen on the last day before launching his attack. He would most likely use that moment to propose one last chance to Baba to have his leave from the first floor, which would obviously be rejected. Regardless, Chief Rivale had always been a direct dragonman, believing in the power of brute force over all. He would have no tricks up his sleeve, and since his village was two times that of Blatt, it was only normal that he had a larger army. A straight forward attack was the most likely. Bombard the village of Blatt with his large army, and force them to surrender or kill them all. Baba, on the other hand, didn’t have the power of an army. His village was mostly composed of frail elderly Drachens, female Drachens, and young ones. The warriors numbered to fifty at most, which meant that he would have to rely on efficiency rather than brute force. The problem was, just as the old dragonman knew what his old buddy, Chief Rivale was thinking, so did Chief Rivale know what he too was thinking. Senior Sun-Hee understood that, which was why as soon as the old man had proposed flanking, to attack Chief Rivale's army from the sides as soon as they marched forward, she had shut it down. “What we need is some innovation,” she had said, and proceeded to scour through that big brain of hers, flipping through the countless pages of both fiction and non-fiction works alike, that she had read, proposing different tactics they could take to win the war in the case that the peace treaty broke down. The best of the lot she had proposed was the ‘hiding in plain sight’ tactic. Basically, camouflage. They were to burrow within the sand in patches surrounding the region that led straight to the village. Then when Chief Rivale and his army had entered their range, they would surround and attack from all sides. They would have lesser numbers, but the disorientation of the opposition army would be to their advantage. That tactic, though, had some problems. In fact, it was the greatest problem for the whole battle in earnest. The sandworms. The monsters rarely sauntered near villages, because of the barriers that were always erected; however, a war was bound to attract them. The sandworms had no allies, and neither villages would be safe from the onslaught. They could only hope that the war would have ended long before then, but entering into the sand would only send the vibrations emitted from their bodies towards the sandworms q