In the depths of the forest August stood on a high cliff gazing down with his father and others.
Three mages, Arden, Vala, and Elara were accompanying them as well—or rather August and his father joined them later since the mages were already at the spot.
"So …what are we looking at?" His father asked.
Mage Elara, who used support to stand since she lost her leg in the last attack by the Arachnid, answered,
"It's just as we expected, or perhaps worse than that."
Pointing at the dense trees below she continued,
"The enemy has established two different outposts somewhere between these two points…"
She marked two opposite points between the dense trees below.
August tried to focus on the sight below, since he had no idea about his purpose here. Nor did he know what enemy the mages were talking about.
All he could see was the dense canopies. It wouldn't be wrong to say that it all looked exactly the same to him.
While he was frowning at the sight before, his father asked mage Elara,
"Two outposts you say, how accurate is this information?"
"The bases are indeed there," Elara replied. "Mage Vala had confirmed that."
August looked at his father who nodded as Elara finished speaking. "How precisely do we know about the locations?"
"About the outpost Mage Vala had seen with her own eyes but…" Elara's tone grew hesitant. "We have no confirmation about the second outpost yet, only an estimation."
Clearing her throat she voiced her opinion, "we will have the accurate location by tonight my lord."
"No," his father shook his head. "We can't wait till night. We can't afford to let them be anymore. It's too risky. There's no telling when the Monarch will be making her move."
At her name expressions of the mages turned ashen, especially Elara. Well, it was only natural for her to be stressed considering her history with the evolved creatures.
Back when she faced Arachnid, she didn't have much of a battle experience nor did she know how to face a kind of enemy that doesn't look human.
Hence, the Arachnid's intimidating presence only made her fear worse leaving her alive with a lifelong trauma to deal with.
Just like the Arachnid now there was a new threat looming above their town which she could not afford to take lightly because of her past mistakes.
Monarch was a new enemy, unlike Arachnid they didn't keep a close eye on her, so there was no telling how dangerous a threat she could turn out to be.
And the fact that she was a soul creature, an order higher than Arachnid was—only made the situation worse.
If a spirit creature like Arachnid could take two of their best mages, one could only imagine how many this Queen Monarch would take.
August, as he heard them speak, tried to make his own speculations. He had known there was a creature named Arachnid who had proven to be the worst thing that had ever happened to their town.
And of course Queen Monarch, how could he ever forget her name. Lady mist had told him a lot about her—or rather how much she knew herself—which wasn't much to be honest.
No one really knew about this mysterious creature Queen. Where did she come from? What was her motive? What does she even look like?
Only the fact that she was planning to lay a siege on the town was to be known yet. That too by very few people.
The rest of the town was still unbeknownst to this new threat. Obviously it was no genius to let people know about the Monarch—no, it would only make the situation difficult.
If they wanted to keep the town safe, they had to deal with her outside of the barrier.
Needless to say, it wasn't an easy task to perform.
Who could know better than August. After all, he had witnessed the deception and attack of the Monarch's army himself.
And they would've taken his life there and then, if lady mist were not to happen to be with him.
August snapped out of his thoughts when he realised Mage Arden was speaking to his father,
"….So we hide between the trees and approach the enemy slowly, taking them down one by one. We just have to be careful not to make any noise."
"It's a good plan," his father said, "...but our difficulty will only increase if someone spotted us. In that case I am very sure that the other outpost will deploy their troops to aid the first."
He looked at Arden and Vala respectively,
"So I suggest we keep the noise down and after taking out most of the soldiers we let them cause a bit of commotion. That way we can trace back to the other outpost and destroy that as well. Any questions?"
After a moment of careful consideration, it was mage Vala who replied, "it's perfect, my lord. We will do as suggested."
"Excellent," his father nodded. "And Mage Elara you keep the lookout and keep us updated about the enemy location."
Elara nodded in agreement while mage Arden raised an important question,
"But my lord, what if the Monarch sends reinforcements?"
At the expected question, his father let out a confident smirk and turned to him,
"Don't you worry Mage Arden, we have reinforcements of our own."
August who was listening to the conversation but subconsciously thinking something else widened his eyes with amazed expression as he realised.
His father turned to him while speaking about the reinforcements. What does that mean?
Now, everything was becoming clear.
Why did his father ask August to accompany him here in the forest today?
This wasn't the usual father and hangout. But an examination place where his battle skills will be tested.
— — — — —