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nEldrian let go of his random thoughts as he and Vivian joined what seemed to be the expedition army's leaders. The entire group consisted out of five people, including Old Sword and William. The other three seemed to each be from a different unit 'type'. A guy in heavy armor, one in light and another in a robe.

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"Ah, so that is where you have been.

" Old Sword said as he looked up and saw Vivian joining them. He had been wondering why she had left him alone with the nobles, but seeing her with Eldrian he felt she had a good reason.

n'Why be with pompous asses, when you can be with a friend.' He thought to himself approving of her approach to the situation. He also felt that she would be safer in the battle with Eldrian, since they had practiced together a lot this past week. The nobles on the other hand had only discussed fighting instead of going to train.

nCurrently, he and William were discussing the new information they had just received. They had called all the captains, of each unit, to also inform them of the developments.

nFrom the fact that there are only three captains, it was clear to anyone with military background how weird this army composition was. Even Eldrian realized this when he saw only 5 people deciding on the fate of an army of 5000 men. If Eldrian knew they were captains he would have been even more surprised, as currently, he believed that each of the three guys was a unit leader, like William.

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"Haru, good to see you are also here. Would you mind acting as the representative of the Chosen?

" Old Sword said as he moved his gaze to Eldrian, he then continued before Eldrian could reply,

"Good this will be much easier than asking the other Chosen, as they would probably first want to have a debate. Which we do not have time for.

"

n'What just happened?' Eldrian asked himself as he felt he was just placed into a position where he would take the blame when things go wrong. Which was far more likely than them going well. But he also couldn't refute Old Sword's statement. As the players would indeed debate on who should be the representative if they were to be given the option.

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"Arthur let's get back to the topic,

" William said as he saw that more off-topic conversation was about to be continued. Currently, they did not have time for such talks.

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"Yes yes.

" Old Sword replied as he indicated for Eldrian and Vivian to join them around the weird table.

n'Wait, is Old Sword's name Arthur?' Eldrian questioned when he saw Old Sword replying to being called Arthur.

nHe and Vivian joined the group making it seven total now. They were standing over a circular coffee table, which seemed to have been made by placing a round shield over a squarish stone, of around knee height. On the table was a map, with two crosses, a circle, and a square. These symbols seemed to be drawn onto the map, but at the same time seemed to be floating over the map. Intriguing Eldrian's curiosity.

nEldrian thus tried to make sense of the map. He saw that the square, circle, and the furthest cross seemed to make a triangle. With the other cross almost on a line, if a line was drawn from the square to the furthest cross. Eldrian also saw that it seemed the square was in a woody area. 'Might be our position.' He thought as he looked at it, at this time the group started talking again.

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"So the report you received said that another pack has been spotted near the one we are going after?

" One of the guys asked, Eldrian was unfamiliar with him as he only knew Old Sword while also knowing William's name.

nThe guy who spoke was the lone ranger, or at least he looked like a ranger. He had a bow slung over his back and he had two quivers, one at his hip and another at his lower back. Other than this he was wearing classic leather armor with a cape, which was currently not drawn over his head.

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"Yeah, the scouting party who reported this has since not reported in again. So it is fairly safe to assume that they were killed. Which worries me, this group was a group of elites. No normal wolf beasts would have been able to catch them and kill them.

" William replied, as he stroked his long white beard in the same manner people normally did when they were contemplating about something.

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"Which means this new pack is more dangerous. Since either a few betas had gone out to chase and kill them. Or this pack has direwolves...

" Another of the guys Eldrian was unfamiliar with spoke.

nThis guy was wearing what seemed like a classic example of plate armor, with almost no spot on his body open. And when a spot needed to not be covered with plate, to allow movement, then the spot would be covered by scale or mail armor, depending on the place of the spot. He also had a massive sword on his back. The guy looked like the classic example of a heavy shock soldier.

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"I just hope it doesn't mean there is a Beast Lord or stronger in the pack. Then we would be royally screwed and I would suggest we retreat now.

" The last guy who Eldrian did not know spoke. He was wearing what seemed to be a robe, but up close Eldrian could see that he had some type of leather armor under his robe.

nThis guy only had a shortsword on his side, clearly meant as a last defense item and not his main weapon of focus. The shortsword would do poorly to have as your only weapon in a fight. Unless you were trained to use it well. Which Eldrian doubted was the case, due to the robe the guy was wearing.

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"We can't retreat, if we do then the villages in this area will be destroyed before we can come back. From the reports it seems like the packs are both heading to Synoro. So from this we can be certain they have a leader or at the very least they have received commands from someone.

" William said, as he frowned. He did not like how this expedition has developed.

n'Ah so that is it.' Eldrian talked to himself as he looked back at the map. He now felt confident that the circle was the town, the crosses the packs, and the expedition army the square.

nNone of the leaders looked happy at this stage. They had led the expedition army with the idea of training, but it seemed more and more like it will be a deadly battle ahead of them. With most of the soldiers in this army being freshly trained and unblooded, they felt fighting such a hard battle would be a terrible idea. But if they did not rush to defend the town then the entire area will be devastated.

nWhich meant that at a minimum of 50 000 civilians will be killed by the two packs. As this was the population of the town. Then the towns would be devastated after, which would mean even more casualties.

nAll of them had one thought running through their heads currently. Which was that the towns and villages nearby should have been evacuated long ago. And that it should not have waited until a threat appeared at the border.

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"Then it makes this simple, we have to fight. Even if most of the soldiers die, then it means we sacrificed 5000 for 50 000.

" The ranger said.

nAt this time Eldrian looked at Vivian as he felt this just became much more dangerous to the NPCs than he first believed it would be. He was worried that she might die in this fight.

n'I have to make sure she does not die.' Eldrian told himself as he thought about how he could ensure this. He felt Old Sword would be fine, since he was so strong and experienced. But this was Vivian's first time at the battle.

nLuckily Eldrian did not fear dying himself as he was a player, which made him feel more confident that he could help Vivian survive this fight.

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"I agree with Wayne, we have to fight. So now we must ask ourselves how we will do it.

" Old Sword said, to which the others just nodded, seemingly happy with the fact that Old Sword was agreeing to fight for the town's people.

nOld Sword was waiting for them to come up with a plan, as this was also a type of training and grooming for the new captains. He already had a plan, which he hoped they would also come up with. But if they took more than 10 minutes he would just call it and start marching. He felt they could at most waste 30 minutes resting here, before it would be too late to use his plan.

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"From the reports we received I feel the most obvious choice would be to rush the first pack. After engaging the nearest pack we will rush to help defend Synoro. But I don't think these soldiers will be able to accomplish both rushes in time.

" William suggested and also gave his opinion on this choice.

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"The melee troops will definitely not manage the rush. They will be too tired to fight, which will just cause a collapse in the formation when fighting.

" The guy in plate armor said.

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"True I feel the same as Ethan. The archers might be able to accomplish it without collapsing, but from what I saw I fear they do not have the willpower to fight well after rushing to battle.

" Wayne, the ranger guy, said.

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"What other option do we have?

" William asked with an irritated tone. He thought to himself that if only this troop was a seasoned one, then this would have been easy.

nAt this point, Eldrian felt he had to speak up. He felt they had missed a fairly obvious option, from the map he concluded that it should be able to rush to the town, before the beasts can reach it.

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"Sorry to interrupt, but would it not be possible to rush to the town, what was it? Ah Synoro.

" Eldrian asked.

nThe captains weren't very happy with the Chosen interrupting them, but they weren't too mad, since he obviously did not know how hard it would be to accomplish. It also seemed that Old Sword approved of this Chosen, so they wanted to give him a fair chance.

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"No, since if we do rush, then we will run into the nearest pack, and even if we do manage to miss the pack and reach Synoro without a fight. We then won't be able to defend the town properly as the area the wall covers would need around 10 000 troops to effectively defend it from all directions. The town's walls were never made with the idea to stop an attack, but rather to stop small numbers of monsters from easily wandering in and killing the villagers.

" Old Sword said and then added.

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"Unless we can guarantee where they will attack, and only focus soldiers there. Still in this case the pack can just shift and we won't be able to reposition as fast as them. Causing us to be exposed at certain points.

"

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"Then what was the plan of helping Synoro you mentioned?

" Eldrian asked as he felt this would then be just as ineffective.

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"A last-ditch effort to save some farmers.

" The guy in robes said.

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"Sad, but it is true. As Carl said, it is a last-ditch effort. Since by the time we arrive the pack would already have breached the walls.

"

n'The hell is with such stupid defenses.' Eldrian asked himself, not wanting to voice this out as he could see that the people in the group were already quite frustrated.

nHe did not want to add fuel to the fire and become their target for venting all their pent-up anger.

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