"During tonight's skirmish, we lost three men. Seventeen more were injured during the fight,

" Al announced, reading out loud the report prepared by his direct subordinate. He then raised his head at the small gathering of the camp's leaders, coughed to clear his throat, and looked at the thin stone slab in his hand again.

"Out of those, two deceased were from Markus' faction...

"

"Stop,

" Layn interjected, opening his eyes. Even since he had to listen to a report like that for the first time, he developed a habit of closing his eyes. For some reason, it made it easier for him to hear the bloody news.

In response to his sudden word, all the eyes moved on his face. Even if their structure of command was something they just loosely agreed on, no one ever gave him the right to preside as the overall leader. As such, his remark was not only rude but also unwarranted.

.

"It doesn't matter who brought them here,

" Layn said after the atmosphere turned tense enough.

"Right now, we are all one people; we are the inhabitants of this plain,

" he said before lowering his head and closing his eyes again.

"Well then,

" Al said, closing his eyes for a moment as well.

"That concludes the report. Now, what are we going to do about it?

" he asked, sitting down on his chair.

"We are closing the gap with each passing day,

" Markus said, his eyes lowered on the desk and arms crossed on his chest.

"Even with those losses, now we have enough manpower to push our projects through. In a week, we are gaining what others can accomplish in months if not years,

" he said, yet his tone wasn't confident at all.

"We need to strike back,

" Ation said. His manner of speech directly contrasted Markus's words, both in the meaning and in the tone. He held his head high, looking at every participant directly in the eyes.

Given the split of responsibilities, Gener's faction and Markus faction stated their opinion. And as much as Layn could dislike this split, it appeared that his opinion would likely decide the course of action for everyone.

That is if they were in a system of an oligarchic democracy. 'Thankfully, we are as far as possible from that kind of broken system,' Layn thought while trying to figure out the best path for the camp to take.

"You are both right,

" Layn finally said.

"The more we wait before engaging, the stronger we get,

" he confirmed Markus' words.

"But there is also a factor of momentum here. While we can omit the development of monsters for a second, the Slavians are not going to just stay in one place and in one situation,

" he pointed out.

"What do you mean by that?

" Al asked with a puzzled expression on his face.

'Does he really not know it?' Layn pondered, unsure how to take the question. 'For someone as legendary as him to not understand those basic concepts... It's unlikely,' Tom decided before shaking his head. This simple physical motion helped him to sort his thoughts out.

"Right now, we are growing fast because we know what steps to take. As such, we can avoid many pitfalls, directing our efforts right at what we need the most,

" Layn said, explaining the advantage of their situation.

"But this situation will not last forever. Because in terms of Slavians, they can compensate for the lack of technology and knowledge with their sheer numbers,

" the archmage said as his expression sank.

"Right, they are basically an entire nation on the run,

" Markus muttered, hiding his face in the palms of his hands.

"So unless we can somehow sabotage their own efforts to grow, we cannot assume we have the advantage in stalling,

" he said, building up on what Layn already said.

"Exactly.

" Layn nodded his head.

"If we look at our situation from this perspective, going on the offensive seems like not an option, but a must,

" he said before his expression took a sudden turn from sour to amused.

"Or is it?

" he asked, leaving the question to hang in the air.

"Whatever you are up to, just say it. It's not like we have...

" Al spoke in an angry tone, clearly unhappy with Layn's mannerism... But he didn't finish his sentence.

"Right, time...

" he said, lowering his head. His eyes lost focus as he rubbed his chin.

"Now that I think about this how come the monsters started attacking at the same time that Slavians appeared on the border en masse?

" he asked, raising his eyes at Markus, only to move them at Layn's face a moment later.

"That's an excellent question,

" Layn said, showing the whites of his teeth through a wide smile.

"But frankly speaking, the answer doesn't matter at all,

" he said, shaking his shoulders.

"Right now, we are nowhere as strong as we would need to seriously damage either the neighboring monsters or the Slavians,

" Markus said, getting in on the idea.

"If I'm right, it's the Slavian's fault that the monsters started attacking us, right?

" he said, moving his eyes on Layn.

"I have no proof for that, but the logic of this guess does check out,

" the archmage confirmed before standing up from his chair.

"Right now, time is all we need. But in order to make sure the time works for us, we need to attack... Or rather, we need the other parties to feel threatened,

" Layn said, his smile continued to grow wider with each passing moment.

"You want to provoke the monsters into attacking the Slavians,

" Ation said, looking at the Layn with a dose of respect.

"A clever way to check all the boxes of what we need, isn't it?

" Layn said, only to shake his head and cast away his smile.

"But as great as it sounds, it's not going to be easy,

" he added.

"During the recent battle, we noticed that some monsters observed the fight. That's why we believed that this attack was one of the two. A forward guard of a migrating horde of monsters...

"

"Or a reconnaissance in force,

" Markus finished Layn's sentence. His expression turned grim.

"And out of the two, it's the second option that's the scary one,

" he added, tightening his hands into fists.

"Why is that?

" Ation asked, getting ahead of Al when asking the question.

"It's simple,

" Layn said, shaking his head.

"If they can afford to throw away such a huge force just to figure out our strengths and positions, that means we are in no way capable of holding against their real attack,

" Layn said before biting on his lips.

"How are we going to bait Slavians and the monsters to fight with each other, then?

" Al asked, clearly tired by all the talking. Even though he held a post of one of the camp's leaders, he was clearly a man of a few words but lots of action.

"As I said, it won't be that simple,

" Layn repeated himself. Then, a vicious smile appeared on his face as he raised his eyes on his old friend.

"We will need to attack the monsters... After escaping from our clash with Slavians!

"