Leo was led toward the large settlement. At the heart of the innumerable white tents was a bright red one. It was vastly different from the rest so Leo knew immediately that it was where he was headed.
They slowly descended onto the ground, allowing Leo to regain control of the body. Dmitri opened the cloth tent to let him pass through. Inside was a larger area than he had expected.
The tent looked two meters in diameter when he saw it outside, but the situation was vastly different inside. There was a large area with ten meters of space in front of him. Apart from that, there seemed to be a door that led to more rooms behind the space that he was in.
A round table stood at the center of the room he was in. Dmitri walked past him to the other end of the table and pulled out a chair there. It was the most decorated chair of them all, seemingly made out of a blood-red crystal.
He walked to the chair and sat on it. Dmitri pulled out the chair to his side but didn’t sit down yet. Instead, he took out a few pieces of paper from something that resembles a dimensional ring and set them on the table.
Leo took a look at them. They seemed to be a map of the area he was in. Dmitri immediately started explaining what he was supposed to do.
“Here is a map of the battlefield as it stands now. The Bandit King’s camp is here. He is joined by the Heart Alliance of the Spade and Fire Kingdoms. Together, they will have an army of 300,000 soldiers,” he said while pointing to an area on the map.
The area being shown was highlighted in red and the vast section before it was in yellow. Apart from the Bandit King, there were two other red areas marked there.
“So these are other kingdoms we have to fight?” Leo asked Dmitri.
“Yes. For now, we are putting our focus on the Bandit King because of your command.”
He thought about what this meant. There were four factions on the battlefield, five with the fallen Wheeler Kingdom. That was at least five powers that were fighting against each other and Leo had absolutely no idea why. The only way he could know is if he asked, but he was worried that it would make him lose control over the body again.
Every time he asked a question about why things were happening, it would give away his identity. After all, the Blood God would normally know what was happening. So by trying to ask that question, his body would take over and steer the conversation away from that question.
“So we are going to be facing the Heart Alliance and the Bandit King here?” Leo asked instead.
“Yes. However, we will need to figure out a method to draw them out.”
“First, are we certain that our army can take such a huge army?” He asked doubtfully.
“Surely we can. Every soldier here has been trained in the blood aura arts personally by you. There is no other army in the entire world that can stop our force!”
“Fine. If we are sure of our victory, we can try to draw them out,” Leo said with a sigh. He looked at the area the enemies were in. There wasn’t any way to hide people as they were in a desert, so ambushing them would be impossible. As he was thinking that, he noticed an area that was out of place.
“That area, what is it? Why is there such an advantageous position?” He asked Dmitri. The place he was pointing to was a ravine leading funneling out to an open space.
“Yes, if an army is brought to that area, then it would make it exceptionally easy to slaughter them. However, how would we bring them there?”
Leo pointed to the camp of the Bandit King and then traced the path to the camp they were in. The ravine was the shortest path while the other paths would take far more time.
“What if they wanted to ambush our camp, and we ambush them here? They would take this path to cross to our camp.”
“They are currently unaware of our plans to attack them. The only way they would possibly know is if we have a traitor. And there is no way that we have a-“
“Say we do. Then what would we need to lure them inside?” Leo asked.
Dmitri thought for a second before coming up with a solution.
“The best way I can think of would be an illusion. We can have a hundred of our soldiers try to attack the camp. This will ensure that the traitor’s words are perceived as the truth. This set of soldiers will escape through the alternate path that is too long and join an illusion we set up beforehand.
The illusion will consist of two-thirds of our force, giving them enough incentive to try and attack our force from the ravine. But the only way this will properly work is if the traitor exists and the king believes them.”
“So, are you ready to betray me, Dmitri?”
___________
While flying to the camp of the Bandit King, Dmitri thought about the discussion he had with the Blood God.
“Sire, surely you can’t expect me to be the one to-“
“Who else will have the guts to betray me? I am the Blood God. Would anyone in the army dare to even think about turning against me? The only way to ensure they believe the traitor is if they are powerful enough to not ignore.”
Dmitri thought about it and realized this was the only way the plan would work.
“I refuse to believe that it is going to be less efficient than this. With a plan like this, we will not have as many casualties and we will trim down a huge chunk of the forces. We can’t fight a war treating each battle as the sole battle to fight.”
______________
His lord was right. This plan could make the fight a lot easier. At the same time, what they were trying to do now was a lot more risky. It would endanger his life immensely, but he was willing to do it for his lord.
After an hour of flying, he reached his destination. The minute he neared the camp, he saw activity responding to his appearance.
At the camp itself, there were a few guards stationed at the entrance. One of them noticed the incoming person flying through the air. She immediately took out a horn and blew it to signal the appearance of an enemy.
Immediately, guards swarmed out of their tents to the borders of the campsite, each taking their respective places. In the heart of the camp was a tent similar to the Blood God’s camp. However, this tent was gold in color.
Inside, four people were sitting at a table, discussing what to do. The seats they were sitting on were all different colors, except two seats which were both red.