Renu looked down at the lake again after hearing what the robed figure said. The ship carrying Romanne was departing the lake and heading towards Mentis now, and that meant the Lake’s Tear was approaching the city.
“If everything goes according to what you told us, there would be nothing better than that. But what are you going to do?”
“When the shaman enters Mentis, I will attack their base camp with my subordinates. Of course, I will do that after bringing the shaman closer to Mentis. If the allied forces are trying to spread the influence of the Lake’s Tear throughout the entire island, then the shaman will have to come all the way to the center of Mentis. When my subordinates attack their camp, the allied forces will fall into disarray, and we can use that chaos to attack the shaman.”
Renu searched the allied forces who were inside of Mentis right now. After his forces stopped their resistance, the allied forces came down effortlessly. The number of troops on land was already on a similar level to Renu’s own tribe.
It seemed that the robed figure had seen the same thing as Renu, so he said, “The number of their troops and yours is about the same now. Given a bit more time, their numbers will grow. Even if you succeed, your tribe will receive a considerable amount of casualties; if you manage to retrieve the Lake’s Tear, it’ll be a success.”
“However, the possibility of failing isn’t low either.”
“That can’t be helped because of the difference in power,” the robed figure coldly said. Then, after a momentary silence, he asked, “Do you perhaps have a hidden troop anywhere?”
“What?”
“It’s fine even if it’s not a fighting force—like, did you call them flame troopers? It’s fine even if it’s a special power like that. Do you have any other power that you can mobilize right now?”
“…” Renu didn’t answer for a moment.
“You must have something.”
“But that’s for a really important time…”
“Are you saying that it’s not an important time right now?”
Renu closed his mouth.
“You are misunderstanding something, King of the Iron Tribe,” the robed figure’s voice dropped even lower. It almost seemed like he was enraged. The fact that he called him by Renu’s title instead of his full name like the figure usually did made it even more so.
“In the first place, you guys had enough power to resist the allied forces even without our help. The reason why that changed was that the allied forces brought in the Lake’s Tear. And this is a golden opportunity for your tribe to take the Lake’s Tear— the sole reason why your tribe is losing. So, let me ask you again, King of the Iron Tribe.”
“…”
“Do you really think it’s not the time to use that power?”
“…I understand,” Renu commanded one of the soldiers by his side, and the soldier hurriedly ran down.
The robed figure heard the command and asked.“Can the tree go berserk?”
“Yeah, we overloaded the tree of fire with our strength during the ritual and can control the tree’s power however we want. Currently, even the Lake’s Tear can’t block the flame troopers.”
“So, strengthening the flame troopers…how much stronger would they become?”
“They would probably be as strong as the time before the Lake’s Tear impacted them. If it wasn’t for the Lake’s Tear, they would have probably become much stronger than that,” Renu said bitterly.
“I suppose there are definitely side effects to this?”
“The completion of the ritual would be pushed back.” This was the reason why Renu didn’t want to use this method if he could help it. Currently, it was right to act according to what the robed figure said. If he the Lake’s Tear into his hands, their victory would be solidified.
“I see.” The robed figure took out something from his belongings. It was a flute. He took the flute to his mouth and blew on it hard.
Beep! Bip! Bip! Beeep!
The flute let out short and long sounds that connected and repeated; it was clearly a signal. The sound of the flute was incredibly loud—it passed over the lake and even reached the forest.
Renu stared at the robed figure. “What are you doing?” he asked. His voice sounded agitated at the robed figure’s suspicious behavior.
“Can’t you tell? I’m sending a signal.”
“What signal?”
“I am telling my forces to move to their specific coordinates because the battle will begin soon.” The robed figure calmly responded and placed the flute back into his belongings. Then, he told Renu who was glaring at him, “Even if we are going to be enemies who will fight to the death in the near future, what’s the point of joining hands with us if you are going to be sensitive and respond to every little thing? I am repeating myself again, but the reason my subordinates couldn’t land on Mentis is because of your commands. If my subordinates were with me right now, I wouldn’t have had to use this bothersome signal to communicate with them. Despite that, are you going to suspect me for just signaling to my subordinates? Then how should I move my forces? By shouting at them?”
“…” Renu couldn’t say anything for a while. Then, he managed to come up with a poor excuse. “…The allied forces might have heard that signal. What are you going to do if they hear it too?”
Of course, the robed figure was unmoved and answered, “Even if they heard the signal just now, they will think it’s a command that you made to your subordinates. Now, stop talking nonsense.”
“…Fine.” In the end, Renu couldn’t do anything but admit his mistake.
* * *
At the same time, in the allied forces’ camp base…
They heard the signal that the robed figure had sent them.
“It’s a signal.” The eyes of the commander-in-chief of the allied forces, the Plain Tribe King’s shone.
“Interpret it.”
“Yes, sir!” The elf next to him listened to the signal and began writing something on paper. The signal continued, and the elf’s hand movements moved along with it. The signal ended. The elf translating the signal brought the piece of paper to the King of the Plain Tribe.
“So what did he send?”
“Your Majesty, he had the enemies’ secret weapon, the Clowon power, to go berserk. For a while, the fire shapes will have their original power even with the Lake’s Tear.”
“Hahahah!” the King of the Plain Tribe laughed out loud. The elves next to him did the same.
“Did he say his name was Zich? The Lake Tribe King’s daughter really did bring an amazing guy.”
“Ability, courage, intelligence—there’s nothing he’s missing.”
“Honestly, when he said that he would go next to the Iron Tribe King and get information from him while also controlling the flow of the battle, I thought he was crazy.”
“You did? I thought he was a very funny and amazing guy from the very beginning.” Then the Plain Tribe King burst out laughing again.
At that moment, a soldier came running towards him. “The esteemed shaman has arrived.”
“Ah, is that so? Then let’s continue to send more troops.”
“Will the Iron Tribe really be tricked by this plan?”
“What are you worrying so much for?” The Mountain Tribe King looked at the castle that was covered by tree leaves and smiled. “That amazing human next to the Iron Tribe King will definitely get the job done.”
* * *
Finally, the shaman arrived at Mentis. Renu scowled, but he forcefully straightened out his expression. As the robed figure said, Renu decided to think of this as a golden opportunity to get the shaman and the Lake’s Tear at the same time.
Right now, the influence of the Lake’s Tear reached about two-thirds of Mentis; that was also how much the Iron Tribe had retreated back.
“That is…” Thinking about the perfect timing to attack, Renu saw something different from before. The robed figure was also curious about the beings in front of them.
“Is it those pieces of armor?”
“They’re golems.” Renu gritted his teeth. His tribe was tricked by those things and lost all their hostages; just thinking about this made him bitter.
“Ah, they’re the guys who tricked you.” It annoyed Renu even more that the robed figure said this out loud. “I heard that their abilities are not very good. How are they?”
“Most of them are just there to fill the numbers. Since they are golems, they don’t easily die, but their abilities are very low.”
“And how are they compared to your soldiers?”
“There’s no point in comparing them. One of our soldiers can easily take care of those two.”
“…And you were tricked by those things?”
“There’s a few that have high-level abilities. My soldiers directly fought only those, and we got completely tricked by that.” While talking, Renu tightly clenched his fist.
The robed figure looked at the area with the armored soldiers once again. “There are a lot of them this time. If your words are true, all the golems there are to fill the numbers are probably being deployed.”
The sunlight reflected off the lake and across the surface of the pieces of armor; it was a spectacle to see as each of the armored figures began riding on the boats one by one and headed off for Mentis.
“All the ones that are passing through the lake right now are golems. It seems like no more elves are passing through.”
Even from the hole in the center of Mentis, armored soldiers instead of elves were coming out.
“Why are they sending out useless golems…” What the hell was their plan? Renu was trying to figure out the reason why the allied forces were deploying golems.
“It must be to guard the shaman,” the robed figure replied as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.
“For guarding? How can those useless things guard the shaman?”
“You think so? I actually think it’s a very good idea. In the first place, the shaman is not going to come to the forefront of the battle herself. She’s probably going to stay in the rear; then she will probably be threatened by magic or arrows. But if those things surround her, she will be much safer in this battle. Even if their abilities are weak, the golems can protect the shaman with their bodies.”
“Come to think of it...”
There was a substantially high number of armored soldiers arriving at Mentis. All the golems that didn’t break last time were probably being sent out in this battle.
‘If that many golems surrounded the shaman and blocked the attacks directed at her with their bodies, her safety would be assured.’
The golems were lacking as soldiers, but as shields, they were useful enough.
‘The allied forces can focus on attacking while the golems protect the shaman.’ Renu thought that the robed figure’s words seemed right.
“The shaman is starting to move.”
Renu surveyed his surroundings at the robed figure’s words. It seemed as if the shaman judged that there were enough golems around her since she started moving with a large number of golems.
“My words seem right. The golems are not moving away from the shaman.”
“Yeah. They really seem like guards, but the protection seems a bit too much. How many do they plan to deploy?”
Even while the shaman was moving, more golems were being transported through boats.
“Well, that’s just how important the shaman is.” After saying this, the robed figure turned around to look at Renu. “Why don’t we begin our attack after all those golems get here?”
“Do we really need to do that?” Renu wanted to immediately attack the allied forces and the shaman.
“Just think about it. The closer the shaman gets into Mentis, the higher our chances to take the shaman and the Lake’s Tear at the same time. Since the allied forces are continuously sending out their troops, it’s not a bad idea to attack immediately. But in the end, they are just useless empty shells. If only golems are being sent out, it’s better to bring the shaman closer to us.”
“Hmm, yeah that’s also true.”
“Think of our ultimate goal, Renu Ent Dras. The goal we have to achieve is to not cause damage to the allied forces as much as possible or limit the damage done to us—it’s to get the shaman and Lake’s Tear. It’s those two things.”
“…Fine. I’ll do that.” In the end, Renu agreed to continue letting in the armored soldiers in order to bring the shaman further into Mentis.