Chapter 189: Chapter 172 – Encroaching upon the Prey

"I'd much rather fight ten battles or five sieges than have to clean up after one guerilla band." - Anwar Abu Saeed, famed general from the Hassid Caliphate, circa 306 FP.

The moment they went out of sight from the border post, Cal brought everyone into the sparse woods that lined the sides of the road. Probably due to the war, but the road was in relatively poor maintenance, and even the shrubs by the roadside had grown wild and unkept, easily providing cover for them to duck into.

 

Once they went a bit further into the wilderness, where the sparse shrubs and bushes grew tall enough to easily obscure them from sight, they found a small clearing and sat by the grassy soil as Cal opened up a recent map she purchased before leaving Golmos.

 

Cal wanted to temper her nieces, not to send them on a suicide mission. Even if it was merely half the forces of a province, it would be well beyond what she can handle on her own, though if Kino pitched in she figured she could handle them. That precludes securing the safety of her nieces and student, however.

 

Because of the circumstances, she plotted out a far more surgical route instead, one that would see them take care of their target while also simultaneously inflicting damage to the rebel faction without going into situations over their heads.

 

Cal quickly pointed out their location on the map, then the lines that denoted the temporary border between the two factions. Her finger traced along the roads that went along the province before she made marks on several spots she suspected to be smaller bases where the rebel side stored their rations before routing to the frontlines as needed.

 

She was not certain on the location of the base - the map quite naturally not holding such significant strategic information - but mostly judged based on her own experience with war. Even guessing blindly based on the map, she felt reasonably confident in her judgment.

 

The party headed northwards without entering the roads again save for times when they had to cross it, staying out in the wild unclaimed areas instead. With how troublesome traveling through such regions are, Cal understood well why nobody thought of taking their troops through such areas. They would have progressed far too slowly and just ended up caught in the act, more likely than not. On the other hand, a small party like hers found the passage far more manageable, in part because their individual abilities were a good bit above an average militia soldier.

 

On a few occasions in their trek, they saw patrols of soldiers passing by the roads. When the patrol was a large one, Cal just made the girls hide and let the patrol through. On the other hand, when the patrol consisted of twenty or fewer soldiers, she had the girls take them out.

 

An all out strike with the element of surprise from the girls easily took out ten or more soldiers, especially since Leila took Cal's advice and started making traps instead of hurling bolts of molten lava at her enemies. She would transmute some of the earth below the road surface into molten lava, and weaken the earth above it when the time was right.

 

Such a trap would usually result in three to five soldiers who found themselves sinking into molten lava, while the rest would be the recipient of full powered blasts of lightning from the sisters. Ying Xiao would charge ahead while the sisters joined her to handle the rest, while Leila finished off those who had fallen into her makeshift trap.

 

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That manner of combat naturally left traces that were not disguiseable as something done by wild animals, but that was according to what Cal had planned anyway, and besides, by the time the traces were found they would be long gone.

 

After three days of such activities and four smaller patrols taken care of, they started seeing mages going along with the patrols. Some nations had their mages dress no differently from a rank and file soldier when at war, but others allowed their mages to dress as they pleased as a status symbol.

 

Even then, most would prefer more practical outfits since they know all too well that dressing gaudily would make them a bigger target. Despite that, Cal easily noticed their presence amongst the patrolling troops from the way said troops paid noticeably more attention to the mages, which to her was no different than those mages flying flags pronouncing their identity.

 

Like before, they avoided groups that were too large, but two more groups of twenty five or so - mages included - fell to their hands. Neither group gave any trouble, with Leila saving her trap until the mages were on top of it. The one time the patrol had a wind mage who had the reflexes to fly up instead of falling into the molten lava, Cal shot him down with a single bolt from her heavy crossbow.

 

One week after they entered Cerilan, they found the supposed forward base on the fourth location Cal marked out. As she expected, it was a reasonably sized fort mostly made of wood, where wagons carried rations from further west, and the fort relayed it to the several bases at the frontlines further east as needed.

 

They spent two more days carefully observing the fort. It was quite well guarded despite being far from the frontlines, a good two hundred or so soldiers within. That said, they weren't the most alert, since they were quite far behind the frontlines.

 

Complacence was one of the biggest faults of such garrisons, one Cal was all too familiar with, and extremely used to exploiting. The four decades of civil war in the Empire was mostly fought as a desperate guerilla harassment campaign for survival early on, and she became well versed with such irregular warfare as a result.

 

Another day of planning passed before the party struck. Well, most of them, at least. Dan stayed behind in safety while holding onto Lumi to keep the young drake hatchling from running after Leila.

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