Imperial Army makes its move 6

Mago and his squad had finally reached the location where the Imperial Army was stationed. The last few days had been hellish. The soldiers chasing them had finally caught up to them yesterday, and ever since then, it had been one skirmish after the other. Luckily they had held on long enough for the army's scouts to notice them and bring reinforcements.

All the members of his squad were coated in flaky dried blood and they could barely remain standing on their feet. They kept swinging to the side like twigs in the wind. Mago had sadly lost five of his men in the skirmishes that had ensued. While it wasn't a big loss overall, it still made him gloomy. While he knew it was unrealistic and frankly impossible, he still wished that he could bring all of his men back alive from the campaign.

Mago and his men were escorted back to the Imperial Army's camp. Within the camp soldiers were bustling around, all of them looking energetic and fresh-faced, a big contrast when compared with Mago and his ragged and worn-out squad.

Shortly after arriving at the camp, Mago was told to immediately report to the higher-ups. They wished to know the current situation of the Beast tribe. Stepping inside the command tent, he saw the same faces that had been gathered here the day he had left for his mission. They were gathered around the table that was stationed in the middle of the tent, with the High Commander sitting at the head of the table with the three Commanders on both sides and the Colonels lined up after them, with the Captains at the very back of the table. His Colonel gave him a polite nod when Mago stepped in, while Captain Farren simply glanced at him and turned his head with a slightly grumbling look.

"So Captain Mago, what have you found out?", High Commander Andremes asked with a serious tone. Mago recounted his findings, about how the three tribes were already in contact with each other and that the other two major tribes were most likely already on the move by now. This caused the surrounding men to slightly frown. They had wished to finish off one tribe before the other two joined the fray, but it seemed that impossible now.

After hearing Mago's report, Andremes simply nodded and told him that he had done a good job and could go rest now since he looked like he might fall any moment now. Mago just simply thanked him and started to walk away. Right before leaving the tent he turned around and asked; "By the way, how are things going at the river?"

"Your brigade is doing just fine, Captain. They were attacked by a force of nine thousand a few days ago but managed to repel them, and we have already dispatched other units there so the situation is under control and your men have been already called back. They should arrive in the evening. There weren't many casualties, only a few hundred of your men died.", Mago's Colonel answered.

Hearing that hundreds of his men had perished pained him, but Mago didn't let it show on his face and simply nodded and walked away. He would mourn the loss later. Right now he just wanted to sleep. He could finally understand Bismarks love of sleeping. Sleep seemed like the most wonderful thing in the world right now.

But his pained look didn't manage to escape High Commander Andremes eyes.

'You are still a young and naïve boy. It's only natural that there are casualties in war. While it's a good thing that you care for your men, you can't get too deeply attached to them. Otherwise, you cannot make the tough decisions when the time comes.' Andremes lamented in his head. He too knew the pain of losing his brothers on the battlefield, but it was something every soldier just had to bear with and experience eventually.

After Mago left the tent, the remaining officers discussed what to do. While this wasn't the ideal situation they had hoped for, was it also far from the worst possible scenario. After discussing a while they decided to speed up the march towards T'cammen while burning down the villages they came across on the way.

While the enemy troops would most likely reach T'cammen before them, they didn't want to give them any more time than necessary to make their preparations. The more time the enemy had, the greater their advantage would become.

"So it's settled. We will begin to march towards T'cammen tomorrow. Have the mages already start to clear out a route for the supply wagons.", said High Commander Andremes and concluded the meeting.

Later during the day, Bismark and Ragan arrived at the army camp. They were happy to hear that Mago had managed to come back unharmed. Bismark naturally decided to follow Mago's lead and went to sleep as well.

Ragan on the other hand lamented the fact that the army had so few women and after hesitating for a while decided to simply turn in early as well. They would have to set out tomorrow early in the morning, so getting some sleep sounded like a decent idea. And it would be the first night in a week that he could sleep without being woken up by the damn war horns of the Beast tribe. For some reason which he couldn't quite figure out, they blew on them throughout the night. It had driven him and Bismark nearly insane.

The night went quickly by and the Imperial Army started its march towards T'cammen. Mago was finally united with his brigade and he shared his experiences with his officers, Ragan and Bismark while listening to theirs as well. When Ragan heard of Mago's encounter with Atlacilla, he was green with jealousy. While sweaty and smelly men had surrounded him, this lucky bastard had been approached by a stunning beauty.

"Lucky bastard.", Ragan muttered under his breath.

"I wonder how your dear future fiancé would react if she heard about your adventure in T'cammen?", Bismark pondered with a teasing look.

"Do you want to be on guard duty during the night again?", Mago asked while giving Bismark a glare.

"On the other hand, you know the old saying, what happens in T'cammen, stays in T'cammen.", Bismark said, quickly changing his tone.

The march towards T'cammen went by uneventfully. The army met with some of the enemy scouts and burned down the villages that were on their path, but other than that, they advanced peacefully and after a week of being on the move, they finally arrived at the outskirts of the jungle city.

"Is that supposed to be a city?", Bismark blurted out upon seeing the poorly constructed wooden walls and other structures.

"Yeah. Trust me, it doesn't look any better from the inside.", Mago replied.

"So ugly on the outside as well as on the inside. Poor thing.", Ragan sighed while shaking his head sorrowfully. His fake sympathy just earned an eye roll from Mago and Bismark.

"So, do you know when will we start our siege?", Bismark asked from Mago.

"Well, technically it already started the moment we arrived, but I don't think the higher-ups have any plans of attacking yet.", Mago answered while gazing at the walls of T'cammen. Upon the walls where previously there had only been members of the Beast tribe, now could be seen members of two other tribes, namely the Poison and Spirit tribes. This would make the siege a lot harder. The Poison tribe excelled at defensive battles, and because of their various spells and traps, the army couldn't attack recklessly. They needed a solid plan to counter the poison that the tribe would certainly unleash.

Having nothing better to do, Mago and his brigade set up camp. While others might hope to gain some merits or take on some of the scouting, Mago and his brigade had done enough recently, so they just wanted to relax for a while. Besides the scouting wouldn't most likely yield anything new so he couldn't be bothered about it and decided to focus on his training after a long time. He hadn't had time to improve his cultivation since he left the academy over two months ago, so he was still in the early stages of the cyan rank.

Like this a few days went by until finally the High Commander and the Commanders came up with a solid plan of attack, and the siege of T'cammen officially began.