Defending the jungle city 1

Early in the next morning, 50,000 troops belonging to Primigenia moved out, advancing further into the depths of the lush green jungle.

Mago and his men kept training, and a week passed by quickly. Nothing major happened during that week. They actively got reports from the main army describing their progress. The main army had a smooth march, the tribes didn't even harass them as they entered the swamp where the Poison tribe resided.

This truly surprised many of the soldiers at T'cammen since the tribes had so actively attacked them when they had just entered the jungle. Were they starting to get cold feet? Did they finally realize the might of the Imperial army and retreat with their tails between their legs?

With these thoughts flowing through their minds, the men happily continued with their duties in T'cammen, certain of their impending victory. There was no chance that the tribes could win against the Empire. Their attitude became quickly more and more complacent and started to cause Mago and Gauder some concerns.

While it was good that the soldiers were in a good mood and morale was high, they shouldn't get too self-assured and sloppy.

As Mago and Gauder were talking about how to remedy the situation, without completely killing off the happy mood, horns sounded within the city. It was the signal of an alarm. Enemies were approaching the city.

"Who the hell is attacking? The tribes should have their hands full with the main army, trying to protect their tribesmen and women from certain doom.", Mago blurted out, feeling baffled.

As Mago finished his sentence, a soldier came bursting into the room of the command center, his eyes wide in panic and sweat pouring down his forehead.

"ENEMIES SIR! THOUSANDS UPON THOUSAND OF ENEMIES ARE MARCHING TOWARDS THE CITY! We counted as many as 30,000!", the soldier frantically shouted.

"Which force is it? Which kingdom dares to cross us while we are battling the tribes!?", Gauder demanded to know.

"Sir, it is no new foreign force, it is the tribal army!", the soldier hastily explained.

"What? How could they be here when their territories are being attacked by the main army? Did they leave their civilians to die?", Mago inquired.

"No, Colonel. The Poison tribe's members are not present, so it is likely that they evacuated all of the citizens to the swamp, where the Poison tribe has an easy time defending. The army approaching consists of the Spirit tribe and remnants of the Beast tribe.", the soldier reported.

"Do they think Poison tribe alone can stop the main army? They were ready to defeat all of the remaining forces, so how could a single tribe hold them back.", Mago snorted.

"No, I have a feeling its not that simple.", Gauder interjected.

"What do you mean, Commander?", Mago asked with furrowed brows.

"If the tribes were certain that they would fall sooner or later, they would most likely try one last hail mary. Namely, attempt to capture the city, and hold the Empires citizens within as well as us remaining troops hostage, and negotiate with the main army. All the Poison tribe has to do is buy enough time for them to succeed.", Gauder hypothesized.

Hearing this, Mago's eyes widened in shock. For sure, the Imperial army would be forced to stop their attacks if the citizens were taken hostage.

"We can't let that happen.", he muttered as he imagined the main army gritting their teeth as they were forced to fall back.

"Of course not, boy. That's why we were left here to defend.", Gauder replied.

"Now, have all of the soldiers of the 1st Division and the reinforcing regiment to man up the walls.", Gauder commanded.

"As for you, Colonel Barca, take your men and place them at the key locations of the underground network. Under no circumstances are the enemies allowed to attack us from within the city. If that happens, the battle will be lost.", Gauder ordered while looking at Mago with a stern face. The task he gave the boy was the most crucial one. If the enemies managed to ambush the soldiers on the walls from behind, it would throw the defending troops into complete chaos.

"Yes, sir. I won't disappoint you.", Mago solemnly replied while giving a salute to Gauder and exiting the tent, going to rally his troops.

After the troops gathered, Mago quickly led them to the tunnels, dividing them into three groups. He placed each of the three groups into one of the key intersections of the network. These three positions were places where the tribesmen had to come through if they wanted to infiltrate the city.

Bismark was in charge of one of the intersections, while Claude and Ragan were in charge of the second one, and Mago was defending the third and final one.

Depending on the route the enemy took, they would only have to go through one or two of the intersections. If they wanted to directly access the center of the city, they would need to go through two, but if they decided to exit in a more remote location, they would only need to go through one.

Mago hoped they would try for the city center, that way if, god forbid, one of the defense lines fell, there would still be a second one to fall back upon.

Hours went by, as Mago and his troops were lying in wait within the tunnels. They got a report each hour, describing the situation outside. There were over twenty thousand tribesmen outside the city walls but they had made no moves yet to attack.

Out of the thirty thousand strong army that the scouts had previously spotted, ten thousand were missing, most likely making their way through the tunnels.

'Are they waiting for the people within the tunnels to make the first move? Do they think we haven't found out about them yet?' Mago wondered.

In fact, the tribal army had left the swamp before the scouts could report back that the tunnels had been blocked, and since the main imperial army was on the move, news of it had never reached them.

'Well if they do think that, they are in for a big surprise.' Mago thought with a wolfish grin while tightening his grip upon his two shortswords. His greatsword was too big to be freely used within the narrow tunnels, so Mago had to switch his weapons to the same type of shortswords he had used when scouting T'cammen.

Compared to the massive sword he regularly used, the two swords felt as light as a feather and he easily swung too wide with them, leaving himself open.

'I have to be more careful. I was lucky when escaping from the city since the shamans back then were extremely weak. Nothing compared to the monster I faced during the siege. But this time I have no Bismark or Ragan and there might be a new monster lurking within the tunnels.' Mago thought.

An uneasy feeling started to grow within him, as it had been several hours, but not a sound could be heard from the darkness.

Could it be that even after several hours the enemies hadn't arrived yet? Were they waiting for something? No, that didn't make any sense. The longer they were delayed here, the worse the situation at the swamp would get. Sure, they might not attack his location, but there hadn't been any word from the other two sections either. If they were under attack, they should have reported it by now.

"Beast tribe and Spirit tribe. These two forces are attacking us together. What am I missing?", Mago muttered. And suddenly it hit him. Spirits. He had personally witnessed a shaman from the Spirit tribe controlling earth. While it would probably be too farfetched that they had enough power to make a brand new tunnel in this short amount of time, they could make a shortcut, ambushing him and his men in the intersections.

They most likely had already figured out that there were enemies within the tunnels, since the Spirit tribe had many different ways of scouting. One of the most convenient ones was the fact that if they had an elemental spirit, such as a spirit of the earth, the spirit could use its elemental powers to scan the surroundings. The earth spirit would be especially effective within underground.

"Shit!", Mago cursed out loud.

"Quickly, inform the other two groups that the enemy might ambush us from any direction, not just the existing tunnels since they have an earth spirit user!", Mago commanded one of the messengers that were stationed at the rear of his force.

They had decided to use wind mage's as messengers, since they might need to quickly relay information between the three forces.

"Yes, sir!", the mage replied, startled at the new fact. He quickly dashed forth, hoping that the news wouldn't arrive too late. Since the Division was already spread out thin, they couldn't afford to be ambushed. They had to defend three locations, while the enemy which had greater numbers, could choose to attack only one of them.

While the messenger was dashing towards the intersection Bismark was defending, a full-blown battle was already taking place there.