Preparations for Battle I

"The Orcs have taken shelter in a cave on one of the mountains nearby. They have even managed to recruit numerous human bandits to raid and loot the town along with them." Maria began to explain the information, they had extracted from the Orc.

"There are a total of twenty Orcs and around a hundred humans. They plan to attack the town at first light tomorrow." Alex continued after Maria. The number of Orcs had increased since the last time Freya got the info from Lorcais. "Boss, we also need to free the hostages as soon as possible. They have been kept in very poor conditions and most of them have gotten ill and may die if not helped soon."

Morris focused on the information he just received. The attack was sooner than he thought but they still had time to prepare. The problem was that they had to free the hostages before the battle tomorrow, otherwise they could be used as leverage against them. Even if the Orc wouldn't do that, as it went against their pride, Morris still didn't trust the human bandits that they had managed to recruit.

"Maria." He looked at the shadow assassin and spoke, "The mayor of the city had a reconnaissance unit under him, I'll put them under your command. Go and find the cave. When they leave for tomorrow's attack, free the hostages and retreat."

Maria accepted the order, when Freya stepped forward. "I shall go with her as well. With the two of us, it should be a lot easier to free them, even if they leave behind a few orcs to protect them."

"No." The captain refused with a head shake. "I can't afford to send you out. You will be needed in tomorrow's battle as you are our close range combatant."

Then he immediately turned to the archer of the group, "Alex, the soldiers on your left are the archery division. I will leave them under your command. Make sure to position them properly along the wall."

Then he finally looked at Freya and spoke, "Freya, make your preparations tonight. You and I will be fighting on the front lines tomorrow. The mercenary team will provide us with backup and Ariane will support us with her magic but it will be mostly us dealing with the enemies' advance squad. We can't afford any mistakes."

"Now all, of you, go and make your preparations. The battle tomorrow will decide the town's fate." Morris shouted as he ordered his team as well as the soldiers that were present. "Tomorrow we show the Orcs, they shouldn't have messed with us. For Chemor!"

"For Chemor! For Havenfall!" The squadrons of soldiers shouted as they went to prepare for the upcoming battle.

"See you tomorrow, ladies." Alex left for the soldiers.

"I also have some preparation to do. Bye Freya." The blonde mage of the group bid her farewell as well.

Freya also left the group, but instead of heading for the temporary camps, she headed for a secluded place at the edge of the town. The afternoon sun was past its apex, but there was still some time before sunset.

She found a small ground with almost no one in sight and began to train her swordsmanship. As he continued to follow the footsteps and sword movements projected by the systems, she began to study her recent fight with the two Orcs.

B'luta, the agile one, was clearly faster than her, but his techniques had no rhyme or rhythm to them. So even an amateur sword user, such as her, was easily able to predict his attacks. Not to mention, that her footwork allowed her to easily avoid and dodge his attacks even when she was far slower than him.

The Lightning King's Swordsmanship, the passive skill, increased attack speed and damage but even more importantly it gave her a 20% evasion bonus. At first sight, Freya had completely ignored this effect, but after the fight she now understood its true value. When she first experienced its effects, it was a pleasant surprise for her.

The Orc fighter had desperately swung his short sword, trying to overwhelm her with his speed, and Freya would not have been able to easily avoid the attacks that he threw. In fact, his stab had been almost unavoidable for her, when the passive came into effect. Instead of retreating, which was her initial plan, the system had guided her to step into the attack with a slight sidestep, avoiding the thrust by hair's width. The move had surprised the attacker, allowing her to come out on top.

'The Swordsmanship of the Lightning King is more agility based than it is strength based.' Art spoke to her as he read her thoughts. 'In fact, it was a mistake to invest all your attribute points in strength instead of agility. If you had invested in agility, you would have been even more powerful.'

'We can easily fix that mistake now, can't we?' Freya looked at her stat window, with 20 distributable stat points available after she had gained a total of four level. She was about to invest all of it in agility, to balance it more with her strength stat, when Artium's voice stopped her.

'Wait! Don't invest it all into agility, you idiot.' The annoyed Great mage mentally shouted, 'Invest at least 8 points into your insight stat and the rest into your agility. It was your insight stat that allowed you to perceive movement several times faster than you are, plus it is connected to your trait as well. As it increases, 'Keen Eyes' will be able to show you more information.'

Freya did as he asked and a pulse of heat passed through her body and her muscles shrunk. They didn't lose any of their mass, but became leaner. The change was imperceptible if not for her high insight stat, which allowed her to observe the change.

Freya instantly felt lighter and faster than before. She quickly performed her training movements and she was a lot faster than before. Her jabs and thrust, her approach and retreat, still showed the same level of mastery but a whole new level of speed.

'I feel a lot faster than before.' Freya spoke to her partner. 'Alas, there's no one here to test the effect of the insight stat.'

'You will get to test it out soon enough.' Art replied, 'Now, it's about time you pull out that magic sword and absorb that Miasma for your quest.'