While the leaders of each respective force made their decisions, those who would have to follow those decisions without fail were conducting preparations of their own.

  One of those individuals, or better yet one of those groups, was a particular division of Knights in one of the Knight Orders that hailed from the Verdan Kingdom.

  While every single one of them were Knights, tried and true, and every single one of them wielded the sword with the great expertise expected of Knights of the Verdan Kingdom, they would be a failure of a premier Knight Order if all they could do was fight with the sword.

  With that being said, there was a division of mages that was preparing themselves, as a few orders had already come down the pipeline for them.

  …

  “That wraps up the mission ahead of us. Any questions?”

  There were about 100 other Knights sitting around the speaker, a Tier Six Knight by the name of Kisha. She was the leader of this particular division of mages within the Knight Order. It was her responsibility not only to pass along orders from the top but to ensure, in the midst of battle, that her mages were organized properly.

  Of course, there were other logistical tasks and things involving group morale that she was responsible for as well, but those were her primary points of focus.

  “So all we are doing is just raining down hell for as long as possible?”

  One of the members raised her hand and asked something that a few of them were thinking.

  Kisha answered.

  “That is exactly what we will be doing. We don’t know their exact numbers, but it is well known how quickly Goblins can reproduce, so our main job is to cull their numbers as much as possible before the melee begins.

  “We will rain down all that we can on them without mercy.”

  “What about retaliation? I’ve never seen one before, but it was reported that the Goblins have something akin to a sub-race of Goblin Mages. How do we plan on handling them?”

  “That is correct. If no one else has read the mission briefings, then yes, the Goblins do have a sub-race of Goblin Mages. They are reportedly taller and more slender. Where they lack in physical might, they make up for it with magical dominance, or so the report says.

  “I find it hard to believe their rudimentary spells could compare to centuries of history in the Verdan Kingdom alone, but we will treat them as such.

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  “Expect a large amount of mana being flung in our direction, just as much as we are throwing toward them.”

  The group digested the words from Kisha for a moment, and then someone asked a question.

  “We know they have Goblins of the Seventh Tier. Are any of them mages?”

  “Information on their Seventh Tier Goblins was not really abundant. If the reinstated minister provided more information to the King, then it was not passed down to someone like me. It won’t be long until we find out, so just focus on what we do know and what we can control.

  “Based on how the situation progresses, we will adapt in battle.”

  After that, another string of discussions began as their actual positions were discussed, the rough directions that each mage should be levying their attacks in, and even which mages would be responsible for shields.

  In war, there wouldn’t be much time for glaring mistakes to be corrected, so it was best that a lot of potential decisions were handled upfront.

  Things like accidentally having half of the mages firing in the exact same place and leaving an entire swath of the forest untouched simply couldn’t happen.

  So this was the time for things like that to be corrected. Even if the exact situation discussed didn’t actually happen, as long as it was similar to something else, they would be able to adapt to the situation far more easily.

  Once all of those decisions were made, or at least drafted to a point, a much wider discussion took place.

  First with their fellow Knight Orders from the Verdan Kingdom, then with those of the Touval Kingdom, since they would likely be in very similar positions to those of Verdan. Then the entire force as a whole began to pass around information regarding the positioning of any ranged mage units and the type of attacks that would ensue.

  Not only were positions and directions discussed, but so too were timings.

  It would do far more harm than good if the advancing party of Knights had to also dodge attacks from their own people.

  At some point while discussions were taking place, the remaining individuals who made up the Shadows of Verdan and those of the Black Wolf Tribe returned to the group.

  If no one knew about the losses they suffered in the forests before this point, it would be hard to guess that they suffered any losses at all. There wasn’t a hint of moping or signs of anything even loosely related to it.

  This was a profession where death was commonplace, and they weren’t in the type of position to cry and react to such things in the midst of a mission. They were trained better than that.

  Of course, there were still a few of them scattered around the area to keep an eye on things, but for the most part they were all now resting in some corner of the camp. Most of them were covered from head to toe in black garments, as it wouldn’t be a good idea for their identities to be leaked to the entire group.

  But with their return, a new round of information was passed around for the mages and everyone else in the camp to make use of. Positioning and the places the Goblins seemed to focus their defenses on, among other things.

  By the time the day was over, Kisha and everyone else who shared her position had finalized their plans in full.

  Tomorrow will be the day.

  Tomorrow will be the day that the entire force will finally enter the forest in full and lay waste to everything in sight. Or at least that will be their goal.

  And while the mages of the GES group got ready for their own march into the Dark Lands of Mir,

  The Maglins of the 14 Goblin Clans were doing much of the same.