‘Sarge, are we going to do that suicide charge like last time? That wasn’t good, I tell you that much.’ Asher asked, looking at Egor while hiding behind a fallen tree.

  ‘No, the plan is different; how did you forget? I told everyone here what was going to happen.’ Egor sighs while rolling his eyes.

  ‘You worry too much, Asher; last time wasn’t that bad.’ Smiled at the combat medic.

  ‘You almost died, you idiot; what are you talking about?’ He lowered his voice, trying to hide his anger.

  ‘You two, go to Alon; the field hospital will be two hundred yards behind us.’ Egor pointed at Asher and another soldier.

  The two nodded at the sergeant and returned to Alon, but Egor thought this configuration wasn’t exemplary. He had fewer men in his squad to shoot and carry injured. From his perspective, it was not a good look.

  Ethan was concentrated on the mission at hand, so much so that he talked little with his squad mates from the moment they were in battle; he was more concerned with keeping his promise to Ruth not to die, but the conversation between his colleagues and his thoughts were interrupted by Bartel’s voice coming from the Egor’s radio.

  ‘3-6 to all squads; the operation is about to start; pick a target if you have one.’ Bartel’s voice was sharp and decisive.

  Egor signaled to his squad to get into position; they just waited for the exact moment everything was about to begin. Bartel’s platoon was the most calm about it, ?waiting.

  ‘Yeah, we need people just for this field hospital thing.’ Alon was looking around.

  Eliza sat on a rock, waiting for the battle to start. She saw two soldiers approaching, but her mind was on healing those soldiers so they could return and fight again. That was the plan anyway; it made sense to her.

  ‘Sir, we are the medics from the 3-3.’ Asher spoke as he saluted Alon.

  ‘You two will need to assess those that need priority so that she can only focus on healing, ok?' Alon nodded at the two.

  ‘Yes, sir.’ The two spoke in unison.

  Alon walked forward and stood next to Edmund, who looked around, even closing his eyes, as if he were trying to hear something. This made the captain curious.

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  ‘What are you doing, Edmund?’ Alon patted Edmund’s shoulder.

  ‘Trying to sense how many of those mages are inside of this one; I can’t put my finger on there are too many of them.’ Edmund held his chin for a moment.

  ‘This is bad.’ Alon pulled his radio again.

  ‘I think I will be needed in the end; there is something more inside.’ He closed his eyes, trying to concentrate.

  ‘Angel-6 to all platoons; be advised there is a large concentration of mages inside the fortress. Angel-6 out.’ Alon spoke while looking at Edmund.

  The platoon leaders were surprised by the information, and as they passed it on, all the soldiers became more nervous about their situation. A mage was something out of a fairy tale; nobody there, besides some people in Bartel’s platoon, saw one.

  ‘What a bunch of idiots! You hunt these creatures for a reason; they become stronger in larger groups, but the kingdoms didn’t care about this.’ Alon clenched his fist.

  ‘Lavan's hate for Ariadne and Velvent's hate for Lavan created a big problem for us, but don’t worry, Alon, we are going to make it.’ Edmund gave a pat on Alon’s back.

  The captain nodded at the young man and took a deep breath before again pulling his radio and pressing another set of numbers.

  ‘Command, this is Angel-6; we are about to begin the operation, but it is worse than we thought. Over.’ Alon stroked his hair.

  ‘How worst, captain? Over.’ The young lady's voice sounded concerned.

  ‘Multiple unknown creatures inside the fortress; I’m requesting all available personnel in the area for immediate assistance.’ His voice was firmer than before.

  ‘Negative captain, all personnel in the region are currently engaged.’ She was scrolling through her tablet.

  ‘Understood, Angel-6 out.’ Alon took a deep breath.

  On the front, Bartel saw a strange movement on the walls with his spyglass. He gasped as the memory came rushing through his mind of the creature he saw inside the fortress, but now they were among the goblins and orks, beginning to walk around on top of the walls.

  ‘Angel-6, this is Angel-3, visual confirmation of the mages, over.’ He continued to observe.

  ‘Understood. Continue to wait for the signal, Angel-6 out.’ Alon looked at Edmund.

  In the back, at a distance, the mortar squad was prepared and waiting for orders while three more soldiers with Alon were helping guard the position. The ten soldiers were nervous because they were so far from the front line, around a thousand yards, the only place they could safely set up the weapon.

  ‘Mortar squad, begin the operation, over.’ Alon’s voice was heard from the squad leader's radio.

  Understood, Mortar squad out.’ He spoke with a firm voice.

  The soldier on the left of the weapon checked his position, and another took one round and gave it to the one on the right. The latter held the round, waiting for the order to start, ready to drop it inside the weapon.

  ‘Three rounds, three rounds.’ The squad leader spoke.

  The weapon started to fire with one round after the other being launched until ?three were shot. They all smiled at one another but quickly prepared to shoot again.

  On the other side of the fortress, the blue-eyed Shafran was waiting for the signal like everyone else. But he heard a long whistle, and suddenly, one fortress wall exploded, causing creatures to fly. This was the signal they were waiting for.

  A rain of blue traces emerged from the forest and flew toward the fortress, simultaneously hitting the creatures on the wall. However, most explosions were aimed at the patrols outside the fortification; they all fell instantly. The other explosion was inside the fortress, but the last landed outside the walls to the right.

  ‘Mortar squad, this is 2-6; your last shot was a miss; adjust based on my mark, over.’ Calb pressed two marks on his tablet.

  ‘Understood, information received, adjusting for the next volley, Mortar squad over.’ The squad leader looked at his tablet.

  They adjusted the following shot using the position of 2-6 and all the other platoons around the fortress. Edmund made it so that the platoon leaders could give their locations to help the mortar squad calculate the distance if they didn’t have a detailed area map. It wasn’t perfect; it needed to be manually pinged, but it helped a lot.

  ‘Three rounds, three rounds.’ The squad leader spoke.