–AN) 3 more chapters on the way!–

Lillia continued: “You are here to get defensive items for the time being. You will not be on the front line like these girls until you have undergone proper training. You just arrived, and I do not wish for you to get hurt. You will all stay with your people in the base, but at least with the defensive items I give you, you can protect your lives and your people’s lives until someone can come help you.”

“I see..” The harpy girl understood this. While the dog girl tilted her head with her tongue hanging out, and the cat girl began scratching her head with her feet.

“Sister Lillia, my Mookin race will be here to guard them, so they should be safe.” Mona stood up and said. Her people were all strong but had less battle experience, but they were definitely good enough for final defense if needed. They had all undergone training, so it was not like they did not know what to do.

“Then I will leave it to your people.” Lillia nodded. She liked this idea. “Alright, here you go. Armor and weapons that should match your fighting styles. Girls, also remember to keep your synchro up. Never leave it down. Our people will be counting on the extra defense and periodic healing.”

A day later, the scout team returned. They had moved as fast as they could to return a day ahead of the orc army. “General Bret! They will be here by morning.” One young man said.

“Get some rest then. You and your group will have a tough time tomorrow.” Bret was glad his teams came back safe. The euruna also returned after setting up many traps. Luckily they did not go too far out, and the traps were quite strange. They could only be triggered by orcs. No other race would be affected by them.

“Thank you, General. Right, General Onz is outside.” The young man had forgotten to report this.

“Tell him to come in. The man never likes to come in even when we are of the same rank.” Bret noticed that Onz seemed to fear overstepping his bounds, as if he was afraid people would come to hate him.

Onz walked in and saluted Bret. “General Bret.”

“Onz, you are the same rank as me. Why are you saluting me?” Bret sighed as he saw Onz’s expression was, as always, very serious. “Do your men have the forest green camouflage armor we supplied with the city symbol on the back?”

“Yes, we are all outfitted with the proper gear, so we will be easily recognizable by our own side. General Bret, I thank you for this. I was worried my brothers would be mistaken for the enemy.” Onz was truly grateful that this idea came about. If it wasn’t for Bret bringing this up, he was afraid many of his brothers would die to friendly fire.

“You do not need to be so serious. The idea was a good way to make sure we do not attack our own people. The whole military and recruits are now with the same armor. It adds much more protection than just street clothes. The dwarves all worked hard to make so many sets. I am sure your old clan will be confused when they see you guys charging at them, but Onz, remember your training, no more head to head fighting. We now do guerilla and trench warfare. Use the new muskets you have been given and stay out of their range. You and your men are not meat shields, and all of you need to come back alive.” Bret’s tone was firm. Blake had warned him that orcs were actually quite loyal when they were following orders and would fight to the death. So he wanted to make sure Onz did not rush forward and die for no reason. Fight and survive, that was Blake’s motto.

“We understand that. We will all come back safe and sound.” Onz felt his heart warm up. His brothers no longer needed to fight to the death. They were having much better lives, and some even had wives! Even he met two elven girls who chased after him until he caved in, and now they were living together! The dream he always had had actually come true!

“Hey, Bret!” Mike came walking into the makeshift office and paused upon seeing Onz. “Good Onz, you are here too. Come look at this map with us.”

Onz walked over to the desk, and Mike placed down a map and began pointing at it. “We are here. And the orcs are here. Our last report on the numbers is around five hundred thousand. We are really outnumbered, but they are not using any decent weapons or armor. If we really want to throw them off, I was thinking we can use our mages to split them up with a few earth walls that will cut through them for a few miles.”

“This is indeed not a bad choice. If we do that, we can funnel them into a central point.” Bret liked this idea. Only Onz shook his head. “While this would work for a short time, the war elephants and the cyclops the orc clan has enslaved can break them down. The dwarves used to do the same thing back in the ancient era, but they switched to a shield defense due to how easily earth walls break.

“Our best bet is to use the new weapons and just fire at will. The orc clan will not have enough knowledge of this kind of tactic. If you really want to throw them off more though, we should send two small hit and run teams here and here. This valley where they will be coming from will be our best starting point. We can lower their numbers a bit before they arrive, but the ones to do it will need to be fast.”

“So we need to choose a race who can easily get in and get out without being spotted and still deal a shit ton of damage…..” Bret thought for a moment before his eyes lit up. “Pixies and fairies!”