Zaos decided to head to the next village to convince the people there and to leave since they would need a place to guard their horses. Since it was only one hour away, it was the perfect place. Fortunately, things went more smoothly since the villagers there thought that the group had forced the people of the first villagers.

"Thank you for your cooperation," Zaos said. "However, I will need another favor from all of you. Don't say to the people of the other villages that we asked you to leave. That might cause problems to the whole operation. If they ask, tell them that you got tired of the danger."

  The villagers nodded, and it seemed they could understand that was something important, and they couldn't mess up. Still, despite that, Zaos considered leaving some soldiers to keep an eye on them in order to prevent rumors. After all, there was no telling if the mercenaries infiltrated some people in the villages over the years. Still, that was a problem that could be solved using other methods, like increasing the range of the scouts.

"All right, guys," Zaos said. "Now, we will need to pretend that we are the actual villagers of this place. You don't have to do that all day. Just a few times and in a sporadic order should suffice. It is just to get used to faking it since our scouts will know when the enemies will come to attack, we will need to lay the perfect bait to defeat all of them, after all."

  While the soldiers were dividing themselves and unpacking their things in the houses, Zaos, Cohnal, and Melisse moved around the area. They tried to find better spots in the region to hide soldiers. That much was necessary because they couldn't risk the enemies escaping from the ambush. Not even a single soul could escape.

"Those hills are tall enough. We can dig some caves therein and hide around twenty soldiers in each," Melisse said. "I suppose that should be the homework for our front lines."

We will need more than that since only so many soldiers can stay hidden in the houses," Cohnal said.

"I will find decent spots on the other sides of the village," Melisse said. "It is not like we can dig so many caves at the same time."

  Although Zaos didn't know how the whole ambush would happen, Zaos imagined thanks to the position of the hideouts Melisse was planning to make. As expected of veteran mercenaries, she planned to hide the soldiers and create an encirclement. Even if they don't move all that orderly, they won't leave many spots for the enemies to escape. Zaos could learn a thing or two from that experience.

  After everyone unpacked, Zaos gave the orders for the melee fighters to dig the hideouts in the hills nearby. The archers were supposed to make as many arrows as possible since they would be the leading force in case a huge battle started. After all, they couldn't risk a massive melee if the enemy came with thousands of soldiers.

"You guys will do something different from today onward," Zaos told the mages. "In case our ambushes work or even if it doesn't work, you guys will have to hit targets very far away. As you know, the enemies have and will use siege weapons, and it will be your job to burn them down. That is why you will train your long-ranged aim and your ability to increase the power of your spells."

  Zaos would need all his mana to fight and lead the frontline. He wasn't planning to retreat even against a force that was ten times larger. In fact, he was hoping for a situation like that since it would boost the morale of his soldiers like crazy. The mages were the only ones who would have the chance to damage those, and it was only natural that twelve people would have more mana than him, so it was only natural that they had more chances of succeeding.

"You guys will use fire magic when the enemies or their siege towers approach, but you need to train by using the other elements. After all, fire magic will raise smoke," Zaos said. "Let's see… Do you see that rock over there? You need to hit that rock at least four out of five times. That will be your daily training."

  Zaos pointed to a rock that was big as a house and was five hundred meters away from them. It was insane to expect that they could hit something so far away. Still, they didn't know that Zaos was generous, and most siege weapons like catapults can fire and hit things seven hundred meters away from it. Naturally, Zaos had to make some demonstrations. Despite the distance, Zaos hit the rock five times after firing five times as well.

"The trick is to keep your focus and not think of anything else and then trust your instincts," Zaos said. "We probably have some weeks before the fight starts, so don't feel depressed if you don't make much progress in the first few days."

  After saying that, Zaos left the mages, hoping that was enough to make them try hard because he would need them once the battle starts. Against a higher number of enemies, each soldier had to work hard to make up for it with skill and willpower.

  While everyone was working to make the whole plan work as well as possible, Zaos decided to head to where Melisse left her scouts. He actually wanted to move to the western region and try to shoot down the ravens of the enemies and try to get their messages. Still, those were probably coded, and he wasn't good at deciphering that kind of thing… even though he managed to make a lot of progress with the ancient language.

  While he didn't capture any raven, Zaos managed to take down many scouts that tried to approach the villages or the western base. He even killed with bolts enhanced by magic some soldiers who left the base to gather wood or because they were bored. In two weeks, he basically killed one hundred of them. It was a small number compared with the rest they had, but it was better than nothing.