After visualizing how the whole plan would happen, Zaos gave the order to every single of his soldiers to craft longbows and as many arrows as they could. It was evident that Zaos was planning to slow down the enemies' horde with those bows, but they didn't know if that would work for long.

"Are you sure about that, Captain?" Cohnal asked. "Most of the mercenaries don't use shields, but they are good riders, so they will know when they should slow down or change directions when the volley of arrows comes flying toward them."

"It is fine. We need to decrease their numbers and give some mental trauma to their main army before letting them touch the western base, after all," Zaos replied.

"Mental trauma, huh…" Cohnal nodded, realizing that the survivors of Edwyrd's army fled in all directions, and it seemed that they didn't want to see another battlefield on their lives.

"Rather than that, can you go to the base and pick some packages for me?" Zaos asked. "I must have received some products from an old friend by now."

"Okay… should I know what I should look for?" Cohnal asked.

"Mana potions," Zaos replied. "There is an old alchemist friend there who sends me mana potions every month, and she has been producing them as much as possible once I told her that I would be moving to this area. The stock shouldn't be high, so you probably don't need help."

"Understood, I will return as soon as possible," Cohnal said and then quickly got a horse and left.

  Melisse heard that conversation and couldn't help but frown. Zaos obviously had more mana than most. No one saw him running out of mana, so why would he need more potions? For the mages of the group? That probably wasn't the case. Considering that he was planning to attack everyone with bows, it wouldn't make sense for him to fight alone using his magic.

"Captain, may I ask what you have in mind for the next battle?" Melisse asked.

"I can explain, but I think it would be easier if we just practice," Zaos replied. "It will also be hard to visualize the plan without the practice, so just wait for a short while, and everyone will make sense."

"… Understood," Melisse said after showing a slightly dubious expression.

"Rather than that, if you are free, do you want to spar with me?" Zaos asked. "I want to practice fighting with a shield again, and it would be helpful if you attack me with your magic sword."

"I don't mind, but it might be dangerous," Melisse said since she also wanted to spar with Zaos. "Do you have any idea what my sword can do?"

"It uses your strength and the strength of the enemy to make them lose their weapon or armor, right?" Zaos asked. "My guess is if the enemy doesn't hold their weapon much firmly or their armor is really light, your sword won't be able to send them flying."

"… How did you learn that?" Melisse asked with her eyes wide open in shock.

"I think I read about a similar weapon while I was being trained in the north," Zaos replied. "When I was bored, I read the registers of the battles that took place in that region, and the writers gave a lot of detail to magic weapons."

Melisse frowned since she never found someone who understood the principles of her sword, but now that she thought about it, it wouldn't be weird if there were a copy of that weapon somewhere. Or maybe, her very sword had been used over the years by someone famous. Her sword was a family heirloom, after all.

After Zaos borrowed someone else's shield, he began to train his defensive stances. He wasn't planning to fight with a shield again anytime soon, but he felt like leveling up his Shield Master since increasing his health was pretty nice.

  Just as Zaos had expected, he held his shield tightly, the more powerful Melisse's strikes became. Fortunately, that worked well for him since the impact made Zaos's level up Shield Mastery pretty fast.

  Later that night, Cohnal returned carrying a big box filled with mana potions. Zaos frowned since he didn't imagine that Tyra would be able to produce that much, but it seemed that it had a reason for that.

"With the box came a letter, Captain," Cohnal said.

"Thanks, I owe you one," Zaos said, and then he opened the letter.

"Hello, master. It has been a while since we exchanged letters, right? I have heard many things about you lately, so I can understand why we never had the chance to talk all that much. By the way, congratulations on your promotion. If you happen to return to the North on some sort of mission, please pay a visit. I would like to introduce you to my husband and future child. Yeah, that is right. I got married since the job was getting hard for me alone, and thanks to my husband's help, I was able to cultivate more plants to make the potions. It will be hard to keep the pace in the next months due to the pregnancy, so I would like you to understand this. I am sure that you will achieve many things now as a captain, and I will be proud to help you this way… even though I am also making money out of this. I wish you good luck on your first campaign, and once again, I ask you to pay a visit if you happen to come on some mission here in the north. Try not to do everything by yourself, master."

  At some point, Zaos caught himself smiling while reading the letter. He had asked Tyra to stop calling him master many times, but she still didn't give up on that. Regardless, she got married and was already pregnant. That wasn't surprising since she was three years older than Zaos. Still, Zaos couldn't help but feel that he was getting behind in his generation in some aspects.