Chris was in his tent, working on plans for a wheelbarrow. He came up with the idea after the last meeting. He was shocked to hear thatminers would use buckets to transport the gravel... How inefficient was that? He didn't understand how humans could have horse drawn carts but none ever thought of making this simple and life changing tools.

Of course this was still not as good as mining carts with rails. But those were still a little way out of their reach, they just didn't have the resources available.

The morning was quite peaceful, Titus had left the day before for the ambush site, he left with 20 horses, Chris also gave him 20 soldiers. The hunters were not trained as mounted archers so soldiers were the best choice in case there was a need to chase fleeing Kunalls.

He was also in quite a good mood, he was woken up by sounds of chatter and laughter coming from Mia's tent. He felt that all he went through to make that happen was worthy after all. Apparently, Chris went to great length to explain that it was important for a king and his adviser to live close by... In case of emergency.

[We currently lack iron, let's make a wooden wheelbarrow and use iron for the most brittle parts.] He was drawing the plan on a leather scroll. Those scrolls were still from Mia's personal stock, soon however, they would get a daily supply from the leatherworkers. [The handles, bed, leg braces and wheel will be made out of wood, the axle and front brace will be in iron. Let's draw the individual parts for the blacksmiths and carpenters... hm?]

He heard running.

"My Lord! Urgent report! Our scouts have spotted a tribe of 300 Iris Gnolls coming our way! Cat has gone to intercept them, but she is requesting reinforcement!" A guard made his report in a single breath.

"What? Damnit! Where are they coming from?!" Chris left his tent.

"We believe they are coming from the northern forest ( https://ibb.co/hcf84H ), this is were most of our wood comes from. We might have provoked them without knowing my Lord! They are less than 90 minutes away."

"Damnit, call Cid-"

"My Lord! Urgent report! Our exploration team found a huge amount of undead in the southern cave! Only one man made it back. The others 4 are dead! The survivor said there are hundreds and hundreds of undead!"

The new report struck him like thunder. [What's going on? Why is this all happening now?]

They were 80 hunters and 20 soldiers short.

"Tell Cid to collapse the entrance of the cave as soon as possible! This is priority one! When he is done tell him to send all the soldiers he doesn't need to Cat! Go!"

"Yes my Lord!" said the guard as he left in a hurry.

Mia heard the reports and joined Chris.

"Iris Gnolls have primitive tools, but Cat doesn't have enough soldiers to defeat 300 of them." Reminded Mia. Cat and Cid now only had 100 soldiers under their command. Titus had borrowed 10 soldiers from each of them.

"Let's call back all the hunters. This is the only thing we can do."said Chris."Find Ferlin, tell him to send messengers to all the hunters team. We need everyone back now! Send a messenger to Cat, tell her to delay the Gnolls and avoid casualties! She doesn't need to stop them, we just need more time! Call Berg, the rallying point is north of the city, he is in charge of the reinforcement team! Hurry!"

"Yes my Lord!" The soldier was about to leave but then stoped: "Excuse me my Lord, Titus left with 20 of the newly improved Shameless Sucker Traps, there are 10 left, should we send those to Miss Cat?" Said the soldier with a straight face.

"Good thinking! Hurry, there is no time to waste, use horses!"

The soldier left with his orders. Chris was a little embarassed under Mia's glare [I should probably find a new name for those traps...]

Chris made them more "throwable." The net trapping the red Hornets was now connected to a stick by a string. It was now basically a Sling. All they had to do was let go of the stick while throwing, and it would travel quite far and break on impact, freeing the hornets.

"I guess you were right," Said Mia.

Chris, who was still lost in his thoughts, was surprised.

"A king should live near his advisers in case of emergencies." She continued.

"R-right, see?"

"We have 50 bows in storage, and many of our people are skilled with the bow but had to choose other occupations as we had enough hunters. I'd recommend recruiting them for this fight, this will help to make up for those in the ambush squad."

"Very well. GUARD!" Chris shouted and a guard came over and saluted.

"Go and recruit 50 people skilled with the bow! Everyone that joins will get an extra portion of meat tonight!"

Chris noticed Mia was a little tense and said: "Things are looking pretty bad. Are you scared?"

She looked back at him, her expression still calm. "Scared? No. Nervous? A little. But we have been through much more dangerous situations in the past two years." And then she added seriously: "Cid should be able to manage the situation at the cave for a few more hours, Cat's situation is more pressing, the hunters are gathering north of the city, let us go." And then she left to the gathering spot.

Chris had an awkward smile as he looked at Mia leaving and thought: [Everyone is so tough.]

He had hidden his hands in his sleeves as they were still trembling. [Let's go.]

And then he ran after Mia.