《DK (Dropped)》Chapter XXIII - War Council
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The Generals and I faced each other.
We were the only ones in the Great Hall, with the exception of the young wasps that occasionally would bring in more food and then went out to hunt some more.
As I stared at the Generals, I started by asking Leonidas.
"How many wooden tip spears did you made?"
"Due to the time and number of young wasps and their experience, we were only able to make 320 wooden tip spears!" Leonidas informed everyone in the room.
I held my left hand on my chin, thinking about what Leonidas report.
"My apologies if it is not enough, if you agree I will depart at once to make more!" Leonidas spoke, concerned that the weapons weren't enough as I kept my silence.
At that moment, I took my hand off my chin and moved it to the sides, expressing a no.
"The number of spears is enough, I am glad with the number." (DK) "There will be a need for more weapons, but that, hopefully will be in the future!"
(They actually made way more than what I was expecting, but then again, in the end, it's just sticks of wood, if it was with iron tips, then it would take days, weeks, maybe even months!)
The truth was that the previous wooden tip spears, were made by only Leonidas, so it was clear that the sudden increase of workers would have boost spear production.
"Great DK, if I may speak, I think I found my answer to your question!" Leonidas declared in the Great Hall.
(Interesting, let's see what caused the downfall of their original Hive!)
"Very, tell me then, take the time that you need for your answer." I informed Leonidas as Ragnar and Caesar kept earing our words.
"The reason our previous Hive was lost..." Leonidas paused, as he was nervous of what to say.
For two minutes, the entire Great Hall was silent.
"The reason for the Hive's fall was that we lacked weapons, also the warrior wasps were not feeded well!" Leonidas spoke, with a shout.
(Interesting, I only expected for them to have a low number of weapons, but they also lacked food?)
I looked at them more closely, their bodies did change a bit.
(Now that they mention it, their arms seem a bit larger?)
"Compared to what you eat now, how bad did you previously ate?" I asked the Generals as they looked at each other.
Ragnar looked at me, it seemed it would be him to give me an answer.
"Compared to the bunnies that we can eat here daily, the quantity would equal of one-fourth a bunny of our daily meal in our previous Hive." (Ragnar)
"Yes! We are very grateful! We have never been this well feed in our lives!" Caesar proudly thanked me.
"And our arms and legs, I never imagined they could grow to this size!" Leonidas added as I looked again at them.
(Now that he mentions it...)
While most of their bodies remained unchanged, compared to the first night, their members seemed larger and stronger.
(Only now I noticed, I am fucking disappointed with myself, I should have noticed it without the need of them telling me!)
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"I am pleased that you are all being well feed, but now I am curious about the weapons part." I immediately wanted to know how the hell they lost so easily as I was sure that they had way better weapons than what we currently have.
"Well, I thought we had enough weapons..." (Caesar) " at least enough to fight off the Arach. When we were chosen to protect our queen Cleopatra, everyone of the guard group were armed!"
"Great DK, actually, there is something else that I heard from other wasps at the time I was born!" Leonidas informed us.
"What did you hear?" I asked him as Ragnar and Caesar were surprised at Leonidas words.
Leonidas slowly spoke, "The wasp that gave my shield and sword, he told me." he quoted the wasp."Take these weapons and use them well!"
"But as I was leaving the room, I heard him talking with another wasp as they were preparing a last stand," Increasing his voice."That two-thirds of the weapons were missing!"
At that moment, if I wasn't a skeleton, I would be making one huge surprised face.
"Do you know any more details regarding the missing weapons?" (DK)
"No, Great DK, I don't!" He answered with a low voice.
"I had no idea that such things happened!" Caesar expressed his lack of knowledge in surprise at learning about the missing weapons.
(This means that the Arach got infiltration units?)
With my left hand on my chin, I looked at the Generals, thinking of what to say.
(No, that's, not possible, is it?) Reminding of the previous two combats and how they were fighting aggainst the wolves, it was unlikely they had such skills as they acted more like a war tribe or a wild pack and wouldn't even use weapons.
There was another possibility, much stronger that this one.
(There's a high chance that there's another faction helping the Arach! Yes... That must be it!)
"For now let's leave this matter for the future until we get more clues to what happened." I suggested to the wasps.
"Very well, Great DK!" Leonidas agreed as the other two nodded.
"Now, Leonidas, everything that you said, is right, thank you for your honest answer." As I told this to Leonidas, Ragnar and Caesar seemed worried with my words.
I rose my right hand and told the Generals. "Do not worry, Leonidas may answered my question, but you both don't have to do it now, as I said, take all the time that you need!"
(The last thing I want is for them to rush things. They must learn to think for themselves!)
And a brief silence fell into the Great Hall.
"So now, we should talk about tonight!" I informed the Generals. (Activate Weak Commander Vision!)
In an instant, the 3d map appeared between me and the Generals, showing all the blue dots, the wasps that were outside training, hunting and those inside as well.
But our focus was not what was near us, but to the western forest and the exit of the valley.
Fifteen dots appeared at the wolves home while the Arach group along with it's last nights reinforcements, were still at the exit, showing 52 red dots.
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"If we take all the warriors and young wasps, I am sure we will win!" Said Caesar, with high pride, hungry for battle.
"Yes! We will outnumber them!" Added Ragnar as he looked at the map.
"And there's weapons for everyone!" Said Leonidas, to boost the reason to attack.
Once again, I kept my left hand on my chin, staring at the map as the General awaited for my reply to attack and grant their revenge.
"Our forces could indeed outnumber them, but think of the losses!" I informed the Generals.
The truth was that, taking all the wasps would result in heavy casualties, more than sixty percent were not ready.
While a warrior wasp could potentially beat or hold equal against an Arach in battle, the young ones would perish easily.
"If we attack with all the wasps, we will turn into a mob and not an army, wich is the same strategy as the Arach, if that happens, saying that half the young wasps would perish, is the best outcome of such battle!"
At my words, the General kept silence, it was clear that losing half of the Hive population in a single night, would be terrible, and that half was only if we had the best outcome.
"Also, if we all go into battle, what if another scout party gets past us? Will we leave the Hive empty? Your queen and unborn wasps unprotected?" I added another strong disastrous possibility to the plan.
(The truth is that I plan to beat the Arach with fewer numbers, I could go with a large untrained numbers, but why should I do that?)
I was pondering not only the battle, but also what came afterwards, I was sure that such a large wasp army would be found by the wolves the moment we were close, increasing the chances of facing not only the large Arach force but also the wolfpack.
Facing the small force of the Wolfpack could even be harder, as one wolf could rip apart an Arach so easily, just imagine what it would do with a young wasp.
Even after winning against two forces, there was still the Arach reinforcements, would they come this night? If yes, how many will come?
One of the Generals broke their silence.
"Great DK, what should we do then?" (Caesar)
Following him, Ragnar said, "Yes, we cant stay here doing nothing!" worried that the Arach could eventually reach the Hive.
"Y-Yes..." (Leonidas)
"We will attack tonight!" I shouted at the Generals.
"But..." Leonidas tried to speak up, but was cut by my next words.
"But we will do it so with a small force, in that way, chances of us being discovered will be less, and in emergency, it will be easier to retreat." I informed them.
"Once our attack force is assembled, we will depart to this location," I told them as I pointed my finger to an area between the Hive and the wolfpack location.
I estimated that the distance between that area and wolfpack was around two hundred meters, that should be enough to hide the wasp army with the help of the trees.
"After we get there, what then?" Ragnar asked me, the same question that Caesar and Leonidas had.
"My minion will be ahead to warn me the moment the Arach move to engage the wolves," (DK) "once I confirmed that the two groups are fighting each together, we divide into two forces. The main force, wich will be the larger one, will move slowly and silently to not be discovered" At this moment, I pointed right into our front against the wolfpack.
"And the second force?" Asked Ragnar.
"Ragnar, you will lead the second force and take a longer path around the area to the back of the enemy forces, here!" I told him as I pointed just a bit behind the location of the wolfpack.
"My minion will go with you as a guide, once you see him moving to the enemy group, it will be the command from me, ordering to attack."
The Generals kept silence, waiting to see if I had something else to say.
"One more thing, until the battle starts, you are not allowed to fly!" I commanded them.
"When you fly, you make a strong noise with your wings, and we must not let our enemies find about our presence until we allow them to, is that clear?" I told them with a shout.
"Yes! Great White God!" The Generals shouted back, confirming that they understood what I wanted.
"Now there is one more thing. Ragnar's group will carry with their personal spears plus one extra spear, while the main group will carry their own with the addition of three spears!"
"Uh, why do we have to carry extra spears?" Caesar inquired, raising confusion on the 3 General's mind.
"Once we start the battle, before the Arach or the wolves get close to us, I will give the order to throw one spear at a time, one rain of spears into the enemy force, even if the wooden tip spears are weak, I am sure that there will be fewer enemies after throwing the extra spears!"
Basicaly the extra spears would be used as javelins.
Until that moment, we were sitting on the floor the entire time, but after this last line, the three Generals fastly rose up.
"Great Idea!" Caesar proudly declared.
"Yes! We will kill lots of Arach!" (Ragnar)
"And when we start fighting, there will be less of them!" Leonidas shouted, happy to hear that this would mean less danger for the wasps.
(I guess they dont know much about ranged weapons?)
"Good to see that my plan makes all of you happy, now there is one last thing that I need you to do." I informed the Generals.
At these words, they sat again, ready to hear me.
"Great DK! What do you need us to do?" Caesar asked, ready and proud.
"Return to the training ground, and check if theres any possible young wasps who can become a warrior wasp, afterwards, we shall have supper, so we can depart earlier." I ordered the Generals.
"At once!" Ragnar immediately answered and then flew to the outside.
"Very well!" Leonidas bowed with his head and followed Ragnar.
"An earlier supper! Sounds good! Great DK, excuse me!" Caesar replied before leaving.
And so, I was alone in the Great Hall.
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