Considering her skills I am not too worried yet, she is probably just taking her time and being thorough. The ones who are worrying are the other heroes, even though they should know her better and have more faith than I do. Then again it is a truth that you are blind to the things closest to you, or maybe they are just easily worried.

Instead of joining the heroes I have Lizzy lay between the camp and the beasts and I lay down using her as a pillow. I only meant to doze for a while but when I am woken up by Lizzy moving it is only an hour or two till sunrise. When I look where Lizzy is looking I see Koko finally returning, I just hope the heroes didn't stay up all night worrying.

As I get up to head over I see all the heroes are up and welcoming Koko back, guess they didn't sleep much. Since we won't be attacking today I guess it won't matter too much. As I join them I see that Koko is drawing a map in the dirt, it looks like a map of the mines.

Koko says "Guards." As she marks spots on the map. "Soldiers." as she marks several buildings. "Slaves." as she marks more buildings. "Patrols." as she marks some circles around the mines.

Justin says "What's with this building of slaves in between the soldiers' barracks?"

Koko says "Women."

Justin says "Ugh, that complicates things."

"How many in each patrol?"

Koko says "Fifty."

"So with two hundred on patrol that should leave around eighteen hundred in camp right?"

Koko says "Twenty-three hundred."

"Two and a half thousand, that's more than expected."

Justin says "That is way too many, how are we supposed to kill that many?"

"Well, first we take out the four patrols."

Justin says "But then they will be on alert!"

"Yes, but they should also send out a strong force to find out what happened to the patrols."

Giles says "Even if we wipe out that force that still leaves way too many soldiers ready to defend against us."

"That is all part of the plan, if they are alerted and start seeing enemies coming down the road they will gather in one spot. That reminds me, Koko, other than this road are there any other entrances to the mine?"

Koko says "No."

"Perfect! So the soldiers will gather to defend the road, meaning a team can get behind them and protect the slaves."

Justin says "How are you going to get in behind them?"

"Even if the walls are sheer I can just jump down, I am tough enough to survive the fall."

Giles says "Do you really think you can tackle all those soldiers alone?"

"If I have to, yes, but with you guys coming down the road we will have them trapped between us."

Justin says "Hm, it's sound in theory."

Giles says "What are you talking about? Sound? It's insane!"

Justin says "No, tactically speaking it's a sound plan. If Ash can do as he says then it could definitely work."

Rachel says "Ash, can you do as you say?"

"Yup, I can."

Justin says "Well, then let's go with this plan for now. Once the sun is up we can climb the ridge to get a look for ourselves. We will make modifications after that if needed."

Since they didn't sleep well the heroes nap for the next few hours. With nothing else to do I go through cleaning and maintaining my equipment. After a while Lizzy leans over and starts nosing at my pouch, probably hoping for drake meat.

Instead I pull out one of the smaller drake bones and offer it to her, she happily takes it and curls up around it before she starts gnawing on it. She looks like a great big puppy as she is playing with the bone, it is a relief since I still have plenty of drake bone. Now I will still have something to give her as a treat once the drake meat is gone, but I should probably hunt something soon to keep her fed.

Once the sun is well and truly up the heroes, except Koko, get up and we all climb the ridge to take a look. We spend about an hour studying the camp and the terrain around it. Then we return to camp to finalize our battle plan.

"The slope behind the slave's barracks looks fairly mild, I think Lizzy could go down that easily, and the wolves probably can too."

Justin says "That switchback road is not going to be fun to go down if they have a lot of archers."

"No worries, I will hit them as you start down the road, they won't have much chance to fire at you."

Justin says "Okay, so we deal with the patrols and the rescue force first, then what is the plan exactly?"

"Okay, you guys and the bears will take position at the top of the road. That will draw them out, meanwhile I will ride Lizzy down this slope with the wolves. I will come straight to attack the enemy below the road, I will set the wolves to clear any guards left on the slaves. When I engage the main force you guys charge down the road to join me."

Justin says "It will take a couple of minutes for us to get down the road, will you be okay that long?"

"Sure, no problem."

Justin says "Alright, sounds like we have a plan. When do we start?"

"Let Koko get a few more hours of rest, we will hit the patrols after noon."

A few hours later I split them into two groups, Justin, Emmy, and Silveria with the pack of ten wolves and three of the bears. Koko, Rachel, and Giles with the pack of thirteen wolves and the other three bears. Justin's group will head east and Giles' group will head west, they will each kill two patrols.

Meanwhile I will keep an eye on the camp in case the soldiers do something unusual. I could go with one of the groups but fifty soldiers isn't even a challenge, besides they need the experience more than I do. After sending them off I climb the ridge and settle in to keep watch.