Percy hadn’t offered his assistance lightly.
He was fully aware that botching the mission to claim the lake would leave Sol’s people in a worse state than if they did nothing. The polluted water would kill a lot of lowborn by the end of the beast tide, but that was infinitely better than getting their entire military force wiped out.
Over the following three days, Percy discussed the details of the operation with his host, Tonett, and Doh – who arrived at the burly woman’s city a few hours after Sol.
Apparently, there used to be a fourth settlement along the perimeter of the lake. It had collapsed during the years leading up to the Melodians’ expedition to the Elemental Source. The city’s destruction had actually been the catalyst that had prompted the Green-borns to send hundreds of abled-bodied men and women to what had essentially been a suicide mission.
After over a decade of war, their population was down to ninety thousand members – half of what it had been before the start of the beast tide. They had originally been led by a council of over sixty Green-borns, though even their upper echelons hadn’t made it this far without suffering severe casualties.
Mastering the Dance had made deaths much scarcer, essentially locking the Melodian fighting force at thirty-nine Green-borns, ten thousand Yellow-borns, and twenty-six thousand Orange-borns that they had today.
“How many mages does it take to guard the cities?” Percy asked.
“Stationing around six hundred Yellows and eighteen hundred Oranges along a city’s borders is enough for them to spot and overwhelm most incoming hordes without letting the beasts touch anybody,” Doh explained. “That might not sound like a lot of people, but keep in mind that we have to multiply that number by three cities and three shifts to keep everyone adequately rested. Over sixty percent of our manpower is spent on defence.”
Percy nodded, starting to see why the Melodians had kept losing people before acquiring the boosting art. Even with double their current population, securing four cities would have been difficult if everyone was effectively a grade weaker. Thankfully, their forces weren’t stretched nearly as thin nowadays.
The problem was that the lake was much larger than the cities.
Studying a regional map through Sol’s eyes, Percy calculated how many mages they would need during and after the upcoming mission. His host’s people currently guarded a combined perimeter of around eighty kilometres, while the lake was over five times wider than each of their cities, its circumference nearing a hundred and sixty kilometres.
Even after building the new wall and securing its interior, preventing any creatures from invading would put a strain on the Melodians’ manpower. Stretching their shifts a little longer and overworking themselves for a couple of years until the beast tide ended should be doable, but providing the force necessary for the initial operation would be a challenge.
“If it’s a one-time thing, we can ask our soldiers to stay on guard duty for a few days in a row, without taking many breaks,” Tonett said. “It’s a tough ask, but it’ll give us twice or thrice the number of mages to push into the wilderness and search the lake with.”
“How long will it take to complete the new wall?” Percy asked.
“A couple of months,” Doh said, causing everyone’s expressions to droop.
Percy and the three city lords were currently convening within a large meeting room, along with nine other Green-borns. The remaining twenty-eight strongest Melodians were back at their cities, managing their defences and preparing their forces for the mission.
“That’s how long we’ll need to implement the full version, but we can make do with a simplified prototype,” Sol explained, unfolding a large piece of parchment that contained schematics for the wall’s cross-section.
Percy recognized the shape of the structure, since it was pretty much identical to the barrier that currently protected the three cities. It was over twenty metres tall and four metres thick, giving the guards a good vantage point to watch over the surrounding areas, as well as ample room for multiple people to walk side by side or transport supplies atop the structure.
As a bonus, the thick stony barrier would probably resist a couple of blows from a Green beast, but even a pack of Yellow creatures would obviously break through or climb over it pretty fast if there was no mage to defend it.
“We’ve modified the blueprint so that the wall can be built in ten separate steps,” Doh added, pointing at certain markers spaced out by two metres along the height of the structure. “Each layer will add to the wall’s toughness and allow our guards to see farther away, but we can take our sweet time implementing the extra sections after the operation. The priority is to build the base of the structure to discourage beasts from crossing it and give our mages an advantage.”
Percy sighed. Five days was a long time to go without sleep, but he understood that this was the best these people could do without elemental affinities. Building even the foundational layer of the massive structure in under a week would only be possible because many of their builders likely possessed the right spectral traits for the job. However, Percy expected everyone to contribute – even children too weak to fight or stack the heavy materials up would likely help by bringing food and water to the workers.
The wall was going to be built by six large groups working concurrently. The plan was to have a pair of teams set out from each city, heading in opposite directions and meeting at the middle of the span separating their settlements. The only caveat was that the armies moving south of Sol and Doh’s cities would have to travel twice as far as every other group, since they would also have to pave over the territory that had originally belonged to the destroyed settlement.
Percy guessed that the leaders would allocate a greater number of soldiers and workers to those groups to make up for that, though he didn’t care too much about the logistics of the wall’s construction. His job was to ensure that a seventh, independent force would eradicate every creature hiding within the lake’s waters by the time the other six groups were done forming the perimeter.
“How many mages can you spare for me?” he asked once the Green-borns were happy with their plans for the wall.
“How many do you need?” Doh asked back.
Percy had been pondering over this very issue for the past couple of days, so he had an answer ready at his borrowed lips. “Ten Greens and five hundred Yellows should suffice.”
Tonett raised an eyebrow as the Greens muttered among themselves. “Are you sure that’s enough? The lake is vast, deep, and full of creatures that are great at camouflage.”
Percy nodded. Reaching out to his main body, he explained what the situation on Melodia was like, and what he was trying to do.
The reason the Melodians typically had to deploy thousands of mages to protect their cities was because they didn’t know which way the raids would come from, so they needed to constantly have a large force protecting every centimetre of their borders.
Beasts usually attacked in packs of dozens or hundreds of Orange and Yellow creatures, which was a negligible force in the grand scheme of things. Unfortunately, the guards couldn’t afford to leave any section of the wall unprotected, as the beasts would deal a lot of damage to the structure itself, invade the cities and massacre countless people by the time reinforcements arrived.
Percy was tasked with scouring an even greater area, yet the main challenge was in locating his targets. Once he knew where the aquatic beasts were hiding, he should be able to direct his smaller team of elites to eliminate them. His priorities were speed and efficiency. He had to ensure that no beasts blindsided the people working at the wall, and to do so without taking up too much manpower that could be spent elsewhere.
A couple of minutes later, under the Green-borns’ stunned gazes, a river of grey liquid gushed out of his wisp, flowing down Sol’s body and pooling by her feet. The soul-freezing water squirmed as if it were alive – because it very much was – before transforming into fifty fist-sized rats.
Half of the rodents remained perfectly still, the rest shooting towards the lake and spreading out evenly. The magical constructs phased through the walls of the meeting room like they didn’t exist, disappearing from everyone’s sight except Percy’s, Sol’s, and Micky’s. A few minutes later, the remaining critters started moving, traveling even farther out before stopping.
Less than an hour later, all of Percy’s sentries were hiding somewhere inside the lake, having disguised themselves as unassuming pebbles that had sunk to the bottom. An intelligent enemy might see through the imperfect illusion, but Percy doubted that the dumb creatures swimming through the murky water would realize that they were being spied upon.
The main body had only lent him half of Micky’s spiritual blood. It was more than he could control at once anyway, even though Sol’s Multitasking and Clarity traits allowed him to handle way more sentries than the original. Since the clone would have to rotate through the constructs, he saw no reason to rob the original Huehuan of all his training tools.
Unfortunately, even with fifty sensory domains spread out as much as possible, Percy had only covered about a quarter of the lake. The fact that he could only focus on a quarter of that at any given time would make his job even tougher. That said, if he used the magical puppets strategically, he should be able to gather all the information that his subordinates would need to eliminate their targets.
“Alright. I’m ready when you are,” he told the Melodians, all of whom were still looking at him dumbfounded.