Rebirth of the Phoenix God

Chapter 172: Kinar knows

"Gosh, that was tense"

Fen kept his appearances only for as long as it took him to escape for a safe distance where not even other aerial combat compatible arcanists could harm him. With his hands starting to shake, his mind clouded with the terror that he held back from influencing him before.

"The heck did I just do"

In his current position, only the wind could answer Fen's questions. But given its nature, it wasn't the best partner to talk with as it was pretty hard to get any reaction out of it!

Shaking his head to clear his mind out of the terrifying realisation that struck him, Fen angled his head behind, throwing a quick glance at the city in the distance.

Given the state of war preparations in both Kinar and Shallia and how the city he just went to disrespect was the first fortress that guarded the border on the Kingdom's side, there was absolutely no way for the said city to lack powerful arcanists. Even with how expensive they were to raise and groom, people capable of controlling arcana were simply too useful on the battlefield, even if a properly trained soldier could be a threat to them.

Even with all his bloody experiences as mercenary, Fen ultimately never was in real danger. Obviously, it was one thing to survive a battle when one fought in the first line and another when one commanded the entire unit. But even in the moments when he was directly clashing his fiery sword with others, the sheer bloodlust filling him was enough to compensate for any fear that could appear.

But that wasn't the case for what happened at the city gates right now. With how quickly Fen got rid fo his two escorts, their blood shoot to his head too quickly and too strongly. Momentarily losing a sense of self, he dared to act recklessly, without a care in the world about the potential consequences.

And while the fact that nothing really happened was good and all, there was something really wrong with how quickly Fen could lose his control.

"Either way, I will have more than enough time to think about it. For now, let's go back."

There was no point in wasting his time by hanging in the air and contemplating the past. Right now, all of the risky parts of the plan were done. All that was left for the mercenaries to do, was to find a nice place to spend the coming fall and winter before going back to their province in order to reclaim it!

"Let's get moving."

Shaking all his previous doubts aside, Fen swept his wings twice to regain his height before igniting them once again. This ability to travel through insane distances in just a few moments was really convenient, but the hardship of accurately turning this mad acceleration off was real. 

Relying more on his wits rather than a specially designed scheme to calculate the moment to cut his acceleration, Fen had no other choice but to accept the fact that returning to the place where he wanted to land from the place where he ended up after his acceleration would actually take him longer than covering nearly thrice the distance that he wanted in the first place.

With how potentially risky it was to fly in the daylight, especially with so many graphical effects that burning the air behind him would create, the young arcanist had no other choice but to gnash his teeth in a fit of powerlessness before acknowledging his lacking skills and obediently flying over the rest of the distance in a more natural manner. 

"I'm back!"

It would be hard to find anything else that would have even more calming effect on Fen's mind than setting his feet back in the camp. With the figures of his friends visible in the open tent at the border of the camp, Fen instantly found the place where he should appear.

"How did it go?"

Barely bothering to move his head away from the map, Victor asked.

"Not even hello or go fuck yourself today? While it didn't go exactly as planned and I had to improvise a little, generally, it should be okay."

Given how the one and only objective of Fen's mission was to rile up Shallia to push for the war even sooner than the Kingdom initially aimed at doing so, executing two of its soldiers right outside the gates of the border fort seemed like a good way of achieving that. Adding the intel about the Kinarian fortress-in-making and how they started to amass their troops in the area, his task could be said to be finished.

"Good. In here"

With how Victor was reluctant to share his part of the story, Orsha by his side sighted before finishing the sentence for him.

"We fucked up. Kinar now knows that we are trying to meddle."

That was Unexpected and unwanted outcome. While it was only a matter of time before the Kinarian council would learn about their involvement in the mess that Fen and his friends tried to create on the border, the fact that they learned that before the hostilities actually started was a pretty bad sign. 

As long as they would realise that it was Fen and his party trying to start the war that was scheduled most likely for the next spring season, it would still be possible for them to reconcile with Shallia, covertly agreeing to push the war for the later time

"It doesn't matter. If Shalia backs down after what I did, it would be a great sign of weakness. Once the information about their lack of reaction to what I did would spread, we could even think about convincing Kinzarian monarch that after bringing the hammer down at the nobles, conquering some lands to the east and establishing them as friendly protectorate"

Slapped back to the reality with the fact that they were not bound to always succeed in whatever they were doing, Fen refused to give up on his plans. While the current situation was less than unwelcomed and could sabotage quite a lot of his plans, contrary to the already established kingdoms, the mercenaries could freely modify their plans on the spot to fit the current situation. 

With all three main commanders of the mercenary kingdom that currently was put on hiatus gathered in a single place right now, all that was necessary to establish a new tactic for their action was actually coming up with something that fits it better than the previous plan.

"You do realise that we do not have almost any people to do anything any longer? Most of our people already left to enjoy their hard-earned money. If my assumption is right"

Before Orsha could finish her words, Victor interjected.

"Then we should consider ourselves lucky if we will have half of what we used to conquer the province once the spring comes. As for the coming winter I wouldn't count even for the tenth of it."

Looking at his two friends, Fen couldn't help but notice how they completed each other sentences. Was it a sign that while he was away, his mating partner found someone she was actually suited for?

Smiling to his own guesses, Fen took a look at the map that both of his friends were so infatuated with. Quickly locating several orientation points and the meaning of different marking pieces thrown all over it, the young man caught on at the current development of the events.

"Kinar is bringing even more people already?"

Ignoring the problem that his friends brought up, for now, Fen pointed his hand at the one-piece whose meaning he could accurately pinpoint.

"Not really a unit They amassed the respectable teachers from all the academies of the core and brought them to the fortress. It was one of them that recognised Victor when he went to bullshit them."

Grabbing his chin with his hand, Fen turned silent. A rare occurrence for someone who was known from how quickly he could come with one plan after another even in situations where others would see nothing but suicide as the plausible way to avoid the shame of the loss. 

But this time, the young man took his time to analyze the situation. Given how all sorts of huge powers were already on the move, he could no longer assume that his plans would simply play out exactly as he laid them. Right now, he had to take all the different moves of the different players into the account before even weighting the options that were left.

"Wait a second Did you just said that they took all the best teachers from the academies around the republic and brought them here, aiming to use them as a striking force?"

Once Fen finally realised what did those words mean, he couldn't stop himself from asking whether he was actually right. Because the opportunities that such a stupid move created for them were more than plenty, making the young ma suspicious whether it wasn't some kind of elaborate trap.

"Yeah. While the older and more crafting-focused teachers remained behind, most of the combat-viable ones are gathering at that building site. As for whether they are supposed to take part in fighting or just be a deterring force against the enemy arcanists"

Raising his arms and shaking them in the commonly understood gesture, Victor pointed out how most of what Fen just said was nothing more but an assumption.

But one thing was actually given. Most of the respectable figures, most of the teachers that groomed future fighters and mercenaries, were now gone from the academies!

And what else would have to happen to make the job of recruiting fresh arcanists even easier?

"Good."

Smiling in a way that didn't fit the situation at all, Fen placed his hands on the map in front of him, completely disregarding the fact that he messed up the setting of the markings on it.

"Ignore the situation here. We are going back to Gauna."