Everyone knew how fast Zelos could heal, so they weren’t that worried about him, but Heirina wondered if it was fine to let him stay like that… even now, he barely showed any emotion while interacting with them, after all.

  The next day arrived and soon the group confirmed that Zelos was completely healed. While that was surprising enough, there was another surprise waiting for them… the enemies were still in their camp. Without their general, that was weird… beyond weird. Everyone looked slightly troubled by that, but they didn’t say anything. Zelos was the one who had to break the silence.

  “Am I missing something here?”

  “A little bit, yes…”

  As Liry continued her explanation to Zelos, she showed light on the unusual circumstances of the enemy army. She revealed that soldiers from Zania, the southern country, typically operated under a unique command structure. Instead of a single general overseeing the entire army, Zania employed five generals, each commanding their own distinct army.

  This revelation struck Zelos as intriguing. It explained why the enemy’s forces were still present despite the loss of their general. In most cases, the death of a commanding officer would lead to disarray and total destruction, but with Zania’s multiple generals, the chain of command remained intact. Although at somewhere else.

  Liry speculated further, suggesting that the enemy’s continued presence might indicate that they were waiting for reinforcements from one or more of the other Zanian armies. Each of the remaining four generals could potentially be on their way with additional troops to bolster the enemy’s ranks. It was quite the quick response.

  “A single one of their armies is equal to all the clans that protect one of our borders, right? That means that we will face around six thousand enemies while we only have one third of that and all of us are either too tired or wounded.”

  “Indeed… since that is the case, we won’t have many options here.”

  Liry said that, but she was still in deep thought and considered their options. Zelos wasn’t used to that kind of thinking, but he imagined that the most obvious choice would be to retreat where they would be able to fight better with those odds, but then the enemies will just move to another area and fight there.

  That day, Liry had a meeting with the other captains and asked them to focus on healing the wounded as fast as they could. They also had to call for extra supplies from their territories in case something happened. For the time being, they couldn't approach the enemy’s camp, so they had to be patient.

  Since he didn’t like the wait, Zelos decided to resume his training and since he knew that the enemies wouldn’t make a move anytime soon, he began to train harder than before. To the point that he spent several hours non stop swinging his dark sword. He forced himself so much that his arms and back muscles got red thanks to the exhaustion and the damage that he had inflicted. It took a full night for Zelos to recover from that, and the next day, he went to train harder again.

  Health: 1440/1440

  Magic: 530/530

  Stamina: 1020/1320

  Strength: 75

  Vigor: 69

  Precision: 63

  Wisdom: 20

  Willpower: 33

  Traits: Regeneration Lv 85

  “It looks like my regeneration and strength are increasing more this time around… maybe it is because of the types of fights that I had here until now. I should take note of this and consider it for future reference.”

  In the end, Zelos realized that he had pushed himself too hard, and even after eating two meals, his body asked for more. Recovering from all that damage would require more food, but their rations were already being divided fairly among them… he would have to hunt for a bit. Fortunately, the enemy’s army was still immobile. In the end, he approached Heirina who was talking with Liry in her tent.

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  “I am going to hunt for a bit. I need more food for myself.”

  “... Liry is the commander here, but I guess you can do what you want off battles.”

  Liry decided to join the conversation since she had an idea that could help a bit the overall group, not that much, though. Since two people could help only too many.

  “Can you help with that, Edea? The supplies should arrive soon, but some extra fresher and warmer food should maintain our morale here.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Zelos felt a bit bothered now that he would have to share the spoils of the hunt. He was quite territorial when it came to food, but in the end, he couldn’t complain all that much. They were all sharing the same fate there, so they might as well share the same hardships when it came to food.

  When those two were leaving to do some hunting, Irlan showed up in the tent, and it seemed that he was doing some check-ups on the soldiers on their side. Kaitrine was missing, but with her speed, she could keep a close watch of the enemies and report immediately if anything changed.

  “There is a small forest southeast of here. I bet can find a lot of games there since it is too close to the border. Still, I imagine that you want something with more meat.”

  “You imagined it right, but it is better if we focus on getting as many of them as possible instead of trying to catch some bigger animals. Carrying too many of them would be a hassle, and it would take time. Let’s just focus on getting a lot of rabbits and birds as fast as possible.”

  The taste wouldn’t be particularly good, but then Zelos recalled that he could eat as many snakes as he wanted. Few people liked that kind of cuisine, after all. He heard that frogs were something common for soldiers to eat in times of war, but that costume was abandoned as they began to improve supplies for transportation in times of war.

  After spending some time hunting in the dense forest, Zelos and Edea managed to catch a large amount of rabbits and birds. Their skills in tracking and hunting proved to be quite effective, and within an hour, they returned to the camp with their catch.

  However, Edea couldn’t shake off a feeling of discomfort about Zelos’s hunting method. Unlike her own approach, which involved more traditional methods like setting traps or using a bow and arrow, Zelos’s technique was somewhat unconventional. Instead of arrows or traps, he used small iron balls, hurling them at his targets with precision to swiftly dispatch them.

  As they walked back to camp, Edea couldn’t help but feel a bit unsettled by the sight of Zelos’s prey. It was effective, no doubt, but it felt more brutal compared to the more traditional methods she was accustomed to. The heads of the animals were a mess.

  “If you have something to say, just say it. Nothing that comes out of your mouth will bother me.”

  “For someone who focuses on training so much on your brute strength, you sure are quite skilled at hunting, and you react to them quite fast, too. It is surprising for me to see someone who is self-taught to learn that much and be that effective.”

  “It is also surprising for someone like you, who stayed in that prison for a long time, to know a lot about hunting. Your skill with bow aside, it is hard to imagine where and how you learned your hunting skills.”

  “Kaitrine taught me a few tricks in the last year. I thought that this kind of knowledge added to my archery skills might help in the future in situations like this.”

  Zelos also considered asking Kaitrine to share her knowledge with him, but he always felt that it was too troublesome. Besides, when he had time, he felt like it would be better to just focus on working or training…

  In any case, they returned to the camp and then shared the rabbits with some of the soldiers. Zelos cooked one for himself and soon decided to return to the forest, much to Edea surprise.

  “You still want more food?”

  “While I do, I feel like I would benefit from training my accuracy a bit more while my body is recovering completely,”

  His arms also suffered a bit of damage, but Zelos could endure that much. Putting that aside, Edea decided to help him since there was plenty of game in the forest. Two people could carry more as well.

  In the end, they made several trips to the camp while carrying the results of their hunt. Maybe it was because he didn’t try to improve that aspect solely in a while, but Zelos made his precision increase two times in a single day.

  As Zelos and Edea returned to camp with their successful catch, they were met with gratitude from their allies. Many expressed their thanks for their hard work in providing fresh meat, a rare treat in their current circumstances.

  However, with the limited amount of meat they had caught, only a handful of people would be able to enjoy it as a main course. Yet Zelos and Edea found a way to share their bounty with the entire camp. They decided to add the meat to the communal soup, enriching its flavor and providing a much-needed boost to morale.

  As the savory aroma of the soup wafted through the camp, spirits lifted. Despite the small portions of meat, the added flavor revitalized their senses and provided a comforting reminder of home-cooked meals. It was a simple yet effective way to bring a sense of normalcy to their otherwise challenging situation.

  In any case, five days have passed since the end of the battle and Zelos was starting to get impatient… the enemies were taking way too much time to respond or show any decision. In the end, he went to talk with Liry since he hadn’t heard or seen Kaitrine in several days.

  “Any news?”

  “Kaitrine didn’t notice anything odd aside from the fact that all the enemies are ready to march in one direction or the other. That is one of their modus operandi.”

  Zelos nodded after hearing that… They could learn a thing or two from them, but that would be hard to apply since the clans didn’t have that many people and the members of different clans rarely worked with each other.

  “They sure are confident in their actions, probably because we didn’t give them any reasons not to be.”