Chapter 133 - 133 - A Change Of Plans

The commander tent was packed full of people, the six candidates, their guards and psychic's, and the scouts crowded around the large map on the table that Media had almost completely filled in.

She would add in the new pieces daily as they progressed and by now the map was extremely detailed and pleasant to look at.

"We have two possible routes to continue the advance," a scout was saying, as he pointed at the map, "We can break off from the river and head south, the lands there are a little steep but we can manage a march through it, then once we get down we can work our way to the water fall site,"

"The other thing we can do is cross the river, there is a natural crossing about a mile back, if we explore the other side, we could find a faster way to get back to the river," the scout stated both their options.

No one seemed to know which path to take, both had a ton of unknowns and it really didn't matter which side they chose, the prospects were the same, but they all seemed to carry an invisible weight on their shoulders.

If they chose a path and things didn't go well it would make the entire expedition turn into a resounding failure.

Lirian sighed as a heavy silence filled the tent.

"I told you that the old plan is a bust we won't be following it," Lirian' voice echoed in everyone's ears.

"It's pointless to continue following the river, from now on we no longer have a target destination, when our exploration resumes our main focus will be to fill in the map," Lirian said taking control of the crowd.

"From here on out, we will split up into groups and continue the exploration," he commanded.

Hinata was looking at the map from a gap in the crowd, but at Lirians words her eyes sparkled, over the past few days she had been growing gloomy, due to the compactness of the group, she doubted that she would have been able to do the next part of her task.

She needed to find a way to split Lirian off from the group and get him in an isolated area, but until now it appeared to be an impossible task.

With the expedition splitting up into separate groups it would make it that much easier to get Lirian to break away from the group and as his guard she'd be able to stick close to him, highlighting his location.

"Split up!?", several of them cried out in surprise, "I don't think that's a good idea," Media said swiftly.

They were relying on his authority to keep the students in check, without his constant supervision things would go awry.

Lirian drummed his fingers on the table, "Everyone get out, candidates stay behind," Lirian said in his usual rude manner.

Once the tent emptied out he continued with just the candidates, "From now on we'll be splitting up into three companies to continue the exploration."

"Wait!" Media cried, ", didn't you appoint me as deputy-commander, why am I not getting a say on this?" she shouted indignantly.

"Because you still haven't given up on your goal," Lirian sighed in exasperation, "The most important thing that one has to learn is that 90% of the time your plans, won't work out and that's when you do damage control."

"It wasn't my fault that this stupid waterfall got in the way," Media complained while clenching her fist tightly.

"No matter how much you plan, something unexpected will happen, I'm sure that you've read some books that speak of that rule, you are getting first hand experience in that rule, so watch and learn how you deal with such a situation, or have you forgotten the main reason I put you in charge," Lirian said firmly.

Media shrank back with her head lowered, with her position it was rare that anyone ever spoke down to her, she held in her building frustration

Wentian found Lirians reaction to this new problem a little strange, the others were panicking slightly but he was acting like it was just an ordinary problem that he could resolve at any time.

"Did you expect this to happen?" Wentian asked in an attempt to take all the attention of Media, her plan had already failed and everyone focusing on it wasn't make it any easier for her to deal with it.

"I always expect everything to go wrong," Lirian said nonchalantly, "That way nothing ever takes me by surprise."

"Now if you guys want me to tell you everything that I think could go wrong, I'd be talking every last second of the day and through the nights,"

"And I get that you all love the sound of my voice, but good things should be enjoyed in small doses, otherwise you won't appreciate it as much," Lirian complain with an exaggerated expression on his face.

Lirian heard all of them grunt in complaint of his never ceasing shamelessness and chuckled jovially.

"Forget about it," Edith sighed, 'I can't believe I'm dating a guy that lacks all pretence on shame,' she sighed with a grievance.

"I'm more interested in your plan to split the group into three, when we only have two paths two take," Edith inquired.

"The goal of our group has changed," Lirian stated, "We are no longer heading for a fixed location with a fixed goal, so we have to change tactics," he spoke like it was an obvious fact.

"From now onwards we'll be operating with a fixed base, and that base will be right over here by the waterfall," Lirian told them.

"And instead of pursuing only one side of the waterfall we'll split the group into two, we have more than enough people to do it,"

Lirian detailed out the new plan for them, 500 of the students would remain at the main camp, while the other 2500 would be split equally into the two exploration groups to cover both sides of the river.

Two candidates would lead each group, and two would remain at the main base and instead of trying to move far out and remain on a single fixed route, they would cover each area they entered and gradually explore it.

"Now all that's left is to decide who goes to which group," Tobias said with folded arms.

"I'll obviously be taking control of the main base," Lirian said, ", and Media will be leading one of the exploration groups," he added quickly, he still wanted to give Media a chance to prove herself, and this way it would be less stressful for her.

"As for the rest of you, why don't you guys play a game of emperors gambit, the person with the most wins gets first choice," Lirian suggested.

Cole shrugged and brought his hands forward with a fist on his palm, "I always win at emperors gambit," he said with a goofy grin and challenged the others.

Cole proved his ability to them all, he didn't lose a single match as he challenged each candidate, when he won he chose to go along with Media's group.

Then Tobias and Wentian won choosing to go on the exploration path, Edith pouted at her awful luck, she had lost every single time even when she chanted 'rock, paper, scissors' at the top of her lungs, but she wasn't to saddened by her fate.

It was only natural that the candidates would want to lead the exploration, but since it meant that she got to spend some time with her new boyfriend, it made it a welcome surprise for her.

"Looks like we can get some alone time," Lirian flashed his teeth as he grinned and spoke to her in a flirty tone.

"I wanted to delay this as much as possible but since the group will be splitting up, we'll need to assign all the roles before we leave tomorrow," he sighed, in truth he wanted to hand out the roles gradually as what was most needed became apparent.

"Lirian," Media piped up now that she had some time to think things over, she was grateful that Lirian was giving her an opportunity to prove herself again, but she still worried about one problem.

"Without you present at all times to reign in the students, how are we going to maintain control of everyone?" as the words left her mouth, the others felt their mood fall.

Things proceeded so well until this point that they forgot that the main reason that things went so well was Lirians presence alone.

"You guys don't have to worry about that, I'll have a good talk with them before you set out," Lirian flashed them a wickedly wide grin.

"We don't have anytime to waste, we need to begin assigning the new roles immediately," Lirian said seriously.