Chapter 87 - Change Of Plans

Things moved quite smoothly for the next few days as both Oceabal and Kraetor went through some changes. The damaged portions of the city were slowly being fixed, and the people had returned to their simple daily routine, albeit with a little tension in the air.

Anyone with more than two brain cells would be able to easily tell that a war was coming. Of course, no one will stand by idly after what the Henshaw Dynasty had done. There would be repercussions of their actions, and everyone knew that.

Mohawk instructed some of his men to guide certain groups of soldiers from the city guards, and teach them the basics of war. It was quite obvious from what he had seen, that the people of the Northern Continent were not ready for war at all. It was either that, or he was too strong for them to properly fight back, but he believed that they were just too unprepared.

And he was right.

Only a day after he had assigned his men to guide the city guards, they had reported to him that the guards had only learnt the bare basics, and were quite poor when it came to overall fighting.

The only place that they excelled in was their teamwork, considering that they always trained together, but aside from that, their other factors barely reached the bare minimum.

"Break their backs for all I care. All I want is for you to make sure that they can hold their own when we strike Fressia." Mohawk dismissed them with that sentence and a wave of his hand. There was little for him to do at this point in time. They had already decided that Fressia would be their next target, and he had relayed that information to Malim. All he needed to do was wait until it was time to strike.

While Mohawk was thinking of their next plans, the various other leaders of the forces that would march to Fressia were busy making their own preparations. Han in particular took it upon himself to get a bit of training in. He, along with several other demi-humans were practicing in one of the training grounds that was rather close to the city gates when they heard a bit of a commotion at the gates.

"I can check it out. You guys carry on." Han waved to the others to continue what they were doing, while he stepped out of the training grounds and approached the city gates that were under reconstruction.

There, half a dozen city guards that were o their patrol shift were questioning a Werewolf that had appeared before the gates.

"State you business!" The leader among them called out to the Werewolf.

"I come from the Belmun pack! The Patriarch of the Bolvar Tribe told me that my Patriarch will be here. I have an urgent message!" The man urgently replied.

"Michael, it that you?!" Han jogged past the guards and approached the Werewolf.

"Patriarch!" The man immediately bowed his head to show his respect.

"What brings you all the way out here? Did something happen?" Han asked with a frown on his face.

"Patriarch, the pack - We were attacked!"

.

.

After the initial shock, Han quickly led the messenger straight to the Seat of Power. The messenger then quickly recounted the events that had happened some time ago to those who were present.

"It was a normal day, as usual, but then a literal rain of arrows came down on us from nowhere. Our scouts had no idea that anyone had crossed the boundary of our territory, so we were not able to prepare in time. The casualties were not too heavy, but then an army of humans and demi-humans alike swarmed our village and took away all the women and able bodied young men. The rest of us were badly injured. I was one of the least injured, and immediately set out to find you. A separate messenger went off to the Zelan pack to warn them about the attack as well." The man explained to everyone present.

Han's clenched fist shook with barely concealed rage. The whole incident reeked of the Henshaw Dynasty. It seemed like they were already pulling out their cards now that they had started losing ground.

"The Henshaws are getting restless." Mohawk sighed tiredly. This would have to call for a change in their plans. They couldn't just go ahead with their plans when they Henshaws had basically flipped the table.

"Let me contact the others." Mohawk announced and pulled out the short distance communication scroll.

The usual eerie glow pulsed around the scroll before writing appeared on it. Mohawk had chosen to contact Malim first, seeing as he was the head of their whole mission. Whatever the man decided was what they would do.

The Wereape quickly relayed the matter to Malim, explaining that they would have to change their approach, before waiting for Malim's reply. It took some time, but the man eventually replied.

~

We will carry on with the attack on Fressia. We will need their support if we are to strike back at the Henshaw Dynasty. When that is done, we will move on to attacking the dynasty.

Relay the news to Tide and Ariel. I will contact Sir Delk.

~

The glow around the scroll went out after that. Mohawk immediately went to contact his companions over at Oceabal, after informing everyone of Malim's decision.

The planning began immediately. They would head out to take back control of Fressia in a couple of days after joining up with the forces from Oceabal and the beachhead. After that, they would go on to rendezvous with the Bolvar Tribe and the Zelan pack.

As for the rest of the Belmun pack, Han ordered the messenger to return and instruct everyone to relocate to the Zelan pack's territories immediately.. Until they were ready to march on the Henshaw Dynasty's lands, they would remain under the protection of Daven and his people.