( 7 days later )
For 7 days Max took his time in trying to understand the strength and weaknesses of his troops and have a grasp of their exact abilities, while simultaneously studying about the strengths and weaknesses of his enemies.
After his research Max was able to get a firm grip over all the Garrison commanders under him as the incident about him beating the shit out of Regus's son spread like a wildfire amongst the troops.
The respect the soldiers had for Max, skyrocketed for having the balls to fight the son of the vampire king and still hang onto his position without consequences as they realised that he was one man who genuinely gave no fucks about the hierarchy.
The soldier's genuinely started to believe that war was right around the corner with the new Captain in power and began preparing for a fight.
Everything was smoothly in motion and the future course of action now depended on Severus and his report which Max expected to come today.
*Knock* *Knock*
A knock was heard on Max's office door,as Max asked the individual to come in.
" Agh, Severus, I was just waiting for you " Max said as he beamed looking at Severus who looked absolutely horrible.
Severus had twigs in his hair and was covered in Ash from head to toe as he looked nothing like his usual clean disposition and instead looked like a hoodlum from the streets who was hungry for 7 days.
" Before I begin my report, I'd like to make a point. So please have patience with me" Severus said as Max nodded and signalled him to go on.
" The barbarians have HORRIBLE hygiene, they don't deserve to live on this planet.
The fools take a dump in the open and don't even bother to cover it with sand, they are the epitome of disgusting creatures and I will not stand their presence on this planet! " Severus complained passionately as Max consoled him for a good 1 minute before urging him to move onto more important topics.
" The North-eastern fort is old construction, the barbarians have not bothered to do a proper upkeep on the fort and it most definitely cannot handle a volcanic explosion.
It has roughly 10,000 local troops, a tier4 chieftain and what I believe is around 2000 civilian staff.
But the civilian barbarians are also barbarians and you never know who decides to pick a weapon and join a fight, so although weaker, consider them to be a part of the fighting force.
They also have two teams stationed outside the fort of thousand troops each which patrol the borders in shifts of day and night.
So any attack you plan will first need to go through the border patrol.
The despicable barbarians have also decided to pair up with dark faction players as there are definitely at least 3 Shamans within their camp that I can vouch for which are definitely practising dark magic.
I'm sure any official investigation on the subject will end up being fruitless, but one needs to be careful of them regardless.
According to my information, the ravens you see in the sky, those innocent looking birds, are controlled by the shamans and are tools for gathering information on the enemy, so expect them to already know your face and the exact number of troops that you command.
The first thing we need to do is to neutralise them, if we ever want to march on the enemy without being noticed.
On the other hand, the harvest is blossoming in the Unakku region and everywhere I travelled it was filled with abundant crops which I expect to ripen in 10-15 days.
The volcano itself is calm, the lava is about 50 metres below the top and shows no signs of rising, however, a little bit of water magic and alchemy will happily make it explode any day of the week that you wish for.
On the other hand, The South-western fort is a little more modern, away from the natural slope path of the volcano and guarded by an early tier5 chieftain.
It has about 16,000 troops inside the fort, 2000 or so patrolling outside and is built on a strategic highpoint.
On one side of the fort are sharp cliffs, on the other is a hard rocky mountain, while the third side has no entry points and is made from 100 metre tall walls filled with Archer towers.
The last and only viable entry point is a slope that can be well defended and is a nightmare for any army to scale.
The 16,000 men inside can easily stave off at least 100,000 and is built with the purpose of being the guardpost of the frontlines.
The next major fort for the barbarians is a days worth away from the South-Western fort and hence should the southern fort fall we would gain anywhere from 400-500 kms of ground easy helping our side open many new battlefronts.
But again doing so within 24 hours is also impossible as the standard procedure is that anytime that the North-eastern fort is attacked and the distress signal is lit, the South-western fort sends reinforcements there while the backlines send major reinforcements to the South-western fort.
So basically the time limit that we have to conquer both the forts is 24 hours and in my personal opinion doing so with just 14-16 thousand troops that are under your command with me being the only tier4 warrior under your command is impossible ". Severus reported as Max clutched his head in worry.
The problem with Severus's scouting was that although accurate the bastard had no diplomacy on how to relay the information to his superiors so that it doesn't sound so depressing, as the way Severus painted the picture to Max, Max felt like quitting the mission right away.
" I'll figure out a way Severus thank-you for all your hardwork, but don't fucking tell me what to do.
If I can floor a rebel city with just 16 troops then I can sure as hell conquer two forts in 24 hours, It just needs proper planning on my part.
In the meanwhile relay the order to shoot down every fucking raven from the sky.
We don't need spies floating around our territory for sure ". Max said as he dismissed Severus.