Chapter 90: A Moment Before Battle.
Andrea pulled out the chair opposite the siblings before taking her seat. Her eyes remained fixed on Ethan from the moment he sat down.
"Ethan, I’m glad you made it back alive... but we’re running out of time. Tell me everything you saw. Leave nothing out."
Ethan nodded.
He didn’t blame Andrea for skipping over his injuries. There would be time to rest if they survived. Right now, whatever information he had brought back was worth far more than a few cuts and bruises.
"I fought the Chief."
Claire shot upright.
"What?"
Her voice rose before she caught herself.
"Which part of scouting sounded like fight the Eidolon Chief?"
Ethan immediately looked towards Andrea with the expression of someone silently begging to be rescued.
Andrea let out a quiet cough.
"I’m sure he had his reasons, Claire. Sit down and let him finish."
Claire folded her arms tightly across her chest. Normally she would drag Ethan back outside and lecture him for the next hour, but she forced herself back into the chair.
Ethan scratched the back of his head.
"I wasn’t trying to fight him... I got closer because I wanted a better estimate of their numbers. They were organised, fully armed, and there were hundreds of them. Probably over a thousand, maybe even more. I would’ve counted properly if he hadn’t found me."
The room fell silent.
"The Chief noticed me almost immediately. After that, escaping wasn’t really an option anymore."
Ethan unconsciously rubbed one of the cuts across his shoulder.
"He’s ridiculously strong, not just physically... it’s the way he fights so aggressively, the way he thinks. It felt like every move I made had already been predicted. Honestly, I never felt like I had even the slightest chance of beating him."
Andrea remained expressionless, though the information only confirmed what she had already suspected.
"What about the weapon?"
Ethan nodded immediately.
"It’s impossible to miss. Massive, covered in runes... they’re transporting it with the army."
Andrea fell silent for a short moment.
She replayed Ethan’s report in her head, comparing it against everything Damien had told them after his infiltration of the Eidolon army. The two accounts didn’t contradict each other, if anything, they only made the situation even stranger.
"Based on the damage reports I got after Damien paid them a visit, they shouldn’t even be able to march anymore. All their siege weapons, their supplies and even their army should’ve suffered catastrophic losses."
Ethan slapped his sister’s hand away before she could start fussing over another cut on his face.
"I didn’t see any siege weapons other than the giant weapon itself. I think Damien’s reports were more or less accurate at the time."
Andrea nodded slowly.
That was exactly what troubled her.
The undead had undoubtedly crippled the Eidolon army. Their advance had slowed considerably afterwards, proving the losses were real. Yet somehow, in only a matter of days, the Chief and his newly appointed Priest had stabilised the army enough to resume the march.
She didn’t know how they had managed it.
Whether they had discovered another source of supplies, possessed some unknown ability, or simply abandoned everything that was no longer essential, she couldn’t tell.
Fortunately. It changed very little.
"I expected the Chief to retreat to the ruined city, replenish his supplies, recruit more Eidolons and excavate additional siege weapons from the ruins before attempting another assault." Andrea rested both elbows on the table, her fingers interlocked beneath her chin. "Instead, he abandoned all of that and continued marching straight towards us...
That tells me one thing, his confidence lies in the weapon".
Andrea’s voice remained calm.
"That weapon is now our highest priority. If we can destroy it before it gets close enough to the camp, Rex’s boundary ability becomes more valuable. The battlefield will shift back in our favour, and we can reduce the number of casualties before the plan is carried out".
Ethan blinked.
"What plan?"
Andrea paused, only then did she realise she’d spoken a little more than she intended. Before she could respond, Claire smacked Ethan across the back of the head.
"Don’t ask pointless questions."
Ethan rubbed the sore spot and looked at his sister with an aggrieved expression. He had no idea what he’d done wrong this time, but experience had taught him there was no point arguing with Claire. No matter how strong he became, somehow, she always found a way to win.
So he swallowed the injustice in silence.
Andrea let out a quiet sigh.
She had no intention of explaining the entire operation to Ethan. Not because she didn’t trust him, but because there simply wasn’t a point to doing so.
"How long do you think it’ll take them to reach us?"
Ethan leaned back in his chair and thought for a few seconds before answering.
"They’re already pretty close. At the pace they’re marching. I’d say half a day at most, maybe less if they decide to speed things up."
Andrea nodded, that was all she needed to hear.
"Then we’ll meet them in the open field."
Ethan frowned.
He wasn’t much of a strategist, and he had no intention of pretending otherwise, but even to him that sounded like an awful idea.
"Wouldn’t it make more sense to stay inside the camp and force them to attack us? At least we’d have the defensive advantage."
Andrea smiled faintly.
"Our barricades are made of timber. They were built to slow ordinary monsters, not withstand an organised army, and to make matters worse... The Eidolons happen to be dragging around a giant laser beam."
Ethan stared at her for a second before the meaning finally sank in.
"Oh."
Ethan and Claire quietly left the tent, leaving Andrea alone with the silence. Out of everyone in the camp, there were still three people whose whereabouts remained completely unknown.
Damien, Vincent and Naomi. None of them had returned.
Andrea wasn’t particularly worried. They were all more than capable of surviving on their own, especially Damien. Even so, with the battle drawing ever closer, she couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing, and whether, if their positions were reversed, he would’ve come up with a better solution than she had.