“If you wish for it, then it shall be done, Exalted One,” said Ani after Esperanza’s group returned to the forest and she briefed the older warrior woman of her intentions. Ani showed no reluctance at Esperanza’s plan, and even radiated a sense of confidence instead. “Such a task should be relatively easy for us to do, at this point.”

 

“You think so?” asked Esperanza with some surprise. She had consulted Ani many times in their previous strikes on demon bases, and the woman had clearly been more cautious in those days. At present, though, instead of caution she had an attitude that suggested that what Esperanza had planned was rather trivial for the group to perform. “Can you elaborate your reasoning a bit on that?”

 

All that despite how the place they planned to hit this time would be closer to the frontlines than ever before, with likely more and stronger demons on guard. As such, Esperanza was rather taken aback by the unusual confidence Ani showed compared to the past, and couldn’t help but ask for more clarification on the matter.

 

“We were weaker, and the [Progenies of Yore] less experienced at that time,” stated Ani bluntly. Back when they struck several bases in the demon’s territories, the children in question were indeed still lower in level, and less used to fighting, especially against people. At the present, however, most of them only lagged a level or two behind Esperanza, who was on her way to hit the fourth tier in the near future herself, and they had fought against elites without giving ground. 

 

“So you feel we’re now strong enough to pull off such an attack without much risk to ourselves or the children, que?” asked Esperanza back for more confirmation. If the older, more experienced Ani was that confident, it was a good omen, since the woman was more experienced than she herself was in such matters. 

 

“Yes. My own people have benefited greatly from our travels so far and have reached the fourth tier one and all. We must not disparage ourselves, Exalted One. Each of the children are easily equal to a mid-level fourth tier these days. A force of twenty fourth tiers is something even an army would consider twice before engaging,” said Ani with a confident nod. “We would be able to sneak around far easier, since we have the power to make sure that we won’t be found, or that any who somehow found us would not make it back to report our presence.”

 

“Fair point, I guess,” admitted Esperanza. She was still somewhat unfamiliar with the power structure in Ephemera compared to the natives, but Ani’s reminder that their group had the equivalent of twenty combat-oriented fourth tiers was an obvious one. Ani and the infiltrators had mentioned to her that they rarely ever saw that amount of fourth tiers gathered in one place other than when large battles were happening.

 

In most cases a town or a base that’s further away from the frontlines would only have one or two fourth tiers – if they had any at all – presiding over it, like the bases the group had struck in the demon territories back then. Only large cities and military bases of importance would have more, which tended to be where most of the fourth tier combatants gathered other than the frontlines.

 

On the frontlines, they were instead distributed depending on the situation, with more important places having more people looking after it. The speed with which such people could often travel helped ensure that they would be able to respond rapidly to a developing situation, in some ways serving as the rapid response teams of the frontlines.

 

From what Esperanza heard of Alissa, the [Heroes]’ party was also already equivalent to fourth tiers – if more on the lower end – in power. They had been stationed at important spots so far, since the three places they had been to were heavily guarded by over twenty fourth tiers each. Most places would have had no such luxury, and Alissa’s group alone was equivalent to adding on another eleven fourth tiers to the mix, to boot.

 

“Have everyone prepare to move out. We’ll leave by dawn tomorrow,” said Esperanza in the end, having made her decision after the discussion with Ani. Ani relayed her words obediently to the others, and after they spent the night as usual in the forest, the group moved out together by the morning as she commanded them.

 

Like they had always done so far, the group mostly traveled through forests or other uninhabited areas, veering a bit eastwards, since they knew that there would be a military base at the end of the gorge that ran between Eastcliff and Westcliff. When they came across roads that cut through the forests, they’d cross rapidly when there was nobody in sight, cleaning up their trails to ensure that their presence remained hidden from prying eyes.

 

By the evening, the group was already close to the frontline where the battles took place, and they veered even further eastwards to make sure that they wouldn’t get caught up in the fighting. The next morning they passed by the temporary camp made by the human army – where Alissa was – and slipped closer towards the nebulous border between the human kingdom and the demon territories.

 

Quite naturally, both sides had sentries and patrols to watch out for infiltrators from the other side, but with the vast area those watchmen had to look after, it was still relatively easy to slip past them, especially when one’s prowess was so many times greater than the guards in question. Esperanza’s group actually crossed the border in the simplest manner.

 

They simply gathered together closely and Esperanza covered them all under her [Veil of Entropy] as they slipped past the sentries from both sides, slipping into the demon-conquered areas with nobody the wiser. Her skill alone was more than enough to hide the group’s passage from the watchers along the border, and once they reached the demon-conquered area, they went further south while still staying in uninhabited regions.

 

After their victory, the demons had naturally taken over Fort Gurzil and used it as their base. In fact, a lot of the demon bases Esperanza had dealt with were likely the kingdom’s bases that the demons took over in the previous war along with the territory. Even from afar, Esperanza could tell that there were at least a couple dozen fourth tiers if not more in Fort Gurzil, so she and her group hid their auras and snuck past the fort cautiously.

 

It was hard for her to tell whether the humans or the demons had brought more force to the battle, but they seemed pretty evenly matched as far as Esperanza could tell.

 

What Esperanza had in mind was to sabotage the demons’ war efforts, while having the humans play scapegoat for their deeds, like they had done previously. 

 

While Fort Gurzil was too well-guarded at the moment, since the battle had died down and the demons had returned to the place, it was likely guarded more relaxedly during the day, when both sides were fighting. That gave her group a possible opening to abuse in order to mess with the demons when they were vulnerable.

 

Also, it took a great amount of food to keep the tens of thousands of demons that gathered there fed well enough to fight battles, and that food could only come from deeper in the demon territories, so Esperanza and her group laid low and watched over the situation behind the fort for a couple of days, as they learned the routes that supply convoys would take, as well as how many guards were typically assigned to such convoys.

 

It had to be said that the demons were quite vigilant even in their own territory, as they had three of their fourth tiers stay with the supply convoy at all times, both on its way towards the fort and on the way back. Other than the three fourth tiers, the supply convoy was also guarded by around thirty more high-leveled third tiers and a couple hundred soldiers in the low third tier or high second tiers.

 

That group of guards practically stuck to the supply convoy like glue, which made the convoy difficult to attack unless one brought a force that was capable of overwhelming them. Esperanza’s group was definitely capable of that, but they also had other worries to think about, as if they brought the entire group, they would need to ensure that nobody survived to tell the tale and spread word of their existence. 

 

As for the fort, Esperanza canceled the thought she had about attempting to sabotage the place while most of the demons were out fighting. The demons left at least four or five – if not more – of their fourth tiers to guard the fort while they fought, which would be a tough fight for the people amongst her group that could pass – or were – humans to handle on their own.

 

There were far too many demons at the fort that bringing the entire group was out of the question, as it would reveal their identity if they did so. There was simply no way they could silence so many demons reliably, or even keep them all from escaping. As such, it was not worth it for them to risk attacking the fort, so instead Esperanza thought of sabotaging the supply convoy.

 

The route taken by the supply convoy passed through several places that would be quite convenient to set an ambush at, though the demons likely had no such worries since they ruled over the area after all. Esperanza, Ani, and the others gathered together to decide which place would be the safest to set an ambush on, since they would need to ensure that none of the enemies escaped their hands.

 

In the end, they chose a mountainous area around three days further south, which was part of the route the supply convoy took. The mountainous area was mostly composed of lower, gently sloped mountains and wide valleys, but as it happened, two large streams originated from near the peak of the highest mountain in the chain.

 

To cross the area between the streams, the convoy would have to climb up to a height of around three hundred feet, where a wide enough path for them to use was carved along the mountainside, then cross bridges over each stream before they could continue on their way. The mountain road was wide enough to allow two wagons to move side by side comfortably, but it was a precarious drop to one side and the sheer mountain itself on the other, so there was not much room to maneuver.

 

While there weren’t many places to hide in that area, if Esperanza’s group could strike while the supply convoy was in the area between the two streams – it was a long enough distance that trapping the entire convoy there was a feasible thing – and they cut the bridges, the demons would have nowhere to escape to. 

 

Of course, it would be the twenty-five of them against over ten times their number in demons, but when it came to power, their group had the advantage, since their individual members were far more powerful. Only three of the demons could even give them a fight, so the fighting was not the part they worried about. Rather, it was where they could hide themselves that needed quite a bit of thought from the group since there simply weren’t many places to hide on the mountain trail for the most part.

 

There was a bend shortly after the second bridge where a group could hide easily, but the hard part was finding a place to hide for the first group that would strike at the first bridge and cut off the convoy’s retreat, as it was wide open on that side. It took the group a while before they finally decided on a plan that they deemed feasible and likely to succeed.