My Kingdom Building Done Right!
Chapter 251: Minor Inconvenience
Kael looked at the burning forest with a solemn look on his face.
His great mood from his granddaughter finally managing to climb onto Leone’s bed was long gone.
Their Great Chieftain might not have bestowed her his seed, she had still earned his favor. For now, Kael was satisfied with that development.
He even planned to walk up to Leone and strike a conversation about making Aria his nighttime companion. It didn’t matter even if they didn’t do anything. Simply sleeping on the same bed had its perks.
Of course, not now.
War was upon them, after all.
As someone who could see the big picture, he understood this wasn’t the time to be fooling around.
The flames were spreading. Even though the wind totems were driving the wind back in the opposite direction, it wouldn’t last for a long time.
At most, the totems would only last for an hour. Once their effect ended, the smoke would drift back toward the mountain because the wind was blowing in their direction.
The only saving grace was that the gusts of wind from the totem was stronger than the wind blowing toward the mountain. This forced the smoke in the direction of the Darkmane Tribe’s camp, prompting them to evacuate farther away from the forest.
With the smoke serving as a natural smokescreen, the Orcs and the warriors of the Aslan Tribe went to work.
Logan hurried to the middle part of the forest and started hacking trees while moving west.
On the other hand, Khan did the same but moved toward the east.
They planned to create a natural barrier so the entire forest wouldn’t burn down.
Ulric and the others were also helping them, cutting everything in their path.
Even Astravor took off to the skies and unleashed Wind Blades, cutting as many trees as possible.
On the other hand, Daedalus flew toward the forest and collected fallen trees along with their tree stumps and roots.
That way, the fire wouldn’t spread toward the Aslan Tribe’s first line of defense.
Though, since the Darkmane Tribe had already tried to burn the forest once, they deemed that the other would do the same to the rest of the forest.
While this was problematic in its own right, they needed to focus on the matter at hand first.
With the Orcs and the warriors of the Aslan Tribe working together, the natural barrier was soon formed.
Between the burning trees and the rest of the forest, a clearing at least a hundred meters wide was established.
The thick light-gray smoke continued to rise from the burning forest.
Leone watched this with a solemn gaze while telepathically discussing with Daedalus. They needed to decide on a method to handle the current situation.
"Cutting down the entire forest is not feasible. Our warriors will soon get exhausted," Daedalus stated. "The forest fire will not spread further now that the firebreak is finished, but the Darkmane Tribe will likely continue burning the forest as long as the wind blows in our direction."
The flames used to burn the trees were made from sorcery, so they wouldn’t extinguish that easily.
The irony was quite funny. Leone had also used the same method to set Darkmane City on fire.
Alchemy Fire.
It was a consumable item that could be bought from the Arcane Shop, which he gave to Hassan before they left to do their mission.
"Now I don’t feel so bad about burning their city down," Leone stated.
"Damn right." Daedalus agreed.
"Daedalus, if we make the walls higher, can that stop the smoke from heading to us?"
"No," Daedalus replied. "If the smoke hits the wall, it will rise up and overflow like water once it reaches the top. The only thing we can do for now is take shelter inside the mountain and let it pass."
Leone pondered. "If the forest burns, how long do you think it will take before the flames and smoke die out?"
There were two rivers that split the forest apart, so the entire forest wouldn’t burn down. However, the aftermath of a large forest fire was still troublesome not only for the Aslan Tribe, but also for the Darkmane Tribe.
"It depends," Daedalus answered. "It can last for hours, perhaps even days. If we are unlucky, then more than a week."
Hearing that, a faint smile appeared on Leone’s face. "If that’s the case, aren’t we the ones at an advantage?"
"We are the ones with the advantage?" Daedalus was quite curious as to how its Master came to that conclusion. How so?"
"Food and water," Leone replied. "The Darkmane Tribe might run out of supplies first. In fact, we can make them lose their supplies faster if we put our backs into it."
"Right!" Daedalus agreed. "If that happens, they will no longer attempt to burn down the rest of the forest."
Feeding a large army wasn’t easy. That was why some campaigns had to be completed in a fixed period of time.
Unless they could freely hunt for food to sustain their numbers, prolonged wars were not ideal in the Borderlands.
The Aslan Tribe had no problem when it came to food supply. In fact, this was one of the reasons why Leone could just ask everyone to hide in the mountain until the Darkmane Tribe called it quits.
However, he had guests with him. Plus, he didn’t want them to see the Hidden Valley.
For now, he planned to let them evacuate to the shallow layers of the underground tunnels, where they would stay until the forest fire was dealt with.
After coming to a conclusion, Leone sent a telepathic message to his vassals, asking them all to return to the fortress.
The Orcs and the squirrels also retreated to the fortress. After an emergency discussion, everyone decided to seek shelter inside the mountain for the time being.
Godwin, Hagen, and Malik were also evacuated from their villas and escorted to the Aslan Tribe’s temporary dwelling.
Gundar, on the other hand, said that he would remain and head toward the location of the other tribes once the smoke died down a bit.
He was worried that Troy and Jafar would do something reckless to the Grimhowl Tribe.
Once everyone had safely entered the mountain, Leone raised a wall to close off the entrance to the cave.
The power of the wind totems were also deactivated, allowing the thick smoke from the burning forest to reach the mountain.
Truth be told, Leone wasn’t worried that the Darkmane Tribe would use this situation to attack them.
Daedalus could easily sense if their enemies had made their move and warn him if there were any attacks.
Once the smoke settled down a bit, or when the wind changed its direction, Leone would then hatch his counterattack.
In the eyes of many, it might seem that the one with the upper hand in the first stage of the battle was the Darkmane Tribe.
But in the eyes of the Aslan tribe, the fire was only a minor inconvenience.
Of course, there were also creatures who were very angry about their homes getting burned, including Blitz and the squirrels.
Because of it, the little ones vowed that they would avenge their homes.
This was also why when Leone explained to Blitz and Hassan their planned counterattack, the flying squirrel was more than happy to take the mission, which would force the Darkmane Tribe to reconsider their options.