"We… need some time."


    Arthur stood in front of the old man, Nicole''s father, with the elders of the n. They looked in pride to Arthur while a huge number of people wereing from everywhere to here.


    "I''ll have to move on," Arthur helplessly smiled, "you keep amassing a poption here and when you are done, just enter inside as well, got it?"


    "Moving out so soon?" the old man looked hesitant, "I thought you''ll stay a couple of days here."


    "I don''t have time for that," Arthur smiled before adding, "when Nicolees back, tell her I''ll wait for her after this is all over."


    The face of the old man beamed with joy while Arthur turned into a dragon and left the ce in a hurry. "It''s enough so far," he muttered, "I hope they have amassed enough poption as well."


    He didn''t proceed forward anymore. After all, the number of people amassed by Nicole''s n seemed more than enough. He had much confidence in the forces he gathered inside his garden.


    Plus his garden was special in everything, so he was pretty sure those living there now would gain many benefits for themselves.


    ''I''ll leave the portals here until no one enters anymore,'' Gege said while her tone showed some envy and disturbance after the night that just passed.


    "Good," Arthur nodded, "I want you to ry my orders inside… any mage should train and any viger should start working on collecting ores and building defensive and offensive gears."


    ''War preparations… got it,'' she said before the golden dragon said:


    ''What about that chick?''


    Arthur felt he wasn''t asking out of pure will but he was trying to tease Gege, and he seeded.


    ''Humph, I''ll go inside my body and supervise everything while you three can continue your dirty talks.''


    ''Hahaha,'' the golden dragonughed before adding, ''I told you, she is totally in you man.''


    ''…''


    Arthur refrained from speaking until he returned again to the deste academy grounds. There he found the ce changed dramatically with a huge number of mages and people filling what was vacant before.


    "Finally you came back," Amera sighed the moment she spotted him from far before she appeared with her fast speed in front of him. "We have been here for one whole night now."


    "Impressive," Arthur nced all around before adding, "I believe this will be enough to stop that army."


    "Not even close," Doaf appeared with the crow before adding, "in numbers we have the higher forces, but in reality these can''t win that army."


    "Don''t worry," Arthur smiled, "I''ve gathered far more than these."


    "More?" the crow asked in a strange tone, "we went everywhere and amassed all of these only. Howe you bring more?"


    "It''s my secret," Arthurughed before waving his hand and the next instantrge number of portals appeared, "make them all enter. We will head directly towards there."


    They nced over the portals that appeared out of nowhere and sighed. "This… you have more tricks than I guessed," Amera couldn''t help but say.


    "I have much more if you want to see," he yfully said while she only sneered. "Keep dreaming kid, I like your spirit."


    Arthur only smiled and said nothing. He waited patiently for a couple hours before deciding to move all alone forward.


    He left the portals there as he calcted they would take more than one day to finish entering his garden.


    This time he didn''t fly alone as he had his werewolf beside the other three as well.


    "Do you think they have cracked the city by now?" the crow asked while they were getting near the location of the battle.


    "I don''t think so," Arthur sighed before adding, "I believe if they did then I would have gotten a word for that."


    "We should have left some eyes there," Amera said, "at least we wouldn''t be left in the dark like this."


    "Next time," Doaf said and when Arthur nced weirdly at him he added, "you don''t think this would be thest battle here, it''s just the beginning of the big war."


    Arthur nodded as he understood what Doaf was referring to. In half a day they managed to finally reach the outer region of the battle.


    "They… strange," the first one to speak of them was the werewolf who rarely opened his mouth during the flight.


    "I can''t agree more," the crow nced in a serious way, "they didn''t even try to attack the city… very strange indeed."


    "I told you," Arthur sighed, "this technique isn''t the only trap they prepared for us."


    "Wise decision indeed," Doaf said, referring to the decision of leaving the ce and not entering the city as he and the others suggested.


    "Let''s take our time and investigate them then," Amera was feeling nervous as she added, "I don''t like it when my enemy has many secrets I don''t know."


    "Let''s spread out then," Doaf said, "I''ll go this way," he pointed to a direction far from their current location.


    Everyone turned around and went to a different direction leaving Arthur behind with his werewolf. Arthur only stayed there and didn''t move.


    He kept watching the city standing erect with that strange shield around. The enemy forces surrounded the city half a mile away while not stepping towards it or trying to attack those inside.


    "Are we going to do nothing?'' the werewolf asked.


    "No, we are going to collect valuable first handed information."


    The werewolf didn''t get his meaning until he saw Arthur taking out a bird''s wing. Arthur sent a message to Amelia, asking her to debrief him of what happened since he left.


    "They tried to attack a couple of times but they were repelled. Since then they only camped outside, strangely waiting."


    Amelia''s answer came swiftly to him while he didn''t get any useful info from her so far. "Any suspicious moves other than this?" he wrote to her.


    "They kept digging the ground.. Things were buried deep and then the holes were closed with dirt."