The general held an ornate kettle, and poured a transparent bland liquid into his cup. He took a sip before nodding in satisfaction. He then proceeded to fill Ria's cup as well.
"A curious beverage from abroad, just boil the leaves in water and you get something that tastes just slightly better than water."
"Tea. I heard of it. It's said to improve your mana flow, stamina and cognitive abilities."
The young man laughed. His modest vocals could project his voice just far enough for it to reach across the table to Ria.
"Haha! My lady, I thought you would be too sophisticated to believe that baseless nonsense."
"I didn't say I did. But you seem to enjoy it."
"Well, it hasn't made me throw up yet. But as for improving my mana flow and such, I have yet to see the evidence."
Ria took a sip. It was fairly bland with a hint of bitterness.There was a subtle, refreshing fragrance to the otherwise unimpressive beverage.
"It's not bad."
"Is it now? I had thought that this wine was going to be too bland for my lady."
"You can stop with the jests now, my noble general. I could have hardly imagined that the one who haggled on behalf of wyvern carvers would have such a grand post."
"Just a force of habit. I have been haggling with the spire dwellers my whole life. As for you, I could have hardly expected that a porcelain princess would show up heading a raid party for the wyvern queen."
"Hmp, this porcelain princess also would never expect to see a baby fawn in charge of a whole army either."
"Oh i'm much older than I look. I'll have you know that I am fully of marriageable age, not that I am interested in any at the moment."
Ria took another sip of tea. The general reached for the kettle and poured her another cup.
"That's my line. Does the baby fawn general not have any sense of creativity?"
"I merely express the same fact as you."
They both laughed.
"So, It would seem you are a pure blood knight as well, but isn't it too early for you to take on the responsibility of an entire army?"
"What can I do, my eldest brother is gone. My elder sister is too quirky for this role."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Don't be. He died an honorable death fighting a sandworm titan, having lived well past the median lifespan of knights, as you call them."
"Even so, you seemed quite nonchalant about it."
"Is that so? I suppose there are far more pressing issues at hand."
He took another sip of tea.
"By the way, you can me Rey. Rey hearthstone."
"Sure, General Rey. You are probably thinking the same thing. How do you propose we slay a queen wyvern."
Rey leaned back onto his chair and signed, taking another sip of his tea.
"We don't have enough information on it. We roughly know how big it is, which is about 10 times the size of each of its children. We even know where its lair is. We just don't know how to kill it."
Ria took a sip of tea.
"Just out of curiosity, How did you come to know that there is a queen wyvern somewhere in that mountain."
"Oh that part isn't hard. Shape shifting druids, automatons, eldritch summons from the spire city. They cost an arm and a leg to hire, but they all returned with the same report."
"I have only heard from connections in the major guides that they could do a deeper scouting than that."
"I don't know about that. They simply reported that there were too many wyvernlings around the lair to approach."
"Thats quite the bummer, so we have no information about the queen wyvern itself beyond a cursory glance from afar?"
"Indeed."
"Whats the plan than?"
Rey stood up and walked towards the map table. Ria followed. He took out his ruler and pointed to several marked spots on the detailed map of the mountain range.
"The teal veins. From what our scouts gather, at regular intervals, giant worms crawl up from below the earth. It appears to be the wyvern's stable food source. We will set up our defenses around these veins here, here and here. With their food source under our control, the queen wyvern will surely leave its lair and face us."
"What happens if it does? We have no way of hitting it from the ground. I think that even our champion would have difficulties with that."
"We wear her down. Dug outs in the stone and sand, resistant to fire. If its body is that big and heavy, surely it can't sustain flight for very long. If it lands, then our elite skirmishes and ballistas can reach it."
"It will be a struggle with no guarantee of success."
"As it always is."
Rey turned and faced Ria, stomach in chest out, like a real soldier.
"Pack up, my princess, we start right away."
_________________________________________________
Hikari walked at the front of the convoy. Wyvern hide suit and boots, a dessert shawl around her neck, her short sword, set of flying daggers and beads, her bow, two quivers, one imbibed with flames and the other tipped in acid.
A staple of the Herdial army to make up for their general lack of mana wielding capabilities.
The advance party trailed some distance behind, sticking to the main roads. Heavy infantry with the iron shields in two columns, guarding a squad of geomancers in between as they harden the ground on the main road. Some distance behind them, a line of bow and muskets to provide support.
They were entering the territory of the sand worms. Vicious creatures that could freely move through the sand, emerging from the ground below their prey, dragging them back down into the sand to be devoured if not swallowing them outright.
Hardening the ground would prevent them from attacking directly from below. They would have to emerge from the side of the road in a high arc, exposing their bodies to attack. Also, the flight time exposes their mouths, allowing a cluster of well drilled archers to immediately focus fire on that weak point. A lucky shot with an acid tipped arrow chases it away for good.
The main body of the convoy, a column of steam powered tankers with an expansive steel umbrella above, shielding it from sand worm and wyvern attacks from above. This allows it to safely transport sufficient quantities of troops and supplies back and forth through the inhospitable terrain.
But first, they need to do something else.
Hikari stopped. She waved a red flag over her head before tossing it aside and drawing her sword.
The rumbling of the steam tanks' massive wheels stopped. The advance parties nervously scurried back to the nearest steam tank. The remaining troops dismounted the steam tanks and readied their bows. Cannons appeared from the tanks, some deploying on the road and some on the top deck of the steam tanks.
An awkward pause. The sound of the wind. Another tense minute passed.
Then, the earth rumbled. Weakly at first, but it gradually got louder. The archers drew their bows, the warriors locked their shields.
Hikari could sense a mass of sandworms approaching her from below. At the last moment, she yanked a scroll out of her pouch, ripped it apart, and slammed her hand into the ground. The scroll abruptly hardened the ground as the worms were eating through it, crushing their heads as the sand inside and outside their mouths attempted to coalesce.
The hardened block of earth Hikari was standing on was nevertheless pushed right up by the sheer mass of sandworms rushing at her all at once, tossing Hikari up into the air but exposing their long bodies.
This was the moment the cannoneers were waiting for. Boom! Boom! The cannon batteries opened up at the pillar of sandworms, knocking off pieces of the hardened carapaces before a rain of acid tipped arrows pierced into the soft flesh. The smaller worms were ripped apart by the cannon fire.
With the thrusts of both legs, Hikari leapt off the platform just before the thrashing sandworms ripped it apart.
She drew her bow and aimed. As the platform shattered into pieces, it revealed sight straight from hell. A pit filled with famished bottomless abysses of darkness, the entrances of which were surrounded by a ring of sharp teeth.
Unfazed, Hikari releases arrow after arrow into the mouths of the biggest worms that were big enough to swallow even her whole. The monstrosities squealed and thrashed as their insides were melted by flame and acid, as they retreated back into the sand.
As she eventually lands on the ground. Another wave of sand worms pops out of the sand around her all at once, surrounding her and attempting to smother her with their numbers. A condensed, sharp horizontal flame slash cuts them in half, halting their lunge, before slowly burning away their flesh.
She has a moment of respite to catch her breath and observe that carnage that broke out across the field.
The columns that followed her were now locked in battle under conditions that were as favourable as they could ever get. Most of the smaller sandworms ended up sinking their teeth into the steel umbrellas and getting stuck, allowing the defenders to pick them off with ease. While Hikari's overwhelming presence draws the biggest of sandworms to herself.
Grabbing another scroll from her belt, she hardened the ground again. The main sandworm herd had been broken, but the sandworms were infamous for fighting until the end, for if just a segment of themselves survive, they could always regenerate.
Another wave was incinerated by her flames. But as she winds down, another wave immediately jumps at her. She barely managed to jump into the air to avoid their teeth, landing and crushing them beneath her boots as they got stuck in the hardened ground.
The fighting continued until sun down. A large sandworm lunged at Hikari who drew the last arrow in her quiver. She had lost track if it was an acid or flaming tip, but it mattered little.
Hikari peeled off her ruined armour, allowing her to air herself. It had been an intense, long drawn out battle. Most of her throwing weapons were worn out as well. But piles upon piles of burnt sandworn remains were littered all around her.
Dozens of men had gone missing, dragged into the sand and devoured. But every steam tank and their crew was more or less intact.
The day had been won.