“To play it safe, we need to consider a defensive strategy.”

“Well then, we the Red Eye will take care of strengthening the walls for a defensive fight. I hope everyone could provide help.”

The other chieftains nodded in agreement, even the depressed Zenberu did so.

“In short, we need to prepare our defences and set up a command structure.”

“First of all, we should leave the druids to Crusch, their command would be left in your hands.”

Amidst the agreement of everyone present, one person raised his objection.

“The chieftains should form a special team.”

The gaze of everyone fell on Zaryusu who had spoken.

“I see… So that how it is, brother.”

“You are saying we should form an elite team?”

“That’s right. The enemy outnumber us, if we don’t take out their commander, we might lose. If the monster that visited all the villages shows up, we can’t win by numbers, and have to destroy it with a small group of elites.”

“Wouldn’t our forces be leaderless then?”

“From the warriors… choose… choose leader… will do.”

“Even if there is no commander, they just need to charge the enemy right…”

“… The special team will command from the back, and will only move out if we discover the enemy commander or if the battle is not going well. Is that okay?”

“That should be fine. Well then, including Zaryusu, how about the six of us forming one team?”

“No, we should form two teams of three.”

Splitting up meant they could fight on two fronts, but their force will be spread out and weakened.

“One team will attack the enemy commander, the other will be in charge of the defence.”

“Well then, we three chieftains will form a team, Zaryusu and the two chieftains you brought over will form another, that should be the best way to divide ourselves. The mission of the teams should be to react to the situation.”

“Yes, that is great. Any problems, Zaryusu?”

“I understand. Any objections, Zenberu, Crusch?”

“I have no objections.”

“Me too. It’s a pity I can’t fight as I please, but I will follow the will of the victor.”

“Well then, there is still four days before they attack us, right?”

“Correct.”

“Are there anything we need to prepare for?”

“We need to stock up on throwing stones and strengthen the walls. Also, we need to interact with the other tribes and set up a chain of command, ensuring that all of the tribes can function as one.”

“As for the allocation of work, we, the ‘Small Fang’ tribe wish to leave that to Shasuryu like before.”

“We… okay with that… what about… you two?”

Crusch and Zenberu nodded in agreement too.

"Then I will take over the command. Next, we will decide the details of all the work we need to do in the next three days.”

♦ ♦ ♦

After the work for the day was done, Zaryusu walked silently in the noisy and lively village. Several lizardmen greeted him with respect when they saw Zaryusu’s mark on his chest and Frost Pain on his waist.

It was a bit irritating, but in order to raise morale, he had to answer them. Zaryusu thus answered them with a serious, proper and confident expression.

Zaryusu maintained this attitude as he headed to the outer walls of the village. They were rushing to construct walls over there, many lizardmen were concentrating on their work.

First, they bound the stakes that were some distance apart with vines. Mud with low water content was then smeared on. The druids then casted some magic to remove the moisture, and the wall is complete. There were some cracks on it, probably because not all the water had evaporated. They then repeated the same steps in another place.

“Ara, what is it, Zaryusu?”

“Nothing, just wondering what you were doing.”

Walking with splattering noise in the wetland, Zaryusu made his way to Crusch who was dressed like a vegetative monster and pointed at the work that was being repeated in front of them.

“What is that?”

“Mud wall. We don’t know what type of enemy will be coming, but I wanted to make it hard for them to move in… But there is no time, we are not even half done.”

“Is that so… But isn’t it easy to destroy things made from mud?”

“No problem. If the mud is thin, it is easy to break it. But thickening it will make it tougher. Because this is a rushed job, and there's shortage of sufficient materials and it will weaken if it rains. But it won’t break down so easily."

That is true, no matter what material it is, it would be hard to destroy if it was thick enough.

In front of Zaryusu who was thinking about that, dozens of lizardmen were working as fast as they could, but progress was as slow as a tortoise. Even if they worked on it for three days, it wouldn’t be much wider. But it was better than nothing.

“For now, the parts the wall couldn’t reach would be covered by fence that would be hard to tear down.”

In the direction Crusch was pointing at—

The stakes over there were pulled out, and planted some distance away, forming a triangle with the two other stakes besides it. Between the stakes were vines loosely bounded together, forming ropes blocking the passage between them. Zaryusu thought for a moment, and recalled that the fence around the ‘Red Eye’ tribe looked like that too.

“What is that?”

“By placing something heavy there, the fence won’t fall even if it were being pushed or pulled. As for the ropes, they are meant to prevent enemy from getting through. If the ropes are pulled taut, it would be easily cut by swords or knives, that’s why we left some slack on it.”

Crusch answered Zaryusu’s questions excitedly.

During their short journey, Zaryusu was always the one teaching her. Being able to teach something to Zaryusu made her happy. Apart from this, there was another feeling involved.

“I see… it is harder to destroy it that way.”

These impressed words made Crusch felt proud.

Zaryusu nodded deeply.