Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)

Chapter 216: Preparations Before The Battle

After that, the three of them had detailed discussions about the overall situation. It was more or less just Captain Song reporting the situation to Xiao Lin and Qin Chuan. That was because most of the scouting had been done through sea due to the siege on land by the orc’s wolf cavalry.

“Will the crew be giving us any assistance when we begin our assault?” Xiao Lin suddenly asked.

“We will provide long-range assistance, but we can’t stay for too long. Once you take over the depot, we will have to leave immediately.”

“Why?” Xiao Lin hurriedly asked. He knew that even if they took over the supply depot, they would still be facing a counterattack from the orcs. That fierce race was much stronger than the merfolk, so the situation would be very difficult without help from the warships.

Captain Song smiled bitterly, “Even though our warships look very large, we are regretfully not the strongest on the Endless Sea. The orcs might not have naval troops, they have a good relationship with the naga race. If the nagas were to be nearby, my entire fleet would be wiped out. I definitely cannot afford that loss, and neither can the academy!”

Xiao Lin finally understood. Basically, the responsibility would completely fall on them after the amphibious assault. Their backs would be against the sea, and they would face assault from three sides. It would be quite a desperate stand.

“How long will it take for Dawn City’s reinforcements to arrive once we take down the depot?”

Captain Song explained, “Your goal this time is to force the orc cavalry brigade to retreat. According to our reports, they carry very few supplies with them. They even need to provide food for their wolf mounts. Those things might be fiercer than regular mounts, but they take up a lot of resources. They basically need to eat meat every day to maintain top form. Furthermore, winter is about to start, so there won’t be a lot of animals for them to hunt. At the most, the cavalry brigade will only be able to last for two to three months.”

“As long as the supply depot remains in our hands for that period of time, then the orc cavalry will definitely need to retreat. When that time comes, Dawn City will march their troops out. They won’t just help you defend the depot, you will be able to pincer them and completely rout the orcs!”

That was basically Captain Song’s, no, the entire Dawn Academy’s strategy. With the current situation, that was the best chance they had to turn the tables. However, Qin Chuan had revealed that the mission had failed in actual history. Xiao Lin determined that the failure could not have happened during the initial assault, since they were up against merfolks with the support of the warships.

Therefore, they definitely failed during the counterattack from the orcs, With that in mind, Captain Song’s words did not give Xiao Lin too much comfort.

No matter what, as a complete simulation of the actual war back then, Xiao Lin had no way of changing the current war strategy, only to try his best to complete the given tasks.

After leaving the captain’s quarters, he chatted with Qin Chuan for a bit. The two of them failed to make much headway planning for the following day’s assault. Even Qin Chuan lacked experience in that department.

As the commanding officer of their team, Xiao Lin was basically a military officer, so he managed to get some special treatment. The rest of the students were all crammed into narrow rooms, with eight students per room and two students per bed. The rooms were also very damp, and the beds moldy.

The students struggled to sleep, used to the five-star hotel standards within the student dormitories. On top of that, they were filled with anxiety and anticipation for the assault that was going to start at dawn, so most of them were huddled together, chatting away instead of sleeping.

Xiao Lin was instead treated much better. He had a personal bedroom prepared for himself. Even though the conditions were quite average, it was still relatively cleaner.

However, after he was left alone, Xiao Lin found Gu Xiaoyue standing on the decks staring out at the sea. Xiao Lin decided to give his room to her. Even though Gu Xiaoyue was usually stubborn and strong-willed, she still preferred things immaculate. She was quite surprised when Xiao Lin offered, and opened her mouth to reject him.

However, Xiao Lin was too experienced to give her the chance. He immediately turned around and left after he spoke, leaving Gu Xiaoyue hanging. It took awhile before she muttered a word of thanks into the air.

Xiao Lin did not hear Gu Xiaoyue’s gratitude, having already reached the area where the normal students were located. He selectively conveyed the information that he had gathered to everyone, trying to keep their spirits up. He mentioned that they were going to face the weak merfolk, and the wolf cavalry was basically not going to appear. He then told them if they managed to hold on for over a month, the orcs could possibly retreat, allowing them to easily complete their mission.

Qin Chuan arrived shortly after Xiao Lin, but he took a step back when he heard Xiao Lin discussing with the others. He had wanted to do exactly what Xiao Lin was doing. After all, after numerous examinations, he knew that, regardless of the difficulty, morale and spirit was extremely important. Otherwise, they could very possibly fail to even capture the supply depot tomorrow.

Even though he had never held any sort of official position in his entire life, let alone command anyone else, his years of being a guild leader in his games caused him to quickly pick up the necessary skills to lead his class.

Xiao Lin had already assigned two interim group leaders at that moment: Zhou Feng and Gu Xiaoyue. No one had any reservations of the two of them. Gu Xiaoyue’s skills needed no introduction. In terms of magic, no one was her equal. As for Zhou Feng, even though his skills were not particularly noteworthy, he had still performed quite admirably in the last two examinations, leaving quite a good impression on everyone else.

He was reluctant to pick a third group leader at that moment, so all he did was split the students into groups, since he likely would not have the time to do that after they hit land.

Xiao Lin had actually looked for pen and paper to do that, first recording everyone’s name alongside their skills and specialization, such as if they were specialized in magic, melee combat, or archery. Even though he had access to that information normally as a monitor, he only remembered a small portion of them.

Splitting them up into groups was not as simple as randomly distributing them into equal numbers. As someone who was a raid leader in his games, Xiao Lin clearly understood how important splitting them into the proper roles were.

Class Seven’s distribution in combat specialization was quite unbalanced. Out of the 57 of them still left alive, 40 of them were close combatants, with 16 of them long-range specialists. Out of those 16, only six of them were training in magic.

Xiao Lin was the last one that was unaccounted for, but he was a dual-cultivator, so he did not really fit anywhere.