Rebound

Roached moved through the Savannah, his troops trying to keep up with his steady pace. The attack went as well as one could hope. The place was fortified and the guards had been on the defensive. they had killed a number of humans but they had not broken through the human defenses. the troops had been lacking in number and skills. After his victory at Arakai, they had assumed that all his attacks would be successful. A foolish notion, if their number were anything to go by. Internal brooding would do no good, he needed to get back to base to rest.

"Watch you tongue." Roach bit back. "You will give those above you the respect they deserve. As for your question, of course it wasn't my idea. Attacking a fortified location with only a hundred men is considered foolhardy and suicidal. The other generals are hoping for a miracle and sending out attacks with little thought. I was sent on this one in hopes that I could produce similar results as Arakai."

He gave a gruff huff of annoyance. "If they had thought this through we wouldn't have loss so many men."

Malphas was listening in and smirked resting his sword blade against his shoulder. "Maybe we should have gotten stronger soldiers instead of such weak fodder." He made it very obvious now that he was eavesdropping from a short distance away and started walking towards the two. "Don't like the way I do things, then fight me over it, instead of complaining."

"Enough," Roach scowled. "We are not children, we are soldiers. If you need to fight then do so with the enemy. We are already limited with the amount of soldier we have. I will not have infighting lower that number anymore."

Roach looked between the two of them. He had a feeling if he left, they would definitely get at each others throats. Not that he didn't want to take part as well. The army was dire straights from poor leadership and even worse planning. Someone was going to pay for their pathetic deeds. He would see to it personally.

He pointed his sword at her. "So you need me to kill someone? Who is it?" He looked at Roach. "This guy? I can probably take him easily."

"I will break your neck." Roach said in a calm voice. "I don't have time to for your childish contests of who is stronger. We need to focus our efforts on getting the army into shape for the next assault." Still Naya had a point. The current war leader was incompetent. He was afraid of losing to the human forces and in turn losing his position and his life. Thus he was desperate to create results.

"Naya... your plan does have its merits. If we were to remove the current leader we could reallocate our supplies and troops to the points that matter most."

"I'm next in line. He vanishes, I'm in charge. Then we can mobilize properly and actually use strategy." She then suddenly changed to her dragonic form, grabbing both of them and taking off. She flew a good distance from the fortress, dropping the other two off at the edge of a lake before turning back to her humanoid form.

"Can't discuss these things out in the open. The rat is incompitent but has loyal followers. Suck ups, more like." She then turned to Malphas directly. "And you say 'nything bad 'bout our soldiers again, and you can find yourself at the bottom of this lake, face-down. All 7 pieces."

He stared at her and laughed a bit. "I would welcome death in battle. But I was serious they need to send us stronger soldiers. What happened at the battle was them just being treated as fodder." He then looked to Roach. "If you think you can beat me you're welcome to try sometime. But as you said right now we need to deal with this war leader, and I could just challenge him."

Roach only rolled his eyes. This soldier seriously needed to understand there was a time and place for everything. If he mentioned 'having another battle' again, roach would tear out his own hair...or tear out Malphas' throat. the latter method would probably be more efficient.

"Then we are in agreement that the current leader needs to go. But how?" Roach gestured at Malphas. "Even if we sent this maniac in, he would die before he reach the leader. That or die facing him. We need to come up with an efficient plan to make sure no one receives blame. I rather not have the entire camp in an uproar, because one of us is picked out as a traitor."

He looked at them. "Well if you don't need me for this then I'll just be going for now." He looked to Roach again "I will return later for you eventually." He then turned and started walking off back to the camps.

Roach spat on the ground. "He must value his strength above all others. While I admire that trait, he needs to think before he acts. We need to focus on the shitty humans before we try and measure each others strength." He sighed, not all demons thought thing through. Sometimes it was for the best, but sometimes it could tear plans apart. Speaking of plans.

"I could send for the war leader as I am a general, and I also came back from an assault so I could say I have information. However that would incriminate me as the killer. What should we do to place blame on another?"

Roach sighed...how cruel, to blame another for their deed. Yet Roach felt nothing. It was for the good of the demon army if the Leader was killed and even better if he didn't need to deal with that warmonger. The plan was quick and efficient. Frame a known fighter for the death of an incompetent leader.

"Then we can start making the plan. I will tell one of the my subordinates to pass onto the leader that I have vital intel for the war effort. As you guessed, he is probably desperate enough to come fine me. He will be told that I am waiting in my private quarters. Thus he needs to be taken care of as he crosses the camp and before he reaches my office." He looked at Naya. "The barracks are along the way and if he is killed near there the blame can be placed appropriately. Any other suggestions?"

Roach nodded Doing things half ass would only cause more problems.

"I can stun him and slice off his head if need be." He said gesturing to his swords. "Can you transport the head? I will need to get back to my office for the plan to hold true. I need an alibi to where I was, and being in my office like I said I would be would be good enough for most demons."

"Alright, then we will wait till night time." Roach agreed. "He will be sure to blame us because he knows what we are plotting, but as long as we don't leave any evidence we can make this work." Change would be coming to the demon army, sooner than one would think.

"I will meet you here, tonight." Roach said. "We can finalize the plan and put it into motion. Agreed?"

Time clicked away as Roach planned his next action. The other members of the camp flowed past his tent as Roach drew up battle plans and wrote down requests for extra troops and materials. The war was not going well... and they would fail unless something was done. Finally the time had come and roach stood. He quietly made his way back to the lake they had talked at earlier. Hopefully their plan would come to fruition and help with the war effort.