Grey had his thoughts as the team proceeded to the east avoiding the blaze which was created by the [Inferno Storm Legion].
The people from the legion did not seem afraid of their fire and moved through it.
Team 2 moved very quickly so as not to fall behind the vanguard.
It was not only their team that was moving through the forest towards Edward's Crevasse, multiple teams of mages were moving through the forest following the [inferno Storm Legion].
These teams might be following the vanguard, but that did not mean they did not have to fight.
The regular troops were moving much slowly, they would get their chance to do work when they arrived at the actual defensive position of Edward's Crevasse.
BOOOM!! BOOOM!!
'The trump card unit in position 2-003 must have a high focus on lighting type magic.'
Grey could hear big explosions of thunder and lighting in the direction of position 2-003, the sky in that direction was already full of storm clouds due to the lighting that was being used.
"CONTACT!!"
The team immediately put up a fighting posture as they heard Ilse shout from the front of their formation.
'It looks like Lt Stein was right, we did meet people we can kill on this side.'
Grey had yet to see the enemy, it was only Ilse and the another new male team member who had just had contact.
"Kohler support!"
Ilse shouted towards her team member who knew what to do.
The fellow immediately casted tier 1 combination spell, [Double Ice Rock Barrier], to defend Ilse and himself as she casted tier 1 combination spell, [Great Raging Water Waves].
Ilse's spell was to force their enemies back in order to give the rest of the team the necessary 10 seconds to arrive to help them.
As if what happened next was imagined by the two, as the double barrier which had the outer barrier made of rock and the inner barrier made of ice materialised, it was it by multiple spells.
Two people showed up in front of Ilse and Kohler, they too seemed to be the vanguard of their own team.
The first barrier of the spell put up by Kohler immediately broke under their assault.
The two people did not choose defence like Ilse and Kohler thus they had to quickly dodge or get hit by fast moving waters.
Regardless of their attempt, the two Ruhenese were still hit by the raging waters and pushed back.
The two were lucky that the spell was not heavily focused on offense power but control power, otherwise they would have been killed.
Though that did not mean that being hit by fast moving waters did not hurt as the two moaned in pain on the forest floor.
"Really? That actually happened?"
Kohler turned towards Ilse as he tried to understand how at this point of the war a team could make a mistake like that when meeting an opponent.
What Abe Kohler did not know was that these people had just escaped the centre of the fire blaze and were still panicked that they did not perform as could be expected.
"Stop looking at me like that and finish them!"
Ilse shouted towards the fellow who immediately casted tier 1 combination spell, [Rock Shrapnel Storm Barrage].
Abe Kohler targeted their moaning opponents whilst Ilse kept a spell at the ready just in case something happened.
A storm made of cutting winds and many pieces of stones and rocks quickly developed around Kohler which he immediately launched their enemies who were practically seating ducks.
BOOOOM!
"AGHH!!"
And as could be expected, the two people were made into mice meat by the grinding spell.
"We retreat!"
Ilse shouted as she casted tier 1 combination spell, [Mud Entrapment] over a large area in front of them as she felt that the enemy team would arrive first and they would be killed if they waited.
The spell she casted, had turned the area in front of them into a swamp meant to slow down their enemies.
A few seconds later they met the rest of their team.
"Team composition?"
Qila asked with a serious face.
"A lot, much more than us."
Kohler answered as he remembered the slight glance he had gotten of the enemy team.
"Real numbers!"
Qila shouted at Abe Kohler with annoyance.
"At least 20 mages with a mix of tier 2 and tier 1 mages, mam."
Qila turned to look in the direction of the enemy mages, it was as if she could see the enemy even though in front of them was only a large number of trees.
Ilse took a quick glance at Grey, as far as she knew, Grey had a spell that could find the exact number of the enemies, but she did not comment on why he was not using it at this point.
Qila turned to look at the tier 2 mages in the team, John and June, both June and her were more offensive focused when it came to elements whilst John was the opposite.
John's elements focused on defence and control with his water, earth and darkness elements.
'Enemy team composition is at least twice our team, if we are to fight, casualties are going to pop up, but that is normal in this situation.'
Grey thought to himself as he viewed the direction that Ilse and Abe came from, thinking that the enemies are also planning their own attack plans.
Grey looked at his team as they thought of fighting twice their numbers.
'Is this person really afraid or is he playing a different game than us.'
Grey looked towards 2nd Lt John Ward who seemed afraid of fighting the enemy when their odds were against them.
"The enemy team is twice our number, but so what, should we be afraid of them? I want to show the Ruhenese that we born from Arin are not to be underestimated."
Qila said with a glint in her black eyes, the small statured woman was ready for battle and she would not expect anything else from her subordinates other than following her orders.
"I will follow your orders Lieutenant."
June had a bright smile on her face as she said to Qila, this situation was exactly what she wanted.
June had been fighting very recklessly since the battle restarted, thus such a reckless situation did not scare her at all.
"I too will follow your order Lieutenant."
2nd Lt John Ward said with bitter smile on his face, the fellow might be afraid of death, but he was a fully trained member of the Mage Army thus he was not one for disobeying orders.
The three tier 2 mages of Team 2 had spoken thus the rest of the team could only nod to follow their leader's orders.
"It will be difficult for an ambush tactic since they know we are here. They are going to think we are afraid of them and will try to use things like traps, however they will be incorrect. We are going to go for a frontal assault. The trees in this forest are important defence positions, use them."
Qila did not even seem perturbed about the thought of a frontal assault, in fact she seemed excited as electric arcs got summoned around her as she released her mana.
"Grey, I expect you to do the heavy lifting amongst the tier 1 mages in the team."
"Yes Mam."
"June, John and myself will be vanguard, this should give you all some seconds to some damage, use it."
After saying that, the small statured leader shot off in the assumed direction of the enemy with John and June by her sides.
Grey immediately followed them afterwards whilst casting tier 1 combination spell, [Light Guidence Domain], the spell pulsed for a fraction of a second they went silent.
Only Sharon, Connor and the tier 2 mages felt the pulse of the mana of the spell.
This made Qila smile brightly.
No person could tell what she was thinking.
"Sir, they killed Richard and Emily, we must get revenge."
"The fact that their scouts retreated means that they did not have confidence to take our focused attack."
"The Arinese are either retreating away from us or they are laying an ambush with some traps."
Whilst the Ruhenese soldiers were talking about what to do next the leader of the team looked at the sky.
"Huh..?"
The leader could feel fast accumulating mana right on top of them.
"DAMN! SCATTER!!"
The leader shouted at the top of his lungs as a pillar made of concentrated light and fire elements dropped on top of their heads.
A small distance from that position, Team 2 could see the colourful pillar drop.
Qila turned to Grey with a bright smile, which Grey reciprocated with his own because he finally used [Explosion] in a live combat situation.