While the scouting party hurried back to the village, Chris prepared for a battle in the forest. His goal was simple. He needed to get rid of one of the threats to the village.
Chris quickly realized that he would need to accomplish something new, something much bigger than what he had managed ever since learning magic in this fantasy world. He started by looking around thinking of what type of trap would be most suitable and how he might build it.
A plan quickly formed in his mind. He would create a massive firepit. First he would need to dig out the pit and it would need to be huge. Then he would need to build a makeshift floor that could quickly crumble when set on fire. The ingredients would be wooden beams to carry the weight of a small horde of beastmen, even if only temporary. Then he would need floor tiles or something similar. Finally he would need to have a lot of flammable material. The best he could think of would be splinters of wood and bark.
Chris started to gather his magic. He visualized the earth moving away, forming two small hills on either side of the pit. He made sure to make the incline of the hills steep enough to deter the beastmen from choosing a path over the hills. As long as the pit isn't obvious, they probably won't choose to go around them as it is placed directly in their path toward the village.
Chris decided to keep the trees that were growing in the place of pit. It would be very strange to have a large clearing in the middle of forest in the middle of two hills. He would have a hard time to make it look natural enough. The trees could also be used to support the floor and thereby decrease the necessary number of support beams.
After the pit was finished, Chris started felling trees that he would use for the support beams, floor tiling and flammable material. He decided to pick out a few trees fairly far apart from each other. He found a few that were already leaning and used his magic to pull them down, as if blown down by a storm.
...
The firepit construction continued for a while, but eventually Chris was finished. He looked around. "This should work. It really should...", he mumbled to himself. He then sat down to rest for a while. Even for him, it was strenous to use magic to create such a large trap.
A few more hours went by and the sun was already starting to set when the horde finally reached the area. Chris was lying hidden on top of one of his artifical hills. He looked down on his firepit. It was around 100 meters in diameter. The floor tiling was covered by moss, twigs and some dirt. The original trees were still there too. It almost looked natural and shouldn't be discovered without careful examination. He had filled it with lots of flammable material and he already knew that his fire magic was strong. The horde was rapidly approaching. They shouldn't have time to notice anything.
"Everything is perfectly prepared. I just need to wait for a few more moments.", Chris said as the first few beastmen started running onto the trap. Soon after, Chris started channeling his magic to carefully light the material in the pit. He would soon infuse it with a lot of wind and make everything crumble. It had been designed with wind tunnels with openings in the side of the pit that led up to the hill Chris was currently lying on. This way he should be able to create a firestorm inside the pit in just a few seconds. The wind should also be able to push down the wooden support beams.
The horde of beastmen swept onto the firepit like a wave. Something about the ground seemed to have changed, but they didn't have enough time to think about that. Just a few seconds later, the entire area was consumed by a raging fire. Flames quickly rose into the sky and formed a pillar of flame.
The beastmen let out horrible wails as they were consumed by the fire, but the sounds soon died down. Only a few beastmen managed to avoid the pit and Chris made quick work of them with the use of his magic bullets.
The forest was quiet again, but the smell... The smell was awful. Chris wrinkled his nose, turned away and started running toward the village. Hoping that the enemy's main attacking force hadn't reached the village yet.
"Hold on everyone. Hold on Amelia. I will be there soon!", Chris repeated out loud as he ran through the forest.