At the end of the war meeting, Trudviar immediately organizes an advance force to invade the Dark Lands.
He is also making apt preparations for the soldiers following their advance, a clean-up crew of some sort.
Trudviar already has a plan in mind for how to fight his war.
The strategy is simple— they advance, and they win.
It is too simplistic, and on the verge of stupidity, yet Trudviar feels that this plan is just perfect.
Maybe it is a bias on his part... but the elves have a love for a blitzkrieg. To be swift, destructive, and relentless is Einherjar's method of war.
It is highly reflected in the Einherjars' war against the monsters of the Dark Forest. This doesn't mean that the elves are generally brash.
Well, there are a few... spirited brash elves, but they really don't matter as it is Trudviar who makes the decision anyway.
"General, please allow me to join the advance force!"
Beler, the bald elf, bars Trudviar's path.
As among the few 'brash' elves of the Einherjar, it is a great torture for Beler to fall on babysitting duties as an instructor.
"Please! General! I am itching for a fight for a long time! Please let me join!"
Beler kneels down begging for Trudviar to take him in.
"Of course, you will be joining... it will be a waste not to." Trudviar stoically replies.
Trudviar has more elves in his mind to join the advanced force. It will be truly a waste to not use 'them', freaks of nature, who even Trudviar finds it difficult to compete as one against many.
"I will bring 'them' with us."
"General... By them... Do you mean 'them'? Hmmm... that is reassuring, but wouldn't our numbers be too few in that case?" Beler frowns unsure of how well this 'war' will develop.
The two, Trudviar and Beler walk to the encampment of the current frontline against the monsters of the Dark Forest.
They are in the process of retreating and shrinking the perimeter to switch to a more favorable decision.
"Do not fret," Trudviar confidently tells Beler. "I have a plan. I have sent a contingent of Einherjars already to the pathways connecting to the Allied Kingdoms. We will be attacking from the seaside."
"Umm..." Beler scratches his shiny bald head with doubt at Trudviar's words. "If we come from the seaside won't we have to cover a lot of ground?"
Trudviar acknowledges Beler's inquiry with a nod and explains to him the reason. "We will not be using the Einherjar as the main fighting force. When it comes to fighting humanoids, the Ratatoskr is better than us. I will have a few Einherjar join us and learn from this operation how to destroy the enemy in the swiftest manner possible."
"So, this is a learning experience..." Coming out of a tent is a young man with long braided brown hair.
"But why do we need to be so few..." Complains an elven woman with short brown hair and scars on her neck and arms. She casually sits on a boulder while she throws a pebble at Beler's shiny head.
"Let's wait for everyone. We cannot have the General repeating his words." Beler respectfully says to the two new arrivals while he ignores the elven woman who keeps flinging pebbles at him.
Shortly after, a few more elves join their posse. Each of them has traits and characteristics unique to their own.
Trudviar count seven of them. Excluding braids, short hair, and baldy, there is the addition of an emo half-elf with a 'face mask', a blonde elf with ear piercings, a red-haired elf woman with an eyepatch, and a quirky elf who has her hair dyed green.
They are the famous 'Slayers' of the Einherjar who has a record of at least ten giant monster kills. It is an inside 'hierarchy' of the sort that comes from the forming culture of the Einherjar's everyday interactions.
In the military though, they have more respectable titles— Squad Captains.
"We will move light, thus the need for the little number. Each of you will act as squad captain and lead a unit of your own. Your squads will form a perimeter from the seaside. I, baldy here, and some folks will form a different unit and strike at the heart of the vampires."
Eyepatch asks a question that interferes with Trudviar's briefings. "How many of our squads can we bring?"
"Be patient," Trudviar draws a parchment from inside his tunic and lays it flat in the dirt. "This is a rough draft of the Dark Lands. Each of you will be leading a group of Ratatoskr agents from the seaside and blitz your way forward. You must be thorough about the methods of destruction you choose. One of the primary targets of your blitz is to destroy the ports. After that, you will be targetting various high-profile business competitors and raze them to the ground. If you meet some vampires and they try to escape, let them. Your highest priority is destruction over anything else. Beler has been in the war meeting, so I will let him tell the rest."
Beler awkwardly coughs as he takes center stage. "The point of convergence of the march is the Dark City of the vampires. Once the squad is halfway from the Dark City, we switch objectives from destruction to hunting vampires. Because we have rattled a few vampires already and must be spreading the news, a few of them would have decided to escape already at this point. Not that they can though because there will be Einherjars waiting for them. The purpose of this is for the more equipped Einherjars to successfully hunt them alive."
"Wait, wait, wait~" Ear piercings raise his hand eager to understand what is happening. "Hey, Beler... I thought you are going to march with the General and attack this Dark City."
Beler tilts his head in confusion. "Ah~ sorry about that. By the point you are halfway from the Dark City, we will be done already with the Dark City which is already retreating back to enforce the perimeter. According to her royal highness, there should be an escape path for the vampires in the Dark City. We must assume the worst. If the vampire 'lord' doesn't have an escape route, or decides to just fight it out, then the better. But if he does manage to escape. We will be waiting for him from the perimeter.
"Moving on," Beler crosses his arms thinking about the aftermath of the war. "More Einherjars will follow us then... They will start their march starting from the third day after conquering Dark City. The rest is cleaned up. The Einherjar will be temporarily in charge of safekeeping until we have control of the Dark Lands."
"And I will come to aid Ratatoskr to end the loose ends." Trudviar stretches his arms feeling a bit stiff from idleness.
He is feeling restless, and very eager to draw blood.
"Beler, you need to work on your speaking skills." Trudviar rebukes Beler as their small group walks off.
At this point, the retreating Einherjars are done already and have shrunken their perimeter for a more defensive position.
"Ha ha ha, sorry about that, General..." The awkwardly laughing Beler is a relatively bulky individual, and while it may seem he is mature, he is merely half of Trudviar's age.
This physical aspect is not unique to Beler.
For example, ear piercings have keen hearing like Varen, the face mask has a keen smell, the eyepatch has a bad temper which strangely enhances her physical traits, the green head is not much but she has a lucky streak, and braids have an impressive athletic ability that surpasses most elves, and short hair is fearless.
Inwardly, Trudviar is thinking of transferring some of this talented personnel to other departments. He finds their special traits to be a waste if they remain in the Einherjar.
If Trudviar has his way, he prefers fostering these 'Slayers' to become future leaders of the elves. They will be a great assistance to the Elf King's rule.
Danger stimulates growth— these words suddenly come to his mind.
The battles in the Dark Forest are gruesome. The lack of a 'soldier' casualty is a testament to Trudviar's leadership qualities.
It is sad how there are civilian casualties when the Einherjars have none. They are 'immortals' in a sense.
Trudviar's aggressiveness in this war may seem foolhardy to a human general who prioritizes intelligence gathering and resource management.
In Trudviar's defense, he is doing the same. It is just that intelligence gathering is already a long-done deed. In terms of resource management, he believes he is doing just perfectly as he is managing the most important resource of all— time.
The earlier this war ends, the better. It is a more personal objective of him than the 'requirements' her highness requests of him to do.
"The proud Monster Slayers of the Einherjar! Now, we march to war!"