บท 17: Chapter 17: New military doctrine

As soon as she uncovered her cloak, all officers were in shock for a moment. Immediately Lireesa heard singular voices of admiration, greeting her in salute.

"Greeting Lady Lireesa."

She could understand the deep reverence seen in their eyes toward her or the predecessor. She was an admirable person. Her prestige and reputation were enough for these girls when she ordered turn left and no one would turn otherwise. She waved her hand in response to the greetings and eased the atmosphere into a warm one. Sometimes seriousness never helped and this applied now to Lireesa. She still couldn't get used to solemn tedious ambiance.

"From what I've listened I know your difficulties." Lireesa stated her facts. "I'm impressed by the talents my officers have to be able to spot the problem right on."

One of the officers could help but said out in a guilty conscience. She said, "Ma'am, our deepest apology to not being able to meet your requirements. We lack astuteness to supplement the details which our duty insisted."

"Girls, I'm already proud for our Windrunner to have you." Lireesa just smiled. "What else do I have to expect for. In fact, I only realize the problem that I need to share with you girls. Had it not you girls stating the oblivious, I wouldn't even know I made a huge mistake."

Lireesa's eyes show guilt and she wasn't acting this time. She couldn't fathom how much the cost of lives being at stake if the mission proceeds onward without any preparedness. Although she knew they were veterans and adaptable, but they still needed time. Haste created risks, an unnecessary one also. Even though Guerilla seemed new to the elven rangers, every ranger typically used them when they always made a tactical retreat despite not been complete enough.

Her subordinates-officers instantly interjected, "No, Lady Lireesa. It was our incompetence that had led to requiring your intervention. You are the lord, decision maker. Working out details is our job."

"No, now enough with throwing balls," Lireesa interrupted with a stern voice and solemn face. "I said, it was my fault then it is. For now, our plan will be postponed to another week and in the meantime, we'll figure out the solution."

Sena was astounded how decisive Lireesa was to quit the mission when she faced challenges which needed to be addressed before moving forward. She looked at Lireesa and felt her momentum, including her cultivation aura, displaying high-level peak strength.

Wow, a freak. How did she recover so fast from scratch. It's as if she simply just lost mana and refilled them again, Sena murmured in her heart.

The other girls drooped their head, ashamed and guilty their abilities weren't sufficient. Lireesa quickly noticed their mood and remedied the atmosphere. She showed her warm smile or what she thought so, mesmerizing the girls in a daze because her beauty with some heroic temperament was killing the girl around. She cleared her throat and explained what she was going to do next.

"Today, starting from now, we'll enter the discussion period where I'll give you my views. You girls will argue back and forth supplementing the solutions." Seeing them listened closely to her every word, gave her confidence to continue her pertinent topics.

"Previous plan will continue on a strategic level; what I will further add is relevant to all tactical level, where we will change some of our fighting doctrines. In this scenario, how our troops will react squadron wise or teamwise to a troll ambush."

Usually, expert trolls ambushed by allowing the ranger into the inner circles where they would be mixed together with the elves so that their range superiority diminished in the close combat chaos. However, as excellent it might sound the situation like above happened very rarely because the experienced rangers could spot trolls lying stealth before getting too close. The obvious countermeasure was to increase the ability of a ranger to spot the stealth enemies. Every battle-hardened ranger couldn't ensure that they would be able to spot every single time during their investigation. Normally scouts were sent and should the worst circumstances happen, the scouts were killed; the rest of the rangers could react properly.

Now what Lireesa wanted to alter was to prevent this situation from happening so that the best scenario became, no death occurred. Given the advantages ranged abilities, if in a previous world medieval time, Lireesa dared to promise other no elven ranger would be killed. However, in the fantasy world, some methods could be quickly overturned unexpectantly.

"Now I'll introduce some tactics which should address to the current crisis. Naturally it is still preliminary which could be changed after we do the practice run in the following week," Lireesa stated while apologizing in her heart to many ancestors throughout history from different part of the continents because she was about to say next included plagiarizing others' works as her own. Although she didn't know many of the celebrities' name because she didn't even major in those areas during studies. She was left with no choice because other explanations might lead to troublesome misunderstandings and some hidden dangers.

Naturally, she couldn't directly copy everything except the essence, because what worked in the material world, might not be applicable in the fantasy continent where the laws of physics weren't identical. Sena, on the other hand crossed her hand over her chest, excited about what new ideas Lireesa would come up with.

"There will be two drills related to ambush near and far ambush. Near ambush is the worst-case scenario," Lireesa explained patiently. "The scenario which we all thought about where there is nothing, we can do but to fight out from the ambush circle. The most optimal reaction is for each ranger in it to fire an arcane shot to quickly eliminate the threat while the rest of the ranger outside the circle will clear the perimeter using arcane burst shot to clear the perimeter and help the ambushed if deem necessary."

Lireesa'eyes roamed around and was satisfied after seeing many of the officers were imagining the scenarios in their mind and relevant countermeasures. Everyone nodded in contentment and Lireesa continued.

"For the far-ambush, which is being attacked by range units plus the melee units charging in, the most advantage we could take is to suppress the enemy's momentum and retake the rhythm of the fight. Of course, this is in theory and will have to experiment later in the field this week. For example using concuss shots or entanglement for the most threatening to slow them down diminishing the threats and blasting the surrounding where ambushers with arcane burst shot. Proceed with leaving the ambushed area if the situation dictates. The way to leave the ambushed area, we'll take about it later."

Sena's eyes brightened from every drill placed in front of them to practice and couldn't help but noticed alongside her fellow officers. Every time the rangers were ambushed, it appeared there was another element outside in the distance to give help and react timely. It meant for any size of the group, it should always separate into two segments, one at the front and the other at the back. There was another benefit to separating the group. It also allowed the other who were not in the fight at the moment to make a flanking maneuver.

Based on these drills, all officers who were quiet before started to discuss fiercely, each throwing questions filling in the gaps Lireesa left. Lireesa was stopped by this scenario and became dumbfounded. The whole sight nearly destroyed her believed beauty of the elves because now her subordinates all wantonly argued back and forth as if in the fish market. She even forgot to continue her speech and signed. Her wrist was pulled from her side. Glancing at the perpetrator, who wasn't it except for her childhood friend Sena. Beside her, she found her daughter, Alleria, who was looking at her in worship.

Because her subordinates seemed to have forgotten from the excitement, she didn't know what to do next. To save her from embarrassment, Sena took her hand and led her to the private lobby followed by Alleria who was staring at her from time to time. After everyone had a seat, seeing Alleria behaving like this, Lireesa gave a forehead a knock. Alleria clutched her forehead in pain and her face was cute, or at least Lireesa thought so. Sena stayed aside, giving their mother and child a naught playtime.

"Continue your thoughts, I feel you have lots of ideas." Sena asked leaning back on the couch in the room while crossing her fingers. Her posture reminded Lireesa of hateful politicians' behaviors. Lireesa rolled her eyes at her pretentious aura and rubbed the area between the eyebrows with her two fingers.

"Well, my thoughts are to always have groups separated into elements, whether it is the squads, platoons, legions." Lireesa spoke slowly. "It's best to have three. Looking at 100 guards, three teams make a squad. Three squads make a platoon. So, 100 guards become a platoon size group. Separation in the order I listed is the best I can think of at the moment."

When she wanted to go on, she couldn't help notice Sena rubbing her chin in deep thoughts. Lireesa clenched her fists in annoyance. She really desired to beat someone up like never before.

Pretend. Keep pretending, Lireesa secretly swore.

Fortunately, Alleria came to the rescue, and comforted her mood by acting like a baby, holding her arms with her chest. Alleria swayed and said coquettishly, "Mom!"