so they probably won’t be able to split them up. That leaves us with three points manned by ten-man teams and one by fifteen. Taking the scouts out of the equation, there are twenty of us. It might be tricky in some cases, but it won’t be a disaster.’
‘That's an optimistic assumption,’ said Cedric, who didn’t share his colleague’s enthusiasm. ‘In the worst-case scenario, they’ll concentrate most of their forces at the most important point and leave just one team at each of the others.’
‘Then they’d be deliberately sacrificing two locations.’ Zane remarked in a bored tone. ‘I doubt they’d want to make a fool of themselves like that in front of the new instructor. Sending out a loose team doesn’t make sense either, because they’d have to chase us through all the woods in the Crater. If I were in their shoes, I’d take up the designated positions and spend the time fortifying them.’ He sighed heavily, as if regretting the time he’d had to spend on such a trivial remark. ‘Remember that you can find materials for building defences at every important location,’ he pointed out, stating the obvious. ‘And in the 10th, as far as I recall, there are at least two earth mages, and shovels are always lying about somewhere nearby.’
Draco listened to this and found himself wondering more and more just how large an area the exercise was supposed to cover. If he were still in Dagos, he would, of course, have transformed immediately and, circling above the designated area, would have tried to spot even the slightest movement. Today, however, along with the rest of the group, he was forced to rely on his own two feet and his skills in the field. He had to admit that he’d grown to like the natural tranquillity of Enpine, but his knowledge of navigating such an environment came mostly from books. This would be his first time putting himself to the test in such conditions.
On the other hand, all the points raised seemed to make a lot of sense, and each had
