The war council was held right on the chosen battlefield-Deadwood Flats, deep within Graysea Marsh.
Veylin stood with his core team in the basin Kale Shadow Song had personally selected.
The geology here was rather unusual. It was a small basin of dark gray bedrock, its ground hard and dry, utterly out of place amid the muddy marsh around it, like a scar on the marsh's body.
Holding a dead branch, Kale traced an outline on the ground at their feet.
"I watched it for seventeen days. The beast follows a fixed cycle."
"Its main lair is underground in Fang Gorge to the south, but every seventy to eighty hours, it comes to this area beneath our feet."
He jabbed the tip of the branch firmly against the ground.
"There are geothermal vents here. The giant python uses the heat to help it digest.
"During that time, it gradually becomes sluggish. That's our only window, and it lasts three to four hours."
Mage Leo swept his gaze over the uneven ground.
"The terrain does favor us, but how do we make sure it enters the trap we've prepared? The center of a large magic array, for instance?"
"Bait."
"A living creature with a lot of energy. Perhaps it's eaten too much primordial blood crystal over the years, but it has a powerful appetite for magical beast flesh."
Barrett rubbed the stiff stubble on his chin and muttered, "Then we'd need a level-four magical beast... Those aren't marsh rabbits you can catch whenever you like. A live one won't be easy to find, and a dead one quickly loses its active energy, making it far less appealing."
"The Golden Sail Merchant Guild can provide one."
Caroline spoke up at just the right moment.
"I bought a dying level-four magical beast, a