Day 5 – The Time Has Come For the past few exhausting weeks, theManticore squad moved farther and farther into the Marauders' territory,fiercely fighting for each step they moved into the north. Some regions havealready fallen under their attacks, and the Dynasty banner was about to risedeep inside the Marauders' lands. Yet something was not right abouteverything and the squad had more and more doubts about the situation. Itseemed that the Rebels and the Dynasty, by now the two strongest forces, wereavoiding direct confrontation and were simply slaughtering weaker opponents(not without the help of Manticore). As they did so, they cleared space fortheir future one-on-one battlefield. There were some rumors that they even actedtogether, attacking other alliances both from the west and from the south simultaneously,making them stretch their defenses which became thinnerby the day. No one could say for certain whether it was pure coincidence ororganized action, though, as diplomats of the two main forces maintained icysilence. The Dynasty boy, or the "Kitten"(an alias he first received from Claw) was surprisingly useful. He was not evenclose to the level of the other four, but he was delighted by the task hereceived. It involved taking care of defense, and he fully accepted this responsibility,training recruits and making sure they would get the best armor. They managedto gather considerable defensive forces there. And yet, despite his success,day after day the boy's mood became gloomier and gloomier, and that was hardnot to notice. Sometimes Claw heard how the boy was cryinginto his pillow at night and at those moments, her heart felt his pain. Theystill didn't manage to find his parents and she believed that was the cause ofhis distress. The poor, lost soul… But the real reason was simpler and morefrightening at the same time. Having joined the Manticore squad, with each newday the "Kitten" saw the real people behind the famous aliases whichthey used to the outside world. Very tired and very loyal to each other peoplewhose only aim in this war was survival. Day after day, he gained more respectfor what they did and how they acted, and felt more and more attached to thefamous squad. Yet, he was perfectly aware what destiny had been prepared forall four of them. And every time he received a dispatch from an unknown person,he hesitated to open it, scared to see the message inside. This was the realreason, that made his days dark and nights uneasy. He made it a habit to open unexpecteddispatches only in the morning and felt genuine relief if they merely containeda random question, which people often wrote to the four. That meant he couldsurvive another day without worry. And still, it happened. Right after heopened another random message, he suddenly saw the bold handwriting of the king,which he recognized immediately. The message was short but left him no hope. "The time has come." To becontinued. Task:The task below is one that the Manticore squadgives to those who wish to join their armies. Try solving it. How many warriors are on the image? Hint:You do not necessarily need to count them. Those who give the closest answer tothe one provided by the artist, would win.
