Within a darkened room, five men were holding a shadowed conference."You missed those two Grand Duelists?"
"Unfortunately, I did."
"How would you miss two novice awakeners?"
This time, they weren"t using skills to render their speech unintelligible to enemies, as they were in a secure location.
"It"s a minor concern; they are also blockaded in. We can finish off Evergreen in a few days, what difference can two novice awakeners make?"
"Indeed. We should stop wasting time and get rid of them once and for all."
"Should we make our own move at this point?"
"Well, the Hunters" Guild sent us fewer men than I thought: maybe it was a token force they disguised as a raiding party."
"Hmm, I should probably make my move in person, now. This should have been taken care of a few days ago, d.a.m.ned Evergreens."
"You would think that with us backing Froad up, they"d fold easily. Guess we"ve underestimated these low-rank divisions."
"We should have brought in one of our senior members."
"And what, get found out by the information network other divisions have? This isn"t the time to make ourselves known yet."
"Agreed – we"ll need to make sure it"s done cleanly, with no loose ends left to tie up. Chasing after those is a waste of time and division resources."
"Since when did an elite awakener from Musashi care so much about those kinds of details?" a shadowed awakener said.
"None of us here don"t," and all of them nodded their heads, the bleak light in the shadowed room showing off their top knots.
"Now"s not the best time?"
The conspiracy continued with the shadowed awakeners unable to make their decision with certainty.
"How long do we have to stay in the shadows like this?"
"Just kill them all, let the beasts sort the rest of them out."
"Didn"t you hear what the officials of Froad said?"
"What, they"re scared?"
"And I"m telling you that we were sent here to a.s.sist Froad covertly for a reason. If the boss tells us to lie low, the only question we ask is "how low"."
"f.u.c.k it! There"s so much to endure! s.h.i.t, send me to Evergreen. I can"t sit still anymore – I want to show these punks the power of an elite from Musashi."
"Fine then, go and have as much fun as you want. Just don"t let them know what division you"re from."
***
"The two Grand Duelists and I will form the lead," Song declared as he rapidly revised his plans to include Jake and Liam.
The troops were included in this declaration, and last-minute plans were being changed to account for the increase in manpower.
Sure, they were only two new recruits in the Grand Duelists who just finished the tutorial area, but compared to the awakeners in Evergreen, looked like unstoppable forces of nature.
Even Evergreen"s mid-level awakeners would need to group themselves in five or ten to stand a chance against someone like Liam.
Jake, in particular, was showing power similar to their vice-master, proof that since his entrance into the Grand Duelists, his abilities have been growing exponentially.
His Bankroll, new skills and new equipment took him to a level he never thought before.
"For us to be able to make a significant victory I"ll have to maximize what Jake can do in this fight: Jake hasn"t quite seen the horrors of war, he might not want to take the lead after this operation," Song thought, looking back to the time he saw Jake fight.
With Song"s experience, he knew that it was very likely that the stresses of war would get to Jake and reduce his effectivity in combat dramatically.
Therefore, Song had a plan.
"We"re going for the head of the snake immediately: once we take out Froad"s captain-level awakener before the horrors of war start to get to Jake, our victory will be tangible enough that we"ll be able to buy some time to regroup and recuperate.
After all, the best defense is a good offense."
"Sir, what do you mean?" an elite awakener asked, saying what the rest of the elite awakeners of Evergreen were thinking. "We"ve been launching a few guerilla attacks here and there, but to no noticeable effect, aside from our improved morale…"
"What I mean is," Song said, after taking a moment to compose himself due to being caught thinking out loud, "we"re going for a high-value target."
The troops all waited with bated breath for their vice-master to continue.
"We"re going to take out Froad"s captain, the awakener named Vastillo."
***
As Song detailed the operation, several things were established.
First, immediately below Froad"s master, two captains lead Froad"s troop of awakeners.
One of them is Vastillo, who specializes in explosive artifacts: mines and grenades.
His other specialty is his personal skill "Mana Shield", where he uses mana to defend his entire body. This mana also has a fire affinity, meaning any attackers are at risk to burn themselves when facing him.
It is both a defensive and offensive tool, making him a very tough awakener.
Now, though, Song has detailed plans on how to defeat Vastillo, resulting in the troops hollering their approval.
"Vastillo, huh?"
"It"s a long shot, but we think it"s possible…"
Vastillo is a very difficult opponent for them, and their confidence wasn"t that high: Song hasn"t even won a match against the Froad captain.
"I know what you"re all worried about," Song said with determination. "This time, though, I"m surewe can take out Vastillo."
As the buzz among the troops slowly died down, he continued.
"Our operation isn"t to gain their attention or whittle down their troops: we"re going to do a surgical strike against Vastillo, who at this very moment, is preparing another strike at Evergreen Castle. This means he is close to the front lines and planning out this strike personally."
"Of course," Song continued further, "no matter how far in the front lines he is, Vastillo"s troops are not objectively weaker than ours. If we hit him with a surprise attack, even I am unsure if we shall win."
"What are our plans then?"
"We"ll divide our troops into two: our main unit will hit Hammer"s unit, not Vastillo"s," Song answered, mentioning the name of the other captain of Froad.
"You"ll go after Hammer"s unit as well? Won"t that make us vulnerable to a two-front attack?" an elite trooper asked, bewildered.
Dealing with Vastillo is hard enough, what about Hammer as well?
"No," Song clarified. "The main unit hits Hammer first, and when Vastillo"s unit helps, the second unit hits him while his base is empty.
"Roger that," the troops replied, but someone else had to ask a question.
"In that case, this would be a suicide attack if our troops were divided in half! Do you think we can handle both Hammer and Vastillo"s troops combined?"
This is a reasonable concern: they can reasonably fight back against the units of one captain, but run the risk of being overwhelmed fighting against the units of two.
"That"s true!" another trooper answered.
"It won"t be easy to divide us into two when we"re not good enough to go together, frankly," a third trooper answered, and the gathered troops began to chat among themselves once more.
Song, though, stopped their worrying with a declaration of his own.
"All of you are correct. That is why the second unit – the one attacking Vastillo directly – will consist solely of two awakeners: Jake Smithson and myself."
***
"Captain! Song and his troops are a.s.saulting Hammer"s unit."
"Again? When will they get tired?"
"I think they mean business this time. Scouts reports say they"ve brought in all the men who can fight."
"f.u.c.k it," Vastillo replied annoyedly, "send a support unit in right now!"
"Yes, sir!" the soldier answered before quickly leaving Vastillo"s command post to deliver those orders and dispatch reinforcements to Hammer"s unit.
While he doesn"t think Hammer"s unit will collapse on its own, he still sent a support unit just in case.
"It"s not easy to take care of one rat. If the other divisions move more aggressively, we could take care of it sooner," Vastillo thought, frowning as he buried himself further in his chair.
He didn"t like the current situation: even though Froad had the war all but won, they still couldn"t put Evergreen away.
Despite all their advantages, they simply could not snuff out Evergreen"s spirit.
Of course, if the divisions a.s.sisting them would actively partic.i.p.ate, it would only be a matter of time before Evergreen would be crushed underfoot, but they were only content to a.s.sist in the shadows – for a variety of reasons.
Their current task would be continuing to ensure that the blockade around Evergreen is standing.
"Song"s the problem. Take him out, Evergreen follows suit," Vastillo continued thinking. "Song is the problem here: he"s the one holding Evergreen together. He"s our prime target here."
Hope Hammer kills him for me, Vastillo cursed, and just as soon as he did, the familiar thump of a body falling to the ground came to him from close by.
"What"s that? What"s going on?" Vastillo shouted, but only silence replied to him.
"I was sure I heard something…"
But there was another problem.
He was supposed to have heard something, but now, there was no response from the command post.
"Those fools Hammer calls soldiers should have answered my call, but why is there nothing?"
Vastillo focused his ears, and found out that the typical busywork noise of his command post was now replaced by a rather eerie silence.
"This isn"t good."
He stood up from the chair and discreetly activated his skill, advancing towards the end of the command tent slowly, the silence keeping him on edge.
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And when he reached the entrance of the command post, he threw the flap aside and tossed a red ma.s.s through it, exploding when it reached the floor.
The cloth covering the entrance of the command post burned down, letting him see into the barracks, but the only thing he could see was utter desolation.
"Did everyone end up going to Hammer"s unit, too?"
Before Vastillo could react, the sound of coa.r.s.e fabric ripping abruptly met his ears, and he turned to the side to see his command tent suddenly bathed in light.
One moment later, he turned up to the ceiling of his command tent, and as soon as he did, a voice greeted him.
"Surprise, motherf.u.c.ker," the man in armor standing at the ceiling said.
Jake Smithson had arrived.
***