Chapter 629 – Interesting Thing
The weakness that Lizzy had found out was actually already known to the Fishmen. They have used this cube formation for many years, so how could they be unaware of its weakness? The four edges supported the formation, they just couldn’t ignore it.
Some people have been using this weakness in order to break the cube formation, so the Fishmen quickly found a way to deal with it. The method was actually very simple. It was to gather a group of elite troops into those edges in order to not let it be broken into. At the same time, they also developed a defensive formation, called Ball.
This ball formation was what Illac was using right now. With the commander at the center, the sphere would keep revolving and counter revolving layer by layer. It looks like meat grinder, anyone who entered this formation would be ground to paste.
In addition to these two methods, there was also a weakness in this method of breaking the formation. The troop requirements needed to accomplish such attack was very high. Their actions must be fast and their movements must be unified, making its composition very strict. This was because if there were any defects in any one of those four attacking divisions, then the entire operation would be placed in jeopardy. It was precisely because of this that this method of breaking the cube formation has slowly vanished from use, allowing the cube formation to dominate in the Fishman armies.
Although the ball formation was a very good defensive maneuver, and can defend against an attack on the four edges of the cube, its defensive power was still inferior to the whirlpool. Moreover, its counter-attacking capabilities are extremely low. Because of this, the formation had always been a backup formation. Almost n.o.body used this formation at this time.
Naturally, Lizzy and the others weren’t aware about those considerations as well as restrictions in using their attack. After all, they were commanding undead, so they don’t need to worry about minute flaws in their formation.
But when Illac did their ball formation, Zhao Hai’s attack became useless. The ball formation might not be good in offense, but it can certainly hold its own when it came to defense. Especially against small attacks such as the Lizzy’s four demon arms, it was incredibly effective. Before long, the four divisions of undead that Zhao Hai had sent had been grinded into nothingness.
Zhao Hai didn’t worry about any of this and just commanded his undead to retreat, reforming their cube formation before going away.
At this time, Illac didn’t dare to take pursuit. The recent attacks had almost scared him to death that the thought of pursuing didn’t even enter his mind. Illac didn’t expect Zhao Hai to use a formation that targeted the cube’s weakness. One must know that this method hasn’t been used for so many years. If Illac’s troops weren’t formidable, then he might have lost his life just then.
Illac doesn’t understand what the other party wanted to do. The other party was using undead, so it was natural to think that all of them were expendable. However, the other party was using his undead as though it was an army, and also retreated after suffering some losses. This was completely unlike what a Dark Mage was supposed to do.
Illac and the other Sea Dragon’s relations.h.i.+p with the other Dragons haven’t been established in just a day or two, so they clearly knew what Dark Mages were. And they were clear that Dark Mages, when commanding a lot of undead, would just let them attack in a swarm-like manner. This way, the Dark Mages would use less magic as well as mental power.
When Dark Mages command the undead, they use magic power, however, the consumption of their mental power was even more. When Dark Mages use formations, they would surely be using more mental power than usual. Because of this, Dark Mages rarely used formations when attacking with large numbers of undead.
But contrary to normal customs, Zhao Hai actually arranged the undead in formations and also had them fight like any normal army. This made Illac confused as well as afraid of Zhao Hai.
At this point, Illac was almost sure that the other party was Zhao Hai. If the other party was composed of a battalion of Dark Mages, they wouldn’t be able to control the undead to such an astonis.h.i.+ng degree. Not only can the undead change formations, it can also target weaknesses in the opponent’s defenses. This was absolutely not something that a group of Dark Mages were capable of.
A Dark Mage can surely command undead into delicate positions, however, a group of them can’t. After all, it was very difficult to find dozens of Dark Mages that were of the same strength and skill in Dark Magic. And since their skills were different, it was an inevitability that their control would have slight mistakes as well. These slight mistakes can be fatal to the battlefield. The only logical explanation to what just happened was that only one person was controlling the entire army of undead.
The reason why Illac dared to affirm the other party’s ident.i.ty was the fact that he was facing against undead and not people. In the end, Dark Mages weren’t military men. Their genuine might in the battlefield relied on their undead. Only a few Dark Mages would dare study army formations at the same time. After all, shuffling between cultivating magic and studying formations was something near impossible to do.
Most importantly, an undead army doesn’t have any low and middle-level officers. The quality of these officers would heavily affect the effectiveness of the army. Some good low and middle-level officers can spot any small change in the battlefield and would make the appropriate adjustments. A commander’s word would just act like a guide for these kinds of people, they can already do what was expected of them, and maybe even more.
However, the undead was different. They don’t think before they fight, they just do what they were commanded to do. This led to Dark Mages seeing formations as useless in their way of fighting. They might as well let their undead rush the enemies down until one of them prevailed.
Once he had confirmed that the other party was Zhao Hai, Illac couldn’t help but feel dread. For Zhao Hai to have the ability to command the undead to this degree was very terrifying to think about. This was something Illac wasn’t expecting. At this time, Illac felt that he was fighting against a wise commander and his army, not a Dark Mage and his undead.
Although Illac managed to defend against the opponent’s attack, the losses that he had suffered weren’t small. Especially during the last encounter, it almost claimed Illac’s poor life. Because of this, when Zhao Hai retreated, Illac immediately reformed his cube formation. However, he kept the ball formation ready just in case another attack came in their way.
But even if Illac was being careful, he was still very worried. Not because of the other party, but because of his army’s current strength!
The troops that he commanded were all made up of Fishmen, and Fishmen were alive beings. Unlike the undead, these people had limits on how much stress their bodies can handle.
Illac was currently worried about the overall strength of his army. After going through offensive and defensive maneuvers, his army should be quite tired right now. When their strength gets too low, their situation would reach disastrous levels.
Illac didn’t quite understand Zhao Hai’s purpose of coming today. Why did he come? Did he just want to attack with 1 million undead only to get turned back? How could this be possible? Was Zhao Hai this arrogant?
….
Zhao Hai and the others were currently inside the Blade Scale Whale. Lizzy’s face turned quite ugly as she said, “Big Brother Hai, it seems like this method had already been thought through by the Fishmen. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have come up with a response this quickly.”
Zhao Hai nodded and said, “Their reaction was indeed very good. But since the Fishmen already knew about this weakness, why haven’t they used it now? I’m quite confused about this.”
Lizzy sighed and said, “It looks like I failed this time. I didn’t think that my formation was already been used before.”
Zhao Hai showed a faint smile and said, “That may not be the case. Although the formation seems like it has been used before, it doesn’t mean that you can’t use it anymore. Since the Fishmen rarely used it, then there should be some shortcomings in the your formation. If you can find solutions to those, then wouldn’t you be invincible in the battlefield?”
Lizzy thought for a moment before she nodded and said, “This formation truly has a lot of weak points. I’m going to try and improve it. Megan, let’s go.”
At this time, Cai’er’s voice suddenly came, “Young Master, I’ve discovered something interesting. Want to take a look?”
Zhao Hai stared, then he nodded and said, “Alright.” After he responded, Cai’er changed the monitor’s display, showing the image of the Dragon Palace.
Zhao Hai and the others were shaken upon seeing the image. They didn’t think that there would be such a large reef. Moreover, the other party was actually able to move it, this was too shocking.
But when the monitor zoomed it, the group discovered something. Naturally, it wasn’t the Dragon Palace that Cai’er wanted to show them, but something in the palace instead.
Zhao Hai and the others were still some distance away from the Dragon Palace, so their eyes weren’t able to see it. Only through the monitor were they able to see it.
After Cai’er enlarged the image, several people appeared. Zhao Hai couldn’t help but stare when he saw these people. He hasn’t seen Sea Dragons before, but he had heard about them from Luo Luo.
The reason why the Sea Dragons wore blue robes was because these robes were actually their scales. Dragons normally didn’t wear any other clothing, otherwise it would transform along with them.
Because of this, Zhao Hai was sure from Alex’s blue robes that he was a Sea Dragon. Moreover, it was certain that his status wasn’t very low. This was because all other Sea Dragons were having him as their center.