180. Interlude - Takis

180. Interlude - Takis

"Third group. Pattern red-twelve. Attack! Fourth group. Pattern green-four. Suppressive fire! Spearman, set up a wall," Takis shouted, and twenty ballista attacked at once, cutting his path of approach successfully, but his opponent still retreated easily, leaving the magic bolts to explode uselessly.

Third failed attempt without using his command skill. Dealing with an opponent that possessed high Speed was harder than he had expected.

That would not do, Takis thought as he moved onto the next stage of the plan, and stretched his command skill. Just like that, the soldiers that were reloading the ballistas turned into an extension of him, just like his limbs. He stopped shouting orders, conveying them through his skill.

His soldiers followed the Charisma-backed command easily, unlike their first attempt. Weeks of practice was paying off.

He first focused on the spearmen, a mental order enough for them to adjust their formation, widening to cover up more area, offering a tempting target for the opponent to take; but when he rushed forward, Takis shifted his attention to the ballistas.

The first salvo rained to his right. "Missed again," his opponent shouted even as he moved to the left right into the second and third salvos, launched before the first one, covering too wide of an area to make even the speed useless, delivered in perfect timing

And exploded in a blue, sticky cloud.The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

"Excellent work, soldiers. Take a break," Takis shouted, and the soldiers started dispersing, satisfied. "However, don't forget that I want an action report from every sergeant!" That added some grumbling to the mix, but Takis ignored it.

He couldn't be there for every battle, and the better his officers understood their tactics against superior opponents, the lower the losses would be. A few hours spent analyzing his tactics by themselves was a good method to pass on that knowledge.

It was just like the boss had taught: Only by developing a competent core of officers that could think for themselves and take initiative without fear, did they have any chance of defending their territory.

While his army dispersed, Takis walked toward the dispersing cloud and activated an isolation ward and his opponent stepped out. "Damn it. I hate this color" Terma grumbled as he patted his armor, doing his best to not look like a botched paint job. "Can't you find someone else to practice your tactics on?"

"Unfortunately, no," Takis answered. "After your promotion, you're by far the fastest member of our group. You're the only one that can really test the limits of our tactics."

"But I look ridiculous," Terma complained as he removed his helmet, showing half of his face colored blue, the paint they used to replicate mana explosions. Takis had already set up a blocking ward, so there was no harm in revealing his face after all, not all church soldiers knew the truth about their allegiance. Terma was a known member of the Dawn Hammers, so his presence would be suspicious while helping the church forces.

"You don't. Don't worry about it," Takis said, doing his best to look serious. He managed not to laugh, but a snicker still escaped.

"I knew it," Terma grumbled. "How many times do we have to do this?"

Takis shrugged. "Boss' orders were clear. We're going to repeat it until the ballista teams can pull the tactic off without my help. Bring your complaints to him. I'm sure he'll find you something else to do."

"No thanks," Terma said. "He's already keeping me back, claiming I'm too young despite my new class. I don't want to give him an excuse to reduce me to a messenger. I want to fight in the front, just like my brother!"

The ex-bodyguard took a step back, which allowed him to face only two of the attackers at the same time. Even as he retreated, every swing took down an attacker, usually with broken bones that needed to be healed.

A waste of mana and health, Takis tried to argue, but Euon was firm on that as well. According to him, pain was, and had always been, the most excellent teacher.

Looking at the performance of the squads that had been recruited a week ago, who had been following the orders with perfect discipline, Takis found out that it was hard to argue against.

He had been planning to handle that for longer, when one of the message stones buzzed. It was Zolast, calling him to the commanders' tent. He stopped watching the training, ignored his desire to fix every mistake he had discovered, and walked to the tent.

Zolast was already there, looking exhausted. "Any change in the strategy for the bunkers?" he asked.

"Still in progress, sir," Takis said as he grabbed a paper, and started drawing. "But, based on the initial plans, it's clear that six ballista per bunker is an underestimation It would be far better to have twelve each bunker to confidently take down an Agility-based approach, and even more for a Speed-based one."

"How about keeping the fast ones away? Maybe we can build some kind of response team to cut them off?"

"Difficult without more mages," Takis admitted. "I have thought about it, but unless we have a squad made of Speed-based warriors over level sixty that we can dedicate to it, it wouldn't work. There's nothing to prevent them from just moving away."

"Let's leave that for now, then," Zolast said with a sigh. "You're saying that we need twelve ballistas for every bunker?" Takis nodded, and Zolast continued. "It'll be expensive."

"Unfortunately," Takis said. "But, on the plus side, I'm sure such a thick defensive structure will be enough to seriously damage a flying fortress, maybe even take it down if we're lucky."

Zolast said nothing as he went through some calculations, before sighing in surrender. "How do you think it'll affect our deliveries to the military? The princess already started the recruitment of a new regiment, but she doesn't have the magic weapons to arm them. It's the opportunity we were waiting for. We can't miss it, even for the bunkers."

Takis would have disagreed, but it was clear that the deal was important for secrets too dangerous for Takis to know which was an intimidating thought considering the secrets he had access to, so he wisely didn't poke around.

Instead he answered: "Not as bad as you might expect. We have enough material to support the production for both. And, Limenta reported that two more forges started operating ahead of schedule. With the new allow they developed, the deliveries should be ready to go as soon as the princess accepts your deal," Takis said, though he was still tense.

"Tell me," Zolast said, picking up his hesitancy.

"I still have concerns about the sale. Once we start the deliveries, it'll be impossible to hide the scale of our production. They will realize that something is wrong. I'm afraid that they'll start searching for our hidden forges. If they do" Takis said, leaving it lingering. If that secret was revealed, they would be in big trouble.

To his surprise, Zolast chuckled. "Don't worry about that. Euon promised that he'll divert suspicions."

"If you say so, sir," Takis said with a sigh. He wanted to say that it was impossible to conceal production at such a scale, but Euon delivered too many miracles for Takis to doubt him now.