Chapter 413

Chapter 413

With as much authority as I can muster, I shout over the din of Defiled battle cries. Drive them back from whence they came! Charge!

Ugh... what am I saying? Whence? Who talks like that? Luckily, being at the front of the crowd means Im spared the sight of my cringing soldiers and can instead set my mind to the task at hand. Unleashing my Aura, I encounter resistance from multiple Enemy Champions who have done the same. Bolstered by the Auras of Red One through Three and Jochis, both sides reach an uneasy equilibrium in the blink of an eye, the typical outcome one can expect on the battlefield. Auras are both vitally important yet practically useless in massed warfare, and while I understand the why, Im still not entirely sure about the how.

Outside of a controlled setting, Auras are a pivotal skill in single combat. If you dont have an Aura and your opponent does, then youre boned, and the same is true for the reverse. If both combatants have Auras, then things are better, but still not without risk. Even without Honing, a strong Aura can overpower a weaker one, but the strength differential needs to be overwhelming. Take BoShui, for example. Putting it politely, his Aura is not great, well-deserving of his paper tiger reputation. If Auras were chess pieces, BoShui would be a pawn, and honestly, theres nothing wrong with being a pawn. You cant win a game without pawns, but conversely, if all you have is a single pawn, then youre probably in trouble.

BoShui sits at the bottom of the Aura game, while people like Akanai, Guard Leader, and Nian Zu stand at the top. Theres no widely accepted belief on what makes an Aura strong, but if I had to guess, it has something to do with conviction or principles. The stronger ones conviction, the stronger ones Aura, but thats just a theory I pulled out of my ass using anecdotal experience. No one cares enough to study Auras in depth because in warfare, having a strong Aura doesnt make much of a difference.

From what Ive seen thus far, a contest of Auras isnt really an exchange of blows or test of might, but rather more about metaphysical weight, for lack of a better word. I imagine two opposing Auras like oil and water. So long as both substances are present in similar quantities, then the two liquids will never mix. Opposing Auras are the same way, except instead of one floating atop the other, they sorta exist in whatever shape is required to protect the members of each faction.

Side note, I dont understand how Auras work when theres more than two sides in a fight. I should find out.

Anyway, to break through an Aura, you either need one to be significantly heavier than the other, or you cheat and gather all your Aura into one concentrated point. The former is how normal people use Aura, whereas the latter is what I do with Beyblades and Honing, a feat no one Ive told has been able to replicate. For now, Ill assume it's a skill unique to myself and ignore its existence, but this is where things get really confusing. Overlapping friendly Auras will become much stronger defensively, but only gain a minor, almost insignificant increase in offensive strength. Why, no one knows, and I dont even have a guess. Essentially, this means that while one Zian Aura can crush one BoShui Aura, two linked BoShui Auras could probably hold out against two linked Zian Auras, making Aura crushing all but impossible in battles with multiple Aura users present.

While I cant sense the exact number Auras were up against, judging from the density (again, the best word I could come up with), Id say there are at least ten Auras emanating from the Defiled. There could still be more Champions who have yet to unleash their Auras and are instead saving their strength, so letting my Beyblade rip is definitely not the path to victory. I might be able to poke a hole through their Aural membrane and crush three to five Auras, but when the dust settles, therell still be plenty of Aura-capable Defiled on the battlefield while Ill be drained of Chi and essentially useless.

Sadly, my cool and awesome Aura hacks are only useful for duels and small scale encounters. It sucks, why cant I be overpowered for once?Read latest chapters at novelhall.com Only

Doesnt matter. The time for tricks, tactics, and maneuvers is over and done with. Now, we meet the Enemy in open combat and achieve victory through superior skill and equipment. It helps that the Defiled are wicked stupid and poorly armed, falling for every bait and trap we set while only bringing no armour of any kind and only a handful of Spiritual Weapons scattered across four or five thousand Defiled. That last bit isnt something I can share with the rest of my retinue though, since I know I can only sense their weapons because I almost went full Defiled myself.

You never go full Defiled.

Either way, it doesnt matter how many Defiled there are because my boys have yet to let me down. In fact, theyve exceeded all my wildest expectations, which is a nice surprise.

I dont get a lot of those.

A shoe-in for most improved, Lang Yi leads from the front, a force to be reckoned thanks to the hellish training regimen he religiously kept to since regaining his freedom. Meeting the Defiled with jet-black spear in hand, the Elder Lang brother claims the first kill of the night with a thrust of his spear. A fraction of a second later, the younger claims the second with an identical thrust, and only then does Unity taste blood. Fighting side by side, the Lang brothers look like carbon copies of one another, so eerily similar I sometimes wonder if Lang Yi learned how to clone himself. With their shaggy, unkempt hair, grim, unyielding scowls, and lean, predatory builds, the brothers are indistinguishable from one another even down to their Khishig-issue undies, but the similarities go deeper than mere appearance. Their movements are so identical and coordinated it sometimes feels like one is an echo of the other, their actions separated only by the briefest of interludes. From the way they set their feet to how they thrust their spears, its like watching one mind direct two bodies through the exact same motions. They even have the same throbbing vein in their necks, the only indications of agitation from facing their most hated Enemy.

And boy do they hate Defiled.

All of Lang Yis companions in slavery share the same zeal for bloodshed, their eyes wide and cheeks red as they set to slaughtering the Defiled with disturbing levels of glee. Their focus so complete, not a single one utters more than a grunt, their battles fought in complete silence as if to trap all their hatred and anger inside them, but their wide-eyed, blood-soaked expressions speaks volumes to their rage. Merciless to both enemies and themselves, the former labourers are covered from head to toe in injuries, some less superficial than others. Theyre a worrisome bunch, because despite how far theyve come thanks to hard work and dedication, the simple truth is they havent trained for long enough. Like myself in my younger years, Lang Yis bunch are neither strong nor skilled enough to block or dodge, so they settle on trading blows with their opponents and Healing their injuries with Panacea. Compounding the issue is their lacking Chi reserves, which again can be attributed to their short careers. The slowest ones only formed their Cores a few months ago and even the fastest have been Martial Warriors for less than a year. Impressive as their progress has been, they still need time to develop, but time is in short supply.

Jaw sore from clenching my teeth, I endure until Li Song and Tiger Squad arrive to bolster our defences. The pressure eases as they help shoulder the burden, and barely a minute later, the longbows of the Protectorate sing. Moving much faster through the dark fields than the heavily armoured Death Corps, the agile woodsmen unleash volley after volley of deadly arrows into the Enemys exposed flanks. As expected, the Defiled are too berserk to break off a force to deal with the unseen Protectorate and instead fixate on the enemies right in front of their faces, leaving Turtle Squad free to fire at will.

The Spectres demand bloodshed and arent too particular about whose blood it is.

Things are going exactly as planned, but I cant help but fret. Jochi is feeding me Daxians sporadic reports, and even though it sounds like Rustram's people are doing well on their own, I should clean things up soon and go help. Even though Phoenix Squad is massively outnumbered, Lord of Thunder Lei Gong is almost single-handedly driving the Defiled back. While Im still annoyed at being saddled with Daxian the Virtuous, the old man is a welcome addition to the team, especially since he remains out of sight (and smell) until theres work to be done. My heavy hitters in Wang Bao and Ulfsaars units are also doing what they do best and slaughtering Defiled by the dozens, but like the song goes, it aint over til its over.

...Why do I remember song lyrics but not something useful... like say, how to make non-flammable explosives? Or flushable toilets?

The minutes tick by and the Defiled horde dwindles away before my eyes. As the sun rises behind us, I decide enough is enough. Drawing on the bottomless void in which my Natal Palace sits, I unleash my battle-ending ultimate move: Infinite Suck.

...

Yea... theres no way to make what I do sound cool. Still, its the best part about this patrol and one might even say the only good part. Not only do the Defiled hordes bring lots of errant Spectres with them, dead Defiled are like Spectre pinatas, though far less aesthetically pleasing than those of the paper and candy variety. Bereft of their hosts, the murderous spirits wail and screech as I Devour them by the hundreds where they will await my pleasure before becoming Heavenly Energy. Right on cue, the surviving Defiled turn tail and run, leaving me victorious but none too happy because the cold hard truth is unpleasant to stomach.

Im exchanging the lives of my soldiers for Heavenly Energy.

I wish it were otherwise, but thats how it is. Fact: I cant Devour Spectres attached to a host. Fact: Once I turn up the Succ, the Defiled stop fighting and flee. So what do I do? I wait and watch my soldiers die until I feel like there are enough free-floating Spectres to warrant ending the battle. How many soldiers did I lose today? How many of them will make it back to Sinuji or back home to the North? This isnt a game where I can queue up more faceless soldiers from the barracks, every life lost is precious. While my gains have been substantial, I still dont know how to use Heavenly Energy and Im unwilling to waste something my soldiers gave their lives for on experiments and testing.

Not that it matters. Im not as smart as I thought I was, not even close...

Cheer up, Argat says, patting me none-too-gently on the back. I dont know when he arrived, but hes covered in blood like the rest of us and Im grateful for the help. You won a great victory here, but no one would know it with you looking like you swallowed shi a fly.

Cognizant of the message hes trying to pass on, I raise my voice so my soldiers can hear my reply. This great victory has little to do with me, for the credit belongs to my brave and stalwart soldiers. Several of whom lay dead around me. As my words are passed down the line, cheers break out to celebrate their victory and their continued lives, but I find no joy in victory.

For though the battle is over, the day has only just begun. We still have ten hours of westward travel ahead of us, and from past experience, this means the Defiled will be back in greater numbers than before. Thats the way of things out here on the front lines. Sleep and fight, eat and fight, march and fight some more. Theres no end to the fighting, no end to the dying, and at the end of the day, nothing ever changes.

Worst of all, I dont know how long well be out here. A week of scouting, a week of resting, another week of scouting, and then... no one can say. I might be here for another month after, or two or three. It all depends. Will the Defiled keep to this status quo or will they send bigger, more well-equipped war bands against us? Maybe theyre fighting amongst themselves to divvy up the West, or maybe theyre gathering for one massive push and therell be tens of millions of Defiled swarming into Central at once. No one knows and only time will tell, but whatever the future holds, I just have to keep playing my part.

Bailing water out of this sinking ship one spoonful at a time.

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