Book 5: Chapter 40

By the time Aaron reached the other side of the settlement, where the defenders were busy fighting off the beasts, the battle had turned into a full-blown assault.

Defenses had been built up, traps and other obstacles scattered throughout a deadly no-man’s-land, and endless barrages of powerful and explosive Skills raining down death from above.

And yet, none of that dissuaded what seemed like an endless stampede of mindless beasts hurtling across the broken desert, crashing against the defenses like waves against a cliff.

It looked suicidal before Aaron even appeared. But at a closer glance, he noticed that the defenders were getting chipped away at, even if they weren’t currently taking casualties.

Every wave took out countless traps, and defenses were beaten down and destroyed. If they had enough numbers to keep it up, they would eventually reach the defenders and start doing real damage.

However, there were a handful of elites out further from the front, engaging the enemy in no-man’s-land, and taking out any that managed to get past the bombardments, and that was where he found Zero.

Aaron crashed down, taking out several giant horses, before whipping around and crushing the skull of a rampaging elephant. Unlike more powerful beasts, all of these ones seem rather stupid, charging forward with their heads bowed, and not stopping for anything.

He even spotted a bull pulling itself along with missing legs, determined to crash against their defenses, but a few quick blasts from a turret put it out of its misery.

The battle was brutal. Perhaps the most brutal he had seen, on par to the slaughter they faced against the ants. But those were ants, and these were beasts he attributed more intelligence to.

“Master! You’re back,” Zero said as he flashed around the battlefield, chopping down several beasts before arriving at his side. “I take it that you dealt with that undead commander?”

“Yep, he’s dead for the second time. How’s it going, anyway? These guys aren’t giving you too much trouble, are they? “

“Of course not, master! But there are so many. They just keep coming.”

As Zero spoke, he waved off some of the other elites that looked exhausted.

“I can handle it here with master’s help. Go get some rest.”

They didn’t need to be told twice. They were strong enough to take out mindless beasts, but there was a limit to their energy, and they needed a break.

But with Aaron at the front, things took a turn. It was much easier to wipe out any that got through the defenses.

And he was totally okay with slowing things down for a moment after the exhausting fight with the Death Reaver.

Skills blasted across the ranks of another wave, quickly putting it down. As long as they could hold the line, things would be fine. Despite their numbers, the beasts weren’t making it far through the bombardments, and now the elites could recover for later.

Against simple beasts, Aaron was an absolute menace. He didn’t even use Skills, and barely drew on his mana, using Skill and precision to easily chop them down.

As another wave was defeated, he shook his head. Perhaps he had overestimated their enemy. Wave after wave was getting itself slaughtered against them, and it was barely breaking a sweat. At this rate, their ranks would dwindle down, and the defenders would still be fresh.

If anything, Aaron’s biggest worry if this continued would be gaining too much junk experience and weakening his new Skill selection.

If they don’t throw something more powerful at us, I might need to take a step back, Aaron thought with a sigh.

Command Tower

Emmy groaned. She had finally found a nice place with peace and quiet, and a few stinky old men had to come up and join her in her tower.

Well… actually, it wasn’t her tower. The geomancers who had built it were from Dober, and the men who were using it to survey the battlefield were a couple of commanders from Dober, or so she was told.

But why did they have to yap so much? Emmy filled her ears up with bubbles. She could not stand listening to them for another moment. This was her spot, and she had called shotgun!

Rolling her eyes, she completely filled up her ears and smiled. She couldn’t hear a thing anymore, just the way she liked it. Now she could close her eyes and get some peace.

Her bubbles were still floating out from her wand, even with her eyes closed, and they were actually quite effective, floating across the battlefield and capturing enemies. It was a peculiar style, but it worked, and it didn’t require a whole lot of input from her.

Meanwhile, as Emmy was half-asleep, the commanders continued to talk and point across the battlefield.

“There has to be a plan to all of this slaughter. They just keep coming. It’s suicidal. Why waste so many fighters without some kind of grand plan?”

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“Agreed. And with the legion moving about, it’s making me uncomfortable.”

“Have you noticed how all the beasts they are sending in the waves are unintelligent? Even the D-grade ones appear almost mindless. I’m not sure how evolutions affect intelligence exactly, but it almost seems like they are culling off those that fail to ascend.”

“You think?”

“Dunno. It’s a hunch. Think about it, though. Even if the beasts are relatively powerful, their potential is greatly limited if they lack sapience and higher intelligence. Planning, strategy, and even Skill selection is going to be a lot weaker.”

“You’ve got a point. But that doesn’t explain their strategy. If they just wanted to kill them off, they could do that themselves, and avoid giving our troops easy experience.”

“That’s true too. Dammit. Why then? Why bash themselves against our troops like this? It makes no sense.”

“They have drawn our troops forward, though. And with half our force scattered along the other flank waiting for the undead to launch a proper attack, it makes our eastern flank rather weak.”

“Yeah, you’re right. This might just be a distraction to launch an attack from that direction.”

“Yeah, that’s it! It’s got to be. Nothing else makes sense. They’ve forced us to put our reserves into action! It might not seem like they’re achieving much right now, but if they are planning another attack, this would be an ideal way to engage everyone and weaken them in advance of a proper attack.”

“What do we do, though? We don’t have the manpower to move troops around. If we leave too many to deal with the hordes, they’ll be forced to exhaust themselves, or let the enemy get closer to our positions.”

“We need to cut them off from their source. Go around their army, and take out the leaders that are commanding them. Beasts this dumb can’t be acting on their own. Once we stop the waves, then we can spread out more, and prepare for attacks from other directions.”

The two men nodded at each other and made their way back down the tower. If they were going to achieve their plans, they would need help from someone powerful.

And Emmy popped back up smiling as she realized she had regained her privacy. But she kept the ears blocked. The shouting down across the battlefield had gotten annoying enough as it was. No need to listen to all of that.

Aaron

With more and more weak beasts pouring against the defenders, Aaron had decided to take a breather from the front.

Not that he wasn’t helping. The food he cooked lifted spirits and provided generous boons to the fighters. In fact, it seemed like they were happier having Aaron cooking than controlling the front itself.

And he had plenty of food to cook with, as a line of Desert Pythons and fighters from Dober generously handed over their rations for him to cook with.

It took a little self-restraint, but since he was cooking outside with his portable kitchen, for all to see, he didn’t use his toes. They had gotten him into a little trouble a few times too many, and he didn’t need to go all out. Not just yet, at least.

Not that it mattered. He had plenty of other ways to make the food both powerful and delicious.

But most importantly, Aaron was restocking his own stash. He had burned through a good deal of his food fighting the Death Reaver, and while he probably wasn’t going to recover from all of his losses, it would at least put him in a better position if the fighting really heated up.

He looked over to the front as he finished another dish and served it up. Zero had taken command of the troops, and they had just finished off another stampeding wave.

This was far better than loading up on junk experience. And he could get a few levels with his Profession while he was at it. But his attention was stolen as he heard a commotion through the camp, and spotted a couple of men in trench coats making their way toward him.

I wonder what they want?

“Where’s Aaron?” One asked, and a defender pointed toward him.

“Thank you.”

Aaron watched as they made their way over. They looked rather serious. Then again, they were surrounded by countless enemies.

“Aww, and just when I was perfecting the broth. I supposed there will be time later,” Aaron sighed as he felt himself on a cooking breakthrough.

“Hello, Aaron!” One of the men extended both hands, while the other bowed. “Good to see my friend.”

I don’t think we have ever met?

“How’s it going here at the front? The men treating you well?” The other asked.

“...Yeah?”

“Good, good. We are commanders sent here by Julius to help organize the base for defense.”

“Colonel. Marine Corps, or at least I was once upon a time.”

“Spetsnaz, formerly,” the other said.

“Russian and American fighting side by side, huh? Well, at least the Integration buried a few hatchets, huh?”

“Yeah, you can say that again,” the marine chuckled. “We’re both on humanity's side these days.”

“Good to hear…. Um, can I help?”

“Yes, you can. We’ve been watching the enemy’s movements. Trying to figure out what they have planned.”

“We’re worried.”

“Worried?” Aaron raised a brow.

“That all of this is part of a bigger plan we haven’t figured out.”

“And how am I supposed to help with that?”

“We think this is likely all a distraction. A feint, so to speak. Our troops are now focused in this area, weakening other ranks. But we can’t easily move them around without increasing the strain on the fighters here.”

“Exactly,” the other man said. “But as you no doubt can tell, they’re all rather simple. Something has to be commanding them to charge mindlessly forward. We want you to figure out what it is, and if possible, take it out.”

“But don’t go too far. We might need you here. You’re an important asset, after all. But we can’t just sit and react to our enemy’s actions. That just gives them the opportunity to make plays at their leisure, and plan accordingly.”

“And that’s before we even mention the undead legion. That thing could attack for real at any moment. If we have multiple forces attacking from multiple directions at the same time, our defenses could fall quickly, and it be all up to you and the other top rankers to stop them from taking over the World Core. Obviously, we’d rather it not come to that.”

“Got it,” Aaron shot them both a thumbs up. “Go out and kill whoever is making these dumb beasts attack, and return before dinner. Sounds easy enough, mate.”

The two commanders looked at each other, slightly nervous at Aaron’s relaxed nature, but then just nodded.

“Good. Glad you could help.”

“May I join you on this raid, master?” Zero asked, wiping his paws as he got back from another battle.

“Can he?”

“You’re both incredibly fast; having you both take out the enemy would likely speed it up. Just try to get back here as quickly as possible. We never know when the real attack will start.”

“You heard him, Zero. Let’s go get this done.”

Aaron leaving the main base was a risk, but they still had Terry, Soohyun, Emmy, and Talia to hold the fort. And no good commander could sit back and allow their enemy to dictate the terms of battle freely.