Chapter 287 - 281: Trump Card Exchange
Chapter 287: Chapter 281: Trump Card Exchange
In the three hours after initiating "radio silence," Allen used a massive amount of his stockpiled ammunition to bombard the Magical Beasts that had entered the territory.
After this firepower sweep, the sound of artillery fire in Zone 18 grew strangely sparse.
The harassing attacks along the border had been constant—small-scale, yet intensely oppressive. Now, they came to an abrupt halt, as if their source had been choked off by an invisible hand.
On the western and northern fronts, Magical Beasts still swarmed in, carried by the Beast Tide. However, both their scale and intensity had dropped to a level the Golem Legion could handle with ease. The coordinated tactical penetrations that precisely targeted weak points in the defense line were gone.
The air was still thick with the stench of sulfur and blood, but the chilling sensation of being watched by countless unseen eyes had vanished.
Allen stood before the tactical sand table, his face devoid of expression as he watched the purple markers that had stopped flashing.
’The enemy is hesitating, just as I expected.’ This "empty fort" gambit had won him a brief respite.
Just then, an encrypted communication request popped up. It was from Victor Iron Flame.
Allen opened the channel. Victor’s face appeared on the light screen, showing a trace of unconcealable shock and fatigue.
"Allen Wesren," Victor got straight to the point, his voice a bit hoarse. "Over on your side... has the pressure on the defense line eased up too?"
He stared intently at Allen, as if trying to read something in his expression. "Just a moment ago, some of the Magical Beasts attacking my line suddenly became like puppets with their strings cut. Their assault fell into complete disarray. Zone 19... was on the verge of collapsing."
"Mm," was Allen’s one-word response.
Victor’s brow furrowed, clearly dissatisfied with this answer. "What the hell happened? Did that guy hiding in the shadows have a change of heart?"
"Black Wizards don’t have consciences, only patience. All I’ve done is given him a reason to wait a little longer."
In a level tone, Allen casually sent Victor the data: the three hundred seventeen purple markers detected by the Demon Eye III scans over the past month, and a comparison of the movements of certain Magical Beasts before and after the Tower of Silence was activated.
Allen then explained his strategy—from discovering the "eyes" spread throughout the war zone, to reverse-engineering their communication principles, and finally, to activating the signal jammer to create a feint.
On the other end of the light screen, Victor’s expression shifted from shocked disbelief, to utter astonishment, and finally settled into a grim, deathly silence.
He had always thought he was just facing endless wave after wave of the Beast Tide. He never imagined that on a battlefield invisible to him, Allen had already been engaged in a silent war of wits from afar with that mysterious Black Wizard.
He didn’t even know that the Golems under his command, his pride and joy, had long been nothing more than pieces laid bare on a board for the enemy to see.
"Zone 17... That’s how Green died."
Victor muttered to himself, a chill in his voice. "His every move was under the enemy’s watch."
Allen brought up a comparative model of the frequency and intensity of Magical Beast assaults on Zones 17, 18, and 19 based on his reconnaissance.
"Judging by the attack rhythm, resource allocation, and tactical coordination, the one attacking all three zones simultaneously is at least a veteran Second-level Wizard. He’s also extremely cautious. So far, aside from one Snail Monster and some implants, he hasn’t revealed any of his own true abilities."
Allen’s finger swept across the sand table, connecting the three zones before finally pointing deep into the darkness to the west.
"The Son of the Abyss is the one responsible for the Magical Beast assaults across the entire plane. This Black Wizard is just riding on its coattails, controlling a portion of the beasts that have implants. The greater Beast Tide is now weakening, and that’s something he can’t control."
"But he’s used piecemeal tactics these past two months to probe the limits of our conventional defenses. He should be gathering his strength now."
"This won’t be as easy as the last time, when we worked together to kill that newly promoted, exiled Second-level Black Wizard from the Contract School. When he shows up again..."
Allen looked up, his gaze piercing through the light screen to lock onto Victor’s. "...it will be for an all-out assault."
Victor’s face turned a little pale. He instinctively straightened his back, as if trying to maintain the dignity of the Tieyan Clan’s heir.
"So you’re saying," he forced a bitter smile, "that once his patience runs out, we’re... still doomed to die?"
They were frogs being boiled in lukewarm water, and now the water was about to reach a boil.
"Doesn’t the Tieyan Clan have an ace up its sleeve?" Allen asked suddenly.
Victor fell silent.
The pride of a Wizard Clan warred violently with the brutal reality before him.
After a full half-minute, as if he had finally made a decision, he said in a low voice, "We do."
"To prevent me from encountering a danger I couldn’t handle out here, my father used some special channels to send me something."
Victor’s expression became extremely complex, a mixture of reliance and reluctance.
"A Golem... that can just barely touch the threshold of the fourth level."
’Fourth level? Morning Star Level?!’
Even with his Mechanical Mind, hearing this term caused a ripple in Allen’s Sea of Spirit.
"The same level as our mentor?" he pressed.
"You’re overthinking it."
Victor gave a bitter laugh. "It’s just a close-combat monster built by brute-forcing it with high-grade materials. The main body and the Magic Furnace are fourth-level spec, but it lacks a compatible weapons system. To put it bluntly, it’s more of a half-finished, ’quasi-fourth-level’ Golem."
He paused, then added, "Besides, I’m not its creator, so I can’t control it with any precision. Once activated, it will only act autonomously based on its pre-set combat logic. I can only give it the simplest commands."
"The family’s assessment is that its actual combat power is roughly... equivalent to the weakest possible Morning Star Level practitioner, one with significant flaws."
The light in Allen’s eyes dimmed.
An uncontrollable peak-level combatant sounded powerful, but against a veteran Black Wizard capable of suppressing three zones at once, how much could it really kill on a rampage? Once its energy was depleted or it was trapped by the enemy’s schemes, it would ultimately become just a sitting duck, completely incapable of turning the tide of battle.
This was still just a slow death.
A suffocating silence fell on both ends of the communication line.
"Let’s abandon the outer perimeter first. We don’t have to wait for him to launch his all-out assault."
In the end, it was Allen who broke the silence.
His finger decisively drew a new defense line on the tactical sand table.
It was a consolidated defense line anchored by his Magma Lake Workshop and Victor’s core workshop in Zone 19, connected by the natural terrain of the volcanic mountain range between them.
"Abandon all the mines, all the outer strongholds. We’ll merge our two legions and defend this final line to the death. If he attacks you first, I’ll cross zones to support you, and vice versa."
"Consolidate? Isn’t that the same as before? Or do you have another plan?"
Victor said, "The workshops are our foundation, and the mines are our lifeline! Without a supply of resources, we’re a river without a source. It’s only a matter of time before we’re bled dry!"
"Of course we have to consolidate our forces. If we don’t, we won’t even have time to be bled dry. We’ll most likely be overwhelmed in a single wave."
Allen’s tone was completely steady. He looked up, met Victor’s gaze calmly, and said one sentence.
"I need 15 days, because I am about to advance to Level 2."
Victor’s eyes shot wide open, his mouth slightly agape, his face a mask of utter disbelief.
Allen didn’t give him time to process it, immediately playing his next card.
"What’s more, I have a ’Little Fatty’ in my possession. An eighty-ton, high-purity Crystalization Seed bomb. In theory, it can completely wipe a Second-level Wizard, and everything within a dozen kilometers around him, from this plane of existence."
On the other end of the light screen, Victor’s breathing stopped.
’Eighty tons... of Crystalization Seed?’
He recalled the previous five-ton-yield "Big Boy."
’Eighty tons... What did that even mean?’
It was absolutely enough to threaten a Second-level Wizard.
Immense joy and hope surged through Victor’s heart in an instant.
"Then what are you waiting for!" he shouted excitedly. "Hurry up and blast that rat hiding in a gutter to smithereens!"
"I’d like to."
Allen spread his hands, a hint of helplessness showing in his eyes for the first time.
"The problem is, this ’Little Fatty’ is still sitting quietly in a warehouse."
"I... lack a delivery method to get it safely into the enemy’s face."
"If I can master the Golem Teleportation Technique and become a Second-level Wizard, then we’ll have a sliver of a chance."