Disastrous Victory
Heian Ciemnosc and his scouting group returned to the army 7 days later. By now, they had been at war against the hidden enemy forces of the Blackotia Kingdom for 1 month and a week and a half. They arrived in the morning, and the commander convoked the sub-commanders of several army factions to discuss the following plan to siege the first City. Only Heian Ciemnosc was allowed in from his team, while each sub-commander led 10,000 student troops, more or less, and the commander and second-in-command led 50,000 each.
The temporary base’s command center was on the roof, and a mildly large circular terminal was surrounded by nearly 30 people. Between them, Heian Ciemnosc was placed at the front with the commander and the second-in-command while the sub-commanders took 4 steps back and watched. The commander, Lionel, lifted his voice and spoke loudly.
“Scout leader Heian Ciemnosc, you have presented me with the Cities’ information. Now, explain them to my sub-commanders.” Lionel spoke with a dominating attitude. Heian Ciemnosc didn’t complicate things and placed his right hand on the panel, forming a hologram that revealed many bits of information and showed a few images. He pointed at the walls, at their lower extremes, and at their top.
“The walls haven’t been fortified in several hundred years, 400 to be precise. The lower part of the walls has the worst foundation. They could collapse with some constant bombardment. But after their lower ends are destroyed, the walls won’t collapse. Array formations have been inscribed on them, and the enemy is waiting for more resources. This was their solution.”
“Their walls have been further protected by their Cities’, but their protective array formation is not a barrier per se. It is a mix of a shield, a barrier, and a cover. It acts more like a person holding a hand-shield than a barrier protective array formation or an actual one in spaceships. As long as their principal defensive array formation is broken, the walls will break away, too. But their defense is too much for us and the transporting ship’s machine guns alone.”
“Every sub-commander’s fraction will have 25 cannons, similar to the enemy’s but better. We will attack the same spot with only 10 of those cannons. The rest can be used as an emergency if there’s a malfunction or we are struck back. That is how the enemy’s principal defensive barrier will fall down and open a hole in the walls. After the City is conquered, we will take less than 15 hours before flying in the transporting shi-”
“Th- tha- that’s enough. It’s not for you to say,” commander Lionel interjected with a swing of his left hand to stop Heian Ciemnosc from continuing. Heian Ciemnosc stopped and looked at the commander. The latter took from where he left it and spoke confidently. “I am the commander here. Ehum, we will spend half a day after conquering the first City and then go after the second City no matter what. Prepare your troops for this operation.”
“After the first City is ours, the scouting group will go out first and check the situation. They must return before we set off unless they want to be left behind, and they must report their findings, no matter the cost. Whether the enemy is preparing, sent reinforcements but retreated. I want to know everything!” Lionel said, his voice becoming loud enough for the sub-commanders to become stern and understand the situation’s importance.
Afterwards, Lionel had Heian Ciemnosc explain everything his scouting group discovered. It was a lot of things. For starters, all the enemy’s routes were compromised, including escape gateways and where the largest patrols hid. Then, Heian Ciemnosc elaborated on the armament of each City. Everyone had more than 300 cannons. They were the same type and model as the army had been shown.
Heian Ciemnosc took out 4 cannons and explained the differences between each. Of the 4, 2 were the enemy’s models, and the other 2 were this army’s cannons. The enemy’s cannons looked bulkier and older, while the army’s were thinner and new. He explained how the army’s models could no longer allow their shells to increase in size after being shot, but their penetrating force had increased.
The army’s cannons had a much better fire rate, had better resistance without needing to cool off after just a couple shells, and could continue to fire about 15 rounds without stopping. The army’s cannons no longer had as much explosive area as before. But they could at least shoot faster and more accurately, dealt more destructive damage in a smaller scope, and were easier to manage even though they had the same range.
One sub-commander asked if there wouldn’t be any cannons like this implemented in the transporting ship. Heian Ciemnosc answered that it wasn’t a warship and needed a weapon’s guidance system and the feature to control them from within. It wasn’t an armed vehicle, and putting cannons there besides the machine guns would make the transporting ship a flying piñata.
Afterwards, Heian Ciemnosc elaborated on the City’s defense, finally giving the sub-commanders a chance to sight in relief. There were about 40,000 in each City. as it looked like the enemy didn’t have endless cultivators. They could only storm into the Cities after breaking open a hole in their walls, though.
“... That will be all. Does anyone has any question?” Lionel said once the meeting was over. The sub-commanders were more at ease now. Most were young and inexperienced in war, only missions and the like. Now that they knew their enemy’s strength in this part of the Kingdom, they felt victory was almost in their hands.
“... I-” - “How will we fight the first moments of the actual battle? When our fellow students rush in and meet the enemy? I would like to discuss a little more about the instructions. Sending our fellows there to perish is the least I want to do.”
Just as Cio, the fatso covered in grease with brown-violet skin and an ugly square face, wanted to say something, a sub-commander beat him to it and asked with his arms crossed with his one hand’s fingers grasping his chin. Lionel looked a little interrupted, but he still nodded at the sub-commander. “We will let our students rush in as soon as possible. There are enough Craftspeople in each of your forces. Their tools will depend on you.”
“Are you sure?” Suddenly, Heian Ciemnosc raised his voice to ask. Everyone looked at him. The sub-commanders were intrigued as the pale teenager seemed to object. Lionel slowly turned his head to look at him, then said, “What do you mean, scouting leader?”
“I’m just recalling something, so. I’m saying, what if the enemy decides to detonate themselves?” Heian Ciemnosc looked at Lionel without the intention to back down. The commander’s left eye twitched before he responded, “Are you kidding? Detonating one’s Links has a great chance to invoke an extinction to oneself! They wouldn’t do that just to fight us, the Academy! No one would.”
“Are you sure?” Heian Ciemnosc asked, again the same, and interrupted Lionel as he seemed about to say something. “I’m just saying, what if that’s not the case? Would they do it then?”
“...” Lionel was left without words, his jaw open behind his closed lips and looking at Heian Ciemnosc, somewhat dumbfounded. After a while, Cio finally spoke once he sobered up, trying to help the situation in their favor. “Heian Ciemnosc, actually, I do have a question. A doubt.”
“...” Heian Ciemnosc didn’t continue ‘rebuking’ Lionel and looked at Cio. His face looked casual as Cio began speaking with modesty. “I was wondering… how is it that you and your team managed to get a hold of this much information without them knowing? We know that most of this vital data came from the enemy’s information storage and was infiltrated by you and your team. But you also reported a situation…”
“...” Heian Ciemnosc’s left eyebrow was lifted. He looked at Cio without much thought nor showed any expression. Cio continued, his greasy mouth smiling as his fat twerked as he spoke. “Your report mentions you raped someone just to keep ‘appearances up’ and not be discovered. But how do we know what is the truth? You could’ve been discovered and sent back by the enemy, proportioning us some true and false information.”
“You could’ve also been fooled, and that non-cultivator could’ve been a Second Step cultivator hiding her cultivation base. She just had to be kinky enough and want a virgin to succeed fooling you. Though she can’t attack us, she can send information to the enemy now that she is here. Yet… you also brought her here. Considering these points, why did you not do anything to investigate further?”
“...” Heian Ciemnosc looked at second-in-command, Cio. The other second-in-command and the commander also looked at him. The sub-commanders were looking at the situation strangely. It all felt a bit too much and a bit too dramatic. Finally, Heian Ciemnosc looked at the sky. It was morning and clear blue-colored before looking down at Cio with his darkest eyes as serene as possible.
“Say, if I challenge you to a duel, and instead of inheriting your position if I can kill you, I simply retain my current status… Do you think your commander here would stop me?” Heian Ciemnosc said while letting his cultivation base’s fluctuations out, he was at the Ashes Soul realm 5th stage! He was in the 1st stage a month ago when the war started. Everyone could tell! How could he reach the exact middle of a realm in a month?!
They had seen his cultivation base improve every day whenever his scouting group returned from the path ahead. How could ‘just’ doing that allow one to achieve so many breakthroughs? And his foundation was more solid than even they believe the Academy’s Teachers could ever have! How?! Was scouting this important, after all?!
“Hahaha, haha!” Cio laughed, his grease falling off his body. Some fell on Heian Ciemnosc’s right cheek as he softly turned his head to the left to avoid getting hit on the face by it but maintained a light smile the entire time. Cio said after he received a barely noticeable nod from Lionel’s part. “Heian Ciemnosc, you boy! You don’t know, but each realm is more powerful than the last!”
“Maybe in your backwater Kingdom, you could jump realms to battle. But here, you can only jump to your death!” Cio declared. He stepped backwards and said while pointing at Heian Ciemnosc. “A duel, is it? To the death, is it? Hahaha, good!! I will wait for you at the camps. Let everyone watch you die! Die! Die!!”
Thud- whooosh.
“...” With his light smile not gone, Heian Ciemnosc’s left eyebrow was slowly raised. He looked at the departing, fat figure in the sky and felt funny. Cio had remained in the Spirit Formation realm 3rd stage for almost a year and was under 30 years old. He was good, but in Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes, Cio was just meat to be punched away, not even worthy of being eaten.
After Heian Ciemnosc grinned from the left corner of his mouth, he turned to look at the sub-commanders, said nothing, and nodded silently before departing.
Whooooosh… Unlike the noisy fatass, Heian Ciemnosc departed from the roof without making a sound. Only his body moving through the air sounded as dark Power Energy followed behind him, leaving smallish, dark, ashy particles, leaving the sub-commanders feeling some unexpected awe. Lionel saw through the dark ashes and frowned slightly. He somehow felt that maybe… just maybe… he shouldn’t have let Cio duel Heian Ciemnosc?
… In the camps, at the student troops’ tents had been pitched for almost 3 weeks. Cio and Heian Ciemnosc were surrounded by a circle of troops as they cheered and shouted zealously. Most were impacted by Heian Ciemnosc’s capabilities as a leader. Others had suffered a little neglect or bullying from this second-in-command with more grease than a Fauna of the same level.
“Are we going to wait more time?” Heian Ciemnosc annoyingly spoke to Cio. After arriving here, the grease man chose to wait and let more troops come over to watch the show. Naturally, the pale, handsome teenager wasn’t content and couldn’t hold it much longer. Cio stood smiling from ear to ear as he took in the students’ disgust and insults while rubbing his belly over his clothes. But when he heard Heian Ciemnosc, he spat, and his face became furious.
“Bah! I’m letting you live for a little longer, but you’re hurrying me?! Do you just want to die that quickly? Fine!!” The grease man stepped forth, lifted his belly, and then let it fall with a hop. The ground trembled for a second, and his eyes were stuck on Heian Ciemnosc’s pale face as if wanting to see the fearful expression on his face. Heian Ciemnosc didn’t even blink as Cio behaved erroneously with his brain, and just as Cio realized Heian Ciemnosc wasn’t becoming fearful, he sensed his team members coming over to watch the show.
‘Oh, they choose a good distance. They don’t want to be smeared in filth, huh?’ Heian Ciemnosc looked at them and nodded before turning to face Cio. Right then, the crowd went silent as Cio sneak attacked Heian Ciemnosc!
Whoosh- fa-thud. Heian Ciemnosc didn’t jerk his head as he turned to look at Cio. His uniform, jacket, and dark cloak dressed him up quite enchantingly. Even looking at him from the back, males and females felt charmed. But as Cio’s speed wasn’t a joke, it was good enough for his cultivation base. Heian Ciemnosc’s right forearm was lifted, and his open palm welcomed Cio’s left kick. Their limbs connected, Heian Ciemnosc was unmoving, and without a speck of dust was raised around his feet.
Phhshk- pum pom. Heian Ciemnosc didn’t hesitate to let his Claws Out, closing his hand as Cio’s left foot was crushed into smithereens. Cio wanted to back away, his face sweating and his skin so pale his grease almost looked thinner. But Heian Ciemnosc pulled him and punched Cio’s stomach with his left hand before sending him flying backwards with a punch to the neck.
“YEAAAH” - “HEWWEEEE!” - “Get hiiim~!” - “Take that, fat-stard!” The crowd reacted violently, seeing Cio’s body punched several meters back. When his body finally stopped and fell on the ground, lifting dirt and tiny rocks, they went silent again.
“You… motherfucker! You tricked me! You wanted to fool me!!” Cio was clearly feeling emotional. He looked at his left foot and felt pained, so aggrieved he could faint. Recuperating one’s limbs was impossible. Only if their extremities were still somewhat there would anyone have a chance. However, looking down at it, he saw only 3 ‘fingers’ starting from his heel extending and hanging low, consisting of skin and some bleeding flesh.
“AaAAaaaAAH!” Cio screamed desperately, holding his left shin up, and even cried a few tears. He looked back up at Heian Ciemnosc, who remained in the same spot, with his feet positioned on top of the same ground. He hadn’t even moved a little! Cio reunited his Power Energy and gathered enough courage. He pointed at Heian Ciemnosc again and shouted, his voice almost shrill but still sounding deep and grotesque.
“You did THIS! You will paaaay!!” Cio’s back started gathering Power Energy, vaguely forming an image. His Power Energy slowly gained a little color, and a blue tortoise head could be seen after Heian Ciemnosc enhanced his eyes. Its eyes were yellow, and it looked silently at Heian Ciemnosc. ‘That’s a Spirit Image…’
Heian Ciemnosc became curious as he saw this thing for the first time. His team hadn’t encountered any misfortune that forced them to release so much Power Energy, some blood essence, and waste their life force in order to make such a phenomenon happen. Seeing it for the first time, Heian Ciemnosc felt a sense of hunger and suddenly thought about not eating a corpse, but the Spirit Image alone instead…
The fatso can be ignored, it didn’t matter, but the Spirit Image was worth considering. After all, all Heian Ciemnosc had inside his inner body was darkness.
‘I kinda feel I know this Fauna… and comprehend this Cio’s cultivation method, techniques, and pseudo-Arts.’ Heian Ciemnosc thought inside his head as Cio’s body was illuminating with a blue color as if the sun was drawing scales on his skin. The skin slowly disintegrated, and his body lost all the fat, becoming a tall, muscled Demon figure.
His figure was ‘hidden’ as he looked down. Nobody could discern Cio’s face, but Heian Ciemnosc could see that and even tell he was in absolute pain!
“HUAAAGGGHHRR!” Cio looked up and roared to the sky. His voice changed, and he sounded somewhat… like a turtle would if they grew to a human’s size and were angered. Cio looked at Heian Ciemnosc and approached him with slow steps. The slow became rapid, and the ground slightly resounded as he heavily stomped and dashed towards Heian Ciemnosc! Cio wielded his fists as Mortal gauntlets-weapons appeared, covering his fists as he locked onto Heian Ciemnosc’s chest.
Thud… thud… thud… Heian Ciemnosc’s left eyebrow slightly jumped as he let Cio gain as much momentum as possible. Cio quickly closed in to Heian Ciemnosc. His body floated, and his feet’s soles met Heian Ciemnosc’s opposite direction. His fists aimed at Heian Ciemnosc’s chest, and he had kicked against the ground with a last impulse! This hit would definitely severely injure anyone in Cio’s cultivation base!
Tap, phhshk~~~~.
“!!!” - “!!” - “Holy… shiiit!!” - “AAAH! It’s in my mowf…” - “My eye! Fuck!”
Suddenly, one second passed before Cio could reach Heian Ciemnosc. Yet, everything changed, and the skies were covered, at a low altitude, by grease and blood mixed. Heian Ciemnosc acted, stopping Cio’s left fist with his right palm. Heian Ciemnosc didn’t bother closing his hand this time and only extended his right forearm slightly. Cio wasn’t just stopped. His floating body was pushed back, but in the next half a second, Heian Ciemnosc’s left-handed claws cut upside-down Cio’s muscled body.
Cio’s body became more durable after sacrificing so much of himself. But against Heian Ciemnosc’s left-handed claws, his skin was slightly rough for Heian Ciemnosc’s dark, small claws. He only needed to use all his dark Power Energy, bodily strength, and Claws Out.
The next thing the crowd knew was a limp and powerless set of skin flying into the air before blood and grease covered the sky above a few hundred student troops. They looked up, only to be slapped down by the falling mix and suffering a day’s diarrhea or something. Heian Ciemnosc had ended one of their second-in-command so effortlessly. If he was capable in their eyes before, he was now a godly cultivator of those from stories and fairy tales they used to hear and read!
After Heian Ciemnosc finished off Cio, his right hand was strangely tightly shut ever since he collided with Cio’s body, and dark Power Energy ‘roots’ entwined his right arm from the tip of his fingers to his chest. Of course, only Heian Ciemnosc could see that since he wore clothes, and 3 layers, for that matter. He left the area and returned to his tent, a little on the camp’s borders.
On the other hand, atop the same rooftop, commander Lionel looked at the scene while holding onto a railing. His eyes were astoundingly shocked, but he kept his eyes on Heian Ciemnosc until he left. His grasp on it was already deforming the rooftop’s railing. On his right, Cari facepalmed himself with his right hand while his left arm supported his other elbow.
…
