The monsters’ sche, however, had a fatal flaw. They didn’t realise that William was countering their trap by falling directly into it on his own terms.
As they placed him at the very top of their "to-do" list, he ensured he caused enough of a ruckus to hold their undivided attention. He transford himself into a beacon of such extre threat that the enemy’s commanders couldn’t afford to look away from this sector for a single second.
At the sa ti, he made sure that no matter how many thousands of monsters they threw into the at grinder to stop him, it beca increasingly clear that it wouldn’t be enough.
He fought with a frantic, explosive energy, sending a clear and simple ssage to the dark minds watching from the shadows: If you want to confine , you’re going to need to bring a lot more than this.
But William’s actions weren’t limited to saving the town he had arrived in. While his enemies sched on a continental scale, he was doing the sa. He had started his counter-play a bit late, so he had to use his own body and spirit to buy his true "ace" the necessary ti to prepare.
"What?!"
Miles away from the blood-soaked soil of the frontier town, Becky had successfully navigated the portal back to Lara’s command center. She stood breathless, relaying the frantic orders William had entrusted to her. "He specifically asked for Berry? What for?!!"
The confusion Becky felt was mirrored perfectly in Lara’s wide-eyed expression. Becky had initially assud she might have misjudged Berry’s abilities during their brief etings, perhaps overlooking a hidden, terrifying power.
But watching Lara’s genuine shock, she was now certain she hadn’t made a mistake. Berry was talented, yes, but she wasn’t a tactical genius or a god-tier combatant.
"He told so, and he was dead serious," Becky said, not wasting a single second for debate. "I’m heading back to help him. Consider that sector well-protected as long as the two of us are standing. But you have dozens of other holes in the line to plug..."
"I know!" Lara shouted back, her mind already racing through a hundred different contingencies. She spun around, facing the inner circle of her faction’s trusted officers. "Find Berry for ! Bring her here at the fastest speed possible! And send scouts to verify the state of every gate—see what the hell is going on at the other containnt zones!"
Her eyes froze over the tactical map, specifically on the areas William had flagged before his departure. The gravity of his warning was finally sinking in.
"Let’s start with moving half of our reserve masters to these two areas," she commanded, her voice regaining its iron authority. "If William is right about the bears, then God help us all if we’re a minute too late."
"Half? Are you sure, Master Lara?"
One of her most trusted advisors, a battle-hardened man whose armour was still caked in the dust of the city’s recent defence, asked the question with a voice thick with doubt. He didn’t need to elaborate; he simply let his gaze sweep over the city around them.
The once-proud spires were broken, the internal barricades were held together by little more than hope and grit, and the air was still heavy with the sll of smoke and death. To move half their remaining strength now felt like a suicidal gamble.
"I am sure," Lara replied, her voice dropping an octave as she stared at the three marks on the tactical map. "I have known William long enough to know he does not bluff, and he certainly does not joke when he is in that state. He sensed sothing. He didn’t just ask about these three spots; he commanded us to look at them."
She paused, taking a deep, shuddering breath that seed to weigh down her entire fra. "Let us pray to the ancestors that we aren’t already too late. If we fail to reinforce those periters, we won’t just be fighting a few stragglers. We will have to handle a literal flood of Scarlet Bears and mutated monsters right here, pouring through our own portals into the heart of the city."
The silence that followed her words was suffocating. The re thought of a monster tide—especially one composed of the apocalyptic Scarlet Bears—erupting from the portal plaza and flooding the already damaged city was enough to make the spirit of every master present tremble.
Without realising it, Lara’s mind began to race through everything that had transpired since the city was first besieged. The pieces were finally beginning to fit together into a picture that was as brilliant as it was terrifying.
"Those sons of bitches..." she hissed, her eyes narrowing at the map. "They weren’t playing around from the very start."
She didn’t know the na or the face of the commander leading the enemy forces, but she cursed them with every fibre of her being. Taking a step back and looking at the war from a macro perspective, it was clear that everyone—the city’s defenders, the faction leaders, even her own elite masters—had fallen into a complicated, yet brutally simple trap.
The initial attack on the city hadn’t actually aid to conquer and hold the territory. If the enemies had truly wanted the city as a strategic base, they would have made sure to keep the walls intact and the mighty defensive towers standing.
Instead, they had unleashed a magnitude of damage that seed almost senseless at the ti—shattering the strongest defences and levelling the primary barracks.
Now, she saw the truth. The first attack was rely a precursor—a preparatory move designed to soften the target and distract the high command. The real killing blow was the monster tide currently converging on the city from three different directions.
They had crippled the city’s shell so that when the bears arrived, there would be nothing left to stop the massacre.
How did William know? she wondered, a chill running down her spine. How did he sniff out a plan that was buried under so many layers of deception?
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