Chapter 413: Chapter 413 – Tars War – Symbolic Walls (2/2)
Kharzan observed as his army began preparing for the ‘assault’ on their wall.
The troops organized themselves into loose formations of small groups, giving each other space. These were formations that reflected the strategy of complete elental coverage, but also sothing more fundantal about the nature of warfare in their world.
In the world of tars, wars were never the sa. Everything depended on the level of the highest-ranked fighters, beast choices, and the culture of the era. And this was a particular era in many aspects.
The tars used in war were primarily those of the highest level, at least Silver 1. Not because a Bronze 2 tar couldn’t hurt a Silver 1, but for more complex cultural reasons that ran deeper in their minds than simple mathematics.
Probably two or three Bronze 2 tars could bring down a Silver 1, more or less depending on individual skill and elental types. The gap wasn’t insurmountable if numbers were properly coordinated.
So why didn’t they use more lower-rank troops when Kharzan alone had about 50,000 possible Bronze 2 combatants?
Their elitist culture. They would only use those ‘working resources’ in extrely necessary cases.
It was certainly a situation that could only occur when individual power could be so disparate and one’s self-perception could scale so high, both in the mind and body of the warrior who accepted the beast.
For most, the psychological transformation that ca with power was as significant as the physical one.
To the absurd level that those who felt strong preferred to risk their own necks rather than let the “weak” steal the glory of battle. Using weapons instead of one’s own power was then considered even more shaful.
But there were practical reasons too. Most conventional weapons, iron, steel, even so special alloys, simply didn’t last when faced with the hardened bodies and natural armor of high-level tars.
Although they could forge weapons easily with their elental fire and earth abilities, the fact that mainly the strongest fought ant that weapons broke quickly when impacting such resistant soldiers. The economics of warfare had adapted to this reality and focused on food and healing materials instead.
Monster materials sotis gave decent results for weapons, but even those paled in comparison to the practicality of directly using beast abilities to create claws, earth spears, or magical wood weapons. It was more practical, more synergistic, and definitely more impressive to use your own ability as a weapon… even better to launch a classic fireball or wind blade.
At least that was the general consensus.
Using conventional weapons was perceived as a weakness in general, sothing only a war of Iron or Bronze ranks would require. Therefore, it wasn’t studied or invested in with much ti or crystals.
The soldiers prepared as if they had been waiting for this mont for months. Claws sprouted from their fists while others hardened their skin like natural armor or created artificial versions. Mountable beasts erged in a symphony of roars, howls, and neighing in their majority.
The air thickened with temporary ambient mana as thousands of tars simultaneously invoked their powers.
So created fire projectiles that floated above their palms, others manifested crystallized water shields that glead like sapphires, and those of higher ranks did things worthy of envy like combining elents into complex weapons that pulsed with lethal energy.
So tars near Kharzan summoned earth and wood spears too, the sharpened tips erging from the ground with quick sounds that cut through the morning air. It was a common tactic for defensive elental specialists… the spears provided reach and could be added to the defensive wall or thrown at the enemy.
But the sight of those points directed upward made Kharzan feel an involuntary chill running up his spine, imagining sothing unpleasant at the tip of one of them.
‘No,’ he reassured himself ntally, ‘she can’t fulfill her promise because it would be a tactical error.’
Initiating the war by trying to eliminate him first when he was surrounded by 10,000 loyal soldiers would be pure suicide for the old woman. In fact, it would suit Kharzan enormously if she tried… killing Selphira Ashenway in combat, even if his entire army helped around him, would give him instant legitimacy and eliminate one of his most dangerous opponents.
It had been just a bluff in the mont, an empty threat designed to maintain face and group morale.
“Advance!” Kharzan roared, and ten thousand voices responded with a war cry that made the ground tremble beneath their feet.
♢♢♢♢
The wall rose before them. His forces deployed in the era’s generic formation, earth and wood elentals at the front, creating an “unstoppable wave” that transford the wall itself into their shield and weapon.
The earth tars began molding existing structures, absorbing the wall into new formations that advanced like a giant monster toward Yano territory. It wasn’t invasion, it was transformation, and a strategy that allowed them to gain ground while maintaining defensive coverage.
Houses on the outskirts of the central city disappeared behind the enormous earth monster that enveloped and incorporated them into the Goldcrest side without bothering to ask permission. The few civilians who had remained in their hos and hadn’t fled toward the interior would now be forced to support the wall’s advance logistics.
For several minutes, everything marched perfectly. His soldiers advanced quite quickly, creating a wide corridor of walls that extended ever deeper into enemy territory. Reports arrived constantly from the air, minimal resistance, secured objectives, continuous advance.
It was too easy.
The sensation nagged at Kharzan like an itch he couldn’t scratch. In his reading experience, when military operations proceeded without obstacles, it usually ant the real challenge was waiting ahead.
“My Lord,” a ssenger approached riding a red eagle, his expression troubled in a way that imdiately caught Kharzan’s attention. “Aerial reports from the front.”
“Resistance?”
“That’s what’s strange, my Lord. There’s no resistance. The other side simply… ran away.”
Kharzan frowned, his instincts imdiately alert. He expected so opposition, at least containnt forces to slow his advance while Yano organized an appropriate response.
“And the troops Selphira had advanced to the wall?”
“That’s even stranger, my Lord.” The ssenger’s voice carried the confusion of soone reporting sothing that didn’t make much sense. “Scouts report that the other side of the wall is almost deserted. Only the minimal patrols Yano had stationed initially, and they’re retreating at safe distance without engaging.”
“How much civilian activity?”
“So scattered houses with families who haven’t moved, just like the four we’ve already absorbed, but nothing more. It’s as if they had abandoned the entire upper section across almost fifty kiloters from the abyss.”
Kharzan felt sothing cold settling in his stomach. In his readings on tactics, when a competent enemy abandoned territory without fighting, it usually ant they had sothing better planned.
He looked around, noticing for the first ti how the new walls his troops were building as they advanced had beco higher, closer to each other. What had begun as a wide corridor now felt narrower, more confined.
Like a prison.
‘They’re just basic defensive tactics for my army that can’t contain ,’ he reminded himself, trying to maintain confidence. ‘For my power, they’re more like a smoke screen.’
But his instinct told him sothing different. The territory he was claiming as his own to advance toward the bridge might not be as much his as he thought.
Yet the pressure to advance, the montum of 10,000 soldiers, the political necessity of showing strength…
And now, in the unnatural silence surrounding his advance, the earth walls flanking his army seed to be listening to every word, every plan, watching every movent.
Waiting.
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