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CHAPTER 175 Day 21 Afternoon : War!

Atlas was relieved that the situation with the soldiers had been settled peacefully.

‘That’s one less fight I’ll have to deal with inside Fort Bone‘, he thought.

"Okay, enough time for levity," Atlas said to John, his expression shifting into something more serious. "I want to go check who those fuckers were that voted to kill my baby trolls."

With a determined stride, Atlas headed to the kiosk, where the note from Red Fairy awaited him. The votes—yes and no—were clearly listed. Two names immediately stuck out: Kumar from Faith and Oliver from Belief. These were the last two territories still bordering Fort Bone. Atlas knew taking them over was critical if he wanted full control of the blue-ringed area. The sheer size of it—continent-like, stretching vast distances—made it daunting to travel by foot.

But with his daily teleportation actions, it was entirely within reach. Each conquered settlement and dungeon granted him an action, and upgraded capacity. Fort Bone had already captured enough to allow multiple actions in a single day. A godsend for transports and raiding, these activations were the key to Atlas’s growing empire.

"Now it’s time to deal with those two," Atlas muttered to himself.

Atlas stood before the gathered leadership of Fort Bone, the chaos of the newly arrived refugees swirling in the background. He looked focused, his mind already on the battle ahead.

“We should take advantage of the disorganization caused by lat night’s portal to take over at least one of those territories. Kumar from Faith voted to kill my baby trolls, while Oliver from Belief voted to let them live.That makes the choice easy for who we’re going to attack. Kumar must already be gearing up for a war. Let’s not allow them to get stronger. ” Atlas said, his voice steady.

‘Hey, it’s a good plan based on logical reasons, and totally not a knee jerk reaction to them targeting my baby trolls,’ he thought smugly in his head.

He gathered up Alexander, Isabella, and a few others to make a plan. While things were still in a bit of disorder with the new arrivals, he felt the situation in Fort Bone was stable enough to move forward.

“Alexander, Isabella, are you guys ready for an attack?”

Alexander grinned, "Heck yeah, always ready."

Isabella crossed her arms, her face more cautious. "Do you think that’s wise? We don’t have any intel. We could be walking into something blind."

Atlas shook his head. "We might have had to scout before, but with the armor we’ve got now, and the new weapons, we’ll be fine. It’s afternoon and right after a refugee influx, prime time to take the fight to them."

Alexander leaned in, eager. "How many men should we bring?"

“With the refugees piling in right now,” Atlas said, scanning the camp, “the chaos is huge. Let’s bring two hundred people.”

“Two hundred?” Alexander raised an eyebrow. “That’s a lot to gather up. How long do we have?”

“Get them ready in an hour,” Atlas ordered. “And remember, they don’t all have to be warriors. Bring some of the porters with those bone spears covered in KrazyBondoGlue.”

Isabella nodded, though still wary. “I hope you're right about this. No scouting could mean trouble.”

Atlas smirked. "We’ll make sure trouble finds them first."

An hour later, Atlas, Isabella, and Alexander stood at the teleportation point with their two hundred men. The air crackled with anticipation as the teleportation device activated with a sharp BERZOOP!

“Go team, go!” Atlas shouted, and the two hundred soldiers surged forward in a coordinated rush.

The twenty guards stationed at the Faith teleportation point were caught off-guard. Despite their efforts, they were quickly overwhelmed. Crossbows fired relentlessly, the bolts piercing through their ranks. Atlas led the charge, his twin swords slicing through the air with bloody precision.

The defenders, caught in the chaos, struggled to fight back. Their swords clanged ineffectively against Atlas’s newly forged Frankenarmor, which absorbed the blows with barely a scratch. The clash of metal was followed by the thud of bodies hitting the ground. Atlas cut through their defenses like the famed butcher he was, his movements a blur of steel and power.

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The once-defiant guards fell one by one, their resistance crumbling under the relentless assault. Atlas and his men pushed forward, leaving a bloody trail in their wake. The scene was a testament to the brutal efficiency of their strike.

“Take no prisoners!” Atlas shouted. “Go, go, go. Time is of the essence. Go!”

The force of two hundred men surged forward, their footsteps echoing over the corpses of the twenty fallen guards. Atlas led the charge with fierce determination. When they reached near the gate of Kumar’s settlement, he called out, “Stop men, stop!”

In front of the gate, a series of watchtowers loomed, prepared to defend against any attack. Atlas had stopped the Portal Crushers just within firing distance. “Tanks, shields up front!” he ordered. Hank led the designated tanks, carrying massive shields, they all moved to the front, ready for the charge.

“Go. Let’s take down these watchtowers!” Atlas commanded, his voice cutting through the chaos.

With a fierce battle cry, they charged the first watchtower. Bolts rained down, but the shields held strong. At the same time, Alexander and Isabella led separate teams, hurling flame grenades at the watchtowers. The grenades exploded on impact, sending flames licking up the wooden structures.

The watchtowers were soon engulfed in fire, the flames spreading rapidly. The men stationed there screamed as the inferno began to consume their posts. Faced with the choice of burning alive or leaving their towers, they scrambled down from heights of 60 feet, hoping to survive the descent.

Most were not so lucky. The flames eagerly chased them and their desperate leaps resulted in numerous injuries and fatalities. Their screams blending with the roar of the flames. Pungent smoke combined with the smell of burning flesh. The watchtowers collapsed one by one, and the area was thrown into disarray. Atlas and his men pressed on, taking full advantage of the confusion. This was a blitzkrieg.

“Stop!” Atlas shouted, halting his men before the crossbowmen atop the walls could fire on them accurately.

Atlas surveyed the Faith settlement’s front gate with a critical eye. The gate, walls, and castle were clearly of impressive construction, even sturdier than Fort Bone’s defenses.

Despite the Portal Crushers stopping in advance, bolts still flew through the air, falling short of their targets.

“Retreat!” Atlas ordered urgently. “We’ve got to retreat now!”

Alexander, bewildered, protested, “Now? We’re almost there.”

“There’s no point,” Atlas said firmly. “Let’s go back. I’ll explain later. But first, loot the bodies.”

The two hundred men began to fall back in an orderly fashion. Forming a turtle formation with the tanks on the outside and the bone clad noobies on the inside they turned around. They meticulously stripped the fallen defenders, taking everything from armor to rations. They left the underwear, and that was all.

Alexander organized teams for this grisly task while Isabella kept vigilant, scanning for any sign of a counter-rush. Atlas, meanwhile, considered the potential counter-attack with a sick smile. ‘I hope they do come after us. They’ll be slaughtered.‘

As anticipated, no counter-attack came. The Portal Crushers finished looting the corpses and gathered their spoils.

“Crush your return stones,” Atlas commanded. The return stones could only bring fifty people each, so Atlas had bought several of them. The team complied, activating their return stones. With a sudden BERZOOP, the stones did their work, whisking Atlas, Isabella, Alexander, and the two hundred men back to Fort Bone. They hadn’t even had one death.

‘Some wounds and no deaths, that was a great raid.‘ Atlas thought.

After returning to Fort Bone, Atlas addressed his men. “Men, deal with the loot as per our normal orders and take a 15-minute break. Then we're heading out again.”

“Wow, that was exciting,” one of the new recruits said.

“That was nothing, you should have been there for the Canuck rescue, “ answered a veteran.

“Do you think we could have busted through the fort gate?”

“No idea, but Atlas hasn’t been wrong yet.”

The soldiers, though puzzled by the aborted raid, had become accustomed to following orders without question. Alexander approached Atlas, curiosity evident in his tone. “So, what’s going on?”

“The walls they have are level 3,” Atlas explained. “Fort Bone has level 2 walls. I can tell you, a level 3 wall won’t be easily breached by a forward charge, even with two hundred men. By the time we made it through those gates, half our men would be dead. We might have captured the settlement, but it would have been a bloody massacre, and that’s not something I want to see again.”

Atlas remembered a raid that Clark had planned that used the human siege tactics, and it sickened him still. There was no way he was repeating that fiasco.

Alexander nodded in understanding. “Oh, yeah, no, that wouldn’t be great. I don’t want to lose half my men.”

Isabella agreed, “Our army is still too small for that kind of loss.”

Atlas continued, “Exactly. That’s why we’re now heading towards the Belief settlement. I want to assess their situation.”

Alexander asked, “Are we going to rush them?”

“No,” Atlas replied. “They voted to let my baby trolls stay alive, which tells me two things: they’re not just out for blood, and there’s a chance for an alliance. If we can get them to accept my overlord position, we could conquer their territory without any bloodshed.”

Alexander raised an eyebrow. “What do you think the chances of that are?”

“I don’t know,” Atlas admitted. “I’ve never spoken to them before, and in my previous lifetime, the Belief settlement wasn’t led by a guy named Oliver. Speaking of Oliver, where’s Olivia? We need our diplomatic team here.”

Olivia, who had been playing with the baby trolls, looked up as Isabella called out, “We need you over here.”

Olivia walked over, asking, “What do you need?”

Atlas said, “Do you have everything ready for a diplomacy takeover?”

Olivia nodded. “Yes. We need ten Earth’s children and ten white flags. They’re ready to go.”

“Good,” Atlas said. “We’re leaving in 15 minutes, so get them prepared.”

With the plan set, the team geared up, ready to take the next step in their campaign.