Adan Falkner, King of Avatar Kingdom, sat on his throne as his retinue lined on the side. His four advisers stood besides him. His true name was not Adan Falkner. It was the name of a historical figure that built this kingdom by hand—Adan Falkner the wise ruler. But that was thousands of years ago. Many royal sons and daughters had become his vessels. Now it was his turn.

One of his subordinates strode out of line and knelt in front him.

"Your Majesty, I have received a message."

"Please tell me the message," Adan said.

"Our investigations have bore fruit. The one who attacked our resource point is not the Auchidian, but the undead."

"The undead from the Death Land?" Adan said. "It's been a while since they made a move."

"Your Majesty, I fear that the Death King has amassed enough forces. This is why he dared to act."

Aquilan, one of his advisers, stepped forward. "Your Majesty, we should let the other states dealt with this. Just like last time, we can make them think that the Death Land is attacking them. This way they will gather and attack the Death Land. The Death King had the word conquer carved in his bone. They all know that they had to band together to stopped him."

Hastios shook his head. He was always had different opinion with Aquilan. Adan didn't mind, instead he was grateful that someone had different opinions. This way he could juggle everything from different view points.

"Your Majesty, If our trap failed to catch a rat, we all know that the rat wouldn't make the same mistake again. In fact, the rat could insult our intelligence by placing their waste product in front of our trap. The other states that we tricked before must have learned of what we've done. We have to do things differently. I believe we should punch through the Death Land with overwhelming might and announce to the world that we obtain so many rare resources. The greed in their stomach would churn and squeezed their stomach until they send an army to the Death Land."

Aquilan frowned. "I understand your example and the message you tried to give, Hastios. But your majesty, it's better to do what has been proved to be successful rather than trying untested methods. There are times for that, and it's not now."

Hastios. "Your Majesty, humans learned from their mistake and past. If we want to counter it. We have to surprise them by being unpredictable."

Adan raised his hand to silence them. "The both of you make a very good point. Since that is the case, then I will take both of your suggestions and attack the Death Land while convincing the other states to move. But I will only send a few battalion. We don't want the Death Land feel threatened or they would put most of their attention to us. Taking a few of their cities is enough."

Both advisers nodded.

"Tell the sect near the Death Land to gather their forces."

"Your Majesty, the sects have started to gather their forces a few weeks ago."

They sure were quick in their step.

The pair of large doors creaked open. The two guards that opened the door bowed their head and let a tall figure entered the throne room. Shandalar was one of the three protector. His muscles bulged as he approached the throne, walking on the red carpet with big steps. He wore a tight-fit red sleeveless shirt. It was his favorite.

"Adan!" He said. "Why the hell do you surround yourself with norms. You know if I flick them with my fingers they would die right? They are just fragile little things."

"Please treat my retinue with respect, Shandalar. Although they are norms, they have a great mind. Our victory against the Auchidian decades ago was the prove of this."

"Humph! Those victory are obtained by my army. I train these men and I lead them to attack. How can you let them claim the honor."

"We all know that you miss something in your narrative."

Shandalar clicked his tongue. "Fine. Their strategy is great. And my army will suffer large casualties if not for them. But you could've done it yourself. If you lead us as your spear, you could have done it even better."

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"I have too many things to take care of. Running a kingdom is not that simple. I still wonder how father have the time to spend with us."

Shandalar grimaced. "He also have norms around him. Just like you."

"Why are so aggressive today. You don't say anything before. I always have norms around me the moment I took the throne."

Shandalar stared at him and then turned his fiery eyes towards the norms. "The Royal Army has been attacked near the Boiling Volcano."

"Are they attacked by the undead?"

Shandalar grinned. "No. They are attacked by the norms!"

…

Hax watched as his men loaded the crates inside the wagons with their new mechanical arms. They looked so happy as they lifted the heavy crates with ease. The bulky men stared with jealousy as a skinny man lifted two BC-75 alone.

What were the muscles for? Even a skinny man could do better than them. They had built this muscles after years of lifting bricks and wood. But with the mechanical arms, anyone could lift a heavy weight now.

That brought tears to their eyes. So unfair.

The skinny man noticed their expression and flexed his solid mechanical arms. His smug expression irritated the bulky men.

They strode towards the nearby crates and lifted it with all of their might. Sadly, the crates didn't even budge.

"Those crates weighed around 300 Kg. You wouldn't even make it budge even if your intestines come out."

The bulky men sighed.

"We're not needed here anymore. Let's help the builder team. They might need some muscles to lift bricks and wood again."

Hax watched as the able-bodied men leave the field. People with strength were also replaced by machinery in his old universe. And now they feel what those people felt. He wondered what else would be replaced in the future. Would Hax be replaced someday? He didn't know.

"Sir, the preparation is complete."

"Good. Then let's save our friend. We'll surprise them with our big guns."

Hax set off with more than two thousand troops. The huge line of carriages and wagons stretched far and wide. This had never been seen before by the norms, so when they saw the sight, they were amazed at what they could do.

Was this the power of us, norms? Had we always been this powerful?

The great numbers of troops, transport, and supplies gave them unquestioned confidence. They were sure they could save the Black Wolves without any casualties. The image of the great, powerful cultivators that had carved inside their minds for all of their lifetime faded.

Hax smiled. He also realized this change. These men would be unwilling to move outside the fortress if he didn't have any excuses. They looked brave but inside they were still scared of the cultivators. They wanted to holed up behind their thick walls. Hiding inside the illusion of safety. Making them proactive and letting them feel confidence will remove their doubts and fear.

The norms would truly fight for him from now.

After a few hours of traveling, Hax and his troops arrived. The Black Wolves and the Man Hunter were already running around the hills with a squad of heavy cavalry chasing their back. There were a group of heavy armored soldier with thick shield marching from afar. Behind these soldiers were people with robe and staff.

Those must be the magician. The Black Wolves said they could summon an entire heavy cavalry out of nowhere. Hax believed that. But there must be limits to their power.

"Split up into two teams. One will help the Black Wolves. The other will attack the infantry."

His men relayed the message to all of his troops. Hax didn't set up a proper hierarchy yet. He didn't have the time. Setting up a message relay group was the most he could do. Because of this, the coordination between his troops were terrible. When Hax told them to split up, they didn't know who to follow and instead randomly chose one of the group.

Some men did try to take commands. Whether or not they would be obeyed was another thing.

As his forces split into two and rushed to the enemy. Hax observed the battle from his carriage on top of a hill. Four carriages containing guardsmen with heavy equipment parked beside him. There was no way that the norms would let Hax left unguarded.

Hax ignored the guardsmen and the forces that attack the cavalry, instead he stared at the enemy's infantry. He wanted to see the power of these magicians with his own eyes.

Sure enough. As his army approached, the magician waved their staff and fireballs appear out of nowhere before shooting at his army.

His army split up into smaller division and circled the army as they fired their firearms. The sound of BC-75 barraging the enemy reverberated. They fired madly from the carriage. The high-caliber bullets stormed the thick armored troops. At the first second the bullets only dented the armor, half a second later, the metal barrage crashed them into the ground and punched holes to their armor.

Those magic armor were quite tough. Their shields were tougher, but the impact from the .75 caliber bullets threw their shields away, leaving them defenseless.

As the magicians threw fireballs and his troops fired bullets at each other. A strange thing happened.

A magician waved his staff raised two fingers and slapped the air. A transparent field of light protected the army like a bubble. When the bullets hit this field, its trajectory was redirected and thrown to the other side.

"Interesting. There are long-range warfare in this world, so these must be the countermeasure they developed."

There were a bunch of technology that could do the same thing. Of course, Hax didn't have the facility or the knowledge to make it yet.

There seemed to be a major weakness to this spell. The magicians stopped throwing fireballs. Did this meant that the enemy could only stay inside the bubble defensively? If that was the case then this battle would be the battle of attrition. Hax didn't believe the magician could keep the bubble forever. Every motion, every movement required energy. And energy was limited.

Hax waited for the magician to ran out of energy. But the other magicians started to move weirdly. The raised two fingers, mumbled something under their breath, and pointed at his army.

Hax frowned. "What are they doing?"

Suddenly, a small holes opened on the small bubble, and a flaming laser beams struck his army.