Taking A Step Back

Five days later, under the cover of the night.

After everything was prepared and the scouting team did their work, Heian Ciemnosc led them, as always. The army had to, surprisingly, step back. The enemy had always been more prepared than expected. It was at least so in the Watery Land Sub Division. All the previous plans and thoughts of storming through everywhere were taken away after discovering the heavy defenses in any enemy City in the remaining Sub Division.

Heian Ciemnosc’s previous praising points and thoughts for the enemy’s leader in this Division changed after processing all the information he gathered himself. Even though they were ready to intercept any spy, scout, or peeping tom from the Academy, Heian Ciemnosc and his COs were elusive and agile enough to outsmart the enemy. However, the changing thoughts came from realizing the enemy’s leader wanted to waste their strength and energy in the outer Sub Divisions and leave the central Sub Division as the genuine defense.

Although something like that works, and it isn’t a bad idea, to simply let one’s men and women fall one by one without them knowing, and all for the sake of a probable final victory that may never even come… It directly gained negative thoughts in Heian Ciemnosc’s head. But that also meant the enemy was well-armed to face them in these last few steps. Because they had what the Academy wanted their First Step enemy to have the least… some machine guns, anti-turrets, and missiles at their disposal.

It wasn’t top-notch quality as the Academy’s machine guns are. But they were still designed to fight a cultivator’s war, not an ordinary civilian strife. Heian Ciemnosc and the scouting group became heavy when they learned of this. But the sub-commanders, second-in-commands, and commander Lionel became even more severe when they learned of this. If they had just a few Fighters or a single Frigate, this wouldn’t matter. But they only had transporting ships for vehicles. Not even some terrestrial vehicle for quick mobilization.

Thinking about it, Heian Ciemnosc noticed how much easier everything would have been if at least some motorized vehicles were at their disposal. Their attacking strength and besieging methods were enough. But their mobilization was really lacking, especially since they could be seen from tens of thousands of kilometers away with how damn large the vessels were, from scouting to hiding with array formations at night or where flat desert grounds were to flash mobilizations. It could all have been done well.

Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t have any say on this, and he only had known about them from Teacher Puru’s and his Auntie Sharina’s teachings, nothing more. He wasn’t capable of building anything and even less without the constant collection of resources as it was in the far past. But after 3 days of delay, the 4th day would finally be the time the army to enter enemy territory and start freeing this entire Endless Desert Division from the enemy’s hidden forces!

Before that, the army took precautions to enhance the Cities’ defenses, arming them with more cannons and letting their teams operate more than 3 simultaneously for safety reasons. The Cities’ walls were extra fortified with array formations, which took quite a bit of a portion from the army’s treasury, which Heian Ciemnosc calculated, but nothing more. Ammunition was enough as it was fabricated in the reconquered Cities, but only by citizens or cultivators. Civilians could be injured and cause a tremendous accident.

Only the Cities directly facing the Watery Land Sub Division had more cannons placed atop their walls to defend themselves from anything. The rest only had array formations set to the walls with only a few garrisoned units. Each Sub Division had a transporting ship overflying it in case of incidents or emergencies. With these preparations ready, the army took off on the 4th day, targeting 3 enemy Cities at once!

Previously, with the previous operations and after gaining experience, the army lost fewer student troops comparing previous results. With their earlier numbers a little higher than 1,500,000, they now had around 1,450,000 student troops and much less ammunition. But it was basically enough to fight 2 Watery Land Sub Divisions. As the central one in the Endless Desert Division, it wasn’t as large as the others but the smallest of the 3.

But it was also that fact that made the enemy now much more precarious to besiege. They needed fewer numbers to defend each City well without worrying about other Cities nearby being targeted because of their inability to fly over the skies like a spaceship could. Much less when the other party did have those and armed with top-notch machine guns. The enemy could only make their City their only rabbit hole and turtle themselves to defend. Which is what they did precisely.

The first day of the incursion into the Watery Land Sub Division was somewhat of a tragic result for the Academy Division’s army. There were no casualties, but that made the troopers feel restless the most. Nobody had the chance to fight! Only cannon teams and the transporting ships could bombard the enemy Cities’ barriers. And after they were broken, so much time has passed since then that the army had to postpone the siege.

It was already known their barriers had been improved after several weeks under the Academy’s fire, but to become this powerful… The second-in-commands were damn glad they didn’t overuse their allocated ammunition and followed the commander Lionel’s and second-in-command Cari’s instructions. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have enough for another 3 sieges if they needed almost a whole day to break their first defensive measure.

Furthermore, if it wasn’t because a second-in-command noticed something from the barrier as his forces bombarded the enemy barrier, the army’s cannon teams wouldn’t have focused on the barriers’ rooftops to cause more damage. After the box bombs fell on the enemy’s defensive measure, the only good place to aim was their rooftop, where they had lost some of their properties and became vulnerable to constant shells raining.

The foot troopers were allowed to set their feet on the ground several tens of kilometers from the enemy Cities, expecting to test the waters with the transporting ships and get a visual sight from above. However, even as the transporting ships flew several thousand meters above the Cities, a couple of them from another enemy City were struck by missiles. According to the reports, it had come from a Spirit Rebirth realm cultivator. But it was enough to cause several problems in the transporting ship that were urgently needed yet lacked staff members.

Thus, those 2 vessels departed immediately, retreating to the nearest City to be repaired before anything happened. The description was simple. A rapid trail of smoke went up from below, within the enemy City. It first penetrated the transporting ship’s armor before exploding within, causing black clouds of smoke to come off of it with the size of a third of its body. Leaving behind a trail of smoke big enough for anyone to see and more as it spread minutes after the vessel left the skies, another 2 transporting ships in reserve took their place.

From then on, the transporting ships no longer dared to remain stagnant in the air, fly for at least 20 kilometers above the enemy Cities, and always move at mid-low speeds with slight maneuvers while bombarding the barriers. However, as the enemy barrier broke, and it was sure it wouldn’t be put up again in several days, the army could only retreat and prepare for the next day’s siege and plan after the results.

… Step, step, step, step, step… whooosh, whoosh.

… With night all around them, embracing their bodies and the vessels more than 20 kilometers above them, the sub-commanders moved their respective group forwards towards the enemy City before them. The army was separated with a force of 150,000 soldier units for each enemy City while the rest were waiting at the back, as in reserve.

A general plan was designed from now on to siege the enemy Cities. There would be a central, western, and eastern enemy City, and all 3 attacked at once. Heian Ciemnosc was with his new sub-commander and Cari, the second-in-command in charge of this enemy City, with their objective being the central enemy City. Their job was to put so much pressure on the enemy’s shoulders that they could only worry about themselves and not even receive reinforcements from the nearest eastern and western enemy Cities. Or vice versa.

With that being said, it was also notorious that the sieges, this time, would take days from fighting to enter the enemy City to reconquer it. It might take several days before it could be achieved. It was mainly because the army didn’t want to lose its numbers in case the enemy decided to send sneaky incursions to the other Cities with powerful arsenals under their noses. Nothing could be done on their part except send a transporting ship filled with more than a hundred thousand soldier units to defend those Cities.

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At this moment, Heian Ciemnosc was now a team leader with 6 other teams under him. The small group he commanded was less than 200 short of a thousand soldier units. There wasn’t a problem when taking these teams under his wing. After he showed them his experience and what he could offer them so they could learn better and deeper tactics, Heian Ciemnosc became knowledgeable with time. And little resistance came from those other teams.

Right now, after a few days of him imparting his knowledge on those teams and his Concealed Ornament Team helping, his small group was one of the top strongest in the army. Heian Ciemnosc walked to the front, the sub-commander to his left as he was right at the tip of the nose of this 30,000-troops group. As they came 11 kilometers close to the enemy City walls, their sub-commander made their medallions heat up, and everyone momentarily stopped.

“Here it is, in 30 minutes, we’ll start. Heian Ciemnosc, me and this group are counting on you.” The sub-commander exhaled coldly and nervously as he said. He didn’t look at Heian Ciemnosc as he kept looking at the enemy City, his total focus on the incoming siege. He began taking a roll of every team in his group, checking they had their devices, array formations, tools, and the Spirit Rebirth realm cultivator prepared to have their arms broken.

Heian Ciemnosc semi-nodded while looking sideways at the empty sky of darkness. His team was relaxed compared to others, and though they needed a Spirit Rebirth realm student trooper to lead the charge, the Concealed Ornament Team had a Heian Ciemnosc. With this, everyone who had fought with him previously or saw him in battle knew they could count on their team leader to hold anything.

Soon, the 30 minutes passed by so fast that nobody even noticed their possible deaths were shortly to follow their fallen comrades. Everyone heard the warnings, the lethality of leading this charge, and the importance of succeeding. At first, there was hesitation and apprehensiveness. But after small groups like Heian Ciemnosc and others directly volunteered, there was no room for backing away. Making the volunteers become as noisy and competitive as an auction house.

Now that they were here, all they could think about inside their heads was their achievements until now, and their previous celebrations were but a humiliation to themselves. However, that was in the past, and they now had to prove they could continue celebrating afterwards. Suddenly, the sub-commander beside Heian Ciemnosc’s group left, and their medallions heated up. Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes darted around and cleared his still mind before gazing on a path through the City walls, still intact.

Fwuesh~. STOMP- step step step step step step step step. Suddenly, as everyone became prepared and took stances with their respective team leaders, their medallions heated up again, causing everyone to take one deep, silent breath in before kicking as hard and heavily against the ground with Power Energy infused into their lower bodies, slowly spreading to the rest of their bodies!

Heian Ciemnosc included, as his dark Power Energy covered from his shins to the soles of his feet, he left traces of dark Power Energy that this Concealed Ornament Team stepped on, and their translucent, whitish Power Energy was covered by an extra layer of dark, making their bodies faster and harder to resist their own harsh steps against the solid, desertic ground.

His teams didn’t take the lead by a lot. Only Heian Ciemnosc and his Team were at the front, with the rest of the small groups right beside them, just a few meters behind them. Heian Ciemnosc’s subordinate teams were behind him, not losing momentum as they rapidly crossed into the 10th-kilometer mark before the enemy City walls. Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes sharply stared ahead, his expression unreadable as he slowly lifted his right forearm and placed his left forearm before his sternum in a vertical pose.

Pshift, pshift, pshift… Around his forearms and everywhere beside and behind him. Multiple pre-inscribed array formations were activated, forming protective light green barrier screens. From a distance, not too far away, Heian Ciemnosc’s sub-commander’s group could see tens of thousands of fellow student troops rushing towards the enemy City in different directions to several other angles.

They all put up light green protective barriers everywhere within their ranks, not only forming a wall of protection for every soldier unit charging ahead as if their lives did not matter but also forming a shape where even projectiles might be deflected and not necessarily used up the protective array formations’ pure energy.

However, only one 30,000 group wasn’t fully like this. After Heian Ciemnosc’s devices and pre-inscribed array formation activated, folding the array formation to take a larger shape and become steep for anything that came from the front, it turned pitch-black after a few seconds with Heian Ciemnosc tweaking into it and modifying it to accept his unique dark Power Energy. At once, his array formation slightly enlarged. But more than that, it directly ‘obscured’ every other light green barrier behind him!

The 9th kilometer was finally approached by Heian Ciemnosc’s sub-comander’s 30,000-strong group. The moment he stepped into it, he felt so many ‘gazes’ land on him, coming from guidance systems. He was already used to being the one aimed at, but this time, a few different ones were focused on him and everyone behind him. As the strange sensation was new, Heian Ciemnosc seemed to see through the distance and through obstacles without his Spirit Sense as he saw a few mini-towers rooftops.

On them, several things that looked mighty but had worse materials’ source than the transporting ships’ machine guns suddenly faced him, aiming at him…

… … tarararararara… peek peak, pum, pum, pum… boom boom, boom boom… plank, peek paak pluuk- step step step step~...

Heian Ciemnosc felt his scalp tingle as bullets rained on his dark protective barrier. Hundreds of them made the array formation before and above him ripple nonstop, looking as if it had already broken yet continued standing. The other protective light green barriers barely received a few dozen bullets when they finally saw enemy shelling flying towards them. They held their mobile-protective pre-inscribed array formation tighter and continued rushing forward.

As those shells fell upon them, many landed where Heian Ciemnosc was, as if trying to make everyone fall with his demise but failed to force him backwards. With his 32,000 kg bodily strength and his dark Power Energy in full motion, Heian Ciemnosc was unstoppable! It made him believe only a top-notch machine gun could make his steps slow down and perhaps jump backwards from the firepower after understanding the differences between both sides’ arsenal.

Some incoming shells that reached him exploded when making contact with his dark protective array formation screen. But most were redirected to the sky, flying with a momentum fast enough to force those gigantic projectiles away from them and explode more than a hundred meters above their heads. It wasn’t as smooth for those behind him. Some shells’ projectiles arched in the sky and landed directly on some teams.

Heian Ciemnosc’s teams were fine. They had a good enough foundation to deal with this bombarding and nothing that could scare them away or stop them from going, even if their comrades fucked up and died in one of the bombardings. And even after the other teams in the 30,000 group were blasted by the shells, only those in the Crabstynian realm were helped back up and into battle again. While the rest shook off the burning flames from their clothes before resuming and rejoining their group.

Subsequently, the enemy shells landed hundreds of meters away from the packed 30,000-strong soldier unit group. With each group of that magnitude separated by several kilometers, none of those loose shells impacted one another in collateral. However, the enemy’s machine guns were consistent and fired without stopping. A few sneaky bullets passed through a light green barrier and landed on someone’s shoulder, chest, neck, or head. But every soldier unit knew to put their Power Energy into maximum circulation even if they weren’t holding their small group’s protective pre-inscribed array formation.

Student troops from the Ashes Soul realm to the Crabstynian realm were injured and even killed, their corpses quickly gathered by their fellow student troops, catching them as they fell or jolted backwards, their bodies limp. Storing those bodies into their Covert Space bags, they felt their shoulders heavy, but their hearts were in flames! They wanted to live through this battle after annihilating the enemy before ending their fallen comrade, kept in their Covert Space bags, back home where they can be avenged and set in peace… at last.

After a minute of shelling and bullets raining, no missile was coming towards them, which was an immense good thing. It meant the enemy barely had any of them. They were keeping them for the transporting ships. Simultaneously, Heian Ciemnosc’s ears and senses acclimatized to the sounds of being bombarded, and sounds of everyone’s steps behind him were enhanced instead. That slowly happened to the rest, but 2 minutes after Heian Ciemnosc, it gradually united them as their gait increased.

The enemy City walls were just several hundred meters from their reach! At that moment…

Whooooosh, whooooooshhhh~... Heian Ciemnosc didn’t need to look up to know those were the sounds of the Academy’s army’s transporting ships. But only with his eyes could he see 3 vessels flying between 20 and 30 kilometers above the ground level, taking uniform trajectories as if sliding, drifting through the sky, their bodies constantly rotated like a toy but with incredible machine gun firepower coming off.

Although the time those machine guns had to fire at the enemy City was very short, these top machine guns, that even as they were limited to the First Step, they were still showering thousands of bullets into the enemy’s ranks each. For half a minute, everyone could see 3 transporting ships ‘dancing’ and rolling in the dark sky, sending glowing lines of destruction into the enemy City. That was when the cannon teams far behind them fired together at a spot where only one vessel’s machine guns from all 3 pointed and shot at several areas on the enemy City walls, and those shells were redirected to each.

…