Ataraxis
The war in the northern Regions became fully blown out. As the days went by, and half the Regions' territory was taken away by the Blauw Empire's invasive ground forces, their navy became more blatant and even rushed their warships on the beaches as far as they could, ensuring they could have more range for assisting the ground forces. The Undermudmusk, who had suffered the most with the Blauw Empire's navy becoming delayed for too long, leaving them not the chance to pull back, or their ruling organization's territory would be immediately bombarded, only took about 10 days before only a small part remained in their control.
On the other hand, the Eyeseeking Region resisted powerfully. However, the Empire wasn’t as hectic as it was in the Undermudmusk Region, and their advancement more or less halted after they took the western, northern, and eastern borders surrounding the Eyeseeking Region, conquering those sides of the Region after taking its south and sea territory.
There were no simple days in these wars, even as it seemed like not that much happened, and the defensive side received no support. The truth wasn’t like that. The Undermudmusk Region was very united, and even if they weren’t all related to one another regarding organizations’ connections, this war was enough to make everyone join hands and defend against the Empire. However, the 90,000,000 soldier units in the navy and grand forces overall were quite a lot, and while the Undermudmusk Region had a little more than double those numbers, they didn’t have enough arsenal or armored vehicles.
While it was indeed true that the Undermudmusk and Eyeseeking Regions had notorious proficiency in land battles, they weren’t like the Empire, whose knowledge and flexible multitude of tactics with ruthless, clever tactics and seemingly endless supply of armored vehicles granted them restless soldier units pushing on in enemy territory and conquering land and air. The Undermudmusk Region didn’t have spaceships and only had a few Fighters, if anything, for their highest hierarchy.
It wasn’t that their armored vehicles were worse or that they had less weaponry or ammunition. They were simply bested by the individually stronger, more clever, experienced, and semi-universally well-trained Imperial Guards and citizens. Most of the Undermudmusk Region had a slightly higher cultivation base than every Imperial Guard, but they didn’t have a Mortal weapon each, a few defensive, mobility, offensive, and explosive tools.
What’s more, just like with the armored vehicles, the Blauw Empire seems to have an endless supply of those tools, bringing them much more utility and lethality into battle without any way to match it. No matter how many armored vehicles the enemy Region sent out to match the Empire and how many thousands were killed by the Blauw Empire, they were either finished or routed at the end of the battle.
The Undermudmusk Region only knew defeat, and a bloody taste permeated everywhere the Blauw Empire passed. It wasn’t a simple feat, going from City to individual territory or fighting out in the open air and land. The Blauw Empire also put every settlement below a City’s level they could find in a lockdown, prohibition any entry or exit while giving them enough provisions for at least 2 months, depending on what the Empire was planning.
At times, an incident occurred, and a civilian attacked a citizen or a cultivator from the Empire. The latter was not that common, but seeing the former, the civilians seemed to have their brains turned on and off at the same time and went for a bashing towards the citizens. Naturally, this ended badly for the aggressors, and if there was ever a time an Empire’s soldier unit started it, severe punishment would follow, with a warning to never leave the Empire’s territory, meaning they could no longer fight for their hearts. That was often enough to discipline them.
As for the aggressive civilians, while some of them ended up dead, one way or another, the Empire ensured little casualties overall and placed ‘jailing’ array formations over an entire settlement before finally leaving it. This wasn’t unique to those settlements with aggressive folk but everyone. The Blauw Empire wasn’t planning on losing their numbers on the tens of thousands of settlements, and much less when the Cities needed too many garrison units to keep it in the Empire’s hands.
While garrison units would need to stay behind in some Cities, the Empire made sure to conquer more enemy territory around it to allow said garrison units to move out and rejoin the army while other soldier units took the role of stationing in a City and protecting it. Even then, as the Blauw Empire went from battle to battle, winning and at least annihilating the enemy, sometimes massacring them as they learned how to run better, faster, and before things got worse. The enemy Region never surrendered.
The Blauw Empire wasn’t just their armored vehicles, the navy’s bombardment from the beaches, and Craftsmaking superiority. Whenever a City needed garrison units, they would be filled with machine guns and anti-missile turrets like crazy. Craftspeople traveling in the army would accompany them until they had to rejoin the main army and would create these machine guns and ammunition with their full Covert Space bags, granted permission by a General. No artillery guns were made as they were too stupidly difficult to do in just a few days, but there were enough machine guns and ammunition to protect a whole City.
But another thing was added to the equation: Fighters. While the Undermudmusk were focused on land battle proficiency and had better development than the Far East Region by far, with at least a dozen Second Step organizations, and their overall qualification in the middle levels of such Step as a Region, they did not have enough ‘resources’ for Spaceships, even for the half-aerial, half-space purposes General type, Bulldogs, and SC Fighters
Whenever a City was stationed with thousands of garrison units, other units were left with the task of flying Fighters to battle and incinerate the enemy under their firepower. These were from the navy, belonging to a Flotilla, Small, Medium, or Large. Since both enemies’ navies were obliterated, and more so the Undermudmusk Region’s after they sent 5 Fleets back then, their naval prowess was negligible.
If there was a moment where a new enemy presented themselves in the sea, they would return, but the ground forces wouldn’t be left without Fighters. Every officer had at least 1 such fighter, and even a Team would have a leading figure and their direct subordinate, making for at least 2 Fighters on some occasions. They just had to proportionate their Fighters to a City with stationed garrison units, and they would still reign the enemy Regions’ skies.
Likewise, the Undermudmusk Region and Blauw Empire’s soldier units were brave, bloodthirsty, and great warriors. Whenever there was a full-brunt confrontation of cultivators, the skies roared, and the land trembled. A couple settlements were ruined because of that, with most being saved by either the Empire or the enemy Region’s people, depending on the settlement's alignment at the moment of certain battles.
However, another difference, and what the Blauw Empire could depend on proudly, was their special forces. From the Undermudmusk Region’s east to the north, then west, and finally at their center, the Yellow, Green, and Sand Forces followed the Blue Force, creating havoc everywhere they went. The former 3 gained more numbers as the army caught up more and more, and the war in the Undermudmusk Region was coming to its final phases.
On the other hand, the well-known face of the Blauw Empire’s royal princess became known at every battle, as they were seen in each before the outcome was more or less decided and left before it was over. Her face became more known every day, and whenever her face appeared in a battle hours after it was finished. The world was starting to see her become more and more formidable, with more ferociousness and charm in battle that stood out from the rest. She was out there fighting after several more battles.
The Blauw Empire was simply moving nonstop, and while their citizen soldier units needed to rest for a day to at least be capable of shooting 7 more times before becoming temporarily crippled, their feet were sweaty, hurt, and clean because of the alchemy products, but sore and strained. And the Imperial Guards’ storage was only allowed to rest a little every battle, then a little longer every end of the day, exhausting them like there was just no tomorrow— ever.
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Then, finally… the day came to besiege the Undermudmusk Region’s Small City. The sea Regions everywhere around the Far East Region, sharing an interconnected shore expanding over millions of kilometers, felt apprehensive as they finally watched how tens of millions invaded the Regional borders between the Undermudmusk and the Eyeseeking Region from the sea. The Empire’s navy had created an impregnable wall, with their ‘strange’ Elemental barriers up, escorting the Far East Region’s full-blown forces into the enemy Regions.
Like this, from afar, any other Region’s spy watched as a long trail of warships, each top-notch, from Cruisers to Frigates, disembarking their plethora of personnel before turning around and returning to the Far East Region. However, seeing such a ‘vulnerable’ state of the returning warships evoked no desire for other watching Regions to attack after knowing the Empire’s exquisite naval superiority. At least not now.
The 7,000,000 soldier units sent into the Undermudmusk Region from the Eyeseeking Region were downed to nearly 6,500,000 soldier units. While most armored vehicles were almost destroyed, the rest were damaged and needed repair. Thus, after 3 days, the time for besieging the Undermudmusk Region’s Small City arrived, and the Blauw Empire had enough time to prepare itself. Meanwhile, the enemy could only watch as they fortified their ruling organization’s individual territory, which the Empire had, for some reason, not bombarded.
With the Far East Region’s forces already well-trained and also belonging to the Blauw Empire, but not as its unique soldier units, which their Generals or Admirals were in charge of naturally, joining the Imperial Guards and citizens, their numbers went up to 31,000,000 soldier units in total. Not counting auxiliary units. What else was there to be said? When the Blauw Empire could already do much damage with just 7,000,000 soldier units inland?
The Small City saw, for the first time, the combination of navy, aerial, and ground forces cooperating to destroy the former’s defenses. The Small City had no less than 20,000,000 enemy cultivators, and who knew if some civilians would be put to the massive guns. The ongoing battle became the opening of jaws and eyes for every watching eye. Day and night, energy attacks, Elemental Art techniques, and firepower descended on the enemy’s protective barrier array formations.
Fighters didn’t stop flying back and forth until even their machine guns were out of ammunition, and their piloting team had less than 30% Neutral Energy in their storage to launch energy clusters to strike the barrier. The tanks and helicopters from the ground forces also went all-out, with most citizens waiting on the side for it to become broken and the battle to start. Fortunately, as Fighters exploded in the air and armored vehicles were caught by enemy missiles, that time came.
A rough, fierce, and impressively well-coordinated attack and defense followed by both sides. Neither did only one thing. The enemy often rushed forth and tried poking at any aperture, trying to harm the Far East Region’s numbers before being surrounded and massacred. Those who couldn’t move forward defended and fought against the Far East Region’s assaults, whose method proved super efficient and orderly to the point the enemy felt tired after a couple of rounds.
How could the well-trained Imperial Guards not notice the enemy’s shortage of Neutral Energy and their tiredness? Even the citizens could realize! Step by step, but not precisely slowly, the Blauw Empire pushed forward with their Region backing them up as the enemy Region’s Small City continued to fall further into despair.
At the beginning of the battle, when a point was reached in which it could be decided if the battle would continue in his gradual advancement from the Blauw Empire’s side or if it could be sped up, the special forces of the latter showed up! This time, a small contingent from the Flesh, Draconic, and Sky Force accompanied the Yellow, Green, and Sand Forces in battle. The Draconic and Sky Forces dominated the aerial battle between cultivators, while the others broke apart a trident-shaped gap in the enemy vanguard and allowed the army to rush inside!
On the other hand, already inside and dispatching every enemy massive weapon, killing off whoever operates them, civilian or cultivator, and storing the toys in their Covert Space bags, the Blue Force showed itself after days of hiding within the enemy’s noses, truly allowing the Far East Region’s forces to speed up the occupation of this Small City.
The Blue Force, under the royal princess’s command, had lost 30 elites. It was too small compared to anything else, but when considering their already small numbers… Nevertheless, it was them who sneaked into the enemy territory and stayed there for 4 days before the battle finally broke out.
After taking the enemy’s massive weapons and cleaning the walls and other defensive structures with array formations like towers, strongholds, and citadels, the inside work was done, and they finally showed their faces in the enemy’s retinas before they turned dull and obscure!! Blue flashed around the enemy ranks as Elemental torrents with the shape of snakes, dragons, fans, claws, and tails struck the enemy from behind, drawing attention to themselves and becoming the enemy’s target in no time…
… War was never supposed to be a cute trip. And after the Small City was occupied by the Blauw Empire, less than ¼ of its walls remained. Their array formation was fully broken apart, and ⅕ of their residential districts turned to rubble. Nearly every other place in the Small City was broken, and the principal responsible for it was the Neutral Encephalon ream cultivators who exchanged life after life within the Small City.
Their fights weren’t louder than missiles or a rain of shelling, but they were more constant, flexible, and seemingly endless. Each of their moves threatened to turn part of a street into a mess of pebbles and dirt, while their Art techniques nearly obliterated a 1-story building with each, let alone where 2 clashed and sent shockwaves everywhere. The Small City suffered unnecessarily, but the Blauw Empire won. And the enemy was eradicated there.
With 31,000,000 initial soldier units, partly citizens, and many auxiliary cultivators who were immediately put to work and rescued survivors, the Far East Region’s forces in the Undermudmusk Region were down to 28,000,000. While nearly every armored vehicle they had was completely destroyed, and their cultivator soldier units’ combat capabilities were nearly extinguished. On the other hand, the citizen soldier units were rendered useless and would need at least a week to recuperate and a couple more to return to their peak state.
This basically crippled the Blauw Empire’s soldier units strength, but there was no stopping now. After the battle, a rest of 5 hours ensued, to which the Far East Region’s forces moved towards the enemy’s last primary defensive point, their ruling organization’s individual territory. Thus, they iconically marched without showing signs of exhaustion despite feeling like logs moving with worms acting as their limbs.
The citizens that had used up nearly all their 22 shots in the war felt more numb and dreaming-like than anyone else, but since they could move despite these conditions, how could cultivators dare say anything about only 20% of their Neutral Energy remaining? They proceeded and marched, flew, and prepared their tools, pre-inscribed array formation devices, and checked their Mortal weapons. Not everyone could have a Mortal weapon nowadays, but most did, and they evaluated their state.
Because Mortal weapons were more affordable to produce for a Second Step organization, at least 30% of the best forces in their army should have Mortal weapons, but only peak Second Step organizations can allow all their cultivators to have one or at least one. The Blauw Empire was still a Second Step organization that could be considered at the middle level, but it was nearing the state where every cultivator soldier unit in the Region could own a Mortal weapon of their choosing.
This was one of the greatest shows of power from the Blauw Empire to the world.
When the Far East Region’s forces arrived at the enemy’s last main defensive point, they were ordered to stop by the Blauw Empire’s 3 Generals in charge. It didn’t take long for the soldier units to realize something. They weren’t about to, most likely, fight for the last time in their lives and concede victory to the Empire, their home, their heart. Instead, the Blauw Empire simply wanted them to… watch the fireworks from a better place.
As many tired pairs of eyes, arms, and stuck-out chests faced the enemy ruling organization’s individual territory, they were amazed to see a bunch of rapidly flying objects, faster than any missile, approaching inland. That was when their eyes became as big as saucers, and the Empire’s First and Second fleets descended with dozens and dozens of rocket launchers onto the enemy’s last main defensive point.
The rumbling beneath their soles was majestic, and everyone saw the enemy protective barrier snap in under 3 seconds without any of them having to fight for it or risk any lives. The sensation provoked into them brought intense mirth. How could they not cry out at this moment? When their victory was unofficially brought to the Empire because of them and their every bitter struggle? Besides, after taking the Small City, any 1* Region would be willing to give up or just die.
“Wooooooooooooouuuuu!!!”- “WAAAAAWWOOOOUUU!!” - WWWOOOOUUUUU!” - “Waaaaaaaaaauuuuuhhh!” - “Wuuuuuuuuuuuh!” - “Waaawuuuuuuuuuuuuh!”
“...” Blauw Ishikyy, when she saw that neither her Empire nor her people had to fight more for the time being and could focus on becoming stronger for a little bit, she surged with emotion from within her veins. She cried with her people, too.
“Wuuuuuuuuuuuuhaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuu~!!”
…