Communication Disadvantage
"Yes sir! Please advise, commander." Makis directly responded. Ciemnosc lifted his eyes and looked at Makis with his eyes upturned before lowering them once more and darting them around along with his head moving about slightly to look over all the monitors. While he did, he relayed his orders just as well as he did with Shidar.
"Also change 7,000 to the north, 5,000 to the south, and the remaining 18,000+ to the center. Bring as many pre-inscribed protective arrays for the center, and also tell me the number of subordinate cultivators on your side." Ciemnosc was precise and short. Thus Makis dared not say a single extra word when answering anything he asked right now.
"More than 10,000 sir, a few thousand imprisoned by derelict of duty." Ciemnosc nodded with his eyes lowered, then gave similar orders to him as he did with Shidar, "Divide those subordinate cultivators to the 3 sides then. Now, Ernesto, tell me the number of subordinate cultivators."
The people inside the main tent: "..."
Though Shidar and Makis were visible to Ernesto, the rest of the people in front of Ciemnosc weren’t. While Shidar and Makis were already showing signs of knowing what was up, and from the commander, what was about to come. Those in the main tent were directly showing their doubt, for Ernesto showed the greatest potential among the 3 outposts but underperformed greatly on this very day that they were needed to act.
“Yes, sir… 8,000 subordinate cultiva-” Ernesto spoke. But as soon as he was done briefing out the number, he was interrupted by a smoothly rapidly ordering around from Ciemnosc. “Send them all equally distributed to battle. This is not a charity. We’re not taking lost puppies and kitties as an attraction.”
“Yes…” Ernesto was, indeed, touched by the words of commander Ciemnosc. But as he was slowly responding and coming to his senses, Ciemnosc went on at it still, “Bring 7,000 to the north, 8,000 to the south and the remaining 15,000+ to the center, do the same as the other 2 prepared outposts and better not be slow as the other outposts had begun sending their forces out already.”
“Now, are there any questions?” Ignoring any form of an answer from outpost 1, Ciemnosc simply let the call open since only Makis was to head out to battle at this one, it seemed. Makis remained on the call until commander Ciemnosc told him so.
“...Yes, commander, may I?” From the main tent, though for the outpost it was only his voice, a man with sexy short dark gray hair, and a bit tall as he stood up. Ciemnosc nodded after giving him a glance and then sat down to enjoy stretching his legs below the white table, but not hiding from everyone’s eyes while doing that.
“Commander, why the focus on the center? Last time it was the north that the bottom outpost was heavily attacked with. And if it wasn’t because of the large advantage we had over them, and at due time, that wouldn’t have been so easily dealt with. What if that happens again? Their temporary alliance might get them to kill some of their own friendly allies, but that won’t be enough to stop the entire battle, and even more so if they seem to be winning.”
“Not keeping quiet anymore, Situ Shi?” Ciemnosc said while sitting up properly on his chair. He then looked at the monitors just like before and quickly elaborated. “It’s simple. Not allies; they are not working together, just at the same time, with the same purpose and by the knowledge that they think is right from the outposts being small.”
“I even believe that they urged their organization to send as many as possible for this one offensive, especially after the Moribund Yearning Cult was sure to have weakened our southern outpost. Only, it seems like the condition for their participation in the battle altogether - at the same time; was for the Moribund Yearning Cult to attack the north so that they wouldn’t be gaining a for sure battle and just wanted to use them in order to not let the other outposts send reinforcements.”
“There was no way to hide our 100,000 rapidly moving car convoy on our way here, let alone those more than 200,000 subordinate cultivators of the subordinate organizations who were brought here by slower vehicles or Creatures of a much higher capacity but lower speeds and bla bla, so on.” Ciemnosc continued, moving about on his chair.
“Besides, only with the Moribund Yearning Cult showing their honesty by attacking an entirely different outpost would the other 3 organizations send their quickly built ‘army’ to our outposts’ doors. Now that they’ve come, who knows how long they’ve been preparing for. They might have fewer Craftspeople last time that our sect checked, but don’t underestimate their tools’ ‘efficiency’.”
“Pheew, this is so fun to do.” Ciemnosc stretched his neck a little, extending his arms and intertwining his fingers before cracks sounded from them, making everyone watching him impatiently wait for his continuation. Which he did right after sobbing his ‘sore’ hands.
“Only after so much preparation can they feel safe about attacking them when a 10,000-long believer group had failed before, so they are bound to have much more to hit us with. They don’t seem to know the arrays outside the perimeters of the outposts. It is the same with the traps, so just wait until they are hit by several of them, deactivate them, and let our people charge out to kill them all; but do bring prisoners.” Ciemnosc ‘recommended’ time after time; with a light tone.
“Since they are not allies, they are using each other to keep the other 2 outposts busy, especially the Eagerburning Flames Sect, they are surely to make a flash attack as soon as they get close enough to outpost 3; use those thoughts well,” Ciemnosc said at the end as he indifferently and even grumpy-like glanced at Makis’s face on the monitor. Then finalized at last.
“Kill them off, take prisoners and that’s all; but if they are to send their lower cultivation base sect disciples or cult believers - let them. Put our subordinate cultivators to earn their food, caretaking, and the opportunity to be part of this great mission. They are not important guests,” said Ciemnosc as he gave Ernesto one last, obvious glance with even more indifference than when giving Makis a glare.
“...” Ernesto was silent, but he was also very clear about his situation. For, in a way, he has failed. Failed himself, failed the mission, the corps, and…commander’s Ciemnosc. The effort that the commander Ciemnosc put into himself was there. But he somewhat, basically, put that down and trampled on it a little bit - he had to earn his place back for real now unlike what Makis faced. He felt.
“Good then. Lastly, should any situation arise, I will have the stronghold with their vehicles ready to go out. The subordinate cultivators around here are still not that well trained in the art of cooperating with the armored cars, so only after this battle is won will such a training begin; Situ Shi, you will be in charge of such. Now disperse.” Ciemnosc said he had everyone listen attentively to his every word since it seemed he had already thought it out for a long time prior to this day.
And, well, he indeed did so. He wasn’t an expert on the field and he could be wrong anytime. But he could afford to be wrong numbers, equipment, hidden tactics, traps of great personnel damage, and strategies were already higher than the enemies. Even better yet, they didn’t have any way of communicating directly with their direct subordinates or with those in a leading positions while the Self-Mutilating Sect Disciples were already experienced.
It was from only one battle, and that was for sure far away from ‘experts’ on the subject, but that was still enough experience for cultivators to better themselves already. And though the subordinate cultivators, which were closer to the ‘mortals’ due to their low cultivation base, didn’t have any experience; they would be led by a squad for every half a hundred to even a hundred subordinate cultivators behind the squad’s car.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Like this, all sides were covered and the subordinate cultivators without the Identification Token nor the communication device that Ciemnosc had massively developed for those in the leading positions to relay information and so on; while on the other hand…the enemy organizations were still on the tactics of the old era.
Step, step, step…buzzh, buzzh, buzzh.
The main tent was cleared out except for Valeria, Mosto, and none other than Ciemnosc. Situ Shi, the man who Ciemnosc intended to leave the stronghold in his hands, nodded and showed thankful eyes to him, which in his language - meant a lot to the introverted Situ Shi.
“Mchu.” Valeria went over to him and placed her hands on his shoulders. Right after, his right slightly pale cheek was smooched and given a ton of affection on her part before she also went out of the white, main tent and made her way to where their many sect disciples of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect waiting for the order in case it was actually given.
She was going to stand there, while being eternally avoided by the crowd, ready to take on the mission of salvaging whatever those unreliable outposts could do. They couldn’t compare to her Ciemnosc after all; humph, humph!
“...zzzz~.” On the other hand, Ciemnosc rested his back on his chair, the monitors still there while the other leading figures went away to take care of matters for a quick mobilization to a rescue, kill-off, or simply a reinforcement for the outposts.
Mosto looked at Ciemnosc, then at the ground, then sat on the ground and began stretching big time with bones cracking heard all over the main tent with the several tens of thousands of sect disciples and subordinate cultivators moving out of every outpost semi-orderly and semi disciplined.
‘...There can’t be too many fuck ups.’ Ciemnosc’s eyes were as lifeless as always, not having any fake twinkle nor shine go through them as he looked at the monitors, his indifferent, serene, and ultimately cold darkest pools as eyes. And this very same image of Ciemnosc, where he didn’t show any ‘side’ that he should have, was what terrified Mosto the most whenever it happened.
. . .
More than 50 km outside of the outposts’ first line of defense, which was in turn 40 km away from every outpost’s perimeter and whose range as the first line of defense also contained traps…
Step, step, step, step, step, step…
“Heh, yeah~, we’re gonna take it…” - “And whatchu gonna do when or if you catch some nice girl?” - “What kind of question is that? It’s obviously the most fun one!” - “Why just a girl? Also targeting boys makes it even more fun and plenty!” - “...”
Among the walking people on the terrain of every outpost, talks to pass time by, vulgar, ordinary, decent, or simply idle chatter was being developed to ease everyone’s nerves. Though that wasn’t really necessary, for an output of this size to have many cultivators defending them, it may not have enough for continuous battles.
It was just a matter of time for said defensive points to always be taken by the other major organizations; sometimes even happening to be passed around of its ownership before a war was over. But in the end, they would all crumble to the ground, never to be remembered for any cause or achievement as every single one ended with a total failure of the Little Lake’s ownership being claimed.
For everything that was worth, it only worked to encourage the 4 major organizations’ members when they were given full control over the situation, only then did so many people enlisted and give it their all to form part of such obvious dead pathways: to become their own little ruler of their own little piece of land, before being stolen from their hands and murdered or so.
In the history of the Little Lake, though the idea was securing transport to the west and between the south, center, and a very tiny part of the north of the Region, the battles for it were all on land. And they were already so disastrous for even just reading a quick, non-detailed resume, let alone the bottles on the water, which were just…way too sadly awful.
Possibly the one and only thing that cultivators never dare do in the world, there is just nothing they can do with just their Spirit Sense, ranging about 20 meters at maxim, which was only seen in a couple of figures in the entire history of the world, at the Obsidiafying realm.
Thus, no matter how, there was still a need to learn how to navigate through the sea by mortal means, which all cultivators in the world were also not going to choose to do. And so, on one part the cultivators can’t do the navigating on their own. They would all get lost should they try moving through the airspace above water as if it was on land - even on just the Little Lake.
And the disdain for mortals which they bathed gloriously in didn’t let them have any sort of actual learning on how to take over the Little Lake. And even up until now, there were still hefty, ‘generously’ funded projects to research a way to navigate the waters of the Little Lake all this time.
“Huh? What’s that?” Suddenly, from the terrain they were moving, simple plains, some lost vegetation here and there, and marks of large vehicles crossing through here appeared; yet, what brought a cultivator to check was the sight of very normal or very smooth grass on the ground.
“Hmm? That is…wait! Don’t! Do not-” A person leading their small group, a fraction of a larger group, with a tablet in his hands and looking at it while slowly moving something on it with his index fingers from time to time suddenly noticed the cultivator who was moving towards the strange area.
Out of boredom, the leading cultivator would scan said strange terrain, suddenly finding a small humanoid figure walking towards it, which was the cultivator in question or several…right into a huge mass of orange that began spreading over the entire place outside of the terrain and right under the small group’s feet.
BOOOM…! BOOOM…! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!...
“!” - “What is that?” - “Where?!?” - “What? We’re getting attacked?!” - “Aaaah! It’s tr-”
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!...
From all over the entire northern, southern, and eastern sides of the outposts, booming sounds could be heralded like a festivity of sorts going on, but with the flying flesh and crushing bones either by the explosion going on or by simply clashing bodies with one another as they endured and survived the explosion beneath their feet, raising them to the ground and impulsing them towards any possible angle - only to end up dying with their bones breaking into another person’s body in the middle of the air.
In such a case, even those who became half-headed as they slammed against the hard ground died ‘better’ than those who kissed a fellow cultivator and instants later began to truly eat one another’s faces until only small bits of bones remained in a soup of bright red and meat soaking in them.
“Take positions!” - “Where are they?!” - “Shit, they are just traps. Everybody calms down and won’t panic! Don’t panic and listen to me, don’t pan- oh…OH SHIT!”
“RWUGAAAAAARRRHH!!”
Trckrr~! Trckrr~! Trckrr~, trckrr~, trckrr~...
In just a moment, once several explosions had been going off for minutes straight, the entire groups of ‘just’ close to 10,000 cultivators moving towards the outposts suddenly witnessed the flames behind or in front of them begin dispersing as incredibly large cars with an appearance similar to that of a mortal’s warring vehicle showed before their eyes!
“Are they kidding me?” - “No way they’re kidding about us!” - “Take them down, avenge our br- WHAT?!”
Whistlee~, whoosh whoosh whoosh!...
In just a few seconds, from all over the sides of each outpost, far away from the actual first line of defense, several dozens of armored cars came out from the flames and the smoke, they were effortlessly moving through the gaps on the ground and the amassed amount of corpses which would’ve been at least a blockade for even a large truck built to destroy things.
Yet, as the armored cars drove towards the confused, surprised, and startled believers, enemy sect disciples, and such - they moved as if snakes sliding through left and right, zig zag. Evading a lot of incoming tools, arrows, bolts, rocks, boulders, and even those incorporated with Power Energy by the Spirit Gathering realm enemy cultivators.
While they were recuperating and beginning to defend themselves, striking back and defending their partners to their left, right, behind, or even front, the armored cars moved fast and agilely around them, stopping at times and with some even…directly driving into the enemy cultivators placing their backs and shoulders together!
Those armored cars that remained on the spot had an already chosen escape route, their front facing any angle except that of the enemy’s small groups and small groups which were just now a large group but that became divided by the explosions and in order to not accidentally attack each other. This strategy had already become an obvious one at the lower base cultivation level.
Those other armored cars moving around were taking a specific route as well, only that they were always moving, and though their offensive was lesser than the armored cars stationed near the enemy’s small groups, they were more efficient in driving away the attention.
Finally, when enough time had passed, one of two occurrences would happen…
…