Deep into the night, Shena returned to the manor with a heavy heart.
The butler who opened the door for him was surprised to see a rat dragon and a blood wyvern following closely behind his master.
"My lord, what are these?" He pointed to the creatures behind Shena.
"Special bodyguards approved by the Crimson Dragon himself," Shena said with a mocking tone. "They will follow me everywhere from now on. Remember to prepare extra large portions for them when cooking."
Seeing the two dragon kin trailing Shena vigilantly step-by-step, the butler could only nod helplessly and withdraw.
"Oh, one more thing!" Shena suddenly called him back. "Someone will deliver some alchemy equipment and materials tomorrow. Have the servants clean up the basement of the orchard villa and let the delivery people unload directly there."
"Understood."
The confused butler went to take care of it. Shena shook his head feeling rather helpless.
From his private talk with Raphael, he roughly guessed that the crimson dragon wanted to form some kind of agent organization to help himself. But this dragon only trusts the dragon kin he created, whose blood would cause physical distortion and mutation, making it difficult to blend in with humans. Thus, he commissioned Shena to use life alchemy to solve this issue.
"I didn't refuse, yet he still made me sign a spirit contract."
Shena cracked his knuckles as he slowly walked upstairs. Raphael shamelessly brought out the modified version of the contract he sold Arnold, demanding Shena to sign it and swear lifelong secrecy without leaving any information behind.
He even specially assigned a rat dragon and blood wyvern from his guards to "protect" him.
"So I can't starting the experiments again."
Under the watchful eyes of the two dragon kin, Shena sighed inwardly as he crawled into bed.
"Is there some kind of repressive force in this world? Whenever someone tries to challenge the god and taboo, all kinds of accumulated causes and effects arise to obstruct them?"
Thinking about how he had been repeatedly held back by worldly affairs time and again, Shena couldn't help but ponder this before closing his eyes.
…
Meanwhile, Alvis was not home but at the training grounds, repeatedly studying maps and calculations. Without any staff officers to assist him, all planning and tactical details had to rely on himself alone. After weeks of this, his originally golden hair had started graying and whitening.
"The forces I can mobilize now are about fourteen thousand - thirteen thousand kin, seven hundred and fifty kobolds, fifty blood wyverns, thirty hammer drakes, plus some human and dwarf engineers."
Initially, Raphael had Enokeitie requisition thirty hammer drakes, one hundred blood wyverns, and one thousand five hundred kobolds to form the Erl garrison force. More kin were gradually withdrawn from territories and allocated to Alvis.
He had learned that Raphael's bombing of the Oakland outpost earlier that day was a great success, slowing the imperial invasion while inflicting the loss of two battle wyrms, with the remaining one losing its combat capability.
"A great opening move, crippling part of their air power right from the start."
Alvis was very satisfied in his heart. As battle dragons were not numerous nor mass-producible, the death of each one was a strategic victory. It was likely the Imperial Allied Forces could no longer deploy more air power against him.
"With dwarven technology, I've solved the problem of long-distance travel. Now I need to figure out how to quickly seize the enemy outposts one by one in a short period of time."
He rested his chin in thought. With inferior weapons, equipment and numbers, he could not use conventional tactics of first softening with air strikes and artillery bombardment, then advancing infantry to mop up survivors. He had to come up with something unorthodox.
"Wait, this afternoon the hammer drakes unleashed long-range breath weapons far more powerful than mana cannons, and they are highly mobile and agile, without needing to rely on mules…"
Alvis suddenly had a new idea and immediately buried his head to recalculate.
…
The night in Oakland was far from peaceful. The evil dragon came like a specter, suddenly attacking.
The battle dragons they had pinned such high hopes on failed to stop it, proving that if the enemy single-mindedly wanted to flee, no one could stop it.
"Who knows how the war will go?" Lying on a simple wooden bed caressing his half-full belly, Akuniryas pondered.
"According to Commander Natterian's impromptu speech, two more squads of veteran battle dragons are coming, not fresh recruits like the ones annihilated today. Hopefully they can withstand the aerial dragon's attacks, allowing our ground forces to easily crush those unhuman, inhuman kin monsters. Then we can retake Oakenburg."
Akuniryas had seen the maps and knew Ryton's attack was disadvantaged, not only facing the obstacle of fording rivers for landing, but also constrained by Pillar Mountain and dense forests restricting mobility.
"Once the Rytons occupy Oakenburg, they definitely won't return it to Morey. So we'd better take it before them!"
He rolled over and fell asleep.
In the command however, Cornet could not sleep, needing to provide an explanation to his superiors.
"I know this was the engineers' fault, but ultimately it's a management issue. Punish me alone."
Though he lashed out at his subordinates, in the end he was unwilling to let them take the blame, taking it upon himself instead, as they could face the death penalty.
A muffled voice came through the liaison orb. Cornet listened intently, nodding in affirmation, "Yes!"
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Then he watched the orb's light gradually fade, his face full of anxiety.
The Imperial High Command hoped he could launch the offensive as originally planned on September 4th. Supplies could be rushed in, but the coordination work had to be done by him.
"How is there enough time for that?"
Cornet worried, "Even if the supplies arrive, time is needed to distribute them, and forces and weapons must be pre-deployed. But mule carts are so slow."
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but complain about the Imperial Design Institute catering too much to the air forces - whether gryphon knights or battle dragons, their equipment was upgraded almost every year, while his ground troops saw barely any change besides larger-caliber field manacrystal cannons.
"I've requested transportation upgrades so many times, but those alchemists never seeing actual combat got drugged by the thrill of air superiority and completely ignored our needs!"
Cornet vented all the grievances he had pent up - the exclusion from colleagues, his family's stupidity, the subordinates who viewed military service as a career rather than duty.
"Tomorrow is September 1st. I must complete the deployment by the 3rd…nevermind, no time to study maps and strategy anymore. Let me tackle the transportation issue first."
Cornet was out of options - military orders were like mountains, even as a commander he had superiors pressing down on him.
He told his secretary outside, "Inform the staff officers, we will launch the attack as originally planned on September 4th."
"Ah?" The secretary looked up in surprise. "But then the fortifications in Oakland won't be finished at all. If we're defeated, we may not even have an escape route. And if we come under attack from the ground army, we can't withstand it. Besides, intelligence hasn't reported on the enemy's situation yet, shouldn't we wait until we understand it before attacking?"
"Enemy situation? It's just one dragon and its allies, plus a bunch of dragon kin, nothing we can't handle," Cornet stated confidently. "The Karuk outpost of Tokas is to the west, our homeland to the east, and Morey's headquarters behind us. How could the enemy possibly cut through?"
"Very well." The secretary could only nod and withdraw.
Cornet looked up at the map hanging on the wall, seeing no issues indeed.
...
Time quickly passed to the evening of September 3rd. Alvis had already left Erl and was deep in the Karuk Forest.
On September 1st, Raphael had suddenly come down to inform him that the human military forces in Oakland had begun large-scale movements, gradually advancing towards the front lines.
Although he didn't know where the crimson dragon obtained this information, as no blood wyverns had ever flown there for reconnaissance, Alvis chose to believe it.
He immediately rallied his forces and rushed straight to the Karuk Forest to begin deploying troops.
"Calculating the timing, the Imperial Allied Forces will likely commence the war tomorrow."
Through the liaison orb, Alvis learned that Erl remained calm, but his keen military intuition told him a great battle was about to erupt.
He then looked towards the "Ground III" next to him.
Originally a dwarven vehicle for navigating complex mountainous terrain using powerful jumping capabilities and grappling claws, it was part of the same series as the "Ground III" for underground exploration and the "Ground II" for hauling giant rocks and debris.
Now modified by alchemists, this had become a four-wheeled vehicle capable of driving on flat ground, powered by uranidium instead of magma crystals.
The downside was that some axle bearings used copper rather than alloys, so excessive rapid release of uranidium energy could cause it to fall apart.
"Each of these vehicles can carry five people at a speed of around fifty kilometers per hour, enough for me to reach Oakland by the 6th."
Alvis boarded his command vehicle, specially equipped with sofas and shock absorption arrays for comfort, able to fit two rat dragon guards as well.
Studying the map, he saw his force of fourteen thousand had already stealthily formed a pincer shape aimed directly at the Karuk outpost of Tokas.
"Sir! Intelligence from the blood wyverns is here!"
A feline soldier in uniform came running with a report.
"Move out."
At Alvis' order, the kobold driver immediately worked the controls to drive the vehicle deep into the forest encampment.
The newly promoted demi-humans and the leader of Sinister Sing Anubis had been waiting there for a while.
"What's the situation with the Karuks?" Alvis asked as soon as he entered.
"No signs of alertness," a serpent kin hissed. "Very lax, no indications they're preparing for an attack."
"You received elite training, so of course it seems lax to you," Alvis smiled. "In reality, apart from the Allied Forces and some elites, most garrison troops are like this."
"But that human named Moran said the Karuks defeated Morey over twenty years ago."
Alvis shrugged, "That was just a scuffle back then, no one intended genuine battle - Morey's norm simply couldn't match Karuk's norm. This time they had no intention of joining the war, strong-armed into it by the other nations. How could they possibly send their main elite forces for the Crimson Dragon to annihilate?"
Demi-humans lowered their heads, continuing their report:
"Also, we found no battle dragons, only around thirty gryphon knights at most. This is their defensive deployment."
"Hmm." Alvis nodded as he studied the map.
"Launch the attack at 4am tomorrow, have the soldiers drink stimulant potions an hour beforehand," he suddenly said. "Follow the rehearsed plan - main thrust on the enemy's west flank to prevent them escaping eastward and disrupting our advance."
"The artillery corps holds the flanks for defense and support. The thirty hammer drakes split into groups of fifty each to lead the main assault using overwhelming force and high mobility to pierce through the enemy fortifications. Then the four following infantry corps with Terramobiles and foot soldiers move in, using bowguns and mana rifles to annihilate surviving enemy forces."
"I expect the battle to be over by morning. The first priority is to find food and uranidium. If possible, also seize enemy weapons and mounts to enhance mobility."
Alvis' organization for this fourteen thousand strong force was a seven hundred fifty-person artillery corps averaging five per field manacrystal cannon deploying one hundred fifty cannons.
Then four infantry corps of around two thousand each. Corps One and Two each had seven hundred ground III, while Three and Four had three hundred each, totaling two thousand vehicles.
The hammer drakes were treated by Alvis as the key battle machines - like medieval cavalry used for penetrating and flanking maneuvers, but wielding far greater long-range firepower capable of decimating all enemies en route.
The fifty accompanying infantry were for clearing obstacles and finishing off enemies to secure gains.
The remaining were Alvis' guards. Blood wyverns served as scouts and messengers.
However, there were risks - this expeditionary force had no retreat route or stable supply lines, relying only on plunder. If the enemy thoroughly destroyed all resources or any delays occurred due to poor coordination, it would be fatal.
"But to truly seize our destiny, we must pave it with blood and corpses!" Alvis was prepared - the human nations had divided up all rights and resources over the years, leaving nothing for outsiders. Newly-born Erl was his only hope.
...
September 4th, 3:50am.
The Karuk military camp at the Tokas outpost was totally silent, the slumbering Karuks completely unprepared as they were deep in their dreams.
According to their private speculations, that northern evil dragon's attention should have been drawn away by the Imperial Allied Forces and Ryton army. With no battle dragons or impressive military achievements of their own, while hiding deep in the forests, how could they possibly be targeted?
They only planned to sluggishly march towards Oakenburg after the war started, then slow their pace waiting for the Imperial forces and dragon to finish their great battle before advancing to see if any opportunities could be seized. Win or lose, they had no worries either way.
This lax environment caused their sentries to let down their guard, even dozing off leaning against tree branches.
"Snore…need to pee…"
The sentry groggily opened his eyes, about to relieve himself.
But as soon as he unbuckled and regained some clarity, he was terrified into holding it back by the sight before him.
A menacing, terrifying wyvern was silently facing away from him, peering into the camp as if checking if everyone was asleep.
The sentry trembled as he muffled his breathing, reaching for the horn at his waist containing an amplification spell that could wake the entire camp with one blow.
But his hand never made it halfway there.
"Ah? Ahh..."
The sentry suddenly felt a chill across his wrist, followed by searing pain - looking down, he realized his hand had been severed at some point!
Before he could even scream, his vocal cords, lungs and heart were impaled by bony spikes as a blood wyvern slowly materialized from the air, shaking off the blood.
Throughout the forest, the Karuk sentries were located by the blood wyverns' serpent-eye spell and silently eliminated one by one while invisible.
On the ground, hammer drakes and demi-humans soldiers stealthily advanced under the night's cover, encircling the Karuk camp.