When Kevin first heard the plan, he watched Chris and others arguing silently, and only asked a question after he conveyed that he was going to follow Roman’s plan.
“What do we need to do?”
This war wasn’t something Roman could handle alone. It was a good plan for Roman to use the mountain terrain and darkness to deal with the enemy, but the two hundred troops had nothing to do in the meantime. Nevertheless, Kevin wanted to be in the plan of Roman. Chris was no different. Thus, when Kevin asked the important question, Chris added, “Right. I agree that the liege can conduct the operation by himself. The liege already has the ability to pull that off, and we, who cannot keep up with the liege, will inevitably pull you down. But that doesn’t mean we can leave everything to you, my liege. Even if you have to use us as bait, please put us to some use.”
Those were words full of concern. Nevertheless, from the start, Roman had every intention to use as much power as he could.
“From now on, let me briefly explain the operation.”
Shhhk.
He opened a map. It was the map that McBurney had given him. Although it was small, Roman deliberately pulled out that map and pointed out the area at the start of the mountain.
“This operation is divided into three phases. In the first phase, I will use my mobility to deal with Hector’s remnants. Since the Hector Kingdom is preoccupied with attacking the Front Defense Line, dealing with them in the meantime won’t be an issue. In the second phase, if the Hector Kingdom sees my existence as a thorn in their eyes and sends a unit to pursue me, I will lure them to the mountain. And perhaps they will try to take advantage of the overwhelming difference in our numbers and try to deal with me at once. Still, I will prolong the battle, and when the sun sets and darkness covers the mountain, I will use my skills to corner them.”
Now, only the last phase was left. The final touch.
Roman understood that as soon as they got pissed, even if it was impossible, the Hector Kingdom would pursue him like crazy and make mistakes.
“From then on, we enter the third phase. A surprise attack using the terrain. That is your role.”
Once the third phase was told, the soldiers understood it was a simple plan. They had to dig a trap, wait, and make a surprise attack on the disorganized enemies. Actually, since it was an operation anyone could think of, the soldiers understood it even though Roman had only told them about it briefly.
‘A surprise attack in the mountains will yield clear results. Nevertheless, from the moment we appear in front of them, we will not be free from the pursuit of the Hector Kingdom. The difference between Hector and us is too large, and it is virtually impossible to successfully make a surprise attack and escape without any damage. Nevertheless, as it is the command of my liege, I will do it.’
No one mentioned the risk this operation had. Everyone was thinking the same thing—Roman Dmitry was going to face hundreds or even thousands of enemies by himself, then how could they act like cowards and mention the risks of the surprise attack? Even if they had to die, it was their choice, and being the soldiers of Roman, they had decided to follow him until the end. Naturally, the feeling spread like a plague, and soldiers who followed McBurney and Steven only remained silent.
Their strong will looked quite amazing. Roman was grateful for the soldiers who were ready to dedicate their lives to him, but he wasn’t the kind of person who would make meaningless sacrifices.
“It seems like you all are misunderstanding something. The point of this surprise attack is to reduce the number of enemies while minimizing the damage.”
“…That is impossible. The Hector Kingdom will surely form a defense formation and continue to search for us. And unless we kill everyone with the surprise attack, we will be grabbed by the tails when Hector discovers our position. You don’t have to say anything to give us hope, my liege. We all are already ready to lay our lives down for our liege,” said Chris. Even though he was following Roman for a purpose, he was truly loyal to him.
Roman said, “No, there is a way to not get grabbed by the tails. In an old book, by chance, I found something along the lines of “There are infinite ways to use mana, and depending on how it is used, one can bring Mother Nature on the side of humans.”. Then, during my stay in Dmitry, after a lot of trial and error, I discovered a new branch of Mother Nature.”
The soldiers couldn’t understand what Roman meant. Thus, to make them understand the “Path of Nature”, Roman took a step forward and began to collect things like rocks and branches from the ground.
“It might not be visible to your eyes, but unlike the other stones and twigs, these ones contain a lot of mana. Actually, it is quite less when compared to human standards. But if they are systematically positioned in the right manner, the power of mana that goes against the Path of Mother Nature will twist the space.”
Tak.
He placed the stones on the floor. He then took a few steps forward and placed a branch there.
What is he doing?
Seeing him repeat the same thing, which was quite weird, a few times, everyone had the same question.
‘Where is he going with this?’
The questions didn’t seem to stop, but just then, the moment when Roman put down the last stone,
“I have decided to call this the “True Defense Circle”.”
Swish.
A light breeze blew, and Roman’s figure disappeared like a mirage. Everyone was stunned. They felt like all their senses had stopped working. He was right in front of them just a moment ago, but now, he was nowhere to be seen.
They finally became sure. With Roman Dmitry’s method, they could attack their enemies safely.
And obviously, Roman’s plan had worked.
“Attack!”
“Fire the arrows!”
Papak!
The arrows were fired straight ahead. Even if one wasn’t a sharpshooter, they could easily hit the enemy at such a close range. And obviously, the soldiers of Hector soon began to die and fall to the ground. The attack was so quick that they couldn’t even think of raising their shields to block it. The soldiers who had been training hard for this war went down in the chaos, and Chris, who had cut off the breath of the Aura Swordsman with a single slash, didn’t miss the opportunity to move forward.
Tap.
His sword flashed. As Chris was so fast that he wasn’t even visible to the enemy soldiers, multiple heads soon flew into the air. And even though blood continued to gush out of their bodies like a fountain, Chris didn’t stop.
The moment he made the surprise attack, he decided he would grab the opportunity and push as hard as he could.
“Everyone, calm down!”
“Strike back!”
Hector’s knights responded. Among them, there were Aura Swordsmen. Auras began to emerge from all directions and attacked Chris simultaneously, but he managed to avoid all the attacks. And then,
Puak!
Puak!
He attacked the enemies’ vital points and sent them to the afterlife.
When Chris defeated the 3-Star Aura Swordsman in the Battle of Great Warriors, he was born completely anew. He finally understood that the power of Aura wasn’t everything, and he tried to become even stronger by training with Roman. The beads of sweat that had dropped down his body were enough to create a huge river.
Since he couldn’t absorb the teachings of Roman properly if he blinked even for a single moment and lost the flow, he would often stay up the entire night because of training and clung to even it even when he fainted. And the reward? Obviously, he got a huge reward—The Lightning Flash. It was a sword technique one of the top ten beings in Murim had learned by heart. Thus, Chris did his best and learned it by heart as well. And thanks to that, he was now unilaterally slaughtering Hector’s knights.
“This is ridiculous!”
“Where did this monster come from?!’
The enemies were stunned. The opponent wasn’t even Roman Dmitry. Still, they couldn’t even hold a candle to him. Screams filled with pain continued to pour out each time Chris moved. Also, it wasn’t just him. The power of the other soldiers of Roman wasn’t any less. As they had learned the Asura Sword Technique, even though they were called normal soldiers, their combat power was way huge. It was literally overwhelming.
After slaughtering numerous enemies in a short time, Chris retreated and shouted with a voice filled with mana,
“Retreat!”
“Retreat!”
That was it. The troops of the Hector Kingdom couldn’t come back to their senses initially because of the surprise attack, but soon, some of them whistled to signal the others. It was a signal that told the others that the situation had reversed.
As he heard the sound of the reinforcements coming there, Chris ordered for retreat right away. They had managed to achieve quite a result already. Roman had already told them that this operation was not about killing all of the enemies, but harassing them while making sure they themselves were safe.
‘We need to move to the next point.’
On this wide mountain, Roman had made several True Defense Circles. Roman understood the reality that they couldn’t win against them head-on, so he decided to attack only in favorable situations.
All of Cairo’s soldiers ran away like loaches. That was the end of the surprise attack. The soldiers of Hector tried to follow them, but Chris and the others had already disappeared by then.
Simultaneously, battles were happening in other areas.
“Enemy!”
“Stop them!”
Puak!
Kevin had taken over the leading position of Cairo here.
Kevin cut off the head of the enemy who was screaming because of being terrified of his actions and then quickly slaughtered the other enemies who still hadn’t recovered from the shock. The aspect of the battle wasn’t much different. As Roman intended, the Hector Kingdom tried to form a siege, even if it was unreasonable, and in the process, the Defense Lines of the enemy were disrupted.
Actually, Hector still had the advantage if one followed common sense. Although it was obvious that the side with higher numbers would win in a war of attrition, Cairo’s surprise attack didn’t fall within Hector’s common sense.
“Die!” shouted one of Hector’s Aura Swordsmen. Their exploding Aura was the hope of Hector. And the Aura Swordsman, who was about to cut off his head, was rather killed by Kevin first.
Roman’s soldiers often called Kevin the “Rapidly Growing Monster”. Obviously, they didn’t mean that he was stronger than Chris, but Kevin was actually faster at slaughtering enemies.
In this operation, many people asked Roman questions. They were worried that Roman was going to face Hector’s army all alone and that the operations around the mountains were dangerous. However, unlike Chris, who confirmed with evidence in every case, Kevin never asked Roman a question. It was because he trusted Roman Dmitry completely. As it was Roman Dmitry, who had grown so much stronger since the time he had met Kevin in the slums, even though it was beyond common sense, Kevin believed it was possible. That was because of blind trust. Roman’s existence was the very driving force of Kevin.
Chris and Kevin brought about the same result. They both slaughtered a lot of enemy soldiers in a short amount of time. Nevertheless, there was something different about Kevin.
Clench!
Puak!
He caught the enemy who was trying to flee by the hair. Then, while dragging him on the ground, he stabbed the enemy countless times in the stomach. Still, those attacks weren’t even aimed at vital points. He was doing so so that the other enemy soldiers would clearly hear the screams. He was inflicting pain on those he caught without mercy. And Hector’s soldiers, who saw that, didn’t even dare to approach Kevin.
The Hector Kingdom is our enemy.
While standing by Roman’s side, Kevin had always observed how he treated his enemies. In the fight with Barco, Roman had shown pure cruelty to them. And as Kevin had seen Roman do it, he also showed his enemies what fear was.
‘I follow the values pursued by my liege.’
He didn’t catch every single enemy that was escaping. After all, it took survivors to spread the fear to others.
Kevin, who had deliberately left a few survivors, immediately sent a signal of retreat when he heard the sound of reinforcements rushing in.
Chris, Kevin, Pooky, and Volcan—They all had carried out the surprise attack simultaneously.
Volcan was the one who had first taken up the challenge when Roman was recruiting soldiers, and Pooky was someone who had succeeded in manifesting Aura after training in Asura Sword Technique.
They all had taken charge of one group each, and then, all four groups attacked at the same time. The operation was obviously successful. Just like Chris and Kevin unilaterally killed the enemies and ran away, they both also managed to do the same.
And the news soon shocked the camp of Hector.
Editor’s Thoughts: The soldiers of Roman have done such a good job! Kevin was so ruthless toward Hector, just like Roman. That was amazing lol. Let’s see how Edwin Hector responds to Roman now.
