658 [Bonus chapter] It's Not A Coincidence
At first a couple of hours, the forces up front tried to crush their ways to the towns and cities. The plan Hilary and Isabella put was simple: push with everything they got, force their way inside the towns and cities, secure the emblems and castles there, before securing the big five portals in each place.
They planned to use the boost effect of all emblems and castles to secure these towns and cities. But they underestimated their foes.
The enemy didn’t need to use any boost from any emblem or castle. They just kept pouring more monsters and races out of the big number of portals around each town and city.
This made the attempt of breaking through fail! My forces suffered big losses until the two girls finally succumbed to my plan.
[Go directly for the portals, crush them first and clear the battlefield later] This was my simple and yet effective tactic.
This didn’t save the losses or even cut it short. But it brought out good results just a few hours later.
[We secured ten towns and two cities]
[We controlled five cities and six towns]
[We secured three cities and five towns]
[We secured ten towns]
More messages like these kept coming one after another. I kept watching this good news while looking at the big map on the back of my chariot.
[Tell me, did we clear any zone yet?] I cared more about that. Separating the forces of that bastard was the first step towards clearing these rats.
Once I separated a zone from two directions, I’d order the closest big army to close on this zone and tear it to shreds.
Doing that wouldn’t only save time, but would also cut our losses short and add morale to the forces at the frontline.
Gaining a considerable victory like this was priceless!
[We need more time]
[Not yet]
But the two brought me such bad news. It seemed the places they controlled were scattered randomly without any connection.
[Try to focus more on segregating the enemy lineup] I sent this to them, urging them to focus on isolating entire zones.
It didn’t happen until five more hours passed! The fight was really hard, and the more the enemy fought them, the more losses the two armies suffered.
Besides, the enemy already sniffed what I was trying to do. The fight over the key points seemed to be much bloodier than anyplace else.
The enemy was trying his best to stop my armies from separating their line up into separated zones.
Yet at the start of the sixth hour, my forces finally managed to crush these hard obstacles.
[We got one zone separated]
[I got one zone separated as you asked]
[Keep pushing over other zones first] I didn’t want to start attacking any zone yet. It would be better to have more zones in wait, so they would jump from one zone to another, gaining momentum as they did that.
I wanted to snowball their morale, turning them into fierce beasts.
During the next three hours, more hardpoints started to fall under the fierce assault of my forces.
[Start the hunting zones operation] After securing more than five zones for each army, I gave them the order to start taking down these separated zones.
I didn’t know how big each zone was, or how many towns and cities were in each one. I left such details to the two girls to handle.
[The first zone fell!] The first to control a zone was Isabella. Unlike Hilary, Isabella was much fiercer in her attacks.
She lost much more than what Hilary lost to control one zone each, but she was a bit faster without doubt.
[Keep pushing to other zones] I sent, [Use the high morale and don’t stop even after clearing a zone. Look for the nearest hard battlefield and hit it fiercely with everything you got]
I sent this to both of them, then I sent this to the spearhead and Lily:
[Move your forces closer to the frontline. Be ready to fight if we needed you]
[Sure boss]
[I’m growing bored staying here! Can’t we move out and help right now?]
Lily was just impatient, itching to join this big fight.
However I didn’t give her the permission to do that.
[Just stay put for now] I sent to her before I got a message I waited so long for.
[Lord, there is weird activity going on here]
“At last!” My eyes shone when I read this message. It came from the teams I sent towards the tunnels to keep an eye over them.
[Where are you?] I sent it to this team, asking for their current location.
[We are at an area at Virginia, near West Virginia and Kentucky]
“This…” It was a place that I never expected!
The frontal battle was raging hot starting from Michigan at north, moving south through Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. I didn’t let my forces at the south to go much deeper towards Alabama, as this was left for the Selvators to handle.
I stationed the two armies of Lily and spearhead, one at North Carolina and the other was at the meeting point of West Virginia and Pennsylvania accordingly.
And right now the enemy started moving at a spot just in the middle between these two armies.
That was… A bit weird.
[Lord, we got a movement here]
[Enemies are spotted, lord]
More messages started to come in succession, all delivering the same news.
[Where are you?] I sent this to all, and the answers I got weren’t that different from the first message I got.
They all were located near to the two armies in the rear of the frontline forces.
This wasn’t a coincidence. What exactly did that bastard want to do here?
[Take care] I sent to Lily and the spearhead, [There are enemy forces coming out in the area between your armies]
[That’s nothing boss, let us move our armies and smash these flies in between us]
“Crush the forces by merging the two armies together…” I felt like what the spearhead just said resonated with something else… Some sort of an idea… An idea about what that bastard was trying to do here.