Chapter 672: Brewing Trouble

Things probably would have been much worse had General Roth and an elite team of Spirit Initiates not rushed to the Second Regiment’s aid after reports reached them of military distress signals being spotted on the Lorren.

Even so, this battle had clearly been a devastating loss for the Raging River Legion, and the Rockwell Kingdom as a whole. The enemy may have lost more soldiers, but apparently, they didn’t care about that.

"Damn it," Killian, who had slowly gotten used to Lucas’ presence over the course of the debriefing, cursed, "These bastards are taunting us!"

"Agreed," Allina nodded, "Up until now, the enemy has been operating in the shadows, mostly through subterfuge and sowing discontent. Even when they did use more aggressive tactics, it’s always been against civilian targets. This is the first time they’ve actively gone after the army."

"It’s strange, actually," Lucas muttered.

"Strange how?" Killian asked, curious what exactly Lucas was referring to.

Pursing his lips, the young boy mulled over his thoughts for a while before ultimately shaking his head, "I can’t say exactly, but something about this attack was... wrong. Or maybe ’different’ is a better way of putting it."

"It’s like Vice-General Crest just said, this time the enemy attacked the army directly, which seems like a big escalation, but it also doesn’t match with their previous methods and tactics at all," Lucas continued thinking aloud.

"We assumed they were trying to destabilize the kingdom by riling up the population, but attacking a military target seems more like a direct attempt to do damage, rather than create chaos."

"Maybe, to our enemy, it’s all the same?" Killian proposed, though even he wasn’t quite convinced of that argument.

Whoever they were fighting, they were both meticulous and patient, the type of people who didn’t mind taking 10 setbacks if doing so allowed them to advance their overall plans.

What happened on New Years Eve, however wreaked of recklessness, almost as if the enemy was lashing out at them for some reason.

Both Allina and Killian had also been feeling something was off, but they couldn’t articulate exactly what it was or why they felt that way.

"Haa..." Allina sighed, "If only Marcus was awake, maybe we could get some answers from him."

"Cut the kid some slack," Killian shook his head, "When we arrived on scene, that boy had already sustained critical injuries, fully depleted his Internal Qi, and was still fighting 3 Low-Rank Initiates and over 20 Sea Establishment attackers by himself. It’s a miracle he’s even still alive."

"En, I know," Allina nodded solemnly, a hint of guilt flashing across the depths of her eyes.

Seemingly noticing the complex emotions behind the young woman’s gaze, Killian waved his hand, "Don’t blame yourself. You might be his superior, but you’re not responsible for what happened to him."

"Ah... that’s not... en, thank you, General Roth," Allina nodded, quickly composing herself after.

"Was there really no way to capture any of them alive?" Lucas asked despite already knowing the answer.

Shaking his head, the General sighed, "The first thing I did when I landed on that ship was attack two of the enemy Initiates. I’m certain I completely destroyed their Dantians and shattered most of their meridians, but a couple seconds later they blew up just like all the other attackers."

"I figured," Lucas’ shoulders slumped.

"Although, now that I think about it..." Killian suddenly added, his brow furrowing somewhat, "There was something odd about those first 2 Initiates, other than the fact that they never said a word or showed any kind of pain reaction or emotion, that is."

""Hm?"" Both Allina and Lucas perked up, very interested in what the General had to say.

"They were... weak. Or maybe... fragile?" Killing followed up, crossing his arms as he seemingly tried to recall the exact details of the battle that night, "Clearly, they were trained fighters and killers, but for Spirit Initiates, their Cores shattered much too easily. It was almost like they were already unstable from the start."

"Could they have recently broken through and not properly stabilized their foundations yet?" Lucas proposed.

"Possibly," Killin nodded, then shook his head, "But I don’t think that’s it. Even a newly promoted Initiate’s Dantian shouldn’t have ’broken’ that easily."

"I guess that’s a good thing," Allina muttered, trying to find something positive in all this bad news, "If their foundations are that unstable, that means their combat capabilities should be much lower than average."

"En," Killian agreed, "That’s probably why that boy Marcus was able to last for so long and even kill several of those enemy Initiates."

"Lower overall strength, but no inhibitions in battle," Lucas summed it up, "I’m not sure if that makes them more dangerous, or less."

"I guess we’ll find out," Allina shrugged casually before putting a serious expression back on her face, "The question is, what do we do now?"

"I don’t know," Lucas shook his head helplessly, seemingly at his wits end; however, in the next instant, a cold, indifferent expression covered his face, "But I’m getting tired of playing games with these bastards."

"Agreed," Killian Roth nodded gravely, "We need a plan, a big plan, one that can put an end to this nonsense once and for all."

"I’m all for that," Allina grumbled, "But unless one of you has some brilliant idea how we can secretly prepare and execute a massive, nation-wide combat operation, followed by a dramatic fortification of our borders that doesn’t raise alarms in all of our neighbours, then institute a comprehensive crackdown on all incoming and outgoing ships, caravans, and ordinary travelers, we’re stuck."

Silence fell over the General’s office for a time, as the trio wracked their brains, trying desperately, as they had for months, to come up with some idea that would let them wipe out the enemy presence in the kingdom.

Unfortunately, as always, nothing came to mind.

Haa... and that’s not the only problem we have to deal with, Lucas grumbled to himself.

Tensions with the Darr Kingdom were still rising, trouble seemed to be brewing in the lost territories of the South-West Province, and there were even signs of increased military buildups in the other nations of the South-Central Region.

These issues, while thorny, were all ’quiet’ at the moment, but there was no guarantee they would stay that way for long.

To a casual observer, everything seemed calm and peaceful right now, but the undercurrents were churning wildly, making the situation in the region far less stable than one might imagine.