Chapter 1297 - Taming the Old World - Light Dragons

Chapter 1297: Chapter 1297 - Taming the Old World - Light Dragons

Ren took a moment to lay out the broader strategic picture for those around who were not fully up to speed on how the ancient vaults worked.

"Securing all seven rings that belong to our side of the rift is the top priority," Ren explained, resting his knuckles on the southern edge of the map.

"Yesterday, Sirius and Liu managed to steal the Shadow Ring from Selthia’s territory. Because she is missing that one piece, even if she manages to claim a Light Ring today, she still won’t have a complete set of keys to open her third vault chamber. We, on the other hand, are only missing one. If we secure our own Light Ring down south, all seven keys will be sitting inside our walls. At that point, the only hurdle left is for me to figure out a way to retrieve the three rings currently fused to Dragarion."

He paused for a beat to let that sink in before sliding his finger up toward the northern border of Yino’s territory.

"That makes the northern Light Dragon our secondary target," Ren continued. "Even so, our goal hasn’t changed from what we discussed earlier. We are not settling for a split decision today. Right after my team wraps up in the south, we are flying straight north to take both the ring and the core from that second guardian too. We need that core off the board so Selthia cannot feed it into the prison beneath the castle."

Min frowned, crossing his arms as he looked between the two distant peaks on the parchment. "Are we actually going to have enough firepower to win or even resist the northern front without you there from the start?"

"The bulk of our vanguard is marching north under Selphira’s command," Ren replied. "That northern peak is where the real trench war is going to happen today. A Light Guardian does not hit quite as hard as the others, yet it is way more stubborn; its hide is built to absorb punishment and its biology mends wounds almost as fast as you can open them. Taking one down the traditional way is a grueling battle of attrition that requires sustained pressure and a lot of hands rotating on the front line. I am taking a small, fast strike team down south to move quickly and hit hard, while the main force uses sheer numbers to be able to either grind the northern guardian down or hold the line until I get there."

With the reasoning clear, the final deployment orders were locked in.

The main battalion, carrying the vast majority of the kingdom’s heavy hitters and support squads, would fly north to lock down the mutant horde and begin the long process of wearing down Yino’s Light Guardian.

Meanwhile, Ren would lead a compact, high-speed unit straight south to scare off Selthia’s vanguard, claim Yano’s final guardian, both ring and core, and complete their side of the collection.

Two offensive spearheads pushing toward the edges of the map.

One capital city holding a tight defensive perimeter in the center.

And somewhere out there in the dirt, burrowed out of sight, a stolen Shadow Core that Selthia was holding back as her trump card, waiting to see which lane Ren chose before dropping it on the other.

"I will see all of you on the other side of this," Ren said, vaulting onto the back of his huge Mantis with the golden warmth of the castle’s ley line humming through his veins, three units, crystals and a core tucked safely inside his shadow space and three elemental rings in his hand. He looked out over the rows of mounted Tamers waiting in the courtyard. "Every single one of us comes back breathing, just like yesterday."

A low roar of agreement rippled through the ranks.

Moments later, the combined armies of humanity launched into the sky, splitting into two great formations as they raced toward the final guardians and the closing hours of the war.

????

On the flight south, Ren did not bother hiding his approach.

There was no skimming low over the treetops to break line of sight, no layering illusion veils across the plains, and none of the slow, painstaking work of threading the needle between mutant scouting patrols. Those covert tactics had served their purpose during the previous campaign when surprise was their greatest weapon and Selthia had been left guessing where the human spearhead would land.

Today, there was nothing left to hide. In fact, Ren wanted her to feel him coming from miles away and being able to push full speed.

Selthia’s first forces were already engaged at the base of the mountains; the race for the final element had begun the moment she came up. Wasting twenty minutes to mask their trail flying slower would only give her vanguard more time to chew through the guardian’s scales.

So Ren flew straight down the middle of the sky, fast and loud, without a single detour.

His Mantis sliced through the southern wind at a brisk clip, and right behind him were the only five people he had brought for this job: Luna, Larissa, Liora, Liu, and Sirius. At their current pace, they would cross the war zone and hit Selthia’s rear guard in under an hour.

Five minutes into the flight, a messenger hawk dropped out of the clouds with the first dispatch. Ten minutes later, a second bird arrived.

The forward spotters stationed near the southern mountain were reporting a curious shift on the south. The moment Selthia’s perimeter network picked up Ren’s undisguised signature tearing across the sky toward them, the mutant army surrounding the Light Dragon had begun to break formation.

Instead of pressing their assault to finish the guardian before he arrived, the horde had eased off the pedal and started scattering its elite beasts wide across the surrounding valleys.

The motive was obvious enough: pure self-preservation. Selthia remembered the flaming graveyard of the northern swamp all too well, and she was terrified that if she kept her forces bunched up at the base of the peak, Ren would drop out of the clouds and incinerate the entire battalion in a single strike.