Novel Full Chapter 872 - Taming the Fifth Year - Attrition
Chapter 872 – Taming the Fifth Year – Attrition
Arturo counted maybe 20-25 Gold-rank signatures underground. Possibly more, sensing through earth and stone was imprecise.
It could mean that Orion anticipated the Silver army was expendable while he maintained a core of true power in reserve.
Either possibility was unsettling for different reasons.
If Orion considered the surface army expendable… What did that say about his strategic calculations? About how much power he actually had access to? About what he was planning next?
Questions without immediate answers. But questions that would need answering soon.
For now, Arturo needed to concentrate on neutralizing the immediate threat of hundreds of tamers in the immediate range and the thousands still organizing for more coordinated responses.
The enemy army, despite having lost some hundreds in Selphira’s first attack, was still very large in absolute numbers.
More than 4000 Silver-rank combatants remain mobile and mostly capable of healing and rescuing the frozen ones. Gold-rank leaders still directing them. Enough mass to be dangerous if properly organized.
And they began implementing even more defensive tactics that were effective specifically when you had many people available to coordinate, approaches leveraging volume over individual quality.
It was an iteration of elemental power, each tamer contributing their mana to the construction of the collective.
Smart tactics. Exactly what you should do when outnumbered but not outmassed. The walls formed a rough channeling structure, not complete fortification but enough to direct attacking forces into kill zones where fire volume could concentrate without risk of hitting allies by mistake.
Classic defensive design. Any academy would have approved.
And that fire volume began manifesting as dozens of tamers with fire affinity coordinated attacks amplifying each other.
One tamer launched modest-sized fireball, maybe basketball-sized, strong but not overwhelming.
But when it passed through space where three other fire tamers were channeling flame energy, the ball grew exponentially.
By the time it reached its intended target, a projectile that had started as a minor threat had transformed into an inferno that could melt steel and vaporize water instantly.
And they could launch maybe 10-15 of these per minute. Creating continuous barrage that would overwhelm even golden rank defensive techniques through sheer sustained output.
Again, decent smart tactics. Using numbers advantage appropriately. Creating threats that individually superior opponents would still have to respect.
These were tactics functioning precisely because the enemy had massive numbers permitting coordination at scale that a small group couldn’t replicate.
If Selphira and Arturo had tried facing that with a conventional approach of simply charging directly toward the enemy formation’s center, they’d have been overwhelmed by the pure volume of elemental attacks converging from multiple directions.
Even Gold 3 couldn’t tank 10+ amplified fire attacks simultaneously. Even Selphira’s defense had limits when focused fire exceeded those limits through accumulation.
Even if she had finished Ren’s 1000 days extra cultivation.
But Selphira and Arturo’s group was small in numbers, and that smallness was also advantageous when applied appropriately rather than a disadvantage needing compensation.
Arturo gave signals that all tamers under his command recognized immediately.
All fingers raised. Sharp downward motion. Disperse.
The group divided into small cells of 5 tamers each.
35 tamers became 7 cells. Each cell capable of operating independently but maintaining tactical communication with other cells through signals established previously.
And cell 8: Selphira + Arturo (leadership, maximum individual power) Cells 1-7: Five-person units (mixed specialties for tactical flexibility)
It was a configuration maximizing mobility and minimizing risk that area attacks would eliminate multiple tamers simultaneously.
Spread formation meant a single gigantic fireball might hit 5 people maximum instead of 37. Meant the enemy had to divide their attention across 8 different threats instead of focusing on a single target. Meant if one cell got pinned down, six others could respond.
Selphira and Arturo had formed their own cell together, two tamers each worth more than hundred ordinary Silvers and not needing additional backup to operate effectively against most threats they’d face… Missing only wood element in their roster.
Nobody argued with 4 centuries of experience. Nobody questioned Gold 3’s tactical judgment. You just followed and tried to keep up.
The cells began moving with speed contrasting dramatically with the enemy army’s attacks.
Each identifying targets of opportunity. Each executing coordinated attacks leveraging speed and power over raw numbers.
Cell 1 flanked left, targeting earth-element tamers maintaining wall structures. Take out builders, walls collapse.
Cell 2 went right, engaging fire amplification chains. Disrupt one node, the entire chain becomes less effective.
Cell 3 pushed the center, drawing attention and forcing the enemy to commit to defense.
Cells 4-7 circled wide, preparing to hit enemy flanks and rear once front engagement pulled defenders forward.
Classic small-unit tactics.
And Selphira and Arturo moved as a strike unit, identifying high-value targets and eliminating them before the enemy could react.
The oldest Gold leader attempting to assemble his forces? Selphira’s ice spike.
Fire amplification node building particularly dangerous attack? Arturo’s Qilin scattered the formation.
Earth wall blocking ideal approach path? Combined technique. Wall fractured and fell in under 5 seconds.
Efficiency. No wasted movement or mana.
And then it became painfully clear why massive area tactics the army was employing were poorly conceived against mobile high-rank opponents.
The enormous attacks they’d designed to overwhelm other armies’ defenses now had greater probability of hitting their own soldiers than striking elite groups moving much faster than engorged elemental projectiles could travel.
Gold-rank tamer with beast fusion… simply faster than the attack. Dodge wasn’t difficult, just move perpendicular to the trajectory.
But the Silver-rank ally maintaining defensive wall position couldn’t move. Perfect target for the attack that missed the intended victim.
BOOM
Fireball struck a friendly wall position. 9 earth tamers caught in the blast.
“Watch your fire!” someone screamed.
Too late. Another amplified attack hit a friendly formation behind them. 5 Silver tamers went down.
“CEASE FIRE ON ZONE 3!”
It was a tactical nightmare. The exact problem that happened when you designed tactics for different types of warfare and then tried applying them inappropriately.
Area attacks worked best against armies. Worked against formations. Worked against targets that couldn’t or wouldn’t move too fast.
They didn’t work against small, mobile, individually superior units that could dodge and let your attacks hit your own people instead.