Chapter 368
Chapter 368
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Saint and Completer (24)
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Combat is endlessly complicated if you overthink it, but if you boil it down, it's really not that big a deal.
Win the fight.
Exploit the enemy's weaknesses with our allies' strengths.
Block the enemy's variables and force things to go according to our plan.
Those are the key points.
Whether we win or lose on the battlefield is calculated based on the situation and our legion's combat power, so it's hard to pin down right here. From now on, we'll look into our strengths and the enemy's weaknesses.
The third point—blocking variables—needs a bit more delicate handling. Because variables don't just come from the enemy's actions.
With a sliver of hope, I tossed out a question.
"So, in your opinions. What are our allies' strengths?"
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"Faith."
"Indeed... it must be faith, right?"
"The Lord's presence with us is our greatest strength."
Zero points.
I knew it would be like this. Courage, Mercy, and Abundance are out. Regardless of their reliability, as a commander, they're on the same level as Koern's idiots. If I left troop operations to these guys, we might end up with a second encirclement annihilation operation.
"The communication network via divine communication. I believe it's that individual observations instantly convert to information for the entire allied force."
"Good idea, but the enemy has the same thing. In fact, our side has a delay until the observer contacts our priests, but the mutants have the Queen's consciousness as a base shared system, so they're probably a bit faster on information."
50 points.
Of course, with Valkatus's death, we're slightly ahead on information interpretation. Add and subtract points on both sides, and it's a tie. As expected of the Wisdom Church's Saintess. The Archivist of Amis lives up to her name.
"Our allies' strength... though temporary, isn't it that our Empire-side support has reliably bolstered our heavy infantry? The enemy boasts overwhelming numbers compared to us, but most are low-grade mutants that even regular infantry can handle. Even that is just quantity based on overwhelming production—there's a limit to their deployable forces. As the front widens, our casualties mount, but the enemy's offensive is spread thin too."
"Hoo."
"The reinforced western front has enough power to overwhelm the enemy's numbers, so you're saying we should launch an offensive from our side and push the front forward? Empire infantry are tough enough not to fall to those low-grade mutants, and with most priests gathered here, losses from infection—the most fatal for regular soldiers—won't be that big."
Pass. Our Mutant Glenn Junior Duke, having been beaten down under the previous Duke Glenn, has grown into a very useful commander. 80 points. He nailed the exact reason I suggested reversing the western front and Kingsland front into offensives.
"Tusan. Marca. Any other ideas? Like operations leveraging beastkin mobility?"
"Sorry, Benefactor. We're not good at this stuff..."
"Anyway, we'll just move as the boss says, so no need to overthink it."
"Sigh. I knew it—"
"If we must think... it's that we have a lot of strong warriors. The boss, the priest leaders here, the 'heroes' we met on the way—all warriors strong enough to make the hairs on my nose stand up. Rumor has it the enemy's elites are just one or two that rampage around. Break those, and the rest should fall like sheep to a wolf pack, right?"
"...Oh? Correct. You hit the most important point."
An unexpectedly sharp answer.
As Tusan said, our allies' biggest advantage is having a lot of troops worthy of being called 'elites.'
Each one has descriptors like 'the region's top swordsman' or 'bear-slayer at age five'—hero units grouped in parties as 'hero parties,' the Knights of Ruthlessness, Gregory's group, the Great Warrior of Courage, top-tier paladins and priests like Amis's Archivist-level clergy. Plus the beastkin gladiators who joined additionally.
Above them are powerhouse forces like me and the saints and saintesses of the Five Churches, top-tier hero units, Blue-Maned Tusan and Marca inheriting the cheat-level combat bloodline 'Lineage of Rataya' from World 1, and—purely in terms of combat power—something on the level of a nuclear missile or satellite tungsten strike: that 'Argallian Sword.'
On the other hand, how many elites does the enemy really have?
'My playstyle has been all about hunting mutant elites. At least in elite forces, I've properly taken them down.'
Three types of Chamber Maids, the garrison and production units.
Edeorna, who must be terrifyingly grown by now.
Nigmi, who popped up in the desert.
Dox, one of the five named that always appear as the Queen's direct line.
With some time passed... maybe they produced three or four more named? No. Only the Queen can produce Chamber Maids, and since they made so many of those, they probably had almost no time for named.
Chamber Maids, once rooted, are hard to move easily, so their top-tier elites are effectively just 4-5 in total. Units like the Argallian Sword, me, or the Great Warrior of Courage can't be stopped by anything less than same-grade elites. No matter how much you shoot a rifle, you can't blow up a tank—you need same-grade elites to match them.
"Surprisingly, that means the mutant formation lacks the stopping power to block our elite breakthroughs. Their endless quantity assaults and infection pressure are all strategies to buy time for the Queen to produce new named. So, before another weird one pops up..."
Ziiik-
"We'll select the best combat elites from the human alliance army and sever the enemy's spine."
I drew a new line on the blood-drawn formation diagram. Circling the alliance-enemy confrontation point, a detachment slicing through the enemy's empty strongholds.
"Quite... a traditional method, isn't it? Forming a suicide squad of humanity's elites to plunge into the enemy's heart. Isn't it too simple?"
"Strategies are best when simple by default. When we're at a disadvantage, we use all sorts of tricks to turn the tables, but when our forces outmatch theirs like now, the best is a frontal push, eliminating variables as we go."
The enemy's biggest strength is 'production power.' Right now, Empire support gives us a slight edge in troops, but a few battles and it'll flip. They can just throw away quantities and regenerate without loss, but we can't.
So, use our strength 'elite forces' to crush their strength 'production power.'
"Heroes die in two ways. Valiantly falling against same-grade 'hero'-level enemy elites, or—overwhelmingly more common—getting surrounded by endless enemy troops in a wheel battle, then, exhausted, getting stabbed in the back by a rusty spear and dying miserably."
Wheel battle. The best strategy for an opponent with overwhelming quantity.
No matter how superhuman heroes are, they're human—they'll tire eventually. Losing our advantage, our elite forces, to such regenerating troops would be the biggest variable.
"So, use the reinforced infantry to pressure and push back the confrontation point, draw out the enemy's quantity—"
"Then raid the empty enemy occupied zones, the Chamber Maid hive settlements?"
"That's it. Only possible right now, while our infantry holds superiority even without hero support, and the front can hold."
The explanation sounds complex, but it's no different from a plains skirmish. While infantry lines clash, knights attempt flank breakthroughs—like that, while our infantry pins the enemy, humanity's finest hero troops bypass and smash the empty nests.
Pushing through Chamber Maid-occupied areas like that naturally protrudes our advance toward the enemy's center, and our thin, spread wings get pulled into the arrowhead central army's influence, joining as extensions of the arrowhead's sides.
The anvil at the innermost of the circular encirclement becomes the protruding vanguard, with the scattered thin circular front sequentially absorbed into the wedge formation's flanks.
This is the big picture we can draw, excluding enemy action variables.
"In other words, the 'slow breakthrough.'"
Elites sever the spine, then crush the severed enemy chunks with the thick center. As the formation advances, our wings stretch back long, forming a triangular safe zone and securing rear and supplies.
Unlike the typical sharp spear-tip wedge offensive, it's more like a battering ram's massive metal horn. Slow, heavy, strong.
Two keys. The elite team terrorizing enemy production facilities returns without losses. And the infantry line leading the offensive absolutely! positively! doesn't collapse.
"Charlotte, Muto. You'll probably have the toughest time out of everyone here."
"...Indeed. If the front collapses, we'd have to fight the mutant horde head-on without a single hero to plug the gap—and while repeating occupations and marches in consecutive battles. It'll be grueling."
"Oh, one more thing. When facing the enemy, incapacitate rather than kill as much as possible. As you know, regenerating low-grade mutants get absorbed and respawned the moment they die, turning into internal forces grabbing at the infiltrating elite team's ankles."
"Just tell 'em to drop dead. Fighting's hard enough without tying up our hands and feet. If the infantry line gets breached anywhere big, everything shatters. Is risking that worth it?"
"It is. Time's not on our side."
All the Queen with the Altar of Prosperity needs is 'time.'
Whether she produces more named to block our elites or more Chamber Maids to overwhelm our infantry with quantity, giving her more time here will make things impossible.
Give her more time, and it'll be hopeless. Then we'd have no choice but to charge north all-out, prepared to die. By then, win rate drops to 10%. Advance slowly to preserve forces and get overwhelmed by production; charge to buy less time and waste our hard-won oil mages, smashing raw into the eternal tundra with half freezing to death.
"There you have it—my strategy. If you have objections, speak up now."
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"None?"
"Quicker to find who understands than who objects, boss. I don't get it anyway."
Tusan, leaning against the wall, got a nod from his sister. In the agreeing atmosphere, the Wisdom Saintess quietly raised her hand.
"Yes, Saintess Certa."
"One thing's clear."
Looking at the Great Warrior of Courage muttering 'battle of glory, battle of glory' to himself, the young Mercy Saintess struggling to understand, the indifferent beastkin siblings, and the Abundance Saintess growing flowers in a pot off to the side, she said,
"Among these people, there's no one with more influence than the Saint of Radiance, and no one who can think properly. If no one here devises a better plan than yours, you'll effectively wield influence like the alliance army's overall commander. Hm, did you aim for this?"
"Oh, yeah, something like that."
The Saintess is sharp.
These people gathered here in good faith to cooperate, but that doesn't mean they're all of one mind.
For example, anyone from the Courage Church sent even one to the rear would flop down screaming 'blasphemy!'
To break through the blood mist zone from the 'Pillar of the Poor,' essential from the Mercy and Abundance clergy—Abundance folks would riot and head rearward if supplies glitch even slightly, saying 'I can't watch the hungry starve!' Mercy Church people would pitch fits and go to the hospital tents if wounded piled up from repeated battles.
Empire army? Borrowed troops. Commander Muto Glenn's friendly with me, but ultimately serves the Emperor. If Empire casualties accumulate, they might turn against my strategy demanding infantry sacrifices.
Beastkin? Super independent, came following only me—peel them off my side, and they'll act solo. They must stick with me.
The alliance army is groups with different faiths, convictions, goals apart from goodwill. To move them as one body, someone has to be the head. Convince whining Courage paladins to slot into infantry lines, grip Abundance supply lines tight so they don't get ideas, redirect Mercy altruism with words, saddle the Emperor's side with a huge debt.
'If I don't seize control here, I can't move the allies properly.'
Not bragging—really, no one else can control this motley crew. That's why, in this gathering, I took the lead to create an atmosphere of 'speak up if you've got better.'
Fortunately, those clueless on strategy nodded along. Muto and the Wisdom Saintess, catching my intent, nodded in understanding.
"...Indeed, no one here has as broad an influence over us as the Saint of Radiance, or such fine wisdom."
"I've heard nonstop from Her Majesty the Empress about 'Professor Saint who solves anything somehow,' so my ears are callused."
With their agreement last, everyone here endorsed my opinion and agreed to follow my lead going forward.
"Then, meeting adjourned."
"...Shouldn't we discuss a bit more? We won't have time to meet like this once things kick off."
True. Once the standoff ends and full-scale war begins, it'll be battles and marches repeating till we reach the north.
"Even if we plan finer details here, the battlefield will flip it all anyway. From there, it's up to each site commander's discretion."
Can't control all variables. Even 10-year plans hit surprises—war risks you just accept.
"Alright, then. See you in Koern."
The start of total war.
A signal the implicit standoff between mutants and alliance was over, the beginning of a battle that wouldn't end till one side was annihilated.
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Current Lordric battlefield situation. Blue: alliance army, red: Lordric territory occupied by Chamber Maids.
Full-scale war plan.
North is above the red occupied zones.
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