The Perfect Tactical Strike
It would be impossible to counter the Duke of Lawrence if you give him any time at all.
Ronnie the Viscount’s plan was to launch a surprise attack on the Lawrence Duchy.
The duchy was practically deserted right now, so pulling out twenty or so Vanguards would be more than enough to seize the city.
The only real worry was that we had to take the city faster than the Duke could react.
[Time is the battlefield.]
[Any hesitation or delay will push us into a trap. This plan saves all three of us while turning the Duke into an even more ferocious beast.]
“Ugh……”
No one among them was still dismissing Adrian as an inexperienced young lord anymore.
Instead, they now saw him as some unpredictable monster capable of anything.
Yet when Ronnie the Viscount’s words landed that their own plan would make that monster even fiercer, both Karma the Viscount and Doherty the Viscount groaned.
[We have to keep drawing the enemy’s eyes, so we can’t pull out too many troops at once. We’ll take ten to twenty Vanguards and move them as fast as possible to the area where the space-disruption magic stops working.]
“Since we’re going all out, let’s each bring twenty Vanguards. As long as the Sky Fortress keeps resisting, we’ll have plenty of time to play with them.”
[Understood.]
[Got it.]
The three noble houses’ forces crossed the space-disruption range at the same time and teleported straight into the Lawrence Duchy.
It was an incredibly simple plan.
[We cannot let the lord get captured by the enemy before this operation succeeds. Do you understand?]
[I do. We’ll hide the moment we arrive. If we’re captured, the duchy war ends right there.]
[Then the moment the troops we teleported to arrive, contact us again.]
The operation launched without a hitch.
* * *
Denis, the knight commander of the Doherty Duchy, looked at his struggling subordinates and said, “If this operation succeeds, the tide of war flips in an instant. Anyone who wants to become a loser—please step aside.”
[No one will!]
“Good! Then while pretending to retreat as naturally as possible, each of you will peel off in sequence to fight on the designated fronts!”
[Yes!]
“Those who charge into the ambush and those who stay behind to harass the enemy’s forces are both vital. Keep your heads straight!”
[Yes! Understood!]
Together with Denis, the designated Vanguards left the battlefield in a perfectly natural fashion.
In the end, a surprise force of sixty Vanguards—twenty per noble house—was assembled against the Lawrence Duchy.
[My lord, Denis speaking! We’ve arrived at the space-movement area right on schedule!]
“Well done! Can you teleport straight to Marinkopf?”
[It seems the space-disruption magic is active. Coordinates are locked out.]
[What about above Marinkopf?]
[Ah! It works! Coordinates are set from 1.2 kilometers above Marinkopf!]
“Excellent. On Rondel standard time, initiate the teleport at 12:10.”
[Understood!]
Teleporting into the sky protected by a Sky Fortress was suicide, but every Sky Fortress guarding the Lawrence Duchy was already committed to the external battlefield, so there was no reason to refuse the absurd order.
Denis the knight commander set his alarm and waited.
—Diddididi!
And the instant the alarm rang, “TELEPORT!”
Twenty Vanguards from each of the three sites inside Lheinhatz Kingdom tore through space at the same moment.
A massive magic circle engulfed the troops as surrounding magic condensed and the circle’s light steadily grew brighter.
—Pop!
The unique sensation of weightlessness and the landscape shifting around them followed.
An endless plain became a clear blue sky with not a single cloud.
[Ronnie the Viscount’s Vanguard Squadron Online]
[Karma the Viscount’s Vanguard Squadron Online]
Communication lines connected with the Vanguards from the other territories that had also teleported on schedule, marking the start of the operation.
The combined forces of the three Visconties began their dive…
“I’ve prepared a welcome feast just for you. Shall we go together?”
A strange voice slid into their minds with a telepathic twist no one had expected.
Every Vanguard soldier felt a chill.
[There!]
Their heads snapped toward the sound and they spotted a luxury airship—famous for being the aristocratic plaything of the sea—hovering in the distance.
The airship glided toward them like it had been waiting, and on its deck stood a man spreading a magic circle.
Denis the knight commander swallowed his spit and shouted, “It’s the Duke of Lawrence!”
[Damn it! The plan was exposed……]
They rushed to attack, but the magic circle finished even faster.
And yet that completed circle looked strangely familiar?
Turns out it was exactly the same space-teleport circle they had just used.
The landscape flipped with that weightless sensation again.
That was it. They had been teleported twice in a row—once by their own power, once by someone else’s.
In normal circumstances they could have handled it, but unfortunately Adrian had already been waiting and left them no time to recover.
And where they had arrived…
—KOOOOOOOO!
Three Sky Fortresses and nearly a hundred Vanguards stood in perfect formation.
[TELEPORT!]
[Aah, no! It’s jammed!]
Even as they tore through another teleport scroll, space-disruption magic activated a moment earlier and isolated them completely.
* * *
I’m not particularly clever, but I’m not stupid either.
What sets me apart, though, is my habit of preparing for the absolute worst while calculating every possible loss before it happens.
In a good light, I’m cautious; in a bad one, I’m overthinking it.
But when that trait is paired with Mankyung—the monocle that sees straight into people’s hearts—and Black Eagle, the surveillance satellite that also serves as my scout, I often ended up looking like I could perfectly predict the future.
“Here they come.”
I was lounging on the luxury airship above the grand city of Marinkopf, sipping my cocktail, when I handed the glass to Arsia, stood up, pulled a magic staff from my pocket dimension, and tapped my shoulders as if stretching.
“If I can see that far ahead, my precognition must be solid.”
Pessius, the high-ranking knight and head of intelligence who had boarded the airship with me, exhaled in amazement and stared at me with fresh eyes.
Anyone sensitive to magic would have noticed the huge space-teleport circle forming right in front of them.
“It’s nothing special.”
“Now I’m starting to get scared. I had no idea how lucky I was that you’re not the enemy, my lord.”
I smiled thinly as the magic circle looked like it was about to finish any second.
“The plan isn’t bad, but it’s still so readable. Pointless.”
“You’re starting to feel sorry for the enemy.”
Then the massive space-teleport magic completed.
A blinding light exploded and sixty Vanguards appeared.
The instant they materialized I cast teleport again.
The magic was already memorized, so it unfolded as fast as tearing a scroll.
“I’ve prepared a welcome feast just for you. Shall we go together?”
I welcomed them with telepathy.
The combined Vanguard soldiers of the three Visconties looked stunned, as if asking what the hell the enemy commander was doing here.
I didn’t need to answer their curiosity.
They’d find out soon enough anyway.
—Fwoooosh!
My teleport magic succeeded perfectly.
The landscape changed and sixty Vanguards appeared on a strange plain.
The only difference from a normal plain was the three Sky Fortresses floating overhead and the nearly hundred Vanguards surrounding us in a tight ring.
And the moment we appeared, we activated space-disruption magic to cut off every enemy retreat.
I took the cocktail glass Arsia had held for a moment, downed its entire contents in one gulp, and leaped off the airship.
“Disarm immediately and surrender. You’ll live if you do.”
They looked dazed, unable to process what was happening.
I understood.
They were completely in my hands.
“Yeah! It’s the Duke of Lawrence!”
“Huh?”
A Vanguard soldier bearing the Doherty family crest suddenly bellowed my name at full volume.
His sudden outburst was explained a second later.
“If we capture just the Duke of Lawrence, the war ends!”
They were gambling everything.
‘Ah, I didn’t see that coming.’
Our Lawrence Duchy forces now formed a perfect circle around a five-hundred-meter radius, and at the center of that ring were the sixty enemy Vanguards and myself.
The enemy had every reason to feel confident.
Vanguards were strong in direct combat, but mages were weak against close-range strikes, so they could handle the situation.
“Duke of Lawrence! Surrender now!”
The enemy, who had been putting on a pathetic show, suddenly turned and rushed toward me.
My own forces were the ones who looked stunned.
—Tatat!
But what they overlooked was that Arsia was an Aura Master standing right there, and I had no reason to fear facing her in combat.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
[Klein the Count!]
Arsia, who had jumped down from the airship, equipped her Vanguard armor and blocked my path.
In the blink of an eye, a sixty-versus-two battle began.
[We must rescue the Duke!]
[Move quickly!]
Vanguard soldiers from all directions charged forward to save Arsia, but the subordinates who had witnessed the fight between me and her recalled the Parma Duchy battle and calmed down.
‘Was it a mistake not to prepare for this situation? No, there was never any need to prepare at all.’
This was not even a crisis situation.
“Surrender now!”
A torrent of light rays slammed into my vision.
Each one was a Vanguard Force attack on the level of a sixth-circle spell.
Normally anyone would be rattled, but I had already confirmed that even a fifth-circle hard shield could deflect such strikes if used at the right angle.
Of course, deflecting them wasn’t easy…
But how many intense battles had we fought in a game where real-world senses were shared?
—Ting!
“W-what is this?”
It was actually pretty easy.
The fifth-circle hard shield unfolded at the perfect angle and bounced the incoming laser-like Force attack aside.
The Vanguard’s momentary gap when they realized their attack was blocked came from the tiny delay while converting Aura into Force.
‘Laser Cannon.’
—Kwaaang!
Even before I cast the hard shield I had already fired the sixth-circle attack magic point-blank.
“Cough!”
The Vanguard’s head exploded.
Magic is strongest right after activation, and the farther the caster is from the target, the weaker it gets. I was using that very rule.
“Wait, hold on.”
—Kwaaang!
“Ugh!”
—Kwaaang!
“Haa!”
—Kwaaaang!
From then on I either dodged the Vanguard attacks cleanly or deflected them with a hard shield and immediately sliced off their heads.
Within moments the death toll climbed past ten, and the Doherty Vanguard soldiers who had been egging them on started shouting in panic.
“Damn it! Not subdue them—kill them! Either way the duchy war is over!”
When had they ever shown mercy before?
I sneered and aimed my magic staff at the Doherty Vanguard who was yelling orders like a whale.
‘Flame Blast.’
A memorized seventh-circle grand spell shot out with terrifying force.
Close range: sixth-circle headshot. Long range: seventh-circle harassment or elimination.
Simple, but brutally effective.
“Haa!”
The Doherty Vanguard tried to dodge but the seventh-circle spell was too fast to allow a safe retreat from a defenseless state.
In the end he decided to rely on Force Armor and swing his Force Sword to cancel the magic.
—Kwaaaang!
Of course it was useless, but…
“Cough!”
Fortunately he survived, but he was now knocked down and unable to move.
Having eliminated the talkative commander, I coordinated with Arsia and began clearing the Vanguards charging in from all sides.
“What kind of mage fights like this!”
“This is the line I’ve heard the most today.”
“Cough!”
I dodged the Force Sword charging at my vitals while I cast, and the incoming long-range Force was deflected by a hard shield.
Meanwhile I switched positions with Arsia on a whim to confuse the enemy.
Their coordination should have been falling apart by now, but I and Arsia still felt plenty of room to breathe.
According to the subordinates who had seen the fight after it ended, what happened between me and Arsia looked less like a life-or-death struggle and more like a dance.
I didn’t blindly believe them, but it still meant we were enjoying ourselves.
“Aaah……”
The enemy had attacked brutally, yet we still hadn’t pierced their wall.
As the timeout came, the friendly Vanguards rushing to help us found the enemy one by one subdued and helpless.
The battle had ended.
“Thank you for your hard work, Lord.”
The temporary Vanguard commanders of the Lawrence Duchy approached with awkward smiles.
[Relation: Friendly / Submissive due to employment]
[State: Fear / Reverence]
Most of the emotions displayed on Mankyung were exactly that.
We had successfully imprinted powerful presence on my subordinates in just two battles, but it had been a little excessive.
I pulled a drink from my pocket dimension, brought it to my lips, and took a big gulp before addressing my subordinates.
“The variables are gone now. Let’s wrap up the duchy war.”
[Yes!]
The subordinates answered in unison with crisp salutes.
The feeling of receiving a salute from subordinates who showed reverence wasn’t bad at all.
“Drink.”
“Orange?”
“No, peach.”
“Okay.”
But the moment I was enjoying the feeling of victory, Arsia’s request snapped me back to reality.