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Teaser for 2-5.4
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Book 2-5.3 Venersis Moves (II)
"The enemy's defenses are stronger than I expected. Did they say his name was Porangso?"
Egane answered Yulian's question.
"He is a Greatest Warrior with the name the Splendid Light because of his elaborate and quick shamshir skills. He seems to have decent leadership and has a lot of respect from his warriors, so he is holding on better than we expected."
Trebol laughed as he answered.
"Still, they will not be able to last past tonight. But it is about time for their reinforcement to arrive."
Egane spoke as if he had thought about that as well.
"Tonight, no, tomorrow night at the latest, the reinforcements should arrive. We need to take the oasis and defend it. No matter how much the Shuarei's Glow does not like Venersis, with the situation like this, he will most certainly send Venersis out."
"We've been having fun winning so far but that should slow down now. Just thinking about that ghost makes me already start to get a headache."
As Trebol put his hand on his head to pretend that his head was hurting, Egane just brushed him aside as he spoke to Yulian.
"We should leave Trebol in charge of the attack on the oasis. I will take 10,000 warriors and handle their reinforcements while Trebol takes the oasis during that time."
"Can you do it on your own?"
"You can do it on your own?"
As Yulian and Trebol asked Egane in surprise, Egane looked at both Trebol and Yulian before smiling.
"I will not be alone. With the Glow helping me, even if we do not manage to win, we should be able to hold them off."
"Me?"
"Yes. Just like how nobody in Shuarei can stop the Glow and Red Storm, there was nobody in Pareia who can stop Venersis and the Desert Sword. But isn't the situation different now?"
Egane was certain about his strategy.
Victory will happen tonight.
If Yulian and Red Storm can hold off Venersis and the Desert Sword, he should be able to hold off the Shuarei's reinforcements for at least one night as long as they move first and find a favorable terrain.
If you look at it one way, it was using Yulian's life as bait, but Egane had faced Venersis's might before. He knew that Yulian's skills were at least on par with Venersis, and although he was lacking in experience, the young Yulian should be stronger when it came to strength. Plus, going against Venersis will be a great learning experience for Yulian, so even thinking about the long run, it wasn't a bad decision.
Furthermore, the reason Egane was certain that Yulian will not end up in significant danger was because … that monster like old man was watching from nearby.
Egane did not have a single concern about his plan.
Listening to Egane's explanation, Yulian and Trebol soon agreed.
Egane talked about his plans for after that as well.
"Once you take the oasis, prepare to defend against the enemy forces and send a signal. If the Glow and I retreat as soon as we see your signal, the Shuarei will definitely chase us."
"I'm sure they will."
Egane nodded at Trebol's response.
"If they quickly chase behind us, their formation will not be sturdy, so if we hit them at that time with a prepared formation, even Venersis should have some problems guiding his warriors. While you are fighting them off, the Glow and I will fix up our formation in the oasis before hitting them from the left and right. Then wouldn't that be a complete victory for us?"
"The problem is time."
"Yes. How quickly do you think you can take the oasis? How long can the Glow and I hold off Venersis? Finally, can you successfully fight against Venersis as he chases us back? If all three of these go the way we want it to go, it is going to be our absolute victory. If we can hit them on three sides, even if they had ten warriors of Venersis's strength, we can win."
Yulian nodded his head until he came across a question and asked.
"What if he doesn't chase us and fixes up his formation before attacking?"
"Then wouldn't that be good as well? If we retreat and meet up with Trebol's troops, our numbers will be much greater than the enemy's. Honestly speaking, because we have been going against Venersis for so long, the Greatest Warriors of Pareia are confident in our ability to defend."
"What if he passes through this oasis and hits the Bushy Oasis we took?"
At Yulian's question, Egane and Trebol looked at each other, before deciding that they really needed to teach Yulian more about the ways of war.
Yulian's question was similar to the type of questions regular warriors would ask.
"Then all we will have to do is cut off his escape route and supply line. No matter how strong you are, without supplies, the army will not survive."
Trebol added on to Egane's answer.
"Plus, while we cut off the back, if the Large Oasis sends more warriors and we attack from the front and back, Venersis will have no option but to fall to us."
Yulian made a noise as if to say he finally understood.
"Ah! My thoughts were short. I learned that in war, you cannot focus only on the fighting, but I must have forgotten about it for a moment."
"Reading about it in books and actually experiencing it for yourself are very different. In order to be good at war, you need to experience it with your own body and slowly increase your knowledge. There is no reason for Glow to be impatient. Once this war is over, we will slowly teach you everything one by one through mock battles."
"I ask for your guidance."
"Of course. Now that we have finished our strategy meeting, we will now go discuss the minor details with our lead warriors. We hope that the Glow will cover everything you need to cover with the Red Storm regarding how to fight against Venersis and his Desert Sword."
"I understand."
The three of them all got up to handle their individual tasks and Yuilan went out to meet with Pere, who had been waiting outside.
The Greatest level Strategy Meeting, as indicated, required the greatest level of secrecy and only allowed the Greatest Warriors to take part. That meant even Pere, who was the Glow's younger brother and a famous warrior in the tribe, could not take part. That was why he was waiting outside.
"What did you decide to do?"
As Pere urgently asked, Yulian responded.
"They said that the enemy's reinforcements are headed this way."
"I guess they were really thinking things were urgent. So are we retreating? Or are we fighting against them?"
"We can't retreat from here because of the enemy's reinforcements. We need to at least take back the oasis we lost. As we discussed before, Greatest Warrior Trebol will attack the oasis while Greatest Warrior Egane and I will block the reinforcements."
"Is Venersis coming as part of the reinforcements?"
Yulian slightly nodded his head as he answered.
"I presume so. I can finally see the face of my enemy."
"Hyung-nim……"
Seeing Pere suddenly fidgeting, Yulian thought it was odd and asked.
"Why are you like this? You're not feeling pressured by his fame are you?"
"That's not it… to be honest with you, we met him not too long ago."
"What are you talking about?"
As Yulian asked in shock, Pere honestly explained what happened when they were running away toward Rivolde and received Venersis's help.
"Ah! That type of thing … did that really happen? Why did you not tell me?"
"I had no opportunity to do so."
"……"
Yulian was speechless and fell deep into thought.
'To be saved by my enemy.'
Yulian was hurt greatly.
More than anything else, he was thinking about Venersis's warrior-like mentality to not capture them because they were in trouble.
"I feel like I can't face him with a clear conscience. It makes me feel weird. My enemy and my savior. Does this make sense to you?"
Seeing Yulian shake, Pere answered.
"That was then, and now, we must focus on the task at hand. If our lives were saved by him, then one day, we can save his life as well. I feel like I said something I should not have said."
"No. I'm glad that you told me. You are right. We just need to return exactly the way we received. Right now, we need to focus on the war. You are right."
Yulian firmed his shaking heart and mumbled to himself.
"Grace and grudge. We just need to return everything the same way it was done to us. Although we do not know when it will be."
Yulian quickly thought about what he had to do and started to head toward where Pere and Red Storm were gathered.