As she went back, I returned to watch Karoline using my hawk eye skill. She was acting all normal, as if she knew I was watching her moves.
“She… Is acting perfect to be suspicious,” I shook my head, cancelled my skill before starting to think about my next move.
Of course there were too many things to do here.
[What are you doing now? Is the battle going good or bad for your side?] I sent this to the two, waiting for their report on their current situation.
I gave them the order before to meet up and work together. If they listened, then they would be in a much better situation.
[We retreated to the city of Columbus at Ohio] Fang sent this, [We are just north from you]
“That bastard… He intentionally did that!” I knew this wasn’t just a random coincidence. That dude must have retreated with Wryly and came to the closest city to me.
I was thinking of using them, but he also thought about the same thing. Or perhaps he just read through my line of thoughts, and knew I’d do that.
[That arrogant dude asked me to retreat] the words of Wryly confirmed my guesses, [We were doing fine but he insisted on retreating south and we are now stationed at a city without doing anything]
[There are no enemies there?] I asked before looking around. Of course aside from the Hectors, there wasn’t a single enemy here indeed.
That meant that Fang came to a secure place, letting his forces recuperate while using the portals there to replenish his lost forces.
Smart, I had to give a thumb up to him.
He did the perfect move for his own sake, but that also meant we were all blind. The fight at the central zone was ragging hot without any eye for us there to tell us what was going on.
And with that unexpected move from him, I had to rethink all my plans once again.
I depended on these two to give me intel about the situation of the fights in the central zone. I knew Fang must know a thing or two about the situation right now, but it was nearly enough.
In such a situation, I had to fasten up my plans here. I must push forward, move directly to the central zone and claim a territory there before thinking about anything else.
I looked up at my scattered forces here. I told them to have a long time of rest. But it seemed this was going to be something impossible right now.
“And I hoped to think about another technique… Sigh!” I shook my head in a helpless way. I had to give up on doing this for now.
My cultivation was now my biggest weapon, but it needed lots of work indeed. I had to work over expanding my spiritual energy, trying to upgrade its grade and quality. Besides, I needed to think about new techniques.
My recently developed technique was awesome and OP, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t create versatile techniques to suit different situations.
All of this had to wait, at least until I got done from the great war here.
“And you…” I looked at Lily and others behind. I promised to fetch them back. And I had to do so.
After all, I still haven’t received my captured race batch from the green nymph yet. I sighed. It seemed I had to dispatch someone to bring them to my capital.
Wait… If I had to do that then… A thought flashed in my mind.
[Have you done selecting your forces?] As I decided, I sent a message to Karoline.
Karoline had many question marks around her. So it was best to make her stay away from the upcoming fight.
Also when she would be alone, she might be able to expose something that might help me in determining what went wrong with her.
Taking a direct hit from the star beam weapon and not teleporting and still alive? That was a big question mark indeed.
[I’ve just started]
I knew she wasn’t even one fifth of her army.
[That’s enough. You’ll have to go back to Boston]
[Boston? Right now?!!] I knew this came as a surprise for her. Indeed it was against my plans.
Just her surprise here made me more comfortable about my decision.
[I want you to escort the Hectors here to there] I sent, [Then you come back to act as our reinforcement]
[That… Will I make it?] she sent before adding, [Will my small forces here be enough to make any difference?]
She had a point, but I didn’t fall for that.
[You have to do it for now. As for your forces, I’ll make them join the jumper for now. Once you come back, you’ll gain them]
Of course this was a way to tie her up with the jumper. Also I preferred to leave most of her forces with the jumper.
[Are you sure about that?]
[It’s a must, and you are the only one that I can depend on for this]
[Are you sure?]
Yes, she was indeed different. The old Karoline would have simply agreed.
[It’s an order] as he left me no other choice but to lean in such a way, I didn’t hesitate to show her my other side, [I’m sending Hector’s down. Don’t be late]
I first sent a message to the jumper, notifying him about this arrangement. Then I looked back at Lily and motioned for her to come.
“You are going to do this…”
I started to tell her what I was going to do here. I told her that I was sending them back to my capital as promised, and also added a few instructions for her to understand the current situation.
“I understand,” her face changed back to her normal serious self, “depend on me on this.”
“Cool,” I nodded while watching her moving down with her elites. The next ten minutes the chariot got emptied from all the Hectors, who stood in a place not far from my chariot.
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