334 Blunt-Force Trauma
Kaze landed on a wooden watch tower overlooking a state-of-the-art obstacle course. The area was like an imposing fortress with towering walls, deep ditches, rope bridges, mud pits, and recently installed reinforced t-walls. It was a far cry from the training grounds at Immortal Skye, a reminder that wealth didn't equate to practical purpose or usefulness.
"What bears on you so?" the emperor asked the unreactive blonde he landed next to, watching Immortals unloading crates of guns and carrying t-walls to the center of the obstacle course.
"Nothing 'bears' upon me," Evalyn rolled her eyes. "I'm just bitter our soldiers can't compete directly. The handicap you've given my side is so absurd that losing would be crushing."
"Oh, this isn't a handicap," he smirked. "My people have practiced with guns from the start. So you can rest easy knowing we're not at a disadvantage."
"That's what makes me bitter," she murmured.
"Oh, come now," Kaze chuckled. "Have you given up? Where is all that boisterous confidence you freely offered a month ago?"
"I haven't given up," Evalyn said, her tone low and pensive. "I've created a strategy, but I can't figure out why it's necessary. I can't understand what you've done, Kaze. I'm trying, but l can't."
The general looked at the Immortals, hauling around 20-foot t-walls like they were moving a dresser as part of a moving company.
"While my soldiers are ready for hell, have battle experience, and have lived on the cusp of life and death, yours barely learned of a war a few days ago, and they're still calm," she continued. "It gives me anxiety thinking the Immortals will freeze from sudden trauma, but..."
"Yes?" Kaze mused, his lips curving into a smirk.
"I still won't know because I failed," Evalyn confessed. "Work people too hard, and they'll rebel; put them in too much danger, and they'll shut down; and if you force people into life-or-death situations, they don't focus on practice. Was stability why you were so confident about winning?"
"Stability is critical but not always possible," Kaze clarified. "Have you considered that I sheltered the Immortals from real danger to prepare them for war?"
"Why would—" Evalyn tried to ask for clarification, but he had already disappeared through a rift, leaving her without answers. "Even after all the love, trust, and bonding, that man still finds ways of driving me crazy," she grumbled, her eyebrow twitching. "Still, I'm grateful."
***
"This week, we're holding a little competition between our people," Kaze announced, flying above a crowd of ten thousand. "All bouts are equalized for fairness. Today's battle will see the Lainwright soldiers using cultivation techniques to destroy the sky realm Immortals while the latter uses weak firearms and defensive techniques."
Gasps spread through the crowd, with both sets of people equally shocked. It only got more extreme as Kaze outlined the rules.
The Immortals could only use firearms and defensive, sensory, and healing techniques against the Lainwright soldiers. By contrast, the soldiers could use any technique, including Guided Arrows, Wind Slash, and Combustion. While the Lainwright soldiers felt it was a massacre, they were nervous when they remembered that the matches were "equalized for fairness."
Fifteen minutes after the announcement, 3,702 soldiers lined up on the north side of the obstacle course, creating a sea of gray, reinforced cammies. In the south stood an army of 3,650 Immortals wielding firearms of various descriptions with multiple clips. Between them was a large 20-foot t-wall, eliminating a sight advantage.
From an aerial view, they looked like massive armies in the civil war, preparing to jump the wall and charge through the brown and green wasteland, trudging through running trails, mud pits, ditches, and sand pits to slaughter one another.
"The match will commence in three...." Kaze declared, flying high above the area. "Two... one..." After his last word, he raised his hand high, and the sky warped.
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
While the Lainwright soldiers were stunned, reeling from the sky-shattering blast, the Immortals took off, effortlessly running across the battlefield at forty miles an hour.
Unable to see them, the Lainwright soldiers followed suit, running toward the twenty-foot wall to gain the central advantage. However, the soldiers didn't get a quarter mile out before seeing black dots shooting over the wall as if they were hopping over a fence.
"They're breaching the walls!" Riley yelled. "Front line, fire!"
Without skipping a beat, the soldiers fired two thousand arrows at the Immortals that flew over the wall, creating a massive warping mirage that cut through the sky.
"Phalanx up!" Brad roared, lifting his hand high. A hundred Immortals stood shoulder to shoulder in tightly packed rows, activating Qi walls to make a turtle shell as the arrows rained down on them.
BOOM! Boom, boom, boom! Boom! BOOM! Boom! Boom, boom, BOOM!
The Lainright soldiers shivered when two thousand arrows crashed into the dome but didn't break through. It was now clear why the Lainwright soldier could use techniques against them!
"We need Combustion specialists to break apart their ranks!" Riley ordered, seeing more Immortals scaling the wall. "Protect the specialists with Qi wall.
Second volly, aim for the Immortals’ feet and weak points to buy time!"
WHOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
The reserve force shot their arrows, curving them to hit the new soldiers jumping off the wall. However, to their horror: "Phalanx!"
BOOM! Boom, boom, boom! Boom! BOOM! Boom! Boom, boom, BOOM!
Another barrage crashed into the Immortals that breached the wall and got repelled by the Qi wall, proving that hundreds knew the technique and could use it at battle capacity.
"March!" Brad ordered in the main phalanx.
"HAROOOH!" the Immortals yelled, wielding a Spartan battle cry as a psychological weapon as they marched in unison.
BOOM! Boom, boom, BOOM!
One after the other, arrows crashed into the group and did nothing as they slowly marched in unison like a murderous turtle.
"COMBUSTION!" dozens of Lainwright soldiers yelled, waving their hands and compressing the atmosphere around them. However—
"WIND GUST!" reserve Immortals yelled from behind the phalanx.
BoooOORRSSH!
As soon as the explosion triggered, a massive gust of wind followed with perfect timing, creating a massive flamethrower that shot back at the group.
To the engulfed soldiers' shock, their new clothing and mask made the wall of flames painful but not deadly. However, those watching cracked, torn between the psychological desire to surrender and the trauma against it.
"We need to retreat, Lieutenant Captain! We need a strategy to defeat them!"
"Keep focused, soldiers!" Riley roared, denying them. "Their Qi will run out! Don't give up!"
"We'll never 'give up,' Lieutenant Captain! We just need a strategy!"
"I'LL BREAK THEIR LINES; USE GUIDED ARROWS TO PIERCE THROUGH IT!" a black-haired soldier roared in the distance, unable to hear the redhead.
"No, don't, Mathies!" Riley shouted, but it was already too late.
The soldier led two dozen others, donning Qi walls as they charged forward with dreams of being war heroes. Their sight spurred the courage of others.
"Follow me!" a brunette with a Qi wall yelled. "Use combustion behind them, so blowing wind torches them!"
"STOP!" Riley yelled, but she had lost control in the chaos, as thousands couldn't hear her. She could only watch in horror as a hundred soldiers with a valuable technique charged into battle, challenging the unstoppable phalanx to the sound of the battle cries and cheering.
"HERE THEY COME!" Larkin roared, donning a fearless grin. "LET'S GIVE'EM CARCINUS' SHELL!"
"HAROOOH! HAROOOH!" the Immortals shouted in unison.
While Rein rolled her eyes at the jester, she had to admit that the soldiers needed it as they saw the running wall of death charging at them. "They're almost here! Squad one, follow me!"
"HAROOOR!"
As the Lainwright soldiers neared, preparing to crash into the impenetrable shield like a tidal wave, it suddenly broke apart, and a dozen Immortals filed out with Qi walls out. "Shield bash the defensives only!" Rein roared. "Don't risk our victory on technicalities!"
"HAROOOR!"
By the time the Lainwright soldiers understood what they were facing, it was too late. "Charge!" she roared. Like ghosts, the Immortals blurred, running at the charging soldiers at fifty miles an hour with shields four times as thick as the soldiers'.
"W-Wait!" Mathies shouted. "That's not allow—ACK!" His accusation was cut short when Rein's shield crashed into his, sending him flying fifty feet backward, crashing into twenty others like bowling pins.
The Lainwright soldiers watched in shock as a dozen Immortals followed suit, swinging their shields as weapons, crashing against other shields, and sending the soldiers flying.
"STOP FIRING ARROWS!" Riley yelled, seeing the Immortals pick up Lainwright soldiers to use as shields. Luckily, before the friendly fire pierced her soldiers, small shields popped up, stopping the arrow as an invisible force knocked out the soldier, disqualifying them.
While soldiers focused on friendly fire, the Immortals reminded them that the phalanx was an offensive formation.
Ratatatatat! "Get some bitcheeeeeez!" Larkin shrieked, moving his shield to spray MP5 bullets into the sea of soldiers. Ratatatatat!
"HAROOOH!" the Immortals yelled ominously, following suit.
Ratatatat! Ratatatat! Ratatatat! Ratatatat!
The screaming Lainwright soldiers released arrows, but it was to no avail. The phalanx closed its shields with eerie accuracy, cutting off every attack, then opened up to shoot again. It was a massacre. With only a hundred Immortals with Qi walls, they could crush the entire army with blunt-force trauma.
Riley was about to announce a tactical retreat, but a booming voice cut through the air.
"Don't you dare give up!" General Skye yelled, flying above them with her hand held high. Thousands of ice daggers developed in the air, creating a glimmering chandelier. "If you give up, I'll freeze your intestines and spear our enemies with them!"
The Immortals froze, feeling overwhelming fear as they saw the blades overhead.
"E-Evalyn's not fighting, is she?" Sammy asked, trembling next to the other elites.
Rein's eyes trembled in horror, looking at the chandelier. "Evalyn doesn't bluff! Phalanx open up!" she yelled, returning to the shell half a second before the blades rained down upon them.
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