How could 20,000 defeat 300,000?
In terms of numbers, weapons, mounts—everything—they were outmatched. Even if the conditions were favorable, the odds were worse than one in ten. By conventional standards, it was suicide.
Everything except for a certain object, Eye, a futuristic system with a record of every battle formation in history and their outcos. It had analyzed countless battles where smaller forces fought overwhelming odds. While most failed, Eye identified the variables that could turn failure into victory. With that knowledge, this wasn’t even a challenge.
"Formation Four," he ordered.
The soldiers, scattered across the field, upon hearing the change of orders, instantly began repositioning. From their positions, they found any ans of encircling the outliers.
Hundreds of soldiers fell by the second in trying to carry out the command, however, they still moved with skill and precision.
"When I give the signal, command your army and shoot into the sky," Baines said to Tasha, and her face displayed every form of confusion.
’Shoot up?’ she thought. ’Shouldn’t we shoot down?’ But she still followed it.
Minutes later, the formation was complete. Horse-mounted soldiers closed the ring around the outliers. Above them, dragon knights hovered, wings cutting through the misty sky.
At this point, the soldiers could guess what the next order was,
"Infernal charge!" Baines roared.
The soldiers reignited in red-orange fla, their aura setting the battlefield aglow. Now, all they had to do was receive the expected command,
However, "Attack the ground!"
Confusion spread through the troops. They hesitated. This wasn’t what they expected. Gazes began to turn to the legion commanders to take over command, but then again,
"ATTACK THE GROUND!" Mark and Justin shouted in unison, leading by example and igniting their attacks into the ground.
Seeing the legion commanders obey, the others sighed and followed. They launched their attacks downward, blasting the frozen earth.
"Now," Baines said, looking up.
Above, the dragons unleashed torrents of fla upward, into the heavens.
The outliers paused, bewildered, so even laughing. They had initially paused to see what they were planning; however, this, if it wasn’t madness, then what was?
Then—
Rumble...
The leftover ice beneath their feet began to lt. Steam hissed. Water boiled, turning the ground back to dry land. And from dry land, it began to crack, all leading to the center.
The outliers suddenly found themselves facing an earthquake. Their balance was disrupted. The flas of the 5th stars and upwards, especially, did more damage in drowning the outliers beneath the cracked land.
Seeing the effect, the soldiers intensified their assault. The chaos spread among the outliers; so shouted for an attack, others scread to retreat. Confusion fractured their ranks as their commanders were no more.
Then—
Crackle...
The sky darkened. The ever-present mist, due to the cold, dispersed, revealing thick, charged clouds swirling above.
It didn’t stop there. The clouds kept growing larger and forming at a faster rate, ultimately seeming closer to the ground.
"Discharge your energy into the sky!" Baines yelled, raising his arm.
Aura surged from his body into the sky. Following his movents, the soldiers also raised their energy to the clouds still crackling with power, and the dragons didn’t stop shooting into the skies.
They didn’t know why, but there was a strange sense of satisfaction in increasing the number of clouds
"Withdraw your energy," Baines commanded.
As he pulled back his aura and it wasn’t empty.
With his withdrawn energy, lightning fell.
BOOM!
Twenty outliers were instantly reduced to charred husks. Dragons, soldiers—even the outliers—froze in shock.
How was this possible? But Baines gave them no ti to think about it.
He mounted his horse, brandished his sword, and roared, "Strike!"
The soldiers echoed the na they’d just witnessed: "Thunder Fall!"
Each surge of energy fed the clouds, and each pulse brought lightning down in sheets. Electricity danced across the battlefield, attacking the outliers, likewise feeding the cracked ground to widen and swallow dozens of outliers at a ti.
1,000... 5,000....20,000....
Their killing rate pitched up by a frightening point, the worst part was, the soldiers weren’t losing their lives.
In minutes, over a hundred thousand outliers were wiped out,
But till, more than 200,000 remained.
Then Baines halted the assault. "Stop!"
Reluctantly, the soldiers obeyed. With the way things were going, they could wipe them all out, so why were they told to stop? But he didn’t bother to explain.
"Infernal charge! Circle formation! Dragon knights, fire downward!"
He and the legion commanders led the charge, lances cleaving through the outer ranks. Above, the dragons rained fire.
The ground had already gone from ice to an unhabitable land, so what ca from their continuous circling was dust. Intense dust from the war horses covered their red fire from the infernal charge, then the breath from the dragons mixed with it.
Slowly but surely, a storm was being ford.
Blazing Maelstrom.
That was what Baines nad it. The storm from their horses and the fire on the edges and the fire from the sky, turning it to a whirlwind of fire to consu the outliers.
Dust, fire, breath, and aura spiraled together. The battlefield transford into a vortex of fla and fury.
If he was asked where the idea ca from, Baines would say it was a vision:
Dark skies. Cracked land, and the storm connecting the two.
He had built it piece by piece; he had to form the dark sky and cracked land first before he ford the storm. And maybe it was where the idea ca from; its effect was very devastating, and now it consud the enemy.
WHOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Without any help, the storm seed to understand its purpose and continued to consu.
But—
"It didn’t reach the sky," Baines muttered in regret, sighed, then joined the fray.
An hour later...
Shng!
The final outlier was beheaded.
Before the soldiers could cheer, Baines shouted, "Rest your bodies and recover your aura as we move. Full speed to the next battlefield!"
Still, they erupted in celebration, their cheers trailing as they charged forward.
...
Elsewhere, the situation was dire.
The Radiant Archers had depleted their auras and bled from overuse, but they had thinned the outliers’ numbers.
The Sunblade Legion had followed, delivering death blows.
Then the Darkan dragon knights swooped in, turning the tide.
But that was when a new wave arrived.
An army of 5th, 6th, and 7th-star outliers descended.
And the battlefield turned upside down.
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