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Chapter 288: Finality - Markets and Multiverses
🕑 Added 2024-08-29 07:51:52 +0000 UTCOver the next week, things started to improve on the front lines. The Worldstriders grew hesitant to ambush soldiers at night. During the day, humans hid in the forts, where the Worldstriders couldn’t reach. There was one attempt to break into a human fort - but it ended disastrously for the Worldstriders. Without their aerial advantage, ordinary soldiers cut down several invaders with anti-spatial blades. I don't think even the humans in the fort expected their counterattack to go as well as it did. Either way, the Worldstriders didn't attempt to attack a fort during daytime after that.
Felix’s tube gun also started to show results, as more were made and soldiers got used to them. Many soldiers still complained about how hard it was to use - leading them to joke that tube guns were the worst guns that no soldier could do without. It was a backhanded compliment, but Felix took pride in how useful the tube guns were. Even if they were clunky and difficult to use, having ranged weapons still made battles much easier.
The biggest problem with Felix’s tube gun was the usage conditions. It was harder than Felix had expected for regular soldiers to form an affixation ‘bond’ between the sword and the tube gun. It was easy for Felix to manage, but other people didn’t have Felix’s talent in manipulating binding essence. Luckily, most of the soldiers spent extra hours each day learning to use the tube guns anyway. Weeks of getting shot at with no way to fight back had left its mark on the soldiers. Now that they finally had a way to shoot back, they were eager to learn how to use their new weapons.
With the first few weapons built, the military started to show more interest in Felix's invention. Felix opted to sell the blueprint to the military for only a token sum of money. Most inventors probably would have tried to charge the military much more for the blueprint. However, Felix's objective was to maximize Achievement gain, rather than monetary gain. That meant that he wanted the tube guns to spread as far as possible.
Right after Felix sold the blueprints to the military, they started shipping supplies to every fort for more of them. The newly restored railroads started showing exactly how useful they were.
Felix hadn’t gotten the actual Achievement reward for it yet. But he had gotten a notification for contributing to the war a [Moderate] amount. We were expecting Felix’s reward to be quite hefty.
That made me very happy. After all, if we couldn’t win the most important battle of our lives within the next few worlds, we would permanently die. With Sallia’s early death, I had been very worried about our rewards this world - but Felix was doing a nice job of counterbalancing that. I had a strong suspicion that next world, Felix might actually have the best Status screen out of all of us. A lot could change before then, but I was looking forward to Felix's growth after this world.
Saturday was when the situation started to change.
It started out as an ordinary day. That changed in the middle of breakfast, when the base commander rushed into the cafeteria with a tense look on his face.
“Those who are combat ready, form up! You have two minutes! Shovel down whatever’s in your mouth and get moving!” Soldiers started swearing, but did as they were told. Anise, Felix and I looked at the fort commander in confusion.
I hesitated for a moment, before I sped towards the commander. He might have time for a quick question. “What’s happening?” I asked.
“Attack on a nearby fort,” said the base commander. He looked frustrated as he answered me. “Nothing that concerns you, miss healer. Just stay put and be ready to heal people when they come back.”
The Worldstriders were raiding a fort again? But the first time they had tried to raid a fort, it had gone catastrophically for them. Why were they trying again? That didn’t make any sense. I blinked in confusion as Anise gave her meal a sad farewell, and then struggled out of her seat.
“I can help too,” she said. The base commander eyed her for a moment, before he nodded. "You've earned that much, I suppose. You have one minute and thirty seconds."
Anise nodded, and started dashing towards the door.
“Anise! Wait!” Felix halted her for a second, and then tossed her a tube gun. “For you. This one will fit with your... umm... ability.”
“Got it. Thank you for making it for me!” said Anise.
“Good luck,” Felix said. Anise grinned, and then gave Felix a quick thank you hug.
“Go beat a few World - uhhh… Zelyrian monsters,” I said. “Stay safe.” I hesitated. even though I knew it was a bad idea, part of me wanted to go with Anise, just to make sure she stayed safe. The idea of Anise going out to face a volatile and unpredictable situation alone worried me. I did not want to see Anise get hurt.
“I will.” Anise gave me a bright smile, and then leaned in closer and gave me a quick, reassuring hug. “Don’t worry. I can take care of myself. I’ll leave if things get too dangerous. Stay in the hospital and heal soldiers, all right? I have to stand on my own sometimes.” With that, Anise smiled at me, and then hurried out of the cafeteria.
Less than a minute later, I heard the soldiers start to shuffle out of the fort. I felt worried, but I tried not to let it mess with me as I finished up my meal and then headed to the makeshift hospital. I had a strong feeling it would be flooded with soldiers soon.
About ten minutes later, Anise contacted us.
<We reached the first fort,> she said. <But the Worldstriders aren't here.>
<They aren't? I thought they were attacking the fort,> said Felix.
<It looks like they already left. Also, the top of the fort is trashed,> said Anise. She shared a picture of what she was looking at, and I was forced to agree with her. The top of the fort looked like a mess. The fort's roof was pulp and rubble, and I could see a few chunks of red paste mixed into the ruins. There were also several worldstrider corpses strewn about the area, but they were outnumbered by the human corpses.
As I took in the sight Anise had shared with us, I frowned. Last time the Worldstriders attacked a fort, they had lost a huge number of troops and killed very few human troops. Why was it so different this time? What had changed? And why did this attack seem so much more successful than the last one?
Before I could think about this more, I saw a soldier move towards the commander in Anise's vision. The soldier handed the commander another message, and the commander cursed.
<There's another fort being attacked,> said the commander, sounding as baffled as I was. <We'll... move to reinforce.>
Anise troop moved to reinforce the next fort that was under attack.
But when Anise’s troops got there, they found yet another pulped fortress. There were no living worldstriders in sight - only a mixture of human and worldstrider corpses. The sight was rather similar to the first fort.
I glanced at the roof of our own fort, and tried not to feel anxious. I started flicking my soul-sight on and off again, just to see if I could catch any nearby worldstriders. I wasn't sure how the Worldstriders were destroying fort ceilings, but I didn't want to be buried alive.
Right after that, Anise’s squad got news that Fort 2-72 was under attack. By the time they got there, the Worldstriders were gone, but the fort was ruined again.
This was followed by news of Fort 2-81 requesting help, because it was under attack. And then Fort 2-79 was under attack. Every single time Anise's soldiers arrived at a fort, they found a ruined battlefield and corpses.
By the time Anise was reinforcing her tenth fort, Felix and I were frowning.
<This is different from their previous tactics. The worldstriders also seem to have found a way to render forts ineffective,> said Felix.
<I don't like it...> said Anise, as her vision drifted towards the wounded soldiers and damaged fort roof. <The Worldstriders finding a way to nullify forts is really dangerous.>
I grimaced, before checking the area for Worldstriders again.
<I don't like it either,> I said. I had been hoping that project Nightsong would end the war, despite my misgivings about it. However, something had changed. The worldstriders had changed tactics.
Before project Nightsong, the Worldstriders had been set to win the war as long as they didn’t do anything dumb. They had suffered few casualties as they decimated human soldiers and supplies. Their victory had been nearly certain.
But now, things had changed. The human forces had revealed a dangerous trump card that was causing Worldstriders to lose battle after battle. So the Worldstriders had decided to flip the table.
The Worldstriders had suffered massive casualties during these battles, but they didn't seem to care anymore. Even though they were losing soldiers faster than ever, they seemed determined to blitz down the human forts. Since they couldn't win the attrition game anymore, they had thrown caution to the wind.
I couldn't help but feel like the war had entered a desperate, final stage. The war had changed again, and both sides were revealing their trump cards and throwing caution to the wind. I had an unsettling feeling of finality as I looked at the ruined forts and field of corpses in Anise's vision.
Author’s Note:
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