Andgrind Castle, Day 3 of the mission.
03:50.
“How much time has passed?” (Ivan)
“Exactly 3 hours. Are you sure you didn’t use the alarm spell? How can someone sleep with such precision down to the second?” (Lucia)
“Training. Repetition. Mastery.” (Ivan)
Ivan replied, opening his eyes.
Northern Closed Corridor 12. This place was outside the patrol route due to the absence of intersections with other corridors on the map. It’s quite suitable to be used as a hiding place.
Ivan clenched his fist and regulated his condition by surrounding his muscles with magic. It’s a sensation not unlike tightening a loosened string instrument.
By finely adjusting neural acceleration, one can induce a forced ‘awakening state’. Apart from excluding essential sleeping hours for vital functions, feelings of fatigue are merely disruptions of sensation.
After clearing the sticky fatigue from his mind, he finally got up. Lucia was looking at him with worried eyes.
“Shall we rest a bit before we leave…? From today onwards… you’ll have to endure a lot.” (Ivan)
Lucia trailed off, recalling the mission briefing.
In this operation, the key is for those assigned to each front to attract as much attention from the enemy as possible.
The Dwarven Main Force doesn’t need to make much effort. Simply advancing towards the enemy with sufficient armament can serve as a display of military force.
However, it’s different for Ivan and Enrique. They needed to create as much disturbance as a legion would alone.
Enrique, known for the ‘Hero Party’.
Ivan, known for the ‘Lone Tarantula’.
Even though Enrique’s reputation was well established, for Ivan, who was already treated as a dead man, a typical level of combat would be far from enough to announce his reputation to the enemy.
Therefore, Ivan’s operation starting from the dawn of Day 3 was filled with combat plans until the end of the mission.
“I’ve rested enough.” (Ivan)
Ivan chewed and swallowed the nutrition bar Lucia handed him, then silently extending his arm to her.
For a while, Lucia looked sadly at the dark circles under Ivan’s eyes, then sighed and murmured.
“Well, whatever…” (Lucia)
Gulp.
Her fangs sank into Ivan’s forearm. He felt a tingling pain as blood was drawn out.
Lucia could replenish her calories not only by consuming regular meals but also through sucking blood. However, in a mission scenario, combat rations with smaller volume are more practical, making blood a more efficient option.
Ivan adjusted his magic, compressing his heartbeat and raising his blood pressure. The amount of blood being sucked out through his arm increased sharply.
After a brief rest, Ivan pulled out a healing potion from his pouch.
“… “
After a moment of hesitation, he glanced at the transparent glass bottle, then turned his head and opened the lid.
A good agent knows how to pour a healing potion onto even their own arm if necessary. With a hiss, the flow of blood from the wound stopped.
“Let’s move.”
“Yes… if you’re tired, just say so.”
“Quiet.”
“Yes… understood.”
*
Before half a day had passed, a total of 8 outposts, 25 guard posts, and 47 corridors fell into silence.
This was happening in the rear areas beyond the northern industrial zone where the rebels of Andgrind had set up their base, extending further north, bordering the Sky Mountains.
The fact that the missing sentries had disappeared was not even communicated to the central command. The absence of information tainted the tactical map like a plague.
The headquarters, heavily preoccupied with the threat of a full-scale confrontation in the southern combat zone, only began to realize this fact in the afternoon when a dwarf arrived with news.
“He’s… here!! He’s back!! He’s still alive!!”
The sentry, running with blood streaming from under his severed shoulder, breathed his last after uttering those words.
So, who was this ‘they’? This question from the headquarters was answered by another sentry who arrived 30 minutes later.
“He… is… here…!! At the Northern Gate… there is no one alive at the end of the Northern Gate…!!”
This sentry, too, succumbed to bleeding from his severed shoulder.
It took another 10 minutes to realize that the two sentries suffering from the same symptoms were part of the forces dispatched to Outpost 17, also known as ‘Northern Gate 5’.
It took an hour to confirm that there were no survivors among the other forces urgently dispatched to Outpost 17.
Another hour passed for the news of the missing dispatch force to reach Outpost 15.
Finally, after 30 minutes of realizing that all communication from those who ventured north outside the city ceased, the last survivor of the dispatched unit, foaming at the mouth, collapsed with the words, “Corpses… corpses!”
The command headquarters of the Northern Military Industrial Zone could finally recall a similar past experience.
This tactic of deliberately blocking information, completely paralyzing a zone to the point of not even realizing the loss of information, was reminiscent of ‘him’.
“Isn’t he supposed to be dead?”
The command whispered numbly in terror, until they realized that the first report they received was “He’s back.”
“Available forces… available forces?!”
“Except for the slaves, the entire army has now marched to the front lines! There are only engineers left in this city!”
It was not a typical war where combat units were left behind in the far rear areas opposite the front lines.
Looking at the long railway leading from the military factory to the front lines, the command made the most accurate judgment even amidst fear.
“Send a signal to the strategists! Let them know the Lone Tarantula is here!”
“But, are you sure?”
“If you’re not sure, what are you suggesting? Should we send the signal before confirming if it’s really the Lone Spider?!”
Only after the signal was sent did the command manage to gather the engineers from the factory zone, pretending to be as calm as possible.
“They are few in number.”
Of course. Penetrating the rear beyond the mountains with a force exceeding a certain size surpasses the supply capacity of a griffin, so there was no need to initiate rear infiltration if they truly desired a full-scale confrontation. Simply deploying the stationed Northern Legion along with Andgrind’s forces would have sufficed.
The individuals lurking beyond the darkness of that information are unlikely to be a force larger than a small strike team.
“This is not something only an Cleanup Unit can achieve. Wake up! The only option with a small force to infiltrate the rear is this!”
The information control and isolation they are experiencing now are not unique tactics achievable only by the fearsome Cleanup Unit. Instead, even the remarkable Cleanup Unit had few other tactical options available.
Sufficient numbers themselves become a means of shaking the layers of tactics. Most great strategies and tactics throughout history start with deploying ‘sufficient numbers’ at the ‘right time’ ‘fully’. Therefore, it means there is no solution other than the current tactic for a small strike force to threaten a large force. If we flip this around, the situation becomes much simpler.
Overwhelming the enemy by colliding with a large force head-on.
Unless there are resources comparable to the Seven Dragons, the quantity of forces overwhelms the quality of forces beyond a certain size.
So.
“Prepare for rotation. Evacuate the outskirts of the city and open the gates. All armed forces except for goblins are to mobilize weapons and gather!”
The opponent’s specialty lies in ‘wearing down’ the enemy.
And the tactic most preferred by the dwarves is to ‘coalesce so tightly that they cannot be worn down’.
If they continue to wait, the necromancers with eyes fixated on the appearance of the Lone Tarantula will arrive. They are only temporary if they can endure for enough time.
Every strategy must be approached with the standard.
This time, we will kill the Lone Tarantula. The dwarves in this position rose up as if wearing courage over fear.
*
Andgrind Castle, Day 4 of the mission.
13:20.
“Wow….”
Lucia exclaimed softly as she lay at the edge of the cliff.
Stairs extended between countless railings, filling the cliffs like beehives.
Goblin slaves dragged their loads back and forth on the lower levels of the stairs like ants.
Psshh—, black smoke billowed from deep underground. The Dwarven Military Factory Zone lay beneath them.
Andgrind is often described as the city of the abyss. This is a common mistake made by those who reside in the surface world. This place is not a city; it is a world in itself.
Unlike humans who pile buildings on the ground, the residents underground have no limit to vertical construction.
No matter how high a tower is built, it cannot compare to the dwarves who excavate the ground and construct buildings. The ‘city sectors’ completed during the era when earthmovers were common boast a scale rivaling the Frechenkaya.
The maze-like tunnels sprawled out like roots scattered around the city’s districts. In tunnels where mining still took place, numerous goblins were bustling about.
A vast underground community, countless diverse races visible amidst the chaos, the deafening noise of machinery and giant rails, and the heat from the factories producing military goods.
Unable to close her gaping mouth, Lucia stared blankly at the scene below before turning to Ivan.
“A-Are we really going in there? Th-The difference in scale is… quite extreme, isn’t it?”
“We don’t need to confront everyone.”
Ivan surveyed the city sectors, checking his rifle once.
The number of resilient dwarves they encountered on the way here had already exceeded dozens, enough to be counted in three digits. That was just handling the reconnaissance teams. They intentionally revived about ten dwarves for combat.
Now that they’ve sent that number, the enemy must have realized. The wireless silence near the northern gate was induced by the enemy’s infiltration.
“A trap… I assume?”
“Mm.”
Ivan’s assigned objective for this mission was to assassinate the remnants of Abiditas.
In a situation where their whereabouts were unknown, Ivan’s most reliable approach was “resentment.”
The remnants of Abiditas hated Ivan more than anyone else in this world because he was the one who killed their master.
So, he decided to make a sudden declaration to those gathering forces to desecrate even Ivan’s dead body.
– “I am still alive.”
– “I am here.”
They could never resist. The lackeys, who had been driven by the lord of desire, could never resist this temptation.
Rather than Ivan going to them, making them come to him was part of the grand strategy.
And, if necessary, instilling enough fear in their rear forces to make them request support from those necromancers.
That fear would make them cower. Just like now.
“If there is a clear chance of winning, traps can sometimes become opportunities.”
“…Yes?”
“Selling traps means rallying all available forces in one place. Lucia. Tactics like traps carry too fatal a risk when they fail. From their perspective, it would be a desperate gambit.”
In Ivan’s eyes, the dwarven cities of the military factories loomed like tortoises, cowering, bristling with thorns. Roaring with fear, they tried to hide it with magnificent courage.
If the enemies were scattered, it would have been a problem instead. Engaging in guerrilla warfare among the lurking native forces would have been terrible from his standpoint.
So, he had to force the enemies into a “rotation.” The fear his reputation carried would make it possible.
The tactical choices of the dwarves in that city were not truly their own. Emotions orchestrated by others were narrowing their options.
As mentioned in retrospect, sometimes besiegement is a tactic that can be effectively employed with just a small number of forces. If the forces on the ground can control the information received in real-time at an appropriate level.
Ivan checked his pocket watch and waited for the time. By now, Enrique would likely be actively searching for the son of the secretary.
There were a total of five possible locations where the secretary’s son was expected to be detained. It would take about three days to search all those sectors assuming exploration of every area.
The remnants of Abiditas must not be annihilated within. Furthermore, Enrique’s rescue mission should not take place while the remnants of Abiditas are still alive.
This mission requires two agents conducting their operations from opposite sides of the mountain to achieve their objectives simultaneously without any margin for error in timing.
It’s as challenging as running a three-legged race while blindfolded. Of course, Ivan and Enrique are capable of standing blindfolded and moving simultaneously even without seeing.
“Entry to Enrique. Point C7-A. Commence ‘Ant Hell.’ Expected duration is 72 hours.”
“Yes, sir. Contact made. Any other orders?”
“Don’t fall behind me. Keep quiet.”
And, if possible, don’t die today.
With these final words, Ivan hurled himself off the cliff.
Even though Ivan is the one who will be facing the entire enemy force simultaneously when Abiditas’s lackeys arrive, it’s nearly impossible.
Therefore, from now on, he needed to minimize the enemy’s numbers as much as possible. But at the same time, preserve his strength for the final battle to come.
It’s a tough task.
And this, too, is something he has experienced before.
Any well-trained agent shouldn’t feel burdened to repeat what they’ve done before.
*Author’s Note (Author’s Commentary) – Timeline of “Andgrind’s Chronicles of Victory”
Day 1 – Penetrate the outer wall of the Sky Mountains through bare-handed cliff climbing and infiltrate the rear.
Day 2 – Arrival at the Northern Gate and commencement of operations.
Day 3 – Silence all outposts deployed around the Northern Gate.
Day 4 – Disrupt enemy command judgment with intentional leak of information.
Day 5 – Direct strike on fortified enemy command (planned).
Day 6 – Intercept enemy main force (Abiditas) (planned).
Day 7 – Coordinate with Enrique to achieve simultaneous operation objectives and retreat (planned).
This is the summarized version of the operation overview announced by Ivan to achieve two objectives within a week.
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