novelraw Chapter 482: Flaw and Plan
Chapter 482: Flaw and Plan
Chapter 482: Flaw and Plan
Outside Noren Workshop’s defensive line, in a valley enclosed by three low rocky hills.
The allied forces of the Chaos Secret Cult and Tower of Annihilation had established a temporary command camp here.
Hundreds of stone platforms conjured temporarily with witchcraft hovered in midair. High-tier wizards stood or sat upon them, attending the meeting.
The atmosphere was so heavy it seemed ready to condense into water.
“I believe there is no longer any need to continue launching frontal assaults against Noren Workshop’s defensive line.”
The speaker was a tall, gaunt figure entirely wrapped in gray burial shrouds, his voice rasping like sandpaper grinding against bone.
He was the overall commander of the Tower of Annihilation in this war, peak seventh-ring wizard “Ashes” Saladin.
After Mordekian’s death, Saladin had taken his place as the new commander of the allied forces.
With his words, the gazes of more than five hundred seventh-ring wizards on the surrounding platforms focused toward him. “The reason is simple.” Saladin raised his shrouded right hand and traced a line through the air. A semi-transparent battlefield situation map unfolded accordingly. “In the first battle, we assembled over one and a half million main forces and launched our assault before their defensive line was fully formed. The result…”
He tapped with a finger. A string of blood-red numbers jumped onto the chart:
“Our losses: thirty-seven billion cannon fodder units below third ring, six billion two hundred million fourth-ring cannon fodder units, eighty-nine million fifth-ring cannon fodder units. Sixth-ring cannon fodder loss rate 12%, seventh-ring cannon fodder loss rate 3%.”
“Wizard primary losses: one thousand three hundred third-ring wizards, one hundred twenty-seven fourth-ring wizards, three hundred forty-four fifth-ring wizards, two hundred nine sixth-ring wizards, and seventh-ring wizards… one.”
That final number caused every wizard present to darken further.
Seventh-ring wizards were absolute high-end combat power in any faction.
The time required to cultivate one spanned millennia; the resources consumed could pile into an entirely new plane.
Yet in what should have been merely a “probing offensive,” they had lost one—and it was none other than one of their commanders, Mordekian!
“And the enemy’s losses?” Saladin continued sliding the chart. “According to battlefield monitoring and curse-feedback statistics, Noren Workshop’s losses of cannon fodder below third ring were roughly sixty percent of ours, fourth-ring about fifty percent, fifth-ring about forty percent. Wizard primary losses… seventeen sixth-ring wizards, and lower ranks need not even be mentioned.”
“In other words.” Saladin withdrew his hand; his shrouded eyes swept the assembly. “We suffered higher casualties in a battle that achieved none of our tactical objectives—we did not breach the line, did not inflict meaningful damage to their effective forces, and failed even to delay their construction progress.”
He paused, his voice growing colder still:
“Now, Noren Workshop’s defensive line and colossal composite array have reached over 45% completion and continue to improve at approximately 0.8% per hour. Gentlemen, if we launch a second or third frontal assault, what do you think our losses will be? And what exactly will we gain?”
Silence.
A stifling silence.
After several seconds, a seventh-ring wizard from the Chaos Secret Cult broke it. His body surface crawled with writhing tumors; his voice overlapped like multiple throats speaking at once:
“Lord Saladin speaks reason. But have you considered… why Noren Workshop is going to such extreme lengths to buy time?”
He stood and pointed toward Noren Workshop’s defensive line on the situation map:
“Such frantic construction of defenses, such airtight organization of the defense—even after our withdrawal, their construction speed has accelerated! This is clearly buying time for some ‘follow-up measure’ that requires prolonged preparation!”
“If we cease our attacks now, we are simply allowing them to complete that follow-up. Once their trump card is played, won’t we be even more disadvantaged?”
His words drew agreement from many wizards.
“Exactly! They’re stalling because they’re preparing some massively powerful strategic witchcraft or setting up an ultra-large ritual array!”
“We cannot sit idly by!”
“We must maintain pressure and prevent their preparations from proceeding smoothly!”
But opposition rose immediately:
“Maintain pressure? With what? With our wizards’ lives as fuel?”
A seventh-ring wizard from the Tower of Annihilation countered coldly:
“Gentlemen, war is not a matter of pride. Without knowing what their trump card is, how powerful it will be, or when it will be completed, rashly continuing frontal assaults will only deplete our own strength further.”
“Moreover…” He emphasized his tone. “Don’t forget—we too have our own ‘trump cards’ in preparation. Noren Workshop has one; do we not?”
“Once both sides’ trump cards are ready, it will be two against one! I refuse to believe we can lose two against one!”
“Correct. With the trump card our side is preparing, if it truly completes, that fortress cluster will be nothing to fear!”
“Two against one guarantees victory?”
Another voice interjected—this time a female seventh-ring wizard from the Chaos Secret Cult. One half of her face was angelic in beauty; the other half rotted to the bone:
“Without knowing what their trump card is, how can you confidently declare ‘two against one means certain victory’? What if Noren Workshop is preparing some forbidden witchcraft capable of instantly shifting the entire battlefield? What if their trump card completes faster than ours? What if…”
“Enough.”
Saladin’s rasping voice cut through the escalating argument.
He slowly rose. Beneath the burial shrouds, his gray eyes swept across every wizard present.
“Gentlemen, arguing solves nothing.”
He raised his hand and unfolded a more detailed battlefield analysis map in the air.
This time, it displayed the energy fluctuation distribution of Noren Workshop’s high-tier wizards.
“During the previous battle, I was constantly observing.” Saladin’s finger traced several areas on the map. “Noren Workshop deployed three hundred eighty-eight seventh-ring wizards in combat. Yet according to pre-battle intelligence, the total number of seventh-ring wizards they brought into this plane should have been four hundred seventeen.”
“In other words, twenty-nine seventh-ring wizards… are missing.”
His finger shifted to the sixth-ring data column:
“Similarly, approximately six thousand six hundred sixth-ring wizards took part in combat, but the total entering number should have been around seven thousand one hundred—roughly five hundred missing.”
This data caused every wizard present to narrow their eyes simultaneously.
“At first, I assumed these missing high-tier wizards were concealed within the fortress cluster, operating certain large-scale defensive arrays or preparing highly confidential follow-up measures.”
Saladin’s voice remained utterly calm:
“But after the battle began, I deliberately conducted seven full sweeps of the entire Noren Workshop defensive line area using ‘wide-range soul detection’ and ‘existence scanning’ techniques.”
He paused, then spoke slowly:
“The result confirmed—those missing high-tier wizards are not inside the defensive line.”
Dead silence.
Then came a collective gasp of realization.
Everyone present was a seventh-ring wizard; their wisdom and experience far surpassed the ordinary.
With Saladin having spoken this far, they fully understood the implication.
“Not inside the defensive line…” a Chaos Secret Cult wizard murmured. “It seems our failure to breach the line caught them off guard as well…”
“Exactly!” A Tower of Annihilation wizard beside him sneered. “Those wizards must have left the main force in advance and hidden somewhere in this abandoned plane, carrying out some ‘trump card preparation’ that requires distance from the main battlefield to be executed safely!”
“No wonder Noren Workshop went to such insane lengths to buy time! Because their true main force was never on the defensive line at all! Those fortifications, those turrets, those cannon fodder legions… they were all just a ‘smokescreen’ to buy time for the real main force!”
“That also explains why Noren Workshop was so ‘aggressive’ in their defensive construction… They probably never expected the line to hold this well. According to their original plan, the defenses were likely meant only to delay us for a few days before being breached. But now, due to various unexpected factors, the line has held firm—this has disrupted their plan…”
The wizards analyzed rapidly, their eyes growing brighter.
Saladin nodded, affirming their deductions:
“Correct. The portion of Noren Workshop’s high-tier wizards that disappeared never intended to participate in frontal defense from the beginning. They separated from the main force and concealed themselves elsewhere to carry out preparations that require long durations and cannot tolerate interruption.”
“And now, because the defensive line has unexpectedly held, they face a dilemma…”
He raised one finger:
“First: interrupt the preparation, immediately return to the defensive line, join the defense, and begin new trump card preparations from within. The cost: all previous work would be wasted.”
He raised a second finger:
“Second: grit their teeth and continue the preparation, betting that the defensive line can hold until completion.”
“Gentlemen, what do you think those old foxes of Noren Workshop will choose?”
The answer was self-evident.
The reason Noren Workshop, the Chaos Secret Cult, and the Tower of Annihilation had been able to gather as three equal major wizard factions was that all three possessed roughly comparable levels of high-tier technology.
This meant that even if the other side had a unique trump card, the preparation time would not be significantly shorter than their own.
In such a race against time, suddenly losing so much—especially the critical early-stage preparation time—and potentially even having to abruptly halt the process, which could damage the materials used in the rituals or arrays…
The cost was far too great; the other side’s choice required no further thought.
“They will continue.” A Chaos Secret Cult wizard said gravely. “Preparations of this level, once begun, cannot be lightly interrupted. Moreover, we too are carrying out our own trump card preparations—our timelines are synchronized. If they interrupt now, they would be voluntarily abandoning their trump card, placing themselves at absolute disadvantage in the final confrontation.”