184. How to Flip a Turtle (2)
*
In the dark night, Fernandez was running through the bushes. Time is always a precious strategic resource, and simply running fast can save it. It’s an easy resource to conserve. There’s no reason not to run.
“Huff, puff. Huff.”
Abel was barely keeping up with Fernandez’s pace, her breath reaching her chin. Until now, that is, to break the seal of the Einherjar and shake up the strategy, he needed to be stealthy, so he could preserve Abel’s condition, but now the situation had changed.
Tactics always change according to the enemy’s movements. The trees flowed like afterimages. Kicking off branches, stepping on the next tree trunk, twisting his body forward. Forward.
-Pop!
A purple flower bloomed in the distance on a tree trunk. In this dense forest without moonlight or starlight, that was the only marker. The aura of Freya was spreading across the northern region. The path was clear.
‘From the moment they realized Freya’s presence, they must have been aware of the Einherjar.’
-And the Einherjar is a bluff. Its true form is…
‘A highly precise strike by dispersed forces.’
The resistance forces, which had begun to gather, were completely reorganized and widely dispersed, with some retreating, some advancing, and some engaging in guerrilla tactics. This tactic is possible because there are means to simultaneously gather battlefield information, allowing the enemy’s deployment to be adjusted to our liking. That’s the first move.
*
“Yarl! Yarl!”
A warrior, dressed in full gear, approached Erik, who was mounting his horse, and knelt down, panting. As Erik turned his head to look down at him, the warrior stammered with a choked voice.
“The enemy, the enemy has appeared!”
“The resistance?”
“Yes, yes! Now, from all sides… Signal fires are rising from all sides!”
Erik turned his head toward the horizon where darkness had settled. As the warrior said, white smoke was rising in straight lines from all directions.
“Shallow tactics.”
Bard chuckled. Seven were visible to the naked eye. The frontline was long, so his forces were spread out as much as the enemy’s. No matter how many were sporadically ambushing along this long frontline, it was ultimately just a self-defeating move.
“They’re doing something foolish, Caldaris.”
“Yes, master.”
“Lead the cavalry. If the scattered fools dare to raise their heads, it’s better to pick them off one by one.”
In preparation for this situation, Bard had thoroughly fortified all camps. It’s not something that can be destroyed in a single morning. Erik’s forces had been reduced since the internal strife, but they were more united than ever.
Every allied camp had at least one demon lurking. If the enemy had concentrated their forces to break through, and if those forces collapsed, it would be a terrible burden for the already outnumbered enemy.
“Don’t disappoint me. Go!”
“Yes, master!”
A lizard-like demon bowed its head and retreated. Bard chuckled as he looked at Erik. Tonight, blood will flow like a river. Very good.
The legion from Erik’s camp began to march toward the camps with signal fires. The enemies ambushing the camps would start to collapse the moment they realized they were surrounded.
Engaging in a siege with enemies at your back means being caught between the anvil and the hammer of a perfect encirclement. And they lacked the morale, will, and forces to do so.
“You’ve worn yourself out, Freya.”
You should have waited for the Einherjar. Bard laughed with a sneer.
*
-To counter this, if the enemy deploys their forces, create confusion as if preparing for a full-scale battle…
When the enemy concentrates their forces to pick off the dispersed allies, at the moment they aim for the protruding allied positions. In the area they most desire, in the way they most desire. Leak information that suggests a ‘large legion’ is gathering. That’s the second move.
Fernandez stopped and looked at the distant red lights. Abel, panting, soon stood beside him, calming her rough breath.
“Are, are we there yet?”
“Almost.”
Fernandez laughed as he watched the cavalry rushing toward the vast camp.
*
“They’re retreating!!”
The warriors in the camp shouted in victory. Not only were the casualties not significant, but the enemies who had suddenly attempted an ambush in the darkness began to retreat all at once.
The enemies disappeared into the forest as quickly as they had appeared. They must have been panicked. Seeing that the isolated camp on the outskirts of the frontline was thoroughly fortified, they must have found the time consumption unbearable.
“Haha, stupid fools!”
A warrior from the Kazalid clan laughed heartily as he looked into the dark forest. It seemed they wanted to shake the increasingly solid frontline of Hazart Kazal, but it was already too late.
“Captain! Someone is approaching!”
“Ah, it must be allied reinforcements. What a pity! We could have wiped them out in one go!”
The warrior laughed heartily as he watched the approaching forces. Judging by the presence of demons, they must be Erik’s direct troops. A scaled demon leading the way on horseback shouted to the warrior on the camp’s palisade.
“The enemies?”
“They’ve been gone for a while!”
“How many were there?”
It was difficult to determine the exact number due to the darkness. But estimating the enemy’s numbers was almost simple arithmetic. This camp had about two hundred warriors, and from the besiegers’ perspective, at least three times that number would be needed to break the fortress.
Therefore, even conservatively, there must have been over four hundred enemies appearing from the forest. The warrior boldly shouted.
“At least five hundred!”
“Five hundred… five hundred…”
The warrior had slightly exaggerated the enemy’s numbers to expand his achievements. The number he had seen with his own eyes was less than a hundred. Everything was due to the darkness, the dense forest, and the sudden ambush…
The demon on horseback stroked his chin, lost in thought.
‘There were at least seven signal fires, and assuming they deployed at least four hundred troops to each frontline…’
This meant the enemy’s maximum forces had begun ambushes from all directions. In other words, the enemy had no remaining soldiers. They would have no physical forces left to devise other tactics.
Without a legion to hold the center, they are nothing but scattered guerrillas. They probably never imagined Erik would react so quickly. The demon smiled wryly.
“You, report this to Bard. We will pursue the fleeing remnants into the forest!”
Erik’s forces are by no means small, and each one is an elite deeply blessed by demons. Even with some losses, rooting out the enemy’s remnants was now the top priority.
It wasn’t a wrong judgment. Perhaps it was the best proactive move a frontline field commander could make.
*
“They’ve started the pursuit.”
Kirhas looked at the small flower buds blooming on the wooden planks. All the warriors were holding small planks.
Even a goddess couldn’t give detailed information and tactics to every soldier without losing too much mental energy. So…
If it was a simple goal’s directive, it was entirely possible.
Purple flower, enemy is tracking. Red flower, will soon encounter the enemy. Yellow flower, will flee nearby. Blue flower, advance.
The warriors scattered across each frontline received these kinds of boards, and thanks to that, Kirhas was able to command with great precision while being directly on the frontline.
She whispered to the board.
“The time has come. Freya. It’s okay to expose the legion.”
-Pop!
As if responding to her words, a blue flower bloomed on the board. The troops lined up behind her numbered just over thirty, having just raided a camp and then fled in unison.
These kinds of troops are now gradually raiding Erik’s entire camp. To create a terrible confusion of information. The enemies were slowly being shaken. Even if it wasn’t visible, even if she didn’t share the divine sight, it was a fact she could clearly see.
All the troops? No, not really. The enemies might think so, but those touching Erik’s military encampment were originally just a small group that couldn’t even retake a camp.
All the troops the resistance had gathered over several days. All the deserters from the north, gathered with all their might, those troops would now be…
“Advancing to flip the turtle.”
*
Erik was moving to patrol the frontline. The enemies still had no solid presence, but since they had touched this side, finding their roots was a matter of course.
Tracking and annihilating the enemies, or dealing with the remnants daring to attack. Whatever it was, it wasn’t bad from Erik’s perspective. Moment by moment, the enemies were cutting their own lifelines and heading towards death.
Then, a cavalryman came running to Erik’s side and prostrated himself.
“Sir!! The number of enemies attempting a surprise attack has reached four hundred! The same number of enemies were found in all the camps that were attacked!”
“The entire force.”
Four thousand or so. That’s all the resistance has gathered so far. A little over half of our forces, and considering that demons are mixed in our ranks, their tactics are only capable of sporadic surprise attacks. They can’t attempt a large-scale battle.
That was a pity. Bard licked his lips. But their resistance was as meaningless as ever, and their breath wouldn’t last past tonight.
“Sirrrrr!!”
Then, a cavalryman came running from outside the camp, shouting.
“What’s the matter?”
“The enemies, the enemies are approaching!!”
“What…?”
The cavalryman approached, deeply bowing and prostrating himself, shouting.
“Their numbers reach two thousand! The patrol troops on the front were crushed, and I barely managed to escape alone!”
“What… did you say?”
“It’s a trap.”
Erik said coldly. He looked at Bard with a contemptuous face and said.
“We’ve been played. The enemy’s surprise attack was to divert our gaze.”
“Dividing such a small force, and now preparing for a battle? No matter how much we’ve dispersed our forces, how many demons do you think are in this area? They’re heading towards their graves!”
“Enough.”
Erik covered Bard’s mouth and frowned.
“Freya’s information warfare is sharper than expected. We can’t be played by the enemy anymore. Summon the demons.”
“…What?”
“At this point where we overwhelmingly dominate in the quality and quantity of our troops, the enemy’s only weapon is information. If we can secure information at the same level as them, they are nothing.”
“How…?”
“Summon the demons, kill them, and summon them again.”
At those words, Bard closed his mouth. Right, there’s a way like that. Demons are spiritual entities, and when a summoned demon is ejected back to hell and summoned again, they can convey the information they last saw, regardless of location.
Those blessed by demons inevitably become the eyes of hell. And the demons summoned from hell would know what the minions of the material world have seen and heard.
The most important resource in information warfare is time. In that way, it can be drastically shortened. However, summoning demons consumes human lives.
“At this point when the enemies are right in front of us?”
“No matter how many they are, they are still dispersed. And our troops will also return to the camp as soon as the sun rises. Do you really think we’ll be annihilated overnight? We’ll see after that.”
“Well, that might be better… To completely uproot their remnants.”
At Erik’s words, Bard quickly regained his composure. Even if some warriors are consumed, his total forces are still just dispersed. They overwhelm the enemy’s entire force. If the enemy’s numbers are now two thousand, the allies in this camp are more than that.
*
‘Demons don’t consume resources like time and distance in information exchange. They are thought entities.’
The fact that they have hell’s information from the moment they are summoned, and that they take the information of the material world when they fall back to hell. Using this, the acquisition of information resources can be achieved astonishingly quickly.
This was a tactic he had used in his previous life. Widely deploying demons that could be sacrificed at any time without loss to collect as much information as possible, then reverse-summoning them back to hell, and resummoning them by his side to extract information.
If they’re not fools, they would definitely use such a method to keep up with our information collection speed. However, the difference is.
-At that time, we had secured a hell gate.
‘And they have to consume sacrifices every time they summon demons.’
Unlike the future, demons in this era are an extremely delicate asymmetric force. A resource that consumes human lives when produced. Securing a hell gate, summoning demons only required magic power, but there’s no such thing in the north.
Originally, their war objective is the gate that opens towards Sadarkelisa’s seal. That means, to secure infrastructure at the level of our information resources, they have to consume their own human resources.
-They are gnawing at their own flesh to grasp our reality…
‘Third move.’
Still, they won’t stop. Even if blood forms rivers and the flesh of the dead piles up like hills. It’s highly likely they consider it a kind of sacrifice to build the hell gate.
And that’s true. Their victory strategy is the destruction of our depth, the opening of the hell gate, and through that, the destruction of the north. Whatever precedes, from their perspective, it’s just a ‘possible’ level of loss.
-If the situation gets tough, Bard and Erik will appear on the frontline.
‘Making the turtle stick its head out is the last move.’
The tactic Bard first established. Securing enough sacrifices through a large-scale battle and safely securing the north that has lost its resistance forces fails at that moment. Because even if the gate is opened, Hazart Palan’s resistance is still intact.
From their perspective, it’s a second-best but not the worst. It would be a more troublesome and cumbersome waste of time, but they would think, ‘It’s like this. It doesn’t matter.’
The moment the gate opens and demons start pouring out, the resistance loses its meaning. How can those who struggle with one or two demons block the great army pouring through the gate? The annihilation of the resistance is only a matter of time.
‘The gate is two-way.’
Fernandez laughed and thought about the Brothers of Diemonica. The only asymmetric force in this war that hasn’t fully revealed its true form. The spear of the Temple of the Gods and the beacon of humanity…
-Wait, Sadarkelisa.
Faijashi giggled and laughed. Fernandez looked at that smile and laughed along. Their final move. Opening the gate leading to Sadarkelisa’s seal.
Originally, Bard and Fernandez had the same strategic goal. He to summon her, and he to slay her.
The demon follower and the demon hunter were only a sheet of paper apart.
![[TS] Obsessed Gamer: The Ultimate Return](https://i3.wp.com/novelhitam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/TS-Obsessed-Gamer-The-Ultimate-Return2.png?resize=85,105 "[TS] Obsessed Gamer: The Ultimate Return")
