Way of the Knights

Chapter 924: Next Operation: Target their Weakness

“Laughing Dragon, what do you got for me?” 

“Reporting to Supreme Commander, the troops received their briefing and are expected to enact the plan within two days.” 

“The ports, are they ready?” Luna asked. 

“Yes, Commander.” Laughing Dragon confirmed, “We’ve installed the ports at five spots within enemy territory. We’ve run some checks and tried a couple of times and we deemed them ready to use. We are deploying our troops through the ports to give me access deep into enemy territory so that they can deal the maximum amount of damage without the enemy being the wiser.” 

“That’s good. But how’s our casualties so far?” 

“Minimal in terms of human resources, Commander.” Laughing Dragon stated, “We’ve had a total of 50 soldiers injured so far in our operations. All of them recovered and are still able to fight for our cause.”

“As or material casualties, we’ve lost a good deal of equipment during our raids. The response of the enemies are swift just as we expected so these loses are within our expected range.” 

“Good to hear, then let’s keep this up.” Luna nodded, “Continue with the plan, keep up with the hit and run tactics. Cripple them enough that they will be afraid of even stepping out of their homes.” 

“As you wish, Commander. Please excuse me.”

“You may go.” 

After receiving reports from Laughing Dragon, Luna stood up from her seat and looked at the distant horizon. She stared at the direction where their enemies are and where his husband is. 

A visible trace of exhaustion could be seen on her face. The last couple of months had been stressful for her. She’s holding down the fort in place of husband, granted that she’s not alone, it still feels a bit stressful at times since she has to constantly pay attention to the war. 

Currently, they are winning this war. They’ve done a considerable amount of damage to their enemies during the last couple of months and some of their plans are already in motion. 

Still, there’s no way she’ll relax right now just because everything’s going too well. If anything, she’s already expecting something to go wrong since this usually how it goes…

Divine Realm can’t clash with the Abyssals head-on. This is something that Raven stressed out to them multiple times. 

While the two realms are relatively similar in size, Paradise is geared towards warfare compared to Divine Realm so a head-on clash would be disastrous for them. 

The plan is to consistently chip away with the enemy forces bit by bit until they crumble. It doesn’t sound fair but this is war, everything is fair in war. 

These hit and run tactics might look a bit cowardly but it’s the best method they could do to keep their enemies guessing. The more they occupy their attention enough, the lesser their chances of formulating a plan for counter attack. 

This is extremely effective given by the fact that up until now, the Abyssals has yet to locate where Divine Realm is. 

They’re so occupied and in alert about the sporadic attacks that they didn’t dare to spread their forces thin in case Humans decided to go a little harder on their sneak attack. 

This in turn, was costing them precious time and resources as well. At the same time, Humans are slowly instilling fear and conflict amongst their ranks with their operations. 

Right now, according to intel Luna received, the council of the Abyssals are in the verge of being ruptured by their own people. The citizens are pressuring them so hard to do their jobs and drive the invaders away due to the stacking casualties they suffered from so far yet Humans are making it too difficult for them to proceed. 

They are trying though, and somehow they’re managed to keep it together which is impressive given how low their morale is. 

Only that guy, General Grimm, is keeping everything intact yet Humans know that Mark already planted a seed of terror to the man’s heart and he’s just pretending at this point. 

This meant that in reality, the council of the Abyssals are just an empty shell of its former glory. 

The only way for it to recover is for their God Emperor to return but as if Raven would let that happen. 

Speaking of Raven, he constantly keep in touch with Luna at least. Telling her that she’s doing fine and to keep going. He always reminded her that he’s fine and she doesn’t need to worry about him. All of the focus should be on the war since the sooner they’re done with this, the earlier they can rest. 

Of course, rushing it isn’t a wise move either. When Raven said to end the war soon, he meant to say to keep following the plan. Everything’s working out so far according to that anyway and so long as the trend continues, they’d be fine. 

Their next plan is to start dealing some real and lasting damage to the Abyssals. That’s where this Ports came in. 

The Ports are in truth, hidden bases they’ve set up deep in enemy territory. The sneak attacks they formed so far are for the sake of setting these deep bases down in order to proceed with their plan.  action

Inside these Ports are arrays and formations created by a specialized group of experts that Raven personally taught. They create portals that will connect some barracks directly to ports so that they can directly send their armies to perform operations deep in the enemy territory. 

Their targets are key locations important for the Abyssals; resource depots, supply lanes, highly populated area…places that can be considered as the sore point of Paradise base. 

At this point, Humans already gathered sufficient intel about the layout of Paradise to know where these places are. In two days, another batch of raids will begin and that’s when this war is going to enter a whole new level of intensity. 

The plan is to use higher leveled Counter Guardians to mimic the Abyssals and smuggle humans deep into these sore points so that they can come in and destroy everything then go out to prevent suffering heavy casualties. 

Humans can’t really become too confident in their operations despite it going well since most of them already saw personally what the abyssals can do, some of them even personally experience it. 

Just from those alone, they can easily tell that they’re dealing with real troublesome foes here. So getting too confident will cost them their lives. 

Once they start the next operation though, it is possible that they will suffer even more casualties. 

They can’t just expect the Abyssals to let them cripple their forces like this. They will surely bolster their defenses and it’d be much harder to sneak-in the more time passes. 

Therefore, they have to finish this according to the schedule. So long as their time is acceptable, there shouldn’t be anything that will diversify developments for this war and they can continue with the plan in motion. 

Thinking about all of this, Luna sighed to herself…

“It’ll be their turn next.” She whispered. 

And by them, she’s referring to her friends: Paul, Mark, Ellen and Anne. 

So far, Mark was the one who cracked down the walls and visited their neighbors first. He did it because he’s the most suitable one to lead that operation. He did a wonderful job too, especially when he planted a seed of terror to General Grimm. 

However, the next part is about to get rough. Luna can already tell. 

Their presence would be needed for the next part to succeed. No, it had to succeed so that’s why they’re needed there. If they manage to achieve their goal for their next operation, the rest of this war will be more or less be easier for Humanity in general. 

Luna didn’t doubt their abilities of course. She knows what they can do and how strong they are when their abilities are used in tandem. Still, she would still worry for their safety since she’s a friend first before a Supreme Commander. 

She would hate to see them sacrifice themselves. They share the same dreams of peace and serenity, they’re so close to achieving that and it would be a shame if they wouldn’t be there to savor the fruits of their long labor. 

‘It’s going to be fine.’ 

Luna shuddered in place. She took a deep breath and felt heavily comforted when she heard her husband’s voice whispering next to her. 

‘I’m here. I will watch over them. Nobody will die in my watch. We will win this. You’re doing good. Keep going. I can see everything. Don’t worry.’

As usual, Raven had an impeccable timing. He just seems to know when she needed him the most and he’d be there ready to comfort her. Honestly, without him here, none of this would be possible. 

Luna heard everything she needed to hear. She had no doubts that Raven is truly watching over them. They’re going to be fine. He’s there and that’s enough to win this war. 

With a refreshed mind, Luna displayed a determined expression and continued doing her work as Humanity’s Supreme Commander.