The frightened inhabitants of the island stood in a crowd on a hill, which offered an excellent view of the vast, sun-dappled blue sea. Because of the glare of the sun, which made them squint and quickly look away, it was difficult to see the danger posed by the fleet of iron ships, which had obviously planned their move carefully. For this reason, Kioshi's warriors did not immediately realise that the ships had come dangerously close. There was still time to do something, but certainly not enough to completely protect the inhabitants from the threat of attack, which is why Suyuki, who had rushed over, naturally grabbed her head.
"What should we do?" An old, bearded man emerged from the crowd of frightened residents. "Unagi never let so many ships get this close to the island before. We need to drop our things and run deep into the forest."
"We can't just leave everything behind. I have a grandmother who can't walk, she was injured during the previous attack by the fire soldiers," other residents crowded around, asking Suyuki and her squad a barrage of questions, leaving the young and, it must be said, inexperienced girl at a loss. It was clear from their lost expressions that although they had fought off attacks before, they had never faced anything this big.
The tactics in such situations should be radically different, which Suyuki understood well... or rather, began to understand after I pointed out her inexperience several times.
"Why did the ships get so close in the first place? Who's responsible for surveillance? Why didn't you report this earlier?" Turning to the girls who had brought her the news, Suyuki made them duck their heads in shame.
"A dozen frigates, specially designed with a shallow draught so they can sneak up on enemy territory, and thanks to their excellent speed and manoeuvrability, they can make extremely fast landings on small coastal settlements," said a girl who was expressing her opinion on the matter, albeit at an inopportune moment, in order to ease the commander's discontent a little. who was speaking on the matter, but at the wrong time, caught everyone's attention. I had managed to read a couple of books on the methods of warfare used by the Fire People, and I could say that the enemy had done everything very competently so far — I was not surprised. I would say I would have been surprised if no one had attacked," "They will be off the coast in a couple of minutes. We need to defend ourselves.
"Ah, it's all your fault!" At that moment, an old man, who was apparently the village elder, approached and poked me in the chest. "I didn't say anything when you arrived, I ignored the fact that you were interacting with Kioshi because they vouched for you, but now we're not being attacked by some small group, but by an entire fleet? It's obvious that you brought them here, whether intentionally or not.
I silently endured a couple of jabs to my chest, clenching my jaw. Kioshi's warriors did not take my side, and even Suyuki frowned thoughtfully. Everyone was forced to make quick, and therefore not entirely thought-out decisions, which led to confusion in their minds, and some of Kioshi's warriors even gave me a condemning look. Suyuki clenched her fists and took my hand.
"Are they really here for you?
I had to overcome my shame and squeeze out every last bit of truth.
"...Yes, I came here fully aware that there would be an attack," Afka, sitting off to the side, shook her head silently, while hatred awakened in the eyes of the villagers. The Kioshi warriors clenched their fans viciously, while Suyuki shook her head in confusion.
"Why did you bring trouble upon us?
"...Who said it was trouble? - But taking away Suyuki's small hand, I stretched out my arm towards Afka and let the fox jump onto my shoulder, where she settled down as if on a comfortable and warm seat," - I have a plan.
***
"Anubis, let's be honest, an attack is coming, and there are several ways to repel any size of enemy force. You can just pull these options out of my head and tell me how feasible they are. Lying on a comfortable mattress stuffed with hay, with a feather pillow under my head, I stared meaningfully and gloomily at the ceiling of the rather flimsy wooden hut. It was not difficult to guess that in the event of an attack by enemies, the wooden houses of ordinary residents and the dojos of the Kioshi warriors would be reduced to ashes, and no firefighting systems would be able to help. After all, there simply weren't any.
Therefore, Afka and I were preparing ways to counteract this. More precisely, it was mainly Afka, who knew all the methods of defence and was able to competently advise on how to build a defence against an entire fleet of enemies. Chin started out as a traitorous general with a small detachment, but he defeated detachments twice or even three times his size. Afka may have seemed like a fox with paws, but there was no creature in the world, except perhaps Wang Shin Tong, capable of replicating Chin's skills with such precision. Nevertheless, each strategy was very costly in terms of time and effort, so only one could be chosen: defend everyone alone, not letting enemies approach the island; use Kio's squad and fight off the enemy at sea; or encase the houses in stone, turning the village into a new fortress that could withstand fire, time, and catapult volleys.
"Choose:
1 - Rely on your own strength (If you refuse help and fight alone, you will be quickly defeated. The villagers will despise you.)
2 - Fight on the shore (By allowing your enemies to reach the shores of the island, you will cause discontent among the people. Joint efforts with the warriors of Kioshi can ensure victory with minimal losses among civilians and Kioshi warriors)
3 - Armour the village (By allowing a group of enemies into the village, you will cause a wave of fear among the inhabitants. Fighting on your terms will allow you to avoid casualties, but the opinion of the people will depend on the number of houses damaged and people killed. If the village is destroyed, you will block your access to the third chakra due to overwhelming guilt. If you defend the settlement, you will unlock the third chakra).
Anubis did not go into detail about how to force the enemy to come ashore; I had ideas in my head, and they seemed sound; the choices were terrible, but only because they came out of my head. I'm sure Anubis could have come up with one or two better ones, but I was eager to apply my personal strategy, put Chin's experience to the test, and make sure that I could really stand up to failure. I cannot continue to become stronger without putting others at risk, and it is worth accepting that. If you are a leader, you must stop paying attention to feelings of shame, as they lead to making less than optimal decisions.
"Well, what can you do? I'm ready to take the risk.
***
"Throw that mole into the sea.
"Give the freak to the fire mages, let them burn him, maybe then they won't touch us!
The crowd, burning with fear, watched in horror as I climbed a small hill, from where I had a full view of the entire village. The warriors of Kioshi discussed the possibility of stopping me, and glancing at Suyuki, they were ready to carry out her order in a second. And I, without saying a word to the girls or the villagers, just winked at the leader of the squad who was ready to grab me, and opened my two fans.
"Build a bastion wall along the coastal part of the village, raise the ground and level it so that the enemies cannot hide behind the stones," Afka raised her paw and, looking like a real strategist, used earth magic. In the blink of an eye, underground tremors caused the residents to lose their footing, and soon the strongest walls began to appear - a star-shaped fortress rose around the entire village, perfectly suited for defending against crowds of enemies. The ground was dug up, reinforced in some places, and traps were set up in others. With Kioshi's fans and techniques, the process was much easier, and it was easier than ever to repeat Chin's techniques. Soon, in the middle of a completely ridiculous and shabby village, a whole castle appeared, and the houses were joined together into a single strong structure. The residents looked at it all as if they had seen the Avatar himself, their mouths wide open and even starting to convulse with foam at the mouth - yes, there was one strange and very impressionable guy here.
Because of Kioshi's knowledge of history, they had no idea whose fortress I had just recreated.
"Hide. And let the warriors go to the gates," my voice was loud and clear, and I took control of the squad and the people without asking their opinion. And it worked. The people looked at each other and realised that it was safer to hide in the stone houses behind the big wall than in the forest. Passing by Suyuki, I pointed to one of the walls.
"I'll stop the catapult fire and force them to come ashore, and you intercept the soldiers at the open gate. And remember this slaughter — this is what happens in every corner of the world while you sit and rest," I said, slapping the dissatisfied girl on the shoulder, pushing myself off a rock, and jumping onto the wall. There, standing against the shining sun and creating several abrasive discs, I used the legacy of the most hated Kioshi Conqueror to protect them all. I hope Master Pai is pleased.
"They're flying," said Afka, covering her nose, seeing the volley of fast-flying stones. The enemy had obviously reacted to the appearance of the fortress and wanted to wipe out everything still approaching. The fact that these were simple frigates made my life easier. The master of fire had not sent out his entire fleet to deal with me alone, which meant that the volley on the village would not be strong, as such ships could only carry a very small number of catapults. After counting the number of projectiles, I dispersed the discs and sent them flying. Each one was hit by a burst of electricity, and then, upon meeting the stones from the catapults, they were cut into pieces. A new volley, the same situation, the enemy inevitably faced the fact that it was useless to attack the village from a distance. While the catapults were reloading, I simply returned the discs and deflected new stones.
This caused the ships to sail closer, hoping to find a weak spot. But because of this, they came within range of the other projectiles.
"Well, here we go," I said, transforming some of the discs into miniature, super-fast spheres, and saw very thick, rapidly chirping lightning bolts appear in them, unlike anything that had been created before. Good old technology and a new level of power made themselves felt — launching this barrage of shells into the air, I formed clouds of spheres.
"Ready?" asked Afka.
"Let the electrofall come! - I sharply lowered my fans, causing the spheres, which had been suspended for a second, to rush towards the ships. In essence, they were simple spheres of sand, but they accumulated such pressure that upon contact with any object, they were capable of releasing a weak shock wave. But that wasn't even the most dangerous part — when they hit metal, the electricity in the spheres would inevitably spread and strike the iron-clad warriors. It wasn't even necessary to aim at each of them.
Bang-bang-bang*
The shells rained down on the ships like a meteor shower, causing each vessel to rock violently, and only then did the cries of agony and fear, accompanied by electric discharges, become audible even at such a distance. And the longer they stayed on the iron ships, the worse they felt, because there was nowhere to run.
"Come on..." They had only two options: turn around or ram the ships. Part of me hoped for the latter... but Anubis had already said that would be the last resort. My existence was so threatening to the command that the ships, without slowing down, ran aground, and the soldiers, urged on by the command, began to flee onto the sand. They were trembling with fear, unable to understand how one man could do such a thing to an entire fleet, hoping that the circular discs would not fly into them now. It's scary to imagine what would have happened if I hadn't let them go ashore, but according to Anubis, there was no chance of that. And soon it became clear why. The enemy detachment quickly gathered its forces, and no fewer than a hundred warriors under the command of individual captains disembarked from the ships.
Most of the mages mounted their rhinos and, on orders, rushed towards us, trampling the ground and overcoming the well-cleared terrain, unaware of the traps hidden beneath the earth. Those who remained behind took out structures resembling ballistas from the ships, with something strange attached to the tips of the projectiles.
Shurk* Ra-a-a*
Falling into a wolf pit, a pair of rhinos were knocked out of action, forcing the others to slow down immediately. But that was not the problem.
BADAH
The first ballista shot hit the outer wall of the castle, causing an unpleasant explosion that shook the walls and caused them to collapse. Explosions... Against the structures of the earth mages, either catapults or long-developed explosives were traditionally used - the power of the latter should not be underestimated, as a single bandit from the rhino squad could easily destroy stone armour with hand-held dynamite. And the more TNT, the bigger the wall it could destroy. But they were planning a raid on Kioshi Island, where there were no structures.
"Who is so clever that they brought so much dynamite against me? I furrowed my brow, scanning the enemy squad, but I couldn't find the one giving the orders. Only after the wall was reduced to sand and quickly restored did I focus on the horizon, where I saw a couple more ships arriving to help. No, not frigates — large military vessels capable of carrying up to five units of the same type of heavy weaponry, such as ballistae or catapults, with a massive observation tower at the stern. In short, cruisers.
"I'm willing to bet it's Zhao. He's a good strategist," I said, raising my hands sharply and turning the front wall into sand, creating an avalanche that hung over the heads of the people and froze them in place. A second later, the sand compressed into numerous stones and formed an artificial landslide that knocked the rhinos off their feet and, most importantly, knocked all the ballistas off their stable ground. No, the rockfall wasn't strong enough to completely stop the mages' advance; I would say it was insignificant. But it became more difficult to reach the fortress, and they would have to work hard to set up the ballistae. It's amazing what just two open chakras and the experience of a few great people can do," "Hey, ready?
Jumping off the wall and landing in front of the tense, sweating girls, he caught their strange gaze.
"What for?
"To start the battle inside," I smiled, abruptly opened the gate, and raised my hands to create a second line of defence inside the settlement itself, making a whole maze of walls, traps, and hiding places for Kioshi's squad. The soldiers saw the open doors and had no choice but to enter.
"Hey, what the...
"It's a trap, but we can't ask the command to turn back, can we?
"Come on, you brats! The captains, who had miraculously made it to the city, saw several passages in this walled labyrinth. "Throw explosives into all the dead ends and show the sand mage that we have always destroyed such show-offs with the force of explosions.
They even had ideas for such a case. The soldiers divided into squads and entered the passages... after which they were instantly separated by walls that formed on all sides, and it would now be much more difficult for the soldiers standing behind them to reach them. Only Kioshi's warriors had direct access to each of the zones through secret passages, which is why cries and pleas for help began to ring out throughout the castle, mixed with explosions and collapsing passages, trapping the soldiers.
What was to be done with skilled captains, riding their rhinos and supported by dozens of mages? I went out to them alone, clad in stone armour and knowing that if I didn't deal with the first wave quickly enough, I wouldn't survive the second.
"What kind of idiot is that?" The soldiers laughed when they saw me, and they slapped their rhinos, which could knock down that armour in no time, and threw dynamite-filled swords at me. "Forward.
Ra-a!
The rhino roared, gathered speed, and aimed its giant deadly horn. In response, I used my magic to accelerate and charged head-on at no less speed.
"Huh?" The mage sitting on the animal frowned, sensing something was wrong, and threw dynamite at me. Seeing that it exploded right in front of my face but didn't even make me stagger or slow down, his pupils contracted and his head ducked into his neck. And my armoured fist, through which electric shocks were running, landed squarely on the face of the natural tank, instantly knocking him out.
"C-Captain?
"Ah! A-a-a-a! - The fallen man's limbs were trapped in stone. I stopped in front of him, freed my hand, and touched his face - A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A!
I'm making Zhao look into the eyes of his dried-up captains. And if I'm lucky, I'll turn him into a mummy myself.
***
You can read the full story at:
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