The Rise Of A Porter

While things were getting troublesome for Arnold, the same wasn't true for his summons. Another war had been raging on the other side of the world, but so far Talos and company had managed to survive without wasting much effort.

Unlike what everyone had expected, the battle with the necromancer turned out like a joke. The resurrected monsters were unorganised and it almost seemed like none of them even know what they were doing at all.

All they did was mindlessly try to storm the gates. But then they didn't even care to dodge the incoming attacks. They could see their doom slowly walk up to them. Yet they continued to walk on the same path only to become an offering to Ogur's flamethrower. This also made it easier for the automatons to annihilate the enemies with the turrets. Almost too easy.

None of the foot soldiers on Talos' side, even had to raise a finger against the monsters. Just because none of them even managed to reach within the proximity to do anything. All this time the few of the humans Talos had allowed to take part in the battle, were celebrating their 'unchallenged victory'. But Talos and the rest of Arnold's summons knew better than to celebrate an unachieved victory. Things could change at any moment in battles like these.

The way things were proceeding, it seemed highly doubtful that Talos was going to lose. Yet, the expression on the Brigadier's face made him sceptical. Just by seeing the way the monsters were behaving, it seemed impossible that the other bases weren't able to take care of the general's army on their own as they were just a bunch of unorganised creeps.

Talos was having a hard time accepting that an army like that could conquer a well-fortified base. Even after considering the absurd number of soldiers the brigadier's army had, it seemed highly improbable. At this point, Talos wasn't even sure whether they were even winning or not because, in his mind, the real battle was yet to begin.

Another reason for Talos to think like that was because of how the brigadier general was operating his army. When they first arrived there, the army of undead monsters had utmost discipline amongst themselves. So, it was was doubtful they had suddenly turned into a horde of mindless creatures without any reason.

Moreover, the brigadier general still had two-thirds of his army on stand-by. He was only sent a third of his force first. Talos thought maybe it was a move to determine the defensive strength of the opponent. Or it was a tactic to force the enemy to use all of their artillery which would allow the rest of the monsters to invade the base without facing much resistance. 

If their goal was the latter thing, then the brigadier would've failed miserably. As Yan had already placed more than a thousand traps all around the base just for that purpose. But Talos had a feeling that the brigadier general was plotting something entirely different. He just needed to figure out what. However, that was easier said than done.

"Something feels off, Talos," Asterios mumbled as he looked at the mindless monsters that kept dying at the hands of Ogur and the automatons, "It almost feels like they are doing this to distract us from something."

"Yeah... it's going too easy." Yu Zhung joined in, "Maybe we should charge in instead? The sooner we will end them, the faster we'll be able to aid Lord Deathless."

"That could be exactly what that sly basta*d wants." Amanda intervened, "Maybe he's hesitating to attack us with everything he has because we have a better strategic position. And once we are out of the protection of the base, he could attack us ruthlessly. It's better for us to stay here and thin his army out as much as we can before charging at him."

Talos listened to everybody's opinions but it all sounded unreasonable to him. Firstly what Yu Zhung said about charging out was completely absurd. They couldn't charge out with their entire army for two reasons. First, doing so would leave the humans in the base defenceless in case something happened to the summons. And this was the last thing Arnold would want them to do.

Also, secondly, even if they were to charge out, roughly 30% to 40% of them wouldn't even make it to face the brigadier's army. The traps Yan had spread across and around the base would lead to their demise because even if the elite summons knew about the traps, it would have been impossible for everyone to avoid triggering the trap.

Also, once these traps were triggered, it would start a chain reaction which would trigger most if not all of the traps. There were too many risks associated with it and Talos wasn't willing to take unnecessary risks. 

As far as thinning the army was considered, they were already doing whatever they could to achieve that. But the brigadier was as sly as they came. He already figured out the range of the turrets when the automatons first started attacking his army and since then had made his army back up a bit so that the weapons couldn't even touch them.

"It's a fact that we can't stay inside these walls forever. Our artillery support will last only for the day at most and after that, we'll be like sitting ducks for the brigadier to shoot. Also, the way everything has been going on the master's side, I don't think he'll be able to aid us for a long time. Instead, I think we would have to be the ones to help him out and for that, we need to finish this battle as soon as we can." Talos stated as he made his decision, "That being said, it would be a foolish decision for all of us to storm out of the base like that. So here's what we're going to do."

He continued, "Yan, Amanda and Yu Zhung. You people would be responsible for defending the base. I'll leave the automatons behind to assist you. Yan, you'll have to give me about half of your undead soldiers to us. They will act as our shield while I, Ogur and Asterios rush in deal with the brigadier once and for all."

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