Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

When the hooded man heard the reports, he obviously assumed that Rain was up to something… what he knew from him was very clear, Rain liked to overpower his enemies with his punches when he was fighting them, but he changed his tactics when he was leading.

The hodded man knew that Rain valued efficiency above everything, he knew that training soldiers to become a force to be recognized was hard and takes time. Every soldier that he losses was a long time that he will have to spend to train another. That was why he decided to make them as durable as possible.

"He is clearly plotting something with this," Losar said. "Should we send our forces to capitalize on his foolishness or just wait for him to show his true intentions?"

"... Make the slimeys attack the warriors with more power, you are free to make them use anything aside from magic," The hooded man said after thinking for a short while. "You want to spare the lives of your people, so you should think twice before trying to grab such a chance on your hands.

The most obvious law in the battlefield is to make the enemies move and do things when you want, he is clearly trying to do that to us."

Losar groaned in annoyance while the other tribe leaders showed difficult expressions… what the hooded man said made sense, but they didn't have any real experience doing that. Their experiences when it comes to battle were against humans where they always had the upper hand and against the dragons, where only one of them could kill hundreds of them. It was difficult to learn tactics that way.

The tribe leaders waited for the results after a couple of minutes after sending the command to the people controlling the slimeys, it didn't take long for them to confirm that the warriors were pushed back even more, but they didn't suffer casualties. At the same time, some of the monsters died by the hands of Rain's friends.

"They must be suffering damage, why would they do this?" Losar asked.

"They know that we want to keep them busy and have their other border invaded," The hooded man said. "Still, they also know that we want to know more about their strength and limitations and they are trying to do the same. This strategy is rather foolish if they want to finish things quickly… the best explanation is that they don't want to lose many soldiers."

The hooded man wondered what he should do… letting things play like that would be fine… they were achieving what they wanted, after all. There was no need to take risks in a favourable situation… then again, he knew that Rain wasn't stupid and he had a goal with his current tactics.

While he was thinking of what he should do, eventually a new report arrived and the people in the tent didn't like the news that the messenger brought to them. The warriors suddenly went all out and began to decimate the slimeys.

When Rain began to hear the sound of bones cracking from the warriors side, he decided that it was time to attack. The enemies made the monsters only be more violent and didn't use them in any other way, so that was fine with him. His original goal was to make them show more of what they could do, but decimate them in a matter of minutes would be fine as well.

In the blink of an eye, Rain used his magic to control all the moisture in the air and in the area… and made droplets fall on the slimeys. In the next instant, they began to freeze.

The warriors used that opportunity to finally attack seriously… they used Limit Breaker and Magic Boost and their attacks began to destroy the monsters and the frozen areas.

The droplets of water, could only freeze so much of their bodies, but they kept falling constantly on the enemies lines and it didn't take long for them for them to die in droves.

That wasn't the only thing that suddenly changed the flow of the battlefield, though. During the night, Rain worked on purifying the waters on the tunnels as well, and that gave Seadir and the other seafolk to arrive in the area.

They actually went back to the waterway that they lost and then created the necessary conditions to increase the level of water on the atmosphere, and thanks to the wind, the highly level of moisture arrived on the battlefield while the raging phoenix was suffering.

As one would expect, the hooded man didn't know all that, but he could tell that Rain had prepared and waited for the conditions to arrive where his victory would be guaranteed… as such, they lost three thousand slimeys in ten minutes. The remaining ones escaped, but not without suffering serious damage… still, it was fine since they could regenerate.

The hooded man listened intently to the reports coming in from the battlefield, and it didn't take him long to imagine clearly the battle. He could easily discern the key factors that favored the Raging Phoenix's victory. While observing the battle itself might have provided more detailed insights, he was cautious not to risk being spotted by Rain or any of his allies.

With a keen understanding of the conditions met for the Raging Phoenix's success, the hooded man remained in the shadows, keeping a watchful eye on the unfolding events without revealing himself.

"... What now?" Losar said while not trying to hide his annoyance for losing such a large force again without gaining anything in exchange.

"I told you, didn't I?" The hooded man asked. "Battles are won when you fight where you want to when you want to. Right now, they won't be prepared to fight at their base since they will be exhausted. Send the slimeys and one thousand of your forces to attack the flanks of that town." Continue your saga on empire