Chapter 437: Counterattack
Translator: AnubisTL
The battlefield under the cover of night was the Scythe-Skull Race’s home turf.
These insectoid creatures possessed sensory abilities in the dark that far surpassed any race reliant on vision. Their carapaces reflected almost no moonlight, and the sounds of their movements were perfectly masked by the battlefield’s background noise.
By all rights, a night raid was one of their most proficient tactics.
Though their current level of technology had rendered the difference between day and night negligible, they still preferred to operate under the cover of darkness.
When the Scythe-Skull vanguard silently crept to the perimeter of the Wizard Camp, they found a fortress of impenetrable defense.
Densely packed, varied forms of cannon fodder units patrolled the area. The camp, which had been transformed into a City of Iron in just a single day, was ablaze with light. The wizards themselves worked through the night, adding new defensive structures to the camp.
It was the perfect opportunity for an attack.
The Scythe-Skull commander—a sixth-tier “tactical calculator”—hidden in the shadows, watched data streams flash across its compound eyes. It reached a conclusion that completely contradicted the scene before it.
But it had already “experienced” dozens of similar night raids. It knew exactly what would happen next: in three minutes, the wizards would switch the energy source of the camp’s core formation array, creating a momentary window of vulnerability.
Three minutes had passed.
The giant rune tower at the center of the camp flickered, its light pulsing like a slow breath. The entire camp’s protective magic array ebbed and flowed in synchronization.
The very instant the energy fluctuation hit its lowest point—Now!
“interference array, activate!” the tactical calculator commanded through the pheromone network.
Over ten thousand Scythe-Skull soldiers, concealed within the ruins, simultaneously activated their devices.
An invisible wave swept across the camp. The energy circuits, caught in the middle of their switch, instantly overloaded. The shield flickered a few times and then died.
Darkness engulfed the Wizard Camp.
From all directions, the waiting Scythe-Skull army surged forward.
Drawing on intelligence gathered from dozens of previous reincarnations, the ground forces bypassed the traps with ease, advancing directly. Flying units suppressed the camp from above, while an elite squad struck straight for the Wizard Camp’s central command.
The tactics were flawless, the timing precise, and the numbers overwhelming.
The Scythe-Skull commander anticipated a devastating blow to the monsters they called wizards.
But…
The moment the entire army crossed within three hundred kilometers of the camp’s perimeter, the ground suddenly erupted in light.
It was a composite magical formation, so vast it covered the entire region, its scale suffocating.
Millions of runes activated simultaneously, their light piercing the sky and turning the night as bright as day.
The Scythe-Skull commander watched the ascending light, his heart sinking. The magical formation wasn’t expanding from the camp’s center—it was closing in from the perimeter.
It had been laid out all along, waiting for the enemy to step fully inside. This was a trap!
But… how is that possible?!
The Scythe-Skull charge ground to a sudden halt. The front ranks collided in the abrupt stop, sending a ripple of chaos through their formation.
In the camp’s center, the illusions receded like a tide.
The so-called “Iron Camp” vanished, replaced by a wizard legion standing ready for battle. The cannon fodder units were arranged in neat phalanxes. The muzzles of the rune turrets glowed with fully charged energy. Even the “sluggish” alchemical constructs now had dangerous red lights burning in their eyes.
In the sky, Frost slowly ascended.
The seventh-tier wizard’s robes snapped in the night wind. He looked down at the surrounded Scythe-Skull army, a cold smirk curling his lips.
“It seems these creatures have relied on ‘reloading’ for too long,” his voice boomed across the battlefield, amplified by magic. “They’ve forgotten how to adapt on the field. Let me teach you… war is not a scripted play.”
“Fire.”
The command was a mere two words.
Then, annihilation descended.
The first volley from the rune turrets tore through the Scythe-Skull vanguard.
Their carapaces, designed to withstand fourth-tier spells, crumbled like paper under the concentrated fire of tens of thousands of turrets unleashing Life Decomposition Spells.
With the vanguard—the most resistant to elemental damage—annihilated, the rest of the prepared assault was unleashed.
Energy beams, elemental missiles, arcane blasts… A web of attacks wove itself across the battlefield, reducing thousands of Scythe-Skull soldiers to fragments every second.
In a panic, the Scythe-Skull Race attempted to retaliate.
Their joint spellcasting arrays began charging, specialized individuals unleashed spiritual interference, and elite units tried to breach the firewall to strike the turrets directly.
But the wizards’ response was… terrifyingly precise.
Every time the Scythe-Skull Race prepared a tactic, the perfect countermeasure appeared ahead of time.
The joint spellcasting arrays were jammed by Anti-Energy Focusing Devices the moment they activated. When spiritual interference waves were released, the wizards had already switched to physical messaging. The elite units’ charge routes led them straight into pre-laid minefields.
The gap in raw power had already been substantial, but with this overwhelming intelligence advantage, the nature of the battle had fundamentally changed.
It had become a one-sided slaughter.
Jieming hovered above the battlefield on a high-altitude observation platform.
The platform was protected by three layers of energy shields, positioned perfectly to overlook the entire battlefield while remaining far from the front lines.
“They’re really… not holding back at all,” he muttered, shaking his head helplessly as he watched the one-sided slaughter unfolding in the distance.
Frost had “protected” him.
He was no longer allowed to risk his life on the front lines. After all, the value of the item within Jieming’s body—the one that granted immunity to time reincarnation—far exceeded the combat prowess of a fourth-tier wizard.
Jieming had no objections to this arrangement.
He was more than happy to enjoy the leisure. After all, he got to reap military merits without lifting a finger. Who wouldn’t love a deal like that?
His divine sense swept through his internal grotto-heaven, confirming that all the Black Giants had been successfully recalled.
I can’t afford any more losses, Jieming thought.
With each reincarnation, the units taken from the grotto-heaven would not return. The Black Giant Legion’s size had already dwindled from five thousand in the previous cycle to just two thousand five hundred in this one. If he kept losing them, he’d truly be a commander without an army.
Of course, he wasn’t completely idle.
Once he confirmed his safety, Jieming took out a specially crafted recording crystal.
He aimed the crystal at the battlefield and began to record.
The visuals of the battle, the energy fluctuations, the disturbances in the laws of reality… every piece of data he could perceive was captured without a single omission.
“Scythe-Skull Race Night Raid Tactics.” Jieming named the file in his mind. “They use a feint to lure the enemy, followed by a main force breakthrough on the flank. But the core still relies on preset time nodes.”
He switched perspectives, focusing on the Scythe-Skull Race’s command structure.
The sixth-tier tactical calculator was frantically adjusting its formation, attempting to break through.
But every adjustment was predicted and blocked by the wizard in advance.
Chaotic data streams began to appear in its compound eyes—a sign of computational overload.
“As expected, once their tactics are fully comprehended, their ability to adapt drops drastically.” Jieming recorded this observation. “Reincarnation grants them ‘foresight,’ but it also robs them of the creativity to face the ‘unknown.’ This is a fatal flaw.”
“But it’s strange. Normally, with a means like Reincarnation, they shouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice their lives to pave the way. But the reality is exactly the opposite. It seems my hypothesis from the last cycle was correct: Reincarnation comes at a considerable cost for these creatures as well…”
The battle lasted less than an hour.
When the last Scythe-Skull turned to ash in the artillery fire, the battlefield suddenly fell silent.
Only the hum of energy overload and the crackle of flames consuming corpses remained.
The wizard legion’s losses were negligible.
The cannon fodder units suffered less than a five percent casualty rate, and the wizards themselves sustained zero casualties.
(End of the Chapter)