Chapter 165: A Small Skirmish

"Would anyone like to volunteer?" At the very instant Herellia finished asking this question to the normal members of the alliance, without hesitation, all of the normal members stepped forward in front of Herellia, wanting to become one of the first volunteers for the war.

Normally, when Animates would ask other Animates to volunteer to act as bait or act as reconnaissance in the middle of a war, it would take quite a long time for that to happen since Animates prioritized their own benefits rather than the benefits everyone could get. As for Inanimates, it was quite the opposite, with everyone wanting to volunteer at any chance they could.

They did not do this because they had the resolve to die, but rather, it was because their souls were formed while they were enhancing their power. This meant that their souls were not tainted with corrupt ideas, unlike Animates, who had grown up in a world filled with corrupt ideas. This meant that they volunteered with the purpose of helping everyone rather than helping themselves.

Unfortunately, since all of the normal members were volunteering, this meant that Herellia had to choose from a couple hundred members, thinking up of an ideal party that would allow them to attack, defend, and heal when necessary. Eventually, Herellia had chosen 10 members out of the couple hundred members wanting to volunteer, telling them to fall in line in front of her.

After sweeping through the 10 members in front of her, she then said, "I've told you the purpose of having you 10 in front of me a while ago. You shall form a party of 10 and make the other party that's coming here think that we're weaker than we actually are."

She then continued, "In other words, you have to limit your damage output as much as possible. You could also kill one or two members of their party. Make sure to never exceed that number though. What's most important though is your safety. If you think one of the members in the party will die soon, retreat as fast as possible."

"And with that out of the way…" While saying this, Herellia focused her field of vision towards a decently sized tree. She then said, "Since you're the sole healer of the party, you shall be the commander. Is that alright with you, Verutia?"

"Yes, leader." Hearing Herellia's request, Verutia accepted without hesitation. Nevertheless, this was the first time Verutia was put into a position like this, emanating an aura of slight nervousness as she accepted Herellia's request. She was going to make sure that she'll do her best to follow Herellia's conditions amidst her nervousness.

Herellia then radiated an aura of slight happiness before using a red tendril to point towards the opposing party that was getting closer in the distance. She then said, "Well then, I wish all of you the very best of luck. Make sure to not die."

"I'll try to make sure," Verutia responded to Herellia's words before looking at the other members of the party she was about to lead. Suppressing her feelings of nervousness, she then said to them, "We depart!"

Whoosh!

Not long after, a hexagonal formation appeared in front of the entrance of the main hall. This hexagonal formation consisted of 3 tanks at the front, 2 attackers and 2 buffers at the middle, as well as an attacker, an illusionist, and a healer at the back. After making sure that everyone was in proper formation, Verutia, the sole healer at the back, commanded the formation to move forward, setting off for the mission Herellia gave them.

…

As he watched the party Herellia just sent move towards the opposing party, Aurus could not help but look at Herellia and ask, "Are you confident that they'll make it back safely?"

"Mm," Herellia responded as an aura of affirmation radiated from her. She then said, "Although they're normal members of the alliance, all of the members I chose for the party are still peak level X-grade Inanimates. Anyways, it seems something is bothering you."

"Well…" Aurus pondered over how he was going to word the thought in his mind without making Herellia seem stupid. Eventually, he decided to just be straightforward, saying, "To be honest, I think they'll give off the idea that our alliance is far stronger than Chonk and his army would think."

"Eh?" Herellia looked back at Aurus in slight curiosity and asked, "Why do you think so?"

"They have equipment sets on."

"Ah." This sentence alone made Herellia realize that she should have told them to remove their equipment sets before they left to head for the opposing party. "Fuck."

Not long after that, she thought of sending a thread of energy to Verutia to tell her that they should remove their equipment sets, but she could not help but think that the opposing party was far stronger than the party she just sent out. In the end, she let out a sigh and muttered to herself, "I hope Verutia follows my words as close as possible."

…

A few minutes have passed since Chonk's army and the Tempest Branch Alliance had sent out small parties. At this moment, the two small parties were already facing one another in the middle of the large space that was cleared out for this war. On one side was the party sent out by Chonk's army, wanting to gauge the strength of the Tempest Branch Alliance. Each and every member of this party radiated an aura that would usually instill fear in normal X-grade Inanimates.

As for the other side, it was the party sent out by Herellia, which consisted of normal members of the alliance. Unfortunately, due to their affiliation to the alliance, as well as the equipment sets they were wearing, instead of giving off the impression that they were weak members of the alliance, the impression they gave to the opposing party was a party that consisted of demons that could easily kill one of them with one skill. The aura each member gave off was stronger than the aura radiated by a member of the other party by onefold.

Nevertheless, even though they were up against a party that seemed to be stronger than they thought, the members of the opposing party mustered their courage, taking the initiative to attack the alliance party. The leader of the opposing party, who was at the rear of their formation, shouted, "Attackers, use your ultimate move!"

"[Jade Wind Blade]!"

"[Grand Flame Burst]!"

"[Noxious Domain]!"

"[Azure Slash]!"

"[My Strongest Move]!"

At the very instant the opposing party told their attackers to attack, Verutia, who led the alliance party, could not help but push her soul to its limits, thinking as to how they would retaliate from this attack without making the other party think that they were incredibly strong. Eventually, a thought came to Verutia's soul as she hastily commanded, "Buffers, increase tanks' defense. Tanks, use reflect skill!"

Whoosh! Whoosh!

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Like clockwork, the two buffers in Verutia's party hastily activated their spells to enhance the defense of the three tanks at the front of the party's formation. Not long after, the tanks activated their reflect skills, covering the three tanks in a faint yet visible barrier of energy surrounding their bodies.

"With this move I did, I'm sure they'll think we can't attack well," Verutia thought to herself, confident that this decision of hers was the best move she could do. Unfortunately, it was going to severely backfire at them.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

At the instant the attacks sent out by the opposing party had collided with the barriers of the tanks of Verutia's party, it had been reflected back towards the opposing party. Noticing this, the opposing party did not become flustered that the attacks were reflected back at them since they had three strong tanks that could defend against these reflected attacks. Unfortunately for them, rather than move in a path that was on a collision course with the tanks, these reflected attacks followed a path that aimed for the attackers that sent out the attacks in the first place.

The leader of the opposing party noticed this and told the attackers to run for their lives, while concurrently telling the tanks to block the reflected attacks' path from hitting the attackers.

Bang!

Although the tanks were able to defend against the attacks, the damage they received from the reflected attacks was more than they had expected, putting the three tanks they had in a critical condition. In exchange, they were able to save three attackers from getting hit with what seemed to be a stronger version of their attacks. Unfortunately, this meant that two attackers were not spared by the reflected attacks, turning them into bits and pieces in an instant, rendering them dead.

"…" The leader of the opposing party was at a loss for words. It did not expect that the attack sent back at them would have their damage intensified that it would severely injure their tanks and kill some of their attackers. At this moment, it could not help but look at the party in front of them from a new perspective, a perspective that told it that any move they made would undoubtedly kill one or two members from their army.

"…" On the other hand, Verutia was also at a loss for words from the conclusion of the party's first move. She expected that the reflected attack would be easily dispelled by the tanks of the opposing party. She did not expect that the reflected attacks would actually have minds of their own and target the attackers that sent the attacks at them in the first place. She also did not expect the power of the reflected attacks to be increased, increasing to a level that two attackers from the other party were killed while three tanks were severely injured.

"Fuck." The leader of the opposing party, as well as Verutia, muttered to themselves at the same time, wondering as to how they were going to continue with their missions. From the conclusion of the first move between them, it seemed that they had already failed the missions given to them.

After a moment of idleness between the two parties, the leader of the opposing party shouted all of a sudden.

"We're retreating! This is enough information!"

Whoosh!

Not long after saying those words, all of the surviving members of the opposing party, as well as the severely injured ones, tried to make their way back to Chonk's army as fast as possible. Unfortunately for them, it seemed that this retreat they made would become their final move for Chonk's army.

"If they go back, they tell others that alliance is very strong…" Verutia could not help but think of the consequences once she let them get away. What she expected was that the skirmish between their parties would last for far longer, allowing her party to look weak and give off the impression that they were weaker than they actually are. She tried to ponder as to why their counterattack had a result like this. In the end, she had no idea what the reason was after pondering over it for quite some time.

Since pondering over the reason seemed to be useless, Verutia decided to break the goals Herellia gave them to arrive at a conclusion that was around the same as what Herellia wanted. She thought of making sure that everyone from the other party was killed, allowing the opposing army to think that the alliance was strong, but did not know how strong they were. Continuing along this train of thought, she had a thought that this would allow more members of the opposing army to be killed off, increasing the advantage the alliance had.

In the end, she decided to follow through with this thought, commanding the buffers to enhance the attack speed, as well as the attack power of the attackers. Not long after that, she commanded the attackers to attack with their strongest move while she commanded the illusionist to envelop the opposing party in an illusion.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

And just like that, the remaining members of the opposing party had been wiped out from the surface of Erudinia, falling into an illusion that made them stay in place, becoming target practice for the attackers of Verutia's party, easily killing all of them with a few skills. What remained from these members of the opposing party were the bits and pieces that used to make up their body, making Verutia, who looked at these remains for a bit, feel a bit guilty.

Nevertheless, she still had Herellia's mission in mind, though she had to think up of a compromise. After making sure that the opposing party was eradicated for good, Verutia told the party to head back to the alliance base, with Verutia thinking up of methods as to how she would explain this to Herellia along the way.

…

Around ten minutes had already passed since Horell had sent out a party to gauge the strength of the alliance. Seeing as none of the members of the opposing party had come back yet, he decided to spread his energy towards the area where the energy of the party he sent was last sensed. At the very instant he had sensed the energy of the party he sent, he could not help but become shocked inwardly as he muttered to himself, "To think that the alliance has the firepower to actually kill 10 members of Chonk's army without a problem…"

While pondering as to how this became the case, a certain figure could not help but pop up in his mind, making him radiate an aura of excitement, which he hurriedly suppressed. Nonetheless, this did not stop him from asking himself, "Did Aurus make all of this possible?"

If Horell knew that Aurus had only given the alliance a single trump card instead of multiple ones, he would definitely wonder as to how he had increased the power of the alliance with just one trump card, as well as wonder how deep Aurus has hidden his true power.

"Well then, I should tell this to Chonk." After pondering over the possible methods as to how Aurus increased the strength of the alliance, Horell made his way towards Chonk and said, "The party we sent has been eradicated by the Tempest Branch Alliance."

"What?" Hearing Horell's words, Chonk could not help but be in disbelief. Remembering how he had easily destroyed the two previous alliances, he could not help but think as to what set the Tempest Branch Alliance apart from the other alliances in terms of combat power.

"Is this true?" Wondering if he had heard wrong, Chonk asked Horell again, to which Horell replied, "Yes, Master. I just investigated a while ago. Only the remains of the members could be sensed."

"…" Chonk remained silent from Horell's reply, pondering over what the army's next move would be. While doing so, he could not help but think to himself, 'This is the first time I've made moves greater than two. It seems the alliance actually has enough power to fight against my army."

"Hmm…" Eventually, Chonk made a decision in his mind. He looked at Horell in front of him and said, "The alliance might be thinking that we would send more parties to gauge their strength, which would allow them to gain an advantage."

"With that idea in mind, initiate Code 2," Chonk continued, to which an aura of slight fear radiated from Horell before responding.

"Yes, Master."

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