Chapter 188: Day 403 (2) – Assault On Truth (2)

I reached the East gate and noted the soldiers there. They noted me ahead of time, which was good to see they were paying attention. I quickly came to a stop. “Status?” I quickly asked the Captain as he saluted me.

“Team at the North gate reports casualties. Breakthrough imminent.”

“Thanks,” I said and quickly set off. There was no time to chat more. Playing telephone right now was pointless. I just wanted confirmation that the North gate was the place I needed to go to. The General and I had talked about me receiving updates in the field.

I would stop at teams, and they would give me general status updates while also reporting to the General about my movements. That way he could keep track of the flow of the battle. If I needed information I could just go to them and they would update me and relay a conversation to the General if necessary.

That wasn’t necessary at the moment. It was a well thought out method of command and control to dominate the battlefield. If the coordination held up, we would be able to pressure the Ritualist across multiple fronts with the hope to overwhelm his actions per minute, or APM.

APM was a pro gamer term in strategy games as a way to describe how fast someone was in issuing orders. The top level in gaming started around 300 APM. Our summoners had about 240 APM. The Ritualist was probably in the range of 500 to 600 APM and was quite good at group commands, reducing the APM burden on himself. But that was based on the last battle.

With the possibility of more Mind upgrades from consumption, it was unclear on the Ritualist’s APM cap, and if we were even in the ballpark. We also needed to match his battlefield awareness and control, which was what General Gerold was focusing on.

The idea was, that once the Ritualist committed, we would counterattack with everything at the same time to overwhelm him, while I went straight for him. He would be forced to focus on me. Other summoners could attest, and I could as well, that it was insanely difficult to fight personally while using summons.

It was much more distracting than mental attacks. While a person could move, there just wasn’t the reaction speed needed for fast past combat. Regardless of whatever else summoning did mentally, it used up reaction speed for the summons.

It was a minor weakness but an important one. Still, who knew what highly increased stats would bring about. Only the Almighty System could answer that question, and it wasn’t taking prayers at the moment I thought sarcastically.

Instead of the Book of John, just have the Book of Consumption for the Power Guide. Here are the best hybrids and the best way to cook them up. All for a delicious and hearty meal of stats.

As I kept running along the outside of the city wall, I thought about how funny it would be if the Ritualist hadn’t discovered consumption yet and I was making a big fuss about nothing. While it seemed highly unlikely, it wasn’t impossible.

He hadn’t discovered it previously, so there might be a chance, however remote. I knew Naran would be keeping an eye on every detail. He was probably meeting with the Ritualist right now.

Power, everything would be made easier with more power. I wouldn’t be giving up the grind any time soon. While tempting, I wanted my future fights to be easy. Not squeak by the seat of my pants death matches. Having constant death matches was a sign of poor planning.

Man plans, the system laughs, or calculates, or something else. Running along the wall was incredibly boring, which was why I was thinking about this stuff right now. I had mastered optimizing my running speed a long time ago. The key was to keep my body in a forward leaning position, kicking off the ground, using the front of my feet.

Like climbing up a steep incline by just running at it really fast. Only in my case the ground was relatively flat instead of inclined. If I stood up too much, I would go into the air which would slow me down compared to my maximum speed, by having too much of an arc.

By staying close to the ground, I would kick off and fly forwards. Or a low leap at a very fast pace. I would angle slightly upwards. Just enough so that when I started to head back to the ground, I could kick off again. It took actual skill since I had to bring my legs up and adjust how I kicked off the ground. My eyes and mind constantly locking onto the next location I would kick off.

Anyone could run fast, but this type of running, took practice and time to get just right. It was a development from my usual combat style of fast paced movement from side to side. If the Body stat wasn’t negating force internally, I would have shattered my ankles with how rapidly I could change speed.

Still, I wouldn’t try a rapid change of movement with how I was currently running. This was meant as a long-distance run and my speed was quite high. While I could kick off to the side, my landing would be a bit tricky moving at these speeds and the force on my body would overcome my Body stat.

It was the little things like this that gave me confidence fighting the Ritualist even if he was shoveling stats down his throat. Combat with the system supporting a person wasn’t a thought out process, but a high paced 3D chess match.

Vertical movement was a real risk. While the golems could do crazy things mid-jump, I didn’t want to be in that position. That was one of the hardest things every time I fought. It was too tempting to leap up into the air quickly, but then be out of position.

That was why Air Burst was critical. It allowed mid-air adjustment and dodging. Just required a bit too much energy to use all the time, but I was getting closer. Still a long way from having a high enough Spirit and Regeneration to spam the skill, but the hope was there that it would be possible one day.

The gate should be coming up any moment. I saw signs of a battle and several soldiers of the RMPF laid out along the ground, heavily wounded, but most appeared to be alive. I spotted the Captain and angled my way towards him.

“Captain, status report!” I called out at a distance. He quickly spun and saluted me. Several nearby soldiers looked up in surprise. They should have been on alert.

“Champion Michael. Six skill users managed to break through. Attempts were made to stop them, but they focused on fleeing. They are currently headed North,” he turned towards his summoner.

“I lost them an hour ago, due to range limitations, but they are headed North,” the summoner said.

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“Why didn’t you pursue them?” I asked annoyed, then realized that wasn’t the priority right now. “Never mind. North? The Union teams?” I asked.

“Near the dungeons, not anywhere near here,” the Captain replied.

“Alright, good job delaying them,” I said and took off towards the North.

Every so often I would jump up in the air to get a better view at a distance. The issue was the obscuring effect that occurred when trying to see things at a distance. With around a one hour head start, they could easily be 10 miles, or 14 kilometers away. Much further than the 3 miles or so the effect started kicking in at.

I kept an eye on the blue flower monsters. They were easily spotted which gave me a clear route to track them. They were headed straight North. It appeared they were trying to make it to the swamp. I didn’t know if I would chase them once I reached that point.

The swamp came into view in the distance, and I saw six people disappearing into its depths. I couldn’t run faster, otherwise the risk of tripping or missing a foothold was too much. I reached the edge of the swamp but saw no sign of the people I had spotted earlier.

I looked at the murky water, the tall trees, the thick canopy, and let out a long sigh. I paused for about ten seconds as I thought about what I needed to do. Screw it, time to get dirty. I raced into the swamp.

The monster here should be green vines that dropped down from the trees and strangled people while also poisoning them. That was if I was remembering correctly.

My speed plummeted as the water came up to my knees, but then the ground was soggy, so I sank up to my thighs if I wasn’t moving quickly enough. Swamp murk swirled around me making it impossible to see through the water and it was dark from the looming trees.

I had no idea what type of trees they were, but they appeared to have leaves, not needles. So deciduous trees, but I think that description implied changing with the seasons. There were no seasons in the Systemic Land as far as I could tell.

I kept my eyes peeled for any monsters, since that would be a clear indication I was on the wrong trail. It was also afternoon. I still had a couple hours of daylight left, but I wouldn’t be getting back to the city while it was still light out.

Trying to move through the water was a process. I had been hoping to be fast enough to run on top of it, unfortunately that wasn’t the case. Instead, I was forced to slog my way forward. This cemented in my mind how much I hated swamps.

I heard shouting up ahead and saw light. I soon spotted six people and they had just killed a vine monster. I wasn’t fast or quiet moving through the water and they spotted me.

“Stop, we want to make a deal,” one of them called out. I came to a halt in the swamp water carefully looking around and watching them. “We want to surrender and not be killed.”

Dammit, stop stealing stuff from Naran. “After all the headache you put me through?” I asked.

“We can be useful,” the man said. I kept wading through the water. There would be no sparing these people. They had wounded my soldiers, so trying to make peace would not be good. I needed wins to remind people why I was in charge.

“Please!” one of the other men cried out. I saw one of them making a hand gesture. I was in range, if a bit far. Time to act.

“Fire Shot!”

“Rock Lance!”

“Fire Shot!”

“Air Burst!” I used my skill as I jumped as much as I could. Water blasted out from around me. I went into the air and their attacks missed me. Acid Shot x6. One attack for each of them. That was why gestureless and silent were so powerful. I could use skills at the same time.

They tried to dodge, but with the water it was impossible to move quickly enough. They were all hit and began screaming. I splashed down back into the swamp water.

The water became murky with blood and melted viscera. The bottom halves of the men floating up towards the surface. One had ducked into the water, but my acid was only diluted, not countered. His skin and clothing were melted, but he was still alive as he screamed pitifully. Acid Shot.

I ended his suffering. Great, now to slog my way out of this hell. At least I should be out of the swamp before it was completely dark.

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