Chapter 20: Battle against Outliers III
Thousands of 5th stars. Hundreds of 6th stars. Dozens of 7th stars.
This was an army unlike anything seen, or at least in this part of the world. This was an army that could make even the greatest empires tremble. And that wasn’t counting the numerous outliers that had arrived with them.
The five soldiers who returned with the report had no choice but to return to call for reinforcements from their legions.
The grand commanders of the Sunblade Legion, Radiant Legion, and the Darkan family stepped forward with their elite 6th star subordinates. This wasn’t a battle they could afford to chip away at. Attrition would only drain them before they ever reached the 7th stars.
They knew it in their bones: one of them would not leave this battlefield alive. Thousands of their men would die. But they could not and would not let the enemy cross into their lands.
The chaos and destruction they would bring would be unimaginable.
So, they stilled their hearts, surged into the chaos, and tore through the frontline toward the heart of the outlier formation, toward the enemy’s strongest.
As they approached, the 6th stars on both sides withdrew. The energy radiating from the battlefield was overwhelming even for them.
And like that, the battlefield split into three.
Ironically, the smallest skirmish zone with the 7th stars took up the most space.
Three 7th stars for the empire against thirty-one for the outliers.