Chapter 1110: War of Establishment VII
From above the clouds of his storm, Leon watched the groups of arks patrol around his valley. The great war machines plowed through sheets of rain as easily as they plied the waves and depths of the ocean. Pulses of magic frequently emanated from the arks that were powerful enough to visibly shake the torrential downpour around them as they maintained a vigilant watch for any more potential ambushes.
A certain amount of pride was fostered in Leon’s heart at seeing his enemy respond to his tactics, even if it was dwarfed by his anger and outrage that they were present around his valley at all, killing his people and attempting to run him off from his new chosen home.
After a day spent watching the arks, he’d seen through their strategy. The magic pulses were irregular so that they couldn’t be tracked and exploited, while the patrols consisted of two to four arks depending on size and role. The arks had even spread themselves out more evenly instead of focusing solely on the southern and northern passes.
While they were smart adaptations, Leon still identified weaknesses in their siege strategy.
The greater presence in the west came at the expense of the other cardinal directions, and the pulses the arks were sending out were focused on the land beneath them and not the sky above them. Perhaps scanning the sky was too power intensive, maybe it slipped their mind that he might be above his storm clouds given how omnipresent they were around the valley, or for all he knew, the one running the siege was just stupid. Regardless of the reason, he identified blind spots above his storm clouds and decided to exploit that blind spot to the hilt.
This time, however, he wasn’t bringing an entire company, but instead only his most powerful and trusted followers. The Jaguar, Red, Cassandra, Maia, Valeria, Anzu, Anastasios, and Eva were the extent of his combat force. If the need arose, he was even willing to summon Xaphan.
The Aurichalcum Lances and their crews, meanwhile, were being reinstalled in their towers just in case another attack came when Leon made his move. He had other ideas for what to do with those Lances, but for the moment, they were put to best use on defense duty.
Now, he glared down at his target: a patrol consisting of two frigates, a destroyer, and a light cruiser. A powerful force, but the larger patrols also meant more space between the arks—this patrol was farther away from reinforcements than the two frigates he’d previously targeted. The closest patrol to this group was another of similar size to the south, and a group made up of a carrier, two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and four frigates. That was a group he wasn’t yet willing to attack, which meant he had to make this attack short and brutal so that he had time to get back across the misty veil before his watery foes could muster a proper response.
His opening move began hours ago, as he’d started calling down silver-blue lightning all over the valley and surrounding mountains. He directed a few bolts into some of the patrolling arks, but at such a range, his ability to damage them was limited. Still, the bolts did their job in drawing attention and keeping his opponent guessing about where he would strike next.