Chapter 299: Nothing Left in Reserve
Aurelia drank several bottles of Life Water. Lightning surged around her, and her answer rolled across the sky with the thunder.
"He’s strong. Give me ten minutes!"
The next burst swallowed Damon in a blaze of white. His face paled as he brought his sword up to meet it.
On Seabreaker, Elara let out a breath.
"Yesterday, I thought we’d win only after crippling Divine Province. This is going far better than I expected."
"Who could have expected those two armies?" Tobias laughed. "The Dawnwings, the Eclipse Legionnaires—and four fighters at the very top of Legendary Nine-Star!"
Darian finally looked away from the sky.
"Three Heroes and even a Praetorian that strong." He turned toward Cassian. "Surely you’ve run out of surprises now?"
Cassian considered the question seriously.
He had finished expanding the two corps with a hundred and forty billion Battle Essence still in reserve. With that much to spend, he could bring hundreds of suitable troops to Nine-Star as the battle required. Thousands of Legendary Troop Souls were already waiting in his storage, bought through the Exchange in preparation.
Or he could put that Battle Essence toward a full Faerie Dragon corps—more than a thousand, raised to the current Level cap. He would have to build the Nest from its stored Blueprint and pay the recruitment costs first, of course. The thought alone was pleasant enough.
Beyond that, what did he have?
Bramrik, his Peacebringer. Mythic Lethria. Sylvara, happily tending the fields at home. The Crystal Maidens. The Enlightenment Tea Tree, Ancient Tree of Life, Fountain, and Folded Sanctuary...
Celia had already spent her nurtured strike on the Temple, so he could hardly count that one again.
Cassian sighed.
"Really, there’s hardly anything left."
Letting the world see four exceptional Legendary fighters was certainly better than revealing a forbidden troop like the Peacebringer.
Nessa tilted her face up toward him.
"We’re strong now too, Cassian. Even if you’ve used everything, we can protect you!"
He rested a hand on her head and smiled.
"Good. I’ll leave my safety to you from now on."
Elara rolled her eyes.
"How many times have we heard this? However strong the enemy is, Divine Province always has just enough to win. Exactly enough."
She glanced at him.
"I expect today will be much the same."
Darian’s expression changed.
"Now that you mention it... You do seem very good at choosing how close a victory looks." He shook his head at Nessa. "You’re the only one innocent enough to believe he’s run out of cards."
He appeared to have forgotten his own question moments earlier.
Nessa gave a patient little sigh.
"A woman doesn’t have to point out everything she knows."
Cassian burst out laughing. Darian reached over and thoroughly ruffled her hair.
"You little schemer."
"Darian! Stop that!"
She caught his wrist, trying to push his hand away while he laughed. Cassian watched for a moment, then put on a stern expression.
"Leave Nessa alone. We’re still at war, and we’re supposed to be leading the Province. Don’t make a spectacle of yourselves."
He was too late.
Several broadcasters had kept their views on Seabreaker’s deck. The little exchange went out to Lords all over the Homeworld.
[Were Divine Province’s leaders just fooling around?]
[There’s a battle raging right beside them. They look as though they’ve come out for a holiday.]
The Western Beacon and Black Banner viewers were considerably less amused.
[Our soldiers are fighting, and they stand there laughing! They have no respect for us!]
The Crown Lords answered immediately.
[Give them a stronger enemy, then. If they don’t tell a few jokes, they’ll fall asleep.]
[It must be lonely when no one can give you a proper fight.]
Furious replies followed, to the delight of those who had provoked them.
Some of the women watching had taken an interest in something else entirely.
[Nessa is adorable. I’m going to Divine Province. I want a picture with her.]
[Take me along! Though I’d rather stand beside Cassian.]
The battle was going so well that the Crown’s audience had begun to wander from the subject.
——
Five minutes later, Damon launched a sudden flurry of attacks.
Aurelia met them. Before she could strike back, he dropped sharply toward the ships below.
"I’ll spare your life today!"
He was fleeing.
The sight struck the coalition harder than another lost ship could have done. Celia was already cutting through its Legendary troops almost at will. If that Dawnwing joined her, who was supposed to stop them both?
"General Veylan!" Tavian roared. "You’re our strongest fighter! Even if you have to die, you cannot retreat!"
Despite the Dragon and Divine Province’s powerful Nine-Stars, the coalition still had more high-Quality troops. It could still fight.
Damon snapped back without slowing.
"Then why don’t you die?"
Aurelia was furious too.
She had told Celia she would kill this disgusting man. Now he was trying to run away halfway through the job.
"Damon Veylan! Don’t scurry off with your tail between your legs! Isn’t the Black Banner always talking about honor?"
Her thunderous voice carried for dozens of kilometers. Every broadcast caught it.
Damon’s face darkened. A Hero from a newcomer sector had driven him to this, in front of the entire Homeworld.
Humiliation was preferable to death.
After all those exchanges, he knew what he was facing. He had broken her ward once, when she was occupied with another attack. He could not keep breaking it, and he had found no way to hurt the woman behind it.
He kept descending.
The Spiritbinder struggling against Maren saw him go. So did Iver Caldus, still hard pressed by Liora. Both began giving ground.
"Lord! We should withdraw for now and make a new plan!"
Cassian’s laughter rose from Seabreaker.
"The coalition’s War Marshals are running! Divine Province, we’ve won! Cut them down!"
His voice was meant as much for the enemy Lords as for his own people.
"Don’t listen to him!" Tavian shouted. "We have not fled!"
Cassian answered at once.
"Then why are you pulling your strongest fighters out of the battle?"
There was no answer that could change what everyone had seen.
At Cassian’s command, Aurelia and Liora turned their attacks on the surrounding enemy forces. Maren needed no order from Darian. She seized the opening herself.
Five powerful Nine-Star fighters and a Divine Dragon swept into the coalition’s ranks.
Its resolve began to break.
"The generals are leaving. Why should we stay here and die?"
"Half our fleet’s gone already!"
"Fall back?"
"Fall back!"
Its ships had fared badly, but at least eighty percent of its powerful Heroes and troops were still alive. Had they held together and fought to the end, they could have inflicted terrible losses on Divine Province.
Instead, the first retreat spread. One force pulled away, then another, each encouraged by the sight of the others leaving.
Their strongest man had shown them what to do.
Even Cassian had not expected it to happen so quickly.
"This is a Black Banner War Marshal?" He shook his head. "Hadrian Noll put up more of a fight last time."
A chance like this was too good to waste.
He sent his strongest fighters after the retreating enemy, with the Dawnwing corps, Eclipse corps, and Ghost fleet driving forward behind them. Darian and the others followed his lead at once.
Now the position Cassian had chosen for the battle began to show its value.