Chapter 34: I Want an Army That Can Cage a Monster Tide
[Troop Power Ranking settlement countdown: 02:56:11]
Cassian pushed the Regional Announcement window to the bottom of his interface. In front of Eclipse Muster Hall, the first Praetorian still stood beneath the black arch. Eira’s frontal impact had forced her back less than half a step. The sequence was capped at nine.
Right now, he had one. Veyra followed his gaze.
"Still thinking about first place?"
"I’m thinking about a monster tide."
She looked at Cassian. In the Regional Channel, Lucan had just pushed his low-grade troop count into four digits. Seraphine had not revealed her final number, but her recruitment records had not stopped. With less than three hours remaining, everyone was stuffing troops into their barracks for the Ranking. Cassian was thinking about the purchase request he had posted days ago—the one that still had not received a single response.
[Wanted: Monster Tide Lure]
When other people saw something like that, their first thought was whether their Domain would be overrun. Cassian saw an entire field of prey walking willingly into DEVOUR range. Not one lucky encounter with a Rare Monster. Not chasing down a scattered pack one beast at a time. He wanted to choose the time himself. Choose the ground himself. Make sure the final Monster fell close enough for him to reach out and touch it.
One complete monster tide. From the first roar to the last mouthful of Essence, all of it would belong to him. The idea had stayed with him for days, growing sharper instead of fading.
"How many low-grade troops are you recruiting?" Veyra asked.
"None."
"Then you’re planning to meet a monster tide with a little over a hundred troops?"
Cassian raised one hand and drew nine short lines in the dust of the plaza.
"Nine tower shields make the gate."
Behind each short line, he drew ten thinner marks.
"Ninety Legionnaires seal the road behind it."
"Everyone else cuts off the flanks, clears anything that slips through, and keeps a retreat route open."
Veyra lowered her gaze to the arc that had not yet closed.
"You don’t want to stop a monster tide."
"I want to cage it."
Cassian joined the final line.
"I decide where it enters, where it stops, and which beast is left at the end."
Veyra looked up. This time, she did not laugh at the size of his ambition.
"Then you’re eight gates short."
"So I’ll complete them now."
Cassian opened the recruitment interface.
[Eclipse Praetorian ×8]
[Cost: Aether Crystal ×96,000]
"Recruit all of them."
Eight dark-gold patterns lit simultaneously in the depths of the Hall.
[The first unit has completed sequence initialization.]
[Units of the same sequence may now be recruited as a parallel batch.]
Heavy footsteps thundered from the Hall. Eight Praetorians emerged from the arch one after another and took their places beside the first. Nine tower shields struck the ground at once.
BANG!
The black-and-gold shield wall stretched across the plaza like a section of city wall rising from beneath the earth. Veyra walked the length of it. None of the nine Praetorians greeted Veyra with the salutes or titles of her past. They simply tightened their grips on their tower shields and waited for Cassian’s orders.
"All nine," she said.
"The space behind the gate is still empty."
Cassian selected the second troop sequence.
[Eclipse Legionnaire | Rare]
[Recruitment: 1,200 Aether Crystal each]
"Ninety."
[Cost: Aether Crystal ×108,000]
[Confirm?]
"Confirm."
[Aether Crystal: 416,466 → 308,466]
Footsteps sounded one after another inside the black arch. Ninety Legionnaires marched out of the Hall in formation, long shields and short spears at the ready, their black-and-gold armor gleaming in the late-morning light. They filed into position behind the nine Praetorians. The formation quickly filled most of the plaza, leaving only a narrow lane through its center.
[Active Troops: 42 → 140]
[Troop Power: 4,420 → 8,400]
Eight thousand four hundred. Seraphine had not published her final score. No one knew how far she had pushed it. Cassian looked at the number once, then closed the interface. He wanted first place.
But if this army could do nothing except display a number at settlement, it was not worth the 204,000 Aether he had spent on it. He walked to the nine tower shields.
"The old hunting grounds to the west."
"Twenty minutes."
"Advance in nine groups. Merge formation upon contact. If any group pursues beyond the shield line, the entire group returns immediately."
Veyra asked, "You’re taking them out the moment they’re recruited?"
"I want to know whether this gate can close."
"The Monster Tide Lure hasn’t appeared."
"So we’ll test it on a small pack first."
***
The first sortie did not go far. Each Praetorian led ten Legionnaires west, while Cassian’s existing troops split between the flanks. When the first pack of Monsters burst out of the low woods, the group on the far right advanced two steps beyond its assigned position. Cassian did not correct them.
Only when three sections of the shield line began to close did he raise a hand.
"Third group on the right. Hold."
Those extra two steps locked the gap at exactly the right moment. The nine tower shields turned one after another. The Monsters crashed into the shield wall. Stormlance cut off their retreat from the flank. Short spears stabbed through the spaces between shields, and by the end of the first volley, the nine groups had joined into a complete arc. No one pursued.
No one fought over the final blow. When the last Monster fell at the center of the arc, Cassian stood three steps away. He stared at the corpse for one breath. Too small.
The ground was not dangerous enough either. But the shape he wanted was already there.
"Return."
The new army had left Forgotten Shrine for the first time, and for the first time, every one of them returned. Fresh claw marks scored the tower shields. All ninety Legionnaires were still in their positions. Veyra ran a fingertip over one of the marks.
"Satisfied now?"
"I’m still missing one thing."
"The Lure?"
Cassian looked at the closed formation.
"I want it."
It was more than a preference. It was a claim. If a Monster Tide Lure appeared, he would pay whatever he could afford to get it.
***
At that exact moment, the rattle of wheels came through the broken outer walls of Forgotten Shrine.
[Wandering Caravan]
The caravan master climbed down and saw the black-and-gold formation that had just returned. His steps slowed for an instant before he opened the inventory list for Cassian. Ordinary weapons. Armor. Repair tools. Seeds. Old maps. Cassian scrolled all the way to the bottom.
"Where’s the Monster Tide Lure?"
The caravan master shook his head.
"We don’t have one. Very few people deliberately carry such a thing into a newcomer region."
"Anything with a similar effect?"
"Nothing."
Only one item remained at the end of the list, marked separately in red.
[Epic Hero Sigil]
The quoted price ran into seven digits.
"The most expensive item in this caravan," the caravan master said. "With your current balance, you can’t afford it."
But Cassian was not looking at the caravan’s Sigil. There was another one in his own storage—an Epic Hero Sigil whose value everyone understood. It was valuable enough to bring anyone sitting on a Lure to the trading table.
Cassian raised a hand and withdrew the ordinary purchase request that had been sitting unanswered for days. A new listing immediately lit up on the Regional Exchange.
[Epic Hero Sigil ×1]
[Specified exchange: Monster Tide Lure ×1]
[Aether not accepted. No other items accepted.]
Veyra read the final line, then looked at his face.
"Seven digits in exchange for a problem someone else wants destroyed?"
"It isn’t a problem."
Cassian looked toward the nine tower shields in the plaza.
"It’s the battle this army is missing."
Less than ten seconds after the listing went live, Elara’s name lit up.