A/n: How do you guys find the new Book Cover?
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The trench was now all bare and open, the road to the enemy base was completely unhindered, and the Satanists were stunned, frantically trying to reorganize their forces when Adam suddenly turned the situation on its head.
"100% all forces through the South Trench! Defensive positions are to hold the lines! I want the tanks to coordinate an advance. Cover for each other and overwhelm the enemy tanks. This battle ends now!"
Adam spewed all the commands he could through the handset of a radio pack and charged the enemy base from the south, pouring 100% of all his power into one point. He didn't know what to expect in the enemy base, but assumed it could only be a force equal to his.
His first action was to flank the defensive line of machine gunners, snipers, and tank hunters that were guarding the southern portion of no man's land. He wanted this defensive line overtaken, and he was charging it himself, shooting and slashing at whoever he met in his way.
Lots of Satanists perished to his relentless attack, and he managed to eradicate the tank hunters before getting forced back by a supporting squad of Satanists that was just freshly spawned. His squad would take time to reach this base from his base, but he had his team in defensive firing positions in order to inflict as much damage as possible while staying alive for as much time as possible.
With the tank hunters gone, the southern Battlemaster tank appeared through no man's land and pushed effortlessly against sniper fire, firing its turrets indiscriminately at the exposed defensive line and scaling it. Before a Sin Eater could charge the Battlemaster, a large unit of soldiers appeared from behind with tank hunter gear, disabling the Sin Eater and allowing the Battlemaster to stand uncontested over the Satanists' base.
"FIRE IT ALL!"
And with a shout from Adam, all the tank's weapon systems went online. Three machine guns and one cannon all started blasting at the incoming Satanist forces, the tank mowing down squads in the blink of an eye before rolling down the fortified earthen rampart and providing cover for Adam's crew beneath it.
The Satanists tried to push back by splitting their forces, one to defend and another to rush out the northern trench and attempt to reach Adam's base; however, Adam had set the other tank on defense mode, covered it by tank hunters to stop the Sin Eater at the north, and made sure to cover the northern and mid trench at the same time.
As for his front, he was in a balanced state between a reckless assault and a surgical attack, mowing down a large chunk of the enemy force and denying them the opportunity to produce Sin Eaters by collapsing their underground bunkers that were spread all over.
Finally, and after some well-thought-out destruction, Adam had the enemies locked in a struggle at their main bunker and had to smoke them out with grenades and heavy fire, not following conventional tactics, but rather relying on immense firepower to simply shoot blindly at all dark corners.
With that, it only needed the Battlemaster tank to aim its cannon and fire a well-placed shell into the main bunker, collapsing it in an exaggerated blast that sent a ball of fire to the sky.
> VICTORY!
Adam saw the announcement and felt an immense feeling of exhaustion wash over him before finally deciding to lean forward and rest against the tank's frame.
There were no cheers of victory, and he felt his adrenaline spike finally cool down, his body turning a bit stiff, but as he looked around, he felt the change of ambient atmosphere and lighting, going from a gloomy gray sky to a dark red sky.
Everything went dark, and he knew what it meant. The Iron Maiden had finally given in and allowed him access to Kave's Simulation.
That's what he was here for all this time.
He looked around at his soldiers this time and saw them all looking at him, as if waiting for commands. He breathed in and out before fixing his posture and organizing his thoughts.
"Sister Solana!" He called as his head was calculating, "I want you to move everything from the original bunker to this one: exit point, soldiers, tanks, bombard, and even my runes."
> MESSAGE (SOLANA) — "I possess the ability to reposition all these elements, Brother-Commander, save for the Exit Point, which is fixed in accordance with the Script Laws of the Machine and the Sacred Code."
"Fine!" Adam massaged his right temple from the feeling of lightheadedness he was having and nodded, "Then clean up the main trench for our retreat."
> MESSAGE (SOLANA) — "Acknowledged."
With that, Adam watched as all his units were transferred and organized nearby, rows of units, each a squad, with enough numbers to form a large platoon of 80 soldiers.
Add two tanks to the mix, and this felt like a dream team. Adam then gave the signal, and all units started moving past the destroyed trench bunker into a new battlefield.
This time, it wasn't some three trenches and no man's land in the middle; it was a maze of trenches that extended to no end, and the sky would occasionally brighten up and dim down as the howls of a great beast lit the sky.
Adam had his runes nearby, and so he positioned them in one place right beside the destroyed bunker and set them to produce more reinforcements. He wasn't sure what the Iron Maiden had in store for him, but he knew he must get to Kave.
"Advance! Clear up the nearby trenches. Destroy any den of heresy you find. Go!"
As a Justiciar Commander, Adam chose to stay in the back lines this time, watching as the tanks rolled over the trenches, crossing them cleanly without falling, covered by the infantry units that were checking for tank mines or traps. A minute later, Satanist presence was confirmed, and a small skirmish happened, ending with total victory for Adam's Bellarium even without him stepping in.
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
Tanaka Kaito was a young man of little talent, not the type that would get one a lot of money; rather, his only non-latent talent and hobby was a bit too costly on the money front, Wartopia being pricey and all, but a young man of his small stature and baby face would have never found his newest talent without a situation like that.
He knew he was outnumbered massively; he realized that something had messed with the simulation, and he knew that if he died, he would wake up eventually, but he said, "No! Fuck it! I'll fight this shit!"… in broken Japanese, of course.
But he did, and he never stopped fighting for hours.
In a frontal assault, if he fought like a regular Man-at-Arms, he wouldn't have lasted through the third round. For that, he realized that he needed to "improvise, adapt, and overcome." He knew he was good at fighting, but little did he know that this three-word mantra would be where he shines.
The first thing he did was to ditch his clothes before covering himself in dirt and mud all over.
Second, he made sure that his load was light and that his retreat routes were prepared with small stashes of weapons and Stimshots if he were to ever need them.
Third, he started improvising traps, breaking wooden parts, and creating makeshift barricades, grenade traps, and when he got the Terrain Manipulator, he even made pitfall traps—all of that while a dragon was wreaking havoc in his surroundings, which was luckily not aimed solely at him.
Fourth, he made tunnels and foxholes all over the area, places where a small person like him would enter and crawl through to come from another area behind the enemies.
The gear he collected from each level kept adding to his survival options, and he wasn't shy about wanting to survive; so not shy, he started finding himself fighting and crawling more than simply rushing into the trenches against enemy fire.
Then, as he went on, his traps got better, his techniques were improved, and he became more daring, now jumping between enemies with a blade and cutting them down with a flurry of attacks before they could even respond, then rushing back again to a tunnel and collapsing it after himself.
For a moment there, he forgot about everything. He forgot about the dragon, about the Wartopians, about Adam, about Elena, about everything. He was back again, in the place he was most familiar with, the area where his demons haunted him for a hundred days and a hundred nights; those demons weren't anything special, it turned out.
Now that he had a weapon that could cut them down and another that could shoot holes in them, he was hunting the demons, breaking their morale, coming from behind to spray them with bolts, or from below to assassinate them with knives.
He was happy; every time he found demons, he was happier than he could believe. He was killing them left and right, and his dreams were coming true, so when he saw a face that was not that of a demon, his smile froze. His rifle didn't go down, but he still faced the men that came looking for him, with their leader facing him with a grim face.
"NO! Omae notto realu janai! Notto… notto again!" He said, grimacing and shouting, realizing that this time, it wasn't the dream he wished for.
"Stand down, soldier. You have fought enough." Adam approached him, surrounded by a squad of battle-hardened Men-at-Arms, covering the sky as the dragon was being chased away by a volley from machine sluggers. Adam was in a neat Justiciar outfit, the kind that suited a man so perfectly that it felt as if he was born to wear it. He extended his hand and spoke firmly, as if the battle he must have been through hadn't weighed one bit on his mind, "It's over!"
Kave couldn't believe what he was hearing; his body shook, and he refused the notion.
"Nothing…" He struggled, putting his brain circuit back in order to speak naturally once again, "Nothing is over!" He said, fists whitening around his weapon, "Nothing! You don't just come and turn it off."
Adam watched his friend silently, frustration clear in his voice, and he saw through his friend's feelings as clear as day. He looked at the weapon in Kave's hand, at the preparations he must have made, and at the way he was willing to fight.
Kave was going crazy with tunnel vision for the sole objective of overcoming the greatest enemy he had ever known: the Dragon.
It may be the reason why he caused a manifestation of a dragon in the Iron Maiden simulation, why he, despite everything, chose to stay and fight, and why he wanted utter revenge against the monster that slew his family. With Adam emerging right in front of him, he wasn't happy or thrilled; he realized that this dream he was having of getting stronger on a straight path wasn't a reality he was thrust into, but a fabrication of the Sacred Code.
"It's alright." Adam's voice spoke clearly to him, cutting through the dark, heavy thoughts he was having, "Take my hand, soldier."
For a second there, Kave's resentment slipped, seeing the face of the one he trusted most in the world. And as that part of resentment went away, it all started to crumble piece by piece, and he felt his heart lighten. He extended his hand and took Adam's, finally letting the latter pull him up.
"You didn't have to come and save me from myself," Kave said, looking around the field of battle. "I would die and just get out on my own."
This time, it was Adam's turn to frown:
"I hate to break it to you, buddy, but I didn't come to save you from a dragon," Adam said, causing Kave to blink twice at him. Then with a serious face, he continued, "I came to save the Dragon from you."
"Son of a bitch!"
The two men grinned as they looked up together at the sky, the dragon making a full circle in the air and finally looking down on them. Kave faced the Dragon, his smile fading and his madness coming again.
"Adam-kun! Let's go together in a blaze of glory."
As he was about to charge, mad as the descending dragon, Adam caught him by his arm with a far less enthusiastic tone.
"Nope, fire hurts! I have an exit that way."
Dragging Kave in the other direction, the two departed from the field of battle as Adam had finally fulfilled his mission, saving what was left of the sanity of his friend and running as fast as they could towards an exit far outside this level.
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So, an important note to my dear readers. I am intending to release Book 1 of Wartopia (from chapter 1 to 47) on Kindle, and to do so, I am doing a revisit to those chapters, editing, and changing some minor details. I know it is unsavory to change things that were already established, but so far, I am only doing very minor changes that wouldn't affect anything already established. Here are the first three points I intend to change, hopefully nothing more in the future:-
1. Venuxian → Venusian (I don't even know why I used the X, I'm such a sucker for the rule of cool)
2. Star Paladins → Paladin (I've removed "Star" from Paladins since I was fixated on 2-word names when I actually didn't need to, so just call them Paladins, and the word alone is just cool af)
3. The Puppeteer Rune will have an extra condition, which will require Adam's Puppet to be CRAFTED by him or some extension of him, like his summons. This doesn't change anything in the past plot, but tightens the whole where Adam could simply turn anything into a Puppet, which many of you kept asking about.