Israel dashed forward and firmly grabbed the commander by the collar. He then turned to the soldiers
and warned, "If you want your commander alive, surrender now!"
The soldiers shot each other nervous and frightened stares.
"What are you waiting for? Surrender to him!" the commander, fearing for his own life, immediately
ordered his troops without a second thought.
Yet the soldiers still hesitated, uncertain of what to do next.
"You can't surrender!" A loud voice suddenly boomed before a figure floated over and landed directly in
front of Israel.
"It's you!" Israel exclaimed as he immediately recognized the figure standing before him as Basil.
"Have we met before?" Rocky asked, pretending to not know Israel at all.
The latter's eyes widened in disbelief. He managed to successfully disguise himself during his previous
altercation with Rocky so it was no surprise that he wouldn't be recognized.
"Who the hell are you? What do you want? Whether we surrender or not is none of your business!" the
commander shouted furiously at Rocky, his nerves slowly getting the better of him.
Rocky showed him the token Devin gave him before he began to explain, "This is an official
authorization from Commander Devin. The commander of the Cloud Castle has surrendered to the
enemy in fear of death. He has been dismissed from his post. From now on, the soldiers of the Cloud
Castile will be under my command!"
"Don't believe his nonsense!" the pale-looking commander shouted helplessly.
"Soldiers, listen to me! Retreat into the Cloud Castle!" Rocky turned around after ordering the soldiers
before striding towards the Cloud Castle's gate.
The soldiers didn't dare to disobey him and decided to follow him closely.
Not long after, in the front of the Cloud Castle was empty with only Israel handling the surrendered
commander.
Israel never expected Rocky to appear out of nowhere and take charge of the Cloud Castle so quickly.
This meant one thing—he would be his next opponent.
"Tie him up!" Israel commanded his soldiers. He decided not to kill the commander immediately
because he might be able to provide him with some valuable information.
Rocky swiftly summoned all the soldiers upon entering the Cloud Castle.
"Commander Zhang has given up the castle and surrendered to the enemy. You've seen with your own
eyes that he's been captured. From here on out, I will be in charge. I don't have any special
requirements so you can continue to follow the previous deployment instructions for the battle.
However, don't risk your lives defending the castle walls from the enemy. Retreat from behind as soon
as possible if you feel that you can no longer hold them off," Rocky explained the details to his new set
of soldiers as clearly as possible.
The troops were confused and baffled as to why Rocky would want them to do so.
"May we know your name, commander?" a deputy commander stepped forward and asked.
"Of course. I'm Basil!"
Immediately, a buzzing wave of excitement ran through the crowd upon hearing his name.
"Could it be this is the famous Commander Basil?"
"Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see him in the flesh!"
"They say he's a master of numerous mysterious military arrays—a true war expert!"
For a moment, all the soldiers present were overwhelmed by Rocky's presence.
"You all may leave now. Back to your positions!" Once Rocky dismissed the troops, he summoned the
two deputy commanders to a private conversation with him.
"During the upcoming battles, the soldiers of the Cloud Castle will be under your joint command,"
Rocky ordered.
"But… what about you?" The two deputy commanders exchanged a curious glance.
"I have other plans in mind. You both just remember what I said and do your jobs well. Agreed?" Rocky
emphasized.
The two deputy commanders nodded in unison, solidifying their agreement.
Rocky then left the Cloud Castile to join the independent army.
"How did it go?" Eunice asked once she noticed him draw near.
"I've got everything settled," Rocky replied reassuringly.
"I didn't expect the commander of the Cloud Castle to be such a coward!" Carla remarked sternly.
"He's gotten too comfortable with being flattered constantly. I bet he wouldn't know what to do when
things turned sour," Rocky calmly added.
"So what's our next move?" Eunice continued to ask.
"Let's wait until the Shura Race attacks the Cloud Castle," Rocky replied.
"What if they won't do it?" Carla asked.
"They will. They'll do whatever they can to retrieve the Cloud Castle's deployments from the
commander. There's no reason they'd forget about that! They'd attack as soon as possible, leaving no
time for any other possible changes to their plan," Rocky affirmed. He knew Israel well and, judging by
his personality, he wouldn't be the type to return from a battle empty-handed. Now that it was confirmed
the Cloud Castle's deployments couldn't be changed so easily, Israel would take advantage of this by
pushing through with the assault.
Soon enough, everything occurred just as Rocky had predicted. The next day, the spearhead of the
Shura Race carried out an attack on the Cloud Castle under Israel's command.
Before long, an intense fire spread within and out of the castle, soaring into the sky like an eagle taking
flight. Relying on their strong advantage, the spearhead of the Shura Race soon occupied the city wall
and opened the city gate.
Soon, the entire army broke through the Cloud Castle's barriers.
Fortunately, the Cloud Castle's army retreated quickly the moment they lost the castle, just as Rocky
had ordered them to do earlier.
Eventually, the Cloud Castle was reduced to an empty city.
At that moment, several flying beasts flew over to the castle from out of nowhere. Dangling from each
of their feet hung a huge pot of boiling hot oil.
In the blink of an eye, the pots dropped from the sky and fell towards the Cloud Castle, immediately
scalding the soldiers below with the hot oil.
While the Shura Race soldiers were still caught in a daze, they witnessed countless burning arrows
blazing through the sky from outside the city and heading straight towards them. As the arrows pierced
the ground, the flames ignited the hot oil and soon enveloped the entire Cloud Castle in a smoldering
inferno.
"Commander in chief, we've fallen into the enemy's trap! We need to do something now!" Israel
shouted at Alonso.
"Damn it! Everyone, retreat now!" Alonso immediately ordered. He didn't expect the human army to
play such a dirty trick.
Following his command, the spearhead army rushed for the city gate.
Meanwhile, Rocky's army had already set up an ambush in front of it, waiting for them as they were
positioned in a powerful array.
It didn't take long before the Shura Race soldiers rushed into their trap and were instantly annihilated.
After losing around a few thousand soldiers, Alonso finally pointed out the ambush and was utterly
shocked.
"Israel, focus on breaking up their array!" Alonso ordered anxiously.
Israel frowned at his harsh tone. Although feeling reluctant to be bossed around, he still leaped up into
the sky and dashed towards the city gate. When he looked at the ground below him, he saw a strange
array outside the city that even he couldn't see through.
"Wait! That is a mysterious military array! I can't believe such a powerful master exists in the human
race!" Israel exclaimed, taken aback by the array before him.
The mysterious military arrays were not ordinary tricks. Even if Israel was a peak-level Spiritual
Emperor, it would be impossible for him to break the array if he couldn't discover its flaws.
He decided against directly breaking into it and instead stood on top of the city wall to watch.
It took Israel about an hour to finally figure out the flaws in the mysterious array. He quickly hopped
down and went straight to its center.
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