Among the groups of soldiers running towards the now-stationary globes of the Axelorian Army, Daneel who was disguised as Kellor couldn't help but smile seeing their confusion.
Indeed, his 'modification' of the arrows had been to add space lock trinkets to them in the shafts.
After all, each arrow was half as thick as a man's fist, making it so that there was enough space to hollow out a small portion to add a hidden compartment.
Although it was a small trick, Daneel had had to think long and hard on it before deciding to implement it.
The main factor was the cost. Space lock trinkets weren't cheap in any way, with each costing around 1000 Gold Lans due to the high attainments in Space Elementary Particles required for the enchanting to succeed.
Thus, deploying space lock trinkets in this way was simply a method of burning money.
Yet, the thing that had pushed Daneel to make the decision was something he remembered from Earth:
War was the most profitable business in the entire world.
Indeed, in its history, there were many wars which had been caused solely due to the fact that they would result in more purchases of goods and weapons.
Regardless of who caused them, in the end, the only ones that profited were usually those who could take advantage of the situation to provide whatever was necessary, or to plunder when they had the chance.
Daneel's plan was simple: as a force which had existed since centuries, the Withering Leaf Sect definitely had huge reserves of energy resources that would fall into his hands if he played his cards right to win this battle.
Besides, this war had started because of his decision to let himself be injured by the Tenebrous Flame.
Now, if he didn't ensure that everything was under his control, Daneel wouldn't have been able to live with the guilt.
Thus, tapping into the reserves of the Kingdom which were usually kept for day-to-day activities, Daneel took the gamble to use one million Gold Lans to fit numerous arrows with the space lock trinkets.
The soldiers manning the ballistae had been clearly informed as to which arrows were which. As the trinkets weren't very sturdy, it was required that they had to be shot into the ground instead of at the globes.
Also, it was important that none of the globes were destabilized due to the attacks.
This was because if one of them did destabilize, the usual action of the Lanthanorian Army would be to teleport over strike teams to attack.
Yet, this wouldn't be possible as the space would be locked.
Thus, the Axelorians would be alerted seeing that there were no attacks, which might push them to retreat beforehand or to discover that the space was locked.
Hence, the soldiers had been careful to miss most of the time, along with making sure that the space lock trinket arrows were spread out in the battlefield to ensure complete coverage.
The purpose of the opaque barriers had been to hide this fact from the enemy.
Thankfully, everything had gone without a hitch.
The overall goal right now was to end this war with as fewer casualties as possible.
The aim of the plan was simple: lock the soldiers of the Axelorian army in place before catching them off guard to cause disastrous losses.
The elites didn't matter, as they would mostly be outfitted with space lock-breaking trinkets.
Thus, their targets were the Amateur and Eminent Humans.
Even if they were equipped with space lock-breaking trinkets, they would take too long to activate them due to their weaker strength.
All Daneel wanted was to maul this army enough in order to make them run away with their tail between their legs again.
For this purpose, except Cassandra who was ordered to stay on the wall due to her weaker body when compared to the others, the rest of the commanders had set out along with him to begin their attack.
Daneel, Aran and Luther had each split into three groups targeting three specific globes.
Although the three commanders had voiced a little concern over this matter stating that it wasn't safe, they had let it go as the King had already shown his power in the Palace.
In fact, although Daneel had the option to stay back on the walls to direct everything, he had made the decision to enter the battlefield for one reason:
He was slowly becoming addicted to that feeling he had gotten when showing his power in the Palace.
Other than this, he also knew that chances like these were rare: there was practically no risk of dying, as he would have the time to utilize his own space-lock breaking trinket to escape if he was attacked by multiple strong parties.
As the group reached the globe they had targeted, Daneel's second plan began to be deployed.
After gathering around the globe, the mages in the Lanthanorian army first deployed more of the opaque barrier trinkets which were on the walls.
Unlike what the Axelorian Commander had thought, these actually had no defensive power. Their only aim was to block vision, making it so that they were actually quite cheap.
After deploying them, Eminent Human Fighters ran forward holding spears whose ends were peculiar.
They were like shovels, with a flat, rectangular edge that was thrust under the globe in a smooth motion.
Indeed, the Axelorians hadn't had enough time to hunker down like usual to drive the edges of the globe into the ground.
Because it held 500 people, the globe had a diameter of 30 meters.
After 100 Eminent Human Fighters had successfully wedged their shovel-like spears inside, 100 Eminent Human Mages walked forward and held up their hands to conjure a triangular structure made of earth at the halfway point of the spear.
Indeed, this was a simple lever.
Right as the triangle that was the fulcrum finished forming, 10 Amateur Human Fighters ran forward and jumped onto the shaft of the spear.
As the spear had been specially made with this purpose in mind, its length of 3 meters was enough to accommodate all 10 people.
BANG
With a sound that reminded Daneel vaguely of that which came when a sealed bottle was opened on Earth, the globe flew into the air due to the instantaneous force caused by the lever. Although the shafts had bent slightly when the fighters had jumped onto it, this only served to increase the force at the other end.
In this process, the hands of the Axelorian Amateur Human Fighters who were holding the rungs of the globe were also injured as they had been holding onto the globe when it was blasted away.
As the Eminent Human Mage in the center of the globe witnessed this perfect execution, no words came out of his mouth.
What….was this?
So everything had been planned out to result in this situation?
As this realization dawned on him, indignation and fury clouded his face due to the fact that they had allowed themselves to be hoodwinked by their most hated enemies.
In Central Angaria, Axelor was quite famous for one thing: its ability to inculcate in its soldiers and people a feeling of patriotism which drove them to do whatever was necessary when the time arose.
This came into full effect at this moment. With a snarl, the Eminent Human Mage conjured 2 fireballs before aiming them at the Lanthanorians in front of him.
Yet, his face froze even before he could shoot his attack as something had clubbed him on his head, knocking him out.
It was Daneel, who had immediately conjured a simple rock in the air before hitting the mage with it.
"Engage. Knock them out if possible, but if you can't, do not hesitate to go for the kill."
Hearing the orders, the Eminent Human Fighters lead the charge. Equipped with a buckler in one hand and a short sword in another, they quickly began to incapacitate the Axelorian Amateur Human Fighters on the outside while the Lanthanorian Mages shot forward spells to occupy the Eminent Human Fighters and Amateur Human Mages of the other army.
The strategy here was simple: the Amateur Human Fighters of Lanthanor followed behind the Eminent ones, either giving support or disarming the soldiers already defeated.
The Eminent Fighters of Axelor were kept at bay due to the spells being shot at them, and the Amateur Mages were trying their best to counter these spells. Yet, with their Eminent Human Mage gone, the Axelorian Group looked like they would be defeated soon.
As Daneel observed everything, he noted that casualties were already beginning to appear on his side due to the desperation of the Axelorians.
Especially as one downed Amateur Human Fighter plunged his sword into the private parts of one of his soldiers who was walking on unaware that that soldier was alive, Daneel threw aside his decision to preserve his strength to handle the elites if needed.
Just as he was about to conjure rocks to knock out all the other soldiers too by disregarding the strain it would place on him, an arrow flew in from the barrier which he narrowly dodged.
Yet, as he looked back, the arrow impaled 5 of his soldiers before coming to a stop.
It seemed that an elite had arrived at the spot.