On the other side, the Spikeking was almost rolling on the ground with laughter along with his subordinates.
He had spent the last six hours dutifully teaching the troops assigned to him about tactics that could be used when one was defending a position. They were taught to respond correctly when formations were breached, to stand and fight in groups with shields in front of them, to move forward in retreat according to the ebb and flow of the battle, and to quickly reach a position if it needed to be reinforced.
There were many such skills, each of which needed to be demonstrated multiple times using clones, and after everything was done, they had to check the module given to them. If it glowed, it meant that they had been successful, and if they weren't, they had to repeat themselves more clearly.
Apparently, the war simulation was meant to teach many things, and one of them was to impress on people just how difficult it was to pass on information. Hence, if one learned in situations like these where they had to make themselves as clear as possible, they would be able to replicate the same in tense situations where they might have to do the same thing with the stakes being much larger.
After laughing himself hoarse, though, he looked at the one who had thrown out all expectations once again and saw that he wasn't sharing in his happiness.
As Daneel saw that the man had finished showing his emotions, he spoke up.
"This is just a small trick that I got the idea for. We already know the kind of reply that they always give to people who dig in, so I wanted to let him know that we are not that easy. From here, he will start doing new things, so we should be all the more alert. No matter how much time passes, we have to stick to our plan. By the way… Do you like it?"
15 of them were once again present in the golden cloud, and Daneel had explained his entire plan a few minutes before. After he was done, everyone had looked at him strangely for a few moments, but after that, they had had to break it up as the opposing force has arrived.
They had dispersed and then assembled back here after repelling those 3000 soldiers, and so, they were continuing the conversation.
The Spikeking looked at his subordinates, who all shrugged, and he, too, gave the same reaction.
When he did speak, though, it was in a tone that was much better than the one he had used before to express his thoughts about the plan that Daneel had told then.
"I'm always the first to admit if I'm wrong, and I have to say that I might have judged you too hastily. Yes, your plan does seem much better, but I still don't know if it'll work. Just like the one where we just showered them with pee, it so unorthodox and out-of-the-box that I'm sure that no one has heard of it. You do know that if you use it once, you won't be able to again, right? Are you sure you want to deploy it now? Or do you want to wait for other war simulations where the rewards might be greater?"
Daneel was actually a bit surprised when he heard this, but he gave his reply right away.
Tapping the side of his forehead with one finger, he said confidently, "This is my greatest weapon. It is this that I used to obtain the power that was able to subdue you all, and if I were allowed to use it here, I would not have hesitated before crushing the other side. But this scenario… Is one that does not allow me to do so, sadly. However, unlike others, my mind is my strongest asset, and I know that it is capable of churning out an endless amount of ideas just like these if needed. So, no, I don't need to hesitate at all before deploying this one here, and if it works, it will only build up my reputation, and it'll give me something that I need desperately right now. Are all of you clear on all the aspects?"
Nods could be seen all around, which made Daneel smile at the corner of his mouth and say, "Good. If this works, our opponent is going to be the laughing stock of his peers, and that will really be a sight to see. Keep that in mind, and work hard. One little mistake, and it might all be for naught, so keep your eyes peeled. Let's go."
…
"He thinks he's smart. And maybe he actually has some brains which he can be proud of. But he's nothing- nothing in front of me. Enough caution. Deploy our trump cards."
The God of Tactics's subordinates knew that he was clearly incensed, and it was usually in situations like these that he lost. The last two times when they had faced losses, too, the same thing had happened, but none of them had the courage to point this out to their boss who was trembling with rage.
By now, it was clear that their opponent was not the simple newbie that they had thought he was. Yet… Their arrogance still held sway, so they nodded and teleported away, preparing to smite their opponent into the ground, no matter what plans he might have cooked up.
It took a day, and during the entire time, the spies kept reporting that the fort was continuously being strengthened. Mages always required time to put down the formations, and it looked like the opponent had deployed his troops so that the simplest ones had been finished first, and with time, more and more complex ones were being created from the materials that were being destroyed and resued. He clearly had people who were skilled in formations, or he was a skilled formation master himself, because the rate of barriers and traps being deployed was quite fast.
This didn't decrease the morale of the people on the side of the God of Tactics, though, because they had their own forte. They began a second preparation phase, and in this one, each and every one of the captains tirelessly taught different things to all of the troops assigned to them.
After a day, they all set out, and when they did, they seemed to have changed completely.
There were no pikes and spears among all the soldiers, and all of the thousands of these weapons seemed to have disappeared completely from the army.
There was no indication to show where they might have gone to, but the spies deployed by the newbie's side had their hands full with sending information about how all the troops were moving out methodically.
They moved erratically so that they could not be targeted even if a raiding party came out of their opponent's base. There were 10 squadrons with a thousand soldiers in each, and some of the squadrons had two people to command them. The God of Tactics was repeatedly flitting around between each of them, and he kept ensuring that all of them remained in formation.
They also started to shout loudly, and these shouts would have an effect on anyone who listened to them, as they were filled with the morale of those who were marching out to obtain victory. What many didn't know was that this was actually a buff provided by one of the captains of the God of Tactics, and it had proven quite effective on a lot of battlefields.
The area where the opposing team had burrowed into was right in the middle of the open area which was meant to be where the battle would take place, and there was only flat ground all around them. Quite far away, there was a forest on one side and mountains on the other, and one of the first things that the God of Tactics had done was that he had created and installed teleportation detection formations on both sides to make sure that no one would teleport there and stand waiting to flank and target him.
These were one of the small things that pros would do after going through war simulations multiple times, and he had always prided himself on being able to assess each and every move of his opponent.
That was partly the reason why he had been so infuriated when he hadn't been able to see that move which involved bodily fluids coming, and that had been the reason why he was still silently fuming and waiting to see the expression of defeat on his opponent's face.
Soon, the 10 squadrons were assembled all around the fort, and they could see that their opponents had gone all out.
All kinds of traps were visible, from swivelling magic crossbows which had been bolted to the ground, ready to continuously fire at all those who might try to siege them, and affixed magic cannons which had the additional ability of going into the ground and hiding themselves before suddenly bombarding enemies who would have no method to target them from the outside.
It was a proper fort, but of course, the main defensive ability came from the barriers which had been set up.
There were two concentric dome-shaped barriers, with the outer one being transparent, and the inner one being opaque.
It looked like intimidation was also on the charts for what their opponent wanted to achieve, because they could have hidden all of the cannons and traps which were in the land visible behind the transparent part, but they hadn't done so.
Observing this, the God of Tactics said, "Cocky. Well, let's show him what's up our sleeves. Give the command."
Right as he said these words, all of the 10,000 soldiers suddenly took out a trinket which enlarged into a strange object.
It was obvious that had been made from the pikes and the spears which had been given, as the main body of the object was in the form of a long steel pipe.
There was a grip at one extreme end, and the other end had a hollow opening.
As soon as these objects were revealed, the soldiers inserted Ker gems into the hollow and made sure that they reached the other end.
Following that, in a smooth motion that had clearly been practiced, they aimed them all at different angles.
Indeed, even though they were all generally in the direction of the barrier that they were supposed to take down, they were angled, and soon, it became clear why that was so.
Among the 1000 individuals in a squadron, only one had his trinket pointing straight towards the barrier, and it was he who shouted, "Fire!"
BANG!
With a loud sound, a sharp spike flew out of the hollow end, and right away, smoke started to appear from the trinket which had also blasted into smithereens.
It was obvious that the soldiers were prepared for this, as protective barriers sprang up around each of them to save them from the explosive combustion of the energy present inside a Ker Gem which had propelled the spike forward at a speed which made it invisible.
As for the angles… It soon became clear that the point behind them was that all of these pikes would hit in the same general area. Each spike impacted a circular area that had previously been indicated by the captain of the squadron, and even before this impact, the soldiers all began to run forward.
BOOOMMM!!!
On 10 sides which were evenly spaced out in all four directions, the barriers shattered, and even though they quickly began to regenerate, the soldiers marched in with the cover of smoke that was created using pre-prepared trinkets that were lobbed right after the firing.
They directly ignored all of the crossbows and cannons, because they were too close and would miss even if they fired at this moment. The entire plan revolved around taking their opponent by surprise, and it looked to have worked, because they were able to bypass the outer perimeter easily. The cannons and crossbows were all affixed so that they would face outward, and even though this made sense as the fort was meant to stop others from coming in, it had clearly worked against their opponent.
Soon, they were at the inner, opaque barrier, and this was when they took out their second trump card. It was a short dagger which had seemingly been made out of the pointy ends of the pikes and spears that had been destroyed and remodeled, and the moment they struck the barriers, they seemed to make them melt.
Here was where most of their time had been spent on, and it was a new formation that the team of the God of Tactics had only recently obtained.
From inside the opaque barrier, all sorts of attacks began to be launched, but the protective barriers of the soldiers were enough to keep them in one piece until they succeeded in whittling down the resources being used to power it enough that it broke.
"This is our moment! Charge for victory!"
The God of Tactics gave this loud shout which reverberated throughout the battlefield, and thousands of soldiers stormed into the barrier to find many soldiers with panicked expressions on their faces.
It was clear that they hadn't been expecting that their enemy would easily penetrate all of the protective measures that they had placed with so much difficulty, and a massacre began.
Yet… Suddenly, the hairs all over the God of Tactics' body stood on end, as he realized that something was horribly wrong.
There were barely 1000 soldiers inside the barrier.
"Where are the rest? Where are the rest! Where are the rest?!"
Even as he screamed with desperation, there was no one to answer him, but in the next moment, he received his answer in a way that made him shake with shock.
Out of the ground they rose, like wraiths in the night brought to life by the fell deeds of their enemies. They ran forward at once, screaming with energy, while the magic cannons and crossbows also suddenly swiveled around with a hidden mechanism that had been so discreet that no one had been able to spot it.
It didn't even need to be said how simple and advantageous it was to assault a force which had already expended a lot of its energy and resources to get somewhere, before finding themselves being attacked from behind. There wasn't even enough time to properly muster a retreat, nor was there a method to do so, and thousands soon began to fall to the ground, dead.
At the same time, a clone flew out of the fort and went to the place where the God of Tactics was staring, perplexed, with a horrified expression on his face.
The clone smirked, first, but the words that it said after that would be branded forever into his brain.
"Complex plans made to look simple are often the best way to deal with egoistic bastards like you. So… what do you think? Am I worthy enough for a match with stakes now? Or are you too chicken to take me on again? Ha ha, it looks like my comment about you being a barking dog was right, after all. Well, leave it, then. I don't want useless people to clunk up my team space, either."