Even though the Fabirang Union had Helix Wings capable of flying over terrains, they still had to match the speed of the saw blade tanks that moved through the jungle on winding paths while avoiding trees. Therefore, there had been enough time for the leader of the expedition team, Vasen Lak Orazen, to find a location for their battle.
The hill they were currently at wasn’t the only location that Vasen had considered. When considering the direction the Fabirang Union was advancing in, there were more than five hills that Vasen judged were suitable for battle as his main concern wasn’t the danger of the Helix Wings that they had already won against once, but rather the saw blade tanks.
Vasen had been looking for a swamp. Jungle terrains generally had high humidity, with small streams and ponds here and there. And among them, there were also swamps with aquatic plants and muddy grounds.
‘There’s no need for a swamp that would submerge people to their heads. An ankle-deep one would be enough.’
Of course, according to the Pangolins, there were swampy terrains where even the Rakshasas couldn’t escape once they fell in, but such swamps weren’t required in Vasen’s strategy. It was fine if the soil wasn’t wet enough for people to sink into it. In fact, the ground needed to appear solid to make it look like normal bushes and dry soil. Vasen even ordered the expedition team to disguise the swampy area to look somewhat like an ordinary field.
‘Sinking the saw blade tanks in the swamp would be enough.’
The saw blade tanks were sinking into the mud just tens of footsteps away now. Their wheels kept spinning in place, flinging mud backward and showering the Platys of the Fabirang Union with it before gradually slowing down and soon coming to a stop one by one.
‘It’s done.’
Overall, the Fabirang Union’s strategy wasn’t all that bad. They first sent the Helix Wings to scout the enemy or make them panic, and then planned to attack the enemy with their ground troops. However, the Fabirang Union was overly confident in their technology and strategy, so they couldn’t react with flexibility but instead made a robot-like response. The Platy infantry panicked and tried to push the saw blade tanks out of the mud, but the tanks were firmly stuck and didn’t budge.
‘Thanks to that, now they got their feet stuck in the swamp and covered with mud.’
Vasen then drew his sword.
“Fire!”
At Vasen’s order, the gunners fired at once. A few bullets hit the front of a saw blade tank and made sparks, and the Platys that had been trying to get the tanks out of the mud could be seen falling to the ground.
Vasen then judged that shooting guns was insufficient to surely overpower them.
“Charge!”
The order was relayed by the soldiers.
“He said to charge!”
“Charge!”
While the Platys panicked and failed to properly shoot their arrows and spears, Vasen’s infantry closed the distance in an instant. The main infantry composed of the Pangolins raised their short spears and attacked the Platys. As the Platys saw the situation turning against them, they turned around and hurriedly ran away.
Vasen then shouted, “We need to retrieve the Helix Wings from the jungle! Things will become troublesome If there is an ambush by the enemies in the process, so don’t lose any of them!”
*** .
In the first conference room of the Pantheon, Crampus said, “Nebula, there’s a whisper conversation request.”
“From who?”
“The guy we’re currently facing, RD.”
“Let’s try to connect to them.”
The player ID, RD, had appeared on the player list after they encountered the Fabirang Union.
Crampus pushed the video chat window to the side to make it visible for everyone.
Lunda then said, “How about going to the restaurant instead of staying here?”
Crampus turned around to look at Lunda.
“Move places? Why?”
“Don’t you think it’ll seem more serious? If we just sit here in the conference room, we’ll look like a bunch of university students attending a lecture on Halloween.”
The video chat connected.
After seeing the silhouette of the opponent appear on the screen, Sung-Woon said, “I don’t think that’ll be necessary.”
RD said, “Who’s the leader here?”
Lunda began to laugh, and Crampus lowered his head. While Jang-Wan remained sitting calmly, her shoulders kept shaking.
Laughing, Lunda mumbled, “Folded Wing Golden Bird…haha. It’s way too cute…”
The corners of Sung-Woon’s mouth also went up below his mask, and Wisdom seemed to be the only one not laughing. He managed to say something with seriousness.
“You’re the one who made the request, so I think you should introduce yourself first, RD.”
RD then made a very determined face, but it couldn’t be taken so seriously. RD’s avatar looked like a rubber duck toy. It was a yellow rubber duck-shaped toy designed to float on water, and it would be perfect to place on one side of the bathtub for children who didn’t like taking baths.
“I’m RD, the player leading the Fabirang Union.”
Sung-Woon then thought and said, “Platypuses, rubberpunks, and a rubber duck toy. You’re too into the concept.”
“…Isn’t that too rude to say to someone you’re meeting for the first time?”
“Oh, did I say that outloud? Sorry. I only meant to think about it.”
“No matter what you say, you were making fun of me, you buster.”
The rubber duck bobbed its head.
“Anyway…the reason why I wanted to talk is…”
“Is?”
“To suggest a conditional surrender.”
Sung-Woon replied, “That’s not that surprising. But what do you mean by conditional?”
“Well…can you do something about the guys laughing behind you first?”
Before Sung-Woon could say anything, Lunda, Crampus, and Jang-Wan quietly got up and left. Lunda found it so funny that she was still holding her stomach laughing, and her laughter could be heard right until she left the conference room.
Wisdom then pointed to RD’s face and said, “Good strategy, making others laugh with your appearance. If we weren’t usually deprived of laughter, we might have just ignored it.”
“What’s he talking about now?”
“Forget about it. Let’s move on… Any other conditions?”
RD said, “Don’t attack anymore.”
“Didn’t you say you were going to surrender?”
“I meant that I won’t attack any more. If you continue to attack, you’ll regret it.”
Sung-Woon replied, “Didn’t you already play all your cards? What’s with the confidence?”
“You must be talking about yourselves. Don’t you see my magnificent rubber technology civilization? My civilization is more developed and scarce than any other.”
Sung-Woon thought to himself.
‘Are they bluffing? Or is it real?’
Either way, it sounded plausible.
The poor display that RD and the Fabirang Union had put on until now made it only possible to look down on RD. But the fact that they maintained a certain level of influence on the new continent and enslaved the indigenous Rakshasas meant that they were doing pretty well for themselves. Above all, they clearly hadn’t done all they could because they hadn’t revealed their god’s power. Of course, even if RD was a very powerful god, there was no reason to use Faith points on a battle of about 3000.
‘…That’s the same for us. Well, it doesn’t matter either way.’
In fact, that wasn’t very important to Sung-Woon because at least for the time being, there was no reason to attack RD.
‘We’ve retrieved all the Helix Wings we need, and once we take the Moving Castle, conquering the fourth continent won’t be difficult.’
Although there was still a great enemy, the Dragon, the risk was worth taking considering the rewards that would follow. Therefore, if necessary, measures would need to be taken by Sung-Woon’s side to prevent RD’s expansion, but if RD really honored and followed this conversation and didn’t mobilize their troops, then there was nothing bad about that for Sung-Woon.
Sung-Woon looked at Wisdom, and Wisdom didn’t seem to have any other objections.
So he said, “Alright. We’ll do so.”
“Of course you should. If you intrude into my territory, you better be prepared, got it?”
Sung-Woon minimized the video chat window without saying anything.
And perhaps because RD thought the video chat had ended, they heard RD talking to themself.
“Whew, what a relief.”
“…”
“Huh, wait, did it not end?”
Sung-Woon ended the chat and closed the window. He shared a look with Wisdom for a moment. Sung-Woon was about to laugh at RD, but instead decided to talk about their operation plan, and Wisdom seemed to agree with doing so.
***
A few days later, not far south from Siol, the simple plan to attack the Moving Castle was a go. Using about sixty Helix Wings, they would cross through the air and land inside the walls of the Moving Castle. Then the 60 or 70 troops composed of species with smaller physiques similar to the Pangolins had the special mission of stopping the Moving Castle from moving.
Based on the information they got from interrogating the Rakshasas they captured in the nearby tribe, it was revealed that there was a separate room called the control room, which was used to control the Moving Castle. This room seemed to be occupied by Rakshasas of a high position chosen by the Great Ashurada. After taking over that room and stopping the Moving Castle, their next objective was to help the main troops heading there climb onto the Moving Castle. After that, the final step was for Vasen to command the main troops to kill the Great Ashurada and then completely take control of the Moving Castle.
The Rakshasa tribes inside the Moving Castles lived a luxurious life where they had festivals everyday; most noises were thus buried, and it was said that the Great Ashurada wouldn’t come out of their room for minor disturbances.
While inspecting the troops one last time, Vasen noticed a familiar face sitting in one of the Helix Wings.
“Mazdari?”
The Garuda said, “The plan seemed somewhat simplistic, so I thought it would be better to go with you and swapped seats with another member. I also made a few changes.”
Vasen then worriedly said, “But would it be alright? The weight…”
Mazdari shook his head.
“You must not know, Lizardman. Our species originally flew in the sky. We are much lighter than how we appear to be.”
Vasen recalled the old legend of the Garuda species, who used to fly in the sky with the wings on their backs.
“Then there should be no problem. Just make sure to keep up.”
Following the command, the rubber powered engines were attached to each Helix Wing. As Vasen released the friction band from his control seat, the rubber cord slowly began to unwind, and soon, the central wing of the Helix Wing began to rotate vigorously. The Helix Wing then rose into the air.
‘I practiced so many times, but I still can’t get used to this.’
Whenever Vasen used the Helix Wing and flew in the sky, he always felt a flutter in his chest.
‘Is it because I’m normally not able to fly in the sky? Or perhaps because our species had also once been able to fly in the past?’
Vasen didn’t indulge in the line of thinking for long. It was a very unusual sight to see dozens of man-made vehicles beneath his feet. It felt entirely different from aiming at enemies from afar with guns.
‘It’s as if…we’ve become a flock of birds.’
Vasen thought this would feel similar to what flocks of birds actually felt.
Vasen then looked to where Mazdari was. Although he couldn’t see Mazdari too clearly because they were far away from each other, Vasen thought that Mazdari might have another reason for coming along than simply wanting to help.
‘Did he say that they could no longer fly because of a curse from their old god? Well, now that curse seems to have become meaningless.’
The Helix Wings rose into the sunset, and the secret attack on the Moving Castle began.
Updated from 𝘪.𝘤𝑜𝘮