Red Storm

A complete defeat.

Even with 10,000 extra warriors, they could not overwhelm their enemies. This fact had caused a lot of damage to their self-esteem and honor. Thankfully, he had ignored Ebinong’s authority and ordered the warriors to charge. If he didn’t... they might have suffered an even greater defeat.

The fact that two Greatest Warriors and 10,000 warriors were lost were making his eyes roll over, and he was just sitting there almost completely out of it.

Runa was watching him with a worried expression.

Runa had a bad feeling from the moment Ebinong ignored his advice and led the main group of warriors to face Pareia, and his bad feeling ended up being spot on.

Runa had thought about how Pareia, who had been pushed back by the Shuarei, had managed an overwhelming victory over them and caused critical damage. It was only after hearing about Yulian after the war that he finally figured it out.

He realized that the Shuarei were defeated in the same way Venersis defeated Pareia in the past. He was also afraid that Yulian would use the same tactic against the Wikaly. That was why he was advising Ebinong to withstand the shame and only focus on defending.

Runa Brink was actually thankful that they only received this much damage. It was after he had heard about the whole battle from Abham.

‘If Abham-nim did not order the warriors to charge, the Wikaly would not have been able to do anything before retreating. Then even a defensive battle might have been difficult. All I can do is tell him to be satisfied at the fact that there is still a chance for our Wikaly.’

Runa made that decision before starting to speak toward Abham.

“Abham-nim.”

“......”

As Abham continued to sit there with a blank expression as if he did not hear him, Runa called out in a slightly louder voice.

“Abham-nim.”

“Huh? Ah! What is it?”

“I know what shock is, but this is not the time to be this way.”

“Ah. Yes. You are right. This is not the time. What should we do? Should we give up on this oasis and retreat to the back?”

“Abham-nim!”

Runa shouted loudly at Abham who could not think straight.

“What warrior does not know about defeat? Even that Venersis had to lower his tail and retreat from Pareia this time. All we did was verify the strength of that Pareia for ourselves today.”

“......”

“Since Commanding Greatest Warrior Ebinong has died, we need a new Commanding Greatest Warrior. Abham-nim, you should take control. RIght now, there is nobody other than Abham-nim who can take that position, so the Glow and the other Greatest Warriors should not be able to say anything about it.”

“Me?”

“Please snap out of it. Did you forget about everything we have prepared up until now?! We can hold our oasis even if we had just 10,000 warriors.”

At Runa’s shout, Abham finally snapped a bit out of it and started to vigorously nod his head.

“Everybody is in a state of shock. Abham-nim needs to get up in order for the warriors to recover their strengths as well.”

Abham completely focused himself at Runa’s continued words.

“Right. We have prepared. Our oasis will not fall.”

“You are correct. Our oasis will not fall. And in order to make sure it doesn’t, Abham-nim needs to take the position of Commanding Greatest Warrior and prepare for the enemy’s attack.”

“I will bring it up first thing tomorrow and get ti approved. We will need to send someone to the large oasis as well.”

“Since Pareia did not chase after us, we still have a bit of time. We need to reorganize the warriors and fix the formation.”

“I will do that first thing tomorrow morning as well. Right now, the warriors need to rest.”

Runa nodded his head once before continuing.

“As long as Abham-nim is the Commanding Greatest Warrior, this is as far as Pareia will go. Although it could have been dangerous, it is no longer going to be dangerous at all.”

“I will just trust in you.”

“You should not trust me but in Abham-nim yourself. Although I was the one to come up with it, you are the one to put it into effect. Without Abham-nim’s trust, I would just be a theorist who is all talk.”

Abham’s face finally relaxed a bit as he started to speak.

“I am glad you are here.”

“Hahaha. I am the lucky one to have met you, Abham-nim.”

The two of them looked toward each other as they started to laugh.

Once morning came around, Abham had a meeting with the remaining two Greatest Warriors, and sent a messenger to report on the current situation as well as request permission for Abham to become the Commanding Greatest Warrior.

The two Greatest Warriors thought about how Abham was the Greatest Warrior responsible for this oasis and agreed on his becoming the Commanding Greatest Warrior, so Abham started to shuffle the warriors in the way he wanted, no to be clear, the way Runa told him to do.

The first thing he did was give 5,000 warriors each to Shya and Tepoi, to have them strengthen the defense around the oasis.

“Greatest Warriors Shya and Tepoi, our oasis has been preparing for an invasion from Pareia for a long time and have created many traps around the oasis. I will give you a map that marks where the traps are, so please use this to appropriately fend off the enemy warriors.”

Abham gave a map to each of the two Greatest Warriors .

“Since it is a field of sand it is not that large of a trap, but it is these small traps that will break the legs of pirmas, and significantly hinder the enemy’s mobility. Since the two of you are both better strategists than I am, I’m sure you know how to proceed in those situations.”

Shya took the map and looked at it with confusion.

“If you had prepared all of this in advance, why didn’t you tell Greatest Warrior Ebinong? If we strengthen the sides and focus on defending the center, we should be able to defend even if the enemy’s Glow runs wild.”

Abham put on a bitter smile as he answered.

“Greatest Warrior Ebinong did not feel the same way. He was worried that if we looked to be afraid from the beginning when we had an advantage of 10,000 troops, it would lower the morale of the warriors. Honestly speaking, if the enemy’s Glow was not that strong, there is no way we would have suffered such a terrible defeat with our numbers. We just didn’t have enough information about our enemy.”

Tepoi also nodded his head as he started to speak.

“I did not like Greatest Warrior Ebinong, but I do not want to say that he made the wrong decision for the last battle. As Greatest Warrior Abham just mentioned, we just did not know enough about our enemy. Do not worry about the surrounding areas. Even if the enemy sends small groups to the sides, they will not be more than 3,000 warriors. We will each have 5,000, as well as all of these traps and obstacles. If we still can’t defend against them, well, that would make us really stupid. Do not worry about an ambush from the side. All Greatest Warrior Abham will need to do is focus on defending the center of the oasis.”

“If the enemy’s Glow does not move with the main formation and decides to attack the side, please do not engage in battle against him. Even if they have fallen for a trap.”

“Isn’t that being too afraid?”

As Shya asked regarding Abham’s last statement, Abham shook his head.

“Listening to one of my staff warriors, he said it would be wise to consider him as being equal to Venersis. They say that Venersis is very talented at detecting danger. Haven’t you all heard the stories about how it is impossible to ambush Venersis? There will be too much damage to catch him, so avoiding him is our best course of action. We just have to use the same method Pareia used against Venersis.”

Since the two Greatest Warriors had personally felt the young Glow’s strength, they did not disagree with Abham’s assessment.

“We will do as you said.”

“Then I leave it in your hands.”

Once Shya and Tepoi left to each lead their warriors to patrol the flanks, Runa came into the paoe.

“You did well, Abham-nim.”

“They are listening to my orders without issue.”

As Abham answered while looking in the direction the two Greatest Warriors left in, Runa had a slightly comfortable smile as he responded.

“They know better than anybody else what would happen if the chain of command is shaken in a dangerous situation like this. Thankfully.”

“So, I did as you said. Now what shall we do?”

“We need to wait and see how Pareia responds. I had expected them to chase after us, so the fact that they did not makes me question whether they are aiming for something else.”

“Aiming for something else?”

As Abham made a confused expression and asked, Runa slowly started to answer.

“We need to first take a look at Pareia’s movement. Will they attack like the invaders they are, or will they take their time and wait for us to create an opening.”

“Which one would you prefer?”

Runa’s smile got bigger as he answered.

“Of course I want Pareia to just try to attack us, but I cannot tell whether they will do as I want.”

“You seem relaxed.”

“Just as Pareia prepared to take us down, we have prepared to fight against them. Isn’t that why we made all of the preparations? There is no reason for us to be anxious at all. It should be Pareia that is anxious. It will slowly become that way.”

Abham was amazed at Runa each and every time he saw him.

Runa was still young and not even thirty years of age, but still managed to be so relaxed in a battlefield like this. It really was an amazing confidence.

But since Abham approved of Runa’s abilities, he was understanding of Runa’s relaxed demeanor and confidence. As he mentioned, this was the end of Pareia’s victory.

Abham also believed that to be the case.

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