Chereads / the man in the land of dreams / Chapter 25 - ch 3 ( immortal) the war

Chapter 25 - ch 3 ( immortal) the war

it has been five days since I have last recorded in my logs. I don't want my thoughts to leak out, you see. I was standing on the walls, a massive wooden wall. they were actually sturdier than their counterparts, behind me. it results in me owing another massive debt. but if I can pull off this trick of mine, it is enough. these walls are special after all.

the enemy has already encamped in front of me. most of them were youngsters. the snakes were pretty unforgiving to their young. they had to go through the bloodiest of wars to become adults.

right now most of those kids were weak, the strongest among them could be the third class, though most of them were first class. I want to feel pity for them( they literally are killers right from birth ), but years of combat have drained that pity. the snakes are always the cruelest enemy that I have ever fought.

the tigers were all elites, with most of them being third class, some may be in fourth class. I honestly can't tell, but I can tell that there is no one among them that can defeat us instantly.

the enemy camp was setting up their base in this place. they wouldn't attack us after traveling through two districts worth of land, that too in the demon beast forest. the forest is the natural buffer for all the major forces. no army could travel very easily in this place.

the mindless ones of this forest who would ally with no enemy, were the perfect force do put at the borders of our land.

the forest had an effect of enhancing the mental damage of the voice, which can basically make everyone dumb. the stronger you are the more this voice affects you.

some even suspect that the forest was created by us to satisfy this very need. after all no force in this land can compare to us with respect to magic, especially of such kind. it also does not help that our borders are particularly covered in these forests.

that is the reason this army of ten thousand would have taken at least a couple of months to reach here. they are the cannon fodder that precedes a war, I expected them to come, but not so quickly.

anyway as I was thinking all this, the snakes were creating tunnels under the ground. they would not rest exposing themselves to the enemy and they do not want to leave for fear of the forest. something that affects your minds always terrified living beings.

the tiger slept on the ground, one because they had nothing to fear from us, those guys don't die easily and two, killing them will jumpstart the war and that is something I won't risk in the night, with the snakes there.

humans will be blind out there, with none of us having any sort of night vision. phantom knife has night vision, but I have sent him with phantom, to help her.

the snakes who had their thermal sensors did not need the light to fight us. the only reason that they have allowed themselves to rest next to my base is they really need the rest. I also believe that they will attempt to drill in the ground into our bases.

the snakes are sneaky that way.

me - earth, focus on the ground. I don't want any surprises from below. also keep track of their movements under the ground. do not interfere with their tunnels, especially if they leading under the city, I have a lovely plan for them.

rock - sure boss, as you wish.

me - I have a favour to ask of you. I need you to leave tomorrow for the seal. the holes In that thing are worrying me. I don't want to face off against two invasions at a time. normally I would send a puppet of mine, but I can't maintain a puppet that faraway once the tower is fully activated. I will be in the ant queen, so I can't transfer my conscious into a puppet.

rock - are you sure, I am the only that can warn you if the snakes do something funny.

me - very my dear friend. they mostly won't try to do anything funny. digging a tunnel in a warzone is a hard job. one explosion is enough to ruin a tunnel.

( the next day, in my room )

in front of me was a massive block of wood and I was cutting into it, changing its shape into a more human shape.

right now I am inside the ant queen( which sounds weird now that I think of it. ) I really need to give it a better name as it is gender-neutral after all.

the ant queen is kind of like a puppet that I can remotely control. normally I tend to keep it on auto mode and let it carve the puppets that we need. those look like humans and are more combat worthy, but they take a lot of time to make.

I don't know how to carve. my puppets look like some kind of stick figure, with arms and kegs sharpened at their tips for weapons. I can carve, but it is not something I am good at. that was fine because I did not need them to fight anyway, at least not for long. you see I am planting bombs inside the wooden puppets. their job was to fall in battle, in different places. it was a Transfiguration spell similar to the one I pulled of on the ant queen to get her into the bull dragon. within two days the bomb that I have placed in them will transform from wood to its original form and then we would have a big boom.

my soldiers are safe inside the city, in the safest place possible. right inside my throne room. they are controlling these puppets to fight.

my tower is taking care of all the ranged attacks, remote controlling all the ranged weapons. my tower has the ability of telekinesis, it was literally moving all those complex machines on its own. I can see why those mages are so obsessed with their magical machines, they are so damn useful.

I wish I could play a more active role in the fight, other than making many shitty puppets in as much small time as possible.

but that is also good in its own way, I get a lot of time to think, of how to deal with my tower.

over the course of two months, the tower has proven to be capable of thinking for itself. it tried to make itself look mechanical, but I can tell. that's why over the last few days I have noticed a killing intent coming from it.

it is very faint, almost unnoticeable. the only reason I have felt it is because, well when you have been taken apart as many times as I have been, it makes it very easy to tell when someone is out to get you.

that's why I have shifted to my worst-case scenario plan, a plan that will totally level this place and the tower with it.

as for what the plan is, I won't be recording this in the log. if it is somehow reading my log, I don't want it to know my plans. let it enjoy a good mystery.

wolves sword - commander, the soldiers have a request for you.

me - what is it?

wolves sword - the soldiers are asking how long are we going to keep sending these puppets. they seem to have no effect on the battlefield.

me - tell them not to worry about all of that. it will all make sense In a few days. just tell them to keep doing what they are doing.

wolves sword - isn't it better if we just allow the queen to craft her own troops. it has worked pretty well before.

me - no, right now we need as many puppets as possible out there. just tell the soldiers to do what they are told and also tell that they are not wasting their time, I have a plan.

leave all that be, tell me how is the battle going on.

wolves sword - it is actually going pretty nicely, commander. they are under heavy fire as long as they enter a certain radius of the city, and our puppets usually manage to take a couple of them before they dismantle us.

me -what are they doing with the remains of our puppets.

wolves sword - they are dumping all of them somewhere in the forest.

me - they are not destroying the puppets are they.

wolves sword - a couple of them tried to eat it. all of them have puked out the wood. other than a few who seem to enjoy breaking the puppets are breaking the puppets into individual parts.

me - good, how long will it take for our supplies to run out.

wolves sword - not very long, commander. the supplies would normally last us a week, but with the way your magical machinery is using it. I would say a day or two.

me - okay, that should be enough time for us to secure an escape route. ( making the tower project a map on a wall next to me ) you see this path, I need you to go through this place once. check if there are any other beings that might harm us.

come and go as quickly as possible. you need to be here within five days. I can't hold on for more than that.

wolves sword -sure, isn't it better for you to send someone like phantom knife for this job. now that I think about it, where is he?

me - he is doing another job for me and you are presently the strongest guy in this place, so I can only end you.

wolves sword - what about your associate, he seems pretty capable. I am pretty sure he is stronger than me.

me - he is checking on the seal of that abyss gate, so he won't be able to help you.

wolves sword - I will leave tomorrow.

me - by the way, wolves sword. I have not moved from this position since the morning. I have to relieve some stress.

wolves sword- what has that got to do with me.

me - well, I can relive some of the stress by sparring with you don't you think.

( well I won't bother telling you what happened. simply put, I won. that is kind of obvious since I have literally centuries of experience in close combat. if we were to use abilities, well than the battle would be completely different. immortality does not give one an advantage in battle. )

( the next day)

I normally don't tend to fight my underlings, but I am forced to fight them when they tend to show insubordination. wolves sword is a pretty capable commander, but he is inherently a lazy man and a coward. either of the are not really flaws in times of peace, but such things can be dangerous in times of war. that's why I incited him to spar with me and then beat him so badly that he left in the morning without showing his face. we sparred using swords, hammers, spears, and then our plain fists.

I won't be describing his defeat anymore. it is my personal belief that a man should always forget his victories and focus only on his failures. it prevents me from becoming an arrogant prick. normally I don't like fighting, but if that guy questions me as he did in front of the soldiers, soon many of the soldiers would also begin to question my orders, something that is a nightmare for anybody in a commanding position.

( sometime in the afternoon, I was busy carving my puppets)

the sound of explosions had stopped outside, it was like a continuous din, which could be heard even in the most soundproof area of this place.

it had stopped very abruptly. this could mean only one thing. that our ammunition has been exhausted. but we are nowhere near close enough to exhaust the ammuni.....

fuck, my head felt as if somebody was stuffing needles. my conscious is being dragged back to my body.