The Royal Army and the rebel shot projectiles at each other. One send a barrage of metal, the other fired laser beams. The protective shield still protected the Royal Army, preventing the bullets from hitting them. The rebel army weren't so lucky. The rod of flames struck their wagons, exploded and burned with flames.
The norm split up even further, making smaller division again. This made them a harder target to hit and the flame rod missed its target periodically.
As tens of laser beams struck the norms, Hax still observed the battle from the hill.
"Sir. Our army are losing," A guard said. "Some of them already start to retreat."
Hax watched as a few carriages stopped shooting and distanced themselves from the enemy. "I put too much hope in them. They are no warriors. They retreat the moment the enemy got a slight advantage. Tell them not to retreat. Send the bird."
"Yes, sir."
His men release the bird with a small note on its leg. They would be sent to his spokesperson and that person would relay his order. The spokesperson could not order around the army as he wish because he was not a leader. He was merely a messenger.
Just as the bird flew to the sky and approached the norm, a flaming rod shot it down from the sky.
"Sir, they took down the bird."
"I can see that," Hax replied.
"What should we do? We can't tell the army your message. Should we send someone?"
"No they'll shoot him before he could approach the army." Hax looked at a man who had both hands on his stomach. "It's time for you to be useful."
The man nodded and raised his right hand. After that, he moved his finger here and there. The man was actually a sign language interpreter. As tons of people wanted to help Hax, some people with seemingly unrelated talents were also interested in helping him. At first, Bodin told them that they could do nothing to help, but Hax had different ideas.
He knew it would take a while for his army to communicate with their fingers, if that was the case then why don't use someone that already knew how to?
After the interpreter put down his hand, the spokesperson shouted at the norm. The carriages turned back and fired their weapon again. A few of them still retreated, but they at least fired their weapons towards the enemy.
"Cowards," Hax said. "They better don't behave the same way after this battle."
"It's not their fault, sir. This is the first time we fight against cultivators. Not to mention an entire army from the Royal Family."
"So? If you use that as excuses then why don't you put down your gun and return to your pathetic lives. Let the cultivators or the magicians stepped on your head whenever they want. Let them lift your butt and spank them. Is that what you want?"
The guard started to sweat. "No, sir."
"The magicians are not invincible. Their power have limits. Look." Hax pointed towards the valley.
The transparent shield that enveloped the Royal Army flickered and burst like a bubble. The barrage of metal stormed them again. The sound of metal against metal reverberated like rain drop.
The disappearance of the transparent shield made the norms active. The ones that retreated earlier, turned their carriages back and fired madly at the enemy.
The magicians still retaliated with flaming rods and fireballs, but as the bullets slipped passed the shields and punched through their throat, the number of magician decreased.
Hax turned his sight to the other side where the Black Wolves and the Man Hunter was. The heavy cavalry received attack from every direction. The norms circled around the cavalry in small division and fired at the cavalry. Nesterin shouted and screamed on top of the carriage. He coordinate the Man Hunter and the reinforcement unit to confuse the heavy cavalry.
"Having an officer that can micromanage the army is essential," Hax commented. Then he saw four other people that shouted around like Nesterin. They seemed to be his helper as they helped managing the troops.
"The Black Wolves have begun setting up a proper military hierarchy. Did their experience as a mafia let them learn about this?" Hax smiled. "Or maybe Nesterin is not as simple as I think."
Nesterin pointed at the cavalries that was charging towards him. "Are all of you blind? Move this carriage to the side. Those on the flanks keep firing! Try to hit their legs. The heavy weight of the armor must have put a lot to the horses."
His carriage moved to the side as the norm from the flank stormed the cavalry with bullets. The shot dented their armor all over, even their shields started to get holes in them.
"Sir, the cavalry is on our tail. They seemed determined to kill us."
Nesterin grimaced. "Damn! Send the wagons that is filled with explosives."
A few coachmen pulled the rein and charged towards the cavalry with their explosive-filled wagons. They were not asked to sacrifice their lives, so after they directed the wagons, they jumped to the side and rolled on the ground.
The bulls rushed towards cavalries. As they slammed their humongous body into the enemy, the wagons they pulled exploded.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Tens of cavalrymen fell with scorched mark all over. Their horse didn't fared much better.
But like a flaming knights, the cavalry charged through the flame and set their bloodshot eyes towards Nesterin.
"They hated me," Nesterin said. "They look at me the same way I look at them. Pure hatred." Nesterin laughed. "That's how it feels sucker!"
He fired his rifle at the approaching enemy. He didn't care if he only made a few dents on their armor. Pissing them off was his main objective.
"Kill me if you can! Weaklings! You need to use thick armor just to kill a norm? Bah! Why don't you eat my bullets!"
The cavalry increased their speed. And just as they were about to rammed Nesterin with their lances, a group of magic bulls slammed them from the side. The crashed hurt the bulls more than the cavalries, but they succeed in making the enemy fell to the ground.
Losing their mobility, the cavalrymen found themselves helpless within the barrage of bullets. They held their shield high and gathered in a circle formation to protect each other.
Nesterin told the coachman to stop the carriage. "We need to destroy their formation. It will take too long to breach their shield."
"Sir, I think this development is good enough. It will take time but the enemy will certainly die."
Nesterin shook his head. "That's too long. Our allies are still fighting the infantry troops. And they have magicians with them. Who knows what will come out of their armpit. Sacrifice more bulls to break their formation. Tie some explosives to their back or just use the entire wagon if you can."
"Yes, sir."
Balmar get down from his carriage and approached him. "Nesterin what are you going to do?"
"Blast their formation and rain them with bullets. After that we need to reinforce our friends in the valley."
Balmar nodded. He was a hunter that had a lot of experience, but coordinating a large amount of people were never on his list. This skill, he had to learn from Nesterin.
Nesterin watched as his men finished preparing the bulls and the explosives. "Send them all!"
The coachmen whipped the magic bulls and they accelerated towards the shield formation. As they were about to ram the enemy with their horns, the cavalrymen stabbed the bull with their long lance. The Bulls couldn't move a muscle the moment the weapon pierced their head.
But there were other bulls that succeed in breaching the formation. They used their entire weight to crashed into the enemy. As a bullet hit the crates they brought, another round of explosions blasted the cavalrymen.
"I love these explosions," Nesterin commented. "And I was the one who invented it."
Hax raised an eyebrow as he watched how the Black Wolves used the gunpowder creatively. What they made was a crude example of a bomb or a grenade.
"Maybe I should make proper bombs for them."
As the formation fell apart, the norm stopped their carriage and bombarded the cavalrymen with bullets. A few seconds later, all the enemy were down with scorched wounds and holes. What a tragic death.
Nesterin raised his hand. "We've won the first round. But now we need to help our allies. Let's go quick!"
The Black Wolves, the Man Hunter, and the reinforcement unit rushed to the valley. The plain and hills where they fought were filled with blood, flames, and dead bodies. A dying cultivator with one arm crawled to his comrade. He dragged his body with a hand, leaving a trail of blood on the grass before he drew his last breath.
"War is cruel," Hax said. "These people didn't even know each other. But the classification of norm and cultivators is enough for them to hurt one another."
"The cultivators are cruel, sir."
"Did they born as cruel? If you married a woman and she birthed a cultivator, would you end his life?"
The guard hesitated. "I… I don't know, sir."
"The cultivators is not our enemy," Hax said. "Their mindsets are. To change that we need to show them that we are not weak. And we need to educate cultivators in our ranks and family that life is more than power and strength. Only when norm and cultivators respect each other can all of us live in harmony."
The guard bit his lip.
"You think I'm wrong?"
"I apologize, sir. But I see no future where cultivators and norm can live in harmony. They are just too arrogant and the hatred we have towards them is too big."
"That's because you also need to be educated. When you feel hate. Have you ever ask why you feel that way? Why do you direct your hatred towards cultivator? Is all of them do you wrong or only a couple few? It's the same for norm. Not all of them are good. There are norm that rob from other norm, right?"
The guard nodded.
"When you hate something. You need to know who you hate specifically and why. If you hate an entire classification of people or people with certain occupation, skin color, region, and nationality, your life will always be filled with hatred. In the end, all of us are humans."
"All of us are humans," the guard muttered. "Do you really believe in that, sir?"
"Of course."
"I think you set your sight too far, sir. We haven't even defeat the Nefarious Sword, yet."
Hax looked towards the valley where the Black Wolves and the other stormed the enemy. "They're already dead in my eyes."
After withholding the attacks from every front, the Royal Army finally collapsed. The rebel army get off from their carriage and approached the battlefield.
"We've done it. We… We killed the Royal Army. There is no turning back now. The whole kingdom is our enemy."
Hax also ordered his coachmen to drive the carriage closer. He wanted to see their equipment.
As the rebel norm circled the corpses, all kinds of mixed feelings ran in their hearts. Some felt scared, the others felt hopeful and happy.
Hax on the other hand was quite disappointed. Usually, if one side lose the battle, the majority of them would choose to surrender. It was very rare for the entire enemy to be killed.
"Maybe because this is a world of cultivators," Hax said. Holding them hostage is not as simple as tying their hands with rope. Some cultivator group such as the sect or the kingdom must had the tools to disarm the enemy.
Nesterin and Balmar strode towards Hax.
"Sir, what should we do next?"
Hax looked at Nesterin and nodded. "You have done well. Since we have no time to waste, stick the dead bodies to a spear and parade them along with the armor. We wanted everyone to know that the norms are not to be underestimated."
A few days later, the norms were shocked when they heard the news that the rebellion defeated the entire Royal Army. The majority of them didn't believe it. They still think the cultivators were invincible and no norms could kill them even when a lot of cultivators were killed by pistols. The norms had started to feel more at ease when they went to bars, restaurant, or shops. If a cultivator made trouble, then all they had to do was pull the trigger. The cultivators started paying because of this.
Even when they saw with their own eyes how much their life change, they still wouldn't budge. They keep convincing themselves that the norms were too weak. There was no way they could defeat an entire army of cultivators.
That was what they thought until the rebel army parade the corpses and the armor of the Royal Army from city to city. With a line of soldiers equipped with BC-75, rifles, mechanical arms, and magic bulls, they trod the street with chins pointed straight to the sky.
The norm opened their windows and stared at the parade
The sight of dead bodies paraded on a stick with their armors and insignia of the Royal Army gave them excitement. The civilians cheered and threw flowers at the parade.
The rebel soldiers kept their stern expression. They were the soldiers that defeated the Royal Army. Not just any norms could achieve this feat! Not just anyone could leave their homes and volunteer to fight!
The wild cultivators that watched this event could only keep their heads down. They tried to be invisible and some even pretended to cheer on the rebel soldier to blend in.
But those who were blinded by arrogance had different thoughts.
A cultivator stopped in front of the parade. "Those dead bodies are fake! They are not cultivators! There is no way that a group of norms could defeat a cultivator, not to mention the entire Royal Army! What you see is fa—"
Bang!
The cultivator got shot in the face and his entire head was blasted to pieces. His lifeless body fell to the side.
Nesterin pointed his BC-75 to the sky, smoke came out of the barrel.. "If there is any cultivators who would like to prove us wrong, then I will be very thankful if you show yourselves and let me put a bullet in your face."
He looked around. "Is there any cultivator around here? Or are you scared to show yourselves?"
A cultivator put his head down and was about to walk away.
"He's a cultivator!" Someone pointed. "Look he has a sword with him."
The cultivator panicked and started sweating.
Nesterin stared at him. "Are you a cultivator?"
"N… no, I'm not. This sword is just decoration. I am actually a baker and this sword is made out of cake. Look I will prove it to you." The cultivator bit into the hard cold sword and snapped a small chunk of it before chewing it in his mouth.
"I see… Well, I believe you. You can go now."
The cultivator sighed in relief as he ran away to a far alley. He spat out the metal inside his mouth. "That was dangerous. The norms are so scary now."
As the parade continued, Nesterin made an announcement that shocked the norms in every corner of the city. "From today, the Hax Rebel Army declared that it will take over the Avatar Kingdom. The Royal Family and the sects leader within the Avatar Kingdom must go to Barmwich and swore their loyalty to Hax."
The norms trembled when they hear that. The cultivators were shocked.
War would come. If the Hax Rebel Army was truly a strong opponent, then the Avatar Kingdom would enter the state of chaos and anarchy. It would be something that had never been seen before.
Hax sat on his workshop with Ratha beside him munching on a sweet bread. He smiled when a panel appeared in front of him.
[Congratulations. You have completed your mission 'Start a Rebellion']
[You have been rewarded with 1 random power suit blueprint]