The third wave had just been sent in by Invidan, leaving just around 100 soldiers plus a tank left in their backline. The change in the game at the moment was that Eighth could finally see the tank using his Fractal, which meant that the tank was close enough for us to compromise.
"I'm stacked and ready!" Seventh called out to us. Her Angels' formation had been adjusted in accordance to where the tank had shot the previous two times. We were prepared for the third incoming strike, but the plan was to stop the tank before the fourth shot could be made.
I was in charge of that idea.
"Further out towards the sides!" I told my Angels. A third of my infantry headed far west of the border, while another third headed far east. The further they went out, they began to curve northwards of the border in direction of Invidan's backline. It was a flank. The approach was inspired by the ideas I used to dream up in the office. Heavy on the flankers, and minimal on the direct attackers up the middle. Eighth's infantry was in charge of that position.
"25, out! Spread into fifths!" Eighth had commanded some of his Angels to contest the center field of the battle. The remnants of his infantry, plus the remaining third of mine, stayed back at the border to support Seventh's defensive formation.
"You sure this'll work?" Eighth asked me.
I thought back on the thousands of simulations I'd ran using the same plan. It was my ace-in-the-sleeve. Whenever I'd found myself cornered, this formation always came out on top. "It'll work," I told him.
"They won't see it coming."
As Eighth's infantry came into contact with Invidan's third wave, my Angels were about halfway past the battlefield, flanking along the sidelines, out of sight. With the number of attackers Invidan had sent to raid us, they wouldn't expect our defending units to flank when we were already scarce in numbers. Invidan knew that we were in a desperate situation, so they wouldn't expect us to take risks like this.
Looking through the eyes of one of my Angels, I could see the shrouded trees that Eighth had described the backline to be hidden in. I told my Angels to slow down and approach cautiously, yet swiftly. As this happened, Eighth fought Invidan's glaive-equipped soldiers on the frontline. In comparison to Ninth and Sixth's infantries, Eighth's Fractal didn't have as much combat potential. He was better to scout from the backline than be on the frontlines, but with out current situation, he was the best that we could put out to contest.
"Everyone, get close and play low!" Eighth told his Angels. With long glaives as their weapons, soldiers from Invidan would have trouble in combat with someone who was too close to hit. Eighth's Angels switched from their usual frantic attack style and instead maneuvered to get closer to the Invidians, getting lower before sweeping at their legs. This caught the majority of the Invidians off guard, having them tripped, and leaving them exposed on the ground. Eighth's infantry was doing some work, finishing off Invidians here and there. Eighth made sure to command his Angels to knock them unconscious without killing them as to to prevent any bomb detonations. But even with all this, our numbers weren't enough to fully hold back the third wave. Some of Eighth's Angels began to fall, and the Invidians were pushing forward. Me and my infantry had to make our move fast before Invidan synchronized an attack with both soldiers and a shot from the tank. If that were to happen, Melysia's borders would surely be breached.
"N-230…" I remembered the coordinates. It's where Eighth said the tank would be, but it was difficult to confirm from the satellite overview since the shrouded trees covered the area. I could only confirm the tank's position up-close myself. I decided to send just one Angel up the hill to take a peek at N-230.
"One, out." The single Angel cautiously made his way up the hill. If I could confirm the tank's position, I could easily send an all-out flank assault that would catch Invidan off-guard and possibly win us the war. I watched the Angel's perspective just as he began to peek over the hill's horizon.
"Please be right about this, Eighth…"
The Angel looked over the hill, and I observed as much as I could as quickly as I could. I saw countless Invidian soldiers, about 100 as I presumed. Some were looking ahead towards the centre of the battlefield, while some looked directly at me. There was a tank, right at N-230 just as Eighth had said, and there were also four other tanks lined-up directly behind it.
"Wait—"
Half the Invidians were already looking at me. Directly at me, through my Angel.
"Hold on—"
There were five tanks. Five. One was already pointed at me.
BOOM—!!!
The tank fired and blasted my Angel off the map. In an instant, his body was erased and dispersed into a mist of blood that showered over the rest of my Angels waiting down the hill.
"What was that?!?" Seventh asked, alarmed. She heard the tank fire, and so she prepared to withstand a shot, yet none came. "I heard the tank, but nothing was fired at the border. What happened, Fifth?"
I was too stunned to speak. I could only watch as Invidians began tumbling down the hill towards the flank I'd tried so hard to sneak past the battlefield. My Angels were completely compromised, but that wasn't even the biggest issue.
"There's… THERE'S FIVE TANKS!!!" I yelled.
"WHAT?!?" Astounded, Eighth used his Fractal to try confirming this. He looked back at N-230's direction but could still only see one tank. "But I only see one…?"
"The other four are lined-up perfectly behind the one you see… From your perspective it only looks like one, but there's fucking five in total!" I frantically regathered my thoughts. First to worry about, the Invidians were already looking at my Angel when he had peaked to scout the site.
They somehow knew about the flank.
Second, there were five tanks.
"Five tanks…?" Seventh's confidence began a steady decline. Her formation was only fit to withstand a single strike from a single tank. If all of Invidan's tanks were to fire at the same time, it'd be over.
As these thoughts compiled my head, both my flanks of Angels were being stormed by Invidians alike. In the centre of the battlefield, Eighth's Angels had been completely overthrown and the remnants of the third wave rushed our border. I heard a tank fire and saw the shot approach our country, a shot to which Seventh successfuly blocked but that disassembled her formation. Our perimeter was now exposed, and there were still four more tanks ready to fire.
"How…"
How did it come to this? How did such a well-led plan lead to instant failure? The only reasoning I could come up with was that it was never a good plan in the first place.
"B-But it'd always work in the simulations…" I tried to reassure myself. I'd dreamt up the scenario hundreds of times, and now that I was on the field where I could finally put it to use, I failed.
I watched as Eighth hurriedly sent out more of his infantry from the backline to contest the third wave at the frontlines. I watched as Ninth frantically reformed her Angels' defensive wall as fast as she could. My comrades were doing as much as they could with as little as we had, yet I did nothing and watched as my Angels were punctured with glaives from the Invidians.
I realized just how useless I was.
I looked over at Sixth and Tenth's infantries that continued to stand still, docile, at our border. I wondered to myself, "If only I had Tenth's Fractal, I could have detected the heat signatures on the hill before exposing myself entirely…"
The Invidians easily overthrew my flank of Angels in numbers and began to join the third wave storming our wall. I looked at the casualties under my name, lifeless at the bottom of the hill. "If only I had Sixth's Fractal, my Angels would be unparalleled in combat power…"
I began to pity the Angels in my infantry. While the Angels in the others' infantries gained upgrades through their Fractals, mine were stuck with me, the Fractless. I had nothing to offer for them that could increase their chances of success in battle. I was a vegetable that could only tell them what to do, nothing more. Yet even the things I told them were useless. The very strategy I was most confident in turned-out to be the very downfall of my Angels. They must have blamed me for everything in their last moments of living. They must have hated me so much.
I would hate me too if I were one of my Angels.
Everything was spiraling into the depths of defeat. Instead of doing as much as I could to interfere with our defense's final moments, I became a bystander. Eighth and Ninth withheld as much of the pressure as they could while using their Fractals. I felt like there wasn't anything I could do in my position without a Fractal.
"FIFTH, DO SOMETHING!" Eighth yelled at me.
"WE NEED HELP OVER HERE!" Seventh joined in.
The third wave was closing in on our border, and I could only watch as they did. Then, the drums of hell began to play. Five, heavy, consecutive beats played in the distance.
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—!!!
All five tanks had fired, one after the other.
"No…" Seventh sobbed. Her defensive formation was rebuilt, but it was only built to withstand a single shot.
For a moment, time seemed to slow down. I watched the sky and saw five, large, black birds fly overhead. They began a descent towards our border, and as the birds got closer, time got slower. As time got slower, the birds got bigger. I then noticed that they weren't birds. They were tank bullets, and they were about to strike the border, ending everything.
In the moment before they grazed our walls, time had slowed to its slowest. It seemed like everything had come to a halt. Then, the sky flashed green. Then everything against us flashed green: the Invidians, and the tank bullets. All these subjects were suddenly outlined with green, and frozen in place.
I looked up.
There, in the sky, was the origin of the flashing green lights. It was a figure, dawned in black, emitting a green prowess while floating in the air.
I felt like I was looking at a god.