"Me?" Tatehan asked.

What the fuck?

The word hit him like a brick. Lead an army? Against that? He stared at the screen, watching the video replay from the beginning. Workers in advanced armor floating through the air, welding massive beams into place. Weapons mounted on the skeletal structure—he could see them now, plasma cannons the size of small vehicles, energy turrets that tracked movement with precision.

This army of the obscuron had more advanced weapons than the Red crest clan…

Well, he hadn't seen the Red crest clan weapons but he was pretty sure the people hovering in the air, building a fortress had more advanced equipments.

From what he even knew, fortress were built in space, the base of a powerful villain or something like that.

But a fortress above the city of the waython hollow. This was… diabolical. That could put an end to a lot of lives.

They were so many workers in the sky, building. And the thing was, this weren't normal workers, instead they part workers, part fighters.

If an army was to fly up there thinking they were the average advanced human, with powers only to help in working and no experience in combat, they would be stunned when they see them fighting.

How was he supposed to lead something like this?

More importantly, how were they supposed to get up there?

A mini spaceship, some high tech jet or flying boots?

The fuck!

He wasn't sure, but he guessed they didn't have ships. They didn't have hover tech like the workers on that fortress. The Red Crest Clan was a ground force—soldiers, scouts, maybe a few vehicles. But flying? Aerial combat against a sky fortress armed with weapons that could vaporize entire buildings?

This was insane.

Tatehan watched the video loop again, his eyes tracking the progress of the construction. It was already half-finished. Maybe a week or two before it became fully operational. And once it was done, Waython Hollow was doomed. The surrounding cities too. The Obscuron would have the ultimate high ground, raining destruction down on anyone who opposed him.

The commander's voice pulled him out of his spiraling thoughts.

"Yes," she said firmly, her gaze steady. "You."

Tatehan turned to face her, shaking his head.

"I know you think I'm capable of doing this because I defeated Mub," he said. "But that was a whole different thing entirely."

He remembered that fight. The commander had been impressed, hell, everyone had been impressed. Mub had been their most powerful fighter. The man's ability was transforming into a beast, something massive and terrifying with strength that could flatten a person with a single blow. Mub could clap someone's head between his hands and reduce it to paste. A kick from him could shatter ribs. A punch could end a life.

And Tatehan had defeated him with a single punch.

One punch.

But that victory hadn't been about raw power. It had been about his kinetic absorption ability that came with his armor.

He'd absorbed every bit of force from Mub's attacks, stored it, and then redirected all of it into that one goddamn fist. The punch that had ended the man's life.

If he was being honest with himself, that had been more luck than skill.

He'd timed it right, sure. But if Mub had been smarter, if he'd figured out what Tatehan was doing, the fight could have gone very differently.

But Tatehan couldn't blame Mub for not figuring what he was doing and a way to counter his plan. Because why he (Tatehan), had known Mub's ability before they fought, Mub didn't know his prior to the fight, and even though he knew of the ability he loved to tell everyone was his normal ability — gravity manipulation, it wouldn't make much difference since he had lots more abilities with that.

And even with that advantage, the beast of a man was still tough but Tatehan had pulled through.

Because of that one victory, the commander wanted him to lead a mission that would require them to fly? To assault a sky fortress?

Crazy.

Tatehan's mind raced. How would they even get up there? Did the Red Crest Clan have ships? Hover vehicles? Some kind of jetpack tech he didn't know about? Even if they did, how would they breach the fortress? The enemy had weapons, defenses, soldiers trained for aerial combat. The Red Crest Clan was good on the ground, but this wasn't the ground.

And even if they somehow made it to the fortress, then what? Storm it? Fight through waves of enemies while trying not to fall thousands of meters to their deaths?

He clenched his jaw, running through scenario after scenario. None of them looked good.

Finally, after about five seconds of deep thinking, he looked the commander in the eye and said:

"Being a good fighter doesn't mean you're a good leader. Fighting and leading are two completely different things, and they don't overlap as much as people think. A powerful man, someone who can crush enemies with his bare hands, that doesn't automatically make him a good leader."

The commander looked at him, her expression unreadable.

"So you're not a good leader," she said flatly.

Tatehan shrugged.

"Definitely not. I mean, I don't know, honestly. I've never led before."

"But the strongest can be good leaders," the commander countered. "I've seen it with Mub. And you're stronger than Mub."

Tatehan laughed at that, an involuntary sound that escaped before he could stop it.

"Mub was way better than me as a fighter," he said, shaking his head. "I only won because I was tactical."

He paused, then continued.

"Being wise in a fight and being strong are two entirely different things. Mub was stronger than me. I was just more tactical."

The commander stared at him for a long moment, silent. She didn't seem to know what to say.

Tatehan broke the silence.

"How did Mub's missions go?" he asked. "When he led them, I mean."

The commander shrugged slightly.

"He always won. He always led his men into the battle zone and came out victorious."

Tatehan furrowed his brow.

"So he only won battles," he said slowly, "instead of actually winning?"

The commander's expression shifted, surprise, maybe a hint of confusion. She grimaced slightly.

"What do you mean by 'actually winning'?" she asked. "Mub won all twenty-one missions he led."

Tatehan leaned forward, his tone becoming more serious.

"Winning battles and winning wars are two different things," he said. "Mub won fights. He went to battle zones, killed enemies, secured objectives. But did he ever try to stop the Obscuron? Did he ever try to figure out where the Obscuron would strike next? Did he ever disrupt supply lines, cut off resources, sabotage key installations?"

"But…, I was to do that, I'm the overall leader, I only send Mub to fight, figuring out where the obscuron would strike should be my thing?"

Tatehan nodded in the negative slowly.

"Cutting off resources?, sabotage key installations?"

The commander opened her mouth, then closed it.

Tatehan continued.

"A good leader doesn't just win battles. A good leader wins the war. That means thinking ahead. Predicting the enemy's moves. Striking where it hurts most. The Obscuron might be losing on the battlefield, you might be winning every fight you engage in, but on the large scale of things, he's winning. He's building a fortress in the sky. He's consolidating power. He's preparing for the endgame."

He gestured toward the screen.

"You can win a hundred battles, but if the enemy builds that fortress and drops bombs on your city, all those victories mean nothing. You have to go after the head. You have to dismantle his infrastructure, his resources, his ability to wage war. That's how you actually win."

The commander stared at him, her eyes sharp and calculating.

She thought what Tatehan had just said over. She ran over the possibilities of how they could have really weakened Obscuron but didn't.

Slowly, understanding dawned on her face.

They didn't really try to stop the obscuron. While they stopped his army in short battles, in the large scale of things, they were really behind.

This was because the commander didn't intend to stop him in the large scale of things, she only wanted to stop his invasion to Waython hollow city, to the North.

She was right in a way though, she couldn't possibly stop a very powerful villain as that, someone who controlled the west of Mars.

The commander nodded once, then again, more firmly.

"You're right," she said quietly.

Then, after a moment, a slight smile touched her lips—rare for her.

"These are the words of a really good and smart leader."

Tatehan blinked.

Oh.

He actually sounded tough just now.

He hadn't meant to go off like that, but somewhere in the middle of his explanation, the words had just come pouring out. And apparently, they'd made sense.

He stood there for a moment, processing.

Then he exhaled and grinned.

"You know what?" he said. "Fuck it. I'll lead your men into battle."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.