Chapter 1373: Chapter 1372: The Combat Methods of the Siphoners

Byron and Asharena did not intend to waste too much time at the dinner party, and as a sea demon, General Vanessa had no need for human cuisine. King Audris clearly understood this point, so after everyone had filled their stomachs, the three expeditionary force commanders and a human king immediately went to the castle’s military hall. A sand table displaying the current overall battle situation on the Southern Front was already waiting for them there.

"Here is where we are currently located, Fort Greta—this is the largest military fortress at the northwestern border of the Highmountain Kingdom, and also a defensive stronghold directly adjacent to the tribal country of Augari. Centered here, the surrounding six castles and twelve highland Mage towers all belong to the defense system of Fort Greta. Tunnels connect these facilities underground, and to prevent those monsters from launching attacks from underground, we have solidified the underground structure of the defense belt with elementals and set up numerous traps."

King Audris pointed to the models and markers on the sand table as he introduced them, then drew an arc in front of Fort Greta with his finger.

"This was originally part of the forest barrier, with some strongholds within the barrier, but now they have all been destroyed. The forest barrier was burned down, and some Guardian Ancient Trees survived and temporarily retreated to the hills to recuperate. Although the defense line here has been broken, many fortifications and underground shelters should still be useful—the aberrations don’t need those ’dwellings,’ but their commanders do, so many of these fortifications have been preserved."

"It looks like a very... solid defense system," Byron watched for a while, having to admit that the preparations made by the Highmountain Kingdom over the past centuries in the face of wasteland invasion were already very complete. Those fortress groups, underground works, and forest barriers are not things that can be established overnight. "Even now, the castles around Fort Greta are still functioning."

"Indeed, if it weren’t for these castles, our northwestern border would have fallen long ago," King Audris nodded before sighing, "But no matter how strong a fortress is, it will eventually fall into a besieged situation if it cannot attack outward, as you’ve seen today. We still hold here, but we’ve only been able to hold so far—only the Sanctuary of Sacred Stars Temple succeeded in counter-pushing on the entire Southern Front."

"Now that Winter has arrived, things will be different," Byron said with a hint of pride, "Our artillery support can cover the entire battlefield north of Fort Greta, and the Marines and Draconic Expeditionary Force can ensure a larger area of safety from land and sky. Once we’ve completely swept away the aberrations here, we can fully support the silver elves’ Barrier Wall project. It shouldn’t take long, as the enemy’s command structure has been dismantled by General Vanessa. Even if the enemy could immediately dispatch another dark priest from within the wasteland to take over the remaining forces in the northwest direction, many aberrations would lose control during this process and turn ’feral’..."

"Before that, I can send part of our forces to support that ’Forward Base,’" Vanessa looked at the sand table for a long time, gradually adapting to this somewhat outdated battlefield demonstration method, and finally understood what those terrain markers meant that only land species could discern. Her tail tip pointed to the entire eastern side of the battlefield, where the Sanctuary of Sacred Stars Temple had crashed, now serving as the silver elves’ bridgehead into the wasteland. "General Byron’s artillery can solve most of the enemies, so Fort Greta shouldn’t need too much manpower—I will lead half of my sisters to depart tomorrow morning. With the strong airflow over these two days, we should soon reach the skies above this ’Sanctuary of Sacred Stars Temple’ base..."

"Are you planning to drift over with rain clouds?" Byron’s expression was somewhat strange as he looked at the sea demon general, "Have you considered traveling in a regular way?"

"This is the regular way," Vanessa thought Byron’s words were somewhat odd and said with wide eyes, "There’s no way to swim on land, so it naturally makes more sense to turn into steam and drift over—plus, if there’s a battle on the front lines, rain can create a surprise effect during a strike."

This touched on the cultural habits of different species, and Byron often struggled even at home discussing natural science homework with Pea. Of course, he couldn’t think of anything else to say at this moment, so he simply scratched his head vigorously and finally managed to say, "Then drifting over is fine, just don’t let the silver elves ’read expressions’ when you make contact, seriously, your expressions are not always discernible to ordinary people..."

"Oh, battlefield communications have been restored, we can contact directly if there are any issues. We didn’t need to continue displaying expressions in the clouds anyway, it was impossible before," Vanessa waved her hand and then couldn’t help but add, "But I think the signals I sent earlier were quite simple and easy to understand..."

Byron and Audris thought for a moment and decided it was best not to continue discussing such matters with this deep-sea creature.

General Vanessa then carefully examined the sand table before her, then shifted her gaze to a continent-wide map hanging on the nearby wall. After thinking it over, she suddenly asked, "Besides, I have a question, is there extreme scarcity of water throughout the Gondor wasteland? We accidentally opened a passage deep into the wasteland before and found that a large area of the opposite side was a drought environment, and those dark priests need large-scale water extraction systems to draw water from deep underground..."

The "accident" she referred to was when Queen Petia landed deep in the wasteland following a death beacon. At that time, the dark priests reacted quickly, blowing up the passage and even severely injuring the queen (this was one of the direct reasons Petia deployed expeditionary forces to Loren), but even with such quick reaction, the queen managed to collect substantial intelligence on the opposite side of the passage.

One of the most important pieces of intelligence for the sea demons was the water scarcity deep in the wasteland.

"... We know very little about the deepest parts of the wasteland, but based on investigations from the few Forward Bases we’ve established, that place is indeed more arid than outside the great walls," King Audris said slowly after thinking for a moment, "Mainly because the ancient Gondor explosion completely destroyed the original surface water system within the wasteland and disrupted the meteorological environment. Subsequently, the great walls further hindered the exchange of moisture between the inside and outside of the wasteland, causing water scarcity in the Gondor wasteland for centuries. Although several gaps have now opened in the great walls, allowing part of the outer atmospheric environment to influence the wasteland’s edge regions, causing normal rain and snow to appear, it may take years for this influence to spread deep into the wasteland...

"According to the current data, the wasteland has almost no normal surface rivers, only small areas that seem like ’oases’ where surface water seeps from shallow underground rivers, often toxic and unfit for drinking without rigorous filtering and purification. As for underground... there seem to be many dark rivers underground, but as I mentioned earlier, they are also polluted, and many are deep underground, requiring large equipment to pump them out."

"... Pollution isn’t a problem for us, as long as there’s water in it, we can extract pure water. The scarcity of water sources and their depth are indeed major issues..." Vanessa slightly furrowed her brows, tapping the ground lightly with her tail tip as she pondered, "We can only maximize our power in places rich in water sources. Our troop replenishment and many battlefield tactics also heavily rely on water bodies. Now, with the difficult connection between Loren Continent and the elemental world, and the low moisture content in the atmosphere above the wasteland, our soldiers will have to spend more effort ’extracting water’ or ’transporting water’ from the rear... The farther we advance into the wasteland, the lower our combat efficiency becomes."

Byron and Asharena instinctively glanced at each other, as this seemed to be a situation they hadn’t considered before—indeed, land species would struggle to quickly adapt to the various "characteristics" of the sea demons. Asharena couldn’t help but say, "The deeper we go into the wasteland, the stronger our enemies will likely become, but the power of the sea demon Expeditionary Army will be gradually weakened, that’s... a major issue."

"We may need to establish a large number of water supply stations along the way and draw water from underground rivers," King Audris thought aloud, having already realized from previous battles the strength of this expeditionary force from the deep sea, and of course, knowing their importance in upcoming battles, "Also, establish a water transportation channel to deliver water along the Barrier Wall to the front lines..."

Afterward, he paused for a moment and then added, "This requires a lot of engineering power, but I think it’s worth it."

"That’s good, but it can only solve part of the problem," General Vanessa said, speaking as if still contemplating something very seriously, "If we want to ensure the fighting power of the Deep Sea Warriors on land, we still need a more stable water source..."

As she spoke, it seemed she suddenly thought of something and turned to look at King Audris, asking earnestly, "Those aberrations... they seem to have a high water content?"

"The water content of the aberrations!?" King Audris was first taken aback, but then he realized the implication of her words, a shocking possibility accompanied by a subtle chill made his eyes widen slightly, "You mean..."

"After a Deep Sea Warrior dies, they can resurrect in the water — depending on their individual strength and the manner of death, this requires an indefinite amount of time and results in short-term weakness, and the ’water body’ used for this resurrection... can be the moisture inside other organisms. Thus, if necessary, this can also be used as a special attack tactic and... a source of water," General Vanessa explained. For the sake of future cooperation, she did not conceal this unique talent of her race from allies— besides, it was not really a secret. "On the other hand, as long as the surrounding environment has enough moisture, we can directly extract water through resonance from deceased or weaker organisms, provided that they genuinely have enough moisture inside to resonate with us.

"So, if those aberrations have sufficient water content... we can attempt ’battlefield sustainability,’ the specific method is to sacrifice a wave of teammates at the start to open up the ’situation’ from the enemy during the resurrection process, when the battlefield moisture is rich enough, those aberrations... will become our water source."

General Vanessa’s expression was very earnest, introducing her idea in a way that wasn’t joking at all, and her attitude made the others present realize one thing—

This "tactic" was not new to this Deep Sea Warlord; the sea demons had indeed done this before— and absolutely not just once. They had employed this terrifying "tactic" against some foes with a high water content inside, achieving victory.

Even Byron himself couldn’t help but feel goosebumps— though these deep-sea creatures are indeed gentle and harmless by nature, when they get angry... it’s truly chilling down to the bone.

King Audris also unconsciously swallowed a bit and then said gravely, "It’s very difficult to capture living aberrations, but this time we have captured a few dark priests, perhaps we could have them ’summon’ some for experimentation, if they meet your requirements... By the way, what’s the name of this... ’tactic’?"

"Draining to death." General Vanessa said earnestly.

Audris: "...?"

....

At the same time, on the eastern side of Fort Greta, amidst the mountains and hills, scattered lights dotted the passes between the mountains, and where the lights were the brightest, lay the fallen Sanctuary of Sacred Stars.

This fallen Anti-Gravity Fortress has now forever lost the possibility of soaring into the sky again, but its huge and sturdy form still guards the border of the civilized world, like a fallen giant blocking the gap in the great walls’ energy field screen, one side connected to towering light curtains and the other backed against towering mountains. At the foot of the temple’s remnants, the silver elves reclaimed the land that once fell and used the sturdy frame of the Sanctuary of Sacred Stars as a foundation to build a fortress capable of both attack and defense in a short time, simultaneously establishing forward bases and purification devices in the wasteland starting from this fortress.

Under the sky where the stars hung low, Queen Belsetia walked up to the highest platform above the fortress, which was initially part of the mid-deck of the Sanctuary of Sacred Stars, but now it is completely broken, a portion of its structure shattered in the previous battles turned into numerous colossal wreckage scattered across the vast plains, and the remaining structure formed a broken bridge extending from the temple’s remnants, reaching high into the sky— in front of the "bridge" is the wasteland plain in the darkness, beneath it lies the mortal’s counterattack base against the wasteland.

Footsteps sounded from behind, and Handmaiden Elaine’s voice followed, "Your Majesty, the night wind is strong."

Queen Belsetia did not respond, she just raised her head, looking at the majestic metal frames that extended from the two sides of the "mountain body," the large torn decks between the frames, and the walls and cover established by the silver elves amidst the temple remnants those structures built in recent times appeared incongruous with the grand temple’s main structure, nonetheless, the warriors marching within were more spirited and confident than ever.

"It’s truly like being inside a giant beast’s belly..." The Silver Empress softly said, "Even though I have sat upon the Sovereignty Chair for hundreds of years, I have never looked at this temple from this perspective. It’s a strange feeling, almost like... I am truly ’meeting’ a senior for the first time today."

Saying this, she turned back to look at Handmaiden Elaine.

"Tell me about the current situation, we need to prepare for the upcoming turning point."

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