Demon Wolf

In two minutes, the soldiers formed a strange formation of Wolf’s own devisement. The square fortification held two thousand archers, five hundred defending each wall. In a narrow ring, a hundred meters from the small fort, nearly seven hundred seventh stage warriors jogged sideways in a circle. They moved in teams of five, two spearmen and three swordsmen before them. A hundred meters further, a wider circle of eight and ninth stage warriors scuttled in the same crablike manner. However, all of them wielded swords and fought alone.

Wolf considered jogging along with them, but kept his position. I won’t get tired from something as mundane as cardio; but, since I don’t know where the enemy will come from, moving is pointless.

He glanced around, trying to find anything else to aid him, but his options were limited. He stood on an open grassland, with barely two-and-a-half minutes left before his foes appeared.

Wolf frowned and scratched his nose. I wonder whether the attack will be omnidirectional, or will the enemies arrive from one side?

He bit his lip, feeling like cursing. If only I had more information; fighting unknown opponents is a great handicap.

Suddenly, his lips drew into a smile. I guess normal disciples don’t have the time to ask philosophical questions. 

Wolf’s expressions flickered, rapidly changing from confusion and frustration to cheeriness while entertaining and analyzing countless random thoughts.

Soon enough, five minutes passed and a cloud of dust appeared three hundred meters away from Wolf’s position, half a kilometer away from the fort’s wall.

He looked around and found enemies coming from only one direction, their bulky silhouettes about to emerge from the obscuring dirt storm.

The simulation’s initial setup placed us on the horde’s path. Hmm… If that’s the case… “Outer ring, shift from swords to spears, they are better weapons to support your allies. Help your friends as much as possible while maintaining formation.”

Friends? Really? But what else was I supposed to say? The programmed puppets next to you?

“Melee, slow your jog to a walk. Make sure you have both feet on the ground when delivering blows and match the archers’ attack power.” Wolf could not tell for certain whether his orders would influence the illusory warriors’ performance. However, jumping sideways while stabbing a charging opponent would almost certainly diminish the blow’s impact, if not catapult his soldiers back. There’s no need to take stupid risks in the first clash.

“Archers, group one, each of you will shoot a separate target. The left third uses the weak, energy conserving attacks; the middle third uses regular attacks, the rest use high damage attacks. Cease firing after two volleys and wait for new orders.”

If you really can choose targets with such precision, this will be even easier. The next step is testing target filtering.

Even without awakened senses, Wolf quickly spotted his enemies. Ironbacks? Based on the sound there’s a bunch of them, thousands.

The moment the leading oversized boar entered the archers’ range, Wolf saw a single glowing arrow soundlessly soar through the air, accurately striking the creature in the back of the neck. Despite the heavy wound, the Ironback kept dashing forth without breaking its stride.

I guess they also don’t care about damage and inertia. That blow should’ve staggered it. A regular Monster Beast would’ve tripped and then the stampede would trample it dead.

While Wolf inwardly cursed, a hail of luminous arrows pelted the gigantic boar pack. The volley slew two-thirds of the beasts, their bodies reduced to minced meat by those behind them; the rest, like the forerunner, had an arrow sticking out of their necks.

The Spell Formation conserves energy and computations by making them look identical and removing redundant sensory input. I bet all melee troops will deliver identical attacks and inflict identical wounds unless I order them otherwise.

“Archers, group one, use energy conserving attacks, two arrows per enemy. When group one uses a quarter of their Qi, all archers within the fort are to move clockwise and group two will follow group one’s standing orders. Repeat orders in cycles.”

The illusions followed Wolf’s command, confirming they needed two lowest power arrows to take down an Ironback.

After half a minute, Wolf decided archers were in equilibrium with the attackers.

I could try scribing basic Spell Formations? Hmm…

Wolf tried to summon a nub from his holdingring, but found it empty, save for a generic sword, a generic spear and a generic bow with one hundred arrows’ worth of quivers. Figures. They didn’t make the Spell Formation flexible; probably to prevent cheating or disciples using items to overcome the trial…

Five minutes after the wave began, the dust cloud disappeared. The Ironback tide dwindled and ended without reaching the melee line.

“Archers, shift!” The first group still has enough Qi. Still, it’s best they recuperate, while another group takes their place.

“First group, left half recovers Qi actively, right half recovers Qi passively. When you’re full, shout.” This is so much easier than the Hare tribe’s outpost’s defense. The Spell Formation is even removing the corpses on its own.

Half a minute passed before the second dust cloud appeared.

“Archers, same probing attack as last time!”

Windwargs? Wolf observed a tide of grayish-white lupine creatures charge towards them. They are at least twice as fast as the Ironbacks, but they aren’t kicking up extra dust and the sound is identical.

Wolf watched the sixth stage Qi Gathering Monster Beasts dash forward, as well as the oddly shot arrows, which archers seemed to aim where the wargs would appear.

Another simplification, they aren’t dodging. Just like with significantly weaker Ironbacks, all shots struck true. Just like Ironbacks, two-thirds of Windwargs perished, but the remaining third slowed down. However, archers only trimmed their number, they didn’t mow the entire attacking wave.

Over half the lupine monsters passed the volley unscathed and continued their dead run towards the fort.

“Archers, keep firing at the incoming wargs a hundred meters away from the melee line. Thin them evenly. Just like with Ironbacks, two energy conserving attacks per monster.” With that order, Wolf dashed forward.

The silver-colored wargs appeared realistic. Or they would have, if there was only one. With hundreds of identical clones, all moving and even dripping foamy drool in sync, the lifelike scene became an obvious simulation.

Wolf summoned the generic sword from his holdingring and slashed at the warg pouncing him. Awakening his senses, he followed the monster and those around him. The silvery claws glinted, but the creature did not use them to attack, instead focusing on its powerful jaws.

The one I’m blocking is attacking, while the others are running past, ignoring me. Can I somehow taunt them into targeting me?

“Attack me,” Wolf took the direct approach, cleaving apart the warg before him. Just like with the Ironbacks, there was no copper smell, no blood or gore; the fierce canine’s two halves soared through the air and landed with a dull thud, rather than a wet squish.

Unsurprisingly, Wolf’s shout bore no fruit. The charging monsters ignored him and collided with the defensive line behind his back. The only one to attack Wolf was the Windwarg he blocked, repeating its predecessor’s pounce and ensuing demise.

Dammit. Wolf shifted the sword into his left and summoned the spear into his right. He extended the spear to block his foes’ path, drawing four wargs’ focus while hacking at the third pouncing monster.

This is annoying. Keeping a spear like this leaves me too wide open and I won’t be able to use this once the enemies grow stronger. Wolf slaughtered Monster Beasts, hardly paying attention to them, still getting a hang of the simulations’ rules.

He zigzagged through the tide, forfeiting the sword and the clumsy stance in favor of the spear. He chose to fight so as to buy evenly distributed moments of respite for the warriors battling behind him.

Just like the first wave, this one also lasted five minutes, however, Windwargs outnumbered the Ironback Razortusks by two to one.

Wolf turned around and inspected his troops as the furry carcasses dissolved.

None of them suffered injuries, and there are no corpses beyond the first defensive line. I guess anyone should pass these two waves, unless they made some horrible mistakes, like sending the weakest soldiers first.

He glanced at the fort and nodded. The first group of archers recovered their Qi, those who meditated recovered twice as fast.

“Archers, groups one and two will merge into a new group one; groups three and four will merge into a new group two. Groups will rotate after every wave, while one is shooting, the other will meditate to recover Qi.”

Wolf then focused on the melee troops. Five-man groups of seventh stage Qi Gathering warriors are weaker than a ninth stage warrior, but stronger than eight stage ones. I can rotate melee lines as well. However, despite having greater lethality, five-man groups are likelier to suffer losses than solitary eight stage warriors, and once they lose a man, damage will snowball until the line crumbles.

He looked around again, and tsked. Neither the Razortusks nor the Windwargs left nubs for me to arrange Spell Formations.

As Wolf updated his battle plan, a new cloud of dust rose, announcing the third wave’s start.

“Group two, prepare for a probing attack!”

Wolf spotted this round’s enemies. A giant herd of earthen-yellow rhinoceroses stampeded towards him. They had green horns and verdant leaves growing from their backs.

Forest Rhino alphas? These are already seventh stage Qi Gathering Monster Beasts. They are slower than the wargs, but their hides are much tougher. The melee formation won’t be able to resist something like this.

“Melee fighters break formation. Gather into wedge-shaped squads…” While Wolf issued orders, the first probing arrow bounced off the leading rhino without dealing damage.