Demon Wolf

Just as Wolf entered the range of the illusory attacker’s maneuver, he sent a surge of Qi into his legs and exploded with speed. At the same moment, the charging woman’s feet blurred. She accelerated, raising her sword to slash at Wolf.

She’s neither blocking my punch nor attacking. That means the attack happens at the end of the movement and they can’t execute it sooner. Meanwhile, they are defenseless. And they are much softer than Brambledrakes. As Wolf reached this conclusion, his fist smashed into the illusion’s solar plexus and her torso caved in slow motion.

Despite her body distorting, the blonde kept her mask of smiling elation. Her expression remained unchanged even as she flew back and crashed into another savage attacker.

The nude women’s limbs snapped, bending at odd angles as they staggered back. They tumbled and rolled on the ground, knocking down yet another sprinter. 

Interesting, I think I can make a much greater contribution fighting manlings than Monster Beasts, I just need a giant club…

Watching the incoming attackers trample the three prone women, Wolf summoned the spear from his holdingring. Rather than wielding it properly, he lashed out, swinging it like an oversized cudgel at the nearest attacker.

They will defend themselves when not using the charging maneuver. In the dilated flow of time, the slender woman raised her sword to block. In response, Wolf sent a surge of Qi into the spear, illuminating his weapon a moment before it struck the sprinting illusion.

Soundlessly, the spear’s shaft met the sword, smashing it backwards. The blade sunk into its wielder just before the wooden pole folded her chest. The grievous wound spurted no blood, and the splintered bones made no sound.

What the illusion saved on sensory input, it made up in collision physics. The bounding woman meteored back into the onslaught of attackers, ricocheting into three others. Her resistance had failed to reduce Wolf’s momentum. His shaft smashed into another enemy, then another, breaking them like dolls. 

“Archers, ignore enemies which would collide with me and two meters to either side.”

Wolf danced, brandishing his spear, hurling silent foes into the tidal wave of flesh.

This is disquieting. Wolf grimaced as he slammed his fist into yet another naked woman’s sternum while his spear sent another flying. The obedient, noiseless deaths made his skin crawl. They should’ve added screams at least, if not the cracking and squishing sounds.

Still, Wolf shrugged off his disquiet, and after five minutes the wave ended.

I eliminated about three percent of them; I should fight ahead of the archers to take the most advantage of my strength. However, that would mean my troops are behind me, and I will remain blind to any problems they face. Wait. That’s the scam!

This test obviously isn’t about personal power. With the Monster Beasts, I was killing the elites, but humans have no elites…

After considering his situation for several seconds, Wolf fell back. If he had a mount, he could overlook the battle even from far in the front. His troops took whispered orders from great distance, so there was little need to stay close; unfortunately, the enemy was as tall as his soldiers, so once the clash began it would be difficult to tell the situation from two to three dozen meters away.

Wolf sighed through the nose in frustration and did the only thing he could; he waited half a minute before the thirteenth dust cloud appeared.

Hmmm? Staves? To Wolf’s surprise the next wave was not a mix of previous troops, but rather a new enemy type. How many arrows will it take?

“Archers, the leftmost four hundred shoot targets in teams of two, the rest shoot in teams of three. Single volley.” Wolf frowned while issuing orders.

Like in the earlier stages, Wolf awakened his senses just before the arrows struck. In one smooth motion, every other attacker raised their staff above their head and spun it so fast the glowing poles nearly blurred even in the syrupy flow of time.

The Qi-infused maneuver smashed apart arrows, regardless of their number or amount of Qi infused in them, protecting both the staff-wielder and their neighbors. After three seconds, the whirling movement ended, but the previously idle attackers repeated it.

Their coordination is seamless. Arrows won’t hurt these guys. “Archers, aim for the gaps in their maneuvers and eliminate those poorly protected.”

“Disciple, your order is unclear.” To Wolf’s surprise, instead of an inhumanly precise volley, the archers remained still, and a stern female voice answered his command.

Shit. I can probably compute it with fully awakened senses. However, no regular human can do that. That means their precision is superhuman, but that’s only if they can follow my orders. In that case…

“Archers, shoot every other enemy a second before they clash with our melee defensive line. Melee, one stab to kill the enemies whirling their staves. Two simultaneous stabs at the ones not initiating a maneuver, one from the left aimed at the throat, one from the right aimed at the heart. Idle melee, aim to kill if anyone survives the first attack and protect your comrades.”

As Wolf expected, the last moment volley forced half the attackers to raise their staves and stab themselves onto the defenders’ spears. The other half deflected the spears aimed at the heart, dying from a spear to the throat.

Two hundred and fifty will eliminate the one hundred, then let the remaining two hundred and fifty will do the same in a cycle, eliminating the waves efficiently. I don’t have to intervene this time. These guys are easier to handle than the dashers. Archers will also have more Qi and I can reuse them at the start of the next wave—

Wolf clicked his tongue as his lips twisted. Shit. These guys will protect the rest from arrows. They are easiest to deal with, requiring one and a half men on average to eliminate. However, dashers require four, and double wielders require three. If I don’t thin them out with arrows…

Wolf ran the numbers and various strategies as the dust cloud disappeared for the thirteenth time.

“Melee, throw your arrows to the ground a hundred meters behind the defensive line, then resume your orders. Archers, groups are dismissed. Two hundred rested become group one; two hundred tired become group two. The remaining three hundred rested become group three, the remaining archers become group four. Group one, each will give all your arrows save one to group three…” Wolf issued a barrage of orders, regrouping his army.

After the reform, Wolf only had two hundred archers launching ballistic trajectory attacks from the air, while three hundred left the fortification to shoot straight arrows, standing twenty meters behind the melee line. Wolf considered sending the ninth stage Qi Gathering warriors to wade into the enemy ranks, but decided against it. New enemies arrived every second and they might overwhelm his troops, killing them before he got to intervene.

While the illusory soldiers changed formation in silence, a new dust cloud formed on the horizon. Wolf gazed into the distance. “Fuckers.”

The test designers updated the formation in fashion similar to what he had expected. Warriors wielding one and two swords formed the first line; a step behind them ran the staff-wielding warriors.

They doubled the number of enemies. Wolf frowned, running the numbers, then cursed once more. I’ll have to use archers sooner than expected.

This time, archers wasted no Qi to probe the staff-bearers, and the battle began at the melee line. Everything worked as expected, but Wolf cringed as dealing with each batch of fifty double sword-wielders, fifty runners and one hundred staff-wielders wasted a hundred and fifty arrows.

Wait. Runners are helpless while executing their maneuver. I don’t need two melee attacks to counter their charge.

“Melee attacking runners. Delay the first set of attacks by a tenth of a second. Only one person attacks. The idle soldier strikes a staff-wielder. Idle soldiers—” Damn I have no more idle soldiers.

“Archers, group four, be prepared to shoot enemies who get through this formation.”

Wolf watched with trepidation, but no accidents happened. The only problem was archers wasted fifty arrows shooting already dead enemies.

“Archers, don’t attack engaged enemies.” The absurd order worked, and Wolf nodded.

One hundred arrows wasted every second, in five minutes that’s thirty thousand. I can endure another ten waves like this. I’ve probably passed already. Most non-Seeker generals wouldn’t be able to cope with this, let alone a bunch of brats. Focus. Benchmarks don’t matter. Do your best and don’t compare yourself with others. If you outperform yourself, you have won.

Wolf quoted his father, then returned to analyzing his situation and trying to optimize troop deployment.

While he planned, his troops routinely handled the situation, mopping up all attackers while skimping with sniper support.

What? The dust cloud disappeared after two and a half minutes? Wolf stared into the distance and smiled. That means the attacks have a set number of enemies, not a set duration. I might last longer this way.