I, who was eager to retire, became an Imperial General.

Chapter 179 The Three Powers and Lightning Strike

At 10 p.m., in a dark, winding cave, in a spacious underground space.

"..."

Looking at the complex and large cavern, which appeared particularly bizarre and fantastical under the illumination of the lights and the reflection of the flowing underground river, John, standing outside the temporary command tent and listening to the sound of the flowing water, couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

Currently, the guard force stationed in this complex karst cave, located about 400 meters underground and serving as the command post for this operation at Chokepoint Peak, consists of fewer than 400 people.

The remaining soldiers are currently heading to the Throat Peak, the location of this confrontation, under his command. In addition, the soldiers of the 1st Battalion, who have completed their reconnaissance mission, are using their mobility to lure the enemy towards the Throat Peak area, according to his original plan.

To John's surprise, since he gave the order to lure the enemy, all the members of the 1st Battalion who went to the ambush point he had predicted, who were supposed to encounter the enemy and, after a brief firefight, withdraw and report the order to him, have so far failed to do so.

To this day, however, no reports of the battle have been conveyed to him.

It was as if they had never encountered any enemy troops at all.

Regarding this situation, and considering Roxie's personality, John had some guesses:

"So, Roxie has already deduced that my objective is to engage the Fifth Legion at the Throat Peak?"

"Knowing full well that my goal is to use the terrain to suppress the Allied forces."

"Knowing this situation clearly, instead of being afraid, you chose to challenge me?"

What arrogance!

However, it is entirely in line with her style.

After all, the opponent is the game's undisputed supreme commander!

Thinking of this, John couldn't help but sigh, but his brain began to work at lightning speed.

Based on his understanding of the Fifth Legion, he now had some guesses about why Roxie would do this.

Aside from the other party's almost arrogant personality.

More importantly, it's the confidence stemming from the Fifth Legion's current trump cards.

With nearly 80,000 troops, the effects of the Spirit Heart Technique.

And those three powerful mages who played a huge role in combat throughout the early, mid, and late stages of the game, and are currently only at the super-tier level:

The Silent One - Lyria Corwin.

Hand of the Forge - Gal Loken.

as well as……

“Phase Walker - Orion Frost”

As John watched the fluorescent creatures in the water emit a dark green glow, and silently recited the last person's name, an image of a silent and wise young man appeared in his mind. He was always dressed in a white magic robe, holding a thick magic book, with his brown hair neatly combed back, and always wearing black-rimmed glasses.

Compared to Liria Corwin, who has mastered the 'Silent Domain' spell, can easily create a slowing barrier around her own team through her magical armor, effectively reducing bullet speed and interfering with magical communication devices, and can also create a stagnant field with a radius of 10 meters by bursting out mental power, and is also a wind mage.

Gal Loken, who has mastered the 'Melting Impact' technique, can convert high-density magic into instantaneous physical impacts through a massive energy-charged glove, easily destroying city walls and terrain with concentrated thermal bursts. It also possesses long-range attack and piercing capabilities, and its strength is comparable to Miles's ray, which abandons the explosive effect of blasting magic and instead enhances its melting ability. He is also an earth mage.

Orion Frost, who reaches the Grand rank in the late game, does not possess powerful offensive capabilities.

However, John believed that the opponent's functional spells were the most deadly and dangerous thing for his side!
It was even more worthy of his attention than Roxie's Spiritual Mind Technique.

Simply put, the other party's title of 'Phase Walker' says it all.

Indeed, compared to common unique spells, the unique spell possessed by Orion Frost is the most mysterious and unsolvable spatial 'phase channel' spell.

In the game's storyline, John has repeatedly controlled the enemy, enabling special operations forces to traverse space in the blink of an eye, carry out decapitation strikes and strategic intrusion attacks, and easily complete the withdrawal with zero casualties.

Of course, strategic teleportation, such as sending 100,000 troops across tens of kilometers to the enemy's main camp, only occurs in the late game when the Allied forces' magical technology has reached its peak, and even then, it can only be sustained once the enemy reaches the Grand rank.

Furthermore, it can achieve stable, large-scale teleportation without the need to pre-arrange coordinates.

According to John's calculations, Orion, who is currently still a super-ranked mage, can only teleport a maximum of five thousand people at a time, and the distance can only be maintained within ten kilometers.

Furthermore, a stable magical environment is required during the opening of the phase channel, and the spell cannot be disturbed by the outside world, otherwise the spell can be easily interrupted, causing irreversible damage to oneself.

In addition, the same requirement for regional magical stability applies to the teleportation location, and coordinates need to be determined in advance in order to achieve fixed-point regional teleportation.

Otherwise, the teleportation area will deviate irreversibly.

It is a procedure with very strong effects, but also with very obvious drawbacks.

In addition to his unique spells, Orion is also an outstanding water mage. The reason why his attack methods are said to be weak is only relative to his two teammates.

The opponent's own techniques and strength are enough to change a battle involving about a thousand people in an instant.

In addition, its unique teleportation effect makes it difficult to be killed in battle against opponents of the same level unless its mana is exhausted.

Instead, they could easily fall into the coordinate traps set up in advance by the other party, be easily manipulated by the other party's artistic magical skills, and become the other party's prisoners.

This is one of the reasons why John did not attempt to send assassination squads to kill the other party.

Furthermore, the three individuals' abilities complement each other, making their teamwork in combat seamless.

Therefore, he was also given the title of "one of the three talents" among the key supporting characters in the game. Despite being a supporting character, he appeared many times in the story and achieved remarkable results.

It is not difficult to see just how powerful these three super-rank mages who serve Roxie are.

At this moment, after recalling the information about the three individuals in his mind, a look of seriousness flashed across John's eyes.

He wasn't too worried about the threat posed by the first two super-rank mages.

After all, Roderick and Cambert, two battle-hardened veterans who were no less formidable, and even stronger in the game's storyline, were the ones to contend with.

Even if our two super-powerful fighters can kill the enemy in an instant, there shouldn't be any unexpected situations in maintaining a balance of power.

John's only concern right now is Orion.

After all, if Roxie were to use the Spirit Mind Technique and rely on the enemy's teleportation magic to send an elite force behind their own lines and launch a surprise attack, then given the relatively weak combat strength of the Independent 3rd Division, they would most likely be unable to stop the enemy's advance.

If things develop to this point, the battle will be forced to end prematurely, and our side will go from a direct confrontation to a rout and retreat. This is the last thing John wants to see.

"Therefore, we must limit this point. At the very least, we must not allow the campaign to be interrupted by such an accident before we have annihilated an enemy orc unit."

That being said, without the functional magical facilities of the Allied forces, how could I create a chaotic area of ​​magic on the battlefield to effectively stop the enemy's teleportation magic?

John couldn't help but frown as he pondered how to stop the opponent from teleporting, thus gaining a greater advantage for his side in this confrontation.

Accompanied by a series of soft footsteps, Wendy, the bumbling second-in-command who was helping the soldiers move ammunition, overheard their muttering conversation with Charlie:

"Charlie, don't you think it's stuffier outside than before? Is it going to rain again?"

"Speaking of which, the lightning in Faoken is terrifying. Lieutenant Miles reported earlier that he was almost struck by lightning while flying at low altitude during a mission in the early morning."

"Wow, just thinking about that scene is terrifying!"

Wendy spoke up gleefully, intending to continue criticizing Lieutenant Miles as a coward, when she caught a glimpse of John, who had somehow walked out of the command tent and was now staring intently at her, his expression unreadable.

Wendy, who was chatting idly during work hours and discussing her superiors, suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.

He then quickly put the ammunition box on the ground and explained to John with a guilty look on his face:

"Captain, why are you out here? Um, I'm not slacking off, I've already carried so many boxes of ammunition, really, Captain, you have to believe me!"

Wendy's explanation kept entering John's mind, but he had no mind to teach this stupid, troublesome deputy a lesson. Instead, he kept replaying the words the other had said in his mind earlier.

rain?

Got struck by lightning?
and many more……

Lightning strike?

Lightning strike!!
That's right, it was a lightning strike!
How could I have forgotten that!
John, who suddenly had an inspiration from Wendy's casual conversation, widened his eyes instantly.

The original distress vanished in an instant, replaced by an unprecedented excitement.

Because at this moment, he had already found a way to counter Orion's teleportation spell!

That is, to create a chaotic magical environment on the front lines of the battlefield by channeling lightning strikes!
In the game's setting, magic is described as a mysterious energy source.

However, its energy level is not actually that high.

Therefore, in environments where lightning strikes or volcanoes erupt, the surrounding magic often falls into chaos due to the electromagnetic pulse from the former and the eruption of planetary matter from the latter.

Furthermore, due to secondary ether interference caused by lightning, spatial coordinates will become disordered.

This prevents spatial spells from being cast normally. Even if they are forcibly cast, their effects will be greatly weakened, and there is even a risk of them being swallowed up by spatial turbulence.

Although the spatial coordinate chaos caused by the lightning strike lasted for less than half an hour.

However, this time was enough for our own troops to complete a surprise attack!

As for the randomness of lightning strikes, which is beyond human control.

With the knowledge and experience from my past life, it was completely effortless for me to make lightning strike the area I desired!
All I need to do is have someone prepare a few lightning rods in advance and install them at the designated confrontation location to easily stop Orion's teleportation spell!
Furthermore, it can also use lightning as a signal to allow troops on the front lines to engage the enemy!

feasible!

Absolutely feasible!

Haha, Wendy, I knew it! You really are my greatest lucky star!
Upon discovering the 'hero,' John couldn't help but smile happily, and his gaze towards the other person changed from initial annoyance to unprecedented appreciation.

"Captain, I know I was wrong. Please don't look at me like that, it's scary. I promise I won't talk about my superiors again, I swear!"

He watched as the captain's expression shifted rapidly before finally revealing a sinister grin, his eyes fixed intently on him.

Wendy immediately felt that it was all over.

Thinking she was sure to get scolded for making a mistake, she quickly put on a pitiful act, widening her watery eyes and trying to get away with it by acting cute.

However, the scene she had imagined—where she would be met with the captain's merciless iron fist and then cry and beg for mercy—was not what she had expected.

After John reached her, instead of striking her head with his merciless iron hand, he patted her on the shoulder and gave her a command that puzzled her greatly:

"Wendy, go and inform the Functions Company to immediately stop building the Dark Corridor trap and move on to the new mission."

"The mission objective is to modify the secondary metal and create no fewer than forty metal pillars with a radius of half a meter and a length of no less than five meters within twenty minutes."

"Make sure to notify me as soon as you finish building it, understand?"

"Yes, battalion commander!"

Although Wendy didn't understand why John was suddenly issuing such a strange order, looking at his serious expression, even if she was slow to realize it, she did.

John's instruction was probably related to their recent clash with the enemy. He immediately straightened his face, responded to John in a deep voice, and then, while informing the functional unit of the corresponding mission requirements, he quickly flew towards the trap-setting area. In an instant, he disappeared into the dark passage.

"..."

Watching Wendy's disappearing figure, John's smile gradually faded. He waved to Charlie beside him, signaling him to continue carrying out the task of transporting supplies, and then walked straight to the tent, continuing to analyze the possible battle situations and countermeasures using the sand table.

He waited for time to pass until the moment he expected arrived.

After the lightning rod was completed and Wendy personally led a team to transport it to the throat peak at full speed, and began installation work at the intended location, time passed.

Soon, it was 1 a.m.

At this moment, John, who had completed the battle plan in his mind, slowly stopped tapping his arm to keep track of the time and reopened his eyes.

Almost at the same moment John opened his eyes, Martha, who had already arrived in the tent to wait for orders, sent him the latest intelligence about their front lines through telepathy.

After receiving the report, John knew that the real confrontation between him and Roxie was about to begin.

"Reporting to the commander, our vanguard has officially engaged the enemy in combat!"

……

(End of this chapter)