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

Chapter 184 The Battle of Chokepoint Peak (Part 5)
"Wow!"

In the dense rain, in the jungle surrounding the Allied D33 area's communications hub base, Liria Korwin, wearing a green jungle camouflage combat uniform covered by a gray-black light magical armor, with a large number of multi-functional magical instruments and tool bags in her storage compartment, felt the touch of the splashing rain.

Brown eyes were fixed on the edge of the jungle, on the narrow valley between two mountain peaks, which appeared particularly dark in the rain. His freckled and exceptionally thin face was expressionless.

Her body was slightly bent, her back lowered, blending into the surrounding darkness, like a patient cheetah quietly waiting for its prey.

Once the enemy reveals themselves, she will transform into an arrow released from a bow, tearing apart those fools who attempt to overturn the course of the battle with a sharpness that the enemy cannot withstand.

As the holder of the Silent Domain spell, Liria is more adept at ambushes than direct combat.

After all, once her spell is activated, it can create a range-wide slowing barrier, thereby limiting the trajectory of projectile attacks.

However, Liria felt that the most powerful ability of the family spell was its ability to weaken sound over a wide area, and even completely eliminate the sound generated during actions once the magic power reached a certain level.

After all, the Sleifer family, possessing an illusion technique similar to that of the Corwin family, had already demonstrated the formidable power of silent killing with the Black Hawk Down special forces.

If it weren't for the fact that the family was defeated by the terrifying power of the magic soldiers in the past struggle with the empire, resulting in a large number of core members being lost and the number of family members who truly mastered the unique spells and had combat talent now being less than four hundred, and had completely declined.

Then, the Silent Domain spell, with its wide coverage and slowing effect, is even more powerful.

It remains to be seen who will ultimately claim the title of the world's most renowned assassination squad.

Of course, this situation is based on the premise that the number of troops on both sides is equal.

After all, the Corwin family's techniques can only be inherited through bloodlines and do not possess the ability to be bestowed. To create a truly top-tier assassin team, the only way is through reproduction.

The Slevin family's Phantom Technique, however, allows for the large-scale creation of assassination squads by implanting Phantom Seeds into the bodies of others, sacrificing some of the unique technique's strength.

Although the intelligence gathered by our spies indicates that soldiers cultivated in this way, whose own magic power is relatively low, need at least five years to adapt to the changes in their magic circuits, they will also be unable to achieve true phantomization due to the weakening of their magic circuits, resulting in their strength being more than one level weaker than that of true bloodline inheritors.

However, after adapting, they can achieve near-perfect concealment of their presence and a state of transparency for a short period of time.

Thus, they transform into true ghosts, silently and effortlessly annihilating all targets they have locked onto.

It is precisely because of these techniques, which are almost exclusively designed for assassination, and the ability to conduct secondary large-scale training regardless of bloodline, that the Empire's Phantom Force has been able to serve as the backbone of the Empire since the end of the Age of Gods.

Although in the era of cold weapons, the Phantom Force was overshadowed by the brilliance of the Binot family, known as the Spear of the Empire, whose members could take on a thousand men single-handedly and whose heirs could even take on ten thousand men single-handedly.

Later, with the advent of firearms and the emergence of magic soldiers, the Slyford family, which should have risen to prominence, once again became a mere supporting character.

However, after the Kingdom of Victoria developed an anti-magic device to counter the magic soldiers, the terrifying power of the Imperial Magic Soldiers was limited, and they were no longer as invincible as they were when they were first created.

The power of the Phantom Force gradually became apparent, and through their activity on the battlefield, they increasingly demonstrated their true might.

Even after the Slevin family, since Perus I, together with the fifth head of the Caster family who was then Prince Caster, through research that disregarded costs, cultivated the world's unparalleled magical soldiers using forbidden methods unknown to outsiders.

The Slevin family then began to follow a family motto called balance, which led to the original Phantom Force splitting into two different units called 'Black Hawk' and 'Dark Raven'. These units were affiliated with opposing political parties and frequently engaged in internal strife due to their factional struggles, which depleted their internal strength.

Despite this, the Black Hawk/Raven squad still firmly holds the top spot in the world's assassination squad rankings.

In addition, there was the recent incident where the Black Feather Force, trained by Major General Leon Lee, who was as famous as Commander Morning Star and known as the Assassin Star, was wiped out in battle by a member of the Sleifer family, an instructor-level member of the Black Hawk Assassination Squad who possessed the true Phantom Technique.

This has already proven just how terrifying the true holder of the Illusion Technique is.

Fortunately, unlike the 'Demon King Era' which has already passed, since the death of Hobbes Sleifer, the Grand-ranked powerhouse who inherited the title of 'Imperial Phantom' in the previous generation...

In the Slevin family, which has gone through two generations, the strongest person to inherit the spell is only a super-ranked mage of the same level as her, who is thirty-six years old.

Moreover, compared to her, who still has the potential to become stronger, the current head of the Sleifer family is already sixty-four years old.

Adding to the guilt of accidentally killing his brother in past factional struggles, and considering that the other party has been in politics for too long and has not personally fought in battles for more than a decade, it remains to be seen whether he is worthy of the name of Imperial Phantom.

Of the Slevin twins, the eldest son did not show any remarkable talent. Despite being the same age as her, he remained stuck in a high-ranking position.

Although the second son, Conrad, was described by his own spies as having extraordinary talent from a young age, and after mastering the spell, he reached the level of a mid-level mage at a terrifying speed within a year. He was even summoned by the former Emperor William and was given the title of the most promising genius to inherit the title of Phantom Grand Master of the Empire.

The kingdom has repeatedly sent assassins to try and eliminate the opponent, thus preventing the birth of the next Imperial Phantom.

Since ancient times, the Slyford family has been at odds with the Slyford family, and they have long been sworn enemies.

Her father naturally became the executor and leader of the plan to kill her back then.

To ensure the plan's success, the kingdom even went so far as to expose several senior spies hidden in Elena, risking their lives to lay an ambush and attempt to carry out the assassination.

Although the assassination attempt failed due to the heavily guarded Slevin family, his father was killed by the Phantom Force.

However, before his death, her father used a slowing barrier to launch a desperate attack at the cost of his own life. This not only successfully destroyed some of Conrad's magical circuits, but also left Conrad Slyford, who was only fourteen years old at the time, with severe psychological trauma.

This caused mental problems and severe trauma to the other person, causing their personality to become distorted. Even the magic circuits that had been barely restored through treatment were affected by the personality change.

This led to Conrad, who should have inherited the name of Phantom and become a Grand Master long ago.

Now at the age of thirty-four, not only has he failed to reach the same super-rank class as her, but he has also made no progress in the past twenty years, remaining in the state of a mid-rank mage, becoming a weakling that Liria can crush at will.

In a sense, the Kingdom's "Severing Illusions" plan has already achieved its objective.

In a situation where the strongest have no chance of advancing and the new generation has no room to grow.

Objectively speaking, the Corwin family, to which Liria belongs, has every chance of replacing the Sleifer family and reaching the throne of the strongest assassination squad.

According to Liria's goals, she initially did not intend to join the 'One-Eyed Hunter' faction represented by Roxie. In comparison, the assassin star was the one who could help her achieve her goals.

Unfortunately, the Assassin Star Major General, who was a holder of the 'Scholar' spell and believed that magical technology would eventually replace unique spells, rejected her application.

Through her own scientific research capabilities, she created an assassination squad called "Black Feather" that was in no way inferior to the "Silent Assassins" she led.

In the subsequent struggle for supreme command, the unit repeatedly made a name for itself through numerous assassinations that turned the tide of battle.

After being rejected, she had no choice but to turn her attention to the eight candidates vying for the title of commander among the kingdom's new generation, a title that represented the highest level of strategy and wisdom. The candidate widely considered the most likely to win the final throne was from the "Eye of the Sky" Sancaster family, now revered by countless people as the "Invincible Morning Star."

Roxie Sancaster!
To be honest, Liria wasn't particularly fond of this highly renowned young commander.

After all, whether it was the chivalrous spirit education he received from an ancient family since childhood, or the absolute, almost insane, control he exercised over his subordinates, which had been passed down through generations and had now reached its peak in him.

All of this made it difficult for Liria to feel any admiration for this extraordinary, monstrous commander.

Even she had to admit that Roxie's experience on the battlefield was far less than that of her young commander.

In this day and age, there are probably very few people who can match him in terms of wisdom and judgment.

So even though the other party has never used the Silent Thorn to carry out assassination activities, it dashed her hopes of overturning the ranking of assassination forces and causing the Corwin family to achieve glory.

But faced with the opponent's repeatedly abnormal command abilities and the overwhelming victories they brought, Liria eventually accepted the status quo.

However, despite accepting the idea, the ambition to revitalize the Corwin family and the goal of destroying their arch-enemy, the Sleifer family, never diminished in Lyria's heart.

On the contrary, with the increase of victories and merits, it began to rise continuously.

She had a premonition that sooner or later, she would be able to face the Empire's Phantom Forces in a battle between her side and the Empire, and prove the power of her family's Silent Domain technique in a real confrontation.

And this period of time will not be too long.

Perhaps, after winning this battle in Faoken Bay, she will be able to launch a real counterattack against the Imperial Seventh Air Force, which is stationed in the western theater of the Golden Rose Kingdom and guarded by the Black Hawk Special Forces, under the leadership of Roxie, whose prestige has been further enhanced.

This would also make up for the regret of not being able to confront their arch-enemy Slevin family head-on last time due to insufficient troop numbers and being rejected by General Olco.

Under the opponent's command, with unparalleled power, they completely annihilated Jett Slevin, the eldest son of the Phantom Family.

This marks the partial end to the thousand-year-long rivalry between the two families for the title of the strongest assassin.

To achieve this, she currently needs to accomplish one more thing.

That is……

"Eliminate the enemy forces attempting this sabotage operation, and lay the foundation for victory in this war by taking down that hateful and utterly pedantic madwoman!"

As she watched the cloaked figures approaching through the dense, almost straight curtain of rain, a murderous glint flashed in Liria's eyes. The instant the enemy entered her attack range, she took a step forward, and together with her subordinates hidden in the darkness, they became part of the darkness that almost covered the sky.

Then, silently, they revealed their ferocious fangs, gleaming with deadly cold light, and with a speed that left the opponents no time to react, they tore and severed all those figures!
"Puff puff!"

The scimitars, gleaming with azure light and trembling with a chilling sharpness, were wielded by the entire Silent Assassin Squad, slicing through the densely packed group of figures draped in black cloth as if harvesting wheat.

In the blink of an eye, this small force of three hundred men was cut into pieces before they could even react.

No one was spared.

However, Liria did not relax after successfully carrying out her plan. Instead, she stared at the corpse on the ground, then frowned deeply, her mind filled with doubt.

The reason was simple: this ambush and annihilation seemed far too easy to her.

It was so easy that it struck her as odd.

After all, if the enemy's goal was truly to launch a sabotage operation, they would at least have to send out a squad of elite troops to achieve it.

But the enemy troops who were being killed in front of them, in terms of both strength and quality, were far from deserving the title of elite soldiers.

They are not even as good as an ordinary army unit.

It was as if they themselves were not there to carry out the raid, but rather as bait deliberately sent out by the enemy to die.

The base station responsible for relaying communication signals is less than 300 meters behind us. With this level of capability, coupled with our own reconnaissance magic device that can detect all auras within a kilometer, even if the enemy's aura-blocking spells are strong, they should not be able to escape our search.

Furthermore, what's most peculiar is that every single one of these enemy soldiers is dressed with their heads and faces covered, even their eye sockets are completely obscured.

If they possess the corresponding perception abilities and magic power of at least mid-level, and before they even activated the Slow Barrier, why were the enemy soldiers, who were elite troops, unable to react at all before being completely beheaded by their own side?
That's absolutely bizarre!
"Wow!"

In the continuous rain, as Liria stared at the group of corpses on the ground with a look of surprise and uncertainty, she was shocked to find that the corpses, which had been chopped into pieces, suddenly began to twitch inexplicably.

Then, within her constricted pupils, it began to rapidly swell and enlarge. Then, as if an egg had been filled to its limit by the substances growing inside, it suddenly burst!
"Puff puff!"

The continuous sounds of flesh and blood exploding, accompanied by eerie smoke, suddenly burst forth in all directions.

The moment the smoke was created, the rain falling from the sky, upon touching the purple smoke, seemed to be eroded, and began to vaporize uncontrollably, emitting sharp hissing sounds.

The originally pure water mist, upon contact with the strange substance altered by a unique technique, began to turn a highly toxic purple, and as the rain continued to fall, it began to split and proliferate at a terrifying speed.

Almost instantly, the suffocating stench covered the entire area within a radius of 500 meters centered on the corpse!
And all the trees that were infected by this purple poisonous fog began to wither uncontrollably at the same time.

The lush green leaves quickly dried and turned yellow, transforming into a nauseating, rotting black in the blink of an eye. Then, under the pounding of clean raindrops, they collapsed rapidly, eventually turning into a foul-smelling, pitch-black pool.

This once lush jungle was instantly swept away by this terrifying erosion power, turning into a desolate wasteland filled with black pools!

Those ordinary soldiers in the rear who didn't have time to react were instantly devoured by the eerie purple mist, leaving numerous holes as if they were being swallowed by some invisible and terrifying thing. Before they could even scream, they were covered by the purple mist and turned into lifeless black bloodstains, disappearing from the world.

It was as if all of this was not the result of human effort, but rather observed by the gaze of the god who was rumored to control plagues and decay. Under the irresistible divine power, and the might of that gaze, it began to be forcibly erased uncontrollably.

It leaves one with nothing but despair, making it impossible for any other thought to arise!

"Huh? It actually failed?"

Meanwhile, at the foot of a limestone mountain, two kilometers away from the forest where the Allied communications base was located, a deep purple magic circuit appeared on the bodies of a thousand Imperial Special Medical Operations Force soldiers directly in front of them. The aura they exuded was particularly oppressive and eerie. Cambert, who had been concentrating on manipulating the spell with his eyes closed, slowly opened his eyes at this moment.

Although he maintained his usual squinting, almost sleepy expression, a hint of surprise flashed in his purple pupils.

Under the influence of telepathy, John had already warned him that the enemy commander would most likely be aware of their raid and would send elite troops to guard it.

Instead of leading his troops to launch a direct attack on the enemy's communications base, he chose not to.

Instead, as they approached this location along the way, they deliberately took a detour to kill a small enemy unit and used a plague spell on the enemy corpses, turning them into mobile puppets that could spread the plague spell.

They planned to try to completely annihilate the guarding forces of this base station by using the spread of plague magic, a tactic that was extremely difficult to detect unexpected changes in.

While this technique cannot unleash the full power of the Stanvo family's plague spells, it can easily and effectively erode, or even kill, enemy troops who are slow to react.

Even powerful beings at the same super-level, if they are caught off guard, will have to expend a lot of magic power to dispel the plague within their bodies, and their combat strength will drop uncontrollably as a result.

As for mid-level and lower-level mages who cannot be effectively eliminated, the effects of the plague will be more pronounced.

For beings with insufficient magical power, even if they successfully evacuate after only inhaling a portion, their magical circuits will be infected by the power of the plague, and they will begin to proliferate by borrowing the opponent's magical power.

Even if you use all your strength to suppress it, the opponent can only barely survive for a short period of time.

As time goes on, these weak mages will develop various adverse reactions uncontrollably.

For example, dizziness, nausea, high fever, incontinence, etc.

Once their magic power is exhausted, or they are completely infected by the power of the plague, they will be corrupted by the plague power and turn into a pool of black water, perishing completely.

In fact, if we don't abandon the plague's activating properties and forcibly intervene with techniques to turn infected objects into puppets that can be controlled, walk, or even talk, but instead choose to set ordinary corpses as sources of infection that can proliferate, then...

So after the spell is detonated and spreads and infects, the corrupted enemy forces will not only face death, but will also become new sources of infection due to the nature of the plague spell's activation, and will spread outwards after death.

However, compared to the current puppet system and its rapid spread, the latter is more powerful and covers a wider area, making it truly capable of destroying a city.

However, the spread will be relatively slow, and if the enemy can react in time and use walls covering magic circuits or other types of spells to block it, then the activated trait will be suppressed or even become ineffective.

It was precisely for this reason that Cambert abandoned the idea of ​​using activation in this match.

What surprised him was that even though he had sacrificed the spread effect for a short burst of damage, intending to cause the most damage in one go.

In the feedback from the spell, apart from receiving reports of the annihilation of a large number of trees and ordinary enemy soldiers, he did not receive any reports of any magicians being infected.

This situation made him raise an eyebrow in surprise, but soon he sensed the aura ahead, which was clearly of the strength of a super-ranked mage, filled with violent killing intent, and rapidly rushing towards his location.

He immediately smiled slightly, and then gracefully and skillfully drew the rapier from his waist.

"bass!"

With a flash of cold light, it was just a casual flick of the sword, yet it swept away the annoying rain with astonishing speed.

Then, with one hand behind his back and the other pointing forward at the enemy army that was rushing towards them with astonishing momentum and incredible speed, the rapier, which was gleaming with azure light and had a hilt carved with exquisite snakes, was carrying an astonishing aura.

Looking at the figure in the lead, who seemed to be able to slow down time, even the rain would involuntarily freeze as it approached him.

"I see. The Corwin family, who possess the Silent Domain technique. It seems they would be a good subject of study."

As if he had found a brand new prey, a playful smile slowly crept onto Cambert's lips.

His normally gentle and refined squinty eyes widened at this moment, revealing a pair of eyes that, at some point, had begun to emit an eerie purple light due to the activation of a spell.

Coupled with the sinister smile that had appeared on his face at some unknown time, his entire demeanor underwent a dramatic transformation in an instant.

It was as if a monster had torn away its false pretense, revealing its terrifying true nature to the outside world.

Then, looking at the enemy figures ahead who were clearly moving at high speed but were causing the surrounding space to slow down uncontrollably, a chilling killing intent immediately flashed in Cambert's eerie purple eyes.

Then his voice, which was clearly gentle and calm, yet inexplicably unsettling to the ear, echoed through the continuous rain on the battlefield where a fierce battle was about to erupt.

Then came the sound of people pulling out potions and stabbing themselves in the necks, their auras gradually becoming violent under the influence of the potions, their eyes turning blood red, and simultaneously drawing their rapiers from their waists. They whispered in the ears of the entire special medical operations force, revealing a sinister grin identical to Cambert's:

"Considering the enemy's strength, I hereby authorize you to perform a puncture on the target during this operation."

"So, let's get some vigorous activity, everyone, after all this time!"

"Execute the surgery!"

"bass!"

……

"So, the sabotage operation led by Cambert has also been thwarted?"

Inside the dimly lit corridor headquarters, John frowned slightly as he looked at the real-time battle map showing the engagement. Although he had anticipated the possibility that Roxie might notice the enemy's actions when he sent Cambert to launch the raid, thus hindering the operation, John was still working hard.

But when the truth was actually presented to him, he couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed.

After all, if he could destroy the enemy's communication base station this time, preventing Roxie's orders from reaching the front line, he could then effectively kill the enemy's main force through micro-management.

However, the enemy anticipated the raid and dispatched their elite forces to intercept it.

With both sides having comparable combat strength, and the enemy general likely able to unleash a slowing barrier, Liria is practically at the maximum level in terms of both combat power and survivability at this point in time.

Even Cambert would probably find it difficult to defeat his opponent in the short term.

Furthermore, since the opponent is a wind-type super-rank mage, even if Cambert is seriously injured in the face of the experienced Cambert, he can still safely evacuate using wind magic.

And after realizing this change, Roxie has most likely issued an order for the remaining communications units to build new base stations at the new location, thereby replacing the relay functions of the original base stations.

Therefore, given all the above possibilities, this raid is likely to end in failure.

"Furthermore, knowing that we have already revealed all our trump cards, given Roxie's personality, he probably won't choose to stay in the command post. Instead, he will most likely lead the 3,000 guards who were left behind to reach the rear of our front line by teleportation in an unconventional way."

"And by unleashing the Spirit Heart Technique to launch a strong attack from behind, and then using the unique technique to support the Fifth Legion's troops on the front lines, we will completely reverse this battle."

"With the blessing of the Spirit Heart Technique and the influence of the anti-magic device, unless an elite force led by a super-ranked mage is dispatched to ambush them in the route they have carved out, there is no chance of repelling them and ensuring the safety of our frontline troops."

"As for annihilation, or even capture, with Orion's spatial and water magic, combined with the torrential rain environment that is almost like a divine help for water magic, it can almost be called wishful thinking."

"In other words, the collapse of our front is a foregone conclusion."

John narrowed his eyes as he quickly analyzed the current battle situation in his mind. Even though the battle was so intense, he did not show any sign of discouragement. Instead, a smile slowly appeared on his lips.

That's right, considering our current combat strength and the fact that we haven't laid any traps beforehand.

But, Roxie, have you forgotten?

I, who used the terrain to guide the flood, successfully submerged the Seventh Army and ultimately secured the victory at Horseshoe Ridge.

Their greatest strength is not actually in determining the outcome of a battle based on the apparent strength of their own troops.

Instead, they use more persuasive methods to turn all available neutral resources into their own advantage and achieve a true reversal.

In other words, the power I show you is only what I want you to see.

From the moment you blindly trusted your own intelligence and were swayed by the crisis I presented, you made a risky decision that you believed would determine victory, based on the arrogant personality I knew so well.

You have already fallen into the trap I actually created for you.

Roxie Sancaster!
Thinking of this, John's dark eyes immediately scanned the battle map in his field of vision, and locked onto dozens of locations that he had scouted in advance under his orders. These locations had already been marked by Lünebo in advance. They were located behind their own battle line, and the battle line layout deliberately did not have any troops stationed there, creating the illusion of emptiness. In reality, they were the boundaries of the habitats of a large number of high-level magical beasts. There were even five large magical beasts, whose strength was so great that they had the intelligence of a 13-year-old human child and whose destructive power was astonishing, that they had nested in the nearby area.

He watched as a force of about forty men, led by a soldier named Bababo from the magic camp, stood in the sky directly above the undisturbed, still-sleeping settlement of the magical beasts, awaiting his command to launch a devastating magical attack.

They forced them to the point where their own forces were most vulnerable, just as Roxie was about to lead his troops to their destination, creating a scene where Roxie, who was trying to break through their own lines, would encounter a monster horde attack of hellish difficulty.

John immediately and slowly raised the jet-black commander's staff, its handle carved with a golden eagle's head, representing the highest authority in the army. He then casually tapped it on the sand table in front of him, and spoke softly in a calm tone, yet with an air of confidence that seemed to predict the future:

"The victory is secured, Roxie."

"I won this game!"

"Therefore, your undefeated myth should come to an end."

……

(End of this chapter)