Chapter 171: Philo Vs. Thales
Author: These backstories are really hard to keep up, more so because my college schedule is starting to elevate its game.
[Guide] who was given a little respite due to the chaos caused by the death of Linares and the following pursuit of Bernardo heard the mumble of the lady beside him, his metaphorical eyebrow raised as he saw Luna suddenly get worried about his brother that she had not seen for a long time.
_What in the love transcends distance bullshit is this?_
It was the same as what Kabuto had thought, but again, the same as Kabuto, the commander of the dead doesn't care about what Luna is feeling, he is not a naive hero after all, more importantly heroes in this world will not become one if they are naive in the first place, much more [Guide], the unique skill of "The Fallen Hero", he just knew one thing.
The main objective of this war, the invasion of Indio is already around the horizon.
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Upon seeing the explosion of the body of Linares, all of the soldiers around the said general, especially the elves tensed up, with great shame and embarrassment, besides turbulent waves of dread coursing through their being.
This war is called the Second Elven-Undead War, this alliance is called the Elven-Human alliance, and yet the first three generals to have died are all elves!
They felt like burying themselves to the ground as they relentlessly tried to hide the surging broken shards of their pride by punching holes into the formations of the enemy through their magic, however, the enemy would fill the holes immediately, making their mad effort to reclaim dignity almost look like a joke to bystanders, if not for the fact that the human soldiers were somewhat agitated by the death of their king and the potential hazards of their implication of the war to their homeland and ultimately their family, the detestable short life span weaklings would have already laughed their asses off in the middle of the fight.
It can be said to be a good thing that the humans have enough intelligence to tell that they are in this with the elves, even the remaining human generals knew of this, they also knew that Linares is the most talented out of all of them, even though they also were aware enough to know that talent doesn't equate strength except for truly ridiculous individuals like Sophia, Aerendil or Sisa.
But still, Linares is in the higher brass of their strength ladder, he is the third in strength, behind only Sisa and Damaso.
Thales who is mocking his opponent's leader knows the severity of the situation, though his intoxicated state makes him relish the fact that he is winning his fight as of the current, subsequently, this means that the intoxicated state of Damaso makes him so nervous about him being toyed around his opponent that is so small for him to ideally take a beating.
Surely, except for Bakunawa, Eleanor, and [Guide], all breathing individuals involved in the main battlefield are treading on thin ice, with the absence of Sophia as the main commander and her seemingly repulsed attitude towards the human ocean tactic as their only solace in this war that the elves once dominated.
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Again, the battle between the living and the dead entered the time were the sun was starting to set, As was stated before, the battles between generals took hours before having any major development, they were truly the higher brass of the fighting force except for the countries' respective monarchs, that is also the reason why Damaso is being toyed around by Bakunawa, a person that should be fighting people in the level of Tydings IV, even the ice serpent cannot help but grumble because of her lack of opponents.
The knights started their preparations for a battle in the middle of the night, they put the eye guard on their visors and activated a modified night vision spell, one that can adjust at the same rate as the eyes, making flashing it with light useless, after that, they fought once again with desperate vigor, however, it seems like an imbalance between the last two one on one battlefields were happening, in the left side, the humans and elves were having a hard time fighting back due to the side of their general being manhandled, by a woman, in the other side however, specifically the side of Philo and Thales' fight, the soldiers seem to found a drug that gave them a newfound vigor.
The answer to this mysterious behavior is already stated earlier, that is because Philo is being pushed away as hours pass by, the disfigured bunny, glaring at his opponent with apparent enmity while he continues to make his assimilated wolves that is once a summon of Thales attack repeatedly alongside him in a bout of senseless charge of madness, only to be intercepted by the tank-like herbivorous summons of the living general who has devised a very good strategy, taunting Philo by hurling out insults against Sophia.
Of course, normally, no one would succeed in riling up a general who saw their queen drop a nuclear bomb and defeat an old woman who claimed to be a perfect assassin, but the silver tongue of Thales, who is a trained con man before being a soldier made him adept in angering someone.
It was quite simple, after all, no one would believe slanders like she can't defeat this person or can't outsmart that person due to the fact that Sophia is literally going against Aerendil for nearly four days, so Thales made an effort to insult mundane things about Sophia.
Things like she doesn't use deodorant, her shit is always 10 inches long and 3 inches thick, and she can't make her wives cum...
Things that made people laugh, yet Because Philo is Sophia's first subordinate and is true to his name for not being so smart, he cannot actively formulate words that rebuke this accusation, actually, if it was Thales he can just say "Your mom's dead" and the opponent would go berserk, but [Guide] was not able to convey such a detail because it was being exhibited by the former con man, so Philo is left there, seething in anger.
The soldiers of the living felt elated at this, for it seemed like they would finally have a victorious general, they were so elated in fact, that they did not even notice the undead's nonchalance towards this matter, it was as if it was just a matter of time before their general will tip the scales, which is something imperceptible from the perspective of the desperate living soldiers, the undead is just business as usual, swerving in the battlefield while also dodging the trajectory of the marksmen that aims at their opponents.
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_Damnit...! Damn it...!_
Philo was really annoyed, so annoyed he was that he felt like a volcano on the verge of explosion, every cheap taunt from his opponent felt like a hammer that banged against his rationality, it became so bad that he wanted to explode with the enemy, but he won't be resurrected if that were to happen, what is worse is the drawback of his new ability [Assimilation Adaptation], it was normally a very strong and potent ability that lets him assimilate and adapt the ability of the people he ate, but the limitations the ability brings with its potency is something that he cannot mitigate, first when in use, he will not be able to use any adaptation abilities besides that, meaning he can't turn his hands into tentacles or anything that makes him a powerful fighter before getting the [Assimilation Adaptation] ability.
Furthermore, he can only use three assimilations at a time, meaning all of the goats that willingly made him absorb them to become fighters in his steed cannot be used, there is also the fact that all of his abilities take time to be activated and deactivated, thus he cannot swiftly shift into assimilated creatures that can receive the charge of the opponent's hard-shelled herbivores.
And like it was stated earlier, the taunting words and snarky laugh make his strategies go down the drain as he made all of his attempts in attacking the opponent a straightforward dash and retreat of trial and error.
"WHAT'S WRONG!? WHAT'S WRONG!? AREN'T YOU SUPPOSED TO PRESERVE THE DIGNITY OF YOUR QUEEN!? OR YOU CAN'T REFUTE ME BECAUSE WHAT I HAVE SAID WAS THE TRUTH!? HAHAHAHAHA!"
A snarky and rasped voice from the drunk man in front of him who had a rather unremarkable face in a normal setting, black eyes, black hair and all, a hallmark of someone easy to forget, p-or a master manipulator, except for the armored lizard that is coiled up, protecting his back, Thales is someone who doesn't look special, however, his disrespectful remarks slowly but surely gnawed in the rationality of Philo, who might not be the strongest of Sophia's general but is sure as hell the one who cherishes his queen the most.
_I just need to touch you! Just one touch and you will be dead...!_
Philo seethed his teeth, charging forward with his wolves, only to get intercepted by the herbivores, making him, alongside his wolves be thrown away, seeing such a sight, Philo's opponent again laughed in a hysterical taunt, this just made Philo stand up with another newfound anger and then charge alongside his multi eyes-flesh and bones amalgamation wolves again, yet they failed and then again, they charged, soon however, all of Philo's movements as well as his eldritch wolves came into a screeching halt, making his opponent perplexed.
"What's wrong!? Did you give up on protecting the so-called dignity of that bitch!?"
Normally, Philo would once again charge at him in futility in a bout of anger, yet his expression grew relaxed and serious as he heard, through hivemind, the voice that never fails to calm her down.
"You don't have to touch him, what are you? Gay?"
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Thales, upon seeing the face of Philo calm down frowned, he was on the verge of successfully making him weak enough to make him his summon by force, using his masterful control of emotions, he was able to discern the best way to taunt a very proud person by insulting the things Philo have never thought about his queen, after all, it was impossible for generals to know Sophia's daily endeavors and just sees her as a leader beyond the adjective capable, only the maids knew that she can make Eleanor a squirting mess, not Philo who is always away because of the numerous drills he has to teach.
Thales was very sure of his victory, making his once mocking laughter become genuine, something that would normally not happen if he was not in an intoxicated state, yet still, a drunk con man is still a con man, thus he anticipated the move that will be made by Philo.
_Come on... I can't wait to intercept your stupi-_
Thales was mentally chiding Philo, however, he could not help but stop his thoughts dead in their tracks as he saw his opponent glare at him alongside his wolves that had multiple eyes, after which they turned to the side and ran with all their might!
_What the fuck was that?_
Thales, with his experience as a scammer before being a militant smelt the putrid scent of a scheme, he did not dare chase the bunny.
_What is he planning? There's no way an undead will turn tails and run away scared, there should be a plan that brewed in his mind, is he wasting time by pretending to be angry? No, I should be able to notice the fake fluctuations in his emotions, more so, his sudden and gradual return to calmness is genuine, there is no way I can be deceived by an idiot... is it a strategy by their commander? But aren't commanders supposed to be commandeering the whole battlefield and not helping a single soldier? Is he stupid?_
At that remark, Thales, who was stroking the lizard latching on his body shook his head, finding his last remark to be caused by his intoxication, he continued to observe the running bunny, ready to leave the battle in stalement if it was deemed too dangerous to pursuit, however, he had neglected the fact that he cannot observe the front of the wolves and can only observe their general movements in the back, because of which, he did not notice that vocal cords of one of the wolves squirm quite violently before quickly calming down, after which, with new vocal cords, the wolf let out a seemingly soundless cry, soundless for creatures that are not amphibious, and the lizard in the body of Thales is a bona fide amphibian, thus the provocative cry was heard, making the lizard squirm and get out of the control of his master.
[Notice: [Armored Iguana] heard a provocative cry, the binds of the artificial unique skill [Subjugator] have been broken due to it being heavily restricted by the system because of its artificial nature, you have lost the summon [Armored Iguana].]