War's Beginning (5)

Looking at Zancorix again, Liam noticed for the first time a blue hue surrounding the planet. He didn't know what it was, and One didn't seem like he was going to answer, so he left it alone. At that moment, the ship started to shake. A second afterwards, Liam saw a mysterious light bombard the planet below them.

'No, wait.'

Every time the light flashed, the blue hue around Zancorix got thicker and denser, before growing thin again. The elite soldiers in front of him started to pick up the pace, forcing him to move faster and pass by the window. He could only hope that another one would be coming up, granting him a clear view of what was happening below.

Suddenly, Liam felt Arimiar's Aura. The light outside got brighter and brighter. Then, the ship flashed downwards. In a matter of moments, they had gone from outer space to floating directly above ground at the planet's surface. The ship landed comfortably. By this point, the soldiers were veritably dashing through its insides, all moving towards the hole that had opened up a few hundreds of meters ahead of them. Liam followed them and left the ship, immediately realizing that he was stepping on sand. Looking around, he saw nothing but a desert extending all the way into the horizon.

As everyone left the ship, the same blue hue that surrounded Zancorix came to life around them, covering the ship and its surrounding kilometers.

BOOM

Something slammed on the blue light, making it coalesce. This sound was followed by another.

'It's a forcefield.'

Slightly ashamed of the time it had taken him to understand what the blue hue was, Liam didn't forget to try and find the direction of the attacks. Most were coming from directly in front of him, while once in a while they came from the east or the west. The bombardment continued, trying to forcefully break apart the forcefield that surrounded the ship, but the barrier firmly held on.

Then, it stopped. Liam barely registered Arimiar's Aura before he was forcefully pressed against the ground.

"Urgh!"

Circulating his Aura at top speed, he managed to raise his body a bit. Above the forcefield, high in the sky, two dots flashed and slammed against each other at blinding speeds. One of them left a purple trail in its wake, while the other glowed a venomous-looking green. The skies were dominated by these two colors. Liam pushed his body up, trying to get to his feet before someone grabbed his arm and pulled him up. It was One. Liam could feel his disappointed gaze even through the mask.

Pulling his arm out of the lizardman's grasp, he remained standing and looked at the battle above him. By now, the combatants were moving too fast for his brain to even identify their position.. They clashed over and over, going above and below the clouds, the sounds of combat only reaching Liam moments later. Abruptly, the green dot flew back while the purple one followed. Liam reacted belatedly, but still realized that Arimiar had managed to push back whatever he was fighting. The green dot disappeared in the horizon, while Arimiar contained his Aura and flew to the ground, landing in front of Liam.

"Cinzolia Fortress is a few thousand kilometers ahead of us. Our immediate goal is to conquer the Fortress, using it as a foothold for the conquest of this planet. It is in an important position, so leveling everything isn't the goal. Remember that. You should destroy as little of the infrastructure as possible."

Arimiar spoke normally, but his voice reached everyone's ears, being transmitted through his Aura. Liam was about to speak to him, but decided against it. It would be better to contact him through the Communicator at a more opportune time. The Commander flew up and back into the ship, above the tens of millions of soldiers in the desert.

"What was that?"

Of course, Liam didn't lose the opportunity to bother One. He was beginning to find great joy in asking questions that everyone else already knew to the Drakkhan. The lizardman stared at him for a solid few seconds before answering.

"Standard invasion procedure. First, create a gap in the forcefield surrounding the planet. Then, get inside the gap and onto the planet's surface. Establish a perimeter and secure it with a forcefield while dealing with whatever comes. This is only standard when the forcefield around the planet can be pierced through in the first place. We've failed to take over Zancorix before; over the course of our repeated attempts, we weakened the shield around the planet enough to make this operation possible. This time, the Empire has decided to send the Commander of the Sixth Division, alongside a fraction of our forces. Failure is not an option."

Accepting his fate as the Captain, One answered simply. Liam nodded, but realized the Drakkhan's gaze hadn't left him yet.

"What?"

"What are your stat values? And your level."

The youth frowned.

"Why?"

"Because right now, you're more of a liability than an asset."

Liam's eyes flashed dangerously.

"…Is that so?"

"I'll go first, then. A Drakkhan has base stats of 120, except for intelligence at 15. We are born with 20 Aura, due to our ancestor's efforts. I had base stats of 200 and 40 Aura, as well as 20 Intelligence. At level 50, my Strength and Constitution have reached 23,478. Dexterity is at 17,608 while Intelligence sits at 2,347. Finally, Aura is at 4,695."

The Drakkhan lowered his head, getting closer to Liam's eye level.

"Do you understand the gap between us now, animal?"

Liam gritted his teeth. While he knew One was much stronger than him, he had completely underestimated the compounding nature of levels. His Personal Attribute allowed him to plan for the long term by maxing out his stats before leveling up, but in the short term, levels were still the quickest path to power. This was without mentioning all of the Passive Skills One would have accumulated. The gap between them was as wide as the one between the heavens and earth.

However, there was one thing he realized.

'Alexander, Mikhail, and Olivia are just over level 40.'

They had hunted and trained for three short years, but were close to the same level zone as a Captain who had likely lived for decades? While nonsensical at a glance, Liam managed to think of three different reasons. One, the Tutorial was the best place to level up in the Convergence. This was likely, since it was a system created to introduce summoned species and get them up to speed so they wouldn't be immediately annihilated. Two, the Captain had intentionally suppressed his level. Three, the XP requirements after level 40 were much steeper than he thought them to be.

"…How much XP does one of the enemies grant?"

One tilted his head.

"8,000."

"How many of them are there?"

"Over two billion in Cinzolia Fortress alone. Even more all over the planet, without mentioning the local fauna. Give up. You're too weak to tackle even one of them right now."

Liam's frown intensified. He was used to getting over 50,000 XP for a single kill from hunting behemoths in the Tutorial, but the number of enemies more than made up for it. It was a system that made one prioritize killing a great number of combatants.

"What about the local creatures?"

"You should be able to deal with them."

"We have 5 years, right?"

"Yes."

One raised his body again, sounding more confused by the minute. Liam spoke to him decisively.

"Give me two years. In two years, we'll be able to take over Cinzolia Fortress."