Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 392: Crossroads
East of the ice field, the city of Guntherfred.

Lucia sat in the operations room that had previously belonged to Rodnias and earlier to the Far East Command of the Northern Legion, examining the map and reviewing the military operations since the Northern Expedition.

Objectively speaking, he did not have much experience in actual command of operations. The real commander-in-chief of the front line in the Star Shattering Battle was Priest Karen. He only played the role of strategic dispatch and confronting the opponent's strongest force.

But the War in the North is different. As the only commander-in-chief of these 30,000 soldiers, he must be responsible for every decision and every soldier.

To achieve this, it is not enough to rely on the strategies known from the memories of the previous life. Even the diligent study in this life is still not enough. He must force himself to make the most thorough considerations in every link and complete the most objective review afterwards, in order to apply the experience of each battle to the next war.

The choice of four northern expedition routes this time resulted in him deceiving all opponents, including the Giant King's Court and the Golden New Party, but in fact, he just took advantage of the simplest intelligence gap.

That is, the frost magic he learned from Lani, with the help of a semi-finished magic field, is enough to freeze the sea surface for hundreds of miles, turning the Sea of ​​Death into an ice road. From the very beginning, his choice was ruled out by everyone.

It didn't matter to him at all whether the Giant King's court deployed its main forces on Thor's side or Utina's side. All he did was to cross the Sea of ​​Death as quickly as possible after throwing out enough false information, and then use his mobility advantage to frantically seize the time difference, forcing the giants to fight in the most unexpected way at a time and place when they were least prepared.

As for the tide of star beasts sent to Thor's portal, it was just a small gift from him to the new giant king.

The interpretation of Esti's forbidden inheritance has just been completed by 10%, and the first ability Lucia gained from it is the precision delivery technology over a large area.

In her heyday, Esti could launch planetary-level precision strikes at any time in the starry sky which was countless times more vast than the border area. The forbidden war a thousand years ago kicked off with such a meteorite bombardment that severely damaged the Three Moon Gods and almost shot down Fam Azra.

At present, Lucia is still far from being able to achieve that level, but with his gradually deepening understanding of the field, the connection between the starry sky in the memory battlefield and reality is becoming closer and closer. Within a certain range, he can barely use the stars to locate, open the void wormhole at a fixed point, and launch the beast tide remotely.

The limit of this range is less than one percent of Esti's, only about fifteen thousand miles, and the landing point is far from accurate. The Thor portal can be locked only because the target is too large. The hundred-meter-high building scale and the surging energy reaction stand on the empty ice field like a dazzling torch in the dark night.

But this ability is more than enough to harass the Giant King's Court and create trouble for the enemy by relying on the worthless but fearless tide of star beasts.

Those star beasts with low IQs will probably never understand that their gods have been exploited to the bone and drained of every bit of value, and even their remains and former residences have been transformed into sacrifices and industrial raw materials. The culprits have even usurped the authority of the gods and continued to exploit the surplus value of their followers, and not just this generation, but one generation after another dies, until there is endless descendants.

Fortunately, Lucia, the person involved, said that the Star Beast Warriors' strong character of not fearing sacrifice played an indelible role in the Northern Expedition. They are all heroes, and he looks forward to continuing to fight alongside them in the future.

All in all, victory in the first battle depends on the decision-making gap caused by the intelligence gap, but from now on, the next battle may not be so simple.

From a macro perspective, Guntherfred, the headquarters of the Giant Eastern Corps and the former Far East Command of the Northern Legion, is the center, including the three cities of Clayton, Vigrant, and Odysseus, as well as more than a dozen small and medium-sized towns under its jurisdiction, all belong to the corner of the Far East of the Icefield.

This area is generally a slope that gradually rises from the east to the west starting from Odysseus Port. It is not until 500 kilometers west of Guntherfred that the altitude reaches the average level of 15,000 meters on the ice field, which is still a long way from the real natural cliffs on the top of the Giant Mountain. This is also the fundamental reason why Odysseus and Marica chose to land here during their two northern expeditions. Compared with other plateau areas, the relatively gentle slope is convenient for the army to deploy on a large scale after landing. They can peek into the middle of the ice field when advancing, and can protect themselves at any time when retreating.

Correspondingly, further west from here, the criss-crossing Erunga River and the Snow Canyon cut the entire central part of the ice field into pieces, and the valleys and gullies with strange terrain are filled with endless blizzards.

Above those deep ravines are hundreds of towering mountains and plateaus, connected to each other by bridges.

But the so-called "bridges" are not all as smooth as the Unbroken Bridge in the East and the Sacrifice Bridge in the South. Many of them have fallen into disrepair, and some are simply iron chains pulled between two mountains by the giants in the early years. For them, they can easily slide across by swinging their hands, but for humans, they are extremely difficult and dangerous roads to cross.

Fighting in this kind of terrain, it would be difficult for the 30,000 cavalrymen under Lucia to maintain their previous high mobility advantage. Once they were divided by the terrain and surrounded by an enemy force with an absolute numerical advantage, Lucia herself and the dozens of heroic warriors under her command would not be able to break through the 30,000-mile ice field no matter how strong they were. Sooner or later, they would be buried by the sea of ​​people and the wind and snow.

Of course, there are also roads that do not require crossing mountains and hills.

Going west along the city of Guntherfred, after crossing the half-slope snowfield that is a thousand miles wide, there is a highway in the northwest that is adjacent to the Snowfall Canyon and is almost entirely built on the mountain ridge.

This road was first built in the era of Odysseus, and was later repaired by successive Storm Kings. During the War of Unification, Gefrey ordered the great scholar Ed Linsel to oversee its further widening and reinforcement. Because its entire length of more than 3,500 miles was built on the mountain ridge beside the Snowfall Valley, it was named the Snowfall Ridge Route.

The general direction of the Snow Ridge Line is west and slightly north. It extends for two thousand miles and then forks, connecting to the south shore of the Frozen Lake in the northwest and leading to the Watcher Fortress in the southwest. Within a radius of ten thousand miles, this avenue, which is a hundred steps wide, is the only safe passage connecting the eastern and central parts of the North and can accommodate large armies.

According to reports from the dragon scouts, there was already a large force from the Giant King's Court in the direction of the frozen lake. Due to the thick fog near the lake, it was difficult to observe the details, and one could only roughly guess that they were fighting with several Samir clans who had fled here.

After the Giant Eastern Regiment suffered a heavy blow from the Northern Expedition, the Giant King's Court had apparently reacted. A steady stream of enemy troops were moving eastwards from the central region and gathering on the frozen lake line, clearly intending to prevent Lucia from joining forces with Boileus. At the same time, they were also prepared for a decisive battle here.

On the other hand, the Watcher Fortress is still in the hands of the Fire Temple. Due to its easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack terrain and overly strong city defenses, it seems that the Giant King's Court wants to put this tough nut to crack for the time being and has only sent a few thousand troops to contain it outside the city.

Thousands of third and fourth generation giants are not a lot, but with the ice field almost completely occupied, they are enough to keep a close eye on the most elite fire monks. Once the latter give up the advantage of city defense and break out of the city, the giants with endless backup can completely kill them in a field battle.

After all, to the east of the Watcher Fortress is the Giant Mountain Top and the Flame Cauldron, to the south is the Giant Cemetery filled with traps and mechanisms, and the western direction is completely cut off by the southern branch of the Snow Valley. Unless you break through the Giant Cemetery to the south and then turn west, there is a chance to reach the Lord area.

Judging from the terrain, this is an isolated city and a dead end. It is only a matter of time before all the fire monks are annihilated.

"Next, Frozen Lake or Watcher's Fortress?"

(End of this chapter)