Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 434 Encirclement
"You mean, Lucia Sanx didn't flee to the northwest immediately, but turned southwest in front of the scouts of the Southern Regiment and attacked the Hiero Yannis Tunnel?"

On February 2, among the royal army that was rapidly gathering southward, Kalelius listened to the messenger's report with a hint of surprise in his pupils.

"Yes," the messenger, who was also the close follower of the fifth ancestor, Vikia, replied carefully after hearing the words, "Lord Vikia did not dare to determine the other party's intentions, but in a series of battles that just ended on the southern front, our army discovered that the Lucia tribe often cooperated with the star alien species when taking action. Therefore, Lord speculated that the sudden attack on Yero Yannis by the southern expeditionary army might be related to the body sealed at the bottom of the tunnel."

Karelius was stunned for a moment, waved his hand to signal the messenger to leave, and paced in the tent while thinking.

After a moment, he looked at Amodia who was sitting next to him, "What does the Nine Ancestors mean?"

It has been less than a month since the defeat of the Ninth Legion, and the royal court has not yet been able to spare enough resources and time to reorganize it. Moreover, Amodia has not yet recovered from her serious injuries. Calelius is worried that she will be ambushed and beheaded by Lucia again, so he has kept her by his side for some time.

"A trick." Amodia snorted coldly and made a concise and straightforward conclusion.

"Everyone knows about the battle of the Eastern Broken Star. Lucia Sanx became famous by killing the resurrected evil god Esti. It is reasonable to say that he mastered some of Esti's power in that battle and used it to control a small group of evil god followers, but that's all it is."

"The body under the tunnel of Yero Yannis is no secret. After all, it is just a subspecies with strength similar to that of Esti. It does not actually possess the authority of the God of the Stars. It can only exert its destructive combat power with the help of Esti's power."

"According to the records left in the holy land, during the forbidden war, the subspecies named 'Dark Stars' by the ancestors immediately lost most of its power after Esti was sealed, and was soon killed by the High Priest Hellengard with the combined power of the royal court. The reason why the corpse was suppressed at the bottom of the tunnel was that the royal court did not understand Esti's ability at the time, so it was just for safety reasons."

"If the Dark Stars could really be revived, then Esti would have awakened in the East during the Battle of the Shattered Stars, and it would have certainly responded. But Your Majesty also saw the result. In my opinion, whether it was the group of star beasts deployed at the Thor portal or the group of star beasts that recently harassed the Vikia tribe, including the star beast incarnation that attacked the Ninth Legion last time and hastily self-destructed under the joint efforts of Heldiron and me, they were all just Lucia's theft of some of Esti's power. The purpose was nothing more than to create smoke and disrupt our army's judgment, just like when we crossed the Sea of ​​Death to the north."

Kalelius pondered. Although Amodia had always been a bit tough and reckless, there was nothing wrong with her conclusion this time.

It is indisputable that Lucia has mastered a part of Esti's power, but how much of it is and whether it is enough to affect the direction of the war is very debatable.

Just as Amodia said, let alone Esti in her prime, Lucia has never shown the star-based abilities at the level of the low-health Esti in the battle of Shattered Star.

Although the giants were not familiar with magic, they benefited from the close exchanges with the stargazers in ancient times, and a large amount of magic information left by the ancient royal court was preserved in the holy land. As the most direct heir to the royal court's legacy, Kalerius obtained many records about the origin of magic, including the legendary magic Esti meteorite that Lucia had used.

After the battle in the East Territory, Lucia gained the support of the School of Origin. With his extraordinary magic talent, it was not surprising that he mastered the Esti meteorite. Summoning star beasts and using star magic. All of this can be reasonably explained in Lucia's resume. The only thing that was a little unreasonable was the star beast incarnation.

But after careful analysis by the royal court, it was found that the combat power level of the star beast incarnation was at best between the first generation and the ancestor, and was extremely unstable. If it maintained the level it showed in the battle of the Ninth Legion, it could only survive for a few hours at most. The fact that it chose to self-destruct after fighting with Amodia and Heldiron for a while was proof of this.

In the final analysis, if Lucia really had some powerful trump card of the starry sky, why did she use the fatal death as her killing move until the very end during the last fight, preferring to be seriously injured rather than play that card? If she could find an opportunity to kill the giant king, why would she be reduced to the current predicament of having no way to go to heaven or earth?
"Your Majesty, please forgive me for being frank," Amodia gritted her teeth and added after seeing that Kalelius looked hesitant, "In fact, you have always been familiar with Lucia Sanx's style of doing things. Rather than fighting directly, he is better at taking advantage of his opponent's concerns and fears, and relying on despicable tricks to magnify these weaknesses."

"Marching into the Holy Land is a gamble on the fact that the royal court is newly established and the political situation is not stable, so His Majesty dare not not rescue us; launching a series of attacks against the ancestor is also a surety that His Majesty will not exchange our lives for those of the Southern Expedition Army. This time the Southern Expedition Army has fallen into a desperate situation. He deliberately made such a counterintuitive move, most likely in an attempt to cause our army to hesitate, so as to fish in troubled waters and steal a glimmer of hope."

"Even if his 8,000 cavalrymen consider all theoretical possibilities, there is only one way to survive, which is to break through the blockade of Lord Moselo, Lord Hilber, and Adonis on the northern line, and escape to the Holy Tree Forest along the Erunga River. Just like Lord before, all of Lucia's actions will ultimately serve this purpose. Your Majesty, instead of worrying that he has a hidden card and has the opportunity to severely damage our army or even slaughter an ancestor, you should think about how much trouble the high priest and others will create in the rear for every day the army delays here. If he is allowed to delay enough time to escape into the Holy Tree Forest, there will be no chance of a quick victory in the battle in the north. If the high priest seizes this point and contacts those old guys in the Holy Land to attack, it will really cause endless troubles."

These words were like a sharp scalpel, accurately cutting into the vital point in Kalelius' heart.

He strode to the front of the map. The Yero Yannis Tunnel was located at the junction of the western and southern parts of the northern border. It was still four days and nights away from the Sacred Tree Forest in the northwest. Even if the three legions on the northern front maintained their current forced march speed, it would take at least three days and nights to block the southern expeditionary army from north to south.

In other words, if Callelius and his First, Sixth and Eighth Legions could not catch up in time and launch an encirclement from south to north, Lucia only needed to find a way to delay them for a day and a night and she would have a chance to escape from the gap between the two wings of the army.

"Guards!" Kalerius thought for a moment and shouted, "Pass my order--"

"Order the Third Legion of Moselo, the Fourth Legion of Hillbell, and the Tenth Legion of Adonis to speed up and launch a blocking attack from the north before the evening of the 6th. Order the First and Eighth Legions and the Southern Regiment to advance to the northwest with all their strength and catch up with the enemy by the early morning of the 7th at the latest!"

"Also order Ophelia's Sixth Legion to bypass the front battlefield and reach the upper reaches of the Elunga River before noon on the 9th. They will control the western section of the Kurbandya Avenue and block the southern expeditionary army's escape route to the Sacred Tree Forest. Tell her that no matter whether the front troops can kill Lucia Sanx or not, as long as they can block the retreat route as scheduled, she will be credited with the first merit in this battle."

"From the moment the order is issued, 300,000 soldiers will point their swords and spears at the enemy's head. From this king on down, anyone who arrives one day earlier will be rewarded, and anyone who is late by one day will be beheaded!"

(End of this chapter)