Pillar of Yita

As for her adversary’s previous remarks, they actually encapsulated her famed combat strategy’s core intent—to spot first, attack first, initiative is paramount; this is also why it’s called Swift Tactics. Of course, there are numerous classes of Combat Artisans in the second world, and their tactics are varied, so what this Queen says might not necessarily be correct.

But any well-known top-tier Invoker, may not necessarily be the strongest, but must indeed be deeply confident in their ways, they would not easily doubt their own thoughts, and only by doing so, could these individuals excel distinctly in their chosen path.

And Nether, undoubtedly, was the person who took Swift Tactics to its limit.

But Fang Hong’s Swift Tactics were somewhat different from hers.

His past combats had all incorporated elements of Swift Tactics, which emphasized scouting, hence the focus on controlling the Clockwork Fairy—actually, not every school of Combat Artisan makes extensive use of so many Clockwork Fairies.

Especially when controlling Clockwork Fairies, it can disperse a person’s main concentration, which is fundamentally important for a Combat Artisan. Hence, the majority of artisanry schools describe it as ’appropriate’.

Unless the person is a dedicated battlefield Observer or a scouting Combat Artisan.

Just like on that day, Baihua too used only one Clockwork Fairy to watch his back during the battle, and Wu Di, Liuli Yue, and Red Leaf also did not control multiple Clockwork Fairies at once.

Of course, Queen Nether would not control too many Clockwork Fairies either, but her requirements for the Clockwork Fairies were precision and speed—no other Invoker could possibly outpace her in flight speed; natives were scant too.

So her Clockwork Fairies were undeniably the champions of racing, controlling a larger area with fewer numbers and possessing ultra-high discrimination abilities—this is her unique skill that differentiates her from ordinary Invokers.

Whereas Fang Hong followed another path, he acknowledged that he could not catch up with Her Majesty the Queen in terms of speed, it was a talent beyond the ordinary, hardly worth dreaming of. His approach was to offset quality with quantity; whether it works well is not entirely certain, but so far it hadn’t shown any flaws.

However, still being a novice, he felt somewhat uncertain inside and couldn’t help but glance at Sophie beside him.

Fortunately, there was silence on the communication channel; Nether didn’t say much more.

The core of Swift Tactics is to keep the enemy in the light while we remain in the dark, to strike first and shatter the enemy in one fell swoop, from points to the surface, demanding that the process be clean-cut, without giving the enemy any time to react. This requires the attacker to have a very strong ability to control the battlefield.

Fang Hong too released four Clockwork Fairies with this thought but then he thought it through and didn’t adopt Nether’s usual dragnet style of search, instead, he chose a more traditional inside-spiraling scouting method invented by King of Grey FOX.

The former requires a high flight speed to ensure no fish slip through the net, while the latter, although slower, is more precise and meticulous and less likely to expose flaws.

Nether only needed to glance at his deployment route to guess his chosen tactic, but she wasn’t surprised. She was confident, but not blindly so, and clearly understood the advantages and disadvantages of both options—although she thought FOX’s ’earthly and clunky’ method was a bit sluggish, she recognized its broader applicability and greater stability.

Still, she couldn’t help but comment, ”You could actually be a bit faster.”

”That’s possible,” Fang Hong answered, ”but the Night Lizard People are hunters, more vigilant than most. Without clear knowledge of their tactical characteristics, I think it’s best to probe first.”

He thought for a moment, ”In terms of controlling ability, a dragnet search is unparalleled, but FOX’s inward spiral is more natural, better suited for probing without easily revealing the target.”

Nether involuntarily emitted a small sound of surprise, as if discovering a new continent, the unexpectedness causing her to glance through the screen at him, realizing this young man was not so simplistic.

As one of the country’s top-tier Combat Artisans, Nether of course knew the situation of this profession well. Many people fall into the misconception of blindly chasing Multi-Control Ability while neglecting other aspects, but few understand that Multi-Control Ability is really just the foundation of a Combat Artisan—

not everything.

A truly excellent Combat Artisan usually has a clear concept for their Flexible Construct, which forms the basis of all tactics. If one’s mind is confused, knowing only to charge headlong, then controlling more Flexible Constructs is futile.

This point may seem simple, but is actually difficult, as the ability to multitask is rare and extremely draining on focus, requiring one to think clearly under such circumstances solely relies on talent and acquired training.

Honestly, she didn’t have much expectation for this young man initially—when the military approached her, they only told her they needed a top-tier Combat Artisan to ’assist’ a young person with a task. The other side was a Free Summoner accompanying the elite of the Youth Training Team from Silver Weslan, with no further details revealed.

She had seen many Free Summoners before and knew their typical levels—only the fact that he could travel alongside the elite of the Youth Training Team from Silver Weslan had caused her to take interest and personally step in. Fortunately, Fang Hong hadn’t completely disappointed her at the start. His Level 15 and four controls might be average, but were at least borderline elite.