Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

Chapter 404 - Tamers War - Barricading the Bridge - (2/2)

”Commander Victor!” Captain Torres came flying to his side, his own aerial mount showing signs of the intensive combat theyʼd been waging. ”The perimeter walls are at eighty percent! Theyʼll need about thirty more seconds to complete formation, we just need to contain the aerial attacks!”

”Iʼll give them much more than 30 seconds!” Victor responded, directing his eagle toward a new enemy formation. ”Iʼll break the front, you maintain constant pressure on the flanks!”

From the air, he could see how the situation in the artificial bowl was developing exactly as he had planned. The few Yino soldiers who had managed to advance first now found themselves trapped at the bottom of the hole, outnumbered and outclassed by Yano defenders who now had positional advantage and more support.

The front soldiers of Yino desperately tried to destroy the circular wall that now separated the bridge from the city to recover the platform and be able to add more foot soldiers to the front. But their efforts were constantly frustrated by the superior control of Yanoʼs hundreds of earth soldiers. Every time they managed to make a breach, defenders immediately sealed it with new reinforced rock.

Trying to fill the hole by raising earth had the same result. Constant fire attacks from Yano and from the heights made any counter-construction work extremely dangerous and slow.

The trapped soldiers were caught in a tactical nightmare. They couldnʼt retreat because of the soldiers behind them still pushing forward, they couldnʼt advance because of the overwhelming offensive fire, the flying beasts attacks from above, and the limited space to the fall which would take them directly to the bottom of the bowl.

”If you want to take advantage of numerical superiority, youʼll have to advance more!” Victor shouted toward the enemy lines, knowing they couldnʼt hear him but enjoying the moment. ”You can send me all your almost 300,000 combatants, and no matter what you do with this formation, you wonʼt overcome the bridge!”

It was the beauty of a well-executed containment tactic in a bottleneck.

The Yino earth soldiers found themselves in a dilemma:

Continuing to push and advance meant falling into the hole and being crushed one by one by the rock and wood squadron in the center of the bowl, but staying immobile meant allowing defenders to consolidate their positions in front of the bridge even more until they became impregnable.

Victor observed with satisfaction while launching into attack how enemy forces divided between those trying to maintain the assault and those forced to protect their own defensive positions.

The coordination they had shown during the swift bridge crossing was beginning to fragment under the pressure of complex tactical decisions.

ʼHaving effectively contained the advance,ʼ Victor evaluated mentally, ʼitʼs time for the next phase.ʼ

His eagle sensed the change in his intention and automatically accelerated its flight. Victor had identified his next objective: the commander of the abyssal forces.

Maximilian Vanthorne continued directing the advance from the air, his Silver 2 Spectral Crow keeping him in constant movement while coordinating his troopsʼ responses to the changing battlefield conditions.

His spectral beast had unique capabilities that made it extremely difficult to predict or track. The creature seemed to phase in and out of visibility, using ethereal abilities that conventional aerial combat tactics couldnʼt easily counter.

But Victor had experience dealing with tricky spectral cousins, and his Golden Eagle had a speed advantage that the enemy probably hadnʼt fully considered.

ʼTime to cut off the serpentʼs head,ʼ he decided.

Victorʼs eagle brutally eliminated a pair of Silver 1 flyers that Yino had in abundance between its talons. The leading squadron saw the massacre and instantly dispersed, but Victor didnʼt follow them. Instead, he directed his eagle on an ascending trajectory, gaining altitude while preparing for direct confrontation.

Maximilian quickly noticed the direction of Victorʼs swift descent and began retreating with his spectral crow, but never turned his back on Victor.

It was an intelligent maneuver. The spectral crow had the unique ability to fly at the same speed in any direction, which gave it significant defensive and positioning advantages. It could retreat as fast as it could advance, maintain constant visual contact with its pursuer, and execute evasive maneuvers without the directional limitations that affected most flying beasts.

But even with those advantages, Victor knew he had a winning card.

His Giant Golden Eagle was Gold 2, a complete rank above the enemy Spectral Crow. And in direct aerial combat, especially over long distances, the rank difference became exponentially important.

The chase began in earnest.

Maximilian maneuvered brilliantly, using air currents and some of his soldiers as obstacles to maintain distance while retreating. His spectral crow executed impossible turns, sudden direction changes, and even brief dives in semi-ethereal mode that made it difficult to track.

The enemy commander was clearly an experienced aerial fighter. His crowʼs spectral abilities allowed it to briefly phase through solid objects, making conventional interception tactics useless. The creature could become semi-transparent, slip through attacks that should have connected, and materialize behind pursuers in ways that defied normal physics.

But even at maximum speed, Victor would reach him eventually.

It was simple mathematics: the Golden Eagle had a much greater maximum speed, greater endurance, greater power, and greater sustained maneuverability. The poor Silver 1 soldiers and their beasts were barely a minor nuisance to the eagleʼs talons. Each passing second, the distance between them reduced incrementally.

ʼFifteen seconds,ʼ Victor calculated, observing how his eagle gradually gained ground. ʼMaybe 10 if I can ignore the minor attacks and donʼt waste time on defensive maneuvers.ʼ

Maximilian had clearly reached the same conclusion. His spectral crow began glowing with purple energy, and Victor could feel how the enemy prepared something...

ʼSome type of special technique or desperate attack?ʼ

The purple energy wasnʼt just visual, Victor could feel it affecting the air around them, making it thicker, more resistant. The abyssal corruption was trying to level the playing field by changing the very medium through which they fought.

ʼLet him try,ʼ Victor thought with fierce determination. ʼLetʼs see if his abyssal corruption can compensate for the rank difference when the talons find you.ʼ

The distance continued closing. Ten seconds. Eight. Five.

Maximilianʼs crow suddenly blazed with purple fire, its spectral form becoming more solid as abyssal energy poured through it. The creatureʼs size seemed to increase.

But Victorʼs eagle was already diving, golden feathers gleaming like metal as it descended with the inevitability of gravity itself.

Three seconds.

Two.

One.

The clash between gold and purple energies lit up the sky, visible even from the ground where soldiers paused in their fighting to witness the aerial duel that could determine the battleʼs outcome.