Blade Over Magic

Brainstorming

Shortly after, Xander and co, the Lunatics, the Captain, and the higher-ups, all sat inside a meeting room in Landor’s main base, and the mood was... dreary, to say the least.

No one said anything for a while, and the only sound came from Aubrey arranging maps, no doubt still working.

After a while, the Captain sighed.

”The casualty report came in. Thankfully, only a few dozen died. It seems like the manufactured plague was developed swiftly and made to be more of a disorganizing tactic rather than something aimed for sheer lethality. The bad news is that most of the soldiers who’d been on the frontline are now out of commission. Meaning there technically a frontline at the moment.” The mood became even more dreary.

’... ’Thankfully’, ’only’, and ’a few dozen died’ in the same sentence is shitty.’ Curtis’s lips curled.

’All things considered, it could have been far worse. And as terrible as it sounds, we don’t have the luxury of agonizing every death.’ Falael exhaled.

”If things are like this, abandoning the frontline to focus on defending against the next line of defense is something to be considered seriously. We don’t have enough soldiers to maintain it with how things developed now.” One of the higher-ups said while looking at the maps Aubrey was working through.

”The issue with that is that giving up the frontline means the ants have more space to work. According to Xander, they learn what they see and retreat to develop countermeasures. If we give them that much ground, they can easily come out and watch us from a distance while we work, allowing them to gather information more effectively. They won’t even need to sacrifice anything anymore to observe us and develop the corresponding counters.” Sparrow chimed in, twirling a braid in her fingers.

”But at the end of the day, our goal is to stall, isn’t it? Even if it means giving up more land, as long as it buys time, that’s the result we want.” Another higher-up pointed out.

”Yeah but the more land we give up, the faster we lose.” Someone else said.

”Yet even if we wanted to maintain it, we lack the forces to do so.” Ragna said with closed eyes.

”And this isn’t even taking into account the fact that the ants got a good look at what our high tiers can do. Most likely, the next attack isn’t just going to be numbers, but several new adaptations made specially to counter both our defensive measures and several of the people in this room. So by the next battle alone, the difficulty is going to spike dramatically.” The captain rubbed his temples.

”That said, I don’t believe they will immediately be able to develop counters to certain things. For instance, that boy’s ice or the half-elf’s starlight. Their adaptation is problematic, but it isn’t omnipotent. Chances are that the more complex or potent certain things are, the longer it will take for them to adapt and develop counters. Which is why we saw simple adaptations like their projectile ants, as opposed to ants that were straight up immune to magic, or something in that same vein.” Aubrey noted, not bothering to look up.

”But Alternatively, we can’t underestimate it either. It’s not like they only adapt once they see something new. It’s entirely possible that they will spend longer to adapt to something complex, and just because they are developing countermeasures to other things doesn’t mean adaptation to the initial, overly complex thing, ever stopped.” Zeke said quietly while tossing a needle-like dagger up and down, his expression unreadable.

In that moment, Falael glanced at Xander and said aloud.

”You done brainstorming?” At this, the gazes of most of the people in the room shifted to Xander whose hand remained on his chin, his expression one of deep contemplation.

After a few seconds, he said slowly.

”To an extent.” He hummed.

”Well? Let’s hear it.” The captain gestured, signaling that the floor was his.

Xander took a few seconds to gather his thoughts, then he began to speak.

”We’re running under the assumption that we are stuck between two tough places. Either we maintain the frontline that lacks the soldiers to defend, or retreat to the next line of defense, essentially giving the ants an observatory they can use to watch us from a distance and develop adaptive countermeasures without needing to sacrifice anything for it.” He first summarized their predicament, and everyone nodded as it was mostly correct, and Xander continued.

”We’ve established that the ants, or at least the queens, are highly intelligent. They make use of a hivemind to acquire information and use said information to develop the corresponding counters. And even if it’s not perfect, like Aubrey pointed out, it’s still extremely difficult to combat against. At least on paper.” That part caught their attention.

”On paper? You think there’s more to it?” A higher-up asked with a raised brow.

”Shift your mindset from standard military thinking for a bit.” Xander said, his expression still thoughtful, voice calm and measured.

”In the first place, the ants aren’t like us, where there are soldiers with egos and morale. Instead, its akin to one massive superorgamism. But more than that, the way they function is akin to a system.” Ragna huffed at that.

”Get to the point.”

”I’m doing that.” Xander clicked his tongue. ”Point is, their behavior is relatively simple to grasp. They send out a mixture of probing ants along with the ones made as countermeasures, like the ones bred as artillery. These ants die, and relay what they saw to the queens as information. This is the ’input’. Then the queens analyze this data and decide on the corresponding counters to be made. This is the ’processing’. Finally, they breed new specialized castes and send them out. They are the ’output’. Thus creating a loop. Gather information, analyze it, create counters.” He explained.

”And this helps us how?” A thin faced higher-up curled his lip, sounding impatient.

”The ant adaptations depend largely on the feedback the queens receive,” Xander pointed out. ”So say they encounter a fire attack. Then they breed ant castes that are fire resistant.” He then leaned forward. ”But, what if somehow, we managed to manipulate that part of the loop? Such that even though its a fire attack the soldiers received, the information that gets relayed to the queens is that of an earth or wind attack?” When he said this, the room fell silent for a moment.

”In essence, you’re suggesting we manipulate the information the queens get to throw off their adaptive countermeasures?” The Captain asked.

”Forcing them to expand large amounts of resources creating counters for something that isn’t actually there.” Xander finished, leaving everyone thoughtful.

”... It doesn’t sound like a horrible idea, but there’s a pretty glaring issue with that plan.” Nash glanced at Xander. ”How do you exactly plan on doing that? In the first place, we aren’t entirely clear on how the ants communicate besides knowing it’s some form of telepathy, and interference magic is both expensive and, in this case risky to use.” He immense pointed out, and Xander nodded.

”Under normal circumstances, yes. However...” He glanced at Aubrey. ”We have something just a tad better on our side.”

In that moment, Aubrey’s attention was split, with one part actually inside the incomplete library in her mana pool, and right now, she was currently flipping through numerous books.

Her prism allowed her to store excess information she couldn’t handle at the moment so that she could process it later, and her new perception also let her perceive things through the way it interacted with ambient mana.

When it came to telepathy, in the first place, Aubrey was able to extend the range of the group’s telepathy spell so massively because her newfound perception allowed her to ’perveive’ the frequencies and mana that allowed it to work, allowing her to modify it the way she did.

And now, she was sifting through all the information she had stored away during the first and second waves of attacks from the ants, and, sure enough, she found it.

Touching one book, information filled her mind. It was the stored-away info she’d stopped herself from grasping initially.

In her mind, it was as though she was back to those moments where the ants attacked, however, her mind wasn’t filled with visual or auditory information. Rather, she was able to ’see’ a vast network of mana that existed on a strange, low frequency, and the sources of this network was naturally the ants.

Like she was watching the playback of a recording, she seemed to move through the stored information and interacted with one of these networks, then her mind reflected the image of a series of powerful lightning bolts striking several soldier ants. She seemed to be watching from its point of view.

Its vision was odd, but she managed to grasp it well enough. And soon, she witnessed as one of these lightning bolts struck the soldier ant directly, and its vision went dark. But just before it did, the image of the mage tower in that specific outpost was reflected in its eyes.

Aubrey then extricated herself from the scene and traced the flow of the information down the network, but she eventually stopped as it escaped her perception range, so she hadn’t been able to record it.

Regardless, she got her answer.

Aubrey opened her eyes and nodded, a small smile appearing on her face.

”To answer the unspoken question. Yes, I can tune into their telepathic network. Not just that, I think i can figure out how it works and manipulate it, too.” Her words left almost everyone stunned.

Meanwhile, Xander’s lips curled into a smirk.

”Case in point. Now, then.” He pressed a finger on the map where the frontline was.

”How about I explain my idea in detail?”