BXBX NOVEL Chapter 153: Any Advice? [2/2]
"This is not working, can you just show me all the {fates} and members that I need to be careful of."
For the next two hours, I went through every member of Savior and studied their information.
According to Aira's research, the army itself suffered from a weak sense of cohesiveness and leadership. Despite an impressive number of Phantoms, the army was vastly lacking in experience.
After our study session, I left the hotel. There was only so much I could learn on my own.
Undoubtedly, the easiest way to win a war was to simply have a bigger stick than your enemy.
In the animal kingdom, most fights were decided by size. But for humans, victory or defeat was nothing more than a product of a variety of factors. Terrain, preparation, fighting power, technology, and finally information were the components that influenced the outcome.
I had already tried to increase my information factor by studying the battle records of Savior and the members of their army. Wasting time on 170 Wraiths would be ill-advised, as most of them had little to no significant battles under their belts to pose a threat.
The problem was the 30 Phantoms. Most of them had hidden their combat abilities, either intentionally or unintentionally, much like I had. If I was unable to find a way to defeat them, it would become a real problem.
Of course, combat power, or the ability to eliminate one's enemy, was a big factor in war. Unfortunately, due to my insistence on fighting alone, there was little I could do about it.
Terrain was the battlefield we would use. Unfortunately, nothing was shared about where the battle would take place. How much of an impact terrain could have between two powers was shown by my long series of battles during my first night.
Technology was what weapons they and I would use. While I had money to upgrade my weapons, the short time frame prevented me from doing anything significant.
That left preparation. Training and combat techniques would be the only things I could manipulate to increase my chances of victory. Traps, feints, and harassment would naturally fall into this category.
After all, 50 fighters in four battles or 20 fighters in 10 rounds would be more manageable than 200 all at once.
"But the question would be if they had a commander with a big picture in mind."
From the information in Graveyard, the Savior Army rarely operated as a group. Hell, they rarely trained or even assembled. The more I read about them, the less I saw the Wraiths in their army as a threat.
The problem remained with the phantoms. Few of them had shared specific information about their abilities. Most had only vague descriptions that made no sense.
After careful consideration, there were three conflicting ways I could win this war.
One, the easiest, was to use traps to reduce the number of enemies. These could be anything from archaic wooden traps to specially designed weapons.
Mines, of course, were the most common of these traps. One of the things I found lacking in my arsenal would be anti-personnel mines.
Obviously in Maneuver AB, turning M26 grenades into land mines was a waste of time. Burying them underground cut their effectiveness by half.
Mines that had to be buried underground could only be used defensively. Maneuver AB would be even better if I had something like M18A1 Claymore mines instead.
M18A1 Claymore mines, while classified as military equipment, could be purchased on the black market in limited quantities. They didn't explode everywhere like normal grenades, but instead had a specific kill zone where their lethality was concentrated.
Another option I could use was chemical weapons. Since the majority of my enemies were Wraiths. They would still die if they were to suffer chemical complications from hazardous materials.
Exposing your enemies to hazardous materials had always been the worst way to win a war. Still, no one could deny the power of chemical weapons in a battle on a large scale. Phosgene and mustard gas were two of the most notorious examples.
Airborne intoxication, water ingestion, even via supply lines also worked. The problem was usually that they were too effective and usually ended up killing civilians and local wildlife as well.
They were used with such terrible efficiency during the World Wars that they were finally banned by the Geneva Protocol in 1975.
It was really stupid; it was like people who wanted to kill each other agreed that dying from chemical weapons sucked. So they settled on: Let's just bludgeon each other to death.
The last option I could use was to avoid direct confrontation altogether and focus on reducing the number of enemies through assassination.
Sniper rifles that could be used from a distance, or up close and personal with blades would be most effective. Attacking Saviors while they were sleeping, having sex, or taking a dump were all viable strategies.
"Aira, how long can a Seeker war last? "
[My Lord, there are no hard limits on the duration of combat. The normal case would be until the other side has surrendered. The longest recorded was four days.]
"Shit... What other rules do I need to know about?"
[The rules say that killing is forbidden, but every Seeker war has a fatality rate of over 95%].
"Well, that was kind of expected?"
The hours passed as I searched the Internet for a way to fight the Saviors. Even though I said I wanted to fight them, I still needed a plan to survive.
Planning for mutual destruction would probably be more effective, but dying was not in my immediate plans.
I ended up going to a shooting range to clear my head. If I could not upgrade my equipment, I could only try to upgrade my {Fate} and {Kismet}.
Upgrading my class's {Kismet} was definitely something I needed to do before getting into a fight with Savior.
"Aira, I want to change my {Kismet}, do you have any suggestions on what I should do?"
[My Lord, I find that video games and fantasy novels have really excellent ideas, here is a list of worthwhile approaches].
"Well, at least I won't get bored. Hit me Aira."