Date- 4 April 2321
Time- 00:23
Location- Sun Blossom City, Circle Headquarters
“Old fart, you have good eyes but you haven’t seen the end of it,” I said understanding what Mike was trying to convey. During this whole fight, I did not reveal my sin squad, they had only one job, which was to assassinate Mike if they had the opportunity. Saving me the trouble of facing his suicidal last-ditch effort. Rather than a show of power or dominating the fight, in this war, I was trying to be efficient. Like an extermination company, get rid of the pest infestation by any and all means. Maybe even a little over the top than any extermination company out there, because my pests wielded fucking grimoires and runes.
Other than my calamity gems hiding their platinum grimoire and the sin squad lying in wait, I had not prepared any other tactical cards against Mike, because I had none and did not feel the need to. Yet I bluffed to Mike about having other arrangements because I could not have Mike thinking he had figured my bottom line, I need him to be on his foot watching his back. Only when his mind was divided between fighting us and taking caution against the unknown, will he be prone to make more mistakes because of which we will have an easier time dealing with him. With this in mind, I had bluffed to Mike.
No matter how many numbers I had on my side I will never underestimate an enemy. As a scientist no matter how much a probability was in my favor I would always prepare for the worst, only by knowing that I had done everything in my power was I able to enjoy the process. Not that I was overly cautious I have taken many risks throughout my life but only when I knew that I had done everything in my power to lessen the odds of the risk and prepared for the follow-up contingencies in case of a failure.
“Your bluff needs a little more work kid,” Mike called the boy’s bluff that the card lords in the hiding weren’t the end of his measure against him. Though Mike felt like the boy couldn’t have planned for other contingencies against him having already learned a lesson on underestimating this particular boy Mike could only take caution against the possibility that the boy had other tricks up his sleeve prepared for him.
“Old fart, if that helps you believe it, but when I step on your cold corpse don’t come to haunt me,” I said while the extermination team had taken their position. When multiple card apprentices faced a single capable card apprentice, the chances of friendly fire were very likely, but when encircled the target, these chances increased drastically. Therefore, multiple card apprentices could only take turns to attack the target at the center but with careful positioning, it could be avoided. This meticulous positioning could not only be used to help decrease the friendly fire but also help create a defense mechanism. Therefore I did not have the extermination squad immediately engage Mike in a fight but had them get into meticulously calculated positions this way not only would they be able to avoid friendly fire and make up for each other’s shortcomings but also create an effective method among them to defend and help each other when the other was in a dire situation. This positioning technique has been wildly known as battle array formation. The brilliance of this was that it would be too late for the enemy before they realize that they had entered a deadly battle array formation.
The other beauty of this battle array formation was that these meticulously calculated positions were that the people in these battle array formations have a faint connection forming between them through the surrounding soul pathways. If the trust and faith between the card apprentices forming the battle array formation were present to a certain degree then this battle array formation displays many miraculous effects. Such as an increase in coordination between the card apprentices or decrease in the cool-down period of their cards or a decrease in the soul energy consumption and stamina. Similar effects can be achieved if the card apprentice forming the battle array formation use the same cards. With all the above-mentioned conditions met the battle array formation also allows a bunch of card apprentices to fight against a higher realm card apprentice.
Being encircled in the battle array formation the target has very little room to take initiative to attack the card apprentices that were the pillar of the battle array formation. As the other card apprentice will interrupt the target’s advance prematurely. Leaving the target with only one option, which was to defend. Making sure the target would either die of exhaustion or be overpowered by the battle array formation. These were the only ends for those that were trapped in a battle array formation unless they were strong enough to overpower the battle array formation.
I learned about the battle array formation by exploring the Formation stack skill of the A-rank Southern watch combat arts card given to me by Anna. With my new knowledge of array formation, I was hungry for more but I lacked practice material, so I decided to expand my horizon by studying anything I could get my hands on. So the southern watch combat arts card’s skill formation stack was a good place to start. As a skill of an A-rank card, it was a worthy challenge, I gained a lot of insight from it, and one of them was the battle array formation. I had focused on this particular insight because of the upcoming war preparation as I felt that this was a good addition to my arsenal.
Battle array formation was one of those disciplines of array formation which need a very acute sense of the soul pathways. It had very high demands to be mastered by an array master but thanks to my soul pupils and Hive AI, I had little to worry about when it came to mastering battle array formation.
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