It took a few minutes but at the end of it, Amelia Black had no choice but to comply with my request.
“Fine, I surrender my position as the Head Strategist to you.”
She gave it up. She gave her position to me.
It took all of the willpower I had in me not to burst out into a peal of evil erratic laughter right then and there.
I did it. I broke her! …A little.
Amelia, in the novel, would’ve never given up her position to Lucas. She would’ve rather preferred losing than doing this.
But right here, right now, Amelia Black willingly gave up her position to me, Lucas Morningstar!
Heh!
I don’t know why but it gave me a weird sense of satisfaction.
Beep—!
-[Amelia, you there? Do you have a plan? Anything! The enemy has blocked our path ahead! Once their main force catches us from behind, we’ll be done for–]
Ah, anyway, now that I got the position I had wanted from the start, I should get working.
“Calm down, Nero. I can see your live positions on the map before me. I can see you’re being pincered. Don’t worry. I have a plan.”
-[Wait, Lucas? Is that you? Where’s Amelia? And I thought the map was wrong!]
“Well, the map is wrong. But I can still see your live locations here.” I turned around and faced the black-haired girl present in the room before putting a finger on my lips. “And about Amelia, she can’t come to the call right now but she has told me what to do. So do as I say.”
Amelia shook her head as her forehead wrinkled with a frown but I waved my hand at her.
-[Uh- Ah… Fine, what’s the plan of action?!]
“We’ll fight them head-on, of course.”
“What?!”
-[What?!]
Both Nero and Amelia voiced their mix of shock and disbelief at my matter-of-factly answer. Their overreaction was understandable.
-[Lucas, we’ve been pincered from the front and back! Soon they’ll cover our right and left flanks too! We’ll be surrounded in the open field!]
“Good, that means you all can fire in every direction.”
-[…Wha– Please, can I get Amelia back?]
“Don’t worry, I was joking. Besides, it’s too late for that,” I let out a dry cough and said: “Now do as I say and you all will come back alive.”
-[…Fine, what’re your instructions?]
According to basic military tactics, Pincer Movement is where a unit or units attack an enemy from all flanks.
Depending on the state of the war, if done correctly, trapping an enemy in a pincer move can prove to be a great help.
But what to do when you’re on the receiving side of that move? What to do when your enemy is trying to trap you and not the other way around?
Fortunately, there have been tactics developed to counter that too.
The most common one is: Full retreat.
Before the enemy can even trap you, you must pull back all your forces in a full retreat.
However, for us, it’s all too late for that since Amelia basically led us into the enemy’s claws.
So what can we do here?
The only option I can think of here which will result in minimum casualties is we focus all our attack power on one side.
Since the enemy has surrounded us, they have split their forces which has made them weak.
If we focus all our attack power on the front side, we can break through their forces and escape.
Of course, while we do that, the enemy won’t sit ideally. They’ll try to attack us from behind. Once they do that, our soldiers, who’ll be focusing on the enemies in front, will be massacred.
Executing this tactic requires not only speed but also sufficient strength to breach the enemy formation at the front before they can attack from the rear.
A grin spread across my face as I realized how easy doing that was.
-[Lucas, what are your instructions?! Hurry!]
“Yeah, yeah, calm down,” nonchalantly, I slumped back into a chair. Interlocking my hands, I rested my chin on them before intently staring at the map.
One by one, I quickly began performing various calculations in my mind. What was the position of our troops on the map? Where were the enemy forces and how would they approach us? How should we fight them? What formation should we take? What would be the most effective way to move our soldiers?
For every conceivable variable, whether anticipated or unforeseen, I meticulously calculated the most favorable outcome.
I did all that within mere seconds. Once done with all that, I smirked.
As I had predicted, this was going to be easy.
“Lord Commander, I think Alberto is somewhere up ahead. I’ll move others in a way to clear your way. Meanwhile, you go and take him on. If we want to escape, we’ll need to keep him busy.”
Despite only being a lackey of a side villain, Alberto was extremely strong, so much so that he was considered on par with Quinn himself during the starting years of the Academy.
At present, the only person who can engage in a fight with Alberto and come out with just a few minor injuries is Nero.
Oh yes, Nero will have a difficult time fighting against Alberto but I’m sure he’ll win. No, I don’t believe in Nero himself but rather in his plot armor.
-[Copy that.]
Beep—!
With a beep, the transmission with Nero was cut.
I didn’t waste any time and instantly started connecting radio calls to other people.
“NC4, can you hear me? I want you to advance forward and engage the enemy in front of you.”
-[What?! Are you insane?! They are on our backs too! We’ll be butchered from behind if we ignore them–]
“Shut up and follow the orders given to you.”
-[…Tsk, roger that!]
Beep—!
“BU4, cover N squad’s back.”
-[Assisting N squad now!]
𝗇𝐎𝓥𝓮𝑳𝑛𝔢xt.𝑐𝗈𝓂
Beep—!
“Leave the enemy on your right, GH3. Fall back 19 meters and help our Lord Commander.”
-[Got it!]
Beep—!
“Anastasia, do you copy?”
-[I do. Is that you, Lucas?]
“Yes, I’ll need you and your sharpshooters to perform a task for me. According to my estimation, the enemy will approach you from your left in 27 seconds.”
-[On our left? But on our left is a building, Lucas!]
“I know. They’ll probably come through the walls. Before they can do that, I want you and your archers to fire your best artillery spells at them. Shoot them through the wall in 24 seconds.”
-[…Understood.]
Beep—!
“CP3, take your squad and assist our archers. They’ll shoot the enemy soldiers through the wall in 22 seconds. If they miss anyone, take them out in close combat.”
-[Roger that!]
Beep—!
“GD4, turn 20° on your right and fire a long-range spell.”
-[Copy!!]
Beep—!
“NG6, an enemy will try to sneak up on you from 3 o’clock. Take them out.”
-[Understood!]
Beep—!
“ND5, assist NG6 and move forward. Break into enemy lines….”
…
For 27 straight minutes, Lucas continued to bark instructions through the radio in his smart bracelet, moving people around to fight like they were his personal pieces on the chessboard.
It gave him an unexplainable sense of satisfaction. It felt like he was in control of everything!
The battle is still ongoing and he did everything he could for now. He has cleared all my tasks at hand.
Now he can only sit back and relax while the rest of his class does all the tough work. The enemy only has three options left and no matter what they choose now, they’ll lose. They will have to retreat in the end.
Everything, every single damn thing, was going how Lucas planned long before the battle had even started.
“Y-You… how?”
“Hmm?”
From his left, Lucas heard Amelia’s stuttering voice, which was full of conviction and perplexity.
He turned his neck to look at her and saw her standing there, looking at the holographic map in front of her with wide-open eyes and mouth agape in shock.
It looked like she had seen a ghost.
“H-How did you do that?!” she asked.
What does that question even mean? How did he do what?
“What do you mean? I instructed them–”
Before the silver-haired boy could even complete his answer, Amelia interrupted him.
“No, I mean, how did you move them so well?! How did you give them such specific instructions?! Your instructions were so precise that it seemed as if you knew each person’s strengths and weaknesses and what orders to give to everyone!
“For example, it felt like you knew ND5 knew a supportive spell, so you asked them to help NG6 earlier! And like you knew CP3 was a good close-range fighter, so you ordered them to assist the archers!
“Furthermore, you seemed to anticipate the enemy’s movements, even when their positions were not yet visible on the map! How did you know all that?! It’s almost like you can see the future!! Can you? Can you see the future?!”
At Amelia’s ridiculously innocent question, Lucas couldn’t help but let out a short chuckle.
“Oh, that? Haha, no, Miss Black, I can’t see the future. I just remembered what code names were given to everyone. For example, ND5 is the code name given to your friend Aster Aquahart and she specializes in defensive spells. CP3 is a guy named Zach Millers in our class and he’s a talented hand-to-hand fighter. And as for how I knew where the enemy would appear, I just predicted their movements.”
“Wha… I-I… I can’t believe it!” gasped Amelia, utterly shocked and disbelieving as she heard Lucas’ explanation. She was left speechless, her mind struggling to comprehend what she had just heard.
As she tried to process the information, her thoughts were racing and her heart was pounding with disbelief. She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down, but the shock and incredulity were still apparent in her voice as she spoke:
“Wait a minute… You’re telling me that you remembered everyone’s code names— all hundred of them? And not only that, but you also knew everyone’s strengths and strong spells? How is that even possible? But if that wasn’t enough, you PREDICTED the enemy’s movement?!”
Lucas replied with a casual shrug, as if his achievement was nothing out of the ordinary. “Yeah, pretty much,” he said.
“I’m just good at memorizing things. It didn’t take me long to learn everyone’s code names. Plus, I’m really observant, and I always watch everyone practice so I know how they think and fight. I strategically positioned everyone to make the most of their strengths. Once that was done, predicting the enemy’s movements was a breeze.”
That was the final nail. Amelia’s mind was blank by now.
Not only Lucas remembered everyone’s code names but he also made sure to use them in a way that would make the most of their strengths – something that she could never do.
In her defense, who can accurately remember hundreds of code names comprising alphabets and numbers within a day? No one can!
She only remembered the code names of important people like Anastasia, Quinn, William etc.
Moving on, he also predicted the enemy’s movement on the battlefield without physically being present there and crafted a strategy to counter them on the spot.
The image of Lucas Morningstar that she had built in her mind for the past few years suddenly shattered.
She had been gravely underestimating him. The boy right in front of her wasn’t an arrogant scum that she despised but a calculating monster….