"It's too late to give up now." The Brigadier mumbled to himself, "I have already lost the element of surprise. And now that they know I'm alive, these basta*ds won't stop hunting me down till they made it sure they had done their job well. My hastiness will lead to my demise."

Unlike what Talos had thought, the Brigadier didn't have a plan to miraculously defeat them. He had been completely dependent on his army and had hoped to overwhelm them with their sheer numbers, just like he had done with all the other bases. But it looked like this time he made a wrong decision.

He was so desperate to get his revenge, that he jumped at the first opportunity he was given. When the voice of Goddess in his head, informed him that Arnold wasn't around the base or even the country for that matter, he thought it was the perfect time to put his plans into action. In his mind, with Arnold out of the way, he could easily destroy the base. Meanwhile, all Arnold would be able to do is sit and watch and won't reach out to help his patrons on time.

"It was supposed to be my win and yet here I am crying in misery. Damn that basta*d! Why does he have to always be two steps ahead of me!?"

He had mobilised his forces to deal a devastating blow to both Arnold and the syndicate. He wanted to start a rampage and destroy everything that belonged to his enemies. He had hoped by trampling the base all around the wastelands, he could get some sort of revenge on Arnold, for kicking him out of the base and leaving him helpless in the wastelands to die.

But what the Goddess' voice had forgotten to mention was that even if Arnold wasn't there, the Brigadier's conquest to trample East America would still end up with his defeat. Or it was more like the Brigadier's system had failed to predict possible scenarios and did not warn him in time. It was a typical case when the Guardian and the Paladin were incompatible with each other and yet had been forced to work together.

'I should have done some recon on them first. Intel is the most important thing in any battle and yet I disregarded the basic rules of warfare... the goddess' voice didn't help me either-'

___

Stop pushing your incompetence on me, mortal.

You were a useless paladin, to begin with. I had informed the goddess countless times, that if she wanted to defeat someone like that man, we needed a competent and cunning mortal. Not a power-driven excuse of a mortal like you.

___

"If you were so great, why couldn't you predict this scenario, O great goddess of enlightenment?" The Brigadier couldn't help but bark at her, "We're both incompetent fools. But you're a tad bit more than me."

The voice stayed silent. She knew both of them were at fault. Still, in her opinion, it was hopeless to think this mortal was capable of doing anything other than whining like a bit*h. And that's why she had already called for help from the Goddess. however, she wasn't sure her paladin would live long enough to see her.

In the meantime, the Brigadier General was busy self-reflecting on his choices. He was taken by surprise at how well prepared his opponents had been. Before engaging the enemy, he had been so confident in his army, that he didn't even consider getting some intel on his opponents before commencing an attack on them. Thanks to that, the newly installed defences along with the preparedness of Arnold's summons had caught him off guard.

So far he had made plans according to the layouts he remembered. Since he had known that the bases didn't get much funding from the syndicate that they could do any drastic changes to the base. Thus he was expecting the alpha base would use the same defences as the other bases.

The normal turrets were useless against his undead army, as even if the bullets managed to hit the undead, the bullets would pierce right through the rotten flesh of the undead like a knife through butter. And as far as he could remember, these were the only turrets the base had in the name of defence. He wasn't aware of the recent facelift Talos had given to the defences the moment he had arrived at the base.

That's why the brigadier had sent the weaker monsters in his army to test out the new defences. And what he saw the following moment did not look good. His undead monsters had no major weakness. One could freeze them, slash them, and even tear them in half. They would rise up again and continue causing havoc until their enemies were dead. This was the only reason his army could overwhelm the other bases.

if one was going to burn them... then there was nothing he could do. However, Talos was already aware of it and hence didn't gave them any chance. Brigadier General's incompetence, coupled with his overconfidence and lack of intel was what would make him lose this battle. He hadn't realised it yet but he had already lost the battle even before it began.

"No! This battle ain't over till I'm breathing!" The brigadier yelled at the top of his lungs, "If this is the end, then I will take those basta*ds down with me!"

"I'll give you ten on ten for your determination," All of a sudden Talos' voice echoed in the Brigadier's ears, "as for having brain cells, I'll be giving you minus ten."

"What the-"

Just then a grenade exploded, making a gigantic hole right behind the Brigadier and his army. It was a tunnel that linked to the base. Yan had made it as a trap to surround the enemies with their troops, and this trap could only be activated by Talos and no one else.

"It's about time when your army, met THE army!" Talos roared as thousands of undead and automatons jumped out of the tunnel, weapons in hand, "You chose to mess with the wrong opponent, basta*d!"

***

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