At Team C Delta Plus’s base, a young man frowned due to the intel he had received from the interception line.

One of his soldiers had fallen due to his idiocy thus weakening his forces by a considerable amount. It wasn't because the man was ridiculously strong or anything like that. It was because the gear he had on was expensive, extremely expensive and powerful.

The commander, Qi Ren was from a wealthy, influential family that supports the Mythos Clan and some other collaborators. Using his family connections, he managed to receive a considerable discount for this gear that was crafted by a level 3 engineer.

Although he could only afford one set, it was enough for him to use for the virtual battles as the system could duplicate items. The armor was refined to withstand the force emitted from a rocket, coupled with a magic-resistant field, it was like a moving tank. There were two weapons, a spear and a sword, although not at the realm comparable to legendary artifacts they were still powerful as their attack power was around 2500. 0 to 1000 was a newcomer’s engineering ability, from 1000 to 2000 were experienced engineers, beyond 2000 was an intermediate level engineer and beyond 3000 was the realm of true masters.

The armor and sword were indeed mighty, not many registered engineers could reach that far unless they spent 50 years in the field, which includes the time they were in the simulation. The weapons had no special effects or redeeming features, other than some buffs that help the user utilize it, they were just powerful weapons, the armor, on the other hand, was excellent on the defensive side but had some minor cons.

The downside to this suit was that it was heavy and slow. Regular mounts weren't able to withstand it, and it was difficult to walk in unless you were as physically strong as the four brothers were. Running is just a dream in itself.

And now Qi Ren lost one of those warriors, he could only lament at his boorish teammates.

The strategy that he had always used was to save enough points for a more superior mount and to charge towards the enemies’ base with 4 mighty horsemen and decimate it like the famous figures of the past during the Dynasty era found in the Nexus solar system’s history books. It wasn’t that he admired that era or found it to be mighty. Qi Ren simply felt that with this kind of strategy it was almost impossible to stop them.

Who could stop a powerful charge from 4 superior warriors mounted on an extraordinary beast? No one could, or at least in the first few minutes of the match, they just can’t. And now his strategy was ruined by an idiot. He gnashed his teeth and checked the time, and the points they had, it was time to attack. Because of one of his men dying the attack was pushed forward as they didn’t need another mount.

Qi Ren thought hard about this move, he wasn’t sure what the enemies had, from terrain and forces, everything was unknown to him. The basic information he had about his opponent was that there were 2 ranged attackers, one close combat attacker, an engineer, and a commander who was also an engineer with unknown combat ability. The details provided in the preparation room only provided information in regards to their name and the classes they attended, other than that from weapons to armor, everything was blank. The reason why Qi Ren knew of their combat specialization was from the body structure seen in their picture.

‘It doesn’t matter, one less person will just make it a little harder for us,’ thought Qi Ren. For a second he began to consider whether or not he should go as well but decided not to. Warriors should fight with warriors and commanders should sit back and command them, it was his philosophy and his ideal way of fighting.

With determination he summoned the last mount and sent the three of them to his teammates, the mount was fast and powerful as they stormed through the forest leaving him alone in a matter of seconds. With his leftover points which were next to nothing, he summoned a chair as he gazed over the tabletop map while pondering about his future matches.

‘This strategy requires certain conditions to be effective. First, the opponent must not have researched us before this match. Which is almost impossible to do since this is the first match in the tournament. Second, the enemy must not have that many powerful and quick melee soldiers. Otherwise, it would be difficult to beat them with the heavy armor on. Even though the mount helps them overcome the speed factor, if they were dismounted they’re like sitting ducks waiting to be hunted. And last but not least, the enemy commander must be ignorant of our plans, unless he could predict my actions and adapt to the situation, everything should go as planned,’ Qi Ren thought.

Qi Ren decided that he will be using this strategy for the first few matches in the qualifier and win them all. His face bloomed with a smile at how simple this virtual war game is going to be. He focused on the tabletop map waiting for the notification of his victory.

…

Tyron who returned from the scouting mission stationed himself near the entrance to the forest ready to report to Luon if the enemy were coming. Luon, on the other hand, had started to wall up his defenses as he built several robots that attacked from a distance and mounted them on the upper wall.

With zero information about the enemies team formation, the least he could do is minimize the cost of points used and to create a force to counter the opponent.

Luon was waiting for the moment when the enemy attacks them. Once they do, he would immediately summon a force and position in essential locations to overwhelm the attackers. Usually, this wouldn't be possible, however, with the robot force and his friends delaying their progression Luon felt confident about this move.

At this moment Tyron who was stationed at front-line heard something. From a distance away he saw trees shattering as if something was storming through them. Tyron began to run towards the base as they were soon notified about the changes. If he had continued to stay where he was then his body be smashed into paste.

Luon frowned just as the base defenses had just gone up, unlike the outpost where he had perfected things, this defensive wall couldn't compare to it. If the outpost was able to repel continuous waves of Inzektors, then this wall could only block one.

Luon asked Gizmo what was coming since he armed him with a telescope sometime after the match had started and he said, “There are 3 enemies, they look like heavily armed soldiers, and they’re mounted on something... unbelievable!”

“Unbelievable? Nonsense, it's clearly right in front of you so hurry up and tell me what it is!” replied Luon.

“It’s… a dragon!” bellows Gizmo over the team chat.

‘Now that's truly unbelievable,’ Luon thought as he looked at the points generated so far.

It was 9 minutes in where the opponent had just made a rush attack which consists of a heavy warrior mounted on a dragon. Luon had yet to see this maneuver done before, in fact, as Luon gazed over the point system he realized that the lowest dragon was baby dragons and the Flare Dragon he bought when he fought Gizmo before.

‘It must be a subspecies,’ thought Luon as he asked Tyron to use his BMPU scanner to find out what it is. At the pace, they were going as they will hit the defensive line in a minute, Tyron who was still running away while invisible stopped moving to scan the dragon mount with his BMPU.

The information was then sent to Luon and the other members of the team.

[Chidabi]

[Race: Dragonkin]

[Combat Level: 50]

[Racial Skills: Magic Resistance, High Regeneration]

[Active Skills: Piercing Sight, Shatter Charge]

[The Chidabi is a wingless Dragonoid beast created from a dragon and a python. With four powerful limbs, they are best suited to be mounts because of their simple intelligence. Although they share many traits with dragons, after each generation the dragon blood had diminished causing them to lose their draconic bloodline abilities. However, they gained more skills based on their python bloodline.]

The Chidabi was only partially a dragon which causes the number of points is required to drop significantly. Not only that but the size of these beasts were a tad smaller than what they could grow into. By cutting out some features, the opposing commander had saved enough points to get 3 of the dragonkins out while at the same time maintaining efficiency.

At this point, Luon’s defensive structure wouldn’t last that well against this charge, an armored knight, and a powerful dragon mount. Don’t underestimate the fact that its level 50, with the person on top their power levels scaled considerably. If a peasant level 60 intercepted a knight’s charge who was level 50, numerically the peasant should win, however, levels are in the end the accumulation of skills, physical physique, and battle experience. A knight will quickly decimate the unarmed peasant.

Fortunately, for Luon there were only three if they had more than it would have been more troublesome for him to handle.

The dragonkin weren’t the real problem here, it was the soldiers on top.

From what Tyron had told him, his arrows weren’t able to pierce through their armor. Which meant their defensive strength was higher than what he had anticipated. Not only that, but they were also magic resistant as Tyron had infused mana into his attack but found that the energy dissipated upon reaching their opponents.

‘If range attacks are useless against the soldiers we could only suppress the mounts, and fight the soldiers in close combat. This situation makes it difficult for us with only Bendan in the frontline… what to do…’ thought Luon as he gazed over at the remaining points he had.

Because of the defensive walls, robotics facility and materials for robots, Luon had a little over 5 minutes worth of points. It wasn't much at all, and there was no point of summoning a Chidabi himself since they were weak by themselves.

He needed a warrior, a mighty warrior that could squarely fight a knight. Regular elves, humans, and orcs were useless. Although he can gear up an abundant amount of them, it would be like sending lambs to the slaughterhouse.

Looking at his options, he found a very interesting choice. Luon thoughts went wild as coupled several ideas together. However, there was one restriction, he was 2 minutes off from purchasing it, with those raiders on their front line it was a complicated strategy to pull off. However, the only solution he could think of at this moment.

Luon stood up as commanded, “Gizmo, Tyron, I want you two to suppress one of the knights along with the ranged attacking robots. Aim for the mount, I don't believe it would last that well under suppressive fire. Although you can't eliminate the knight you can at least reduce the damage he will cause. Bendan, I'll entrust you with handling one of the others.”

“What about the last one? Are you going to let him through?” asked Bendan.

Luon pulled his sword out of the inventory system and pointed towards the battlefield and said, “Thomas follow the plan that I am about to tell you. As for the last one… leave it to me. Although a commander is someone who oversees the battle, when the time comes, and he is needed, he goes back to being a soldier.”

Once Luon said that he equipped his NG-Arms and prepared himself for combat. He gave Thomas a quick message with several instructions written down and gave him control of the summoning table. If Luon died on the frontline the match was automatically over, it was a risky move, however, a necessary one.

Many commanders would frown upon his choice of actions as his position was of utmost importance. Without the commander defeat is imminent. However, a real commander is able to see several moves ahead of their opponent, be able to analyze their foes weaknesses and to take advantage of every situation. They pulled their swords out when needed and use their minds when they are required.

After Luon gave Thomas the instructions, he flew over to the wall as he saw the three warriors coming towards them.

Luon smiled and said, “A commander is someone who leads his troops, think of their actions, know of their past, and orders them to their deaths to reign chaos upon his foes. From their name to their birth he knows everything about his men and nothing can escape a commander's eye. However, a commander is also a soldier, and from here on out… this is my fight.”

And with those words, Luon jumped off the wall and sabotaged their formation.