Within an hour, Eo-Seu’s southern shore had been turned into a mini-replica of Feng-Lang’s eastern defence lines. Trenches had been dug, artefacts that looked remarkably like gatling guns placed around the area, and thousands of soldiers were already in position.

The teleportation formation that had been used to transport all these troops and equipment over had apparently cost the Plenum hundreds of thousands of gold, which had brought a grimace to Paragon Ying Xin’s face when the boy asked her about it. And to add insult to injury, these formations couldn’t bring over the artillery weapons that had played an instrumental role in cutting down the Lifespring’s ground forces.

Gaius was of the opinion that the Plenum should have taken some lessons from Ark City’s teleportation formation, but he had a feeling that voicing that out loud would earn him a painful massage from the Paragon, who was in a visibly bad mood.

Shaking his head, Gaius turned to his attention to the ground theatre, where the Eastern ground troops were steadily making headway against whatever stragglers that had been left behind. The weak resistance the East had encountered so far had been reassuring — it would seem that Conrah’s forces weren’t as numerous as they seemed to be.

“Gaius, this is Command.” A voice came out from the Radio, which was now floating behind Gaius instead of sitting on his shoulder, after he felt some stiffness there. “You’re needed at the temporary command centre.”

The operator hung up without waiting for a response, and the boy frowned. Something had happened, evidently.

He shook his head and flew off in the direction of their makeshift command centre, which looked like a Mongolian tent house. It blended in well with the other tents around it. If not for the strip of gold fluttering at the door, Gaius had the feeling that he wouldn’t be able to locate it within a minute.

After a mental comparison between the headquarters here and back at Feng-Lang, he stepped into the tent. The interior was larger than he’d expected; there were five round tables with at least ten people peering over each one. A constant, unpleasant drone assaulted his ears — the outcome of many people trying their damnedest to speak while keeping their volume down.

Paragon Ying Xin looked at him as Gaius cast his gaze around, and then walked over briskly, pushing into a smaller room. “Good, you’re here. You have new orders from the Plenum.”

“New orders?” Gaius asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “You’re to reinforce Feng-Lang’s defences. Paragon Saito is already engaged there.”

“The other Knights and Lords? How about them?” Gaius asked.

“The top ten Knights and Lords are also making their way there as we speak. The others must remain to support Spring Fury,” Paragon Ying Xin replied. “The numbers assaulting Feng-Lang are far smaller, a tenth of what they used to be, but we don’t have much people manning the defences there either.”

“So a skeleton crew,” said Gaius.

“Yes. It’s a situation where individual combat power is everything. Out here, even you would be restrained by the sheer weight of individuals.” Paragon Ying Xin grimaced. “Honestly, I would prefer it if you were here, but Shizo’s words that it’s better if you’re there fighting something real rather than acting as a reserve is reason enough for me to relay his orders.”

Gaius considered her words for a moment, and then nodded. “Alright.”

“Thank you.” She pointed at a small floating circle of qi, which dropped onto the ground with her movement. “This is the formation you’ll be using.”

The boy walked over to it, stepping over the lines and keeping his hands still. The Paragon nodded, and pointed another finger at it. “Good luck, Gaius. Don’t get killed out there. You’ll be the first reinforcement to arrive on Eo-Seu; we don’t have enough power to get the other reinforcements to teleport there. Hold on until then.”

Before Gaius could reply, light had surrounded him. His vision turned into a blur, the world whirling around him madly for a few seconds, before slowing down.

“He’s here!” A shout rang out, and before he could do anything, someone had pulled him out of the formation, and into a place that the boy recognised as the entrance of Feng-Lang’s defence headquarters. A woman, dressed in a light blue cloak, looked at him and said, “You were sent here as reinforcements, right?”

Gaius nodded blankly.

“Good! These are the areas in need of an expert to look over. I’ll be—”

“—I’ll take it from here.” A voice cut in from the sides, and Gaius turned to see a badly-injured old man walking over with a noticeable limp. Faint red stained his robes, and flecks of dried blood adorned his neck and hands.

“Paragon Saito?!” The woman took a step back. “You should be resting!”

“That’s what I told him,” said another voice behind the Paragon, “but he isn’t listening to me at all.”

Gaius turned to look at the speaker — it was the doctor who had treated him last time, back when the frontlines were still at Eo-Seu. “It’s you.”

“Yes, Gaius, it’s me.” The doctor smiled. “Now, do you mind doing me a favour? Help me convince this man to go back to bed.”

“Afraid I can’t do that, doctor,” Saito replied sternly. “Their second wave is coming in fifteen minutes. I go to sleep now, I’ll only wake up for their fourth wave, assuming we’re even still standing at the point.”

“With all due respect,” said the doctor, “if you go out now, you probably won’t return.”

Gaius shivered at the intense emotions within the Paragon’s eyes.

“I can’t,” said the Paragon. “Spring Fury is at its height now. If our defences here fall and we’re overrun, our troops over in Eo-Seu will be stranded. We need to hold fast here too.”

“I’ll do that,” Gaius cut in. “You should save your energy to handle the biggest threats, the ones I can’t handle. There should be other Knights and Lords on the way here too, so there’s no point in killing yourself. I just need to hold on long enough for reinforcements to arrive.”

“…Very well.” Paragon Saito grabbed a nearby map. “The second wave of enemies will arrive here. Twenty Knights will be escorting around a thousand small-fry — kill the Knights and let our static defences handle the rest.”

Gaius nodded. “I’ll be going, then.”

The Paragon coughed, wiping some blood from the side of his lips. “Good luck.”