Child of Destiny

...…

While Flouree and the rest of her team were currently fighting the trio of Faker, Lawless, and Zero, Mirage led the others to chase after 'Faker'.

After a long chase, they finally caught up to their target and eliminate him almost instantly. But that was also the moment when they realized that they were only chasing after a clone.

They had been led by a clone without them knowing.

This frustrated Mirage very much. But he couldn't do anything but blame himself for noticing it late. He was sure that they were chasing after the real Faker earlier and he didn't leave their sight up until now.

'So, since when we are chasing after a clone? When did he get the chance to swap with the clone?' these were the questions that were running inside Mirage's head.

He was the marksman of the group, so it was supposedly his job to track Faker. But not only he failed to notice that they were chasing after a clone, but he also let their group chase after a clone for a long time.

"I should have noticed that there is something wrong!" he couldn't do anything but curse himself for not doing his job properly. He felt humiliated.

That was also when he remembered Faker throwing a smoke bomb at them. It was the only time his target left his sight.

Even though they were able to get out of the smoke pretty fast, he still lost sight of Faker at that time. And for a top-notch assassin like the Death God, such a brief moment was more than enough to swap places with a clone.

"Dammit!" he could only curse himself further when he realized that they had been fooled since the beginning.

He also realized that the target of their enemies was Flourree, which should be an obvious matter.

"Let's go! We are going back and regrouping with the captain," said Mirage and started preparing to head back.

But before they could even make their move, one of the thieves in their team suddenly informed him of something that made everyone stop in their tracks. "I can't contact the captain nor the others from the other side."

Hearing that, Mirage, Sabec, and Basion quickly opened their channel box and tried messaging Flouree and the others. Their messages were sent but the system told them that the other party was currently inside an isolated area which was why their messages would only be delivered to the others once they got out of that place.

The three also tried calling Flouree and the others but the answer was the same; the system was telling them that the other party couldn't be contacted since they were currently within an isolated space.

"F*ck! We've been led!" cursed Basion as he quickly got ready to head over to where Flouree and the others were located. Or at least on the place where they think they were.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

But right at that moment, a group of silhouettes started to flash across the area before surrounding them.

Looking closely at the appearance of those people, Mirage immediately recognized them. They were the guys that they had been fighting since earlier, the Sweepers of the Pandemonium Descendants.

It was then that he realized that Faker had purposely led them to this place. They followed him foolishly and were now trapped in this place.

"Get ready for the battle," he ordered as he pulled out his bow and nocked an arrow on it.

"Are we really going to fight these guys? We don't know what is happening with the captain and the rest," asked Basion while lifting his battler hammer and resting it on his shoulder.

Sabec also took out his weapons before responding. "Don't worry, Captain Flouree is still one of the strongest members within our mercenary group, so all we have to do is trust them."

Mirage swept his gaze at the surrounding, trying to find if the guys who eliminated their members were among the Sweepers surrounding them. But after seeing that none of those guys were present, the worried look on his face immediately became at ease.

"We are not going to focus on eliminating all of them. Our goal is to break through their formation and head over to where the captain and the others are located," he said, giving an order.

"We have no idea what is happening on the other side, so we have to get out of this place and meet up with the captain as soon as possible," he added while getting ready to fight.

**********

In the meantime, near the center of the Frozen Kingdom, Shin led the rest of their group to continue their quest.

Now that Earners Mercenary Group were busy dealing with Zero, Faker, Lawless, and the Pandemonium Descendants, they could take their worries away from them.

Immortal and the Silent Night were also in the middle of recuperating, so there was no better time to continue their quest than now.

The group stood at the steep edge of a mountain where they could see the army of fallen knights in the distance.

"Tsk! No matter how much as see it, I still can't believe that we have to deal with such a scary army," muttered Alucard while looking into the distance.

"We don't have a choice, we can't go to the Frozen City unless we take them down," commented Black Hand from the side.

It was not they hadn't thought about the idea of going in a detour and dealing with this army later when they had enough forces to fight them. Unfortunately, they discovered that there was no other path that would lead them to the Frozen City aside from the road that the Fallen Dragon Knight Army was guarding.

The other places either had deep valleys with a powerful blizzard storming above it, separating the two sides of the valley, or a mountain range full of level 200 ferocious beasts that they hadn't seen before – those monsters were even the weakest among the ones that could be found in those areas.

"We are going proceed according to the plan, so everyone should get ready," said Shin, telling the others to prepare themselves.

They had already been fighting this army of fallen knights since they discovered them, so they somewhat had a rough idea of how strong and troublesome they were.

Putting their earlier experiences during those battles, Shin decided to divide their team into small groups. They also had the Legion of Chaotic Sun on their side now, so the numbers would no longer be a problem for them.

Shin was planning to approach this battle as if he was fighting a war between two armies. And he was obviously the commander.

He first separated Arthur and Leonard into two different groups. These guys were going to be the leading generals of their little army and lead a unit of Chaotic Sun Soldiers in battle. With these two leading the charge, he was sure that they would be able to break through the defense of the opposing side.

At the same time, He left Ara and Black Hand to command the range units. They would lead an independent detachment on their army of skeleton archers and support the frontline who were leading the charge.

Shin acknowledged the strategic abilities that Black Hand had, so he was confident that they would be able to do a great job.

S.Tigris also had an independent unit of his own and was tasked to support the others if they ever needed assistance.

Ember and Ravier, on the other hand, would be leading the mage units. Their role was similar to Ara and Black Hand's job, though their main role was to weaken the forces of the opposing side with their powerful and large-scale magic power.

Then he formed an elite unit composed of Cloe, Charlotte, Owen, and Alucard. They would be moving on the battlefield freely and eliminate the key figures on the opposing side. Their team composition was a balanced one, so they would be fine on their own.

Of course, they were also told to retreat if they encountered a Fallen Knight that would not be able to face on their own. As long as they could weaken the elite force of the opposing army, then that would be enough for the team.

This was supposedly a much easier job if only the other three gods of their team and Seven were present. Well, they couldn't do anything about it since what already happened could never be changed.

What they needed to do was to focus on what they had in front of them right now.

Continuing on, Shin was left with Chaotic Luck since he would be instructing everyone about the movements that they needed to execute. He was also more familiar with this kind of battle than Chaotic Luck due to his past experiences when playing «War Tactics» Online.

This way, Chaotic Luck didn't have to do anything but focus on controlling his Legion of the Chaotic Sun.

Shin would be dealing with the strategic stuff anyway, so all he needed to do was to focus on his summoned undead and execute all of the battle formations that would be instructed to him.

Naturally, summoning a large army to rival their opponent would consume a lot of mana, so Shin instructed Chaotic Luck not to summon any elite Solar Undead aside from the normal soldiers that were mentioned.

After all, Leonard and Arthur would be their main forces anyway, so summoning an elite undead monster would only be a waste of mana.

Moreover, they would be able to save more mana with this strategy and they could also replenish their numbers with more soldiers during the battle.

With everything laid in front of them, Shin stood at the elevated place where he could see the whole battlefield and took a deep breath.

He then turned his gaze at the opposing army in the distance. His eyes carried great calmness in them. Useless thoughts were thrown away from his mind as he only had a single goal right now-…

… – and that was to defeat the opposing commander on the other side.

He then shouted with a loud and powerful voice. "Main unit-… march forward!"

...…