Masteria Online: Shattering the Dark God's Grand Scheme-Chapter 174 - Retreat

With Convergence over, Lumi felt the overwhelming power drain away, leaving him back at his baseline capabilities. He didn’t waste time mourning the loss. He immediately went back to his previous activity, resuming his relentless spam of Lance of Light.

"Lance of Light!"

"Lance of Light!"

"Lance of Light!"

The tide of battle hadn’t exactly turned in Seyen’s favor. The queen’s forces were still objectively stronger, still pushing back the traitors with superior numbers and coordination. Yet the pace had surely slowed compared to what it would have been if he hadn’t intervened. Some of the queen’s elite enforcers were gone. The loyalist side was winning, but bleeding for every inch of ground.

Ding!

[Level Up! 38 -> 39]

Lumi received yet another level. He opened his skill panel without breaking his casting rhythm and poured all four stat points into Torment, bringing it to level 17.

For about another hour, the battle continued in this grinding, chaotic state. Pixies died, pixies retreated, pixies rejoined from different angles. The whole thing was a massive, disorganized brawl with no clear front lines or strategies beyond "kill the enemy in front of you."

Then, finally, Seyen ordered a retreat.

Her voice cut across the battlefield, amplified by magic. "Fall back! Retreat!"

The reason they’d been able to last yet another hour after Lumi’s Convergence ended was actually quite simple when you thought about it.

Although thus far, throughout their journey, Lumi made it look easy to take out enemy magicians, it was actually incredibly difficult to kill magicians in general combat. The lower the level of everyone involved, the worse the problem became.

This was because magicians could teleport, as everyone knew. There was no cooldown on the spell, only a brief cast time. Yet at the same time, casting didn’t mean having to stand completely still. You could move while initiating the teleport, making yourself an even harder target. The mana cost was next to nothing too, meaning magicians could teleport dozens of times in a single fight without running dry.

Neither Lumi nor Lena had personally witnessed it in this life yet, but there was a common consensus among plenty of fighters that magicians were the worst class to fight in prolonged engagements.

That meant that although the battle looked chaotic and violent, with spells flying everywhere and bodies falling, not much actual killing was happening relative to the number of combatants. Magicians teleported away from nearly every spell aimed at them. When they did get hit, they survived due to their mana barriers absorbing most of the damage. Then they just healed themselves with a potion and rejoined the fight.

That was why this engagement had been able to drag on for so long. The actual kill rate was much slower than it appeared. The vast majority of confirmed kills had been directly facilitated by Lumi’s Lance of Light spam forcing pixies into vulnerable positions where others could finish them off.

As for the retreat, it wasn’t a coordinated, military style withdrawal.

The pixies just started leaving. Just... leaving.

They began teleporting away from active fights, flying off in various directions, scattering into the forest. There was no organized rear guard, there was no suppressive fire, and certainly no planned fallback positions.

The queen and her remaining forces attempted to pursue, trying to capitalize on their retreat and wipe out Seyen’s faction entirely.

But there was a fundamental issue with the entire situation.

Seyen had absolutely no idea how to command a proper retreat. Likewise, the queen had no idea how to command a proper pursuit. Neither of them were war generals with tactical training. They were just pixies who happened to be stronger than other pixies.

So the loyalists tried to chase down and finish off the fleeing rebels.

Except it didn’t work.

It wasn’t like the pixies wore uniforms identifying their allegiance. They didn’t even know each other’s faces in most cases. The factions had formed spontaneously during the battle based on proximity and opportunity more than anything else.

Once the fighting stopped and pixies stopped actively casting spells at each other, they could just blend into the general population of pixies in the area.

A fleeing rebel could land on a branch, stop moving aggressively, and suddenly just look like a random pixie who happened to be in the area. How would the loyalists know who to chase?

It didn’t make much sense from a human military perspective.

But pixies worked that way. The way they organized, fought, and disbanded was entirely unimaginable to humans who expected armies to have structure, chain of command, and identifiable sides.

After retreating to a safe distance, Seyen and her surviving pixies converged somewhere. Somewhere was the key word, because it was not as if she made a rally point beforehand.

She still had her two lieutenants alive, which was a miracle by pixie standards. Juik and Koim had both survived, though they looked exhausted and bloodied.

The crowd behind them, however, had noticeably thinned. There were slightly less than half the numbers they’d started with. Several of the stronger pixies who’d been above level 30 were gone too, either dead or having decided this rebellion wasn’t worth continuing.

Yet despite the losses, despite the retreat, despite the clear tactical defeat...

They were all in extremely high spirits.

The fallen pixies? Who cared about them! What actually mattered was the unprecedented achievement they’d just accomplished.

Despite countless challengers rising up against Queen Nalare over the years, despite every single previous attempt ending in total annihilation within an hour or two, Seyen’s faction had survived an extended engagement. They’d fought for hours, plural, and lived to retreat in relatively good order.

They could actually do this. Revolution was possible. And that very fact, that belief that it was possible, was the key point that made it possible.

Now, every pixie in the region with rebellious thoughts would know that Seyen was a legitimate threat to the queen. Now, they could be sure that joining Seyen would not result in instant death.

Right as Seyen’s group was discussing their next moves, new pixies began appearing.

A small group of five approached cautiously and their leader called out. "We want to join! Let’s discuss!"

Seyen grinned and began negotiating on the spot.

Then another group appeared. Then another. And yet another after that.

It would be likely that within an hour of retreating, Seyen’s forces had actually grown beyond their pre battle numbers as opportunistic pixies flocked to what they now perceived as a viable faction.

This expansion, however, was not particularly relevant to Lumi. He had his own priorities to attend to.

He caught Lena’s attention with a gesture and led her away from Seyen’s gathering forces, moving through the forest until they found an appropriately isolated spot.

"We’re logging off." Lumi said simply. They had less than half an hour left. There was nothing they could do. If they stayed and reached their limit, they would risk penalties for logging off in front of people.

...

The next day, they logged back in at the agreed time.

Lena materialized first, stretching as her avatar became active again. She looked around the forest clearing where they’d logged out, confirming the area was still safe.

Lumi appeared a moment later.

Lena immediately turned to him with a question that had apparently been bothering her. "Hey, I’ve been thinking. Why haven’t I used the fairy wings I got way back in Teth? You know, the ones Headmaster Ney gave me?"

She gestured vaguely at her inventory. "I mean, we’re fighting pixies. Pixies have wings. Couldn’t I just put on the fairy wings and, like, fake being a pixie? Blend in or something?"

Lumi shook his head. "Wouldn’t work. Multiple reasons."

"Like what?"

"First, fairy wings look different from pixie wings," Lumi explained. "Fairies have that translucent, crystalline appearance. Pixie wings are more opaque, with different coloration patterns. Anyone who actually looked would notice immediately."

"Oh." Lena nodded slowly. "I guess that makes sense."

"Second," Lumi continued, "you’re human sized. Pixies are small. Even with wings, your body proportions would give you away instantly."

"Right, yeah, that’s pretty obvious now that you mention it."

"And third, everyone saw you yesterday. You fought alongside me in full view of hundreds of pixies. They know you’re human. They know you’re with Seyen’s faction. Trying to disguise yourself now would be pointless."

Lena sighed. "Yeah, okay. That’s fair. It was a dumb idea anyway."

"It’s not dumb to consider options," Lumi said. "It just wouldn’t work in this specific situation."

He paused, then added another point. "Plus, pixies have a unique temperament that humans really can’t replicate. The way they think, the way they talk, the way they react to things. It’s fundamentally different. You’d blow your cover the moment you opened your mouth."

Lena tilted her head thoughtfully. "I mean... I don’t know about that part."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Lena said slowly, "everyone keeps saying I act like a pixie anyway. The lieutenants said it. Other people have mentioned it. Maybe I could actually pull it off?"

Lumi looked at her for a long moment, considering that. Actually, she had a point.

Lena did replicate pixie behavior patterns pretty well. The unpredictability, the casual attitude toward violence, the strange mix of playfulness and cruelty. It wasn’t intentional on her part, but the similarities were definitely there.

A thought suddenly came to Lumi.

He hadn’t even been planning this. It hadn’t been part of his original strategy at all. But now that the idea was forming...

Wasn’t there a special place that only pixies could access? A location that would be incredibly valuable to infiltrate?

He’d learned about it in his previous life, though only in passing. There was a vault guarded by pixie ancestor spirits. It was only available to pixies, of course. A human could never get inside...

But what if Lena could sneak in?

What if she could pretend to be a pixie, just well enough to get inside, and rob the place blind?

The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. Not easy, certainly. It was actually extremely risky. But it was possible.

Lumi’s eyes focused on Lena with new intensity. "Actually... I might have an idea."

Lena perked up immediately. "Yeah? What kind of idea?"

"A dangerous one," Lumi said. "But potentially very rewarding."

"Ooh, I like those!" Lena grinned. "Tell me more!"