965 Ji Feng
Date- 3 April 2321
Time- 23:39
Location- Sun Blossom City, Circle Headquarters, Fine Gold carrier floaters
“Boss, though this branch of the circle recently got the desolate punisher array and people here are tight-lipped, I don’t think Mike wouldn’t have considered that the news about the headquarters being protected by desolate punisher array had not reached his enemies ears,” Roy said that but looking at his colleagues preparing to ambush the invaders with the help of desolate punisher array he could not help but doubt that maybe Circle was that foolish.
“I see, but why did you guys not tell me about the second array covering the Circle’s headquarters?” It was alright for Rami to not know of this tricky stealth array, Ji Feng who propped up the Desolate array should have known that there was another array covering his desolate array.
“I did not know,” Roy answered. Hearing Roy reply that he never noticed that two arrays were covering the headquarters despite all the time he spent in the headquarters complex, I believed him because he was the dimmest of all my calamity daughter gems.
“Not you, Roy. Ji Feng, answer me,” I said sternly, wondering why Ji Feng did not bring this matter up when we were discussing our plans to attack the Circle’s sun blossom branch. To which Ji Feng replied ignorantly, “Boss, you never asked.”
“…” I was without words. Ji Feng was the Circle’s sun blossom city branch’s in-house Yin-Yang disciple and my latest calamity daughter gem. And apparently not the brightest or the free-willed of the bunch. Thanks to him, now I knew I was correct not to choose a calamity daughter gem to head my business operation in the blossom district and was relieved that I was able to hire the Fine Gold trio for it. Even though the trio was still in training I never had to worry about them destroying everything I had built here.
“Okay, you guys get to safety. Especially you Ji Feng,” I said shaking my head understanding that it takes time for the calamity daughter’s will to unwind after the absolute brainwashing of the gem’s innate skill. And planning to commence my attack on the Circle’s headquarters I warned my calamity daughter gems behind the enemy lines to get to safety as I did not want casualties due to friendly fire right at the beginning of the war. And considering the role Ji Feng was going to play in my attack, his life would be in imminent danger. Therefore I asked them to hide before I began my attack.
“Yes, boss,” Roy and the others agreed before signing off.
“Diana, do your magic,” Glancing at the fancy complex below I asked her to launch the first strike.
“My pleasure boss,” Diana said solemnly but the excitement she felt was apparent in her eyes. The day she wished for had finally come true, the destruction of the Circle. With Circle’s sky blossom branch relocating to sun blossom city the resentment that Diana had for the Circle’s sky blossom city branch shifted to the Circle’s sun blossom branch. Therefore she would not feel any less pleasure as she destroyed the Circle’s sun blossom branch, though it was a pity that the old leader of the circle had already left the southern region and moved to the main branch of the Circle. His time will come but for now, she planned to enjoy the appetizer in front of her.
“Rune summons, Ego Elemental,” Diana then summoned her wind rule ego elemental and then moved to the edge of the carrier floater’s deck looking down on the Circle’s headquarters complex her eyes suddenly became resolvent and she yelled, “Phantom Fleet prepare your cannons.”
The cannon’s on the 15 phantom warships turned to aim at the Circle’s headquarters. Then blasted cannonballs at the array covering the Circle’s headquarters at Diana’s order, “Open Fire.”
Boom! Boom!
Before the cannonballs could make contact with the array dome, the mirage displayed on it changed and began to act as a mirror by reflecting our image to us. This way when the cannonballs headed toward the array dome it looked like another round of cannonballs was heading out of it straight at the cannonballs heading toward it. And when finally the series of cannonballs made contact with the first array hiding the true headquarters complex under its mirage, ripples could be seen in various locations on the array dome wherever the cannonballs made contact. Surprisingly the array was able to withstand the first wave of attacks.
Having already studied the array dome with the help of soul pupils, once I saw Diana’s phantom fleet attack I knew the cannonballs fired by them did not have enough power to break through the array. But it was too late for me to remind Diana now, maybe if I had joined my forces while they were performing joint training I would have known what Diana’s origin card was capable of and warned her that the power behind the cannonballs fired by her origin card was not strong enough to make through the array dome. It’s okay though because Diana was a big girl and she knew how to learn from her failure.
“Boss,” Just as I was wondering if Diana learned from her failed attempt and if she could break the array with her next attack I heard Ji Feng’s voice through hive AI. And asked, “What is it?”
“Boss, the array is called Duo mirror array formation. It will only break with strength higher than it and constant waves of attack will not be able to leave a scratch on its surface. It can easily switch between stealth and defense. Hope this helps,” Earlier I did not bother to ask Ji Feng about the Duo mirror array covering his desolate punisher array because I knew Diana could destroy it with little effort despite a little setback but it was good to know that Ji Feng was not a lost cause like Roy.
Seeing that the Duo Mirror array formation did not break with her first attack Diana frowned, this was not the result she was hoping for. And realized that she may require the phantom fleet to fire a few more rounds of cannonballs to take down the Duo mirror array. But she did not have the time for that as she wanted to impress her boss by taking down the Duo mirror array dome with the first wave of cannonballs. Since now that was not possible, hopefully, she achieves her goal with the second wave of cannonballs, “Open fire.”
Hopefully? Nah, she was going to make sure that her attack works this time around. As the 15 phantom warships fired the second round of cannonballs aimed at the Duo mirror array dome, she yelled, “Wind rule Ego Elemental use wind manipulation, combo skill wind rule powered cannon balls.”
Shatter!
Under the impact of the wind rule powered cannon balls, the Duo mirror array dome shattered like a broken mirror revealing the real Circle’s headquarters complex. Unlike the previous deserted headquarter complex with a lack of human activity, this one crawled with Circle’s Card apprentices who were buzzing witnessing Diana destroy the array with her second attack. Seeing a person strong enough to take down an A-rank array formation single-handedly the Circle’s members could not help but began to panic wondering what kind of force had they annoyed this time. One can’t blame the circle’s members for being a little cowardly and cautious when the enemy was at their doorsteps after all their organization had just moved into this city after a few card emperors appeared out of nowhere and began destroying their old headquarters.
“Silence,” A sound spread through the headquarters complex. Hearing the voice the panicking crowd went silent all of a sudden and then yelled in unison greeting the card apprentice belonging to the voice, “Branch Leader.”
“Don’t overestimate the enemy they are nothing but a rag-tag group who came together in search of vengeance. Kill them and be rewarded or turn your backs and be killed. Choose,” Mike hovered between the ground and the array dome such that each of the organization members at any corner of the headquarters complex could see him stand tall and gain the courage to follow through with their oath to the Circle.
“Kill them,” The masses screamed stating their choice to their organization leader. Hearing this Mike’s frown finally cleared and was replaced with a confident expression while he thought, ‘I really want to see how the enemy planned to deal with the desolate array covering the headquarters.’
After a short but thorough glance over all the organization members present, Mike once again yelled, “Take your positions. Let them come, today we will paint this land red with our enemys’ blood.”
“Yeah,” The crowd cheered at their leader’s words. Mike was able to positively influence his men’s morale. And then soon the crowd began to chant, “Kill, Kill, Kill”
With the duo mirror array gone, we could clearly see the circumstance at the circle’s headquarters from outside. So when I saw that Mike had not fled the sun blossom city despite having measured me out at the silent auction I was surprised.