T/N:
Sorry for the hiatus, a refund of coins was made to people who purchased caps.
Chapter 86: A Question of Efficiency
With the efficient kills by Azure Longsword, the pressure on the Iron Cross mercenary group was significantly reduced.
After all, their line had retreated, and all the enemies on the right flank had been ceded.
Andrea still felt a pang of pain, thinking, That’s half of the Transcendental materials.
But he wasn’t foolish enough to say it out loud.
Only those they could kill were walking transcendental materials; those they couldn’t kill were enemies, and there was no point in thinking about them.
Currently, the gunmen were all attacking the Snow Monsters on the front lines. If they didn’t want their kills stolen, it was simple: have the gunmen fire at every Snow Monster in the back as well.
But if Andrea really did this, according to the rules, Azure Longsword would definitely stand idly by, and then the Iron Cross mercenary group would have to face the entire horde of Snow Monsters head-on.
He would have to be insane to attract such a large-scale aggro.
After the line contracted, the Iron Cross mercenary group was no longer short-handed and could implement a rotation of “one squad fighting on the front line” and “one squad resting in the rear,” greatly reducing the risk of casualties, and the battlefield situation began to improve rapidly.
Azure Longsword on the other side was much more formidable. Eleanor and Sidlipha alone held back most of the Snow Monsters, only occasionally letting one or two through for the girls behind them to focus fire on.
Wait, focus fire?
Hermann’s heart skipped a beat. He suddenly seemed to realize something.
He continued to observe and finally discovered a shocking fact.
Azure Longsword’s killing efficiency was much higher than that of the Iron Cross mercenary group!
In the same amount of time, they had killed two Snow Monsters, while Azure Longsword had already killed five!
He told this to Andrea, who immediately exclaimed in disbelief:
“That’s impossible! We outnumber them ten to one!”
“It has nothing to do with numbers.” Hermann said with a gloomy face. “For powerful supernatural creatures like Snow Monsters, slashing them ten times on the front is not as effective as stabbing them once in a vital spot.”
“Look at how Azure Longsword is fighting.”
Andrea looked over and, in just a moment, discovered the same thing as Hermann.
“Deliberately letting Snow Monsters through? Then focusing fire to kill them?” Andrea exclaimed. “Isn’t that too risky? If the Snow Monsters that get through can’t be dealt with immediately, the front-line warriors will be attacked from both sides!”
“And once the front line collapses, the situation will snowball, and even a complete wipeout is possible!”
“Yes, the military education we received since childhood also emphasized maintaining a tight defense line and formation pressure.” Hermann sighed. “But the facts are right in front of us: once this high-risk tactic is successfully executed, the killing efficiency of focused fire is far greater than frontal confrontation.”
“Because focused fire can easily attack vital points from the side or rear, while the front line can only attack from the front. Snow Monsters are supernatural creatures known for their physical strength, they’re not afraid of frontal assaults at all.”
“Should we also try it? Let a Snow Monster through and then focus fire?” Andrea couldn’t wait any longer. If they continued like this, Azure Longsword would probably take most of the materials from this wave of Snow Monsters.
“Are you confident?” Hermann glanced at him.
“How can I be confident?” Andrea said. “This tactic…if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t even believe it could be executed reliably—the slightest mistake could lead to a collapse of the front lines!”
He gritted his teeth and thought for a moment, then made up his mind: “Let’s do it!”
With Andrea’s new order, the Transcendental mercenaries at the front were a little confused.
A dynamic battle line was like a soap bubble of uneven thickness. Usually, the commander’s deployment and orders were to send people to wherever it was weak, to prevent holes from appearing in the bubble.
And now Andrea’s order was, “Create a hole in the bubble,” “Deliberately let an enemy through,” “Then quickly plug the hole again.”
The mercenaries were speechless: What kind of tactic is this?!
Creating a hole was easy, just withdraw the mercenary stationed at that position.
The problem was, once a hole appeared in the defense line, there was no guarantee that only one enemy would get through.
Not to mention quickly plugging the hole again. The enemy wouldn’t just stand there foolishly and let you fix your mistake after seeing your weakness, would they?
If it were a small mercenary group, these mercenaries would never obey such a foolish order.
However, this was the Iron Cross, after all, one of the few militarized mercenary groups on the continent. No matter how stupid the orders from above were… as long as it wasn’t a blatant suicide mission, they had to strictly follow them.
So the Transcendental mercenaries, with trepidation, used all their abilities and finally managed to deliberately let a Snow Monster through, then desperately plugged the hole in the defense line again.
The Snow Monster, suddenly finding itself behind the enemy lines, was stunned for a moment, then became excited. Correspondingly, the mercenary gunmen immediately panicked.
What was wrong with the front-line mercenaries?! They actually let a Snow Monster through to the rear! Did they want them, the gunmen, to engage in melee combat with it?
Then Andrea’s focus fire order came down. Although terrified, the gunmen could only quickly open fire, trying to kill the Snow Monster as soon as possible.
Hit in the face by a barrage of bullets, the Snow Monster became even more enraged by the pain and began to pounce on the gunmen’s line.
The reserve Transcendental mercenaries, prepared in advance and commanded by Andrea, stopped the Snow Monster.
Then came a perilous battle, almost capsizing several times, before they finally managed to kill the Snow Monster with focused fire.
That’s not right? Andrea was a little confused. While timing the battle, he was also observing and comparing with Azure Longsword.
In the time it took the Iron Cross to kill this Snow Monster with focused fire, Azure Longsword had already killed two more!
What was going on? Both were using focused fire, how come Azure Longsword’s efficiency was still twice as high?
Hermann, who was watching from the side, was also confused. He hadn’t expected that after stealing the other party’s tactic, their results were still inferior. Could it be that the combat power of the Iron Cross mercenaries was not as good as Azure Longsword’s?
How is that possible! Their Iron Cross mercenary group was also one of the best on the continent, okay? The number of Transcendental mercenaries alone was considerable, how could…
Wait a minute?
Hermann suddenly noticed something amiss and called out to Andrea:
“Look over there!”
“I’m looking!” Andrea said irritably. “Those little girls’ combat moves are very ruthless, of course I can see that!”
“I’m not asking you to look at the girls!” Hermann said, exasperated. “Look at the Snow Monster!”
“Snow Monster?” Andrea was taken aback, and he looked again. He saw two more Snow Monsters break through Eleanor and Sidlipha’s defenses and charge straight into the girls’ encirclement.
Then, one of the Snow Monsters suddenly reached out its massive arm and grabbed the other Snow Monster tightly.
Grabbed it tightly…
What the fuck! Andrea’s face changed drastically. Could this Snow Monster be a traitor working for Azure Longsword?!
How did they do that!
You actually managed to plant a traitor among the Snow Monsters?!
The girls launched another round of skillful focused fire, taking down the two Snow Monsters, leaving Andrea dumbfounded.
Holy shit! They even killed the traitor… Azure Longsword, what the hell are you?! Wait, could it be…
“Could it be the Mind-Controlling Witch?” he exclaimed.
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