meianmaru
The Devourer of Fiction
Fanwork## 1259 words
Here is for hopefully boosting Ulyssian's tactical genius further! Bleary eyed and tired writing, so typos and/or strangely worded phrases remain a possibility even after going through it. Good night.
***
The Three-Fold Doom
"Are you sure about this?"
Those words were rarely heard from Zao Feng Lung's lips, especially when laced with so much hesitation, even if only by his own standards. Ivory was also looking worried, gaze darting between Ulyssian and the order that Anys Syn had sent to seal his doom. He gathered himself, and prepared to lay out the groundwork on how they could survive this.
"Luseng, while important, is not something I would personally risk myself over if I had the choice. Not only it limits my actions from affecting strategies on larger scale by tying me up, I'm not yet strong enough to reliably, or even with good chances defeat the foes gathered there." Zao looked at him expectantly. "Then I imagine you have a reason to do it anyway, besides the obvious detriment of otherwise having to cut ties to your current identity?"
He nodded, now surer of himself. "While my relative lack of power is a problem, my chances aren't zero, and if I do manage to triumph over there, I will come out stronger, making it even harder for her to kill me, be it by an assassins blade or sending me out to yet an another doomed scenario. Not only that, but it will become increasingly harder for her to openly to move against me without seriously damaging her standing and credibility. That, and actually sending me on missions where I can actually work towards delaying the destruction of the Realm and Creation with these methods is temporarily aligned with our own goals."
"Uly, it is still too risky", Ivory said. She was slowly starting to pace around as she talked, an old habit from her past life that she had sometimes exhibited when feeling extremely worried about some of her few friends deciding to do something monumentally reckless. Which surprisingly she had only rarely displayed, then taking into consideration what kind of persons her friends were. "You don't have to choose to be Anys Syn's puppet until she manages to throw you into a situation that will mean near-certain death even to you. You have other options, other paths to advance our goals. She might also realize her folly too soon, if you survive against the things she will pit you against, and strike before you are strong enough to withstand her offensive!"
Ulyssian listened calmy, but then shook his head. "True. I could do that. But if move to other avenues of power, it will likely come to me having to conquer the Realm with the force of armies, while the Creation's enemies close in around us from all sides. By weakening ourselves with internal struggles, we might face a different kind of risk that could turn out to be even greater than just accepting the Bronze Faction's move for now." He paused. "Also, don't call me-"
"Now is not the time!" Ivory snapped, as she whirled to face him from her pacing. She looked immensely frustrated for a moment while, before slowly coming to a halt and seemingly calming down. "Fine. You are set to do what you have decided to do. I wonder why I expected anything else. So, the plan?"
Zao also inserted himself back to the conversation, having been surprisingly quite and withdrawn for his usual self during the whole exchange. "I would also like to hear how you seek to turn this assignment from death-sentence to a victory. I think you are even now overestimating your chances of coming out of this alive."
The young/ancient Solar gazed upwards to the ceiling in deep thought for a moment, before proceeding to continue from his previous point. "First of all, there are extensive records and battle reports about all the three major players and their forces, as well as about the satrapy itself, of course. I should be able to model predictions about most of the major general movements of the enemy troops at least, as well as the weather conditions and such before even arriving during my trip to there." He walked to Zao's table, and opened the detailed and moderately sized map of Luseng that had been provided along with his letter of assignment, then proceeded to spread it over the same sparse table. "The most pressing and immediately apparent problem is of course the two spotted behemoths, possibly not the only ones, who are destroying everything in their path. Straight out killing them might be impossible currently, though I will look for a chance to do so regardless, but diverting them with minimal losses is more feasible."
He next pointed out to various resource markings dotting the map. "Next, I can use Luseng's various natural riches to bolster the defenses and civil stability by streamlining production and distribution of goods and weapons with my predictionism, just like I did with the Navy. For example, more weapons made out of cold iron would be quite useful against the Fae. But the most important thing I must accomplish is shattering the non-aggression pact between the factions."
Zao frowned as he looked at the map. "It won't be easy, even with an alliance shaky as this. They know that if they start fighting between each other, their chances of winning against the might of the Realm's armies decrease greatly. Each of them will be suspicious about any acts seemingly done by the other factions if those acts would shake their alliance, even when they are looking for the signs of true betrayal at the same time. You need something more convincing than just a camp of troops slaughtered by a lone Lunar or a Deathknight in the night."
Ivory also chimed in. "Straight out maneuevering the different armies against each other will also be hard. Their leaders have them all leashed tight." Ulyssian was silent for a moment, then continued again. "What about if one of the armies was facing heavy opposition in one direction, redirecting their flow to a path of least resistance? If we channel that faction with presenting hard defenses against their direct line of advance, and softer targets leading towards the other factions promised pieces of land, we could at very least raise tensions between them. If we use that suspicion by combination with other tactics for sowing the seed of doubt..."
Zao sighted wearily. "Its still not even nearly enough, but it would buy you time to grow stronger. I will divert as many resources as I dare to supporting you. Even someone proclaiming theirself to be one of the Immaculate Dragons can't act easily and often in manner that would make others question their divinity, so I should be able to help you as long as I don't overstep certain boundaries. We can also afford it more easily, as the Navy is running more efficiently than ever thanks to you."
"'Gather enough snowflakes, and you have an avalanche'. Every bit will help towards the victory. But yes, we still need more. If we take into account the personalities of the leader's of each of the factions, we could maybe..."
And so, Ulyssian strategized to the night with his allies on how to walk into a trap meant grind even a Exalted of the Sun to bits, and rise from the challenge in one piece to face a new one that he would be thrown into, again and again until his death. Or until he would show Anys Syn why throwing the one who had once slain Titans in the Dawn of the Creation was an act most unwise.
Here is for hopefully boosting Ulyssian's tactical genius further! Bleary eyed and tired writing, so typos and/or strangely worded phrases remain a possibility even after going through it. Good night.
***
The Three-Fold Doom
"Are you sure about this?"
Those words were rarely heard from Zao Feng Lung's lips, especially when laced with so much hesitation, even if only by his own standards. Ivory was also looking worried, gaze darting between Ulyssian and the order that Anys Syn had sent to seal his doom. He gathered himself, and prepared to lay out the groundwork on how they could survive this.
"Luseng, while important, is not something I would personally risk myself over if I had the choice. Not only it limits my actions from affecting strategies on larger scale by tying me up, I'm not yet strong enough to reliably, or even with good chances defeat the foes gathered there." Zao looked at him expectantly. "Then I imagine you have a reason to do it anyway, besides the obvious detriment of otherwise having to cut ties to your current identity?"
He nodded, now surer of himself. "While my relative lack of power is a problem, my chances aren't zero, and if I do manage to triumph over there, I will come out stronger, making it even harder for her to kill me, be it by an assassins blade or sending me out to yet an another doomed scenario. Not only that, but it will become increasingly harder for her to openly to move against me without seriously damaging her standing and credibility. That, and actually sending me on missions where I can actually work towards delaying the destruction of the Realm and Creation with these methods is temporarily aligned with our own goals."
"Uly, it is still too risky", Ivory said. She was slowly starting to pace around as she talked, an old habit from her past life that she had sometimes exhibited when feeling extremely worried about some of her few friends deciding to do something monumentally reckless. Which surprisingly she had only rarely displayed, then taking into consideration what kind of persons her friends were. "You don't have to choose to be Anys Syn's puppet until she manages to throw you into a situation that will mean near-certain death even to you. You have other options, other paths to advance our goals. She might also realize her folly too soon, if you survive against the things she will pit you against, and strike before you are strong enough to withstand her offensive!"
Ulyssian listened calmy, but then shook his head. "True. I could do that. But if move to other avenues of power, it will likely come to me having to conquer the Realm with the force of armies, while the Creation's enemies close in around us from all sides. By weakening ourselves with internal struggles, we might face a different kind of risk that could turn out to be even greater than just accepting the Bronze Faction's move for now." He paused. "Also, don't call me-"
"Now is not the time!" Ivory snapped, as she whirled to face him from her pacing. She looked immensely frustrated for a moment while, before slowly coming to a halt and seemingly calming down. "Fine. You are set to do what you have decided to do. I wonder why I expected anything else. So, the plan?"
Zao also inserted himself back to the conversation, having been surprisingly quite and withdrawn for his usual self during the whole exchange. "I would also like to hear how you seek to turn this assignment from death-sentence to a victory. I think you are even now overestimating your chances of coming out of this alive."
The young/ancient Solar gazed upwards to the ceiling in deep thought for a moment, before proceeding to continue from his previous point. "First of all, there are extensive records and battle reports about all the three major players and their forces, as well as about the satrapy itself, of course. I should be able to model predictions about most of the major general movements of the enemy troops at least, as well as the weather conditions and such before even arriving during my trip to there." He walked to Zao's table, and opened the detailed and moderately sized map of Luseng that had been provided along with his letter of assignment, then proceeded to spread it over the same sparse table. "The most pressing and immediately apparent problem is of course the two spotted behemoths, possibly not the only ones, who are destroying everything in their path. Straight out killing them might be impossible currently, though I will look for a chance to do so regardless, but diverting them with minimal losses is more feasible."
He next pointed out to various resource markings dotting the map. "Next, I can use Luseng's various natural riches to bolster the defenses and civil stability by streamlining production and distribution of goods and weapons with my predictionism, just like I did with the Navy. For example, more weapons made out of cold iron would be quite useful against the Fae. But the most important thing I must accomplish is shattering the non-aggression pact between the factions."
Zao frowned as he looked at the map. "It won't be easy, even with an alliance shaky as this. They know that if they start fighting between each other, their chances of winning against the might of the Realm's armies decrease greatly. Each of them will be suspicious about any acts seemingly done by the other factions if those acts would shake their alliance, even when they are looking for the signs of true betrayal at the same time. You need something more convincing than just a camp of troops slaughtered by a lone Lunar or a Deathknight in the night."
Ivory also chimed in. "Straight out maneuevering the different armies against each other will also be hard. Their leaders have them all leashed tight." Ulyssian was silent for a moment, then continued again. "What about if one of the armies was facing heavy opposition in one direction, redirecting their flow to a path of least resistance? If we channel that faction with presenting hard defenses against their direct line of advance, and softer targets leading towards the other factions promised pieces of land, we could at very least raise tensions between them. If we use that suspicion by combination with other tactics for sowing the seed of doubt..."
Zao sighted wearily. "Its still not even nearly enough, but it would buy you time to grow stronger. I will divert as many resources as I dare to supporting you. Even someone proclaiming theirself to be one of the Immaculate Dragons can't act easily and often in manner that would make others question their divinity, so I should be able to help you as long as I don't overstep certain boundaries. We can also afford it more easily, as the Navy is running more efficiently than ever thanks to you."
"'Gather enough snowflakes, and you have an avalanche'. Every bit will help towards the victory. But yes, we still need more. If we take into account the personalities of the leader's of each of the factions, we could maybe..."
And so, Ulyssian strategized to the night with his allies on how to walk into a trap meant grind even a Exalted of the Sun to bits, and rise from the challenge in one piece to face a new one that he would be thrown into, again and again until his death. Or until he would show Anys Syn why throwing the one who had once slain Titans in the Dawn of the Creation was an act most unwise.
