Refining the Heavens 4 (炼天四)

Chapter 11: To make Saint Empire safe again

The blessed son, the chosen one, and the champion of the academy – at least until Kairos' arrival.

Sihala is doubtlessly one of the most talented fighters in the whole of Saint Empire. He graduated a few years earlier joining the frontlines as an officer.

Kairos never thought to see him here.

"Kairos Astroire, well met. I've heard that you were coming."

"Sihala, it's been a while. You must've become stronger since we last met."

"Heh, you want to try out how much I've grown?"

"Couldn't ask for more."

"Ahem, lads, we're here to speak about serious stuff," Martial General Gu said, interrupting them.

"Sorry sir, I was caught up with an old face."

"You're the old face. Sorry sir."

"Its fine, its fine. Why are you two looking so stiffy? Be at ease and please sit yourselves."

"Thank you, sir," the two boys said at the same time.

The two sat quietly while waiting for the Martial General to address them. Gu coughed embarrassedly. He is a fighter and a leader of men, but it doesn't mean that he isn't people shy, especially with strangers.

With his men, they could talk anything, with or without alcohol. But in front of Kairos, his tongue felt dry.

"Eh... ah... Sihala, this is the person you were always talking about, right?" the old general quickly threw the conversation opener to his subordinate like it was a scalding hot potato.

The young soldier did not have any change in expression and coldly replied, "Yes."

The hot potato was easily deflected by Sihala and returned to his hands and the old general became even more anxious than before.

"You two can speak freely here, don't be hindered by the stiffy military rules.

"In that case, I will take you up on your offer," Kairos said immediately with a smile, and the old general gave an obvious sigh of relief.

"May I ask the current situation on the frontlines, sir?"

It was Sihala who replied, "The frontlines are intense indeed. Before I stepped onto the battlefield, I would've never thought that things would be this... bloody. The glory, the honour, and the excitement I imagined felt so laughable that it seemed disgusting now.

Fortunately, the battles are still small-scaled with the two armies from each side are only testing each other's capabilities. If we use your specially formulated battle arrays, we can easily pin them down, but once we reveal our cards, the rest of the war will become much harder.

With your rank, you can acquire a detailed report from our tacticians. But, I doubt that your team's Snow did not already have the information in hand and have that sorted out."

Kairos nodded, and he said, "What cards are the army keeping secret? From what I know the Starfire array is already in use?"

"That's different. The current scale that the runic formation is used in battles are limited to skirmishes. Only in battles with numbers over a hundred thousand, will the Starfire's actual firepower be shown. On top of that, the army has already studied the Bagua formation you gave us and placed it into practice.

Although the soldiers do not know what the formation could do, every one of them – down to the cooks – could swiftly meld themselves into position in an instant."

Beside them, the Martial General had a self-depreciating smile.

"Looks like my presence is already forgotten."