Building An Empire Starting From The Labor Camp In Exile-Chapter 257: Then we begin

"There is no plan. We go there, and we will try our best to kill the warlord and reduce his forces to the smallest size that we can," Atrox said.

"But... but they will be expecting us!" Eamon said.

Atrox’s eyes turned to him. "And? It stops nothing. We are also expecting them to send assassins to us, but instead of assassins, we will do the work ourselves."

"We will go in my tower. It will make us unseen until we drop above them. Takoda, you focus on the warlord while I try to do as much damage to their army."

Atrox forced himself to smile. "This is not a serious mission. It is simply a way for us to deal with them in return. A warning, if you must. It is not one where we must kill. We are going there to deal damage."

"What about us?" Slya asked.

Atrox frowned at her. "You remain in my tower. The same goes for Tiber. Unless you have wide-range attacks, the only reason I’m participating is because of the tower."

Eamon visibly breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, I’m glad the Commander, who’s an Errant Knight, isn’t going around challenging a Master Knight."

"Wouldn’t be the first time, but this time I won’t concern myself. I hope you don’t mind, Eamon. We will wait for nighttime here."

"No worries! After all, you are the Commander!"

And so they waited. The tension that hung over them was thick, and even Slya found it impossible to lighten the mood. Atrox spent most of it thinking about what had happened.

"... Hundreds of us just got wiped away like that... I... felt it..." Even with all the bravado he put on, this was his first mass death, and it hit harder than he thought it would. "... But this... this is something I have to get used to... It is something that I will cause again and again..."

Atrox learned that accepting a situation and knowing it was part of his life didn’t mean he wouldn’t still react to it. He smiled bitterly. "... What a hypocrite I am..."

But he wasn’t the only one who was angry. Takoda had been standing beside him like a drum tightened to bursting. He had men, warriors, in the Borderland Knights, and most of them were dead.

So Atrox shook the thought away and pushed his anger aside to focus on others. He sympathized with Takoda and consoled him, even though he looked as if he had no need for it. Then he went in search of the survivors.

They were a mess. Whatever happened on that battleground seemed to have broken something in them. They just sat and stared blankly at him when he gave them his sympathy speech and tried to cheer them up, but the only thing on their lips was whether they got the chance to leave. They wanted to leave everything behind and disappear.

After he said his part, he silently left them. Atrox wasn’t angry. He didn’t ask them to fight. He wouldn’t even allow them to, not when their fear could turn contagious to the whole army, spreading like a disease.

Instead, Atrox gave instructions and promised them an amount that would allow them to live a new life anywhere.

The rest of the day was spent in random inspections of the army. He was anxious for nightfall. He couldn’t wait for it so he could begin.

And then night fell. Atrox ate dinner with the others and waited for it to settle in his stomach before he stood and gestured for those who were joining him outside, where his tower hovered, gleaming black and red in the night.

They were absorbed into the tower, and a ripple spread from the battlements.

Eamon, who was standing outside, was stunned. He could see the tower, but it was as if it wasn’t there. In fact, his brain was trying to interpret it as part of the decoration or something totally normal that should be hovering there.

It was a weird thing that messed with his brain.

But then the tower lifted into the air and disappeared into the clouds.

Atrox flew at the fastest speed he could attain. He brought his tower to the highest altitude, and he was nothing more than a black streak in the air.

Nobody spoke, as everyone seemed to have a lot on their minds already. The closer they got, the greater the tension, and even in the dark room of the core, they felt it.

When they crossed the distance into the territory where the warlord was making camp, Atrox knew. The flying ships arranged below him were ready for battle at any time. The power they were giving off reached him high up in the air.

He slowed down, and with the tower amplifying his sight, he easily saw the tents arranged below. But the tents seemed to be much fewer in number.

"... That’s a lot of flying ships... Some are sleeping in the flying ships?..."

But whether tent or flying ship, they all had to go down, so Atrox wasn’t worried. He searched for Vorath’s tent, but he couldn’t find it. Not in the center. Not anywhere.

Atrox turned his gaze to the other side, where the plains between them seemed to be Thrain’s army. "Is he there?"

"Maybe he’s hiding there, or there’s a party, or he’s talking with Thrain. There are a lot of places he could be," Tiber said.

Takoda grunted. "Whether he is hiding in one of the ships or anywhere else, he will show himself when we start causing havoc."

Atrox didn’t like that. It was easy to get sneak-attacked like that, and this wasn’t a mission where they were meant to harm themselves. But there was nothing he could do at the moment.

"Takoda, don’t forget, we leave the moment I say so. You leave the bastard and join the tower!"

Takoda nodded. "Noted."

Atrox took a deep breath. "Then we begin."

Since the warlord’s force wasn’t using a shield but instead focusing on their flying ships for protection, there was no need to worry about anything stopping his descent.

The tower jerked down and shot downward like an arrow. With his law still in place, the flying ships didn’t detect him in time.