Planet Jura—The Flame Continent--
*tap* *tap*
Sitting on a huge throne-like seat, Alexander watched the scene before him like a hawk with not so much of an expression on his face.
The third largest city in the Flame Continent was in front of him at this moment, a well-fortified city full of resources, food, citizens... And full of invaders.
This was the last spot that Marshal Dayroth decided to take as a stronghold. The city walls were completely covered with the bodies of hanged and mutilated humans. The flags of the Great Serpent Empire fluttered on the castles, and the warships were hovering around the city nonstop...
"Hahaha, why are you standing so far away? Come on, let's have some fun if you dare! Hahahahaha." The Great Serpent soldiers in charge of the surveillance continued to harass Alexander and his companions.
They can hear the screams of the citizens inside the city, screams and terror. Some of them were shouting at the top of their lungs, begging Alexander to storm the city, saying that it was okay with them to die as hostages rather than live with those animals!!
Yet, Alexander, with a huge army behind him, indeed did not dare to come closer.
...The True Beginning Army returned from Planet Nihari roughly two weeks ago and was divided between Planet Jura and Planet Orphan Blood. It was expected that Planet Jura would be cleaned up quickly after Alexander received 250 Martial Emperors and 30 Warlords, in addition to a huge number of Law-Using soldiers reaching hundreds of thousands or even millions after the recruitment announcement.
However, this did not happen, firstly because the Great Serpent Empire's army was spread out too widely and occupied too many cities full of citizens... and secondly, because the rebels were mixed in with the citizens and were taking any opportunity to bait the True Beginning Empire's army from behind.
Actually, Alexander and the other generals of the True Beginning Empire found it hard to explain why the remaining rebels were still getting involved in this war!
The logic says that after Richard killed more than 50 million of them and the rest scattered among the cities, they would hide and pretend that nothing happened. This way, the generals would have forgotten about them, and maybe Robin wouldn't have put those red arrows above their heads!
And the explanation is actually quite simple: they are not the only ones who sold their homeland to foreigners because they disliked their ruler; history is filled with such characters... Logic didn't work with them; it was only hate.
They felt that there was still a chance that the True Beginning Empire would lose and Robin would be killed, and they fought for it. They didn't think about what came after, or they just hoped that the foreigners would be more reasonable than their own kin.
And Emperor Robin was not interested in changing their worldview either; he wanted a purge instead... Arrows descended from the red cloud that covered the planet, and Robin broadcast his voice in everyone's ears, telling them that anyone with a red arrow on them was a criminal who should be killed because they participated in the rebellion.
Immediately all the generals were happy, and all the soldiers were excited and focused on killing everyone that had a red arrow, thinking that they would clean up the rebels first and then focus on the invaders, and this actually brought good results in the first few hours...
But when millions of rebels realized that there was no escape from confrontation, they confronted.
They were indeed scattered now, but they were still somewhere between 5 and 10 million rebels with decent connections.
The rebels gathered again and began to attack the cities and villages under the empire fiercely to distract the imperial army, and the higher-ups among them used their influence to carry out massive sabotage operations everywhere, even emptying the academies, weapons factories, and stores, then giving everything up to the Great Serpent Empire Army!!
With such a massive service network providing them with weapons and pearls, the Great Serpent Army grew stronger and more fierce.
The only problem they faced when the rebels stopped hiding among the citizens was that they could no longer stay inside isolated cities far apart around the continents for long; now they don't have the trap that slowed down the armies of the True Beginning Empire!
Plus, the presence of the warlords and the True Beginning generals hunting them down and taking out their hate and anger upon them meant they could no longer withstand a direct battle.
So Marshal Dayroth changed the strategy and took half of his fleet to the Flame Continent to take permanent refuge, then ordered the other half of the fleet to be free ships and move from city to city and from gathering to gathering to kill everyone they see and harvest all the resources, pearls, and weapons they can before moving on to the next city!
Dealing with the rebels fighting fiercely for survival was difficult enough, but with the red arrows upon their heads and with no decent military training, the generals could easily take them out with time.
But then, after Marshal Dayroth's new tactic, trying to stop the ships with their tremendous speed from proceeding with their plan was difficult beyond description!
...Robin and the army's arrival did Planet Jura no good; in fact, its destruction levels got many times worse.
Alexander tried to invade the Flame Continent and kill the bulk of the Great Serpent Army then try to corner the rest of the ships individually until he kills them all one by one or by force, and then left the planet
But Marshal Dayroth didn't entertain Alexander; he decided to punish him instead.
He retreated before the battle began, gave orders for his ships to disperse and spread out all over Planet Jura at full speed, killing and destroying as they pleased, and then regrouping in another city on the Flame Continent like nothing had happened!