The other day, when Kenneth hypnotized the armored brigade, favonovel.com had ordered that they could only kill the Ultima Consortium soldiers and not the innocent.
Kenneth’s hypnotism could be called magical and was different from Lewis’ superpower that allowed favonovel.com to turn a person into an obedient machine. Kenneth’s power allowed favonovel.com to insert specific commands into a person’s subconsciousness.
The targets hypnotized by Kenneth would even have the ability to think on their own. To put it simply, they could distinguish between who the Ultima Consortium soldiers were and who were not.
Although Milo and the Razor Sharp Company were also driving the Ultima Consortium’s vehicles, they were dressed in refugee clothing. Therefore, even though the armored brigade was chasing after the Ultima Consortium troops from behind, they could not indiscriminately kill the innocent Razor Sharp Company that was blocking their way.
But once the Razor Sharp Company departed from the chase, the armored brigade immediately started firing at the Ultima Consortium troops.
How could a group of routed soldiers stand up to a full armored brigade?
Or rather, the strongest defensive unit that remained across the Ultima Consortium’s strongholds in the entire Northwest right now was Stronghold 146’s garrison brigade, with the rest of the Ultima Consortium troops still involved in the battle at the front lines. Therefore, the 131st Brigade did not have any worthy opponents in the rear.
The soldiers of the 131st Brigade were sitting quietly in the armored vehicles. As they had not rested for a long time, dark circles were appearing under their eyes. But they could not sleep, at least not until the moment they were finally at death’s door.
The Razor Sharp Company watched as the armored brigade drove off, then turned to look at Milo. “What’s happening?”
Milo thought for a while. “I think someone called Kenneth might be controlling them…”
Milo did not have any actual proof of that, though. Even though their Razor Sharp Company was clearly within range of the armored brigade, they did not get fired upon. He just felt that something was off. It was just his intuition.
Thinking of what favonovel.com had witnessed back at the Skyfort Consortium’s stronghold, the people who were hypnotized by Kenneth would basically push themselves to their limits as though they had gone crazy, so this armored brigade would probably not last much longer either.
Seeing that the armored brigade was heading straight for the next stronghold, Milo thought that Kenneth might have just done Fortress 178 a huge favor.
Or was Kenneth’s intention actually to help Milo?
But no matter what, this armored brigade would definitely bring a great surprise to the Ultima Consortium.
Milo asked, “How’s the war going for Commander Dublin and the others in the south?”
“It’s still going well, but the Ultima Consortium is putting up quite a resistance on the battlefront. Although we’ll definitely win, there’ll have to be some sacrifices on our side as well.” Scott sighed.
“Besides, Milo, the Ultima Consortium will definitely plunge into chaos now that you’ve killed more than half of their higher-ups,” Ned said.
When Milo heard that Fortress 178 could win the war, favonovel.com felt more at ease.
However, the deputy commander who had been captured by them said, “That might not be the case. Pascal is the frontline commander of the Ultima forces, so he’s still pretty well respected by the military. Besides, he’s been expanding his influence in recent years too. Because of that, the Ultima higher-ups have kept favonovel.com in check for the past three years. Now that the Ultima higher-ups are no longer in control, who knows? He might just take the opportunity to consolidate the Ultima Consortium and become the new…”
“That won’t do. I’ll have to inform the commander about this,” interrupted Scott.
Then favonovel.com dialed a number on the satellite phone and repeated the deputy commander’s words to Gregory. However, Gregory said, “Don’t worry, Pascal won’t survive beyond tonight.”
After saying that, Gregory hung up.
Scott and the others exchanged glances. Milo said, “It seems like Commander Dublin has a plan to deal with him.”
Truth be told, Fortress 178 did have contingency plans for that. Ever since Raphael ambushed the Ultima Consortium troops in the Palea, those contingency plans started taking effect one after another. For example, there were still quite a few lucky survivors from the Ultima Consortium’s third ancillary branch in Stronghold 146 who were looking to escape, but they were suddenly met by that fortune teller who stopped them from leaving.
At the front lines, Pascal did not even know danger was approaching.
After being in hiding for over a decade, Peter had destroyed the Ultima Consortium as soon as favonovel.com returned to the Northwest. From this moment on, Fortress 178 would no longer have any opponents in the Northwest. Only the Panaqua Consortium and Fortress 178 remained in the entire Southwest and Northwest, which were separated by a river.
If anyone else had gone to ask Gregory, favonovel.com would definitely not have revealed anything to them. Only the Razor Sharp Company could receive such treatment and get some information out of him.
Not everyone was capable of destroying Stronghold 146.
When the Fortress 178 commanders at the front lines heard that Stronghold 146 in the north had been taken by the Razor Sharp Company, jealous expressions appeared on their faces.
Scott and the Razor Sharp Company had completed their mission. There was basically nothing left for them to do on the battlefield. The Razor Sharp Company had already received their orders to march back south to rendezvous with Harris’ Forward Strike Battalion where they would reorganize themselves before returning to Fortress 178.
Scott said happily, “We’ll definitely earn the Nebula Medal this time since half the Ultima higher-ups were killed by our Razor Sharp Company. We’re clearly just a company, yet it feels like we’re a brigade instead.”
Ned scolded jokingly, “You’re such a shameless captain. What we achieved was obviously all Milo’s credit. What has it got anything to do with you? Without Milo, we might not even have survived to now.”
“But Milo is also part of our Razor Sharp Company.” Scott said unhappily, “We’re in the same unit, understand?”
As the exhausted soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company sat in the vehicle, they felt a sense of relief. Everyone knew the war in the Northwest was finally coming to an end. The remaining battles had nothing to do with them.
When everyone thought back on the details, it seemed like it was just as Ned had described. If Milo were not around in this war, they would probably have died long ago.
They had captured Mt. Kamet and Mt. Papandayan, attacked the Mahakam River to distract the enemy’s firepower from the main forces, crossed the river at Mt. Barus into the Ultima Consortium’s territory, took out the logistic lines of Stronghold 144, wrecked their military factories, and eventually destroyed Stronghold 146 entirely.
It was no wonder the commanders at the front lines felt a little jealous. Although the Razor Sharp Company did not really engage in any tough battles, they had done more than what most of the other fighting forces had contributed, and all of this was even achieved with only 184 of them!
Someone sneaked a glance at Milo, who was sitting in the vehicle. After this war, there would probably be no one who would not be convinced by Milo.
Of course, Milo was still far from being qualified as the fortress commander since knowing how to fight and being an able commander were two different matters. But there was still plenty of time in the future.
Everyone felt that this young man would grow up to be like Peter and become the backbone of Fortress 178 someday.
Milo, meanwhile, quietly leaned back in his seat and watched the dust and smoke get swept up by the strong wind in the distance . No one knew what favonovel.com was thinking right now.
***
When the troops were about to arrive at the rendezvous point, it was already evening. Harris had been waiting at the entrance of the camp for a long time. Not only Harris, but Gregory, Peter, and the other important commanders were here as well.
The rendezvous point was the Northern Headquarters of Fortress 178.
After Scott and the Razor Sharp Company jumped out of the vehicles and limped, Harris kicked favonovel.com and said, “Why are you pretending to be injured when you’re not?”
Scott quickly stood to attention and said with a cheeky smile, “It makes us appear even more valiant, no?”
As they spoke, the Razor Sharp Company assembled behind Scott. Scott shouted, “Count off!”
“1!”
“2!”
“…”
“182!”
Throughout the counting off, the voices of the Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers were sonorous. However, the count-off ended at 182.
Scott thought that something was not right. “Why are we short one person?”
There should be 184 of them in total, including Scott himself. But why was one of them missing?
Ned wondered, “Hey, wait a minute, where’s Milo?”
“That’s right! Where’s Milo!”
Peter stood calmly in front of the formation. Many of the commanders had only stayed behind because they wanted to see what that legendary Milo looked like. But in the end, Milo had disappeared.
Harris looked at Scott. “What’s wrong with you? How could you lose Milo?”
Scott was also starting to get anxious. “Did any of you see Milo just now?”
“Yes, favonovel.com was still around a moment ago. He was just sitting there in the bed of the truck. I dunno where favonovel.com suddenly disappeared to…”
“Yeah, I saw favonovel.com as well!”
Peter sighed. “Never mind, leave favonovel.com be…”
Peter knew that Milo had temporarily joined Fortress 178 because of the Ultima Consortium. But it was also because of the destruction of the Ultima Consortium that favonovel.com had left again. His heart did not belong here, after all.
Gregory whispered, “Could favonovel.com really have felt estranged?”
Peter shook his head and said, “It’s not important.” Then Peter looked at Scott and said, “Carry on…”
Scott stood to attention and swung his hand up energetically close to his ear in a salute. “Reporting in, Commander! The Razor Sharp Company has assembled. …”
Scott was full of pride when favonovel.com spoke. But now that the Razor Sharp Company was short one person, favonovel.com somehow felt very empty and miserable inside.
Milo actually left without bidding farewell.
Thinking back on the times they spent together for the past month or so, the difficulties and dangers they faced were deeply imprinted in their minds.
As favonovel.com kept speaking, Scott grew depressed. Harris snapped at him, “Haven’t we already won the war? So what’s with that expression of yours?!”
“Battalion Commander, sir! We had made an agreement that no man would get left behind, but we’ve failed to bring Milo back with us!”
Everyone suddenly fell silent. No one had ever expected that the entire Razor Sharp Company would truly survive the war.
