Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 275: Ricky and Elena - Part 3
Ricky kept moving his hands in the air, as if he were making out an imaginary grand structure in front of him.
"Let’s fill the area from the fog line to the fortress with our yellow fire," he added, "this way, anything crawling inside the fog will be killed by the yellow fire. And if they tried to run and escape, they’ll end up inside our defensive towers’ range, instantly flagged and killed before it even sees our stone.
We’ll place a primary line of walls, then a second inward line of towers. With the towers being significantly higher than the walls, we’ll have a tiered fire system. It’ll give us a real, deadly firepower advantage."
The duo began a massive architectural overhaul of their base of operations. Having successfully cleared the adjacent area to the fog line from machines, Ricky seized the opportunity to relocate their position to a more strategic point.
They shifted their focus toward the western part of the northern border of the territory, keeping in mind that Bulltors reinforcements from the north were expected to arrive eventually.
This time, they held nothing back, committing a massive portion of the resources John had entrusted to them. They constructed a formidable outpost that spanned ten kilometres in width and two kilometres in depth. To ensure their defensive capabilities were unmatched, they opted for a double-layered arrangement of towers.
While Ricky focused on the intricate task of positioning the heavy cannons, Elena descended to the ground. She started laying down the yellow fire traps everywhere. Initially, she wanted to cover up the entire fog area between their fortress and the territory with the yellow grenades.
And yet when she stood on top of the walls, she decided it was better to lay out maze-shaped paths. After all, she was the one who made the maze for Cissel’s blueprint back at their home territory. And doing it this way, she made sure the machines would detect the safe passage, flood it and end up getting here for final slaughter.
The use of the yellow fire grenade tactic had proven its value during previous night battles against large monster hordes. Although it was originally conceived as a way to push back the oppressive darkness and cold by John, Elena had immediately recognised its potential as a lethal defensive tool.
The sight of the glowing, yellow fire was both beautiful and terrifying. In addition to that, the fire would keep raging for twelve hours straight, saving them the trouble of replenishing it from time to time.
Once their preparations were complete, the two stepped back out into the congested territory. They didn’t settle for a simple skirmish; instead, they began a fierce bombardment, hurling Ricky’s grenades in every direction to maximise the chaos. And Elena decided to use her most precious purple grenades to take down any flying drones daring to threaten their taunt mission.
"Run!" Ricky shouted as the horizon began to crawl with endless machine units of different types. Within a few minutes, tens of thousands of machines were alerted to their presence and began a relentless pursuit toward the fog line.
When he noticed Elena lingering to trade blows with a nearby squad, he called out again, "Lead them into the trap! We need to pull them back first, then we can circle along the walls to lure even more into the kill zone!"
Their previous test had confirmed a vital behaviour: the machines would swarm the specific area where the humans were spotted, but that would only be for the machine units that managed to spot them. Ricky decided they should split up, one heading east and the other west, to draw in more machines at regular intervals across the entire ten-kilometre front.
In less than an hour, the entirety of their new fortress was totally filled with the machine units. They were holding the line against a combined force of over forty thousand machines. The duo regrouped at the centre of the fortress, momentarily catching their breath before leaping into the air to destroy the aerial drone swarms.
Because the machines were effectively blinded by the fog, they couldn’t triangulate the source of the devastating fire raining down on them. Then, the most surreal phenomenon John had told them about began to manifest. The machines, driven by their panic, reached a breaking point.
They began to fire blindly and erratically in every direction, acting as if they were surrounded by a huge army. This desperate response resulted in a massive amount of friendly fire, with the machines inadvertently tearing their own ranks apart. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦
The scene felt more like a fever dream than a real battle, especially to Ricky. Watching the machine army crumble into self-destructive madness made him shiver, as he reached a terrifying realisation. "Remind me," he lowly muttered, "if my ego ever gets the better of me, that I must never, ever find myself on John’s bad side."
"Hahaha, okay, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind," Elena laughed. She knew Ricky had a bottomless ego and arrogance, but he wasn’t foolish enough to ignore the reality before them.
Everything they had, their fortified base, their enhanced attributes, and the tactical nightmare the machines were currently suffering, was the result of one man’s foresight and planning.
The lopsided engagement continued for three more hours. The machines stood no chance against the combination of fog blindness and overwhelming tower fire.
Whenever the density of the mechanical horde began to thin, the two would venture outside the fog, diving deeper into the territory to provoke the next wave of machine units and lead them back into the fog trap.
Recognising that he was the less mobile of the two, Ricky entrusted the long-range luring missions to Elena’s superior speed.
While she acted as the bait, he focused on laying down lots of yellow fire circles, using the yellow core fires to either incinerate any astray machines or force a massive machine army chasing after Elena to split, preventing them from surrounding her during her retreats.
