Chapter 176 Never Lower Your Guard

Baron saw that Biao Gong was not expecting something like this in a battle, and he continued on with the battle. The forces of Huan Yi were forced to retreat at midday, almost immediately, Baron ordered all of them to be hunted down. He had already created a special force of fighter strategists and elite guards to deal with this task and he sent them out without hesitation. Once his special force went to gather heads, he knew that they had a time limit to how effective they would be before Huan Yi found a way to counter them as he always seemed to do.

As a way to make sure he could use his special force for the longest amount of time before his enemies could regain the upper hand, he imposed a time limit for them that they had to abide by. Once that time had passed, they would immediately retreat and head back to where Baron was located to report their progress. At the same time, Baron took the chance to go on an all-out offensive on the battlefield as many of the strategists were now running for their lives. This proved to be a monumental shift in the battle and within but a few hours, Baron managed to not only rout the enemy but also cripple them so much that they were rendered incapable of putting up any kind of resistance.

Of course, Baron knew that these forces were not the entire force that the Glass Shard faction had in their arsenal, but with the defeat of Huan Yi, the soldiers under him had lost a lot of morale and would be quite a bit less effective on the battlefield. Initially, Baron had wanted to recruit Huan Yi so that the two of them could work together, but thought otherwise as he remembered that Huan Yi had a reputation of betraying people.

In the end, Baron just used his army to crush any resistance that the rest of the Glass Shard faction tried to do and conquered the land within a few days. Baron wasn't quite sure where Huan Yi was at the moment, he knew that Huan Yi had been with the party that raided his command center, but after they retreated, he was nowhere to be found. Could he have been found and killed? Unlikely considering the skills that he had mastered. Could he have been picked up by another group as he was running for his life? Who knows.

He got his answer just a few days later as a group of messengers that had brought him some news tried to assassinate him. The group included Huan Yi and some of his inner circle members. Luckily, Biao Gong was there and he managed to kill all of them with one strike of his polearm each.

(BG) "Your inexperience shows, lad. Had I not been here to guard you, you would have been dead." Biao Gong lectured Baron.

(BM) "Thanks for that, I certainly owe you one. How did you know that they would be targeting me here after I conquered all of his lands?" Baron asked.

(BG) "I have fought my fair share of tricky strategists, and I had a feeling that he would try something like this. Your guard was lowered once you felt that this area was yours, that's where these types of strategists like to target you most. When you are at your least careful."

(BM) "Heh, I suppose this is what separates the two of us. You are always on your guard while I seem to lower mine every once in a while."

(BG) "Indeed, once you have been in as many as I have, you learn these types of things. Not to worry though, even if your girlfriend wasn't here to save you this time, I was mightily impressed by both of your performances. Especially that exceptional shot of hers."

(BM) "Coming from someone of your caliber, that means quite a lot. I'll be sure to tell my partner later."

(BG) "I assume that you want to keep her identity a secret? Hence the mask?"

(BM) "Indeed, we don't want her to get recognized. Much like that mysterious lady that helped the Vesper faction in the naval tournament."

(BG) "Oh her? That is one of my teammates. I won't tell you her name as everyone will know it soon enough, but she only entered as she was bored out of her mind. You could say she is the most impatient of us all. A bit quirky, but magnitudes more powerful than I am currently."

(BM) "Interesting. I did not think of the possibility that she would belong to the Bair fighters. Though that would make sense. Which community was she part of originally? I don't think I've seen her type of warfare before in the Chinese community."

(BG) "How perceptive of you, that is the right conclusion to make. She is hailed as one of the most powerful female Russian strategists that have ever existed. I am not even able to hold a candle next to her. In a way, she is comparable to Madam Zheng, except she is so much more powerful."

(BM) "That is quite the title that she has on her name, I wonder who it could be."