Lightning Is the Only Way

Whoosh!

Jessy immediately fled into the distance after she managed to get a grasp on the situation. The plan had fallen flat, and her fellow spy, who had been even a bit more powerful than her, had died instantly. She couldn't stay here!

"Not so fast, dear," a voice came from behind her suddenly.

Jessy felt shocked, and fear raised its ugly head as she realized that she didn't recognize this beast's voice. The terrifying thing was that she hadn't felt the presence of this beast before. This meant that this beast was very likely even more powerful than her!

BRRR!

Thick walls of earth rose in front of her, cutting off her path of retreat. Just with her experience alone, Jessy was able to feel the hardness of these walls, and she knew that she wouldn't be able to crush through them in a timely manner.

Additionally, there was a bigger reason why she didn't continue. Right in front of her, on top of the newly raised wall, sat a beast casually.

"Why don't you listen to what I have to offer?" the small badger said casually.

This was the same badger that had welcomed Gravis when he had been in his first invasion. This badger was the master of the mantis that acted as the Commander of that one defensive line.

How did all of this happen?

When Gravis asked the Empress for an opponent, she had thought about something. In the last ten years, the number of spies had risen significantly. This gave her two options to consider.

now managing to uncover them, or something in

always had had so many spies, the battles wouldn't have been so even over the past few centuries. Spies gave an incredible amount of intelligence, which would allow the sea

reason that made her come to this conclusion was the average outcome of the battles that had been happening over the past decade. For hundreds of years, the battles between the land beasts and sea beasts had been even. The land

winning more battles than they were losing, which hadn't happened in an

beasts' higher number of victories wasn't their power. In actuality, it was more

often had a minor edge in numbers and power. If that happened in only one battle, one could

that the Empress could think of. There had to be a great Commander and strategist in

change her approach. In the beginning, when the balance was still there, she could get away with not handling things perfectly. Yet, now, every decision had bigger and

fought wars. Gravis had told her more about how human societies functioned,

the greater collective. Due to that, when an Empire attacked, they sent in about as many troops as the enemy had. If they managed to come out victorious, they would get a lot more

and fought differently. To humans, everything was about resources and numbers. Humans weren't as willing to send in an army that would be about equally as powerful as an enemy. They would send in an army slightly stronger or overwhelmingly stronger, depending

fighting resembled the human way of conducting a war way more. It was

of this considered, the Empress asked Gravis how he would deal with spies and traitors. Judging by what Gravis had told her and by how he had described the humans' way of thinking,

of conducting a war was safer than the beasts'. They would take way less risky battles but would immediately overwhelm a weaker force. Due to that, there would be many times fewer

even though traitors and spies existed for beasts, their number wasn't nearly as high as if they were humans. The sudden increase of spies supported the fact that someone very familiar with the human way of doing things

the enemy into an ambush. Another usage of spies would be to use them to find even more spies. After all, the

the Empress told Gravis her idea. The striking squad had an unrealistically high death rate. Such an elite squad shouldn't have so many casualties, and all of this reeked of a traitor in the squad. The Empress was 90% confident that the silver wolf was a traitor. Yet, instead of confronting him, she decided to change

would enter the

sea beasts. Gravis' Battle-Strength was monumental, and killing him would probably be worth about as much as killing an Emperor. The sea beasts wouldn't be

wolf wouldn't be able to do anything to him. Additionally, not the entire squad could be traitors. This meant that the silver wolf needed to

either get a level four King or a level five King to help him. If it were a level four King, Gravis could kill the wolf and get the opponent he wanted. If it were a level five King, the badger that had secretly followed the squad would