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.

had so many spies previously, and they were only now managing to uncover them, or something in the sea beasts' conduct had changed drastically in

the sea beasts 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,

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 beasts won a battle, and then

Right now, the sea beasts were winning more battles than they were losing, which hadn't happened in an incredible amount of time. The fact that the sea beasts won more battles broke the entire balance

enough, the reason for the sea beasts' higher number of victories wasn't their power. In actuality, it was more about the place and the

the land beasts attacked, the sea beasts often had a minor edge in numbers and power. If that happened in only one battle, one could simply attribute that to bad luck. Yet, that had been happening for a frightening

only one explanation that the Empress could think of. There had to be a great Commander and strategist in the sea beasts' ranks, someone that knew a lot more about war than

the balance was still there, she could get away with not handling things perfectly. Yet, now, every decision had bigger and more far-reaching consequences. If this continued, the sea beasts might gain an additional, huge chunk

Empress remembered Gravis' tales and had asked him more about how humans fought wars. Gravis had told her more about how human societies functioned, and he also told her that the strategies that the sea beasts used

in about as many troops as the enemy had. If they managed to come out victorious, they

thought 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

resembled the human way of conducting a war way more. It was almost like an

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, she saw that their war style

beasts'. They would take way less risky battles but would immediately overwhelm a weaker force. Due to that, there would be many times fewer casualties

humans. The sudden increase of

that humans wouldn't directly kill the traitor or spy but feed them false information to lead the enemy into an ambush. Another usage of spies would be to use them to find even more spies. After

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,

would enter the

him would probably be worth about as much as killing an Emperor. The sea beasts wouldn't be able to

was there, the silver wolf wouldn't be able to do anything to him. Additionally, not the entire squad

the silver wolf would 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