Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 257: Arranging the Bulltors into Four Big Groups

The moment John’s silhouette appeared from the distance, the Bulltors instantly recognised him. Blakar, reacting with the honed instincts of a seasoned commander, led ten of the Twelve and ran without hesitation toward him.

Even as he moved, Blakar barked out orders to halt the advance of the army, signalling the Bulltors to retreat even further back.

Seeing John approaching them alone, emerging from a field of active traps, running as fast as he could, made Blakar fear the absolute worst. He expected to see a tidal wave of Hiveminds or worse at John’s heels.

"You need to retreat," John said, not wasting time with greetings. He didn’t even stop to catch his breath, his eyes scanning the horizon behind the Bulltor lines. "This is a trap! A huge army of machines, way deadlier than the D-1000s you fought before, is coming. They aren’t just coming for me; they are coming to wipe out your entire race."

"..."

Hearing the mention of the same enemy that had already managed to slaughter so many of their kin sent a shockwave through the eleven Bulltors. They exchanged silent, heavy glances.

A volatile cocktail of surprise, burning rage, and a sliver of fear began to fester inside their souls. The memory of the deadly machine battle was a scar that hadn’t yet healed.

"Shall we retreat towards our home base or the base above?" Blakar asked, cutting through the heavy atmosphere. He wanted to scream a thousand questions, to demand how the machines had returned, but the look on John’s face silenced him. The intensity in John’s eyes told him the situation was so dire that they shouldn’t waste a single heartbeat on useless talk or satisfying curiosity.

"That won’t do," John said, his mind already dividing the three thousand five hundred Bulltors into more practical units that could stabilise the situation on different fronts. "You brought what, three thousand and a half with you?"

Blakar nodded in silent agreement.

"Then you’ll leave five hundred here," John commanded, pointing back toward the path he had just carved through the minefield. "I’ve laid down a line of outposts back there. They need to go and station themselves inside those bunkers immediately.

Their job is to kill any machines or Hiveminds that try to squeeze through this corridor. And during their wait, they keep clearing a path leading towards the Hiveminds’ base, but don’t engage with them."

"I’ll lead them then," Lilith suddenly barked. Her eyes burned with a fierce light. "I won’t retreat in the face of the two bastards who killed our people! If the Hiveminds and the despicable machines want this ground, they’ll have to take it over my corpse."

"Fine," John said. Without waiting for Blakar or any other member of the Twelve to voice an objection, he instantly agreed. He needed that kind of ferocity holding the rear. "Pick your five hundred now and start arranging them. We don’t have much time to waste."

He turned his eyes toward Blakar, his expression shifting to the next phase of the deployment. "West of here, there is a territory where a tsunami of machines will hit. There are only two holding the line for now: Cissel and Luke. Send one thousand of your best warriors there right away." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"I’ll lead them," one of the Twelve stepped up, a towering Bulltor with deep scars across his chest. Another raised a silent fist beside him, volunteering for the suicide mission without a word.

"Go and grab a thousand and start moving now..." John briefly explained the general layout of the territory and where they could find his friends.

"Then, send another five hundred back to your home base. Strengthen the entire territory and lay down lots of outposts with everything you’ve got! The machines might try to hit your base or activate a den there. The rest... The rest will come with me."

John had initially considered sending a few hundred back to his own main base, but he suddenly remembered a glaring problem: he hadn’t yet added the Bulltors’ race to the friendly list of his home base defences.

If they showed up there, his own towers and cannons would tear them apart. He felt a small headache pulse at the imagination of this slaughter. He couldn’t risk sending them up there yet, so he had to depend on the heavy defences he had already left behind to hold any incoming attack.

Thanks to the many events and battles that happened in his territory, the entire area was filled with lots of outposts. Not to mention his base was by far one of the strongest he ever saw in this pocket trial, second only to the scary Krogers’ base at the south.

Under his rapid-fire orders, the Bulltors’ army began to fracture into four distinct groups. One remained behind under the command of Lilith and Galnar, the latter choosing to stay back simply because he didn’t feel like being anywhere near the humans.

Besides, he had a tarnished reputation he needed to fix after his miserable loss to John. So he decided to tag along and fight for his name and pride against two of the sworn enemies of his kin.

Another five hundred began the long trek back to the Bulltor home base, led by two of the Twelve. A full thousand made their way west toward Cissel and Luke, moving under the command of two more of the Twelve.

That left five of the Twelve, led by Blakar himself, commanding a force of one thousand five hundred. They fell into step behind John, moving toward the southern territory where the heart of the machine threat lay.

As they couldn’t follow John’s erratic movements, everyone spread out and started to clear a direct path out of the traps, wasting one extra hour to do so, even with John’s help.

"So you are telling me a massive army of mutated machines will arrive? And they will follow the same escalating wave rules as the yellow monster dens?!!!"