Chapter 344 - Challenge
Roan could have asked Kassie to play the strict commander role to help Calina. All Kassie had to do was to say a few words. For example, she would follow their entire new Unit with her Spiritual Sense. If she saw as much as a single cultivator showing signs of rejecting Calina's orders, she would kill that guy or girl straight away.
With just this much effort, everyone in Calina's new Unit would be forced to follow her orders to the letter. After all, none of them wanted to die from an attack of a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator from behind. The other sects gave Kassie full control, so they knew she could do it.
However, Roan had left Calina to control the things on her own on purpose. Until now, it was he who put their group under the leash. Calina only had to worry about giving the correct orders and focus on the battlefield. However, that wouldn't be good enough in the future. This just so happened to be a golden chance to test Calina's abilities to deal with this situation.
While Calina thought about what to do, Roan switched his attention to the rest of the Units. Calina was controlling around 3000 elite members, but elite Units were somewhat rare. The majority were still common Units that were just as important in a war. After all, there's a limit to what one can do against numbers.
At the moment, the other Units out of Calina's command had a total of more than fifty thousand cultivators! Laan Experts counted only for two thousand or so of those, while the Royal Family had the biggest number since they had a real army under their command. As for the other five sects, each had around five thousand included in this army.
Roan knew that it would be impossible to teach these guys how to properly work with formations in just a single day. However, he would need to at least teach them the most basic forms of movement.
There was a big difference between the medieval era back on Earth and the cultivation world. Thus, it made things even harder to practice since Roan had to account for friendly fire. Even the most simple formations became a pain in the ass when the cultivator's skills were accounted for. However, once they understood how to work together as a unit, they were really unstoppable.
Different from the elite under Calina's command, Roan didn't refrain from using Kassie's authority. He never said or pointed anything out. All the words were transmitted through Spiritual Sense to Kassie, who then pretended that she was the one giving the orders.
Still, as time passed, Kassie became more and more shocked with Roan's abilities.
'How the heck does he know all the Units' average power and abilities this well?'
Roan didn't know what Kassie was thinking, nor did he care. His mind was working at full speed, thinking about nothing more than the war.
Meanwhile, Welloi, Salatis, Juka, Zouei, and Verder were becoming even more nervous. They were all in the Core Formation Realm. However, they couldn't possibly contend against all those elites. Not to mention the Core and Soul Fusion Realm ones.
Sure enough, Calina was having issues dealing with those guys.
Another leader of those elite Units also came out after hearing Calina's provocation. His name was Dillo Xarvei, an expert of the Rohe Sect.
"Hehe! Do you think we're afraid of such words? There's no way that Senior Kassie would kill all of us. At least two-thirds of the elites of the entire army are gathered here. Would she slaughter all of us? If so, how do you expect her to win this battle?"
All the cultivators that felt fear at first quickly calmed down. Indeed, killing them for ignoring these orders was far from realistic.
Calina laughed after hearing that, though.
"Hahaha! There is no need to kill all of you. I just need to report who the leaders are and get rid of them. The rest will definitely follow orders after that. If they don't, I can just keep spitting out names of random people until I believe no more leaders are remaining."
Via and Dillo were taken aback. This girl was small and seemed quite frail, but they had to admit that she had some courage.
"Little girl, do you think everyone will simply follow your orders just because you did that?"
Calina smiled.
"I know what you are thinking. You simply have to pretend to do what I want for now. Tomorrow, once the battle starts, you can simply move out on your own. At the very least, you can sabotage my plans just to seek revenge or say that I'm not suited to be the leader of this new Unit. Am I correct?"
Via nodded.
"It's that simple. We are from different sects. None other than us understand our Units best. Just stay quiet in your corner and let the grown-ups do their jobs."
Calina smiled after hearing that.
"Oh! So you're saying that I can't lead your groups better than you. Is that correct?"
Everyone nodded without even thinking.
"Very well. Should we make a small bet, then?"
Via and Dillo had puzzled expressions.
"A bet? What kind of bet?"
Calina then explained.
"Simple. As long as I can prove that I'm a much better commander than all your Units' leaders, you will strictly follow my orders. What do you say?"
Via snorted.
"And what if you lose?"
Calina laughed once again.
"In that case, I won't say anything about your little rebellion here. You can act as you wish when tomorrow arrives. I believe that not having your Unit leaders killed is already a good reward, no?"
Via, Dillo, and the other Units' leaders didn't like how Calina pieced her words. Still, she could really have them killed if they insisted on not following her orders. In a certain way, that was the fastest way to put an end to this issue. However...
"It looks good and all, but how do you expect to prove that you are a better commander than any of us?"
Calina nodded.
"Well, the answer to that is quite simple."
"I'll be challenging all of you together."