CHAPTER 219(No Contest)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

Discord: https://discord.gg/K7f8qGpvuk

pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene

CHAPTER START---

While most of the familia was in the dining hall enjoying a lively breakfast, within Loki's meeting room the head executives were gathered with their goddess.

Finn, Riveria, Gareth, and goddess Loki were sitting on the luxurious red couches reading some documents. A mix of wonder, surprise, curiosity, and horror, plastered across their faces.

"Mmm," Gareth grumbles as he drops the documents onto the large coffee table and leans back into the couch. "Normally I'd say this is some horse shit propaganda but...considering who it is..."

"Oh, it's certainly real," Finn says as he continues to re-read the documents. "Pulled directly from Rakia's war logs and published with Ares's stamp of approval. He wants to turn the world against them, or at least make people scared of them."

"Well it's working," Riveria says. "People were already terrified of Yang, but according to this they're all monsters on their own."

"Yeah but is this kind of thing possible?" Loki asks as she begins going through each section of the log. "First it says that Yang used walls of fire to entrap the army aside from the royals."

"His magic can create a crater for miles in every direction," Riveria reminds Loki. "A wall of fire wouldn't be outside the realm of possibilities for him."

"Ok, yeah he's not normal so I'll buy that," the goddess continues. "But then according to the witness, Welf Crozzo singlehandedly wiped out almost four hundred thousand of the half-a-million man army."

"We don't know what that sword can do," Finn says. "And according to these accounts he made a second smaller one, the only information we have is what Tiona saw, considering he didn't use those swords much if at all against Kulve Taroth. And according to her it launches fire and absorbs heat. Maybe his attacks are massive enough to wipe out swaths of an army at once?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case," Gareth says. "We already know what a low-level Yang Shen can do after all."

"Not only that," Riveria speaks up as she sets down her copy of the report. "Before Welf came to Orario he was making the most powerful Magic Swords in the world. According to his own words, those are useless hunks of iron compared to even the worst creations at his current skill level. The world was already scared of his weapons, now even more so."

"No wonder Hephaestus has the hots for him," Loki mutters. "After that whole army was done apparently they sent Thalie to the capital ahead of the others. According to this, she sieged from the outer region, past the walls, and directly into the palace. Then held all the nobles and Ares himself hostage until her team arrived. Then they executed all but Ares... wow."

"Well she is the Champion of War," Finn reminds Loki. "And this lets the public know that Yang isn't the only one with absurd power on his team. Even after the whole Kulve Taroth problem, I'm sure some people who weren't there still had doubts."

"He casts a large shadow," Riveria says.

"Aye, does beg one question though," Gareth gives Riveria a curious look. "What did your fa---" he cuts himself off and fakes a cough. "What did the king of the Elves pay them for these results?"

"I'm not allowed to discuss that as you know, but," Riveria looks at the table and sighs. A deep frown forms on her face as she speaks, "nothing important to him or the Elves. The Trifecta mostly got involved because Welf wanted to, the money didn't matter."

"That's a damn shame," Gareth shakes his head. "Could have charged a fortune or two with these kinds of results."

"Hmm," Loki relaxes back into the couch as she pushes her documents away. "Say, Finn, how would we have done it?"

"What do you mean?" Finn asks.

"If we were in their shoes, the half a million low-level soldiers, sieging the city and bringing down the palace, all that. How would we have done?"

"I was wondering the same thing," Gareth admits.

"I can't say it hasn't crossed my mind," Riveria says. "Well captain, how do you think it would go?"

Finn ponders the questions for a while, constantly scanning the war logs for any information he can find while comparing it to what he knows about The Trifecta.

"Alright, I think I've got it," he says. Everyone focuses on him as he explains.

"Firstly if we assume we know ahead of the enemy and have time to set up and wait as The Trifecta did at the forest we'd have magic swords made. Obviously, we can't get Welf to make us anything, but we'd have as many made as possible. On the current wealth of our familia however, it wouldn't be nearly enough to deal with half a million soldiers."

"Quantity is a quality," Gareth says.

"Exactly the first issue. Even with the Magic Swords, we'd be depending on our mages to wipe out large sections of the enemy army. But we don't have a wall of fire like Yang does or any other method of keeping everyone in large groups. The enemy will spread out and force our fighters to go pick off certain mobile groups. While this is happening, as good as our shield wall is, a hundred thousand or so arrows at once will pierce it eventually and some of our lower level members will die. It's unavoidable in a battle like this."

"But they were fine," Loki points out.

"Because Welf made them some of that weird armor Thalie wore against Kulve Taroth, not to mention I don't think those arrows would hurt someone like Yang or Thalie in her magic enhanced state. Add a layer of magic as fire or whatever else they have and no arrows are even touching them, anyone who gets close enough will simply die from the magic as well since the enemies were so weak," Finn explains.

"I get it," Riveria says. "The world's best physical armor under magical armor cloaked in an area of effect magic that always stays on, like Mage Armor."

"Exactly," Finn says. "And since nobody in our familia has that we'll inevitably take losses. Not to mention even with you and Lefiya casting your most wide-reaching spells it would take time and energy to keep both of you active and safe, even if it's mostly level-2 soldiers."

"Yes that would be an issue," Riveria says. "Assuming we use the timer for my super-long chant magic, one cast every three and a half minutes for our entire artillery squad against enemies that won't stop moving or firing arrows. And we don't have a way to force them into a smaller space so they'll be scattered too. Even if you run us dry of magic the physical fighters will also have to run around killing as many soldiers as possible."

"The ones that can actually leave your defense formation," Finn says. "Most of the people like Raul and his team will make a shield wall to protect the mages while they chant. A single mistake can get them killed on a battlefield with Welf Crozzo Magic Swords, even if it's his outdated versions."

"So a few low-level adventurers and a lot of potions, maybe some Elixirs?" Loki asks.

"Ideally," Finn says. "But I've never seen these 'outdated' swords Welf made. They're said to be monstrous compared to regular Magic Swords, and the army had around fifty. Keeping a standard mage formation against people with artillery that powerful and mobile may be a dream."

"Expected loses?" Loki asks.

"At worst, if those swords are as strong as I think, maybe a dozen low-level adventurers, so level one to three. Ares makes up for his quality in troops with numbers and equipment so this may be the most difficult part for us. Potions and maybe Elixirs if they really push us," Finn says.

"Time?" Loki asks.

"Hmm, depending on complications, at least two or three hours. If our formation doesn't need to be as defensive because the swords are weaker than I assume this can be a lot shorter, that's the main issue," Finn explains.

"Swords that brought down a kingdom in a day," Loki muses. "How long would it take us to bring down the capital? Assuming we march over there after this fight."

Finn turns to Gareth, "Gareth, what do we know about the capital of Rakia?"

"Hmm," the Dwarf strokes his beard as he tries to recall everything he can. "Ares is really good at making people want to kill him so it was built to be defended in sieges. No nearby coasts so you have to march across dozens of miles of flatland with no cover until you reach the city. A massive set of square walls, much like Orario's massive walls. Three sets separating the classes with the palace in the middle."

"Food and water?" Riveria asks.

"Too much for us to hope of starving them out. It's miles between the first and second wall so they have enough food for at least a year stocked in there."

"How high are the walls?" Finn asks.

"Atleast two hundred feet, and maybe thirty or forty feet thick, solid stone too."

"Crap," Finn frowns. "Anyone outside of their team with enough attacking power to break that either lacks mobility like Gareth or lacks the Endurance to survive being focused on the other side by, let's say a dozen Crozzo Magic Swords. Even if it's not from Welf, Rakia has the rest of his family and countless others making Magic Swords for them."

"What about magic?" Riveria asks.

"Impossible," Finn says. "Even with your strongest spell, though you'd be able to break through no problem the issue is the height advantage. They'd be battering us with artillery from atop the wall from thousands of meters out while we approach, and it'll just get worse at the base. The moment you start chanting and that Magic Circle forms you become a giant target for anyone aiming a trebuchet or using a Magic Sword."

"Aye, and Rakia is massive, our familia can't even siege one side of the outer wall entirely so they get to focus everything they aren't using onto us," Gareth says grimly.

"Time is beating us here," Finn says. "In the first section we simply lacked the are of effect attacks and mobile defense to contend with their numbers and artillery, now its the fact that the longer we take to break the wall the more resources they gather from other parts of the city to focus us."

"Not to mention this is just one wall," Loki reminds him. "When you break through you'll have to fight through miles of arrows and more artillery to get to the second wall where they've surely set up more defenses."

"Expensive," Finn says. "This isn't even a problem of if we're capable. The people who are capable of breaking through lack the ability to persist once we've broken through. Without built-in defenses like The Trifecta or constantly healing like Ottar we can't handle dozens of magic swords pointing at us every minute."

"Rakia is simply too good at defending," Riveria says. "And it's not like we'd be the first people with first-class adventurers to fail at breaching the very first wall. But what would it take for us to get past it?"

"A lot of risks," Finn says. "Ideally we'd rush the base of the least covered section. Lefiya would use Riveria's shield spell quickly to protect the demolition squad, which in this case is just a shield wall which includes Gareth, and Riveria to use magic and punch through the wall. The other first class adventurers will either scale the wall or be thrown to the top by Gareth."

"A distraction for the demolition squad to work?" Loki asks.

"Something like that," Finn says. "We'd be fighting an army famous for using magic swords on a relatively thin strip of land. We fall into Rakia we almost certainly die because of how quickly we'd get focused and bleed off our energy. Best case scenario, we kill them too fast for anyone to swing a Magic Sword powerful enough to blast us off the wall, not impossible since they'd all be so much weaker than us."

"Expected loses for this wall?" Loki asks.

"Resources," Finn says. "Potions and likely some Elixirs for the demolition squad. We'd hopefully find some magic swords on corpses before moving to the next wall and repeating the process. After that, we'd run out of potions and Elixirs assuming we packed for a regular expedition, or even two."

"I see," Riveria nods. "They'd force us to burn resources faster and faster because the further we go into Rakia the slower we have to move and the easier they can surround us."

"Exactly," Finn says. "The second wall is miles away, that means they'll be chipping away at us the entire time. If we stop and fight we risk separating and being picked off so we have to keep moving, this is where people start to die."

"Can we do it?" Loki asks.

"If we beat the second wall there won't be enough people to breach the third," Finn says grimly. "And even if we get to the palace, we'd never make it back out. Rakia was feared for a reason, such a massive army with more Magic Swords than any other country. Aside from Orario, I can't imagine another country that could have stood against them and won. Even Kali's country, Telskyura. A country of Amazon women all bred for war and even some first-class adventurers. They simply don't have the resources and equipment to defend or attack Rakia."

"And Freya?" Loki asks.

"She'd win but aside from Ottar not many, if any, other survivors," Finn says. "Her familia is built to fight people and monsters not bring down cities, Ottar would survive only because Rakia doesn't have the firepower to kill him but I doubt anyone else would return since they don't work well together."

"And how long would it take us to breach the second wall?" Loki asks.

Finn sighs and melts into his seat, "could be upwards of a day after breaking the first wall. From the start of the first battle that's maybe thirty-six hours. And we still lose."

"Took them less than three hours to start the first battle and get to the palace, and that's without Yang stepping in," Loki says, "So what do they do that we're missing, and normally I'd just say 'they have Yang' and be done with it but he didn't even help this time."

The room falls into a depressed silence, being asked to figure out what you've been doing wrong wasn't easy. And it was almost heartbreaking after spending thirty years building your Falna and familia as much as these three have.

"Update," Finn says after a few minutes of silent self-reflection.

"Huh?" Loki looks at him confused.

"Can you update us, I think I've figured it out."

"My stats haven't really moved since my last update so I'm fine," Riveria says. A technical truth to fool Loki's eyes, she simply couldn't disrobe for her goddess to see her body after her second outing to Yang's apartment.

"I should be enough to test this alone," Finn says as he immediately begins taking off his shirt.

After getting his Status Sheet he sits back on the couch and carefully reads it before passing it around.

"I think I've figured it out, it's the base stats, at least to start with," he says.

"What do you mean?" Riveria asks.

"Do you remember what Yang said before when I asked him what makes them so different from our team?"

The Elf tries to recall but simply shakes her head.

"He called us a group of people who got lucky and survived until higher levels, at the time I thought he was talking down to us but that was simply his logical assessment," Finn says.

Everyone in the room gives him a strange look.

"I'm pretty sure he was talking down to you," Riveria says. "Yang doesn't particularly like you."

"I know that part, but let me explain," he points to his Status Sheet in her hand. "If you check my stats you see my Dexterity is always at 9-9-9 but my other stats fall short of even seven hundred. That's the first issue."

"So maxing all your stats is the key?" Loki asks. "Everyone knows Yang tops off all his stats."

"No that's only the start, you also have to see the similarities between everyone in The Trifecta instead of looking at Yang alone, don't let him overshadow them," Finn says.

"They're all really powerful, yeah," Gareth says. "All have some special skill."

"All have unique skills," Riveria says.

"Exactly," Finn snaps his fingers, finding another clue. "They all have perfect offense-defense at the same time. That's why Welf could solo a massive army and Thalie could siege Rakia in minutes. They each have Riveria's magic potency, my physical finesse and attack damage, high strength at least matching Tiona, and high speed comparable to Bete and Ais---"

"All at once," Loki says, eyes going wide as she realizes what he's saying. "You think this is all intentional, training base stats is one thing but, skills? Magic? Abilities?"

"It's the only real explanation," Finn says. "Yang Shen found a way to manipulate and optimize Falna."

The entire room goes silent at the revelation. All the pieces snapping together in their minds, a picture so obvious yet so impossible that they never would have imagined it. Falna, this thing that was always said to simply reflect your soul as you develop...guided by a mortal?

"How would he even do that? Assuming he actually could," Gareth says.

"He can," Riveria says confidently. The entire room looks at her to go on. "Remember what he said about Lefiya. He said she's more valuable for us to give to him at lower levels because we haven't completely ruined her Falna yet. Once someone levels up they can't go back and train...that's why he said I'd be useless on his team. I'm too far gone for him to train me properly since I'm level-six."

"Doesn't that mean we're all too far gone?" Gareth asks.

Again the room falls into a depressed silence as these adventurers realize their new reality. Their absolute maximum potential, can never be achieved...

END CHAPTER---

This is actually half a chapter but scene 1 ran too long so I split it into two parts. If you recall every time Yang was asked why his team is so much better he always give a hint at the truth, but was never nice about it with Finn XD