Has far-fetched as it sounds, they would rather and easily believe it than believe that Soverick is a vitality core stage refiner. It may be ridiculous but it is more believable.
"Enough of these speculations." Ode put an end to the sour conversation. "Aberrant or not, it won't matter. He will be overwhelmed with numbers."
Someone piped up shakily, "But the sages also couldn't be overwhelmed by numbers."
"It doesn't matter. I expected something like this. The canyon will reduce his mobility and make it very easy to surround him. There is a limit to what a single vitality core stage can do against millions of enemies." Ode said with conviction.
Back To Soverick.
Ode was right of course. There is a limit to what Soverick could do against millions of enemies. His single gate of momentum could only take him so far. But he is lifting that limit. How about two gates then? What can the empowerment of two gates of momentum allow him to do against millions of enemies? Not a lot.
"But it's just the start," Soverick said as he completed the second gate.
It didn't take him weeks like the first one. He had already mastered the process, plus he didn't have to tax his vitality core to provide the energy to create the gate. The energy was freely available courtesy of the angelic host. It took but minutes with the amount of control he had over his body and energy. He didn't feel stressed out by the process either, even the ball of fire he was prepping was still nice and dandy.
The gods were right to stop sending enemies to him to provide him energy, but they are wrong about the reason. The energy wouldn't make him untiring. It will make him stronger. At this stage, he doesn't need the gods to send soldiers to their deaths, he can bring death to them himself.
He stood up from where he sat in the middle of the tunnel. He felt heavier as the second gate burdened him. He shouldn't be able to make another gate because his vitality core, no matter how special it was, couldn't provide enough sustenance for the creation of another one. The divine dungeon has changed that.
He has already pushed his vitality core to its limit by making it create something beyond its stage. Asking for more of it is unwise and futile. But the energy from the slain angels helped bypass that requirement. All he has to do is to utilize the external aid to construct another gate. His body still has to bear the stress of another gate though.
Still, there were advantages to having more gates. He could store more momentum now. He might feel heavier but he is getting faster. The effect is slower but it is surely showing because he can absorb twice as much momentum now. The ground cracked beneath his feet from simply standing up.
"Not bad, but we can't have that in the tunnels. It will make the ground uneven and difficult for the troops to match on."
The tunnels couldn't be destroyed. The defenders had tried and he had tested the limit of the structural integrity of the tunnel. But the ground could be messed up.
So he adjusted his stance and activated his fleet foot technique. This time his leg didn't crack a small location, instead, the force was distributed onto a large surface. The grounds still cracked, but wider and shallower cracks were created in his passing.
"Better." He commented as he returned to the portal.
Reinforcements have almost filled the first half of the tunnel.
Then he said to one of his generals, "I'll be going ahead. We start major engagement as soon as the tunnel is filled to the brim."
"Yes, sir."
He reached the exit of the tunnel and examined the canyon.
"The tunnel can only take 3000 thousand of us at most. That means we have to fight them or remain stagnant. Stagnant is bad. We will be sitting ducks for them. But to attack is not easy either."
He had noticed the expanding gorge. It meant that the attackers will be hedged in while they fight against greater opposition. The defenders were all that filled his vision.
"They have at least a million, probably more. A single god can have an army of 100 million angelic soldiers. Let's hope their strength has been reduced but let's plan for the worst. That means they will continue to hit us and constantly expand our strength. So we have to be efficient about this. Thankfully, I don't need to innovate much about war tactics. The battle sage monkeys are not called that for no reason."
There is already a wealth of knowledge about various battle tactics due to the various wars that the battle sage monkeys have had and participated in. So he just had to modify their strategies to fit the situation. He took a lot of factors into consideration. Which includes the terrible war machines that he could see rising from the opposing army. They weren't anything sophisticated but it was more than enough to decimate the attackers.
He clicked his tongue in distaste. "Catapults and ballista. They just have to aim forward and we don't have anywhere to run or hide. They will rain rocks on us like hail in a storm."
He smiled and said, "Something is to be done about them. This sounds like a job for me."
He was looking forward to the battle and didn't need much reason to let loose. A reason just makes letting loose much better. Then he was gone. He informed his generals over their communication devices as he left.
There was a 100 meters space between the exit of the tunnel and the front lines of the defenders. They probably left that space there so that they will have ample room to pelt the attackers with projectiles and attacks. This space is three times larger than the small one they left for the ambushing attacks in the tunnels but he still reached them in less than a second.