One of Rudra's biggest strengths was making his enemies dance on his fingertips.
Through his two lifetimes he had played every role in the military hierarchy.
In his first life he had been the cannon fodder, he had been the useless team member and eventually he had been the team leader.
He had participated in guild wars as a soldier, as a captain and once even as a division leader, hence he knew exactly how the lower echelons of the military world worked and how tightly were the orders of the superiors enforced.
He knew how fragile morale was within g troops and how plans and formations went to hell once something started to go wrong and it was exactly this knowledge of human behaviour that allowed Rudra to become the strongest guild master in his second lifetime.
While the outsiders believed it to be luck, there was never a factor of luck when Shakuni made a ploy. It was just the common masses being unaware of Rudra's fierce behind the scenes scheming.
" Fatty, blow them all up, it's Christmas time". Rudra said as Fatty Kalash pressed the detonator.
*Boom*
*Boom*
*Boom*
*Boom*
" Aghhh beautiful, Gaia play jingle bells on the stereo please ". Rudra said happily as he watched the newly recommissioned starship division ships explode into 5-6 pieces from the centre.
The opponents were taken by surprise, they had never suspected that their own ships would be rigged with explosives, such a thought never crossed their minds and they paid the price for it.
A total of 630 starships rode out to meet Rudra's incoming army, but less than 15 of them remained once the fireworks show ended.
Tier5 and below mortals could not survive the cold void of space unless they had spacial skills, which meant that those onboard the ships who had not died from the ship explosions died from the space void as the attackers were rattled to their core as to what the hell was going on.
Not a single shot fired, not a single attack delivered, not a single shield deployed, yet over 80% of incoming forces became neutralised before the fight ever began.
Rudra danced lightly to the jingle bell theme playing in the background as with his omniscient eyes he watched the captains of the safe ships panic as debris and dead comrades floated in the space in front of them.
Nobody had a clue as to what was going on as taking advantage of their confusion Rudra spoke over the radio " Surrender now and be spared, defy and you will not live to see the next 5 minutes pass.
Choose wisely ".
Rudra saw all minor captains turn heads towards the four ships at the head of the arrowhead formation, inside which the tier 6 gods were stationed, in the end the lower troops could only obey, the decision laid in the hands of the superiors.
************
( Meanwhile Max )
Max grumpily carved the stone tablets alongside Miracle who now felt sorry for being born.
She was just a child, tier 0 at that but she was treated the same as Max and Sebastian.
Miracles' mind wanted to play, she wanted to hunt and she wanted to learn how to fly, yet she was forced to write the turtle hermit's rules and it was distressful.
Her only solace was that Max suffered alongside her, which helped ease her suffering knowing that she was not alone in it.
" Grrr, rrawr, raer" Miracle said as Max did not understand shit of what she said, but through their soul bond he somehow understood exactly what she wanted to convey
" I know right, these stones are way too hard, it takes so much energy to carve them ". Max complained
Miracle proceeded to use dragon-breath on the stone to soften it as then while the stone was still hot she quickly wrote the first rule and grinned at Max with a satisfied expression.
" Genius! " Max exclaimed as he proceeded to use his fireball to do the same
" Grr,Grr,Grrr "
" Hehehehehe"
The two laughed evilly as they felt like they had found a cheat to the system as their overall speed of writing increased significantly.
Rhea could not help but feel her heart melt looking at the two obediently writing in such a cute manner.
On the surface the dragon queen pretended to find Max annoying, but ever since Max had saved her child, in reality she had developed a soft spot for him as she slowly began liking the child's personality.
Max played with Miracle and had fun but also protected her like a big brother when the time came, a quality that was much appreciated by Rhea.
Leaving the kids alone, Rhea went out of the cave to go hunting after a long time, as she killed a bunch of aerodactyls and a few wyverns just for fun before feeding on white dragon meat for having her fill.
Rhea was supposed to start feeding Max dragon meat in his diet, it was a part of his dragonification process where the grade of meat consumed would directly affect the quality of his transformation.
Initially, she only planned on feeding Max tier 3-4 dragon's, but her motherly heart softened when the time came to finally make the decision of whom to kill as she killed a peak tier 5 white dragon and after having her fill flew the carcass back for Kremeth to scrap some meat cook a meal for the kids.
While Max did work hard himself, it was Maestro's like Kremeth, Rhea, Drax, Rudra, Hazriel and Jhonny English who ensured that his future path was as smooth as they could make it to be so that Max may go the furthest that he could in life.
Although Max did not realise it himself, he was truly fortunate to have the backing that he did and it was a big reason behind his fast growth.
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/// A/N - This bonus sponsored by long time patron Thomas_Sanders_2946 please thank him in the comments section for this one! ////