Chương 335: 335：The Sovereign's Path and Double Rewards

Soren locked eyes with Talon, his voice dropping into a stern, interrogating bark.

"Talon, tell me. What kind of troop classification are Minotaurs?" Talon swallowed hard. As a barbarian of the plains, he had crossed weapons with Minotaurs before. Just the memory of it still sent a shiver of dread down his spine.

"My Lord, Minotaurs are terrifyingly brutal light infantry. Their physiques are even thicker and more massive than Centaurs, and they possess absurd, monstrous strength."

"But the truly horrifying part is their Totem Charge. Tens of thousands of muscle-bound behemoths hoisting solid wooden totem poles weighing hundreds of pounds, initiating a collective, overwhelming physical collision..."

"Exactly! A high physical-damage Totem Charge!" Soren seamlessly cut in, mercilessly popping the illusion of a static defense.

"Under the crushing pressure of that kind of terrifying mass impact, even if I put a hundred of our frontline elites hopped up on Troll Serum and fully clad in Dark Silver Armor right at the edge of the trenches, they wouldn't be able to hold the line!" When tens of thousands of devastating totem poles smashed down in a dense wave, the Dark Silver Armor might not break, but the horrific concussive force of the blunt impact would shatter the internal organs of his elite soldiers!

The defensive line would be ripped to shreds the very moment the two forces clashed!

"Therefore, to continue passively defending is to wait for death. We must change our strategy!"

"Then... how do we fight?" Victor wiped cold sweat from his forehead. He finally understood why Soren was so adamant about taking the offensive.

"We strike their vitals. We target their weaknesses and beat them to death with it." Soren pointed out the fatal flaw in the Minotaur army.

"To achieve the maximum destructive power of their Totem Charge, and to maintain a high charging speed through the swamp, the Minotaurs sacrificed heavy armor! At most, they wear a few scraps of torn beast hide!"

"This is completely different from the Orc Alliance's heavily armored Pigmen infantry, who wear heavy cast-iron plate but move slowly and deal lower damage!"

"Minotaurs are high-attack, terrible-defense light infantry! Since they have no armor to protect them, we will use our ranged firepower. We will maintain our distance and bleed them dry in a battle of attrition!"

"I don't need to march a massive army out there. I just need to deploy a small, highly mobile elite detachment!" Soren's sharp gaze shifted to the Wolf Cavalry Commander.

"Buck!"

"Here!" Buck snapped to attention, puffing out his burly chest.

"You will lead your battalion of ninety-three Wolf Riders. You will be our core transport capacity!" Soren then turned his attention to the corner of the room, looking at the newly integrated representative of the centaur youths who had been quietly listening.

"Go rally all 205 of your centaur youths!"

"The Wolf Riders and the Centaurs will abandon all heavy supplies and logistics. You will serve as the mounts for the frontline elites, Ein's Longbowmen, and Ilya's Magic Ranger Battalion!"

"I want you to form a high-mobility tactical strike force! Under the cover of night and the thick fog of the Misty Swamp, you will flank the rear of that ten-thousand-strong Minotaur army and launch relentless harassment attacks!"

"Use the agility of the Direwolves in the jungle and swamp, use the innate speed advantage of the Centaurs, and execute the absolute core of this tactic!" Soren emphasized every single syllable, his voice dripping with killing intent: "I can hit you, but you cannot hit me!" The moment those words left his mouth, a pin-drop silence filled the command center, followed instantly by a chorus of sharp intakes of breath. Ein and Ilya exchanged a deeply shocked look.

Wasn't this the exact same kiting and attrition tactic the centaur race was famous for on the open plains? But now, Soren was reverse-engineering it! Through the unified command structure of modern special operations, he was perfectly fusing heavy repeating crossbows, Wind magic, and high-mobility mounts! This would undoubtedly elevate this mobile warfare tactic to a terrifying realm far beyond anything the centaurs had ever achieved on their own!

No matter how devastating the Minotaurs' Totem Charge was, what use was it if they couldn't even touch their enemies? They would be reduced to nothing but massive targets, taking a brutal, one-sided beating from ranged fire!

"The tactical deployment is clear, but..." Soren sat back down in the commander's seat, exuding a regal aura of absolute authority that commanded the reverence of every general present.

"Beyond the physical slaughter, I want to wage a core strategy to utterly shatter the enemy on a psychological level."

"Shatter them psychologically?" Victor was stunned. Soren gave a slight nod. His political foresight, centuries ahead of this era, had already seen through the true nature of the Orc Alliance: seemingly formidable on the outside, but fractured and hollow on the inside. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Have you ever thought about why the Minotaur tribe is even here? Just like the centaurs, it's highly probable they aren't bleeding for Warchief Blackstone out of loyalty! They are being coerced by the tyranny of the Orc Alliance's high command just to protect their own families!" Images of the centaur women and children being forced into the meat grinder as cannon fodder flashed through Soren's mind. His voice turned ice-cold.

"Therefore, deploying a guerrilla force to harass them isn't just about killing—it's about applying pressure!"

"I want to use continuous, relentless bloodshed and torment to wage psychological warfare. I will make the Minotaurs actively choose to abandon fighting for Warchief Blackstone!"

"My Lord... that's practically impossible!" Intelligence Captain Meyer couldn't help but speak up, warning him, "If the Minotaurs dare to desert the battlefield and refuse to fight, they will face the severest punishments of the Orc Alliance's military law! Even the centaur remnants that fled today are guaranteed to face brutal torture at the hands of Warchief Blackstone!"

"Exactly." Soren didn't shy away from this cruel reality.

"Military punishment is terrifying, yes. But it's a hell of a lot better than being completely slaughtered right here by me!"

"When weighing life and death, as long as we put enough survival pressure on the Minotaurs—making them realize that taking a single step into Greywater Village means absolute death—they will choose to shrink back!" Soren abruptly clenched his fist, punching the air as he laid bare his profound understanding of sentient nature.

"Furthermore, being punished by Warchief Blackstone's military law won't force them into true submission. On the contrary, it will plant the seeds of deep-seated hatred toward the Orc Alliance's high command right in the hearts of the Minotaur tribes!"

"It was true for the centaurs I let go today, and it will be true for the Minotaurs tomorrow! I am going to crumble the ruling foundations of the Orc Alliance from the inside out!" Boom! This grandiose, ruthless, yet piercingly accurate analysis of class conflict and factional divide left the generals of Greywater Village shivering, their scalps tingling with pure awe! Soren wasn't just a military commander skilled in winning battles.

Their Lord was using war as a scalpel to dissect and alter the entire racial and political landscape of the Erythian Continent! And the exact moment Soren established this grand strategic objective... Ding! [System Judgment: Host's current strategic decision detected.] [The Host has abandoned the simple path of Martial Unification and has chosen the exponentially more difficult path of Ideological Unification.] [This is a grand vision that transcends racial hatred. By making this choice, the Host does not walk the bloody path of the Tyrant, but rather practices the true Path of the Sovereign.] [Based on the Host's decision to embrace this arduous and magnificent Sovereign Strategy, the System is issuing a brand-new quest and triggering a Special Double-Reward Mechanism.] Hearing the words "Double-Reward," even with Soren's immense self-control, his heart skipped a beat, burning with intense anticipation. [New Quest: Execute strategic guerrilla and psychological warfare. Completely annihilate the 10, 000-strong Minotaur army, OR force the Minotaur army into total mental collapse and prompt their retreat!] [Quest Completion Rewards:] [Reward 1: Two fully tamed Siege Beasts - 【Armored War Elephants】] [Reward 2: 100 Vials of 【Intermediate Life Recovery Potion】] [Reward 3: 【Recipe: Intermediate Life Recovery Potion】] Staring at the glowing lines of golden text floating in the void, Soren's breathing grew heavy. It was far too generous! Armored War Elephants!

Those would be his absolute trump cards in future head-to-head clashes against the Orc Alliance's Ironclad Earth Dragons on the open plains! And the Intermediate Life Recovery Potions, along with the recipe, would trigger a qualitative leap in Greywater Village's medical system. It would transform his elite troops into truly unkillable juggernauts! Soren let out a cold, confident sneer in his heart, forcefully clicking 'Confirm' on the system interface with his mind. I accept! Soren abruptly looked up.

With a sharp shing, he drew his steel longsword half an inch from its scabbard. The exposed blade reflected the crimson light of the burning brazier, flashing with a chilling, murderous gleam.

"Gentlemen! Proceed exactly as planned! Buck, Ein, Ilya—go rally your troops immediately! Stock up on arrows and Wind magic crystals! Tonight, I want to ensure the Minotaur encampment never knows a moment of peace!"

"For Greywater Village!"

"For the future of humanity!" The generals roared in unison, their earth-shattering voices echoing into the night!