Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 29 - The North-South Conflict

"I... only want to win this war," Wayne said carefully.

"Oh?" The Sandworm Menos paused, then let out a cold, contemptuous snort. "Your idea of winning is running away? I turned a blind eye to your reckless feeding during the muster, and this is how you repay me — you've disappointed me beyond words!" His thick tail was already swinging around, arcing straight toward Wayne. "Since you're useless now, you can serve as this king's meal!"

"My lord, wait! Please, hear me out!" Wayne tried to explain. But the Sandworm Menos gave him no opening. The massive tail kept coming.

"A maggot is always a maggot. No matter how amusing, it can't escape its nature. Die for this king!" The Sandworm Menos had lost interest. Wayne was only a Gillian right now, and to a high-ranking Adjuchas like him, a Gillian was no different from an insect.

CLANG!

Just before the tail connected, it slammed against a wall of yellow light. The impact rang out, deafening.

"This is... Negación?" The Sandworm Menos absorbed the rebound without a trace of displeasure. Instead, he swung his tail against the barrier with evident curiosity, probing it again and again.

"Interesting... you actually deployed Negación against me to shield yourself. What a fascinating Gillian. Hahaha. But maggot, do you really think this can trap me?"

"My lord, I meant no offense." Wayne released the Negación immediately. "I only want to survive this war. I had no intention of fleeing. Against several hundred Adjuchas-level fighters, my strength means nothing. That's why I drifted to the rear, not to run, but to find a way to win this war and earn myself a chance to live."

"Insolence!" The Sandworm Menos cracked his tail. Several unlucky Gillians passing nearby were pulverized on the spot, their lives snuffed out in an instant.

"A newly advanced Gillian thinks he can sway the battlefield? Sheer arrogance! Do you have any idea how many years I've led the Northern Forest in battle? For all those years, the three Forests of Menos have always fought to bloody stalemates. That has never changed. And yet you, this maggot, dare to speak such words. Do you truly hold no respect for this king at all?"

"My lord, forgive my bluntness." Wayne stepped back a pace, as though bracing against the crushing weight of that Reiatsu. "The way both sides are fighting now has no tactics whatsoever. It's nothing more than basic reinforcement-wave attrition, burning through each other's cannon fodder. There's no path to victory in it. The end result will always be the same: a draw after catastrophic losses on both sides."

"Tactics? Cannon fodder? What are those? This king doesn't understand such things!" Perhaps as the lord of a Forest of Menos, the Sandworm Menos was not lacking in Reiatsu or raw intelligence. But employing tactics in large-scale combat was far beyond him.

The greatest divide between combat-capable and non-combat-capable Hollows lay in one-on-one experience and the ability to command group engagements. For a non-combat type who could only grow step by step within the Forest of Menos, a single duel might still be within his means. But faced with a battlefield of tens of thousands, in terms of tactical thinking, he fell far, far short of Wayne.

"Great Lord of the Northern Forest, please trust your servant. If my lord is willing to give me a chance, I will deliver you victory in this war!" Sensing the Sandworm Menos's killing intent recede, Wayne immediately adopted a posture of deference and offered up his plan.

A wise man knows when to bend. Right now, Wayne had no hope of slipping away from so many Adjuchas, the gap was too vast, like a mantis trying to stop a chariot. So he would submit, for now, and help the Sandworm Menos devise a strategy. Survival came first. Getting whipped to death by that tail over nothing would be the most senseless death imaginable.

"Hmph. Arrogant little insect. What makes you worthy of this king's trust?" The Sandworm Menos's dignity was intact. He wasn't about to trust Wayne without cause.

"Because of how I used Negación just now." Wayne's thoughts raced. "I ask my lord, in all the battles you've fought, have you ever seen a Gillian use Negación the way I just did?"

"Hmm..." The Sandworm Menos hesitated. "It's true. In all these centuries, you are the first Gillian I've seen use Negación in such a manner. But that alone is not enough to earn my trust."

"My lord, my own power is insignificant. But under your command are dozens of Adjuchas-level powerhouses. If their abilities and Negación were deployed properly, combined with the right tactics, we could..."

"Are you trying to command this king?" The Sandworm Menos had awakened intelligence, but his combat wisdom was not particularly high, nor was his combat ability at a true peak. He was a non-combat beast-type Hollow, after all. That was likely why he had never dared enter the inner circle, instead spending centuries, perhaps a millennium, grinding away in the outer reaches just to reach where he stood today.

Still, that long accumulation had made him formidable. And Wayne did not dare act rashly before him. One swing of that tail could kill several Gillians at once. Wayne wasn't even worth mentioning in comparison.

"I would not dare, my lord. I only wish to share my thoughts and hope you will give me a chance." To protect himself, Wayne had no choice but to humble himself completely. "If my lord finds my plan unsatisfactory, killing me afterward would not be too late."

"Speak!" A cold snort. The Sandworm Menos's tail slammed heavily into the ground.

"Yes, my lord. Please hear me out." Wayne edged a few careful steps closer, then quietly laid out his plan. A moment later, the expression beneath the Sandworm Menos's Hollow Mask grew hesitant. He began turning over every word Wayne had spoken, weighing whether the plan could actually work.

"...Riat!" After a while longer, the Sandworm Menos glanced toward the Gillian battle raging at the front, then called toward the rear. Quickly, a giant beetle-type Adjuchas-class Menos came flying in from behind.

"My lord. Your command." The Beetle Hollow landed and spoke humbly.

"Take this Gillian. We're going to the rear."

"Yes, my lord." Riat's back-shell opened, wings spreading as he rose into the air and hovered above Wayne. "Maggot. Grab my antenna."

Wayne let out a quiet breath of relief. At least for now, his life was secure. He exhaled and reached up to grip Riat's antenna, which was lined with barbs. Fortunately, the barbs were spaced far enough apart, otherwise he'd have been shredded.

Following the Beetle Hollow back behind the mass of Gillians, Wayne finally got a clear look at the highest combat strength assembled for this battle. Standing before him were no fewer than sixty-odd Adjuchas-class Menos. More than half were insect-form Hollows. The rest were mostly half-human, half-beast hybrids, among them the serpent-man Adjuchas Niji, whose Reiatsu seemed even higher than when Wayne had last seen him. He'd likely devoured Kaslandin and then been taken into the Northern Forest Lord's ranks.

Among this force, aberrant and humanoid Hollows were rare, only a scattered handful. The distribution of power was clear at a glance.

Whether it was a matter of affinity or not, this Forest of Menos seemed dominated by insect-class Adjuchas. If that held true, then Nel, after becoming an Adjuchas, would likely still retain some of her antelope form. But Wayne himself was in a difficult position. He was a humanoid Hollow through and through. That realization only strengthened his desire to leave this forest.

"So this is the Northern Forest's strength?" The moment he landed, Wayne felt Reiatsu pressing in from all sides. It was suffocating. He could only grit his teeth and endure, refusing to let those layered waves crush him.

"Strength? This is only about a third of it," Riat said contemptuously. "Once every decade or so, two of the three Forests of Menos hold a Sacred War. It gives Adjuchas who struggle to survive in the inner circle — and newly ascended ones — a chance to grow stronger. This war between us and the Southern Forest is exactly that."

"Thank you for enlightening me, my lord." Wayne expressed his gratitude immediately. His own power was meager, but that didn't stop him from slowly drawing out intelligence from these Adjuchas-level fighters.

First: the Northern Forest's strength. It was held by roughly two hundred to three hundred Adjuchas-class Menos in total. Most were non-combat types who didn't dare enter the inner circle. Staying in a Gillian-dominated gathering place like the Forest of Menos was their best shot at survival.

Second: the origin and purpose of this war. Perhaps ten years from now, Wayne might experience one of these grand hunting events again.

BOOM!

A tremendous crash. The Sandworm Menos landed heavily. Every Adjuchas present turned toward him in a salute of attention.

"All Adjuchas, hear my orders." The moment he landed, the Sandworm Menos began issuing commands. "In a quarter-hour, all Adjuchas advance to the front line. Each of you take control of ten Gillians. Ude, Kabuno, you each lead a squad of Adjuchas to extend left and right. Bring your controlled Gillians. Move laterally and hold position behind them. Do not take damage.

"Riat, you take this Gillian and stay with me. We push through the center. When you see the Bala signal I fire into the sky, all Adjuchas deploy Negación around the Gillians in the front row of the center formation. When you see me fire a Cero at the enemy, all Adjuchas combine your strongest Cero and give me everything you have, blast the enemy's Adjuchas with full force. Understood?"

"Yes! My lord!" The Adjuchas received their orders, quickly assembled their squads, and flashed off toward their assigned combat zones. In moments, the only ones remaining at the rear were the Northern Forest Lord, Beetle Hollow Riat, and Wayne.

"Maggot." Once everyone had dispersed, the Northern Forest Lord spoke. "This king will trust you just this once. If I discover you harbor any ulterior intentions, do not blame me for showing no mercy." He slammed his tail down hard right beside Wayne to drive the warning home.

"I would never dare deceive you, great Northern Forest Lord." Wayne stepped back two paces to show his respect. And inwardly, he could only lament: weakness was the original sin. In this world where the strong devoured the weak, the only way to stop groveling like this was to grow stronger.

"I've been fighting that ugly creature from the Southern Forest for decades. By now, neither of us is far from the Vasto Lorde level. If I can win this battle and devour him, this king might just make the leap to Vasto Lorde in one stroke. If that comes to pass, there will be no rival left to me in the entire outer circle." The Sandworm Menos raised his head and sighed, his voice thick with longing.

"Great Northern Forest Lord, you are certain to triumph in this battle!" Wayne seized the chance to offer a compliment, even if the words nearly made him gag.

"Hmph. Enough flattery. Riat, let's go." With that, the Sandworm Menos's massive form — dozens of meters long — vanished from before Wayne's eyes in an instant.

Sonído. No matter how enormous the body, it allowed instantaneous movement to a point dozens or even hundreds of meters away.

"Yes, my lord." Riat's back-shell opened, the wings within slowly beating. Wayne grabbed hold of one antenna in time, and they rose into the air, flying toward the battlefield.

Roughly a quarter-hour later, Wayne arrived at the front edge of the battlefield. The Northern Forest Lord touched down in the same moment. Before them, a dozen or so Gillians were exchanging Cero blasts. After two or three more volleys, this group would have its Reiatsu completely spent, and then they'd be swallowed by the Cero of the Gillians following behind.

Attrition tactics. The greatest flaw was exactly this kind of mindless consumption. But most Hollows understood nothing of tactics. These non-combat Adjuchas were that way. The Gillians even more so.

The combat-capable Adjuchas preferred to fight alone. Even when they grouped up, it was only in packs of a few or a dozen for coordinated hunts. In a war-scale engagement involving tens of thousands, they had no tactical thinking whatsoever.

So Wayne chose the simplest possible method: encirclement. Surround the enemy's disorganized Gillians and slowly grind them down. That was the plan, assuming the enemy's main force didn't intervene.

The Northern Forest Lord's orders were quickly carried out. Over a hundred Gillians began moving laterally, and in short order they had encircled the enemy's Gillians. Under the commands of the Adjuchas positioned behind them, wave after wave of Cero fired into the half-encircled enemy.

An extremely simple formation. Yet it was devastatingly effective against a disorganized foe. It wasn't that Wayne didn't know more sophisticated tactics, it was that the Gillians couldn't execute them. All they knew was charging straight ahead, and the Adjuchas present couldn't control every single one. That left Wayne with no choice but to use this crude encirclement.

Still, the results spoke for themselves.

What had been a balanced exchange was now one against two, one against three. The enemy's Gillian forces were swallowed by the relentless assault. In a short time, their losses became catastrophic, and those mounting losses began to heat the battlefield, escalating the conflict.

➤ Next: Victory in Battle