Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 61 - Playing the Tiger Against the Wolf

"So... you're here to surrender?"

On the very day war was declared against the Northern Alliance, Wayne had assembled a large force of Adjuchas-class and led them into Northern Alliance territory. But when he reached the border, there wasn't a single Hollow in sight, not Adjuchas-class, not Gillians, not even lower Hollows.

"Did they run?" That was his first thought. But it didn't add up. He'd had the border sealed the entire time. If they'd tried to escape through a Garganta, he would have known.

Opening a Garganta meant using Reiatsu to tear space apart by force. A spatial disturbance that size was something Wayne would absolutely sense. There was no way an entire territory's worth of Hollows could vanish without him feeling so much as a ripple.

So he pushed deeper.

They pressed all the way to the core of the Northern Alliance's territory before Wayne's perception-type Hollow Beasts finally picked up Reiatsu signatures, Adjuchas-class, densely packed, dense enough that Wayne almost thought they were gearing up for a concentrated all-out assault. But then he saw those Gillian-level signatures crammed together in one spot, and something felt wrong. Who arrays their forces like that? One Cero into that cluster and the Gillians up front would have their skulls caved in by the ones standing directly behind them.

That uneasy feeling didn't last long.

The two Lords of the Northern Alliance came straight at him via Sonído, alone, no escort, no warning, and Wayne, who had been braced for a fight, found himself completely wrong-footed all over again. The two Lords came to a stop not far from Jekain, slowly lowered themselves to their knees, and made their intention clear.

They wanted to surrender.

"My King, this..." Jekain was just as lost. Whatever happened to the all-out assault they'd been preparing for?

"Let's hear them out." Wayne walked forward with Nel and Jekain.

"You really intend to surrender?" he asked again. He had just been looking forward to some live combat training for his forces, and the other side folds just like that?

"Yes, Lord... Lord Wayne." It wasn't just Wayne who was off-balance, the two Northern Lords were equally confused. Wasn't Yinfeng the one in charge here? Why did this Wayne seem to be the one actually running things?

"Hmm..." Wayne scratched at the pale gold hair beneath his Hollow Mask, a little stumped. He had been planning to use the Northern Alliance's remaining forces to give his own faction real combat experience. Instead, he got this. He truly hadn't seen it coming.

"In that case, prove your loyalty first." He thought it over and decided to accept. With Gatmont still ahead of him, the more Adjuchas-class under his command the better. As for whether they'd actually be loyal, he'd throw them into a few fights and hand out a few rewards along the way. Getting them to hold through to the end of the war should be no problem.

"Of course. What would you have us do, Lord Wayne?"

"Transfer your resources into our territory, then rally your Adjuchas-class. We strike the Northwestern Alliance together."

"This..." The two Lords exchanged a glance.

"Unwilling?"

"No, no, my Lord." They shook their heads quickly. "It's just that our strength may not be enough to defeat the Northwestern Alliance."

"You handle the territory that borders yours. Everything else isn't your concern. If two Lords can't take down a single territory, I can't accept you. Take it within three days, and you're in."

"Rest assured, my Lord — just one territory, we will get it done." Both Lords knelt to receive the order. Their combat abilities weren't anything remarkable, but two against one? They liked those odds.

"Good. Go now. Start with the resource handover through Yinfeng." Wayne nodded and gave the command. The plan to drill his troops had fallen through, but they were already here. May as well keep pushing.

"Yes, my Lord." The two Lords bowed, then left via Sonído to begin transferring the Gillians' resources.

"Nel, take all combat forces and come with me. We're flanking the Northwestern Alliance from the rear."

"Of course, my Lord." Nel nodded. "Are we going to take them down outright?"

"Halfway. Then we use force to pressure them — push them out of the northwest, herd them south, drive them onto the battlefield. Let those three alliances go fight Gatmont. We hold pressure from the north, and once the Northwestern Alliance is fully squeezed out of their territory, we develop resources up there, build our strength, and wait for Gatmont's enemies to wear him down."

"Hehe, understood, my Lord." Nel seemed to get it. She let out a long cry toward the sky, rallied her combat forces, and led them north, several hundred Hollow Beast Mines and smoke grenades in tow, circling out toward the far reaches of the north.

With the two Northern Alliance Lords pinning down the adjacent front, Wayne's group bypassed the bordering combat zone entirely and came straight down on the Northwestern Alliance from their northernmost edge. Then they started pushing south.

With the Hollow Beast Mines and Borut controlling the field, the mines worked like bombs. Every Mine thrown brought down swaths of Gillians, who were then finished off and consumed by Wayne's Adjuchas-class before the advance continued.

The Adjuchas-class rushing in from the northwest hit the neural toxin and locked up, just a few seconds of paralysis, but a few seconds was all it took. Wayne's side unloaded multiple Ceros into them before they could recover.

The Northwestern Alliance's Adjuchas-class never saw it coming. They took heavy losses fast. But Wayne didn't just steamroll straight through. The Hollow Beast Mines were what kept his casualties low, and his supply wasn't unlimited. During the gaps when the rear couldn't get new Mines to the front, he ordered his Adjuchas-class to hold and rest, keeping direct confrontations to a minimum, unless he himself was taking on multiple enemies at once.

Advance. Recover. Advance again.

Wayne kept the pressure unhurried and deliberate. But after several consecutive days of it, the Lords of the Northwestern Alliance could no longer sit still.

"What is the Northern Alliance doing? Why are they helping Yinfeng's side attack our territory?"

"Isn't it obvious? Those two bastards Oglant and Babons defected."

"We gave them no support — their only options were to surrender or fight to the death. It's just that no one could have imagined they'd do it without putting up even a shred of resistance. They just walked over and handed their forces in."

"We can understand their decision now, though. The combat strength under Yinfeng can practically steamroll them on its own. And then there are those strange bombs."

"Damn it all. What ability is Yinfeng even using? Those spiked bombs — what are they? I've never heard of any Hollow Beast on their side capable of that." At the core of the Northwestern territory, several Lords had gathered for an emergency strategy meeting.

"No idea. The range on those spikes and the poison mist is enormous. Unless you use Sonído to clear the blast zone before detonation, there's no defending against it. Our Adjuchas-class get corroded by the toxin and fall into paralysis, and at the Gillian level they just die outright. We can't even send in cannon fodder, let alone push a front line. Every raiding squad we sent got completely wiped out by those buried bombs. Unless we pull together dozens of Adjuchas-class and launch a full General Offensive."

"Has anyone noticed, every time we launch a General Offensive, Yinfeng's side goes defensive, and no matter how long we press them they don't crack. Even when our momentum starts to drop, they still won't push back. Are they waiting for something?"

"No idea. Every time they advance, we're nearly powerless to stop them. Any resistance costs us massively, and yet their losses stay small. Yinfeng's side has at least four Lord-level fighters now, and with Babons and Oglant that's six Lords, nearly on par with Gatmont's forces."

"And yet they're in no hurry to push. Fight, rest, fight, rest. They're not even plundering our resources. They seem to only want the land itself... Is he trying to force us out of our territory?"

"But what would be the point?"

"Wait, could this be about Gatmont?" Finally, amid the scattered back-and-forth, someone caught the thread. "If Yinfeng has those bombs, why hasn't he shared them with Gatmont? Why have those bombs never shown up on Gatmont's side? Because if they had, with Gatmont's combat strength, the southern front would have been leveled by now."

"Hiss... Has Yinfeng been planning to crown himself all along?"

"Isn't he practically already there? Look around, aside from Gatmont, who might still be able to match him, unless all three alliances pool every last Adjuchas-class and hit him in one wave, none of us stand a chance against those bombs."

"Then why isn't he just crushing us?"

"...Using the tiger to devour the wolf?"

"Hiss..."

The moment those words landed, every Hollow in the room went quiet.

The Northwestern Alliance Lords had pieced it together. Against Yinfeng alone, taking him down was already off the table. But if the three alliances combined and hit him at once, then no matter how strange those bombs were, their hundreds of Adjuchas-class could still grind him to dust.

The catch was this: the moment Yinfeng dragged them into a prolonged engagement, Gatmont could close in from the other side and sandwich them. They'd be the cheese between two slices of bread, squeezed to nothing.

The other path, uniting all three factions against Gatmont instead, might actually work, because Yinfeng, set on crowning himself, probably wouldn't lift a finger to save Gatmont. That would hand Yinfeng the forest. But the three alliances might survive it, even if what came next was likely a fresh round of being absorbed into his ranks.

"It's death either way. Does it even matter which side we fight?" One Lord's patience had run out. They all understood now, delay the choice any longer, and the decision would be made for them.

"If we go after Gatmont, there may still be a way out."

"A way out? What way out?"

"Oglant and Babons."

"You mean... we surrender too?"

"If Gatmont wins, we're finished. No question. But if Yinfeng comes out on top, maybe we can still bargain for a chance. Or we take a third option, give up our status as Lords and leave. Leave the Central Forest entirely."

"I'd rather take my chances fighting than rot in some barren wasteland." One Lord made his position clear.

"I think we try to open a line with Yinfeng first. Find out what he actually wants. If he truly means to wipe us out, then all five of us flee together, and there's still time for that. Everyone here has held their Lord position for years. Just walking away, none of us can stomach that. If it comes down to one side or the other, I'd rather bet on Yinfeng. Because if we end up in Gatmont's hands, we're dead for certain."

"Fine. There's nothing else we can do."

➤ Next: Cooperation