The tower of water dissolved into a huge spray of mist as the Dragoon bisected the last soldier standing on it. Clearly, a mechanism had been in place to prevent foes from taking over the guard post once the troops sent there were killed, but it wasn’t anything the East could have used anyway. No one would dare to send people who couldn’t fly to man this post anyway — how many people would be comfortable with the notion of standing on what essentially was a solid mass of water?

Gaius, who was hovering in mid-air, watched as the last few corpses turned into light, complete with weapon and armour. This phenomenon took around two or so minutes to trigger, although the time it occurred varied from…corpse to corpse. Either way, it was a good method to prevent the East from treating the Lifespring’s fallen as a resource point.

Clicking his teeth, he continued on his flight path. His head flicked around as the boy continued to take in more and more details about this particular route. On the way, there were a few more patrols, who were clearly alerted to the presence of a few eccentric attackers roaming the area.

A soldier in blue jerked and looked up as Gaius appeared a few metres above him, and the entire patrol backed away. The boy bore down on his target with an axe kick, and his target fell from the skies as his right heel landed solidly on its head. Qi erupted out of his hands, forming a blade around ten metres long each.

Gaius smiled grimly, as he prepared to execute an attack that would have defied the laws of physics on Earth. Wielding both blades of qi masterfully, the boy waved his arms playfully, and the small group plummeted from the skies.

The boy shook his arms. This encounter, like the three others he’d came across after disposing of the guard post, had been too short for him to showcase the eccentricity of the people attacking on this moonlit night. His enemies were too mechanical, too obvious, which was one of the reasons why the East could still hold up against the overwhelming numbers of the Lifespring’s troops. If they had been more tactical about it, more willing to improve their methods…

This was another point of contention within the Plenum, from what Paragon Ying Xin told him. Some of them argued that the way the enemies had reacted to Gaius showed that the Lifespring’s forces were capable of reacting and improving their approach. This group believed that the Lifespring was attempting to lure them into a false sense of security.

Another one pointed out that if the Lifespring really wanted to, Feng-Lang would be overrun within days, improvements be damned. Working from this, they hypothesised that the great gods had their own circumstances that prevented such an action from occurring. If they could make use of them…

These two groups were why Operation Spring Fury was a topic of hot debate. The first one staunchly opposed Spring Fury; if the Lifespring had been holding back, venturing out of the defensive lines was nothing short of suicide. The other one supported Spring Fury, since they didn’t know if these restrictions were permanent. They claimed that if Conrah was free from his current circumstances, Feng-Lang and Mi-Zu would fall in short order.

And of course, adding to the mix were the fence-sitters.

Personally, Gaius supported the second group, the ones that called for Spring Fury. Some of the more offensive-minded Paragons were rather vehement in their support too, especially since the East had been given a literal deadline by the Human God. All or nothing…and it wouldn’t be too late to give into the Lifespring’s demands if the ‘all’ option failed them.

The boy sighed, and focused his eyes onto the glimmering tower hovering silently in mid-air. It was another one of those guard posts, and from the looks of his flight route, it was the last one he would get rid of before returning to base.

The Background Music ability activated once more as Gaius closed in on the guard post, which, now that he thought about it, was far too extravagant for its intended purpose. It was probably something to do with the sensibilities of the great gods, however.

Tens of eyes fell on the approaching Gaius. His approach had been made very obvious, and it was evident that unlike the first outpost he’d taken out, the troops on duty here were cautious and prepared. Bursts of qi arced towards Gaius, spattering harmlessly onto his barrier, but even this was enough to make the boy’s eyes narrow.

It was rare to see the Lifespring’s troops — his Soldiers and Squires — use attacks that were not melee in nature. Gaius frowned slightly at this unexpected development and made a mental note to mention it to Paragon Ying Xin later. He dodged a few more incoming shots, slapped a couple more out of the air, and landed onto the tower of water.

The structure shuddered as Gaius landed on it, tilting and listing to the side. It was an eerie sight, watching the entire body of guards lose their balance and fall in silence. The whole time, Gaius had been fighting in a world of silence, only broken by the sounds of parting flesh and falling bodies. But here, watching the people in blue fall into the sea in silence was just so much more unnerving, for some reason.

Somehow, the structure had lost its balance. Even without Gaius doing anything else, the tower was beginning to descend, the tilt growing more and more pronounced for every passing minute. He took to the skies and watched quietly, as the structure crashed onto the surface of the sea.

Squires and Soldiers fell from the structure, landing into the sea with little plops. Before long, the tower sank, leaving nothing but a few dozen bobbing heads staring at Gaius quietly. The boy felt his spine tingle from the sheer silence, and after casting a few more looks at them, he left the scene.

He wasn’t too sure if the people that had fallen into the sea would survive or not, but seeing as they were the Lifespring’s troops, he wouldn’t put it past them to have some capability in the water. But he was here to clear out his flight route, not to expend energy on useless fights.

Gaius was going to return tomorrow, anyway.