Chapter 1003: OneSwordBreaksArmy Walks Into the Trap

On a remote beach in the Southern part of the US, a man in nothing but a pair of swim trunks lounged beneath a sunshade, his broad chest hidden beneath a thick carpet of hair while two women leisurely massaged his shoulders. He looked completely at ease, as though the war raging across Ethereal had nothing to do with him.

Then his phone rang, "Grandpa~ your grandson is calling~." He answered without even opening his eyes. "Hello?"

"Little Horn, why aren’t you online? Hurry up and watch the official livestream!" a man shouted from the other end.

"Damn it, how many times have I told you to stop calling me Little Horn?" he snapped, sounding more annoyed than angry.

"Forget that. Just open the stream already!"

"What’s got you so worked up?"

Little Horn lazily picked up his phone and tapped his way onto Ethereal’s official homepage, where the battle was being broadcast live. At first, he barely paid attention.

Then he froze, his relaxed posture disappearing as he sat upright, his eyes locking onto the picture-in-picture replay shown beside the main broadcast.

The commentators were still talking. "I recognize the player leading that formation!"

"Of course you do. That’s Little Horn, the number one strategist of the Southern Frontier Region!"

"So why is the Druid God using a formation that belongs to Little Horn?"

The commentator’s surprise wasn’t unique; the same question had already spread throughout countless viewers, and the command centers of the three-faction coalition had noticed it as well.

"That footage is from a year ago. Do you think someone leaked Little Horn’s formation?"

"Why couldn’t it be the other way around? Maybe the Druid God invented it first and passed it to Little Horn."

"...If that’s possible, then couldn’t Little Horn have created it and secretly given it to the Renegade Alliance instead?"

"This is getting messy. Look at the battlefield. Reinforcements came from both the Eastern and Western Regions, but there’s nobody from the Southern Frontier Region."

The commentators continued throwing out theories one after another.

Meanwhile, the real Little Horn felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up; he was just as confused as everyone else.

That formation really was his, or rather, it was supposed to be. He had spent a long time developing it, but it was still incomplete. His guild had never revealed it to outsiders, and even internally it had only been tested with small squads.

Yet now, more than four hundred thousand players were executing it flawlessly, every movement perfectly synchronized as they carved through enemy ranks.

Little Horn stared speechlessly at the screen.

Expanding a formation wasn’t as simple as adding more people. Every turn, every rotation, every transition became exponentially harder to coordinate as the numbers grew. He had dreamed of scaling it from a few dozen players to entire armies, but every attempt had ended in failure. The synchronization simply fell apart.

The scene before him was the exact result he had always imagined but had never managed to achieve.

’So... had the Druid God stolen his work? Or... did he somehow steal it from the Druid God?’ The thought sounded ridiculous even in his own head.

Instead of feeling angry, he felt like an amateur proudly showing off a rough sketch, only to discover someone else had already painted the masterpiece he’d been trying to create.

"Little Horn? Did you see it? Was there a leak inside our guild?" the voice on the phone asked again.

He remained silent for several seconds. ’How could he answer that?’ Anyone else might accuse the Druid God of plagiarism, but he couldn’t. The formation on the screen wasn’t simply his design; it was a perfected version that surpassed everything he had accomplished.

"The Eastern and Western coalition leaders contacted us," the man continued nervously. "They think we’ve secretly allied ourselves with the Northern Frontier Region. What should I tell them?"

"Tell them nothing," Little Horn replied as he stood up. "I’m logging in now."

Ignoring the two women calling after him, he walked toward the far end of the beach with his phone still in hand, never taking his eyes off the livestream.

Unfortunately, the commentators just kept going.

"Okay, hear me out. The Druid God’s name is NotADruid, and this guy’s called Little Horn. You seeing the connection?"

"I’m seeing two completely unrelated names."

"So... you’re saying there’s a chance?"

"Who knows? If the Southern Frontier Region suddenly switched sides right now, it’d completely change this war."

"Seriously. Imagine Little Horn leading the Southern Frontier Region and stabbing the Eastern and Western coalitions in the back."

"Hahaha! I’d actually pay to watch that!"

The two of them cheerfully speculated in front of a global audience, casually painting Little Horn and Ethan as secret allies.

...

Standing atop the Demonic Siege Engine, Ethan merely smiled. The formation currently sweeping across the battlefield really had been developed by Little Horn; he had simply borrowed it, though not in this lifetime.

In his previous life, Ethan had fought as an ordinary member inside this very formation. That had happened much later, after Little Horn had finally perfected it and it had become standard military doctrine against the Carnage Faction. By then, there were no secrets left. Ethan had participated in it countless times and knew every movement by heart.

Now he was simply recreating it from memory; in fact, with the knowledge he’d accumulated over two lifetimes, he was already pushing the formation beyond what its original creator had achieved at this point in history.

There was never anything mystical about the formation itself. Once enough people witnessed it, others would eventually imitate it. In the future, every major army would know how to use it. At that stage, victory no longer depended on who possessed the formation, but on who had more soldiers to execute it.

Right now, Ethan alone possessed it: four hundred thousand players against 9.6 million. As long as the enemy’s ranged forces remained suppressed, he estimated there was at least a seventy percent chance they could wipe out the entire coalition.

Time continued to pass. OneSwordBreaksArmy launched charge after charge, smashing into the rotating formation like waves crashing against an unyielding cliff. Every impact caused the massive grinding formation to tremble slightly, but it never broke. Instead, the Renegade Alliance grew increasingly comfortable with each rotation, every movement becoming smoother and more precise than the last.

Then Ethan suddenly gave a new command: "Split!"

The enormous rotating formation instantly divided into four smaller grinding formations, each spinning away in a different direction yet remaining perfectly coordinated. They covered each other’s blind spots, constantly supporting one another while expanding their killing radius across the battlefield.

OneSwordBreaksArmy’s eyes lit up. He had been frustrated by their previous defensive shell; there simply hadn’t been an opening. But now? They had split themselves apart. To him, it looked like overconfidence.

Without the slightest hesitation, he led another full-force charge, directing the steel torrent straight at one of the four smaller formations.

This time... it worked. With terrifying momentum, his assault ripped straight through the targeted formation, splitting it neatly in two.

A collective gasp swept across everyone watching the livestream. What was the Druid God doing? How could he make such an obvious mistake?

Standing atop the siege engine, Ethan only smiled. The moment he saw OneSwordBreaksArmy committing fully toward that particular formation, he had calmly issued a single order: "Open the gate. Let the dog in. Outer defense, inner kill."

Most people believed in closing the gate before releasing the hounds, but Ethan preferred opening it instead. After all, the "dog" walking through that gate was none other than OneSwordBreaksArmy and every elite player charging alongside him.

"Reform!" The instant the bait entered, Ethan gave the next command. The other three formations immediately changed direction, sweeping inward like enormous grinding wheels cutting through flesh from three different angles before merging seamlessly with the divided formation, sealing the opening that had lured the enemy inside.

The gap disappeared in an instant, and OneSwordBreaksArmy and his entire strike force found themselves trapped at the heart of the spinning formation. A heartbeat later, they vanished beneath the relentless grinding blades.