<h4>Chapter 497 - The Mastermind</h4>


    Rudra looked on the map of Nineclouds kingdom with a satisfied smile on his face as he admired the genius of his own ns.


    Nineclouds kingdom wasndlocked from all sides , sharing a border with three kingdoms of Aquahose Kingdom , Hazelgroove kingdom and Ghost kingdom.


    With Aquahose Kingdom being a close ally and Hazelgroove being a sworn enemy , as the Ghost kingdom was a neutral neighbour.


    Rudra''s takeover of Fort Magma provided him with a front tounch his troops from the Hazelgroove kingdom side of things , while the capital falling under his control meant that he had a hold over the central region now.


    With him escting tensions in bluecloud city , the only rtively safe city left in the kingdom was the greencloud city. A city closest to Aquahose Kingdom with a direct trade route connecting it to the Aquaduct city of Aquahose Kingdom.


    This made greencloud city one of the economically most properous city , with the hardest difficulty to forcefully prate , as reinforcements could arrive from both Nineclouds and Aquahose Kingdom.


    However should Greencloud city fall to Rudra , Rudra would have a direct invasion route into Aquahose Kingdom to facilitate Lita''s request to capture Aquahose Kingdom too.


    As Rudra diverted the world''s attention to theing war in bluecloud city , never uttering a word about his n to take down greencloud city in a storm .


    With the Russian Mafia ready to jump into the fight at his singlemand , Rudra had already figured out the way to make a situation that was a win for him , yet an even bigger win for them , as his alliance with Lita also needed to be given importance.


    Hitting two birds with one stone , Rudra one upped everyone , as the constant troop buildup inside Whitecloud city was actually never meant for a war with the Rural Warriors guild for the fight for Whitecloud city. But for this another fight.


    On the day before the battle for bluecloud city took ce , the world was shocked as the Rebel Elites , the puppet rulers of Whitecloud city under Rudra dered war on Greencloud city !


    The one who was most stupefied by this move was dronacharya , who had hired mercenaries as well as lent mary , equipment and special weapon support for the defence of bluecloud city against the impending invasion.


    This move caught himpletely off-guard as he was caught defenceless in a position where he could no longer prepare greencloud city in time for the impending Elites invasion , nor could he abandon bluecloud city as the fall of either city was a huge loss to his operation.


    Splitting his assets was not an option , as both wars saw the invading forcese with a tactical and numerical advantage , which would take everything that dronacharya had to offer to stop just one.


    As the prophet was left scratching his head , scrambling for answers to situations that he never expected to happen in the first ce , he was again reminded that Rudra was not an opponent he could read at all.


    His actions came out of nowhere catching the opponent off-guard as the seemingly bizzare decisions and meaningless moves in the small picture , actually all connected to make a bigger picture that wouldpletely change entire dynamics of things.


    Rudra''s actions left dronacharya frustrated , angry andpletely out of choices as he understood that he had lost this battle even before it started to Rudra.


    Even if he won the battle in bluecloud city now , with him exposing some of his hidden weapons and technology in a meaningless fight as this one, he was sure to loose more than he gained. Hence in a rare move of swallowing one''s pride , dronacharya actually made a sensible choice and pulled out.


    Dronacharya did what everyone should have done when they werepletely outssed by Rudra.


    Retreat and regroup.


    Pulling all his support from the defence of bluecloud city , Dronacharya dered Nineclouds kingdom as a lost cause , as he tuck his tail behind his legs and used the time to properly wind- up all his operations from the country before it fell to the Elites.


    Learning an important lesson about Shakuni of the Elites , dronacharya took this loss and retreated without risking to loose more to gamble and win everything back , as he prepared to live to fight another day .


    Hurt . Frustrated and angry , he took a learning curve as he calmed his mind and started to n his way through things all over again , now without making the same mistakes he did in the past.


    ording to his estimations , the setback would cost him nearly a year''s worth of efforts , however since he pulled out in time . He minimized damage from an overall disastrous situation.


    Etching the name Shakuni of the elites to his forever hate list. Dronacharya swore to destroy him someday!


    ---------


    ( Meanwhile Shadow )


    Shadow was the number one ranker from the dark faction. A night ranger by profession , he was a rare solo yer who was always on the top without the backing of any powerful organization behind him


    Just like his gaming ID , he was actually a shadow that was never to be seen , as except for his name showing at the top of the ranker lists . No yer had actually interacted or met shadow for sure.


    Mysterious in his ways and with a non-existent social presence , not much was known about the night ranger or his skillset.


    He was the first one to arrive in Nineclouds city , as he calmly scouted the habits of the leader of the Elites as he made ns for his attack.


    Deeming it too risky to attack Rudra in the middle of a light faction city and thousands of his guild members , shadow patiently waited for his opportunity to strike.


    He knew that he had to be quick and clean , as not only was he not the only person to recieve the quest . But also the strength of his opponent was not to be underestimated.


    /// Bonus chapter for the super gift by Cervantez91 , thank him in thements for this one ! ///