Chapter 379
(Kyle Calendar Year 515: Age 22)
Northern Front ⑯ – The Beginning
of a Battle to the Death
Translator : PolterGlast
Driven forward by the absolute instructions of General Golpa,
a cataclysmic storm of as many as 1,000 arrows simultaneously took to the sky
from the various ballistae, transforming into a lethal, descending lattice of
iron that violently rained down upon the heads of each unit. The position of
both armies was turned completely upside down; the defenders, who just moments
prior had been proudly cornering the invader's army as the 'hunting side', were
instantaneously reduced to the status of the helpless 'hunted side'.
「 Wh-What did you say?! Is their
maximum range not rigidly locked at 500 meters?!
Th-This damage is no laughing matter! Execute a tactical retreat for
now—immediately retreat outside of their effective range! 」
Astounded to the absolute center of his soul by a range that
exceeded his expectations, Marquis Solis was in the midst of a
meticulous withdrawal toward a safe zone, forcefully suppressing the temporary
confusion while suffering some degree of heavy damage. Wielding the peerless,
battle-hardened clarity of an experienced general who had successfully
navigated numerous disadvantageous battles and fierce fighting, his elite
soldiers maintained an absolute, ironclad grip on their defensive formations, retreating through the dust while maintaining their
formation without falling into disorder.
Conversely, across the western sector, a part of Viscount Kamin's
army, which had blindly accelerated its momentum to attack close to the enemy
camp, was completely exposed within the effective range. Consequently, they
were visited by a severe, devastating storm of arrows that was vastly,
exponentially more savage and incomparable to the opposite side. Splitting the
atmosphere with a terrifying shriek, they were struck hard by high-power arrows
the size of short spears that slammed into their flesh with pure violence.
「 Wh-What the, ahーー?! 」 「 Escape…… guh! 」 「 R-Retreat…… uooh! 」
Their messy military ranks were ruthlessly mowed down, and
there was a succession of those violently skewered by the high-power arrows in
a grotesque display of kinetic overkill.
「 Now, sound the gong! 」
The exact second General Golpa issued the
instruction, a massive, disc-shaped copper gong resounded and erupted into a
furious rhythm that violently vibrated the air. In perfect time with that, the
commanders of the invading army who had normally received the General's
instructions simultaneously turned their horses' heads all at once, shifting to
launch a devastating counterattack.
「「「 This is badーー!!! 」」」
Beholding the sudden, violent shift of this state, the three
generals across the defensive grid shouted a simultaneous cry of pure horror.
「 Make those wild boars execute an
immediate retreat! At this rate they will be completely annihilated! Have
couriers run and tell them that once they get outside of range, there is
nothing to fear! We will charge in to desperately secure a retreat path! 」
Viscount Kamin let out a desperate scream, and
heading to the absolute front lines together with his direct army, he stood
directly in front of the enemy soldiers who had shifted to pursuit. He erected
his own flesh to become an unyielding wall himself, desperately securing a
bleeding retreat path to let his allied forces escape.
「 Send cavalry reinforcements
immediately! At this rate they will be one-sidedly whittled down! 」
Dlements immediately
entrusted his premier cavalry elements to his trusted subordinates, deploying
them to launch a desperate rescue formation
to save their allied forces who had fallen into a crumbling predicament.
Due to the situation violently turning around, the anxieties
raised beforehand hit the mark.
The third issue: it was the catastrophic shallowness of the
soldiers' real combat experience. In the first place, they, who had not been
considered important even in the First Prince's camp, entirely lacked opportunities
to follow him and serve in the military across large-scale expeditions. As a
direct consequence, including the nobles who led them, they completely lack the
tactical subtleties and mental strength required to survive on the battlefield.
While they were riding on the momentum of an effortless victory it was fine,
but the exact fraction of a second they collapsed, their psychological baseline
proved extremely fragile. Coming here to this juncture, they had begun to
violently expose that raw fragility. Dissolving into a screaming, hysterical
state of frenzy, they began to lawlessly rout, engulfing the Viscount Kamin
army that had come out to rescue them and drastically promoting catastrophic
confusion across the entire wing.
「 Extend the right wing to its
absolute limit! At this rate we will be eaten through! 」
Left with zero alternative, Dlements unavoidably
systematically moved his disciplined infantry to the right side, desperately
trying to fill the massive empty hole. However, within the rigid mathematics of
the battlefield, that sweeping lateral movement simultaneously caused his own
central front to become critically thin, creating a large, hollow opening down
the spine of his command.
「 That is so…… We cannot abandon an
allied force that has fallen into a predicament to be slaughtered in the dirt.
His tactical choice is correct, but…… No matter how much of a magnificent,
famous general Lord Kamin is, if over half the allies have dissolved
into a screaming mob like that, he won't be able to hold them up. The same
harsh reality wallops Lord Dlements who moved to their rescue. From here
on out, my First Army will extend our defensive camp to the right and deploy
our own assets to assist Lord Dlements! 」
「 But Your Excellency, if our
division commits to that lateral shift, then our own left flank willーー 」
Marquis Gorman cast a sharp, chilling glare at his
subordinate who raised a voice of anxiety, and merely shook his head slightly.
Although he was a man he hadn't been able to like since the old days, his
veteran intellect knows Marquis Solis is a commander profoundly worthy
of his absolute trust upon the field. He possessed a flawless conviction that
if it were him, he would accurately look at the war situation and execute a
disciplined retreat, and after solidifying his defense, move his elite forces
to break out of the predicament. Driven strictly by that profound trust,
Marquis Gorman's First Army also systematically moved its weight to the
right side matching the Empire army's movements, and the macro-geometry of the
battlefield was about to undergo a massive, sweeping alteration.
※
「 Fufufu, exactly as my intelligence
calculated. That would be it. The Demon Territory Dukedom army is elite
and boasts a formidable pool of legionnaires, they have confidence in their
army's strength, and the prominent generals leading their banners are all
excellent, battle-hardened veterans of many battles. But precisely because
their minds operate on such high standards of orthodox warfare…… conversely,
their tactical reactions are laughably easy for my intellect to read. 」
General Golpa, who was watching the shifting
transition of the battlefield from atop the temporary wooden watchtower,
offered a chillingly calm nod with deep satisfaction.
「 I feel deeply sorry for their brave
souls for utilizing such deception, but…… this too is the immutable, unyielding
custom of the battlefield. We shall systematically shave off just enough of
their excess power so that we can 'retreat' safely and return to our borders
without them launching a pursuit. Give the orders to each unit! All active divisions,
go on the full-scale macro-offensive! 」
The exact fraction of a second this command resonated across
the plain, a sequence of cataclysmic events that the various generals on the Demon
Territory Dukedom side, starting with Marquis Gorman, had not even
anticipated in their wildest calculations exploded across the field. First as
the first unexpected variable, the 300 traditional ballistae of the Lute
Kingdom army deployed at the front as a vanguard suddenly accelerated,
advancing rapidly at an unbelievable velocity to drastically close the
distance. They then violently unleashed an intense barrage and attacked the
Marquis Gorman army that had deployed and fanned out to fill the gap the
Empire army had moved from.
「 What?! For ballistae to be this agile……artillery
units attached with custom-engineered iron wheel-axles…… huh?! Outrageous!!! 」
It was no wonder Marquis Gorman was astounded and
allowed a rare wave of pure shock to wallop his register. Because originally,
under all traditional old-world military paradigms, due to their immense
physical weight and structural size, ballistae were ultimately used strictly as
fixed, stationary units; even in rare instances where they
could be moved, their movement velocity was torturously slow, and the grueling
hours required for re-setting, calibrating, and adjusting their target-lines
rendered rapid offensive redeployment a mathematical impossibility.
※
In the past, having historically been frightened by the
terrifying invasions of the Empire army and having successfully demonstrated
repelling them once to preserve their sovereignty, the Lute, Ville,
and Cain Kingdoms had designated the heavy ballista as the absolute,
crowning decisive battle weapon of their national survival frameworks. Even
after politically splitting into three countries, they had each driven its
technical evolution independently down vastly separate paths. Among them, the Ville
Kingdom had dedicated its absolute focus and specialized in extending the
effective firing range, developing sturdier, structurally reinforced, and
larger super-ballistae. Therefore, their specialized platforms boasted a
terrifying, high-velocity range vastly surpassing the obsolete captured
ballistae of the Cain Kingdom, and as a direct result, this technical
discrepancy caused the Demon Territory Dukedom side to completely
miscalculate and misidentify the boundaries of the safe zone across the open
plain.
The Lute Kingdom had likewise pursued an entirely
separate engineering doctrine. They bordered a mysterious religious state, the Istoria
Imperial Kingdom, and even
after splitting into three countries, their national security bureaus had spent
consecutive decades experiencing countless sudden, uncoordinated border
conflicts many times. Therefore, ruthlessly prioritizing and specializing in
absolute battlefield mobility so they could be deployed anywhere on the vast
border line, not only were they meticulously equipped with wheel-axles, but to
be able to instantaneously wheel and aim them at a new target-grid within
minutes, they even integrated and equipped each unit with a manual
elevation-calibrator sight responding to the elevation angle
and a horizontal spirit level-indicator, albeit simple ones.
The singular nation across the entire triumvirate left
behind in that industrial evolution was the Cain Kingdom, where the
borders were nestled comfortably safe and imminent external security threats
were the fewest. Their military bureaus had spent the past several decades
lounging in absolute complacency, and there had been no major technical
evolution from the primitive, traditional ones for the past few decades, but……
Capturing the obsolete ballista of that most delayed Cain Kingdom
resulted in causing Alexis and the central staff facing them to
completely make a fatal misjudgment regarding their parameters. General Golpa
had masterfully constructed his sweeping tactics and built a masterclass of
tactical deception by meticulously weaving in the psychological results arising
from those intentionally lost battles as a new operation blueprint as well.
※
「 Tch, guh……It
can't be helped. We will execute a temporary, controlled retreat here to
re-establish a safe distance! 」
Marquis Gorman was forced to bite his lip until it
bled, and couldn't help but make the painful decision, wringing the command out
from his throat. Across every historical engagement in the battles up to now,
his First Army had effortlessly dictated the flow by utilizing the peerless,
overwhelmingly superior range of the modernized Estol Bows and
proceeding with the battles advantageously; yet, when confronted by the raw
mechanical violence of a modernized artillery barrage, even they too were as
expected incapable of matching the range of the ballistae. As his regiments
fought through the dust, continuing the painful battle to maintain their
integrity under the pounding iron, an unanticipated event that dealt a further,
catastrophic blow violently walloped his line.
The second unexpected variable was the suicidal, almost
reckless demoniacal charge launched by the Cain Kingdom army. Across the
opening acts up until now, the shattered remnants of the Cain Kingdom
army had failed to secure a single drop of military prestige and had no good
points at all, leaving the commanding Second Prince leading them completely
cornered into a political abyss. Having spent the morning unsightlily fumbling
through a clumsy performance acting out the panicked retreat stipulated in the
operation script, the sudden, cataclysmic turning of the tide and change in the
war situation ignited a wave of unhinged desperation, prompting them to
commence a frantic, desperate charge to extract a miraculous revival.
「 Charge, CHARGEーーー!!! Focus every drop of your brawn to just advance forward!
The exact fraction of a second we break the enemy's central vanguard camp, it
is our absolute victory! 」
Drawn by the mad Second Prince advancing at the tip of the
vanguard with a terrifyingly fierce, ghost-like appearance and his bloodshot
eyes wide open, they were transformed into a desperate force
of death-defying suicidal soldiers who violently crashed into and attacked
Marquis Gorman's withdrawing columns which were in the midst of
retreating. Confronted by an asymmetrical equation of 5,000 frenzied attackers
against barely 3,000 withdrawing defenders; Marquis Gorman's brave army,
which had already extended and thinned out its ranks long horizontally across a
fragile lateral axis to follow up on the Empire army flank, was physically
unable to leverage its standard density to work according to its numbers,
fumbling into an exceptionally grueling, unexpected hard fight to preserve
their lives.
And then…… the third, ultimate unexpected catastrophe
exploded across the Left Wing: The sudden, catastrophic withdrawal from the
command matrix and battle line of Marquis Solis, who had occupied and
remained at the absolute very rear of his own Second Army on the left wing of
the Demon Territory Dukedom
army to personally oversee and command the disciplined retreat. When the final,
long-distance ballistic fire channeled by the 200 upgraded super-ballistae
released at the end assaulted his sector, in a cruel twist of fate, the veteran
Marquis's body was unfortunately and violently hurled high into the air by a
high-velocity iron arrow that directly slammed into and hit his warhorse mount.
Slamming brutally against the hard stones of the plain, as a direct result, the
Marquis instantaneously fell into a state of absolute, helpless unconsciousness
and temporarily fainted. The exact fraction of a second their beloved lord fell silent, his elite army, which had been retreating in a
beautifully synchronized, orderly fashion, temporarily lost its central
directive commander and ground to a halt, falling into an acute state of great
localized confusion. While their elite discipline naturally prevented them from
dissolving into a lawless stampede and unsightlily routing like the Empire
nobles, their internal communication lines fractured, completely paralyzing
their capacity to coordinate their movements or pay consideration to protect
the exposed flank of their allied force (the Marquis Gorman army).
Seizing upon this structural fracture, even more so because the Lute Kingdom
army, whose combat morale had surged into a towering tsunami and revived,
forcefully reversed its momentum, turned around, and launched a ferocious,
sweeping counter-offensive straight into the defensive rifts there.
「 Report! At this rate our lines
cannot hold them up and sustain a pressure of this magnitudeーーthe enemy vanguard will execute a
fatal breakthrough! 」
「 Tch, guh……deploy our remaining
reserve soldiers to the left flank and do whatever it takes! Under no circumstances do you dare permit their steel to slice
through our center and let them break through! If our lines buckle here at this
rate…… 」
Confronted by the ferocious offensive of the invading enemy
army that had gained near-unstoppable momentum which was not ordinary, to the
grim report of his closest confidant retainers, Marquis Gorman himself
could do nothing more than lock his jaw, desperately wringing every single
scrap of endurance from his vessel and having no choice but to merely endure.
If they allow the suicidal charge of the Cain Kingdom army to
successfully puncture a hole and break through his center, it was obvious the
invading forces would instantaneously turn around, assault their exposed
rearguard, and launch a devastating pincer attack. If that fatal vise happens,
it is abundantly clear that the massive division unit of the Ville Kingdom
currently compressing and pressuring the Empire army led by Dlements
next to them would also cascade across the plain like an avalanche towards
here. If he himself and his center collapses, the entire northern front battle
line will completely, irreversibly collapse into absolute ruin. Exactly like
how a colossal, sturdy stone embankment crumbles and shatters due to a single,
microscopic hairline hole made by an ant, the defensive grid was teetering on
the absolute brink of total existential annihilation, and the battlefield was
truly presenting that terrifying aspect.
Reaching this terrifying juncture of the slaughter, in various places across every single square meter of the bloody plain, there was absolutely no luxury or time for the individual commanders to engineer clever tricks or play with tactics. It had dissolved into a brutal, raw equation of simply a battle of sheer numbers against numbers deployed across the entire area, leaving the proud generals whom Takuhir had entrusted with the affairs of safeguarding the realm after him fallen into an absolute, suffocating predicament amidst the screaming chaos and fierce fighting.
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