Chapter 3 – Story 110: Holmenia Battle 3 – Drum Signal
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“What do you mean?”
Due to Piarta’s question, Daraios looked up Holmenia’s wall while jogging. There he spotted people who appeared to be humans, dwarves, and elves busily moving around. But, he couldn’t see a single zoan.
Thinking that he must be wrong, he checked once more, but in the end he couldn’t find any zoan. It’d be one thing if it was one or two zoan, but it was next to impossible that he’d completely overlook several thousand zoan.
No way! Did the Divine Son of Destruction not bring the zoan with him? No, that’s just silly, Daraios immediately denied his own thinking.
The zoan went wherever the Divine Son of Destruction went. He had heard that their relationship was so thick that it wasn’t wrong to summarize it like that. For the Divine Son of Destruction the zoan were the first race to obey him and their soldiers unmistakably form the main force of the Divine Son of Destruction’s army as the most reliable combat asset.
It’s unthinkable that the Divine Son of Destruction would challenge our army to a fight after leaving the zoan behind. In that case, the question is: where are they now?
As race which has been inhabiting the plains, the zoan specialize in field battles where they can capitalize on their mobility, but in return, they’re quite bad when it comes to siege battles. Maybe they’re hiding inside the capital right now in order to launch a counterattack once our side is exhausted from running up against the wall?
No, that can’t be, corrected Daraios himself. Even if they intend to counterattack us, it’d be meaningless if the capital fell before that. No matter how much the zoan suck at siege battles, they should be able to at least throw stones. Thus it’s unbelievable that the Divine Son of Destruction would use a single soldier of those thousands of zoan.
At that point, Daraios realized a certain possibility.
“…! No way!? But, wait…”
But he immediately denied his thoughts. After all, the zoan were the main force of the Divine Son of Destruction. And right now that Divine Son of Destruction was inside Holmenia. As such his idea was quite unlikely.
Yet, Piarta remonstrated Daraios, “Your Excellency, sorry for being rude, but you shouldn’t judge everything by common sense. That man――the Divine Son of Destruction is acting outside the boundaries of our common sense.”
Daraios understood what Piarata was trying to tell him. But, what Daraios had considered just now was way too far removed from common sense, making it difficult for him to readily accept it.
And just as Daraois was struggling like that, he heard the sound of a drum, signaling the army to retreat.
As might be expected King Doldea somewhat regained his composure before Holmenia, which hadn’t allowed a single soldier to reach the wall, could launch a fierce counterattack. With the sun slowly starting to sink in the west in addition to that, the king had given up on the idea of taking Holmenia by the end of the day.
But, if they couldn’t take the city today, they’d be forced to build an encampment to allow the soldiers to get a rest. Seeing how the camp construction was delayed since he had the soldiers attack the capital all of a sudden after giving in to his anger, King Doldea now decided to pull back his troops as quickly as possible. In addition, King Doldea didn’t forget to prepare by a follow-up attack by selecting heavy spear infantrymen, who still were relatively fit, and deploying them in front of the city gate.
Given the current situation, you could describe King Doldea’s judgment as reasonable. However, Piarta and Daraios’s expression changed.
“Your Excellency! We must hurry!”
“Indeed! We have to meet up with His Majesty before it’s too late!”
Urged by a sense of danger, which wasn’t shared by the rest of their army, Piarta and Daraios tried to increase their pace while making their way through the crowd of soldiers. But, they were already too late.
The sound of a drum could be heard from Holmenia’s tower gate.
◆◇◆◇◆
Going back a bit in time, Shyemul was watching how Romania’s soldiers started to retreat and called out to Souma.
“Soma! Those Romanians have started to retreat!”
Souma nodded at that, “Alright! Shyemul, send the order to everyone!”
“Yeah! On it!”
Shyemul picked up the drum hanging at her waist and started to hit it with all her might.
◆◇◆◇◆
A small forest existed not far from Holmenia. Usually no one would approach this place because it was a good distance away from any of the roads.
But, right now several carriages and dozens of men and women were staying inside that forest while making sure to not be seen by anyone. At a glance, they looked like a troupe of traveling entertainers who had escaped the besieged Holmenia. Moreover, they would also describe themselves like that, if someone were to ask about them.
However, their faces as they watched the battle unfolding at Holmenia were free of any fear. Rather, their looks were so sharp and stabbing that it was hard to call them traveling entertainers.
Once Shyemul’s drum could be heard from Holmenia, one of the men addressed the inside of a canopied carriage.
“Hey, wake up, drunkard.”
In response, the heap of tattered clothes, set between the stage items that were stuffing the carriage’s interior, suddenly moved with a rustle.
“Hah? What is it? The wine given to me is mine. I won’t give it back.”
The one speaking was a person who was completely covered by tattered clothes. Their appearance was indistinct as a heap of clothes hidden in the shadows of stage tools, but going by their voice, the owner was a young man.
The man extended his left hand and groped around for the wine bottle which was lying on the dim load-tray. Once he found it, he put it against his lips, followed by loud gulping sounds.
Hiding his annoyance at the young man’s behavior, the man said, “Stop drinking and tell me what this drum sound signals.”
The man underneath the clothes listlessly lifted his face and after listening to the drum for a bit, he said, “There are three types of drum signals. The first one――”
At that moment, the man tightly grabbed the right shoulder of the young man with his left hand.
“――『Crunch them with your fangs』. Next, 『Tear them with your claws』. And lastly, 『Show them your dignity with your mane』. The rhythm itself is different, but the meaning is the same nonetheless.”
Being compelled to explain the meaning behind those words, the young man chuckled lightly and answered, “It tells the warriors of all clans to exhibit all of their might. In short, it’s an order for a general attack.”
While still covered by a tattered cloth, the man jerked his chin, pointing towards Holmenia.
“See? They’re here.”
As if responding to his words, a deep tremor could be heard from somewhere.
◆◇◆◇◆
Some time after the completely exhausted Romanian soldiers heard the drum signal which was unlike the ones they had heard before, a sound similar to several heavy punches overlapping and turning into one big sound reached their ears. They could hear it from somewhere like an earth tremor.
Because of that noise, even the Romanian soldiers, who had been walking while using their swords and spears as canes, raised their hanging heads and looked around, wondering what was happening.
It was then that they noticed the big cloud of dust rising in the southern plains of the capital. As the soldiers strained their eyes to identify what it was, the figures gradually became clear. What they spotted within the furiously billowing cloud of sand and dust were people, who looked human and beast in parts, sprinting towards them with their bodies on all fours.
In other words――
“Z-Zoan…!”
A befuddled voice escaped the lips of a Romanian soldier.
Moreover, this wasn’t just happening at the left wing of Romania’s army――the southern side of Holmenia――but also on the right wing.
Those were the zoan who had hidden themselves outside the city. They numbered five thousand in total across both wings. Or to put it simply: those were almost all the zoan Souma could currently move.
“Is that Divine Son of Destruction crazy or something!? Is he so eager to die himself!?”
Hearing the message about this new attack, Daraios couldn’t help but yell.
“Are you telling me he positioned his main force outside the city while entering the city, which used to belong to his mortal enemy, with just a few troops!?”
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