Chapter 3 – Story 113: Holmenia Battle 6 – Craze (End)
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Instead of a siege, the zoan would use an open-field battle to defeat Romania’s army.
Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the zoan better than no one else, Garam and Zurgu could immediately go along with Souma’s train of thought. But, Dvalin brought up a different issue while stroking his beard.
“We have to lend our strength to protect the capital for the sake of not letting those Romanians take the city until the zoan stab them in the back. I get that part.”
No matter how sturdy the city’s walls might be, Holmenia had only few people capable of fighting left after most of the soldiers had been drafted for the battle of Caliraya. In this scenario, it was more than questionable whether the city would be able to stop the fierce onslaught of Romania’s army, whose soldiers were empowered by their recent victory. Accordingly, Dvalin saw no problem with strengthening the city’s defenses by deploying the dwarves who were well-known for being experts at siege battles.
“But, I don’t see any necessity for you to also enter the city, Sir Soma.”
As everyone looked at him, clearly agreeing with Dvalin’s argumentation, Souma faltered a bit, but still explained.
“I wish to draw Romania’s attention to the capital by entering the city myself.”
He couldn’t believe that Romania’s army would simply ignore Souma and his troops. It was to be expected that they’d be constantly preparing for an attack from behind, even as their besieged Holmenia. Moreover, if they knew that the dwarves had joined the defense of the city as well, the participation of Souma’s side would be as clear as the azure sky, consequently putting them on even more on guard against a potential raid by the zoan.
With circumstances like that, an attack by the zoan would show little to no effect.
“But, what will they do, if I am in the city?”
No one would assume that Souma entered a place, which was enemy territory until just the other day, with a few troops. It’d be normal to expect his main force, the zoan, to hide inside the city, if Souma showed himself on the wall.
“Besides, Romania’s army numbers more than 20,000 soldiers. No matter how strong the zoan might be, they won’t be able to win a normal battle with less than 5,000 warriors. My presence in the capital will effectively conceal the fact of the zoan being outside the city, and moreover we’ll provoke King Doldea through and through, so that the zoan will be able to carry out a perfect surprise attack. Personally I believe that we must push things at least that much,” Souma declared.
The other attendees of the council looked at each other. The reasons given by Souma certainly carried weight and followed logic. But, Souma was the sole reason why such a band of people, who were hard to deal with, had gathered and were working together right now. And exactly because everyone was well aware of that, they found it hard to sympathize with the idea of Souma entering the city with a limited number of troops.
At that point, Shyemul raised her voice, “Hey, Soma, is that really the only reason?”
“What do you mean?”
Souma cocked his head, unable to read the meaning behind Shyemul’s question.
Shyemul fixed her eyes on him, and said, “It’s definitely not some dumb reason like you feeling guilty if you don’t put yourself in danger by entering enemy territory because you’re forcing everyone into an unreasonable battle, or something like that, right? If that is the case――,” Shyemul stopped speaking there for a moment, before continuing with a strong voice, “――I will be quite angry with you.”
Souma’s body twitched. Afterwards, he backed away from Shyemul, his eyes darting around. His mouth flapped open and shut, as if he was about to say something, but then decided not to.
Seeing him panicking so obviously, everyone immediately knew that Shyemul had hit the bull’s eye with what she said. The fur all over Shyemul’s body stood on end as if to demonstrate the might of her fury.
“It’s always the same with you…”
With his face being ghastly pale, Souma frantically tried to calm the raging beast girl, “W-Wait! Calm down, Shyemul! I did think about that for a moment as well, but there are really other reasons why I must go into the capital myself!”
“Is that truly the case?”
Garam extended his burly arm in front of Shyemul and stopped her since she looked as though she was about to leap at Souma any given moment.
“If you merely wish to make it look as if you’re in the capital, you could simply prepare an impostor, even if you dislike the idea, right? So, what is the reason why you must personally enter the capital while being aware of all the dangers coming with it?”
Garam’s tone made it clear that he’d set his sister loose, if Souma answered with some silly reason. In alignment with that, Shyemul was baring her fangs at Souma.
Because of that, Souma hurriedly explained the reason why he must be in Holmenia in person. Hearing that, Garam and the others put on conflicted expressions and Shyemul stopped baring her fangs.
“…Certainly, that is something only you can do.”
After saying that, Garam shifted his eyes to Shyemul.
“《Noble Fang》, if Soma dies, it will be our loss, regardless of whether we’re alright or not. We can be replaced if we die, but the same does not apply to Soma. Can you protect Soma while resolving yourself for that?”
Shemul confidently hit her chest, “Of course! I, 《Noble Fang》, swear on the honor of my clan and father, I shall protect my Navel Master using this body, life, and soul!”
After nodding at that, Garam looked back at Souma.
“You heard her. I want you to be prepared that 《Noble Fang》 will die before you, if you try something unreasonable and are about to die.”
Garam’s words served as a big warning and were based on Garam’s knowledge that Souma hated causing troubles to others above all else. Moreover, Shyemul was Garam’s only remaining family. Thus he didn’t utter those words lightly.
In order to answer it appropriately, Souma placed his hand on his left chest in the zoan away and said, “Understood.”
“Good grief, you’re really incorrigible,” Solon grumbled while standing up after having silently nipped on his wine in a corner of the tent. “Hey, brat, we just need to provoke King Doldea and make him fully focus on the capital, correct?”
Once Souma confirmed that, Solon continued with a gloomy look, “In that case, leave it to me. I’m much more suited for that task than you, brat.”
But, Souma tilted his head, asking, “Is that so?”
Souma evaluated Solon highly for his extensive knowledge and his quick wit. But, he worried that King Doldea wouldn’t take some strange old man seriously as king of a nation. When he voiced that concern, Solon lightly shrugged it off, saying, “Don’t worry. it’ll be alright. Besides, I’ve been suppressing my anger for a bit as well. I won’t be able to calm down if I don’t tell him my opinion at least once.”
◆◇◆◇◆
Because of the provocation by Souma, who used himself as bait, and Solon, the attack by the zoan under Garam and Zurgu struck Romania’s army when they were at their weakest.
The armies of this era displayed their strongest power when forming up in ranks and moving according to their orders. If they didn’t do that, they wouldn’t be able to point their arrows at a common goal, let alone moving as a big army, given that wireless radios didn’t exist in this world. And if such an army suffered a completely unexpected attack, it’d usually devolve into a critical situation.
The soldiers will fall into panic as they don’t know what is happening. And even if the captains and commanders reprimand their men to calm down, the range of their voices is limited. Moreover, those captains and commanders won’t know what is going on either. Hence, it’d be impossible for them to manage the panicking soldiers.
If this panic spreads, it becomes next to impossible to control the soldiers.
Garam and Zurgu, who cut into the ranks of Romania’s army from both flanks, swung their machetes as if competing over the number of lives they reaped. In front of that fierce onslaught, the Romanian soldiers were simply cut down, unable to mount anything resembling a resistance.
Thanks to Garam and Zurgu wreaking havoc among the enemy like that, Romania#s army was ripped apart as if a beast had bit through its torso, separating several thousand soldiers, including the heavy spear infantry in front of Holmenia, from the main force.
Yet, Romania’s army was in such a state of chaos that thinking of rescuing their isolated allies was all but a pipe dream. Rather, many of the soldiers tried to run away as far as possible while their isolated comrades were slaughtered.
At this point, it looked as though Romania’s army was getting routed.
However, as soon as a big drum started to reverberate near the front-line, the soldiers suddenly stopped running away. On top of that, many of them readied the weapons in their hands while turning back around to the front-line.
A loud voice could be heard from the location where the drum’s sound originated.
“Perk up your ears and listen closely! Peel your eyes and look closely! Use your mouths to raise your voice!”
The one standing over there was an one-armed, big man leading a band of knights who all wore blue armor.
“The one present here is Romania’s greatest hero! The one and only Marshal Daraios!”
Once Daraios thrust the halberd in his hand high into the air, cheers erupted all around him. This was Daraios’s biggest strength. He was the marshal commanding the whole arm. And he was the strongest hero who was hailed as a war god.
As soon as Daraios stood his ground and made it known that he was about to fight, the soldiers were immediately cheered up, despite having attempted to run away just moments ago. Even the soldiers who didn’t know where to point their spears, immediately tried to follow Daraios.
Then again, Romania’s army had been trained to react like that.
As long as Daraios doesn’t fall, Romania’s army won’t fall apart.
Those were the words of Holmea’s strongest general Darius.
Even if you try to pursue a disorderly Romanian army, you will eat a severe counterattack, if our command structure is thrown into chaos because of that.
This was the reason why Darius could never decisively defeat Romania’s army after cornering them into fleeing many times over.
Daraios revealed a ferocious smile as he felt the army regain its composure behind him.
The zoan have displayed a fearsome force by breaking through our ranks so easily. They have divided our army and surrounded a part of it.
But, in the end, they’re nothing more than a small force. The wall of zoan, which is encircling our allies in front of the capital, looks like a thin membrane. It’s a simple task for me and the Blue Knights to smash such an encirclement apart. After releasing our troops from it, we will engulf the enemy in return. Then we’ll be able to slaughter those mere four or five thousand zoan with ease.
“Follow me!”
Daraois tried to swing his arm down while yelling this, but his voice didn’t come out. Even for someone like him, who had traveled the battlefield for many decades, this was a first. Something was blocking his throat, trying to stop him from uttering any words.
What’s this!?
Daraios was shocked by this, but he immediately realized the cause. It was Holmenia, the city right in front of his nose.
He could feel a suffocating craze from within the capital. One he had never experienced so far.
Among veteran warriors, who had survived many battlefields after crossing paths with death many times, there existed very few who possessed a sixth sense one could only describe as psychic ability.
This was currently ringing all alarm bells within Daraios.
Something bad…something terribly bad is awaiting us! If we try to keep fighting like this, things will turn into a huge disaster!
Daraios felt such a premonition which came close to being conviction.
In reality, Daraios only wavered with his decision for an instant. He decided to believe his own intuition.
“All hands, retreat at once! The Blue Knights and I will cover the rear!”
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