Chapter 3 – Story 68: The Humiliation of Sunomuta 8 – Black Wall (Beginning)

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Violent drum beating weaved its way through the wall of flesh consisting of heavy spear infantrymen. This caused the zoan to pause their hands as they wondered what was going on.

In front of their eyes the infantry started to maneuver in orderly fashion. One part of the front row retreated, just to have the hole immediately filled up by the units on either side shifting sideways. These new holes were immediately covered by a new unit coming out in front.

The newcomers wore black.

“They finally showed up, huh!?” Garam exclaimed with a voice brimming full of tension.

He had no doubt that these black Holmean soldiers were the heavy spear infantry of the 「Black Wall」 which his ancestors had told him about so often.

The color of the wall in front of the zoan’s watchful gazes rapidly changed from reddish brown to black as if a stage was swiftly changed.

“All hands, ready your shields!” Regimental Commander Gaius ordered as soon as the front and middle row had finished their swap.

At once, the infantrymen formed a thick wall of black shields.

“――Ready your spears!”

Next spears with black handles, which were only interrupted by the white gleam of their spearheads, were simultaneously thrust out.

“――Advance!”

And then the whole division began to move forward, their military boots loudly stomping across the ground.

This whole experience triggered Garam to gasp in awe. Just the act of them setting up their shields and thrusting out their spear while advancing onwards already told him a tale of what an extraordinary enemy they were facing right now.

Even the movements of the previous heavy spear infantry, which he had considered orderly and accurate, now looked like nothing more than amateurish child’s play in comparison. Far from showing the slightest sign of disturbance within the ranks, those infantrymen were moving so orderly that Garam would immediately agree if someone told him that all of them were just mirrors of one person.

And what made this even more dreadful as it bolstered the effect was their aura of oppression. Even though the opponent was only marching towards them, a wave of intimidation so strong that Garam felt he’d be blown away if he lost his focus for a moment washed over him like a raging storm.

“They’re attacking! Shower them with stones!” Garam yelled at his warriors who were being swallowed by the enemy’s coercion.

Thanks to that, the zoan warrior snapped out of it and hurriedly resumed using their slings to hurl stones at the approaching enemy. But, their faces were quickly dyed by confusion after they began to throw their stones.

Garam could understand their feelings on this.

The response to the stone throwing was completely different from before. Up until now, their opponents would suffer serious injuries, even if they managed to block the stones with their shields. But, now there was no sign of this.

Not only did their attacks have the same effect as punching a huge rock with empty hands, but they actually inflicted heavy blows on the zoan themselves. Mostly mental ones.

And Garam’s intuition which was urgently warning him of this, wasn’t mistaken at all.

The shields of the heavy spear infantry, which had now stepped to the front, were much thicker than the shields of the previous front unit. Moreover, they were order-made with most of their surface area reinforced by metal plating. Those shields were sturdy enough to easily repel even stones thrown by the inhumanely strong zoan.

However, this also meant that the shields would be much heavier than any normal shield. As such, no average soldiers would be able to carry them around for an extended period of time, let alone use them to protect themselves from stones.

Yet, one of the tests for entering the 「Black Wall」 was to keep holding up such a shield for a whole day with it having further weights added to it. Furthermore, the new applicants would be demanded to defend themselves from having stones thrown and sticks poked at their shield by ill-minded veterans.

In a dense formation, your shield didn’t protect just you alone, but also your comrades next to you. For this reason, anyone trying to lower their shield even the slightest bit would be relentlessly showered with harsh insults and rebukes such as, “You piece of shit! Are you planning to kill your comrades, or what!?”

The infantrymen of the 「Black Wall」, who passed that severe exam on top of having trained themselves further, were able to keep holding up those heavy shields as easily as waving a twig around.

Moreover, it wasn’t as though the soldiers of the 「Black Wall」 merely relied on their heavy armor either. All of them slightly tilted their shields right before a stone would impact on their shields. This allowed for the stones to be repelled at a slight angle instead of a direct hit. And because of that, the damage to the shields was surprisingly low.

Garam felt the hair on his back stand on end while watching this display of skill and might.

For them to be able to see through this rain of stones pouring down on them and react appropriately in no time; I can’t even begin to imagine just how much training they must have invested into mastering their shield defenses to such an extent. Moreover, their marching speed is completely different from earlier. They’re rapidly closing in on us despite the stones thrown at them.

“What’s wrong, you filthy brutes!? We’re going to keep you company with that stone-throwing game of yours. Put some more effort into it and come at us as you will!” Gaius boastfully shouted down from his horse.

A nearby battalion leader answered, “Regimental Commander, it is all because of His Excellency’s training, isn’t it!?”

Gaius nodded at that, “Indeed. ――We got our bodies bruised all over every day.”

“I couldn’t sleep at night because of the pain.”

“Even my face got totally messed up. Nowadays, a guy like me, who used to be a handsome bloke, has this sort of mug.”

“Hahaha! Didn’t you have such a face from birth, Regimental Commander!?”

And then both burst into loud laughter.

Gaius had ridiculed the zoan stone throwing, but he wasn’t as naive as he made it seem. Even the exchange with his high-ranking officer followed the intention of releasing some of their soldiers’ tension by joking around and assuring the men that they had trained more than enough to deal with the zoan’s stone throwing.

And just as Gaius had aimed for, Garam couldn’t hold out any longer and ordered a retreat in front of the approaching avalanche of the 「Black Wall」.

“Everyone, fall back!” He barked his order, followed by Shishul playing her drum to pass on his instruction.

All zoan immediately turned around and started to fall back.

At that moment, the front row’s company commanders of the 「Black Wall」 yelled, “Unlink and speed up!”

Immediately following, the heavy spear infantrymen who had been basically glued to each other, separated a bit from each other and increased the pace of their march in the same breath.

“All hands, halt! Begin attac…!?”

Without being aware of the enemy’s change in movement, Garam turned around while ordering his warriors to resume attacking, believing they had taken enough distance just like before, but became startled as soon as he saw Holmea’s infantry.

There was still sufficient distance to throw stones, but they obviously hadn’t opened up as much of a distance as earlier. And yet, just when the zoan warriors were about to start throwing their stones, the company commanders of the 「Black Wall」 got ahead of them, yelling, “Link up and harden!”

In response to their officers’ order, the infantrymen dropped their speed, closed the distance between each other, and adopted defensive postures in the dense formation from before.

The whole spectacle vividly reminded anyone watching it of a big shell quickly snapping its mouth closed after noticing the approach of a predator. And if we were to talk about the defensive power, this one was a wall of black steel instead of just a shell. Yet, because they were closing in on the zoan with a speed you wouldn’t even dream of, going by their dense formation, the zoan had little time to prepare their throws.

“Everyone, fall back!”

Around a time when most of the warriors managed to toss just one stone, Garam was forced to order another retreat.

“Hey, Garam! These guys are a lot tougher than we thought!” Zurgu called out to Garam while running next to him on all four as they retreated in a group.

Garam answered, “It’s no wonder that our old men were done in by that. But, I’m a stubborn guy who doesn’t want to risk pointless losses among his warriors. We’re going to fall back just like this. Zurgu, I leave that side to you.”

“Ayes! Make sure to not mess up either, okay!?”

The two great warriors of the plains exchanged ferocious smiles before splitting up in two groups and dashing away.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Fuhahahaha! What’s wrong, you stinky beasts!? How far do you plan to retreat!?”

Gaius roared in laughter at the zoan who were forced to retreat.

“You’re very soon going to reach your own headquarters, you know? That will effectively reduce the places for you to run to zero!”

The zoan, who had rushed ahead of their main army so much, had now retreated all the way to their headquarters without realizing it after being forced back by the 「Black Wall」. Without any further room to fall back, they had no choice but to join up with their headquarters and make a stand, Gaius suspected.

However, even if you were to talk about joining up with the headquarters, the troops over there amounted to two or three thousand at the most. Assuming they were to link up with a force as small as that, they still would fail to overcome the numerical superiority of Holmea’s heavy spear infantry. Gaius judged that it’d be fine to just ride the momentum and push into the enemy headquarters while overrunning the zoan.

All of this made Gaius certain of victory, but at this point something occurred that he hadn’t foreseen at all. Of all things, the zoan split in two groups right as they retreated up to their headquarters, just to flee to the sides as if to expose their headquarters to Gaius’ units.

Even Gaius couldn’t help but feel flabbergasted by this.

“Are these guys dumb? Isn’t their headquarters now in plain sight thanks to their flight!?”

Just as Gaius had cried out, the enemy headquarters had been completely exposed to Holmea’s 「Black Wall」.

“J-Just what is t-this about!?”

It was only logical for Gaius’s battalion commander to be just as confused.

The general’s flag of the guy calling himself 「Divine Son of Destruction」 was boldly flying at the headquarters which now lay bare. There was no doubt about this being the stronghold with the enemy’s boss. The stronghold with the commander could rightfully be described as the head of an army. And yet, the body had done something akin to fleeing by itself while discarding its head. This was quite unimaginable, no matter how you looked at it.

“In the end, they’re no more than a loose gathering for various sub-humans. Realizing their own disadvantage, they probably chose to escape by themselves while throwing the other races to the wolves.”

Gaius voiced an opinion of what had happened he believed to be the most likely.

The battalion commander asked him, “Should we pursue the zoan?”

If they were to perform that stone-throwing-and-retreat tactic on a battlefield much wider than his one in the future, it’d doubtlessly cause even an elite unit like the 「Black Wall」 a fair share of troubles. As such, the battalion commander felt a dire urge to thoroughly crush the zoan on this occasion to stomp out such a possibility for the future.

However, Gaius quickly denied it.

“No, leave them be.”

It’d be impossible for human legs to catch up on zoan who were running away for real while on all four. Besides, attacking the enemy headquarters took a much higher priority under these circumstances. As long as they could conquer that place, this battle would finish with victory for Holmea.

Moreover, Gaius saw the group, which had been hoisting the enemy general’s flag, trying to scurry inside the fortress after becoming panicked.

Even if it’s nothing but an impromptu fortress, it’ll become a major pain in the ass if the enemy barricades themselves inside. But, if it’s now, we should be able to reach the gate before they close it.

Making such a call, Gaius roared, “Keep advancing just like this! Crush the enemy commander!”

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