Chapter 3 – Story 71: The Humiliation of Sunomuta 11 – Jaw (Beginning)

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Three trebuchets had been installed inside the fake fortress. These trebuchets had been designed by dwarven artisans and carefully checked upon completion, but as they had feared for their existence to get exposed, they hadn’t been able to do any test firing, making this their very first use ever.

And because of that, those trebuchets revealed an unforeseen flaw.

One of the three couldn’t support the impact of the weight dropping and fell apart then and there. Another one managed to fire the stone, but its distance fell utterly short with the stones simply scattering far ahead of the enemy.

But, the last one among the three trebuchets produced the desired result. What Souma had loaded onto the trebuchets wasn’t just one big stone. A big basket crammed with several hundred smaller stones was affixed to the tip of the bracket. The fist- to head-sized stones inside the basket rained down across a wide area like a cloudburst. The heavy spear infantrymen in the area were turned into minced meat alongside their armor in no time.

And it was pure bad luck for Holmea that one of the three regimental commanders, who led the middle row, was swallowed up in that. His death caused the confusion among the infantrymen to become much worse.

On the other hand, the dwarves and humans were scuttling around the trebuchets in order to capitalize on the chaotic state of their enemy.

“Please reload the trebuchets as quickly as possible!” Souma instructed loudly, but they clearly lacked the necessary number of people to reload stones in all trebuchets.

“Give priority to the trebuchets with proven efficiency! We don’t have any time to fire stones pointlessly!”

Upon Norðri’s order, the dwarves chose to only go with the trebuchets that had directly hit the enemy. They heaved up the bracket and placed heated stones at its tip.

“Fire away as soon as you have reloaded! The entire front is your target! So, as long as the projectiles reach the enemy, they’ll hit! Fire away and pounce them hard!”

Alongside Norðri’s throaty laughter, stones were fired in succession by the trebuchet. Confirming the projectiles hitting, Norðri added as if having just remembered it, “Ooops, don’t let the stones fly too far to the sides! It’ll become a bother for the others.”

◆◇◆◇◆

The casualties and injuries exploded among the heavy spear infantrymen of the 「Black Wall」 because of the stone projectiles still flying at them intermittently.

Seeing that, Hiakis shouted in anger, “Open up some space between the units! If you stay like this, you’ll just become a perfect target for their projectiles! Spread out the formation!”

However, no matter how much Hiakis yelled, his soldiers didn’t move.

“What are you doing!? We’ve accumulated more than enough training in siege battles!”

Seeing how they were called Holmea’s strongest army corps, it wasn’t as though they only trained how to perform dense formations on plains. They had also accumulated plenty of training in taking enemy forts and castles.

Among those training sessions, they had also done exercises where they’d dissolve their dense formation and reform their ranks so as to minimize the damage, if the enemy were to bring out catapults or trebuchets. They had done this sort of training often enough that even low-ranking soldiers should be able to cope with it on platoon level, even if their commanders died in action.

Yet, they still hadn’t done this so far. And not only that. The units on the left and right were actually convening towards the center, increasing the density of soldiers instead.

“Message! I have a message! It is a report for Sir Vice-Corps Commander Hiakis!”

Because of this, Hiakis had started to unconsciously raise his voice in rage when the messenger arrived on his horse from the unit at the left wing with his white mantle fluttering.

“Just what the hell is the left wing doing!?!”

Usually Hiakis would never do something like yelling without even giving a messenger the time to report. That alone made clear just how flustered Hiakis was right now.

For an instant, the messenger flinched back from Hiakis’s threatening attitude. But, he immediately raised his voice in order to accomplish his duty.

“I have to report the following: Currently, the left wing is engaged in hostilities with the enemy. They are being overwhelmed!”

“W-What was that!?”

Hiakis was lost for words. The flanks of the Second Division were supposed to be covered by the Third and Fourth Division, including their chariot units.

Just who the hell is the left wing fighting right now?

Before he could voice that question, a messenger from the right flank rushed up to him.

“Message! I have a message! It is a report for Sir Vice-Corps Commander Hiakis!”

Don’t tell me, Hiakis had a bad feeling about this and it proved to be true.

“The right wing is engaged in hostilities with the enemy. It has turned into a melee after they had to discard their spears!”

Not only the left wing, but even the right wing was directly engaging the enemy. Hiakis had never anticipated such a situation to occur. And thus he currently felt dizzy.

Yet, his pride as commander made him ask for a clarification of the situation.

“W-What do you mean with that!? What happened to the 3rd and 4th Divisions!? You’re not going to tell me that they got defeated by the likes of dwarves, are you!?”

The messenger answered, “It is not just the dwarves who are presently attacking the left wing!”

“The same applies to the right wing as well! The enemies attacking us are dwarves, humans, and――”

The word coming out of the messenger’s mouth next caused Hiakis to become completely dumbfounded.

◆◇◆◇◆

From here on, we’re going to trace back in time a bit.

Around the time when the zoan were fervently throwing their stones at the 「Black Wall」, violent battles were also raging on either side of them. Between the 3rd and 4th Divisions of the subjugation army and the units led by Earth Commander Dvalin and Human Commander Marchronis.

Dvalin and Marchronis each led mixed units of 1000 men which contained light human infantry equipped with throwing spears and bows as well as dwarves who carried huge shields which were bigger than they were tall.

Facing them was a chariot unit of 2000 men which included soldiers of the royal army and the participating lords. However, although it was called a chariot unit, most of the unit actually consisted of infantrymen. The reason was to be found in chariots being tools with high costs for maintenance as they required the raising of horses or kiryuu to pull them. For this reason, only officers of the royal army, who received the necessary funding from the country, and lords were able to use chariots.

Moreover, it was common practice for around twenty infantrymen to accompany one chariot in those days. The 3rd and 4th Divisions together fielded 200 chariots which were accompanied by 2000 infantrymen (T/N: Think author blundered here and it should be 100 chariots).

The royal army general, who led the 3rd Division, was roaring in anger on top of his chariot as its wheels loudly clattered across the ground.

“Those guys aren’t just worms, but even turtles!?”

Seeing how they had twice the number in addition to chariots, which were powerful weapons despite their low numbers, the Holmeans had assumed it’d be easy to rout the revolting slaves, but both Divisions were currently at a bind since they didn’t know how to deal with the mixed units of humans and dwarves.

The chariots of this era wouldn’t do something like charging into enemy ranks to scatter enemy soldiers as it was often depicted in movies. Riding chariots became a very bumpy experience with the slightest undulations, and every attempt at a sudden turn came with the risk of toppling over.

Because of that, chariots would usually rely on their high speed to go around to the weaker parts in an enemy’s defense such as the flanks or rear. Their task was to disturb enemy formations through archery and spear throwing. Once an enemy formation came apart, the accompanying infantrymen would charge. This was the common tactic used for chariots on the battlefield.

However, the dwarves had prepared shields that didn’t fall behind in sturdiness and thickness with the shields used by the 「Black Wall」, and they used those to build a wall around them. And without even trying to leave those enclosed spaces, they would attack the approaching chariots and infantrymen with crossbows and throwing spears. It was a fighting style reminiscent of holing up in small forts.

If you wanted to break through those shield walls, one had to get closer in order to hurl throwing spears at them which would pack more of a punch due to the shortened distance. Even the general of the 3rd Division knew as much, but he was unable to put it into practice.

“Those worms sure are crafty buggers!”

One of the lords who lost his temper over the stalemate, ordered his driver to bring the chariot closer to the dwarves.

“Wait! Stop!” The general tried to restrain the lord when he spotted him breaking out of the chariot column, but it was too late.

The dwarven shield wall opened up at a part and a dwarf with a big shield on his back rushed out from the gap with loud footsteps. He hurled his body in the path of the chariot and curled himself up like a turtle with his face pointed towards the ground.

“D-Dodge it!”

The driver pulled on the reins as soon as the lord yelled, but it was in vain. One wheel hit the grounded dwarf, causing the side to be hurled up high into the air, before the whole chariot toppled over in the next moment.

“Now! Finish them off!”

Having seen that, Dvalin immediately hurled his order , followed by swarms of dwarves rushing out of the shield wall. The dwarves ran up to the fallen chariot like ants would swarm to sugar, and finished off the lord and his driver.

“Damn it! Kill those dwarves!”

Arrows and spears came flying at the dwarves right after the order, so the dwarves hurried back inside the enclosure of the shield wall. With his brethren back in safety, Dvalin laughed heartily.

“Compared to being buried in a cave-in, having a chariot drive across you is a bad joke! Come at us at any time!”

Watching the dwarves laughing in concert with Dvalin, Setius, a former platoon leader of Holmea’s royal army and adjutant of Marchronis, looked rather fed up.

No matter how tough the shield on your back, no one with a sane mind would willingly let themselves be run over by a chariot.

Setius said to his human subordinates, who were looking at the dwarves with uneasy expressions, “Don’t worry. I won’t order you guys to do the same.”

The humans obviously became relieved upon hearing his words.

Suddenly they heard countless sounds of the ground being violently hit. As soon as the noise finished, Setius further added, “Besides, it looks like we won’t get a turn.”

At the end of his line of sight a cloud of dust was rising in the distance with a group of people sprinting ahead of it.

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