Chapter 3 – Story 73: The Humiliation of Sunomuta 13 – Veterans

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Hiakis was filled with dread. However, not because he and his men were currently in the middle of getting encircled, but because he understood that this was the final act of a grand scheme and not some independent plan.

If our opponent is a tactician with the skill to trifle with the 「Black Wall」, Holmea’s strongest army corps, the lord’s army, which was initially supposed to subjugate the revolting slaves, wouldn’t have had the slightest chance against him, Hiakis assumed. But, the Divine Son of Destruction had no interest in them. From the very beginning our 「Black Wall」 was his primary target. In other words, all of the strategies up until this point were carried out for the ultimate goal of encircling us like this. Beginning with Marven’s Copper Mine, he enacted all sorts of plans and tricks that even led the two major powers of the West, Romania and Holmea, around by the nose. And even all of that was no more than a small part of an unfathomably grand scheme. Moreover, right now and here, the final act of surrounding and annihilating the 「Black Wall」 has begun.

Everything turned into a raging stream, enveloping Hiakis in dread and despair as if trying to wash the whole army corps away into oblivion.

“This is the crystallization of Divine Son of Destruction Soma Kisaki’s demonic talent in warcraft.”

The one evaluating the 「Battle of Sunomuta」 in such a manner was Professor Beckmann, a researcher of military history.

“Many people tend to interpret the encircle-and-destroy strategy applied by the Divine Son of Destruction during the 「Battle of Sunomuta」 as a measure to cope with an enemy exceeding his army’s numbers by leaps and bounds. But, that is a crucial misunderstanding. Many generals brought about their own destruction by failing to notice that misunderstanding and applying the encircle-and-destroy strategy against enemies with a numerical superiority.

But, what should actually be lauded here is the fact of the Divine Son of Destruction having created a situation on the battlefield that allowed his small force to encircle a large enemy force. For this very reason, the 「Battle of Sunomuta」 is referred to as the crystallization of Divine Son of Destruction Soma Kisaki’s demonic talent in warcraft.”

Hiakis looked like he had his spirit completely broken by Souma’s plan, which would be extolled by researchers in the future, but he bit down on his own lower lip.

As if I’m going to give up over something so insignificant!

Hiakis scolded himself.

Even General Darius didn’t stay undefeated! At times I even ran through the mud with him. There’s no way something of this level would break my spirit!

Hiakis stretched himself on his horse, scanning the battlefield. At this point, he could already hear the fierce clashing of sword, bellows, and the zoan war drums not only from the flanks, but also from the rear.

The quintessence of an encircle-and-destroy strategy is fear. People are cowards. Even those who can exhibit ten times the power if they focus their attention on a single point, can’t access even half of that strength if they have their attention distracted by something else. And all the more so, if it’s the fear of a battle that concerns their own life.

Such scared soldiers can’t be called soldiers anymore. They’re no more than a chaotic mob. And even if you gather thousands or ten thousands of such a mob, they won’t pose any threat.

The enemy is well aware of this fact to an annoying extent. Even the zoan’s war cries and furious drumming intends to scare our soldiers. And this has clearly shown its effect. You can see how the ranks are collapsing amidst the elites of the 「Black Wall」. At this point, I should probably regard the 1st Division and the heavy spear infantry led by General Numitos as having lost all leadership.

But, despite that, Hiakis wasn’t willing to give up.

As of yet, we’re still excelling in numbers. If we can break through the encirclement at some point, it should be possible to circle into the back of the enemy and pincer them instead. But, we’re in a situation that makes it difficult to concentrate our forces in some place to break through the encirclement.

If the enemy was only in front, things would have been quickly solved with me ordering to advance towards the enemy. But, right now we’re surrounded by enemies, and in such a situation I must precisely tell the soldiers where they’re supposed to go.

But, the battle communication of this era relied on information being passed on from one person to another like in the telephone game. Under such chaotic circumstances, not being able to pass on the correct orders wouldn’t be the only issue. Rather, those who correctly heard the order, those who didn’t hear the order, and those who misunderstood the order, would all move in different directions, making it quite possible to cause the forces to disperse instead of gathering in one place as initially intended. And in such a case, the smaller parts of the army would be crushed individually.

Besides, the location to make the troops congregate was a problem, too. First off, the rear would be impossible, even though contact hadn’t been cut off completely yet. Currently the back row consisted of the heavy spear infantry of the royal army led by General Numitos. They were furthest back in the 2nd Division. Hiakis wasn’t optimistic enough to expect them to swiftly shift their position in this chaos. And if General Numitos and his men ran into unexpected difficulties, resulting in delays, it was highly likely that the 「Black Wall」, which was still being pummeled by the siege weapon attacks, would end up stuck with their backs turned on the enemies.

However, if you opted for the flanks, this would come with problems as well.

At this point, fierce battles were already occurring at the flanks of the 2nd Division. Not only was the 「Black Wall」 assaulted from its side which could rightfully be described as weakpoint of a dense formation, but even those elites were being overwhelmed despite having tossed away their spears and entered the melee. As such, it was clear that the attacking zoan were likely the top elites of the enemy forces. Destroying those forces to break through the encirclement would be challenging to say the least.

Either way, it’s also dangerous to order a change of positions in such a chaotic situation. In that case, we have no choice!

“Focus all our forces on the front! We’re going to target the enemy headquarters with their supreme commander!”

Hiakis ordered his men to break through from the front.

The enemy has launched an encirclement which a bigger force usually uses to destroy a small force. I’m very sure that they must be stretching themselves too thin at some place. And that is without a doubt the enemy headquarters right in front of us.

That headquarters, which we believed to be a fortress, has been unveiled as a fake and offers no protection anymore. Moreover, it’s manned by merely 500 people, even if you include the elven archers who retreated to that place earlier. Even the attack by a huge amount of siege weapons, which makes one wonder whether they’re planning to make some big fortress fall, has surely been a measure to hide this weakness. In other words, that place is the weakest spot of the encirclement. And above all, the 「Divine Son of Destruction」 is over there!

As long as we can defeat him, this battle will end with our victory.

However, the violent attacks by rams and trebuchets from that enemy headquarters was still on-going. If they tried to charge such a place straight from the front, the losses would be devastating. On top of that, it would be unclear whether they’d be able to reach the enemy headquarters, even after launching such a suicide attack.

Because of that, Hiakis used his spare trump card.

“Veteran unit of the 「Black Wall」, to the front!”

The veteran unit was, as its name suggested, a unit consisting of experienced and skilled soldiers who belonged to the 「Black Wall」 for more than twenty years. They were acknowledged for nothing but their strength after serving in the 「Black Wall」 for such a long time while regularly going through the corps’ grueling training regime. One didn’t even have to mention their teamwork and strength as veterans. They were the elites among elites. And what stood out the most was their identification with the 「Black Wall」. The affections towards 「Black Wall」, to which they had devoted most of their lives, were very strong.

They evaluated the honor of the 「Black Wall」 over their own honor. They would choose victory for the 「Black Wall」 over their own lives. They regretted not having died for the sake of the 「Black Wall」 rather than rejoicing over their survival whenever a fierce battle came to an end. They didn’t mourn the deaths of their comrades, but envied them for having been allowed to die for the 「Black Wall」.

All of them were stout warriors who would readily offer their lives for the 「Black Wall」. However, sending these people to their death was a very bitter decision for Hiakis. For him those veterans were comrades-in-arms who had gone through thick and thin together with him. Although their ranks differed, they were comrades who had tread the thin line between life and death while fighting on many battlefields together with him under the banner of General Darius. Some of them even had saved his life in the past.

Hiakis could call each and every single one of them by name. And he even knew the wine they liked, the food they preferred, the songs they sang while drunk, their favorite phrases, and even their family circumstances.

The 「Black Wall」 was family for Hiakis and those veterans were blood-related brothers to him.

Sending such close friends to their deaths was truly heartbreaking. However, at this point, they were the only one on whom he could rely. He had no choice but to depend on the veterans to break through this predicament.

However, the veterans also knew their opponent. They could guess the heavy feelings Hiakis embraced while sending them out without him having to spell them out.

For this reason, the regimental commander of the veteran regiment first and foremost laughed out loud when he heard the order for them to advance.

“Oh my! I thought of Deputy Corps Commander Hiakis as a stubborn man whose only redeeming worth could be found in his inflexibility, but I was completely wrong! For him to kindly prepare this marvelous stage for us can only be described as fine judgment!” The commander of the veterans yelled towards his men. “Now then, we shall go and create a new heroic saga for the 「Black Wall」! Those unlucky enough to survive will be doomed to travel the bars of Holmea and spread our heroic tales!”

The veterans roared in laughter at that.

“Veterans! All hands, toss away your spears and draw your swords!”

Moving in a close formation while facing trebuchet and ram attacks would be disadvantageous. Having judged it like that, the commander ordered his men to abandon their spears and use their swords instead.”

“Veteran unit, to the front!!”

As soon as their commander pointed his sword at the enemy headquarters, all the veterans started to advance.

“”To the front!! To the front!!””

While shouting as they pushed their way through their allies――occasionally pushing some of them down as well――the veteran unit forced its way to the forefront. The merciless attack by the rams and trebuchets hit those veterans. No matter how veteran they might be, in the end they were humans, too. Some were blown away after a direct trebuchet hit, others were sent flying after a ram and cow ran into them.

In the blink of an eye, many of them got wounded or killed. Yet, not a single one of them faltered under this onslaught. Rather, they took the initiative and used their own bodies to stop the cow-pulled rams. The losses among those who acted as walls were terrifying, but they managed to reduce the damage to the other units.

All over the place, you could see several soldiers blocking the path of the rams, just to get blown away. They managed to stop the cows and their rams, but the soldiers never got up again after fulfilling this task. And if you took a closer look, you could immediately tell that many of them had died from having their necks broken.

A company commander, who was close to one such scene, laughed out loud.

“You’re way too impertinent, you idiots! I won’t allow you to steal my achievements!”

But, the man’s cheeks were stained with tears. Yet, not a single soldier wondered why. They all knew that the dead soldiers were like little brothers to their company commanders. And because of that, they also laughed.

“Hahaha! They beat you to the punch, Commander!”

“Are you going to let them damage your dignity as their elder brother?”

“We’ll all get scolded terribly, if we lose despite all of that!”

The company commander, who laughed once more after hearing his men’s comments, was blown away after getting struck by a trebuchet projectile. At his final moments he looked like a bloody, tattered mess, and yet he still raised what remained of his body and pointed a trembling finger at the enemy headquarters. And no sooner than squeezing out, “To the front,” his soul left his body as if to follow after his little brother.

Such events took place all over the place. Even so, not a single veteran stopped moving. They all kept moving forward. They pushed onwards, stopping the rams with their bodies, and stabbing the cows with their swords even while getting skewered by the cows’ horns.

“”To the front!! To the front!!””

Every single one of them tried to bring victory to the 「Black Wall」 while sacrificing his own life.

◆◇◆◇◆

The spirit of those veterans of the 「Black Wall」 even reached Souma at his headquarters.

“Just what are these people…!?”

Even someone with an unyielding spirit like Shyemul couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by their devotion, her fur standing on end. And not only that. She could also perceive agitation run through the dwarves and humans who had been busily operating the trebuchets thus far.

The desire to bring victory to the 「Black Wall」 by the veteran unit made not only Shyemul, but everyone in the headquarters falter. Shyemul considered this to be quite bad.

Even more than the enemy’s spirit, the enemy’s invasion was much faster than they had predicted. Shyemul thought that things would get very critical at this rate and called out to Souma while staring at the approaching veterans.

“Soma! Give us our next order!”

But, there was no answer from Souma. Wondering just what was making him so confused, Shyemul turned around.

“Soma! The next order! Soma…? Soma!?”

Shyemul’s eyes flew wide open. The one standing there was a trembling, deathly pale boy.

◆◇◆◇◆

Having dispatched the veterans, Hiakis kept looking at the enemy headquarters with an expression as if he was in deep prayer. At this point, he could already hear the zoan drums and war cries becoming predominant.

The 1st Division has very likely collapsed and we should regard ourselves to be cut off from the rear. Trying to save themselves, the soldiers of the 1st Division have probably fled in chaotic order to the rear of the 2nd Division. In such a case, the rear ranks of the 2nd Division should have been torn apart by our fleeing allies. If the zoan surge into those opening alongside our fleeing allies, they’ll immediately bring the battle into close combat. It’s one thing to fight the zoan while keeping them at distance with long spears, but when it comes to close combat against the zoan machetes, our side’s disadvantage is undeniable. The heavy spear infantry led by General Numitos likely won’t last long either.

While enduring an impatience as if being slowly scorched by fire, Hiakis’s eyes widened in surprise as he kept staring at the enemy headquarters.

“……! Those are!?”

It was white smoke.

At first it was just one trail, but as he was watching one trail after the other joined in and soon several trails of smoke billowed into the sky. And then he could finally see how even the trebuchets were enveloped in crimson flames.

“Yahoo! They did it! They reached them!” Hiakis cheered in delight.

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