Chapter 111 - Episode 110: Sacrifice
"The enemy seems quite enraged by last night's night raid... they look more hot-blooded than usual."
"Well, that's only for now. They must be severely sleep-deprived from last night, so their physical and mental strength should be heavily depleted."
Frederick and Noein exchanged these words while watching the Lancel Kingdom army as they began to march in formation.
"True... however, the fact remains that the enemy is still a great army of 1,000. Let us execute the operation calmly, without letting our guard down."
"Yes, I'll do my best too."
As he answered Frederick, Noein moved the fingers of both hands as if stretching them. In golem operation, hand movements are important as auxiliary motions to transmit consciousness to the golem.
On top of the castle walls, beastmen stood lined up with Crossbows poised as usual, and at the gate, the Ballista unit led by Yuri was preparing to fire arrows.
"Chief Squire, if the enemy is like that, the effect of the explosive flame arrows will be halved..."
Looking at the enemy from the open gate, an archer soldier spoke anxiously.
Because they had been showered with many explosive flame arrows in the previous battle, the Lancel Kingdom army had taken thorough countermeasures. They had made carts from timber cut from the forest and lined logs on top of them, creating large-scale mobile barricades.
The enemy soldiers were advancing while hiding behind several of these barricades.
"True... we used quite a few explosive flame arrows in last night's raid, so let's save them. Switch to normal ammunition."
By Yuri's judgment, ordinary arrows were loaded into the Ballistas, and the first shot was fired as the enemy approached.
One shot pierced and stopped in the log barricade, while another skillfully threaded through the gap between the barricades and dove into the enemy formation. It seemed to have penetrated and taken down several people, but there was no sign of the enemy's advance slowing.
"Tch... Noein-sama, it seems the Ballistas' effect is already thin. It looks like we can only manage to take down a few people here and there."
I see, well, I guess that's how it would go... Let's close the gates and prepare for the defense.
"Right."
Yuri ordered the territorial army soldiers to close the gates.
Even while doing so, the Lancel Kingdom army steadily approached, and once both sides entered firing range, an exchange of arrows and crossbow bolts began.
"Don't waste your shots! Aim for the gaps between the barricades!"
"Don't flinch! The enemy is firing from below the hill; the power is weak, so they won't hit easily!"
Frederick shouted encouragement, and on the castle wall on the opposite side of the gate, Pence did the same, as the beastmen spurred themselves on under a rain of arrows and fired their Crossbows.
Most of the arrows fired by the Lancel Kingdom's archers flew over the walls and into the fort, and many of those that flew toward the walls were blocked by the shields held by the beastmen or bounced off armor due to poor angles.
Some of the bolts fired from the beastmen's Crossbows stuck into the Lancel Kingdom army's mobile barricades, but many reached the enemy soldiers through the gaps between barricades or from above the barricades. With the advantage of height, the Lancel Kingdom army suffered far greater casualties than the Lordberg Kingdom army.
Still, the Lancel Kingdom army continued to advance relying on their numbers and reached the walls of Barrel Fort.
Soldiers carrying ladders leaped out from behind the barricades and leaned them against the wall—and then, at that moment.
In the very center of the Lancel Kingdom army's formation, soil scattered as if the ground had exploded. In two places.
Simultaneously, soldiers were blown into the air one after another. Faced with this abnormal situation, the vanguard of the Lancel Kingdom army, which until then had shown disciplined movement, turned into a disorganized mob.
"Gyaaaah!"
"What is this!"
"G-Golems!? You've got to be kidding!"
Golems that had been buried in the ground during the night leaped out and began to rampage in the center of the completely defenseless enemy formation. Witnessing the golems, which should have been sluggish, rampaging with agile movements, the Lancel Kingdom army fell into a state of panic.
The anger of the soldiers caused by their camp being disrupted by the night raid seemed to have already cooled.
Seeing this, Frederick turned and shouted.
"A great success, Noein-dono! The enemy formation has collapsed all at once!"
"Yes! We can push them back like this!"
While shouting back, Noein pointed both hands toward the golems and moved his fingers, making the golems rampage in the middle of the enemy formation. Matilda protected Noein with a shield, guarding him so that enemy arrows would not reach him.
Some soldiers recklessly challenged the golems with spears and swords to try and stop them, but there was no contest between a human and a golem. Even the large beastman soldiers, such as lion-men, ox-men, and tiger-men scattered among the enemy, were overpowered and blown away.
When a golem swung its arm, the head of the soldier it hit directly flew off and rolled; when a golem walked, the stomach of a soldier lying at its feet was crushed. A soldier who flew through the air after being hit by a golem's arm was impaled on another soldier's spear.
Just by Noein making the golems rampage blindly, blood-stained corpses piled up.
Even amidst this, the beastman conscripts did not stop firing Crossbows from the wall. Lancel Kingdom army soldiers distracted by the golems were cut down by a rain of arrows, and soldiers distracted by the top of the wall were punched away by the golems.
Crossbow bolts hit the golems as well, but the golems, made of a special hard wood, deflected them as if it were nothing.
"Noein-sama, the enemy seems to have noticed you!"
Matilda raised her voice while covering Noein with the shield. The enemy, realizing that the puppet mage moving the golems was Noein, began to target him intensively with bows.
"Tortoise formation!"
When Noein shouted, the surrounding soldiers who had been pre-designated positioned their shields and crowded around Matilda. The cluster of shields, lined up like a tortoise shell, enveloped Noein and prevented the enemy arrows from passing through.
From the slight gaps between the shields, Noein gazed at the enemy army and continued operating the golems.
Meanwhile, Frederick commanded the beastmen and spoke after observing the enemy's state.
"Some gutsy fellows are climbing the ladders! Prepare for melee combat!"
Some of the Lancel Kingdom army soldiers, realizing they had no hope of survival while dealing with golems while being targeted by Crossbows, resolved themselves, rushed toward the wall, and began to climb the ladders. In response, the defenders, just like last time, had the beastman loaders rush up to the wall, and a fierce battle broke out there.
A brave soldier of the Lancel Kingdom army who reached the top of the wall was, however, immediately punched down by a large beastman. The ladder that soldier had just climbed was also kicked away.
A beastman who had been desperately fighting back with a spear to keep the enemy from entering the inside of the wall was hit by an enemy arrow and fell.
The commanding officer, a man, also watched this scene of fierce fighting unfolding across the fort's walls from the rear of the Lancel Kingdom army's formation.
"Kill that puppet mage! At this rate, we'll get nowhere! Move our mages forward!"
"But Excellency, if we send the mages into the midst of those rampaging golems, they will be killed before they even have time to concentrate their magic! Mages are precious!"
"Then have all the archers shoot that tortoise formation and break it! At least one shot should pass through the gaps in the shields!"
The man was impatient, fearing he would suffer another defeat because of a single puppet mage. After being made a fool of by the night raid, if he failed to take the fort despite attacking with a force several times the size of the enemy, his own ability as a commander would be questioned.
The man continued to yell while staring at the fort ahead with a grim face. The guard soldiers around the man were also captivated by the sight of the front lines where the golems were rampaging.
Everyone was looking forward. Because of that, vigilance toward the rear had become lax.
Suddenly feeling something was off, the man looked back diagonally behind him. Then,
"What! Impossible!"
There was an unfamiliar cavalry unit.
There were about ten riders. For each horse, two small beastmen, such as rat-men, were mounted; the beastman in front held the reins, and the beastman in the back held an unfamiliar weapon that looked like a small bow mounted sideways on a pedestal.
All the weapons were pointed toward the man.
"G-Guard soldiers—"
Before the man could finish speaking, an arrow pierced through his entire body.
...
"Noein-dono! Jinozze's unit did it! They've taken down the enemy commander!"
Noein, whose vision was limited by the protection of the shields, learned that his plan had succeeded upon hearing Frederick's shout.
He had given magic tools of explosive flame arrows to beastmen with night vision and had them sneak into the enemy camp to cause confusion. In that opening, he buried golems in front of the fort, and further had Jinozze command beastmen capable of riding horses to hide in the forest to the front-right, moving through the forest to circle around behind the enemy.
While in combat with the enemy, he launched a surprise attack from beneath their feet with the golems, and while the enemy was distracted by that, the cavalry unit led by Jinozze approached from behind the enemy and took down the enemy commander with Crossbows.
It was a clever stratagem to thoroughly confuse the enemy and strip them of their function as an army through a three-stage surprise attack.
"I'm glad! And, what about them?"
"They are trying to bypass the battlefield and the fort to circle around toward the east gate! The enemy seems to have noticed too! We will support their retreat!"
"Yes!"
After shooting the enemy commander, the time when Jinozze and the others retreated was the most dangerous. Noein's golems and the Crossbow units on the wall held back the enemy soldiers who, realizing they had been ambushed from behind, tried to attack Jinozze and his group.
Even as they threw golems at them and rained down bolts with Crossbows, the enemy, superior in number, tried to close in on Jinozze and the others. It was impossible for infantry to catch up to cavalry, but the arrows fired by archers tried to reach them relentlessly.
Slipping through the rain of enemy arrows, the ten cavalrymen circled to the rear of the fort and leaped in through the east gate.
One by one they returned, and finally, Jinozze, who was riding with his son Kenooze, entered the fort.
By that time, the Lancel Kingdom army, greatly confused by the loss of their commander, retreated like a receding tide.
"Alright! Today is our victory again! Well done, everyone! Confirm the dead and wounded!"
Frederick, who shouted those instructions to the soldiers, descended from the wall and headed toward the cavalry unit of Jinozze and the others who had played a heroic role. Noein also followed Frederick, accompanied by Matilda.
"Jinozze, and everyone else, truly thank you for your hard work."
Noein offered words of appreciation to the beastmen, who looked exhausted as if they had used every ounce of strength to shake off the enemy's pursuit. The beastmen nodded in response.
However, Jinozze showed no reaction. He remained motionless behind his son Kenooze with his eyes wide open. There was no light in his eyes.
"Jinozze?"
When Noein approached him—an arrow was protruding from his back.
"...Ah."
The moment he saw it, Noein felt the strength leave his body. He desperately struggled to keep from collapsing.
Kenooze looked back and, after confirming that his father had passed away, turned toward Noein and quietly shook his head.
"...I'm sorry."
Those words impulsively escaped Noein's mouth. Jinozze died for the sake of the plan he had devised. He had caused him to die. That realization suddenly struck Noein.
"Your father is a hero. Today's victory exists thanks to him. I am proud to have fought alongside him."
"...Thank you. I'm sure my father would be happy too."
Frederick stepped in front of Noein and spoke those words to Kenooze. Kenooze replied. That voice, which he was hearing for the first time, resembled Jinozze's slightly.
Noein couldn't think of any words he should say to Kenooze. Kenooze glanced at Noein, lifted his father's motionless body off the horse, carried him on his shoulders, and departed.
"...Noein-sama."
Matilda called Noein with a worried voice.
"I'm okay, Matilda, I'm okay... I'm just very tired. Let's go back to the room and rest a bit."