Chapter 267 - Chapter 260: Clash
"Yuri, how is the morale of the soldiers?"
"It seems there are no problems. The meat served last night likely did the trick."
The morning after ending the opening battle in victory. Noein was exchanging these words with the Chief Attendant, Yuri.
Through the execution of Knight-Bachelor Akab yesterday, Noein had instilled the impression in the soldiers that "those who do not follow orders will be dealt with via cruel punishments, regardless of whether they are nobles." That same night, he distributed meat, which was a precious food item.
The soldiers, many of whom were former peasants who had struggled with food shortages last year, recovered their morale after tasting proper meat for the first time in a long while. Noein had largely succeeded in planting the impression that he was a "general who provides good treatment as long as one follows orders."
If they followed the general, they were treated kindly; if they rebelled, execution awaited. In such a situation, even if some nobles tried to ignore orders again, the soldiers would likely not follow them.
"That's good then... honestly, yesterday was quite a handful, wasn't it?"
"That certainly made my blood run cold."
"Ahaha, so even Yuri can get cold feet."
"Of course I can. What do you take me for?"
When Noein made a lighthearted remark, Yuri gave a wry smile.
They could laugh now only because they had managed to settle the situation, but yesterday's incident was, without joke, a crisis that could have led to defeat. If he had lost because of something like that, he wouldn't be able to die in peace. Noein felt as if he might break into a cold sweat even remembering it now.
"...I wonder what approach Grand Army Commander Foster will take today,"
Noein muttered, holding a cup of warm tea brewed by Matilda, while gazing at the Western Invasion Force of the Betumia Republic Army, whose camp was placed at a distance that was far, yet still visible.
While he had formed several predictions regarding the enemy's offensive with the advice of Yuri and Frederick, he naturally did not yet know which move Grand Army Commander Foster would choose, or if he would attack with a completely unexpected method.
He spent the morning without being overly tense, yet without letting his guard down. Before noon, Frederick woke up and joined them (Frederick had served as the midnight commander to stay alert for night attacks and had been sleeping since dawn).
Around the time they finished lunch, a report arrived stating that the enemy had begun forming ranks for another attack.
"...With that formation, it seems they won't deviate from our predictions."
"It seems so. The enemy overwhelms us in numbers. Any decent general would do the same."
As Noein spoke while having his own ranks organized, Frederick, standing beside him, nodded.
The Betumia Republic Army placed infantry units at the front, with archer units to their left and right, and cavalry units waiting in the rear. They likely intended to charge the infantry all at once to break the vanguard with the power of numbers, remove the log shields blocking the entrance to the narrow pass, and carve a path for a cavalry charge.
Understanding that the rapid-fire performance of ballistas and crossbows was low and their numbers limited, they probably intended to employ human wave tactics to a degree that attacks by "Angel's Honey" could not keep up.
As long as they maintained an overwhelming numerical advantage, pushing through with brute force without using clumsy tricks could be called steady troop deployment.
"Well, steady troop deployment only works on normal battlefields... because we have the trump card of the Arqvist territory, the Claymore."
.....
"Your Excellency. Preparations for the march are complete. We can begin the attack at any time."
"Good, advance!"
The Betumia Republic Army's Western Invasion Force began to advance according to Irene's orders. Looking at the camp of the Lordberg Kingdom's Western Army, the deployment of crossbowmen, archers, and ballistas in the vanguard remained unchanged. The only visible change was that the infantry in the middle rank had moved forward from the left and right of the formation, positioning themselves to deploy to the front at any moment.
"Does the enemy intend to take our brute force head-on? If they truly believe they can endure it, then Betumia has been quite underestimated."
The adjutant stated his opinion in response to Irene's doubt.
"Since there are likely no other effective countermeasures, it may be unavoidable... however, those obstacles in the front row, which look like connected triangular iron plates, concern me."
"Those, huh... I don't know what kind of tricks they've installed, but there aren't even twenty of them. I cannot believe there is something capable of changing the tide of battle in the face of this great army."
Because of the preparations for transporting the wounded and the defense of the camp from yesterday, they could not commit the entire army to the offensive, but even so, they were attacking the enemy with a great army exceeding 15,000. Victory was in sight. That was what Irene thought.
"...Now. Infantry units, charge!"
As the Western Invasion Force steadily approached the camp of the Lordberg Kingdom's Western Army, Irene raised her voice the moment the distance had closed sufficiently. That order was conveyed to the infantry units in the vanguard, and over 10,000 infantry began to run all at once while letting out a war cry.
To support them, the archer units also advanced and released arrows to harass the enemy.
Arrows flew from the opposing Lordberg Kingdom's camp as well. The arrows fired from the bolt-throwers scattered in the air, raining down needle-like arrows that were likely coated in poison, just as they had been yesterday.
Combined with the horizontal fire from the crossbows, the scattered arrows struck the front row of the infantry units with high density.
Furthermore, arrows that flew far longer distances than the Lordberg Kingdom's bows were being released by the archers. It seemed some of the soldiers were using composite bows seized from the wounded.
Counting the scattered thin arrows, it felt as if over ten thousand were flying; the infantry who were hit stopped in their tracks or fell. However, far more soldiers continued to run.
Once the enemy finished the first volley, the density of the arrows clearly thinned thereafter. As expected, projectile weapons with low rapid-fire performance were not enough to stop the charge of a great army.
"Yes! We can do this! Just like this, swallow the enemy camp in one go!"
The moment Irene felt certain of victory.
The mysterious iron plate obstacles placed at the front of the enemy camp moved with a heave, as if someone had lifted them from the inside.
.....
"Hahaha, with an army that size, even ballistas and crossbows can't stop them, huh. It's no wonder."
"Isn't it great, Alain? There are plenty of enemies left for you to take down too."
"Yeah, I'm grateful for that. If I don't take down as many as possible before going back, I won't be able to make up any heroic tales to tell Mary."
Near the front row of the Lordberg Kingdom's Western Army's position, Gustav, the captain of the Claymore, exchanged words with Alain.
Many of the other golem users besides the two of them were also placed in this vanguard, each accompanied by two soldiers holding large shields as guards. While the enemy's arrows were blocked by the large shield soldiers, the golem users gazed forward through the gap between the two shields. Around them, crossbowmen loaded arrows and fired them at the enemy.
"It's almost time... Listen up, you lot! Today is the day we change the history of puppet mages! We'll distinguish ourselves in the great war and change the evaluation of puppet mages not just in the Arqvist territory, but in the entire kingdom! And we'll repay the kindness of Excellency Arqvist, who picked us up! For that, fight with the intent to die!"
"""Ooh!"""
When Gustav shouted his exhortation, the spirited voices of the golem users returned.
"Claymore, advance!"
After confirming that the front of the enemy infantry had approached within a distance of several dozen meters, Gustav gave the order. Simultaneously, the golems hidden behind the breach shields stood up all at once and began to advance, lifting the breach shields.
Perhaps not expecting a mass of connected iron plates to move like a living creature, the enemy infantry at the front showed expressions of surprise. However, if they stopped their feet, they would be trampled by those following, so no one could stop the charge.
The golems, while holding the breach shields, accelerated in a few seconds, aided by the terrain being a slight downhill. The moment the charging enemy infantry closed to a distance of a few meters—they let go of the breach shields and threw them forward.
"Whoa!?"
"Gubuh!"
Iron plates that a human could almost never lift alone flew toward them with their pointed joints facing forward. The Betumia infantry received the impact of the breach shields in astonishment.
Those hit directly by the tip had their heads torn off, or their bodies ripped open, spilling their internal organs. The breach shields, having flown a few meters, fell to the ground according to gravity and slid forward by inertia, crushing the bodies of the soldiers in their path into minced meat.
The golems who threw the breach shields dove straight into the ranks of the densely packed Betumia infantry and began to rampage, swinging their arms.
"Listen! If possible, don't kill the enemy! Limit it to just injuring them... though, in this situation, that's probably not going to happen."
"Hahaha, once a golem rampages, a human's head gets sent flying easily!"
Alain agreed with a laugh at Gustav's words, which the latter had muttered with a sigh at the end.
Golems achieve the most results with a fighting style where they are thrown into the middle of the enemy to rampage chaotically. However, they are originally not suited for delicate fighting, such as neutralizing an opponent without killing them.
If they held back blatantly, they could avoid killing, but if Gustav and the others slacked off now, they wouldn't be able to stop the momentum of the enemy infantry's charge. This was unavoidable.
The general, Noein, also didn't seem to think it was possible to paralyze all enemies while keeping them alive, and instructions had been given in advance that they didn't need to worry about killing enemies in such situations.
Although the enemy numbered over 10,000, the terrain sandwiched between hills meant they could not all push forward at once. Receiving the rampage of nearly twenty golems lined up in a horizontal row head-on, the momentum of the charge weakened visibly.
The Betumia infantry who pushed forward through the golem rampage were now exposed to the attacks of the crossbow units in the area where the log shields were lined up.
From the perspective of the crossbowmen, the only things in front of them were enemy infantry or rampaging golems. Since golems were not paralyzed and barely took any damage even when showered with scatter-shot arrows coated in "Angel's Honey," arrows were fired one after another without worry of friendly fire.
For the soldiers of the Betumia Republic Army, they were in a situation where enemy soldiers firing arrows coated in a mysterious poison were lined up in front of them, and rampaging golems were behind them.
Furthermore, for the Betumia soldiers who managed to slip through the rain of arrows from the crossbows, the infantry units of the Lordberg Kingdom now stood in their way.
"The enemy is exhausted from the charge up to this point! Deal with them calmly!"
"You don't need to deliver the finishing blow! Attack the limbs and seal the enemy's movements!"
The voices of Baron Tobias Oggoren and Baron Noah Wikander echoed, and the infantry, who were a mixture of quality in terms of training, bravely attacked the Betumia soldiers.
The infantry blocked the attacks of the Betumia soldiers as if protecting the defenseless crossbowmen during reloading, knocking the enemy down with spears and swords, or pushing them over with shields, at which point the crossbowmen who had finished reloading fired their arrows. The Betumia soldiers, who were shot with "Angel's Honey" while fallen and unable to move, were silenced as their entire bodies went numb, helpless.
As such scenes unfolded at the front line and the Betumia Republic Army's charge was blocked, large scatter-shot arrows were fired one after another in high arcs from the ballista unit's position located slightly further back, flying over the heads of friendly forces to strike the middle rank of the Betumia Republic Army.