Chapter 383 - Episode 375: The Battle of Fioluviki Gorge — Decisive Battle ④
The one who stood before the soldiers, screaming, was Helga Revelant.
Her high-pitched voice resonated all the more because it was somewhat out of place on a battlefield. Faced with the unexpected situation of a half-crying princess standing in their way, the feet of the soldiers who had tried to flee stopped in surprise.
"Please wait! I beg of you! Don't run away, please don't run away!"
The soldiers following behind were also swallowed by the strange atmosphere of the place and came to a halt. As a result, they found themselves listening to Helga's words.
"I beg of you! For the sake of your families! Please fight for your wives and children! If you do—if you do, I will protect the future of your families!"
Screaming, Helga stepped toward the leading soldiers. As she stumbled and nearly fell, the soldiers nearby instinctively supported her by her sides, leaving Helga in a position where she seemed to be clinging to them in tears.
"I will become a good queen and make the Revelant Kingdom a wealthier and better country than it is now! I will make your families, your children, and your grandchildren even happier! I promise! So please, do not run away! We can win right now! Please, I beg of you..."
It was not something that could be called persuasion; it was a way of speaking driven purely by emotion.
That was precisely why that crying face, that voice, and those words reminded the soldiers of their families. It reminded them of the figures of the families they had left behind, promising to protect them, waiting at the destination where they had tried to flee.
The Revelant royal family of the last few generations had practiced good governance, and they held strong support from the citizens. Princess Helga, the only daughter of the current king, had also been loved as a precious princess and as the daughter of the entire nation.
Such a Helga—a princess who, from the soldiers' perspective, had been a mere child until a short while ago—was wearing armor, carrying a sword, and calling out to them with a voice and words that still carried a sense of childishness.
That fact shook the hearts of the soldiers who had attempted to desert. It made them think: while the princess stands on the battlefield, appealing to them in tears, are they truly going to run away just like this?
"Warriors of the Revelant Kingdom!"
At that moment, the voice of King Gabriel Revelant thundered. The king took over the flow of the scene that the princess had desperately managed to change.
"The enemy's main camp has been devastated! The enemy has collapsed! Now is the time we can save our country and our families! Follow me!!"
Descending from the top of the checkpoint and standing before the soldiers, Gabriel shouted. As if drawn in by his prestige, the feet of the soldiers who had once tried to flee turned forward once more.
"I... I will fight too. Along with everyone, I..."
As Helga, stumbling and on the verge of tears, tried to draw her sword, the soldiers stopped her with faint smiles.
"Princess, please wait here."
"We have all received your feelings, Your Highness."
"We will protect Your Highness and the country."
"Hey, you lot! We've made Helga-sama, the treasure of our country, cry! Let's fight hard to make it up to her!"
"""Oooooh!"""
The soldiers, who regained their morale as if the panic from moments ago had been a lie, moved to prepare for the sortie while shouting vigorously.
As they ran off toward the front of the fort, Helga was left alone, slumped on the ground in a daze.
As Helga watched the backs of the running soldiers, she happened to shift her gaze and locked eyes with Grand Duke Noein Arqvist.
Noein's expression softened, and he directed a smile toward Helga.
"Splendid."
Having said only that, Noein flourished his robe, turned back to the front, and walked forward himself, accompanied by golems and guards.
.....
"Your Majesty! The main camp!"
Kaia, who had pushed through the battlefield crowded with soldiers and reached near the fort's gate, was called by General Gaziev and looked back.
"!? What do you mean!?"
And then she was struck with astonishment. The main camp where they had been until a moment ago—the main camp now consisting of only a hundred or so soldiers and Cadne—was under attack by the enemy.
From what she could see, the enemy in the rear was small in number, but there were nearly ten golems, the same as the ones exerting monstrous strength atop the fort. Seeing magical attacks flying, there were either skilled mages or soldiers equipped with those specific attack magic magic-tools.
If things went poorly, it was a combat force equivalent to several hundred rank-and-file soldiers. In fact, the hundred or so elite soldiers deployed for the security of the main camp were currently being swallowed by the enemy's attack.
Looking toward where the enemy detachment had come from, there was a forest.
There absolutely should not have been any enemy ambushes inside the forest. Why was such a conspicuous detachment emerging from there?
"Damn it! What the hell is happening!"
Faced with an incomprehensible situation, Kaia cursed while racking her brain. They were in the middle of a battle. She could not spend her time merely lamenting.
The soldiers also noticed the anomaly at the rear main camp, and agitation began to spread. At that point, Kaia raised her voice.
"Do not panic! The enemy's defensive line is on the verge of collapse! If we just take down the fort before us, a detachment of that size is not worth fearing!"
The enemy likely intended to collapse the battle line by pincer-attacking and causing confusion. If that were the case, they only had to crush one side of the pincer. In this situation where the formation was broken, it would be difficult to redeploy and deal with the swarm of golems in the rear immediately, so they should simply continue to storm and take the fort.
If they could rush into the fort and kill the enemy generals Gabriel Revelant and Noein Arqvist, it would be as good as victory.
"Bring the battering ram! Destroy the fort's gate! To the one who destroys the gate, I shall grant a noble title of the Virgoa Kingdom! To the one who slays the enemy general Gabriel, I shall grant the rank of Marquis and the seat of Governor of the enemy's capital, Kurutaveski! Show me your strength!"
Some of the soldiers, dangled with immense rewards, gripped the handles of the battering ram with glinting eyes.
Dozens of men lifted the battering ram, which looked like a felled giant tree, stepped back a few paces in unison with shouts, and then charged vigorously at the gate.
The gate creaked from the frontal blow. From directly above, arrows, stones, and boiling water were dropped, and several soldiers fell as they were drenched in them. Other ambitious soldiers took the vacant handles and joined in wielding the battering ram.
Another blow was hammered into the gate, and the sound of the bolt on the other side cracking echoed.
"Hurry! The gate is on the verge of collapse! Break through with the next blow! Others, prepare to storm in! We will slaughter every cowardly enemy soldier holed up in the fort!"
Kaia herself drew her sword and roared. General Gaziev, the royal guards surrounding them, and the regular soldiers each readied their weapons and responded with a war cry like a roar.
The battering ram held by soldiers filled with courage and ambition approached the gate—
Just before the tip touched the gate, the gate exploded outward from the inside of the fort.
The two wooden gates that were blown away crushed several soldiers they hit directly and knocked over those around them.
Furthermore, a rectangular, black-glinting metal plate—which had likely destroyed the gate from the inside—struck the tip of the battering ram and simultaneously knocked back the soldiers holding it.
The dozens of soldiers who took the unexpected impact head-on tumbled clumsily, and several screamed as their arms or legs were crushed by the fallen battering ram. There were even unfortunate ones whose heads were crushed.
On the other hand, the black metal plate that had hit the battering ram was heavily dented from the considerable impact, but it had neither broken nor split. The one holding that metal plate in one arm was a golem.
Most likely, this golem had charged the gate while holding the metal plate and blown it open from the inside. The golem, which had emerged from the fort holding the metal plate like an L-shaped shield in both hands, mowed down those closest to it with that metal plate among the soldiers who were frozen in astonishment.
From behind it appeared the caster believed to be controlling the golem, accompanied by great-shield soldier guards, and behind them followed further combinations of golems, casters, and guards.
A total of four golems lined up side-by-side, confronting the forces of the Virgoa Kingdom.
"From here on, it's time for the counterattack! I'm gonna slaughter every last one of ya!"
The caster who had blown open the gate at the front spat out the words in a rough tone with a fearless smile. Using that as a signal, the rampage of the four golems began.
Every single golem was equipped with those black metal plates in both hands. The golems, possessing two-meter-tall massive bodies, swung the sturdy metal plates with monstrous strength that humans could not possibly match. It became a wall of violence, punching away, tearing apart, and crushing the soldiers who had been approaching the gate.
The soldiers, who should have been on the verge of storming in after destroying the gate, were pushed back several paces in an instant before the unimaginable destructive power.
"What are you doing! There are only four enemies! If you kill the casters, the golems will stop! Push them back!"
As Kaia commanded, the courageous soldiers readied their swords and spears, searching for a gap to break through the wall of golems.
The golems guarding the gate were spread in a semi-circle, but as they pushed back the Virgoa Kingdom's forces and advanced, the interval between each individual widened. Eventually, the four golems alone would be unable to maintain the defensive line.
Just as Kaia predicted, a large gap opened up right in the center, between the golems lined up two by two to the left and right of the gate. The soldiers also seemed to see this as a breakthrough point, gathering before the gap and readying their weapons, just as they were about to charge—
"!? This is bad!"
"Hey, run! Fall back for now!"
The soldiers at the front of the formation suddenly screamed. However, amidst the chaos of the battlefield, those voices did not immediately reach those around them, and the soldiers who tried to retreat were blocked by those following and could not move. Conversely, the following soldiers had their vision blocked by those in front and could not see the situation ahead.
Then,
"Uoooooooooh! Glory to the Revelant Kingdom!!"
A cavalry unit of the Revelant Kingdom army consisting of fifty-some riders under Marquis Hakkarainen, who had carried out a mounted charge with sufficient momentum from inside the fort, burst through the fort's gate, passed through the gap between the four lined-up golems, and plunged in as a single wedge.