Volume 1 Chapter 6: The Retaking

The four of them made it back to the corps with surprising ease which unsettled both Fadlan and Bradwarden.

“We need to keep our eyes open. We are approaching the desert and there is nothing to hide our movements. It is quite easy to spot a platoon like ours moving through. Good thing it is evening or we would have even more trouble.”

“You’re absolutely correct Bradwarden. Men turn off the lights. We have to move in complete darkness.”

Just as they left the woods, they found themselves surrounded by a large amount of enemy soldiers.

“You think I will not notice a single soldier disappearing? You make yourselves too obvious. March and annihilate them. Leave none alive!”

The enemy commander shouted out to them and the enemy started to move towards them.

“Everyone! Go into the turtle formation. Axe, Bradwarden, may I ask you to protect our backs?”

“I have a better proposal. The two of them absolutely dominate when they are in the center of battle. Have your half your corps switch to their ranged weapons and the rest frontline with the two of them. ”

Nazgrel suggested another course of action which Axe agreed upon.

“Axe can fight an entire army alone! Come to Axe!”

Axe rushed towards the enemy forcing Bradwarden to follow him just like the fight in the city.

The two gladiators crashed into the enemy with bloodlust and began a massacre. The enemy tried to collapse into the two however the Dragon Corps rained arrows on them forcing them back.

“Emma, Fealryc, divide the corps into two and execute the hammer and anvil maneuver.”

Emma took half of the corps and drove into the middle of the enemy splitting them apart while Fealryc took the rest and flanked to the right of the enemy.

Suddenly, Emma’s group turned to the right and started pressuring that half of the army. The rest of the enemy tried to help however they were intercepted by Axe and Bradwarden, driving them back.

Unable to withstand the two-pronged attack from Emma and Fealryc’s groups, the right half of the enemy was eventually routed and destroyed by the corps.

“Commander, we cannot keep this up! We need to retreat and inform the General in the city!”

“You’re right, send a messenger up ahead. Everyone else, retreat!”

Nazgrel noticed a single soldier running up ahead and summoned a wolf. The wolf ran down the soldier in a matter of seconds, killing him instantly before disappearing.

“Stampede!”

The centaur suddenly activated his skill, giving all his allies increased speed allowing them to chase down the remaining enemy.

“Tremble before me!” “Come to Axe!”

Bradwarden stomped down stunning all nearby enemies while Axe used his Skill Berserker’s Call, forcing them to attack him. After they finished off the soldiers, Fadlan examined the aftermath of the fight.

“Fealryc, how much soldiers died from our side?”

“Out of the 40, we lost 3 of them Captain.”

“List them down, we need to give reparations to their families. Men, we need to move on to the rendezvous point. Move out.”

2 hours later

“General, we have managed to scout out the city due to our beastmasters' hawks, here is the gathered intel.”

“Thank you Fadlan, give me the rest of the night to figure out a plan. Have your men rest now.”

The General and his army finally caught up to the Dragon Corps and camped out near the city.

“We’ll need to move out immediately tomorrow, my friend might be able to keep the Library safe but the citizens must be suffering. Do you have any suggestions?”

The General then spent the night thinking of a plan with the help of his assistants.

6 hours later

“Fadlan, my army will enter through the south gate and distract their army. Take 5 of your best soldiers and accompany Axe, Bradwarden and Nazgrel to the Library. Fire a flare to signal that you have arrived and we will converge there. After the Library is secured, we will then move to liberate the rest of the city.”

“Affirmative sir, you heard the General men. Ready yourselves, we move out now!”

Their combined army started their siege of the the city and managed to open the gate in the south wall.

“Then we’ll split up here. Nazgrel, guide them towards the Library. Keep safe everybody.”

“Emma, pick four soldiers and come with us. Fealryc, I’ll leave the Corps under your command.”

The nine of them then left for the Library, weaving through the alleys.

“We should probably help the General in fighting the army. Let’s destroy some of their units to relieve some pressure.”

Bradwarden suggested a plan after seeing all the soldiers running around which Nazgrel agreed to.

“Then let’s do just that. My wolves, to me!”

Nazgrel summoned his two wolves and ordered them to engage on any soldier they passed through.

The wolves ran amok on the enemy, picking off anyone they could find and ravaging them.

Axe finished off any enemy who managed to escape the wolves, culling them with one blow.

“There’s the Library. Everyone, let’s go do our job! ”

This godforsaken soldiers are so useless. They can’t even do a simple job as capturing a building?

“Why can’t you people enter the Library yet? It’s just one person! How hard can it be?”

Why am I leading such an incompetent squad? I should have a higher rank but I’m stuck here babysitting idiots who can’t even kill a single person?

“But sir, the hallway he is defending from is too narrow to fit more than a few soldiers. He’s also not your average soldier.”

“What do you mean not your average soldier? Maybe you all are just too stupid. We’ve been here for 4 hours. 4 hours! And you haven’t even made any progress. Can’t you just mob him till he get’s too exhausted to continue?”

“We will lose too many men doing that sir!”

“I don’t care! My promotion is on the line here. My order is final, go now!”

“Yes sir. I will do-”

“Sir! We have been flanked! Our right side was completely caught off guard and has been wiped out!”

“What! How did this happen? How many are there?”

“There’s about ten of them sir, and they’re heading right this way!”

What the hell? This isn’t what I signed up for. The mission was just to take a building.

“Follow me, let’s see what’s happening there.”

When I arrived there, all I saw was all hell breaking loose. A red man who was swinging around an axe while laughing. A centaur stomping around for fuck’s sake! There’s a centaur this far east? Why are there wolves running around too! There’s also soldiers that are systematically destroying us! Why can’t my soldiers be like that?

“Everyone, move back! We can’t fight them in the streets! Lure them into an open area! You there, run and get us reinforcements from the headquarters.”

“Sir, I’m from the headquarters. They’re also asking for reinforcements.”

What the hell is happening, minutes ago everything was falling into place now we’re getting destroyed.

“Fuck this shit, I might want a promotion but I value my life more. Everyone we need to retre-”

That was all he could shout before a sword came out of nowhere to pierce his skull.

“Well, that’s all of them. Let’s go to the Library.”

Nazgrel spoke while taking out his sword from the head of the enemy leader.

“Are you the people sent by the General? You have been a great help.”

Just as they reached the Library, a wiry looking man met them outside.

“Yeah we are. We’re supposed to secure the artifact. Is it safe?”

Fadlan replied to the man while preparing the flare to signal the completion of their mission.

“It’s safe. So what’s the plan now?”

“We wait for the General to finish the job here. Can we wait inside?”

“Sure, it is a public place. Just not for Empire soldiers.”

“General, they seemed to have finished their job. The artifact is probably safe.”

One of the General’s assistants spotted the flare and reported it.

“Is that so? Then let’s finish fast, we still have lots of things to do after this. Everyone, if we can finish within an hour you are all getting a bonus.”

The General nodded and mounted his horse riding towards the battle himself.

“You heard that everyone? For the Kingdom!”

“For the Kingdom!"