Huxley had barely gotten a wink of sleep before duty abruptly invoked his wake. It was a few hours before dawn. He had gone to bed te into the night, only to be woken up after two hours or so. His trusted subordinate had woken him up, bearing grave news from the capital and also his scouts. He quickly got dressed in his uniform and took the report from his subordinate’s hand.
He felt a tremor from his subordinate’s hand through the report. He doubted his subordinate would take a peek at a cssified document but sometimes, the report didn’t need to be read to be understood. In most cases, the messenger’s expression would be enough to give away the nature of the report.
Huxley feigned ignorance to his subordinate’s apprehension and unrolled the report to devour the contents. He had read only the first few lines and he already felt despair, exasperation, and anger overwhelming his senses. At the same time, he didn’t know why he bothered holding out hope. This entire expedition was doomed to fail from the beginning. He would be more surprised if the expedition bore even a single fruit.
As he had already expected, the court had rejected his request for more reinforcements. And of course, the reason being that more than enough resources had already been given to the expedition and it’s only due to the incompetence of the leaders that led to the current state of the expedition. Huxley wanted to just let his rage show but losing control now would be detrimental to their already terrible situation.
The next report detailed the failure of the Arch Knights’ furtive attempt to invade the Lavans’ territory. Rodrick had taken all the remaining Arch Knights with him and the corpses found by the scouts matched the numbers, including Rodrick himself. From what the scout had investigated, this was the work of one individual. If there was an individual, this expedition was all but assured of its defeat. Retreat would be the wisest choice but the court was not wise.
Huxley wondered if the Lavans knew about their overwhelming odds in this war. If they knew, why hadn’t they attacked them already? Huxley couldn’t help but contempte deeply on this.
“What are your orders, General?” asked the soldier who remained in Huxley’s tent as the tter read the report.
“What orders are there to give other than to sleep? Our men are tired. Tomorrow will be the final battle. We need all the rest we can get.”
“We are advancing?” the soldiers asked in disbelief.
“We have not been given the leave to retreat.”
“But our forces are not enough.”
“What will you have me do? Our orders are clear. We are to advance and attack the Lavans. There will be no retreat.”
“We will lose and we will die. How can they just command us to march to our deaths?”
Huxley sighed and rose from his seat. “I have asked myself the same question countless times, soldier. We are no different than hounds and mounts to them.”
“General, we have to retreat.”
“If you want to leave, I won’t stop you. We will all be dead either way. However, if you do decide to leave, know that your family will suffer your treason.”
The soldier fell silent and his face darkened. “...I understand, Sir… If you would allow me, General, may I be excused?”
Huxley gave his permission with a wave of his hand.
The soldier bowed and promptly retreated from the tent.
Huxley took the report into his hand and gave it another gnce, hoping to find something that he might have missed. It was wishful thinking but it was better than him sitting around and brooding about the impending disaster. He ended up spending hours on the report. He scoured the report over and over again but nothing came of it. In the end, he could only accept his fate.
****
The fortress still had more than half of its journey to but it was already exuding an impressive impression and boasting a defence that would take a barrage of cannons to take it down. Once it was complete, it would be able to withstand a siege for months or even years.
“Is there a need for all these preparations?” Yu asked as she stared into the distance from atop the rampart that overlooked the nds before the mountains of Ulrum. She saw an army of soldiers approaching from afar. The army couldn’t be said to be small but it wasn’t big either. Still, the size of the army didn’t give her the impression that it was in any state to y a siege. “The five of us would be enough to take on this army.”
“This is their home,” said Henry who was standing beside her along with the rest of the girls. “They wanted to protect it with their own strength and might.”
“I’m aware of that but still… this is all one big unnecessary hassle.”
“A hassle for them, not for us,” said Rayne. “We do not need to interfere unless absolutely necessary. Less work for us.”
“I thought you would be saddened by the ck of opportunity to participate in a battle.”
“What do you take me for?” I love a good battle but only if it’s my own battle, not others.”
“Ours or theirs, the Lavans’ victory is assured.” It was Sarynn’s turn to give her opinion. “Humans are foolish. Do they not see that victory is impossible for them?”
“They are not to be bmed,” Ani expined. “It is not their fault. They are soldiers. They are just following orders. If they go against their orders, they will be tried and mostly executed. Even their family will not be spared from the punishment.”
“And they call me a monster,” Saryn scoffed. “I have to say, this is a very boring spectacle.”
“Boring as it may be, we are here to ensure that the Lavans will not be suffering any grave casualties. We must expect the unexpected.”
“What kind of unexpected are we expecting?” Yu asked.
“Syers. Dregs. Mages. Just reinforcements in general. We cannot rule out the possibility that the kingdom misled their own people in order to mislead us. Wouldn’t you say that’s a very likely possibility, Kiera?”
The Magus was not with them but she wasn’t far away either. She was sitting under a tent that was hastily pitched for Henry and his women. Currently, only Kiera was making use of it.
“It is a possibility,” Kiera answered without sparing Henry a gnce. “They have done it before but I doubt they would repeat the same strategy this time, considering the current state of the court.”
“Well, better safe than sorry.”
“The true battle lies ahead,” Kiera added. “The sooner we are done with this, the sooner we can confront the outworlder.”
“The outworlder who’s hiding behind the court of the Argon Kingdom? You’re skipping a few steps, don’t you think so?”
“The longer we wait, the deeper the outworlder would have embedded himself into the kingdom.”
“And how do you propose that we stop him right here and now, without making tremendous sacrifices?”
Kiera clicked her tongue and argued no more.
“If it were me, I’d just raze the whole city with fire,” Rayne suggested.
“We are not doing that.”
“It’s a very effective and definite way of making sure our enemies are all destroyed.”
“At the expense of innocents?”
“A necessary expense.”
Henry sighed. “I would have nightmares about it.”
“Weak,” Rayne scoffed.
“Imagine if I had razed your whole tribe to the ground just because of you. How would you feel about that?”
That seemed to have struck a chord with Rayne as her brows creased into a frown and she gred at Henry. “You will do no such thing.”
“I will not, thankfully.”
“...Kiera is right,” Ani said. “The outworlder’s strength will grow. This whole expedition might even be his pn to stall for time.”
“There’s nothing we can do except to wait for our… allies to do their part. After the forces of this expedition have been destroyed, the princess can leverage this failure to gain more influence and power. After she has gained enough power, it will then be our turn to move. Hopefully, Vishara will not be doing anything foolish in the meantime.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Rayne murmured under her breath.
“It has begun,” Sarynn said.
The horns bred and the gates that led to the forest beyond Ulrum were open. Lavan soldiers came marching through from the pass. They wore armour that was tailored to their bodies. If one had horns, they would have a helmet that allowed them to wear it without their horns getting in the way. The Lavans brought no machines or any portable mass weapons with them. However, they did have mages with them. Unlike the human mages, the Lavan mages were also wearing armour. They blended well with the rest of the soldiers.
The Lavans carried no banner or fg with them as they marched. They needed no decration nor did they feel compelled to dispy their symbols as they crushed their enemies.
“Why can’t the Lavans just wait for the kingdom forces to come?” Ani asked.
“A proud dispy of strength, or so the Grand Marshal says. It would complicate the construction of the fortress if it received too much damage during the siege in its current state.”
“They should have just let us handle them,” Ani grumbled.
“Well, I am sort of excited to see how capable the Lavans are.”
As if they heard Henry’s musing, the Lavans stopped their march and the archers were preparing bows and stances. The kingdom army was still miles away but the Lavans had already taken root of their formation. When the commander gave his orders, the archers drew their bows. Henry saw the faint shimmering over the bows. Evidently, spells were involved.
The commander shouted another order and the archers fired their bows. The arrows flew into the sky. They flew fast and true, and much higher than what Henry thought was possible. Then again, these were arrows enchanted with magic. The arrows flew high enough to cast shadows on the kingdom army that was still miles away.
The kingdom army was confused at first but when they realised they were being attacked, they scrambled to their positions. Unfortunately, their realisation came too te. The mages were a few steps too te in casting the barrier. The arrows decimated a quarter of the army force before the barrier was erected and defended against the barrage of arrows.
The Lavans did not give the kingdom army a moment to breathe. As soon as the first barrage was over, they unched the second. This time, the kingdom army was prepared. The barrier stopped all of the arrows and they continued their march with a quicker pace. Though they were safe, for now, the apprehension on the soldiers’ faces was clear to see. Henry could smell their fear and distress from where he was.
The Lavans did not panic nor did they show any hint of concern. The archers simply set their arrows alight with fire before unching another barrage.
It was only morning. The first light of dawn had only just arrived. The sky was still shrouded in the fading darkness of the night. When the fming arrows reached the sky, the bze illuminated the forest for a brief moment. That very brief moment was enough to instill terror in the hearts of the kingdom soldiers.
Those fming arrows weren’t just arrows with fire. The soldiers were not aware of the spell the Lavans used and they felt their despair by instinct. The fming arrows were bad news. The human mages erected another yer of barrier just as the fming arrows struck the army. The second barrier received only half of the barrage before it shattered into millions of pieces. The first barrier received the rest and it also shattered in a simir manner.
The kingdom army stopped their march right then and there. There was no winning this battle, they all came to realise and acknowledge that very fact.
