60 Toy Soldiers (2/2)

”Keep it up, Thom!” I yelled.

”You really like stating the obvious, don't you, Commander,” Thom said in his typical snide tone from somewhere at the front. ”You heard him, my little Night Bats, let's send these fools down into Hel!”

Invigorated by their chieftains words, the aptly named Night Bats squad continued to slaughter the Magesong soldiers unlucky enough to be in front.

I heard their screams of pain and anguish from my place in the rear. It brought a sickening feeling to my stomach, and I was reminded that I wasn't a kid playing with toy soldiers. This was not how I pictured my teen years going for I had become, at least in my view, a master of war.

Bang!

I swiveled my head around to the action at the center of our encirclement and the reason the enemy was so adamant to break our defenses.

the elf commander who'd been giving Edo a hard time was finally on his knees. His blade broken, lying uselessly at his side.

Edo stood towering over him with his glaive raised, ready for the final strike that would claim another officer's head for my unit. How glad I was in that moment to have Edo fighting alongside me and not against me.

My half-ogre sergeant swung his blade and the enemy's head toppled to the ground with a dull thud. Blood splashed out of the severed neck and dripped down into the ground, soiling the green in red.

I watched Edo raised his glaive once more in an expression of victory that wasn't his usual style. It was always just quiet acceptance like it was simply his job not to lose. This time, however, I could see the triumph in the way his eyes glittered and in the way his nostrils flared. It must have meant that the opponent must have been very difficult to beat.

Edo saw me staring at him and grinned even more. Then he pulled out the tracker orb from his belt pouch and tossed it to me.

I caught it just in time to watch the red glow fade from the orb, but I did notice its shade. It was a deep, almost maroon kind of red that was far from the bright red of a lowly hundred-man commander.

I whistled. ”Well, Edo... I believe you just bagged yourself a thousand-man officer.”

He strode over to me and planted the butt of his glaive on the ground.

”We bagged ourselves a thousand-man commander, Dean,” he said while still grinning.

Fair enough. It was fine to count this as our win. His victory was the unit's victory.

I turned my attention back to our formation.

The original first line of melee fighters had returned to their position at the front. Despite being without a squad leader, they did very well.

Beyond my soldiers, the enemy numbers were dwindling. It seemed the dead thousand-man commander didn't bring all his soldiers to this party. Maybe if he did, we would have been overwhelmed.

”The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself,” I whispered the wise words of Sun Tzu .

”What was that?” Edo asked. He'd raised his rather thin eyebrow at me. ”I didn't quite catch it.”

”Nothing...” I shook my head. ”How about you lead the front troops now. There are still at least two hundred Magesong soldiers we need to beat before we can move on to bigger prey.”

Edo narrowed his eyes after hearing my last words. ”It's never just simple with you, is it? You always have to push harder...”

”My kid brother's been forced into a life of slavery... I don't have the luxury to take it easy,” I reminded him.

”Just don't burn yourself out, Dean,” he said. ”And don't drag Aura into too many bad situations... that girl has a bigger destiny than dying in a battlefield.”

”I know...” My eyes glanced toward the magicians who were close by. Aura stood among them yet she stood apart from them too. She was the north star in a sky full of stars. ”Get going, Edo. We need to wrap this up.”

”Understood, Commander,” Edo said.

For the first time, he actually sounded like he was showing me respect. However, I didn't have the chance to ask him if he finally recognized me as the boss because he'd pushed past Qwipps' archers and was on his way to bring death to our enemies in front. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.