Chapter 116: Twist (3) (1/2)
Jude’s strategy was simple.
The eastern forces would become an anvil, and Cordelia and Jude himself would become the hammer.
While the eastern forces would lead the confrontation in the pitched battle that would begin on Snow Breeze Plain, Cordelia and Jude himself would go and destroy the rear, making them unable to maintain the front line.
The hammer had succeeded at the present moment.
After the two crossed the Sky Roof mountain range, their meeting with Melissa allowed them to use the underground tunnels left behind by Magellan’s high elves.
They had the full advantage in striking the rear of the west because of the deserted mountain.
But this alone was not enough.
The success of the hammer alone did not complete the strategy.
‘If the anvil can’t hold out.’
If the anvil was crushed by the enemy’s offensive.
If his strategy was destroyed as a result of his enemy’s tactics.
That was usually impossible.
But Haraken could make it possible because he had a few aces up his sleeve.
***
“Ararara-rai! Arara-rai!”
Seven Horns, who was reborn as Belial’s puppet, roared as his red eyes flashed.
Tens of thousands of warriors joined in the cry that shook heaven and earth, and their vigor alone was enough to crush their enemies.
And Red Gale didn’t just watch it.
Knowing the importance of fighting spirit, he raised his hand, and the chieftain of the Blade Song tribe, Nine Blades, roared on behalf of Red Gale.
“Kurara! Kurara!”
The eastern forces also shouted together. Horns were blown everywhere, and the wild gods with the eastern forces let out angry roars. They tried to cover the Snow Breeze Plain with divine power.
“Aaaaah!”
“Aaaaah!”
But it wasn’t easy. Something countered their divine power.
The western wild gods, who became hellish monsters as a result of corruption, also howled as their colossal evil thoughts offset the divine power.
The eastern forces numbered around 30,000.
The western forces numbered around 28,000 after losing some of their troops during their unification of the west.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The drums boomed.
Wearing a helmet decorated with the horns of a stag, Seven Horns rode on a hellish monster that resembled a rhinoceros and moved forward, and the corrupted tribal chieftains lined up beside him.
They formed a wedge formation like they usually did and prepared to charge like turbulent waves.
Red Gale had expected it, so he raised his hand again.
Flags fluttered everywhere as the eastern forces went into formation to counter their attack.
“Kuraha! Kuraha!”
The eastern forces struck the ground with the end of their spears.
The western forces roared again as they raised their weapons.
Haraken watched the scene from behind.
His henchman, Sharp Horn, took a deep breath to calm his frightened mind.
The mid-ranking demonic humans all over the place waited for the start of the battle.
And at some point.
When Haraken exhaled, and the moment Jude realized the truth from afar…
“CHAAAARGE!”
Seven Horns loudly shouted and declared. The warriors of the Angry Bull tribe charged forward.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Tens of thousands of people charged at once, causing the ground to shake.
Red Wind swallowed her saliva at the tremendous force that filled her eyes, and the nearby Sun Song took a deep breath.
Nine Blades drew his sword. He turned to Red Gale, who remained silent but was looking straight ahead as he counted down numbers.
It was the know-how in hunting.
Not too soon, and not too late.
Sweat trickled down the forehead of Red Gale. It was the first time for a seasoned and bold warrior like him to fight against such a large army.
One breath.
The Angry Bull tribe crossed the Snow Breeze Plain.
The roars of the wild gods and monsters reverberated in the sky.
“Now!”
Red Gale shouted. Nine Blades swung his sword, and the hand flags fluttered.
The crouching and waiting Blade Song sprang up and shouted, and Great Storm spread his cries throughout the battlefield with his wind.
Violent Avalanche stood up. Gentle Snow Breeze sang.
“Garaaaaaa!”
The eastern forces charged.
Likewise, it shook the ground.
The front lines of both sides.
Those who were at the forefront.
They were immersed in extreme excitement.
Drunk in the madness of the battlefield, they finally met each other’s breath.
Baaaaaaaang!
The waves met.
And broke each other.
Those at the forefront were crushed and slaughtered, whether they were from the eastern or western forces.
In an instant, dozens to hundreds of people lost their lives.
It was a little different from what Red Gale anticipated.
The western forces’ vigor and violence beyond one’s imagination had led to that result.
But Red Gale did not lose his composure.
It was only a few hundreds out of tens of thousands.
Battles on the first day were bound to cause heavy damage anyway.
They had to stop them in Snow Breeze Plain in order to prevent the horrors of war from reaching the east, so they were prepared to have losses on their side too.
‘Our guardian deities are with us.’
Those who dwell in the wild lands call those guardian deities as wild gods.
Red Gale’s belief wasn’t wrong.
The song of Gentle Snow Breeze healed the warriors.
Great Storm boosted the warriors’ energy, and Violent Avalanche’s cheering wasn’t very helpful, but it was better than nothing.
And Blade Song.
He did not hide his temperament. He turned into a huge black wolf and headed to the battlefield himself as he showed off the power of a wild god.
“Be ripped to death!”
He didn’t stop at trampling and biting them off. Blade Song used his divine powers to summon dozens of invisible blades around him to rip apart the western forces.
“Blade Song! Blade Song!”
It wasn’t just the Blade Song tribe. The eastern forces loudly cheered, and Blade Song felt better as he went around the battlefield.
Red Wind also fought hard. Instead of going to the front line, she used the Phoenix in a place somewhat behind it, and her gaze was drawn to the back of Sun Song who fought at the forefront.
Great Storm headed up to sky after reverting his true form of a giant bird.
From there, he monitored the entire battlefield and conveyed what he saw to Red Gale.
Although the battle between the eastern and western forces were violent enough that those in the front lines were crushed, it had now entered a lull.
Instead of people dying one after another, they were just pushing each other away.
It wasn’t bad.
The western forces did not make any tactical maneuvers. There was no mobile unit in the back, nor was there anything unusual in the reserve.
It was just a thoughtless charge.
‘Perhaps we can do it.’
Would we be able to destroy the western forces altogether instead of just holding our ground?
Both ends of the eastern forces stealthily headed toward the front.
They intended to besiege the western forces who was thoughtlessly attempting to break through the front.
If they succeeded in their besiegement…
Great Storm thought that they would be greatly victorious.
The song of Gentle Snow Breeze reminded him of a victory song.
And Haraken looked up at the sky.
Haraken saw Great Storm, the beautiful white bird looking down from above, before he moved his hand.
“Do it.”
The ritual.
What they had been preparing for.
Sharp Horn lifted the flag.
The demonic humans scattered all over the battlefield began to move, and the corrupted wild gods who remained seated rather than step forward since the battle began, finally stood up.
Haraken looked up at the sky again.
He no longer hid his demonic human form’s compound eyes.
***
Cordelia knew Jude well.
She could tell what he was thinking just by looking into his eyes.
So she lowered her posture. She sat in front of the altar and made eye contact with Jude, who had a stupefied look on his face.
“Jude.”
She called him again. Jude came to his senses and stared at Cordelia, who looked at him again instead of talking.
Jude took a deep breath.
He calmed down after doing that several times.
He returned to the Jude that Cordelia knew well.
“What kind of ritual is it?”
It was not a ritual to summon the great demon Kriemler.
Cordelia could understand that much.
Jude opened his mouth.
He told her what he found out.
And soon after, Cordelia’s intuition felt it.
Her instincts told her.
The eastern forces would be defeated.
They wouldn’t be able to beat the western forces.
And as always, her intuition wasn’t wrong.
***
Haraken easily captured the wild lands in the original scenario.
Almost all of the wild gods in the west and east were corrupted and went under his command, and Red Gale and the other rebellious chieftains were purged, so the barbarians were united into a single army.
Therefore, the headquarters of the Devil’s Eye in the Argon Empire did not interfere with Haraken’s movements.
Rather, they did not spare their support for him.
Thus, Haraken did not summon the great demon Kriemler in the wild lands.
He unified the barbarians, who together with the corrupted wild gods, destroyed the northern border area of the Sälen Kingdom before Kriemler was summoned.
He didn’t need to do it before.
It wasn’t until the two swordsmen, Count Bayer and Count Hræsvelgr, defeated the barbarian chieftains as well as the corrupted wild gods, did he have enough losses.
But everything had changed.
Jude and Cordelia made it that way.
Haraken was cornered and made a choice that he did not make in the original.
“O Belial.”
Haraken creepily smiled.
The west was virtually devastated.
All were sacrificed except for the great warriors on the battlefield and the minimum number of personnel for rear support.
A river of blood flowed at the ritual conducted by the great warriors.
‘No one will be spared.’
The wild gods.