Chapter 62: Seventh Episode: Chapter 7 (1/2)
Chapter 62: Seventh Episode: Chapter 7
Translator: EndlessFantasy TranslationEditor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The sun shone it’s light seductively into the woods, spilling waves of luminance on its dark green leaves. The wide, expansive woods were colored with a hint of lethargy, the afternoon heat silencing the tireless birds. However, a sudden flock of great tit birds leapt into the air, as if startled, agitating the peacefulness of the forest. The birds formed a cylindrical pillar, landing in a field not far from the woods.
On Light’s Year 791, 3rd Day of 8th Month, the sky of Narcissus County was as clear as crystal. Not one cloud was seen in the air, hinting at its appropriateness for a road trip. It wasn’t so for Prince O’Neil, however, he thought it to be intolerable.
”No! Not there!” Oscar winced and whined. ”Oh Percy! Can you please be softer! Oh, not there! Higher!”
The Poison Doctor was a little impatient, the poor kid’s injury wasn’t that bad, but the damage to his viscera wasn’t easy to take care of.
”Your Highness, can you tell me where exactly feels bad? I feel like I’m wasting my precious herbs on the wrong spots. Besides, no massage can treat your pain right now.
Oscar scratched himself on his back, to be honest, he didn’t know where it was either.
”Fine! Just forget it alright?” The teenager stood up, somewhat distraught. A knight brought him his stallion knowingly.
Little Oscar mounted his horse while continuing to wince. The pain became worse whenever he moved.
Right now, he missed the massive four-poster bed in his mother’s bedroom. He remembered it was made of Ollier Red Pine, that was such a good material to fall asleep in. What he lacked was a good night’s sleep, he and his direct division had been in pursuit of their enemy for a whole day and night.
”What’s happening in front?” The Prince asked a regimental commander beside him.
”Not clear, sir, Division Commander Murat had led the Seventh Assault Team onward, maybe they’ll be the last pursuing troop, but we still may need the Eight or the Ninth Assault Team. I don’t know what else we can do to stop these Persians!”
Oscar glanced at the hill ahead of him and shook his head, ”I don’t want to know how they are, because they will definitely lose their life here.”
”Yes sir! However, we would be paying a high price here as well. Those Persians weren’t choosing their escape route haphazardly, but specifically terrains that are difficult to form a cavalier formation. I don’t like admitting this, but from the few times we exchanged attacks, there’s still some distance between our knights and these guys, it’s the truth.”
The teenager patted his shoulders, ”That’s right! But once the exhaustion and expiration of soldiers accumulate, they would give up eventually.”
”Hope so.” The regimental commander smiled wryly. Waiting for the enemies to crumble, that’s the last resort.
***************
Near noon, about 70 miles from the Traisen Front’s headquarters Werksan City, Fort Oak was in such a chaotic state, people would think enemy had already arrived at the city gate. The cavalry stopped outside the arched entrance to equip their horses with heavy armor. Even though the warhorses of Narcissus Knights had been heavily trained, some horses were still reluctant wearing a full set of armor at forty degrees*. The knights persuaded their partners patiently, so if you saw a knight talking to himself while stroke a horse’s mane, don’t be weirded out, that’s a warrior negotiating with his partner.
The officer who was in charge of the tools of war allowed access to the basement of the fort, he arranged for soldiers to retrieve bunches of arrows, coupled with new bows, to be handed over to each combat personnel according to their portion.
The archers in the Narcissus Knights were famed for their meticulousness, in addition to their accuracy. To achieve optimum accuracy, they had to have a good bow.
The first thing archers do after they receive their bows was to examine the tension of itw bowstring, usually that is enough to tell us what type of archers they are. Marksmen would usually tune their bows tight beyond normal bows, only they would need the arrow to have the power and speed to pierce armors. Those who tune their bows loose were the Bow Brigade, they need the arrows to soar, riding on the wind before gaining momentum at the down movement for an indiscriminate attack. The ones who had normal tension in the bowstring were definitely rangers, they need to switch between the two extremes.
The most important weapon of a lancer is, of course, a lance about three meters long. This type of weapons are usually heavy and expensive. The armory officer was clutching his heart at the soldiers choosing from his weapons until they decided on one. The easiest weapons to part with were the swords and axes. These weapons were the most vulnerable to destruction, because after each battle, these weapons would basically be considered broken. As long as the weapons were thrown into the smelter, it could be reforged with relatively similar quality. As the ax and sword warriors put it, ”No matter its length, breadth, and thickness, as long as it’s a sharpened blade!”
The ax and sword warriors gathered on the field west to the fort. Their formation seem chaotic, but if one paid attention, they would notice the disorganized formation were clearly divided into teams. The warriors subconsciously clustered together into teams with differing number of people, some were less than a ten, some a dozen, and some even formed into teams with scores of soldiers. On the tumultuous battlefield, ax and sword warriors were grouped together as a supporting attack unit.
These knights who were examining their armors on the clearing were the best and second best cavalry units that were grouped into a regiment, they were enlisted secretly at Werksan City. They were a level higher than the divisions, at full number, they would have ten thousand people a column. The first thing they did at Fort Oak was to rest, after a long night of travelling, the soldiers were exhausted. Fort Oak didn’t have enough space to accommodate them, so a large number of knights slept in the hallways, wrapped in their clothes and blankets. Fortunately, the weather is warm, so the knights weren’t in discomfort.
Like all elite troops, these knights directly belonging to General Figg Andrew Tibotty understood, if they were dispatched to the battlefield, the battle must be in a pretty intense situation, so they prepared meticulously, filling up their warhorses’ food supply, oiled their weapons, prayed for their family and comrades. After the ritual was done, they could finally rest easier. They stared at their own leader. When the order to attack came, they would charge fearlessly toward their enemies.
General Figg Andrew Tibotty stood outside the arched door of one of the houses, facing a crowd of officers in the Front.
”Please communicate these orders to your subordinate!” Figg scanned at his high-level knights.
”One, we must converge with the Third Corps before 1000 hours on 4th Day of 8th Month, before the Persians retreated past the border; Second, on the same day, 1400 hours, get into position for attack; and three, the most important part, this is not a battle for decimation, we don’t need to take care of the enemies who keep trying to pester us. I want a clean-cut counterattack, our goal was to weaken the enemies’ power, so they know they didn’t waste their time coming here…”
Several officers in front of Figg snickered as a result of that.
”Alright, alright!” Figg motioned them to quieten. ”That is all, any questions?”
”Yes sir!” An officer with a major general shoulder mark and Paladin medal answered. ”General, how do we fight? Do we go all at once or do we go in order?”
”We will discuss that when we arrive at the battlefield, any other questions?” Figg raised his horsewhip.
”I have one!” Operations officer little Griffith stood up. ”Aren’t you going to make some arrangements at the Red Tiger division? They are battling a group of abnormal enemies.”
Figg nodded, ”That’s right, little Griffith, the Red Tiger is trying to swallow a huge piece of bone, bt that depends on their ability to digest them, I don’t foresee a huge issue. My little brother was joining the battle, so let’s see what he could do. Besides, if we help them, not only my brother would be embarrassed, Murat, that grumbler, would have our ears for days.”
Officers of Traisen Front shook their heads as soon as they heard the name Murat, they were pretty familiar with the infamous assault team leader. If there’s anything Murat caught onto, expect your ears to not experience silence for days to come.
”Griffith, you did remind me of something!” Figg stared at his young operations officer, thinking about his brother, ”Let’s try this. Go to the Red Tiger division, if they’ve finished their preparations, invite my brother to the battlefield to have a look in my name.”
”Yes sir! But we have already lost contact with them for a whole day, their pursuit progressed really quickly. The scout said they were last seen disappearing into the mountains on the southwest of Werksan.”
”If that’s the case…” Figg pondered for a while. He didn’t want his brother to miss an exciting siege. ”I’ll assign you a team of cavalry scouts. Follow the footsteps of the Red Tiger, I believe you’ll meet them.”
Griffith wanted to stick out his tongue, but he forced himself not to. Following a troop in the mountain range isn’t a fun thing to do.
”Yes sir! I will deliver your message to His Imperial Highness.” Griffith had to say it.
Figg nodded. ”Well now… Let’s move out! The Persians are waiting for us!”
On a tall tower in Fort Oak, a bugler sounded his bugle, a low brassy sound fell onto the ground and the officers started giving out orders, the knights yelled, and the warhorses neighed. The whole fortress became like a pot of boiling water, everything seemed to be rolling around.
***************
In the evening, the quiet mountain were bathed in the burgundy sunset glow, the burning cloud creeped toward the western sky, the earth seemed to hush, everything sighed in the presence of a peaceful dusk, only the birds trolled the earth for food.
The knights in the mountains started the dinner fire in a remote mountain gap. Several fire pits threw smoke above into the sky, the smell of grilled meats and vegetable soups mixed into a fragrance the knights were drooling for.
It was a temporary station for the Red Tiger division, the soldiers who went out for the pursuit mission still hasn’t returned. The knights gathered beside the fire pits, anxious to wait for their news. The strength this Persian assassination team possesses had already exceeded the Narcissus Knight’s imagination. After a full day of intense battles, even though this group of enemies had only less than a score of people left, they were still hitting the knights really badly.
”They’re back!” The camp were riled up! The sentinel returned a good news.
”They are back! It’s the Thirteenth Assault Team!” The knights huddled up the camp entrance. They noticed even the servants of the teenage Prince came forward.
”They seem to be all here?”
”That’s right! They’re in luck! They didn’t lose anyone!”
The knights genuinely felt happy for their friends’ return, they had even brought back tremendous news. The Persians had no longer have any capacity to cover their tracks, no longer make traps and arrow pitfalls. They don’t even try to send people to ambush anymore, they probably focused solely on their escape!
”It’s time, isn’t it?”
”That’s right! We have to take the opportunity to take them down!”
”Yes! We have sacrificed a whole squad of knight for this! We need to avenge them!”
”We should attack now!”
A ripple of noise started from the crowd, they even starting banging on their shields or clutching their bows.
”Don’t mind them, these guys are just a bunch of straightforward lads.” Murat smiled at the Prince who leaned against the hammock.
”Of course! I like them like that.” Oscar nodded. ”Are we really going all out on this? I don’t think it’s time. I feel like these Persians wouldn’t give up so easily, especially when their escape team consists of someone so important.”
”You feel it too?” Murat dragged over a small chair and sat beside the Prince.
”Your Imperial Highness, I think these guys haven’t given up yet. Don’t be fooled by their eagerness to break through, according to the reports I’ve received from the knight captain, they didn’t even see the few difficult fighters. I think they hid their best fighters, I even suspect they are going to launch a counterattack at us, one that is critically meaningful!”
”Counterattack?” Oscar didn’t understand. ”You mean they have the strength to do so? Can they even pull it off?”
Murat shook his head. This was his biggest concern. ”Sir, we don’t know how much manpower they have left. According to the trails left behind, we deduced about thirty to forty people, and after pursuing them for a day and a night, we’ve sent thirteen assault teams but we only took out half of them. What’s more frustrating was that no matter how I surround them, they always managed to find a way out.”
Oscar didn’t know how these forty-odd Persians could even fight back more than two thousand Narcissus Knights, he didn’t want to believe it, but it’s the truth.
”Could it be… that we were going about it the wrong way?” Oscar asked cautiously. He was regretting his volunteering of organizing the pursuit party.
”No, we did the right things.” Murat shook his head again. ”There’s no way we could fully demonstrate our military prowess in this mountainous terrain, it would only limit our movements and create more opportunity for escape. The pursuit party had succeeded, we trailed behind the enemy and created distractions to them, and they still had to provide data and intelligence to the follow-up units. If it wasn’t for our continuous attacks, with these guys’ agility, they would’ve arrived home and in their own bed!”
”What do we do now? Their defense has lowered, but I dared not attack, am I not suitable as a commander?” Oscar started doubting his abilities. He kept asking the same question, why does he have a troop of two thousand, yet he couldn’t topple a small group of enemies close to crumbling?
”Please know, sir, that cautiousness and weakness are two different things, my lord, your hesitation came from a place of caution, and that is not wrong. If it wasn’t for your suggestion, I’m sure there would be much more deaths among our knights, and the enemy may already have escaped.” It seemed to be Murat’s first compliment to the Prince.
”Is it so?” Oscar’s expression softened as he received the praise.
”Of course.”
Oscar stared at Murat for a little while, he felt as if energy started accumulating in his body again. He climbed out of the hammock, his hand on the handle of his machete.