CH 29

In this world, in order to avoid getting a big blow and defeated in one fell swoop due to the formation crumble caused by magic, innumerable skirmishers and small groups were often deployed in front of the main group. In this defense battle, a large number of defense layers made of earth that had been kneaded in front of the fortress were formed, and they were made with the full power of the engineers of the Highserk Empire Army.

In particular, the layer with a U-shape fence protecting the small entrance, this 6th layer, which was suitable to be called a mini-castle, could accommodate two battalions, and was equipped with an empty moat, a horse fence, a stake trap, an embankment, and even a wooden wall. It was a complex combination. Wald had never seen such defensive formation so carefully crafted.

TN: it will be something like this

From the enemy’s point of view, this would be a key point that must be eliminated for the first step in capturing the fortress. If Walm must say one problem with it, one of the battalions assigned to build the 6th layer was the Liguria battalion. The infantry was used like laborers for civil engineering outside of combat. Walm was no exception. He was treading the embankment with tools and feet, drove the stakes into the ground, and sharpen the tips.

The dexterous man was mixed with the engineers to help reinforce the walls and assemble the pillars. The excavated soil was packed in a straw bag or bucket, and brought to the base to create an embankment even if it would only have a short height. Stones for throwing and arrows were carried over the wall passage. The work was almost completed, but the number of engineers coming and going was the highest near the 6th layer.

“Even so, this really has a great height and width.”

The embankment was also a few steps higher and wider than other layers. Walm was wondering where the soil was brought from. When the sun went down and the time to stop the work was announced, the smoke signal rose from afar.

“Aaah, now they’re just 2 or 3 days away.”

Said Jose, who was working with Walm.

“They need to deal with the advance team, so I guess the full-scale battle be in three or four days?”

“That’s about it. I think the enemy soldiers are over 50,000. This fortress is likely to be filled with corpses.”

The dark-skinned young man looked around and sighed disgustingly.

“I only hope the corpses of me and the squad members are not mixed.”

“Right. It’s early for the last meal, but it’s time for a grand dinner.”

“Don’t rush. If you don’t wash your hands cleanly, your mama will get angry.”

“Shut up. Let’s go. Quick.”

Following Jose who spat out curse words, Walm headed for the corner where the large pots were lined up. Battalion units were gathered in platoon units, all pots were mobilized, and provisions were prepared. Boil everything you could eat. Even if it was a little damaged, everything would be solved if it was cooked, it would be okay, All Green to eat. The ingredients were put in without caring anything.

According to Walm’s confirmation in advance, the ingredients differ depending on the pot. A small amount of chicken, pork, orc, beans, cabbage, turnips, carrots, potatoes, etc. were boiled randomly. Walm took a wooden bowl out of his bag, presented it, and the soldier in charge of cooking, poured the soup. The taste was ―― well, it was just warm, but it was better than nothing. Perhaps, because of fatigue and hunger, the tongue was fooled, and it tasted better than it should be.

Along with the leftover pieces of hard-baked bread, carried it to the mouth and stored it in your stomach. Collecting bronze and silver coins in the squad, pouring the purchased fruit liquor into a bowl, Walm then smoked with a pipe and spat out purple smoke into the sky. The two moons were rising in the night sky and started chasing each other. Unlike the former world of Walm, the starry sky of this world without air pollution such as exhaust gas was, the best night sky Walm had ever seen. It was probably one of the plus things Walm got when he came to this world. Still, there might be more things he had lost. Especially the things that had to be thrown away in the war were slowly changing Walm, for better or for worse.

“What is it? Why do you look so sentimental?”

As Walm looked up at the night sky in a corner of the ramparts, Jose came up after eating.

“Nah, nothing. I just wonder how long the war will last.”

“Well, until you win?”

“Until you win, is it.”

This happened because Higherk continued to win, was Walm wanted to say. According to Walm, the Highserk Empire, which had won every battle with victory, didn’t know the letters “peace”. Provoked the other country, and if you were beaten, hit them back and make them obey thoroughly. That was the Highserk Empire. The result was, a war against four countries at the same time. It was a world where you would be eaten if you showed your weaknesses. Walm might be naïve and sweet. Still, it was a fact that the war didn’t end even after so many victories. It was as if the war was the peacetime in this world. In a way, Walm felt like he was being entrapped in an apocalyptic world.

“What is it? Are you losing your courage? Well, there are a lot of enemies, but we’re surrounded by a strong defense. We won’t be one-sidedly defeated.”

Walm also agreed. What Jose said as a member of the Highserk army was correct.

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Walm gave a sloppy reply, but Jose didn’t say anything. 

For Walm to not die in a few days, he would need to kill more. He was neither a softhearted man nor a good-natured man. He would kill for not being killed. 

Walm carried the fruit liquor poured into the bowl to his mouth. The acidity ran through his tongue and into his throat. When Walm frowned, Jose laughed happily.

◆

The beginning of the battle was a dazzling flash of light and a roaring explosion. The basics of a siege battle often begin with an attack by the magic-user soldiers, but the magic shot between tens of thousands of troops was, to sum it in one word, “fierce”. The flames were dancing everywhere, limbs were flying in the air, and the soldiers who got hit by the clods fainted. When the ice flower bloomed, blood dripped from the pierced soldier’s body, and the flower became red. A soldier who got hit in the head directly with an earth bullet lost his sense of balance and drowned on the ground.

The Highserk army in the carefully built defense territory continued to shoot, but some soldiers of the Four-Countries Alliance launched a distinctive attack. It was holy attribute magic that was scraping off the embankment. The light was erasing the Highserk Empire soldiers who would have been hiding behind the embankment.

In the position where all four-attribute magic was flying one after another, a part of the embankment was destroyed by the onslaught. With the support of the magic-user soldiers, the Four-Country Alliance began to move forward, using the golem created by earth-attribute magic as a shield.

Interdiction began to prevent the advance. The archer, who had little effect on the golem itself, continued to shoot arrows at the enemy soldiers who might be behind it with a curving shot. In addition, some soldiers with skills such as 《Hard Shoot》 had succeeded in destroying golems with projectiles that had destructive power that couldn’t be found in ordinary people. Soldiers who had lost their cover hid behind the shields and undulations, but the number of casualties increased dramatically due to the influx of attacks. In response to unexpected resistance, the Four-Countries Alliance moved to capture the layers while building a connecting trench and earth wall.

“Time to change. Move the platoon to the 9th layer!!”

The 9th layer, where the Liguria battalion was initially placed, was located in the center layer, and also served as a transportation network for each layer and a collection of supplies. On the third day after the collision, the exhausted battalion on the front and the other platoons of the Liguria battalion, which was a reserve force waiting in the 9th layer, were replaced. There were 6000 soldiers on the front line of the center layer and 4000 soldiers were behind it. In front of the fortress, which became a bottleneck, The enemies couldn’t deploy 50,000 soldiers at the same time. The limit was 8,000 to 10,000 soldiers at most. The enemy changed troops day by day and attacked the Highserk army intermittently.

The Kozuru platoon was assigned to the 3rd layer built on the left-wing. 

“Good luck”

Half of the retreating platoon was injured. A fierce battle was expected due to the lack of troops. 

Walm looked into the flat ground from the embankment. On the ground, a trench dug in a zigzag extended from the outer part of the layer, and from there a low embankment and a shield were positioned all the way approaching the layer. A wide variety of soldiers expose their bodies on the slanting surface.

“Hah, is this the soldier’s graveyard?”

Jose said ironically.

“There are corpses from all five countries.”

Noor said with a camped face.

“Even the Knight of Craist Kingdom is on the ground. Was it that bad?”

Beyond Barito’s line of sight, a knight of the Order of Reharzen, who had lost his head, was half-buried in the soil and collapsed.

“I think he was the victim of a mass attack last night. If you leave it alone, he could be Dullahan.”

Each member of the squad laughed at the words of Squad Commander Duwei, but Walm didn’t think it was a joke. The soldier who had a hard time climbing the embankment was shot by Walm’s Fireball and Willart’s Ice Lance and Waterball, and the surrounding area became dirty mud. Noor and Barito were also repeatedly throwing at the heads of soldiers who had lost their shields.

To Walm’s dismay, Squad Commander Duwei threw a log alone. Still, even though Duwei’s Squad and the other squads had successfully crushed the enemy’s offensive, it wasn’t everywhere.

“Walm, is Walm here!!?”

A messenger shouted Walm’s name. Walm had already learned that most of the time it was only bad news. Unfortunately, his birthday was still a long way off so he couldn’t even be slightly happy about it.

“I’m here!! What’s wrong?”

The messenger who found the person he was looking for, ran up and began to explain quickly.

“It’s an order from Commander Kozuru. He told me to tell you to crush one of the enemy breakthroughs that is being formed in the 8th Squad’s camp with 《Demon Fire》. Come, I’ll guide you.”

“Ee, I need to put out the fire again later huh.”

“If anything, it would be arson.”

While the dark-skinned comrades shot the bow, he leaked the words of correction. Well, it didn’t really matter to Walm.

“It’s not the time for joking you know?”

Walm wanted to refuse, but sadly he was just a soldier who had no veto power, so had no choice but to follow the instructions. The place where he rushed quickly was filled with a reserve unit commanded by Platoon Commander Kozuru, but many enemies seemed to fill the embankment slope. It was like a flock of ants swarming on food. The enemy didn’t seem to miss the perfect opportunity to open a breakthrough.

In this era of hand-to-hand combat, assault by dense formation was powerful, but the timing was important because some individuals had powerful ranged attacks such as 《Magic》 and 《Skill》. If Walm’s mana was exhausted or if he wasn’t in time for rescue, it would be hand-to-hand combat with enemies, and he wouldn’t be able to attack carelessly.

However, the enemy was still unable to break through, and it was a dense formation like no other. It was the perfect place for Walm’s 《Demon Fire》, even though they were well protected with shields.

“Lend me two shields”

The soldier who had been waiting for him thought of his intention and handed it to Walm. Put the halberd on the back and check the condition of the round shield. Then took out the mask from the bag on his waist and put it on. The demon-shaped mask trembled, perhaps looking forward to what would happen soon. Took a breather through the gap in the mask and clung to the embankment where the spear and sword were stuck.

The soldiers who had been fighting hand-to-hand combat until then left the embankment all at once, as if a small wave was drawn. While watching it, Walm activated 《Demon Fire》. It was the enemy soldiers who were taken aback. The response of the Liberitoa soldiers who continued to kill each other at the Rehn mine was quick and so the effect was halved over time, but today’s opponent was the soldiers of Craist Kingdom. There were various reactions such as those who looked at the face and those who were ready to rush and those who tried to cut. The attitude of instantly shifting to an attack looked good in Walm’s eyes, but it wasn’t so different from self-immolation.

“GyaaaAAA!!”

“It doesn’t disappear. Please put it out!!”

“Go away, Moveee!!”

The blue flame that blew out momentarily clung to the enemy soldiers so that it had viscosity, and the range was piled up at once. A chorus of screams was born as the fire spread. The swearing, angry voice, and screaming never cease on the battlefield, but the screams that rose in front of Walm were the loudest voices in the war so far. Those within a radius of 10m would be a human torch one after another, although there were individual differences depending on the amount of mana. Those who rolled down the slope were lucky.

“Retreat once, retreat!!”

Unable to move freely due to the dense formation, those who were burned had their muscles burned and hardened, as they inhaled fire into their lungs, they started to flutter breathlessly.

“Wa-wait!!”

“Ah… ugh, ah”

With a mask on, somehow Walm didn’t waver. Perhaps it was because the other person couldn’t see his face or because he could roleplay as another person. Anyway, Walm extended the range by changing the《Demon Fire》 from a fan-shaped to a straight line. The slopes around the area began to burn. If it wasn’t from earth, it would have burned.

“It’s the 《Demon Fire》. It really happened. It’s like what one of the Liberitoa guys were saying.”

Walm jumped out onto the slope and continued to sprinkle fiery flames and hot air around him, but some soldiers who had regained their composure were trying to attack from a long distance. Many arrows fall, but the strong wind caused the arrows to deviate, and the hot air made it difficult to reach, so it didn’t hit. Various magics were also disturbed by the explosion and hot air, and even the slightest leftover was endured by the round shield, and the fire was intensively scattered in the place where it seemed that there were magic-user soldiers and archers. 40 seconds in time. Before the mana was completely exhausted, Walm returned to the top of the embankment. Far from the joy of repelling the enemy, everyone had lost their words to the burnt corpses rolling all over the slope.

“Huh, huuuhh, huufff”

Walm, who consumed most of the mana and was breathing heavily, was greeted by someone.

“Good job, Walm. Thanks to you, they failed at making a breakthrough.”

It was Platoon Commander Kozuru who greeted Walm with applause as to whether he was watching from somewhere. Regardless of a tragic event, he would be a good boss as he remembered to praise his subordinates for the success of his men.

“Thank you”

When Walm took off the mask and thanked him, the other soldiers thanked him too. The damage caused by the 《Demon Fire》 that hit directly during the dense formation was enormous, and more than 100 enemy soldiers were killed, about the same number or more were injured, and a large number of troops were drawn to the trench. The burning smell of meat remained in the nasal passages. The mask stopped vibrating as if it was satisfied.