Chapter 1993 Attrition

Chapter 1993 Attrition

Far below, the battle seemed to be hanging in a fragile balance. The battle lines were twisted and broken, and in some places, all pretense of order had been lost. Countless Awakened warriors were intertwined in a chaotic melee there, having forgotten all about discipline and battle formations. Blood was spilling on the ground, and a litany of desperate voices was drowning in the deafening clangor of steel.

In other places, stalwart officers were still maintaining a semblance of control. The forces of the Sword Army were pushing the forces of Song on the left flank of the grand formation, while its right flank was being pushed back instead. In the center, a furious tug of war was boiling, with neither side managing to gain ground. At first glance, the soldiers of the Sword Domain were in a better position. That had been true throughout the war. The warriors of the Song Domain did not lack courage, determination, or martial prowess... in fact, Sunny had often been stunned by their tenacious resolve. Their powers and tactics were often strange, insidious, and wild, bringing with them a sense of lethal peril.

They were chillingly fearless in the face of death, and viciously ruthless when they needed to be. And yet, they were simply no match for the soldiers of the Sword Army. The army of the Sword Domain was better equipped, better trained, and better able to maintain discipline in dire situations. Even if each individual warrior fighting under the banner of the King of Swords was not more powerful than the warriors of Song, together, they made for a much tougher and deadlier force. It was partially because Clan Valor and its vassals had been in power for much longer than Clan Song, and therefore possessed a much richer martial tradition. The core of the Sword Army had been forged in the successive subjugation campaigns that brought vast regions of the Dream Realm under human control, after all, and while Ki Song had led a historic conquest of her own, its scope and length did not compare.

On the contrary, they continued to grow. Because it did not matter to whom the dead had been loyal once — the Queen of Worms did not discriminate between the fallen of her own army or that of the enemy, embracing all with equal grace. It was a chilling sight, to see a comrade with whom you had been fighting side by side a minute ago, and whose death you were mourning, rise from the ground and aim their empty gaze at you, determined to extinguish your own life, in turn. It was as if the Sword Army was waging war against death itself.

The longer the war continued, the more soldiers the Sword Domain lost, and the greater the army of the Song Domain became. And the wider gap there between the two was, the more casualties the Sword Army suffered as a result, thus creating a harrowing cycle.

Despite its superiority, they were destined to lose this war of attrition. ...The same situation, albeit on a smaller scale, was currently taking place on the battlefield Sunny was observing. Something had to change soon, or they were going to suffer a bitter defeat... which could very well become irreparable, swinging the balance of power in favor of the Song Domain too much.

He glanced at the King of Swords, wondering what the fearsome Sovereign was thinking about.