Before dawn, when there was still darkness lingering in the sky...
Despite being at that the time when the roosters have not crowed yet, the soldiers diligently guarded the citadel, keeping watch over the double layered fortress.
A strong defense team was spread out, especially along the big gates which served as the entrance point of the citadel. Along the top of the castle walls were huge crossbows that could take out not just archers and magician troops, but even dragons with in a blow ― the ballista. There were quite a few units scattered along the walls.
The soldiers concentrated most of their wariness at the forest slightly further from the citadel. A highway forms a connection from the plains to the citadel from the forest, so the large forces of the Alwinan army could only march directly from this route. Certainly, the opponent will appear from the forest.
However, the time before dawn was a volatile time for putting down one’s guard. Among the soldiers who were a.s.signed to protect the fortress from an invasion, there were some who chatted idly with their friends to keep their drowsiness away while patrolling the fort.
“Yo, Patrick! When will you propose?” One guardsman ribbed.
“Hasn’t she taken refuge in the imperial city? If you take it easy, she might be taken away by another guy!” Another grinned.
Teased by his seniors, the young soldier blushed red while objecting.
“It’s... It’s not the time to make idle talk! We do not know when the Alwinan army will attack!”
“It’s good to be diligent, but you won’t last if you strain yourself too much. It can’t be helped since you are young.” They snorted.
“Please don’t treat me like a child!” Patrick could only protest softly.
“In our eyes, you’re still a greenhorn after all. Haven’t you heard that it will take another day for the Alwinan army to arrive at the Citadel?”
“But there is a possibility that they could’ve sent scouts here first to check on the situation.” Patrick stated firmly.
“That’s true. Even so, it would probably be only one platoon (4 soldiers) of light cavalry or sky cavalry at the most. Ignoring the sky cavalry, there is no way a light cavalry platoon riding horses and wielding swords will come out of the forest where arrows and magic can easily reach.” One of the older soldiers explained.
The attack range of bows depends on its type, but it is roughly around 300 meters. Magic has roughly the same range, except for some large-scale attack magic.
Even at the point where the distance between the fortress and the forest is at its nearest, it is certainly out of range since there is more than 1 km between the two.
“But, Patrick. To be honest, I want you to make that girl happy. It’s because it is you that I can entrust her to you without worries.” The senior soldier sighed wistfully.
“Yeah, that’s right. That girl is obviously interested in you. But, you two aren’t official yet, and I actually bet on your relationship. Thanks to that, I am broke this month.” Another soldier complained.
“I told you that 3 weeks was too short. In the first place, aren’t you the stupid one to bet a few months’ worth of salary?” One of the guards piped up.
“Please don’t bet on people’s love life!” Patrick yelled.
The scream of the young man could be heard everywhere, resulting in the suppressed laughters of men standing on guard as it echoed throughout the fort. At the same time, dawn arrived, and the morning sun appeared, resulting in a ray light brightening the sky from the horizon.
However, the laughter of the soldiers was drowned out by the warning from the watch posts installed everywhere.
“Report! Enemy soldiers have been spotted in the forest!”
“This is it!”
The atmosphere suddenly changed. The air felt p.r.i.c.kly, tinged with danger.
Numerous soldiers turned their eyes and their bloodl.u.s.t towards the forest, and the younger soldiers followed suit. Along with the sunrise that flooded the land with light, shadows wriggled unnaturally at the boundary lines of the forest and the plain. Just like what had been discussed before, it was a light cavalry troop riding their horses. But, it would be great if it was only that.
That wasn’t the reason why all the soldiers of the Citadel’s defense force protecting the fort were shocked.
The problem was...
“What is with those numbers..?”
“It’s not a scouting team! The scale is too big! Could they have sent their main army directly!?”
“It’s too early! Didn’t they say that it will take at least another day for the main army to attack!?”
One after another, the Alwinan soldiers revealed themselves from inside the forest. The scale was not something that the soldiers could count with all their fingers and toes. The national flag of the Kingdom of Alwina displaying a cane and a sword intersecting behind a crown fluttered in wind, suggesting that it was not a friendly unit.
The soldiers moved to their battle stations even as they fell into panic. A few soldiers were readying their bows while the others stayed behind their comrades to prepare for the second wave. Another unit was gathering stones and bricks to throw down the castle gate, and some of the demi-human soldiers who were proud of their strength took hold of the ballista, which needed a lot of physical strength.
The soldiers protecting the inner fortress received the report of the sudden emergence of the Alwinan troops and hurriedly moved. The young man named Patrick also picked up his bow and arrows, and had already pulled the strings.
“There are also signs of enemies in the sky! Requesting a sky cavalry unit to sortie!” The watch post announced.
Patrick turned his sight towards the sky while keeping his face straight facing the forest. In a matter of seconds, a great number of shadows started to blot out the brightness of the sky.
It gradually increased in size, and the shadows’ outlines could be seen clearly. They were figures of people riding on the backs of four legged beasts with huge wings. There were griffons, hippogriffs, and dragons.
Dragons! The young man’s knees trembled at the appearance of the monster with enough firepower to destroy one small village in one go. The sharp tip of the arrow shook in concert, showing his fear.
“Make sure you wait for the signal, alright, greenhorn? Pull it tightly before you shoot.” One of the more experienced soldiers took pity and told him.
“I know that..!” Patrick swallowed audibly.
The scale of the Alwinan army kept growing, and perhaps had already exceeded several thousand. As soon as he understood that, Patrick’s throat instantly dried up.
How much time had pa.s.sed since he drew his bow? Patrick couldn’t remember anymore.
He felt like his entire right arm had cramped up, and it felt like he would accidentally fire an arrow soon because of the sweat on his fingertips, when finally, the Alwinan army moved.
“ＡＡＡＡＡＡＡＡａａａａａａａａａａａａａａａａａａａａａａａａａ！！！！”
Hundreds of horse hooves thundered. An advance troop consisting of a large cavalry force lunged forward all at once with their cone-shaped lances that surpa.s.sed the height of an adult strapped on their waists.
The intimidation of soldiers equipped with thick armors riding their horses and charging there filled the youth, who was looking down from the top of the distant castle, with primal fear.
“Do not shoot yet!” Without the voice of senior soldiers shouting from the side, they would’ve hastened and wasted the arrows.
“Don’t be distracted by the enemies on the ground! Don’t let the sky cavalry to approach too!” The commander warned them.
In this world, it is a standard tactic to siege a castle by bombing it from the sky with a support charge from the ground units at the same time.
The accuracy rate of the arrows for aerial attacks are poor. Moreover, if the opponent is a dragon, except if they can hit it’s eyes or mouth, arrows would be completely useless. The dragons can be shot down with the power of the ballista too, but the most effective counterattack would still be a magician’s aerial attack.
As expected, the Alwinan sky cavalry pa.s.sed over the charging cavalry troops and flew in a straight line. This time in his panicked state, Patrick was about to shoot with his bow.
At that very moment, shadows flew from above Patrick’s head. When he looked up, it was the sky cavalry of the Defense Force that went to occupy the enemy sky cavalry. It crashed head to head with the Alwinan army in the plain sky. The enemy’s aerial reinforcement was suppressed. Dragon breath and the riders’ magic clashed mightily.
“Aim well!”
Flinching, Patrick hurriedly returned his attention to the ground. He corrected his arrow’s aim back at the cavalry, and desperately clamped his shaking fingertips. All the while, his heart was beating hard, and his breath was becoming short.
*Dodom* *Dodom* *Dodom*
Like the rumbling of the earth, the sound of an unbelievable number of horses galloping shook the ground, giving the illusion that the fort itself was shaking.
And that moment came.
“Release!!!!!”
The chorus of the wind whipping similar to the flapping sound of a gigantic bird resounded. A large amount of arrows covered the dawn sky.
It marked the beginning of the battle of the Citadel.
“It seems like they have started.” Karito remarked.
“...”
Karito looked at Reona, who was pouting sullenly, and felt like sighing. Rina, who was sitting beside Reona, gazed back and forth between her displeased older sister and the direction of the intense battle, tense due to the cacophony of sounds from the attempted invasion.
Their current position was on the opposite side of where the Citadel defense army and the Alwina army clashed. They were on a small carriage heading towards the gate leading to the highway that connected to the Imperial city.
There was a large number of pa.s.sengers on the carriage as well besides the three of them. In reality, Karito and the group had requested for the unreasonable, and had to ride a carriage without a hood packed with household goods to the brim.
“U~~~~~ Grrr~~~~~” An agitated wolf-like groan escaped from Reona’s throat.
Her irritated figure and repet.i.tious groans were scaring the other pa.s.sengers on board. Or maybe they were frightened by the fighting noises that had started to echo on other side?
“You know, Reona. Ordy-san wanted you and Rina to stay in a safe place. That is why he ordered us to escape like this.” Karito stated gently.
“I know! I know that already! Even so, it is still so frustrating! I am always running away from those Alwinan b.a.s.t.a.r.ds without hitting them even once!” She ground her teeth together, clenching her fists tightly.
Surprised by Reona’s expression as she ground her teeth and barked her frustrations, a girl who looked about the same age as Reona, and the adult version of the girl jumped, startled. Their brown cat ears and tails stood upright, showing their frightened state.
The mother-daughter pair was from the family who ran Ordy’s favorite pub. The father, husband, and the shopkeeper of the bar was the one holding the reins of the carriage horse. The husband is an ordinary human, and his daughter is half human and half feline beastman.
“O-Onee-chan, calm down!” Rina panicked.
“Uu..... Haa, so pathetic. I am so pathetic...” Reona hung her head in self-loathing as her triangular dog ears slanted downwards, showing her depression.
“But, looks like we’ve only marched for a short distance, and yet the battle has already begun.” Karito mumbled as he struggled amidst the luggage and moved towards the coachman’s stand.
He narrowed his eyes towards the direction of their travel route. There were only two gates that led outside of the Citadel, which was surrounded by two layers of walls. As there was only 1 gate that led to the Imperial City, the residents who have failed to take refuge earlier were flooding the one and only exit gate.
Not only were the people trying to take refuge carrying huge bags as they rushed towards the only escape route, when they noticed the Alwinan forces attacking, they flew into panic, and the flow of people became even worse.
When he tried to zoom into the direction of the gate with his goggles, he saw a lot of refugees pushing and shoving towards the gate.
There was around 300 meters between Karito’s position and the inner gate. As things seemed to be on the verge of breaking into a riot, considering the distance, it would be difficult for the carriage to pa.s.s as it is. In this situation, even the roar of Defense Force soldiers who were guiding the refugees won’t reach their ears.
Karito, who judged so, tried to advise the man.
“Umm, wouldn’t it be better to throw away the carriage and move on foot on this occasion?”
“But to throw away the baggage... I don’t know if I can come back to this city anymore. All of this is our entire wealth.” The man protested.
“I understand that, but―”
――――――BOOOOOOM!!!
At the moment when Karito tried to continue, the sound of an explosion a.s.saulted them. Both of them curled up in defense, pressing their palms to their ears. The explosion repeated another 2 or 3 times before stopping.
The sound of the explosion was too loud to be from the battle between the Defense Force and the Alwinan army on the other side of town across the Citadel headquarters which located in the center. The direction of the explosion he heard was... He turned towards the gate that led to the Imperial city.
The gate which had been overflowing with refugees till a while ago was covered in billowing smoke. It was not only smoke, there were also orange flames licking hungrily at the area around the gate. The death cries and screams for help from the refugees resounded clearly, reaching Karito and the group. Karito couldn’t help but want to cover his ears.
Then in the next moment, a large shadow pierced through the smoke with a high pitched shrill. What had appeared was a griffon.
Following after was a beast which had wings on it’s back. The hippogriff pecked through the refugees’ heads while the riders stuck out their hands and fired magic cannons and fireb.a.l.l.s at the refugees below them. Those who couldn’t use spirit magic were throwing bombs one after another. The bodies of the refugees which were directly hit scattered everywhere.
To top it off, dragons appeared at a delayed timing. Several dragons spewed flame breaths at the defense forces that stood on upper part of the fort. The soldiers who were swallowed by the flames couldn’t even utter a cry from the heat and died instantly.
As the Defense Force focused their fighting power along the gate which bordered the side where the Alwinan forces were expected to invade, only a small number of soldiers were stationed at the gate leading towards the Imperial City.
Even the deployed magicians were caught up in the dragons’ breaths without being able to respond to sky cavalry’s surprise attack. The extent of the counterattack that the few soldiers from the Defense Force could manage was only shooting arrows at the enemy’s foot soldiers. Because they panicked, they were not able to aim accurately, and the arrows which luckily hit were being repelled by the dragons’ hard scales, barely even leaving a scratch. Before long, the soldiers who were defending the gate were being wiped out.
In an instant, the area around the gate was engulfed in a sea of flames, and the only escape route from this city had been blocked by the flames.
No matter where you look, there was not a single ally there. It was also clear who the attackers were when one looked at the crests on the uniforms of the sky cavalry.
“I-It’s is the Alwinan Army!!!!!!!”
With that scream as a trigger, this time, the refugees fell into a true state of panic. The surging crowd started to reverse all at once.
The refugees desperately returned to the road from where they came from, throwing away the luggage that they had once held so importantly. Those whose footings were stumbled by the abandoned luggages ended up being trampled by the other refugees without anyone trying to help them, and died. Such a scene was spreading everywhere.
It was not only humans that panicked. The carriage horses, being affected by the confusion, began running away wildly in response. Bounced off bodies bigger than themselves, the refugees’ bodies were crushed under the horses’ merciless hooves .
Meanwhile, Karito, who was still riding on the horse drawn carriage, was noticed, and the enemy directed their aim towards Karito’s group. They glided straight towards them.
“Not good! We must get off the carriage and run away from here right now!” Karito ordered.
“U-Understood!” The pa.s.sengers yelped and scrambled to follow his command.
But, what could they achieve after getting off the carriage? If they just ran around like the other refugees, they would surely be killed by the sky cavalry. In fact, they were already being targeted by the sky cavalry, and Karito, who had experienced the power of the dragon breath, instinctively knew what they were dealing with.
(Should I counterattack? No, I can’t do that. With this path, it would involve the refugees, and I won’t make it in time!)
At least, if they could just escape into a st.u.r.dy building or...
“Jump into the brick building over there! Reona and the others too, hurry!” Karito yelled frantically.
“Alright! Rina, be sure to hold on tight!” Reona instructed as she grasped her sister tightly.
“Y-Yes!” Rina gulped audibly.
As soon as he said so, Karito leapt off the carriage with 2 to 3 steps. As a result, they managed to jump over the refugees, and succeeded in landing on the entrance of the brick building a few meters away.
Following after him was Reona with Rina clutching onto her. They climbed up a pile household goods and jumped from the top. Reona reached Karito’s side easily while holding onto a child.
The third to follow was the mother-daughter pair of cat beastmen. Like Reona, they jumped over inhumanly without any problems.
(I see... Their feline factor resulted in their agility.)
The last one to arrive was the storekeeper, who somehow managed across the torrents of refugees. By that time, the dragon had approached so close to Karito’s position that they were almost within the range of the dragon breath.
There was not much time anymore. Karito looked up as the dragon opened its big mouth. The door to the building was locked, but was forced open by Karito and Reona’s powerful front kicks.
“Go inside! It’s commmiiingggg!!!” Karito pushed everyone inside the building while screaming.
And finally, the dragon spat out its intense flames.
“Gah! Gu..! Geho!!?” An intense heat wave at Karito’s back, and he was blown off roughly, somehow landing on his face.
The exposed part of his nape stung, and the hair on the back of his felt burnt. As soon as he tried to breathe, hot air burned in his throat. The heat felt like someone had shoved them into a burning furnace. Sweat broke out as their whole bodies were exposed to the heat wave.
When he looked towards the door while raising his body, he only saw h.e.l.l outside of the door. To be more specific, it was comparable to a purgatory scene where they purify souls with crimson flames.
In any case, there were no other survivors who had taken this flame directly, and still lived in Karito’s view.
After being engulfed by the flames, although the building itself could endure the damage, the inside was overwhelmed by the heat wave and smoke. They should leave this place as soon as possible.
“...There is a back door there. Let’s leave here and move through the alleyways.” Karito stated.
“But where are we going to run away to?” The shopkeeper asked, trembling hard.
“To the headquarters. At least we will be able to take shelter there, and we know that there are allies to protect us.” Karito replied with a clear answer after contemplating for a while.