Chapter 82The next day, as planned, the Darkness G.o.d Corps with the investigation group departed the town and headed towards their objective at dawn.
During their early lunch, they will replenish their water supply and receive the contact from Hivodir’s reinforcements, that were heading to the capital, to get the details for the afternoon battle.
Vermeer foresees that Rinval’s defence forces will most likely merge together with Driadria’s forces by the highway, to restrain them from advancing.
“Want me to go scout?”
“Yes, make sure there isn’t an ambush.”
Having movement a.s.sist and transmission, Fonke’s group is very useful as a Scout troop. Along with Yuusuke’s motorbikes, Fonke’s group went to scout ahead. As though waiting for a ride, Fonke subordinates hopped on the back of the 2 motorbikes.
“Well we will go ahead now!”
“Don’t over extend~”
In front of the boorish walls of the north gate, where the city view of Rinval and the Wind Edge inst.i.tute could be seen, Hivodir’s Reinforcement troops and King Cliffzard’s Trent Rietta Liberation Army deployed their troops into formation.
Mercenaries could be seen scurrying about on the other side of the wall. It seems that they weren’t ready for a counter attack, thus Hivodir was considering testing their resistance.
The reinforcement troops were made up of officers from different corps, and the selection of people from the palace corps were mostly composed of people who had not been in a battle before. Thus before going into a full-scale battle, small skirmishes are required.
The Reinforcement troops slowly approached them and stopped just before the effective range of divine arts. Noticing their approach, the Wind Edge’s army on the wall readied their bows and the figures of the mercenaries began to pop up. The Wind Edge’s army had implemented the anti-divine arts field of the magical beasts into their strategy, thus they mainly used ranged attack weapons such as bows.
Next, the scouts of the liberation army came from the west highway of Rinval to notify the location of the a.s.sault group. They reported that 3 battalion sized groups have joined up from Driadria and were on the move.
“Is their strategy to come and flank us from the sides or the back?”
“No, it seems that Yuusuke will be approaching via the west highway….perhaps their target is the Darkness G.o.d Corps?”
Hivodir immediately tried to alert the currently moving Darkness G.o.d Corps that was on the highway, although he knew that they would not receive the wind transmission until the late morning. It seems that the forest in between the highways was causing transmission interference.
“Most likely it’s the minority forces that had headed out early in the morning to deploy it.”
Hivodir immediately a.s.sembled a squad with movement a.s.sist and wind transmission and instructed them to move with urgency towards the Darkness G.o.d Corps to notify them, next he immediately a.s.sessed the remaining Wind Edge army’s strength and began strategizing his plan of attack.
“The troops remaining in the capital are about 2 battalion sized groups of mercenaries, about 2 times the amount of our troops.”
But they can win. At least it’s better than facing a force 4 times stronger. After Hivodir gave his inspirational speech talking about his experience to the fellow nervous commanders, he began his attack to recapture Rinval together with the Liberation army.
Fonke and his scouts, whom had advanced ahead towards the town, immediately turned back when he felt the anti-divine arts aura. After receiving the reports about magical beast lurking in the middle of the highway, Yuusuke distributed the magic flutes to half of the Darkness G.o.d Corps members and the investigation group.
“Erm, Yuusuke-dono…..are these real magic flutes?”
“Ng? Ah, these are replicas, I made sure that they do the same thing as the originals.”
“Replicas....”
To be this prepared for magical beast, Welsh was surprised by the large amount of complex magic flutes that were duplicated in such a small amount time, they even had the same design.
He was marveled by the strength of a huge country which had a great amount of earth user craftsmen. But in actual fact, it was Yuusuke who replicated the items, thus Yuusuke couldn’t tell him about it as they weren’t fully aware of his powers.
The north wall of Rinval ~~
“Oi What’s going on! Those fellas have been using their divine arts while advancing!”
“The magical beast movement have been strange since just now! Are they really doing their work?”
“They look like they have a lot of magic flutes over there! Archers shoot their magic flutes.”
“To have such skillful imitations!”
With most of the magical beast heading to hinder the Darkness G.o.d Corps advancement, there were some remaining magical beasts at the gate. However, since this is the first time Hivodir was acting as the commanding officer for the reinforcement force, every one of them possessed a magic flute. Without a pause they continued to blow the flute which caused the magical beast to go mad, thus they successfully neutralized them.
The Wind Edge army, which had relied on the magical beasts, had their tactics backfire against them. Due to the strong firepower from Fonclanc’s G.o.d corps divine arts, the mercenaries could only use their enhanced weapons to defend against the long range divine arts attacks.
Because of the anti-divine arts aura, the mercenaries could not use close combat and were forced into a shootout. All of the sudden, the Trent Rietta’s liberation army main forces broke into the Wind Edge army that was at the gate of the wall.
“Ehhh, you guys defend the gate to your last breath! Do not allow any of them to pa.s.s!”
“Where is the financial officer?”
“At Fortress-dono location, he will be returning soon!”
Shocked by the neutralization of the magical beasts, Financial officer Aizhar headed towards General Affairs officer Fortress to checked if it was possible to recall some troops that were heading to intercept the Darkness G.o.d Corp.
“There seems to be a slightly bad development.”
“Yes there is! How did they acquire the magic flutes….”
“Although the fact that the magical beasts becoming useless hurts, but what’s worse is the message that came just now was about Valerie-ojou is working with the Darkness G.o.d Corps.”
“Huh!? What, that’s preposterous!”
There is a high chance that the message is already being spread through the organisation which might cause anxiety to their forces.
In order to stop the recapturing of the capital, Fortress immediately headed towards the west highway to recall half of the 3 battalions. As of now, the magical beasts aura is acting as a form of barrier which haven’t been broken.
“We are leaving the military officer in charge of hindering the Darkness G.o.d Corps. We are currently recalling part of the forces to the capital, so hold on!”
“Okay, alright!”
On the west highway where the Darkness G.o.d Corps and the investigation group were traveling on, Fonke and his party began to slow down the carriages the moment they felt the anti-divine aura.
The leader of the group began complaining when his wind movement a.s.sist art, which had became distorted, this action had verified that the magical beast were lurking nearby. The Darkness G.o.d Corps and investigation group began their preparations for the raid as those who were able to fight alighted and surrounded the carriage.
However, there wasn’t any signs of an attack and they began to speculate, “are the enemies here to hinder us?”
“A delay tactic in order for Wind Edge to buy time to get ready for the battle.”
“So that means that we have make a forceful breakthrough with a speedy exit.”
If they were to travel at the rate in which the carriage is traveling alongside being chase by the magical beast, it would take them half a day to arrived at Rinval. In order to avoid this, they would have to kill the magical beasts lurking around.
“Everyone blow the magic flute to disturb the aura, Isotta locate the enemies locations for the punitive forces. Understand?”
“Okay. How many people could be taken from Ash and Shaheed’s forces to go subjugate with Fonke and Aisha.”
Thus it was decided that the troops deployed around the surrounding area of the carriage would be under Yuusuke’s direct supervision, while Isotta’s forces would be in charge of guarding Valerie’s carriage. After the quick reorganisation of the troops, they began facing towards the forest surrounding the highway and blew the magic flutes in unison.
This caused the magical beasts to fall into a brief state of confusion due to the different wavelengths being emitted from the magic flutes.
“...on the left side, there are 2 in the front, 3 on the side, one of them is hidden deep….whie 2 of them have wind arts aura, on the right there is one moving at walking speed.”
Within the moment of confusion, Isotta managed to determine the accurate position of the enemies. The 2 wind arts aura that were found most probably belonged to the controllers of the magical beasts.
According to Welsh, each group of magical beasts consisted of 1 controller and 2 magical beasts, so the 3rd person must be lurking close by.
“On the left of the forest!”
“Understood! Ash flank them.”
“Shaheed attack from the front.”
“understood.”
Immediately after blowing the magic flutes, Vermeer and Shaheed’s troops punched into the forest. Yuusuke was standing in line with Sun on the alert facing the right side of the forest. As Valerie and her party offered to help with an unstable spiraling fire wrapping around her arms.
Confused by the stressful wavelengths of incomprehensible instructions coming from multiple magical flutes, the magical beasts were grinding the back of their ears on the ground.
These troublesome magical beasts became like a normal wild beast the moment their skill was sealed.
“There!”
“Gooo!”
The flaming belt following the arrow that Sun had let out, disappeared in-between the trees. A cry of a magical beast came from the inner forest, the anti-divine arts aura that was covering the surrounding area disappeared completely. “Will it cause the forest to catch fire?” Yuusuke asked with a worried face,”It’s possible, I just need to adjust the firepower,” replied Valerie jokingly.
The magical beasts in the surrounding were subjucated while the controllers fled into the depths of the forest. Most likely retreating towards Rinval.
“Everything has gone as planned.”
“True, let’s prepare to move out~~”
“Captain! An emergency call from the reinforcement group….”
With the anti-divine arts aura gone, the transmission interference was lifted, thus Hivodir’s signal group was able to transmit information to the Darkness G.o.d Corps that were around the coastal route. They had informed them about the 3 battalions heading towards them.
“3 Battalions…”
“That means, close to 900 of them are approaching, as expected ain’t it getting dangerous?”
“I heard that the wind edge’s army is about 5 battalions. Thus the number of forces remaining in Rinval should be 2 battalions, about 2 times the number of the reinforcement troops plus the liberation army.”
“We can crush them using their own schemes.”
With that Vermeer had confirmed that the composition of that small magical beast group that they had repelled earlier was here to hinder them.
However, the situation was becoming quite severe. It would be reckless to fight. However, if the Darkness G.o.d Corps were to retreat, the troops heading here would return to Rinval and attack the reinforcement troops and the liberation army.
There is the risk of Hivodir’s forces being pincered and having an unavoidable retreat.
It would take 3 days even for the hurried Sanc Adiet’s reinforcements to arrive. The only option left by the Darkness G.o.d Corps in order not to retreat in defeat was to distract at least halve of the enemy"s’ troops for 3 days.
He began thinking about the ways to buy 3 days of time, with the condition of holding up half of the enemy’s troops, the option for creating a fortress is out as there are 10 times the number of enemies which would result in a permanent offensive of day and night siege. Thus it is not possible.
An early retreat is no longer an option. The Darkness G.o.d Corp’s retreat would result in the defeat of the reinforcement troop and liberation army, meaning that Wind Edge had defeated Fonclanc and Trent Rietta.
“What should we do?”
Due to the severity of the situation, Vermeer and the rest dare not carelessly say anything. As the one with the greatest responsibility in the group, Yuusuke will be the one deciding. While Yuusuke was thinking, the rest of the members were silently watching.
Being urged to make a decision, Sun gently grasped Yuusuke’s hand.
Yuusuke was deep in his thoughts. He had never played a strategic and tactical simulation game. The number of enemies are great, there wasn’t any materials to use his treasured skills to capture them, unlike what happened at Paula.
There were large amount of material for Paula Fortress~
While hanging his head down, Yuusuke saw something moving in the soil which his feet were standing on. The lumps of soil that were dug up by his boots were moving. Yarn earthworms could be seen twisting and circling from the openings.
“!”
In that moment, Yuusuke came to realization. He opened the customization menu and began fiddling with it.
The soldiers became puzzled by the sudden unique rite of the Darkness G.o.d Captain. To add on to their confusion, Yuusuke was smiling as though he had attain something powerful. In an instant, the noise around the area had disappeared.
Yuusuke in the moment grabbed and embraced Sun as she began to blush in embarra.s.sment, after that he turned around and began to announce his decision to the members.
“This is good.”
Ground customization worked only within a fixed distance from the place that Yuusuke was touching it. Until now that was absolute.The distance of the range the materials can be moved from the ground is the same range of the ground that can also be use as materials. In that moment, he successfully used a customized rod shaped material to connect the ground as an extension of a grouped item.
Up until now point A is located far away from point B where the different kind of materials for customizing were at, treating material A and material B individually, thus a certain range was required when creating structures like a lodging house or a small fortress.
The foundation materials A-C, the exterior wall material D-F, and the inner wall material G-I, this was the combination.
The idea that came to him this time was that the materials from A and C were previously summarized as one group. Although it took a while for the first time, after grouping the items once it becomes much easier the next time.
It will take time to create a lodging house or a small fortress from ground up with additional material, but during the dismantling it is almost instant as the building as a whole was treated as one item.
Up until now the materials were to be prepared as a group item, however now with this blind spot there was no need to.
Yuusuke declared his decision to engage the enemy instead of retreating, the non-combatants and their escorts carriages, moved towards the rear in preparations for combat. Vermeer, Shaheed, Welsh were being called to a.s.semble for their opinions on the minute details.
The remaining soldiers believed in their Darkness G.o.d Corps captain Yuusuke and began working on their own tasks.
“I see...this is a really bold strategy.”
“However, I believe that captain’s power could do it.”
“Althought I’m an outsider, I do not understand to what extent is Yuusuke’s power, but I will do my best to gather whatever information necessary for the strategy.”
“Okay first we need to~~”
The width of the highway is a size where a common carriage could traverse on, or a total of 5 armed soldiers with leather gear standing side by side could walk on. Although deploying a group of people would not be a problem if they extend it to the side of the forest, however transporting 900 people isn’t going to be easy.
It is hard to tell if the terrain around the forest is flat, even if they had cleared part of the area around the highway for the carriages to run, the number of people it could carry would still be restricted. Due to circ.u.mstances, they would have to lure the enemy by foot to certain locations.
As the enemies started to gather nearby, they began to predict the encounter site. There wasn’t much time left.
The preparations for the strategy were progressing well, good news of the situation turning better had come in. Information from the liberation army spy, states that about half of the 3 battalion had re-routed back to Rinval.
According to the information that Isotta had picked up, currently the reinforcement troops and the liberation army was engaging in a battle at the North Gate of Rinval against the Wind Edge army. It seems that the disruption of the magical beasts had worked.
“That should be the result of the over reliance on the magical beast.”
Welsh muttered docilely.
“Okay, we have roughly found the encounter site. Let’s head out, Fonke.”
“Roger, I have been waiting!”
Fonke began driving his motorbike, while Yuusuke start running his preparations on the highway. At the same time, Vermeer and the rest were doing dry run exercise. Although they were hopeful in victory, it would be brutal if they failed.
“Now, I am looking forward to it.”