As one of the Eminent Human Mages in command of a globe charging towards the Lanthanorian Border, Kerrex"s heart was beating out of its chest while he futilely tried to get it under his grasp.
Since graduating from the Military Academy of Axelor, this was only his second war operation. The first had only been a small skirmish with Eldinor, in which he hadn"t even been deployed.
Even though each and every possibility and countermeasure had been drilled into him repeatedly in the College, the feeling of actually being in a war situation was really something else.
The first thing that hit him was the dust.
As the land in front of the Lanthanorian Border Wall was barren with loose soil, each step sent up dust which invaded his nostrils.
In fact, at the moment when the groups of 500 had formed, the first deployment of the globe had resulted in the dust sweeping into his eyes and making them bloodshot.
His vision still blurry, the only thing keeping his group still intact was the sharp voice of their commander.
As someone who had aced the cla.s.s in command responsiveness, he thanked the G.o.ds that he had put in the hard work to inculcate in himself the habit to follow orders the second they were given.
The second thing was the sweat. As each group was tightly packed together, the sweat that came due to the high temperature that arose from the hot sun glaring down on them caused a stench that was indescribable.
In the Axelorian Army, men and women had different squadrons, with the one currently attacking Lanthanor being one which was completely comprised of the former.
Thus, the entire globe was comprised of sweaty men rubbing against each other who tried to ignore the smell to keep marching forward.
Third and last, was the fear.
As the one in the center, he was the only one with an access to the view outside. Still, he did not have a complete idea about the situation on the battlefield.
Each time an arrow whizzed past and struck the ground near them, he and some other newbies in the group couldn"t help but flinch and feel thankful that it hadn"t hit them.
Juggling all these factors while trying to control the beating of his heart, Kerrex kept marching forward.
After hearing finally that they were past the last volley, he finally relaxed a little.
As per what he had learned in the College, the most dangerous and uncertain stretch had already been pa.s.sed.
After reaching within a couple hundred meters of the wall, there would be a mad dash as the ballistae couldn"t be fired at this range due to the angle.
The goal was to reach the wall and change the globe formation to a one-sided tank, which would act as the defense when the battering ram trinkets would go to work on the wall.
The rest was pretty straightforward. The Lanthanorian Kingdom would first usually attack from above the wall by dropping explosive trinkets or burning oil, followed by soldiers teleporting over to launch a.s.saults on the tanks.
Thus, he would effectively have a brief moment of rest during which he could reset himself when the Lanthanorians tried to break through their defensive means in order to force them to flee.
At least this time, this process would take a long time as he had been given multiple defensive means all designed to hold their position at the wall.
After all, according to the briefing they had been through before the march, it had been made clear that the main objective was to occupy the forces of Lanthanor for as long as possible.
"Is it just me, or are there much fewer impacts than usual?"
Being snapped out of his thoughts by the gruff voice of one of the veteran Eminent Human Fighters around him, Kerrex"s face couldn"t help but take on a puzzled expression as he realized that this was true.
Each volley consisted of at least 150 arrows, where the norm was that at least half hit their marks. Of these, a quarter were usually successful in destabilizing the globes.
Thus, by any measure, at least 10-12 of the globes would usually have been made to retreat by this point. Yet, all of them were still marching forward.
This was, in fact, such a large anomaly that Kerrex wondered why the commander hadn"t given any orders to address it or at least prepare countermeasures for any new risks on the battlefield that they should be aware of.
After all, one of the most important rules taught in the Military College was that information could decide victors and losers in a war. Thus, if there was any anomaly or if there wasn"t sufficient information about enemy forces, it was always advised to withdraw.
Right now, it seemed that both of these factors were in play, but they were still marching forward.
Little did he know that the Axelorian Commander had been ordered to follow through with the plan no matter what arose, as it was the best chance they had gotten in decades to mount an attack on their most hated foe.
"No, they are definitely missing most of their shots. Bunch of Lanthanorian fools who are blind as a bat. Just wait till they come to us. I"ll show them just how effective my twin-sword technique is."
The man who replied was another Eminent Human Fighter who had several scars across his face. With two similar short swords on his back, his face had an expression of excitement as if he were looking forward to plunging them into his enemies.
With each step, the globes covered the distance between them and the walls rapidly.
In barely 1 minute, they would be able to fortify themselves onto the wall like a leech which had found its place comfortably on human skin, unable to be shaken off unless it was attacked with fire.
As the seconds ticked on faster and faster, Kerrex felt more and more secure as he knew that he would soon be out of danger, at least for a little while.
Yet, his face that had just been about to change from a tensed expression to a calmer one was stopped in its tracks due to a sound that startled the entire army of Axelor.
SKKKRRRRR
It was a roaring of chains coming from the place which wasn"t even being targeted currently by the globes: the border gate.
Of similar proportions as the Royal Treasury, the 4 border gates on the 4 sides of Lanthanor were actually the most secure points of the wall that protected the Kingdom from its enemies.
The same scholars who had identified the "paint" and its weakness of being able to be overpowered and breached if sufficient penetrative power was introduced, had been shocked speechless when they investigated the gate.
Standing at 30 feet tall(around 9m) and 10 feet wide(around 3 m), the humongous doors were almost never opened. Unlike the walls, these were made out of an alloy which could directly defend against any strike below Champion Level.
No amount of simple battering ram trinkets could cause a dent on it, making it so that the Axelorians never even tried to break through it.
For day to day usage, a smaller porthole in the gate was used through which only a few people could pa.s.s through at a time.
Besides, it was also said that only one individual had the authority to open the gates: the person in possession of the oathstone of Lanthanor.
Thus, hearing sounds from the most impregnable location in their target, it was all the Axelorians could do to continue their forward march without faltering due to surprise or, in Kerrex"s case, fear.
Although they were huge, they opened quite quickly to reveal an image that each and every soldier of Axelor would remember till their last days.
Over 50,000 soldiers neatly arranged into 100 groups of 500 each started running out of the gate, heading towards each of the globes marching towards the wall.
From his viewpoint, it was as if there was a cannon behind the gate which was launching "cannonb.a.l.l.s" of squadrons which sped towards each globe.
Back in the command globe in which the Axelorian Commander was located, silence ensued as no one knew what to say.
This wasn"t because they had nothing to say.
On the contrary, there were so many things wrong with the situation that they didn"t know where to start.
First, this was the first time that soldiers had marched out to fight them instead of using their defensive superiority to rain down attacks from above to weaken their defenses.
It didn"t make sense. Except losing scores of soldiers, what else could it achieve?
Second, the soldiers were running.
Yes, RUNNING.
In an age where teleportation was the norm, it was a shocking sight to see soldiers using this primitive method to approach enemies.
Third, the King of Lanthanor was conscious, as he had been able to give the command to open the gate.
Too much was wrong about this situation. And the Axelorian Commander had had enough.
His orders were to carry on no matter what losses occurred up to a certain point, but right now, he felt that there was a chance that they would be wiped out as there were too many anomalies.
Gritting his teeth, he gave the order.
"Retreat. Begin teleporting back to the safe zone."
This was their countermeasure: to simply teleport back in case things became dire. The Eminent Human Mages would take s.h.i.+fts to teleport the members of each globe back, while the globe would try to defend against attacks while this process took place.
Yet, even after a few seconds pa.s.sed, nothing changed on the battlefield.
As a fighter, the Axelorian Commander could only ask the Exalted Human Mage beside him why the h.e.l.l they hadn"t teleported away yet.
Yet, as he turned towards the man, he realized that the mage"s face had gone white.
With a stuttering tone, the mage recited the words that would haunt the Axerlorian Commander"s dreams as this was the point where everything began to go wrong.
"Commander… the s.p.a.ce is lo-locked. They somehow deployed s.p.a.ce lock trinkets without us realizing it. What do we do?"