Chapter 189

Within the Togor Canyon, Morning

「They didn’t raid us at night . 」

Celia murmurs next to me .

「Their strength lies in holding us within a narrow landscape with their elite soldiers . They might have an advantage with their small numbers when conducting a night raid, but that gives us the opportunity to sneak some of our squads out of the canyon while they’re kept busy . 」

As Leopolt said, if they’re surrounded from the back and front, we just have to close in on them from all sides and press with our numbers . They would be finished, no matter how strong they are .

「We can’t detour nor can we set up a partial encirclement……」

「That’s probably why this place was chosen as the battlefield . 」

There is only one way through, and that is to break past them from the front .

Ever since the late morning sun shone its rays into the canyon, the enemy camp has been making a lot of noise .

「Heeey, Hardlett! The sun has risen!! Are we going to resume the battle or what!?」

Gildress bangs his sword against his shield, making metallic crashing sounds while shouting loudly .

He seems to be having lots of fun .

「Can’t we burn them with cannons or flaming arrows?」

「Celia, it was mentioned yesterday . If we were up against Magrado and their familiar box formation, we would have a field day shooting them, but these guys can move swiftly depending on the situation…… if we aren’t careful and send out our defenseless siege weapons to the front, we would get wiped out . 」

「Should we try the flaming arrows anyways?」

Leopolt gives a signal and then arrows tipped with fire are simultaneously loosed towards the enemy .

However, they only get blocked by their impenetrable shields, and the flames which were caused by the arrows that fell to the ground were easily stomped out during the interval between volleys .

They don’t only move together as a box, each individual is extremely quick .

「Hardlett! It’s already summer, so we don’t need more warmth, you know? Wahahahaha!」

「And that’s the result……」

Gildress, who is standing at the front of his army, brushes away several flaming arrows and guffaws .

Eeei, he pisses me off .

「There really is no other option than a frontal attack . 」

「Yes, the best solution is to use our ballistae and cannons to disrupt them – even though they won’t have the highest accuracy – and then ram our forces against them head-on . When it gets to the point where you have no choice but to fight under these conditions, you really don’t have much room for strategic depth . 」

So it’s a pretty bad situation with very few options available to us .

「There was never a chance for us to lose from the beginning, except we just need to worry about time . If we take too long, we would give the Atoroan army which escaped enough time to gather more forces, plus the nearby Poleis would start doubting why they opened a path for us when we’re struggling this much against a measly 100 people . 」

「So we have to push past…… don’t they have a weakness or something?」

「It’s not like there’s nothing…… but they’re not attached to a main force . That’s perfect for a brilliant plan like a frontal attack . 」

We just have to do it .

I brandish my spear .

「An all-out attack . We’ll get through by noon . 」

「「「Oooooh-!」」」

We were thoroughly beaten up yesterday but the morale of the soldiers somehow managed to recover .

Let’s bring them down quickly .

Sounds of explosions roar as the cannons fire their rounds .

The ballistae launches their large bolts as well .

Not many of them can be setup because of the topography and they need to be angled in a way that they wouldn’t hit any allies from the back .

Furthermore, the enemy only has 100 people, so we can’t expect many of the projectiles to hit their target, however there is still a chance that an attack which they can’t fend off with their shields would lower morale, even if just a tiny bit .

「Charrgeeee–!!」

At that moment, the infantry charged forward with a squad of spearmen as the vanguard .

From what I saw yesterday, the infantry won’t be able to win in a clash on even terms .

In addition, only 20 of them can fight at a time…… they’re certainly going to be overwhelmed like that .

That’s why this time, the spearmen are in front to disrupt the enemy lines .

「Take that!」

Just before the tip of the spear reached the enemy, the very first line of enemies crouched low to the ground .

The spearheads pass the vanguards and collide with the shields of the enemy soldiers in the second row .

Immediately after, the crouching enemies swing their shields up to hit the spears from the bottom, causing the tips to point in the air .

「Crush them!」

Without any delay, the enemy closed the distance .

The spears are nothing but long sticks at this point .

The 20 men in front get cut down in an instant .

「Save the spearmen unit!」

「Kooiiyaa!」

The infantry unit hastily pushes forward, propping up their shields to meet the enemy .

「This is ugly……」

As soon as the infantry collided with the enemy, the ally soldiers were pushed back as if they were sliding on top of ice .

「Did we hit something?」

「Aah, that was even lighter than a tackle from my daughter so I don’t know . 」

The Aless soldiers crack some jokes and laugh .

「Don’t falter! Continue charging! 4th and 6th units stand down, 7th unit step forward . 」

The severely beaten squads were pulled out and another squad was sent out in front to rush the enemy .

That new squad quickly gets defeated and retreats, although another squad quickly fills the hole .

The enemy is strong, creating piles of corpses from only the soldiers on our side .

However, there are times on the battlefield where flukes happen, and even veteran soldiers can be defeated after 10 attacks, no matter how shoddy those attacks were .

「Guo…… my King…… I’ll be heading there first!」

「Uugh…… Fufu, we were talking about a hundred each but I still only