Free Web NovelChapter 194: Prepare for Battle
Sasha’s newly arrived group naturally caught the attention of those who were already up on the walls, but upon seeing that it was made up of civilians, most of the fully armoured guards and soldiers directly ignored them, clearly uninterested in interacting with what they considered ’peasant rabble’.
Of course, not all of those occupying the city walls were so ignorant that they missed the numerous powerful auras mixed in amongst this militia, but that didn’t mean they saw a reason to interact with the Redwood Town group.
Not bothering with the reaction of these people, Sasha began looking for whoever was in charge of organizing the defenders; however, even after searching around for some time, she failed to find anyone who seemed like the overall commander.
After thinking about it for a moment, Sasha realized that with so many different groups present, each of which was used to functioning independently, it would be hard for a single leader to assert themselves unless they had enough strength and prestige to ensure everyone followed their orders.
Only a Spirit Initiate could command such respect.
Upon realizing this, though, Sasha couldn’t help wondering where all the Spirit Initiates were.
For that matter, where was her grandmother, the one who should be in charge of the entire defense operation?
Sasha had seen Commander Hughes down below, but from what she had been told, Celestina had brought 5 more Spirit Initiates with her to Herald City from Redwood Town.
The question was, where were they all?
Just then, a horn sounded, one so loud it drowned out all the noise from the various crowds.
After letting out 2 loud blasts to get everyone’s attention, a number of soldiers standing atop the highest point of the city wall began shouting, "The Beast Tide is 10,000 paces out! 10,000 paces!"
10,000 paces was roughly equivalent to 6 kilometres, which might sound like quite a lot, but to ordinary four-legged First Order Wild Beasts, it was a distance they could comfortably cross in about 20 minutes.
Worst-case scenario, the horde of beasts could break into an all-out sprint and some would reach the city walls within just 5 minutes.
Realizing that time was rapidly running out, the refugees still stuck outside the gates completely gave up the idea of ’proceeding in an orderly fashion’ and began pushing and shoving, desperately trying to seek shelter behind the sturdy city walls.
In turn, the soldiers at the gate and on the streets, despite supposedly being significant in number to control such a crowd, were having an even harder time maintaining order.
Watching the already chaotic situation further deteriorate, Sasha felt like there was more she should be doing to help, but she also understood that with her meager strength, she was helpless to make any real difference. On top of that, she had to organize her own forces to get ready for the inevitable clash.
Turning to the 2 Sea Establishment Captains accompanying her, Sasha swiftly ordered, "Have our archers split up into smaller teams, 3 to 5 per group, and send them to fill in the gaps atop the walls. As for when to fire... just tell them use their best judgement."
Saluting, the Captains immediately got to work, also understanding that time was short.
Although the announcement didn’t send the defenders atop the wall scrambling like the civilians below, the amount of fidgeting and weapon checking going on increased noticeably.
Even the veteran soldiers from the Raging River and Golden Wings Legions who were assisting Sasha showed visible signs of nervousness. Part of the reason was undoubtedly the approaching horde, but another part was because their leaders were still conspicuously absent.
If the enemy only consisted of First through Fourth Order Beasts, as long as the rest of the defenders who were currently engaged in crowd control also mounted the high walls and equipped themselves with long spears, holding out likely wouldn’t be a problem.
The issue was that such a vast horde of beasts couldn’t possible be missing Fifth Order Beasts, ones completely capable of directly leaping onto Herald City’s walls and wreaking utter havoc among the human defenders.
Sasha wanted to head down and ask Commander Hughes just where the rest of the masters were, but she hesitated knowing that right now was not a good time for a leader like her to be seen leaving the wall.
If the militia and other defenders somehow thought that they were being abandoned, morale would plummet, and others might start fleeing. Once that happened, the battle would be lost even before it began.
Before Sasha could decide whether or not to go seek answers from the only person who might have them, a series of loud rumblings rang out from the north-west.
At first, Sasha thought that it was the noise of the approaching Beast Tide, but she soon dismissed that theory because it didn’t make sense for the stampede to just suddenly become louder.
Sasha was not the only one who noticed the rumblings, with many of the other defenders turning their attention to the darkness beyond the walls. freewebnσvel.cøm
Many tried to see what was going on, Sasha included, but with night having fallen and the moon being obscured by a layer of clouds, there was no way to see very far.
The lack of visibility was made worse by the numerous braziers, torches, and Spirit Lamps that had been set up nearby. While this made the area around the wall brighter, it also made it harder to see anything further away.
As the rumblings got louder, and seemingly closer, other noises also began to echo.
Listening carefully, Sasha was able to make out numerous howls and beast cries, which wasn’t too surprising seeing how a Beast Tide was bearing down on them; however, theses howls didn’t seem rampant or menacing, but instead sounded rather mournful and pained.
Why would the beasts be in pain? Sasha wondered to herself, before suddenly thinking of something and turning to a nearby Sea Establishment Captain to ask, "Is Grandmot... Are General Balfour and the Commanders attacking the beast horde?"
The Captain, a middle-aged woman with rather bulky muscles and a number of scars on her face, narrowed her eyes at this question and muttered, "I wouldn’t put it past the General to launch a pre-emptive strike."
"Are they trying to thin out the enemies?" Sasha wondered aloud.
"Perhaps, but," the female Captain pursed her lips and paused for a moment before continuing, "That can’t be all the General is thinking. She must have some other motive for setting out to strike the enemy."
Nodding, Sasha silently agreed with this assessment. Attacking the horde right now might reduce the number of beasts somewhat and slow its advance a bit, but with only one Spirit Adept and a handful of Spirit Initiates, the overall effect would be minimal.
What’s more, right now, the horde was moving as a single, cohesive army, which made it easier to predict where it would attack the city walls and thus simpler to defend against.
If Celestina’s assault were to frighten the beasts and cause them to scatter, it would only make it more difficult for the defenders.
"We should recall the troops on crowd control and spread out our forces to cover a larger section of the wall," the female Captain suggested, clearly having the same concerns as Sasha.
Although Sasha agreed with this suggestion, she first had to ask, "How is the evacuation going?"
In response to this query, the female Captain, who had access to her nascent Soul Sense, swept the area outside the walls quickly before frowning deeply.
Just seeing the look on the Captain’s face, Sasha had her answer.
From a purely tactical perspective, the best course of action right now would be to seal the gates and get every available fighter up onto the walls, but there was still a significant number of civilians trying to get into the city.
Closing the gates now would essentially be condemning these people to death.
That was a decision Sasha wasn’t willing to make just yet.
Even if Sasha refused to sacrifice those innocent lives, however, that didn’t mean others wouldn’t be willing to.
In fact, her experiences in and around Herald City these past few days left Sasha with the distinct impression that the local forces would have no issue with closing the gates right now and using the stranded civilian refugees outside as meat-shields.
Worried that this worst-case scenario might just come to pass, Sasha whispered to the female Captain next to her, "Take a Battalion of our militia and secure the gate. Don’t let anyone close to it until either I, or Commander Hughes gives the order."
Frowning at the implication of this order, the Captain nodded subtly before moving to quietly take care of it.
Turning her eyes back to the dark fields beyond the city walls, Sasha took a deep breath to steady her nerves before shouting, "Prepare for battle!"
