Free Web NovelChapter 200: Chapter 173: War Begins
The commanders-in-chief on both sides were essentially playing with their cards on the table. At first, the Beastmen tried to fight back against the griffins flying overhead, but when they realized it was futile, they simply stopped bothering.
On the human side, Robson had already gathered nearly a hundred Mages. They were working nonstop, rushing to build cheval de frise and barbicans. Conscripted laborers from the city were transporting wooden barrels from the various army garrisons to the front lines.
To let the Beastmen of this world witness the power of biology, Robson had the esteemed Mages use their Shaping Technique to craft a number of golden cauldrons. He placed immense hope in these "chemical weapons."
As for the Beastmen, they initially sent out Wolf Cavalry to scout. However, General Griff soon found he couldn’t make heads or tails of what the humans were doing. Realizing that understanding their strange preparations would only be a needless headache, he gave up on reconnaissance altogether and focused his attention on his army.
「The next morning.」
Robson was already standing atop the city walls. He had considered flying up on his griffin, but with how busy things had been lately, his own riding skills were still rudimentary. In the end, he opted to observe from the gatehouse tower.
Just then, a griffin’s cry echoed from the distance, and the creature soon landed in Thermopylae’s Griffin Cage.
Robson knew. ’Something must be happening with the Beastmen.’
Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the sound of running footsteps echoed from below the tower. A middle-aged Knight appeared, looking somewhat short. The order of Griffin Knights originated with the Dwarf Race, so a short stature was a common trait.
"Baron Robson," the middle-aged Knight said with a salute.
"No need for formalities. What’s your report?" Robson said.
"The Beastmen began to move this morning. The first wave numbers five thousand, with a second following close behind," the middle-aged Knight reported.
’Just as I thought,’ Robson said to himself. While he was anxious, how could the Beastmen be any different?
The Beastman Empire was so desperate to repel the Human Race that they had even played the "undead" card.
It wasn’t just the Human Race that held a grudge against the undead; in the past, the undead had swept across the entire continent.
With the exception of the trolls’ vast rear territory and a few pockets of human and elven lands, nearly every other region had been ravaged by them.
Based on his combat experience over the last few months, Robson knew the Beastman Empire was far from monolithic. It was rife with internal power struggles, yet they still dared to employ such an underhanded tactic.
It was foreseeable that if the Beastman Empire failed to achieve a decisive victory in this war, their future would be anything but easy.
’Honestly, I just can’t understand the Beastman Empire’s decision to bring the undead to the battlefield.’
’It was tantamount to cutting off their own retreat, a final, all-in gamble.’
’More importantly, the undead card was something you could threaten with, a deterrent, but the Beastman Empire absolutely could not be the one to actually use it!’
’Otherwise, the Beastmen would find themselves facing more than just the Human Race. The two great hegemons of the continent’s east and west would surely show the Beastman Empire what a true human-wave assault looked like.’
’In the short term, this move might allow them to break through the Western Front. But in the long run, the Beastmen would gain nothing and would instead find themselves in a passive, defensive position.’
Of course, these were the Beastman Empire’s internal affairs, so Robson couldn’t know the full story.
...
As the Beastmen sounded their horns for the attack, Robson immediately ordered the human army to mount the walls and deploy for defense.
Answering horns immediately blared out one after another all along the human-held wall.
Upon receiving the order, the soldiers of the First Regiment grabbed their weapons and rushed onto the walls.
By this point, over half of the First Regiment consisted of Tier Six Soldiers. Those who remained—or rather, had survived—were all essentially Tier Five Soldiers.
Although Thermopylae was much larger than an ordinary pass, it was still just a pass. The walls were massive and thick, but they certainly couldn’t compare to those of Sirich City. A single regiment was enough to fill the entire length of the walls.
Of course, to be on the safe side, Robson had the Second Legion positioned at the base of the walls as reserves.
As for the Magic Crystal Cannons, there were actually so many that they couldn’t all fit on the walls. Robson had to specially erect several Magic Crystal Cannon Towers within the pass itself.
...
General Griff rubbed his purple-red eyes. He had genuinely gone more than ten days without sleep, only catching a brief rest the previous night.
Of course, General Griff wasn’t bothered by the lack of sleep. ’With General Curry as a cautionary tale, how could I possibly go to the front lines and fight these brutes to the death myself? If I get tainted by that bizarre aura too, it’s all over for me.’
General Griff was no General Curry. ’If I have to choose between the Beastman Empire and my own life, I’m choosing my own life every time.’
’It can’t be helped. The Beastman Empire isn’t what it used to be. Integrating so many different races was like a shot of adrenaline—it gave the Beastman Empire a temporary surge of power, but such a system inevitably leads to deteriorating unity.’
’Unless a supreme unifier emerges within the Beastman Empire, this situation is irreversible. They can only rely on constant southern campaigns and endless aggression to resolve their internal conflicts.’
’And so far, I haven’t seen any Beastman ruler capable of that.’
’The current Beast Emperor, Kemel... he must have some ability to have ascended the throne and held it this long. But a bigger factor was his good fortune thirty years ago when he faced Louis II.’
’But the Human Alliance Army that followed showed the Beastmen the true strength of the Human Race.’
’The Beast Emperor is so desperate this time because so many things back home are on the brink of spiraling out of control. A personal letter from the Beast Emperor himself failed to compel General Dor to move. That’s a perfect example of the internal strife within the Beastman Empire.’
’Spurred on by their great victory in the last war, the Beastman Royal Family has invested the most resources this time. If this conflict just drags on at the Frank Kingdom’s border without bringing in any real gains, the Beast Emperor will have a hard enough time suppressing dissenting voices within the Imperial Family, let alone among the other major races.’
’To the other great races, the Imperial Family currently occupies around thirty percent of the Empire’s land and resources, including many critically important strategic assets like Magic Crystals and iron ore.’
’If this war doesn’t turn a profit while the Beastman Royal Family continues to hoard such vast resources, it’s obvious who will become the next target of conquest.’
"General, our vanguard is less than two miles from Thermopylae. When do we begin the War Charge?" a Beastman aide-de-camp asked from beside him.
The War Charge was a type of synergistic ability unique to the Beastmen, and only Purple-blooded Beastmen could perform it. It was similar to a werewolf’s howl or a Gnoll’s slaughtering mist.
What was strange was that neither the current hegemons of the world, the elves and the Human Race, nor the hegemons of the past—the Green-blooded Beastmen and the ancient trolls—possessed such peculiar abilities.
These were clearly powerful group-buffing abilities, yet the races that possessed them had either been swept away by the tides of history or suppressed to the brink of extinction.
While the current Beastman Army wasn’t as exhausted as General Curry’s had been—unable to even initiate a War Charge—they were still suffering after such a long forced march.
To say nothing of the fact that many Soldiers only had enough stamina to use the War Charge once. Afterward, they were little more than common cannon fodder.
In Griff’s mind, his attack would come in successive waves, with the most powerful being the first and the very last.
Both were intended to catch the enemy off guard, to test if the battle could be ended in a single, decisive push.
"Not yet. Are the Kodo Beasts ready? What about the catapults?" General Griff asked, looking at his aide-de-camp.
"They are ready, but... the Kodo Beasts were used to haul supplies earlier, and their stamina is greatly depleted. The War Drums might not be as effective as usual," the aide-de-camp replied.
"As long as it can raise their spirits, it’s enough," General Griff said dismissively.
The Kodo Beast was a unique asset of the Beastman Empire, a technique learned from the Red-blooded Beastmen that emulated their roar. In fact, the Purple-blooded Beastmen’s War Charge was also derived from the Red-blooded Beastmen’s War Roar. Theirs was simply a newer, refined version, as the Red-blooded Beastmen had later become corrupted and their techniques could not be copied directly.
"Have the Second Legion ready to charge in at a moment’s notice. They should be prepared to reinforce the first wave immediately.
We’ll see the outcome before dawn tomorrow..." General Griff commanded.
"Yes, General."
After issuing his orders, General Griff turned his gaze toward Thermopylae.
’There shouldn’t be any problems, right?’ General Griff ran through his plans one last time. It had been a long while since he’d felt this nervous.
’Everything should be fine. I’ve done everything by the book. From here on out, it’s just a contest of raw power.’
