Free Web NovelChapter 91: Losers
Kingdom of Aldrack
The battlefield had become a slaughter.
Smoke rolled endlessly across the blood-soaked plains while the screams of dying men drowned beneath the thunderous cracks of Mountel’s guns.
Aldrack was losing.
Badly.
Blue-armored soldiers stumbled backward in panic while others desperately tried to push forward under the furious orders of their generals.
"Forward!" the general roared from horseback, his voice almost swallowed by the chaos. "Push forward and close the distance!"
But everyone already understood the truth.
Getting closer meant dying faster.
Still, soldiers obeyed.
Because disobeying meant execution later if the enemy somehow didn’t kill them first.
A fresh volley exploded across the battlefield.
Several Aldrack soldiers jerked violently before collapsing into the dirt.
One man screamed while clutching his stomach, blood spilling rapidly between his fingers.
Another lost half his jaw and dropped without even making a sound.
Panic spread further down the lines.
"They’re monsters!" someone shouted desperately.
"We can’t even reach them!"
Another crack split through the battlefield.
An armored soldier running ahead suddenly flew backward before crashing lifelessly onto the ground.
The bullets tore through armor effortlessly.
Metal meant nothing.
Distance meant nothing.
The moment Aldrack’s soldiers got close enough to properly use swords, Mountel simply fired again.
And more men died.
A group of terrified soldiers began retreating only for one of Aldrack’s officers to ride directly toward them.
"Cowards!" he screamed. "Turn around!"
One of the fleeing soldiers looked barely older than a boy.
"They’ll kill us!" he cried.
Another gunshot rang out.
The boy collapsed instantly.
The officer froze mid-sentence as blood sprayed across his face.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then the screaming started again.
The battlefield dissolved further into terror.
Still, some men continued charging forward anyway.
Bravely.
Hopelessly.
A soldier carrying a blue shield let out a roar as he sprinted toward Mountel’s frontlines with sword raised high.
Three gunshots answered him.
He staggered once.
Twice.
Then fell face-first into the mud before ever reaching the enemy.
Another man stepped over the body and continued running anyway.
He died moments later too.
The battlefield had stopped resembling war.
It looked more like harvesting.
Lives cut down one after another before they could even fight back properly.
Among the chaos moved Aegon.
Unlike many around him, he wasn’t thinking about glory.
Or honor.
Or bravery.
He was thinking about his wife.
About his children.
His little boy who liked climbing onto his shoulders every evening.
His daughter who cried whenever he left home for too long.
He didn’t want to die here.
Not like this.
Bent low beneath his shield, Aegon moved desperately through the battlefield while his heart pounded violently inside his chest.
Gunfire exploded constantly around him.
Each sound made his entire body flinch.
The soldiers ahead of him kept falling one after another.
A man directly beside him screamed before collapsing with blood pouring from his neck.
Another stumbled backward missing an arm entirely.
Aegon nearly slipped on a corpse while trying to continue forward.
"Move!" someone shouted behind him.
"We have to reach them!"
Reach them?
How?
Every man who got close enough died almost instantly.
Aegon’s breathing became ragged as terror consumed him completely.
He wanted to run.
Goddess, he wanted to run so badly.
But there was nowhere safe to run.
Another volley erupted.
Men dropped around him again.
The smell of blood and smoke filled the air so heavily it became difficult to breathe. freēwebnovel.com
Aegon raised his shield higher while crouching lower, desperately trying to make himself smaller.
Please!!! Please let me survive.
His children needed him. His wife needed him. He couldn’t die here. Not on this field. Not for this.
Then suddenly, the gunfire stopped. Aegon blinked in confusion. Ahead of him, the red-armored soldiers of Mountel had stopped advancing.
At first, Aegon thought perhaps they were reloading again.
Then he realized something was wrong.
The enemy lines were pulling back.
Slowly.
Steadily.
Retreating.
Confused shouting spread across both armies immediately.
"What are they doing?"
"Why are they retreating?"
Aegon stared in disbelief while trying to catch his breath.
One of Mountel’s soldiers suddenly stepped directly in front of him.
The man’s red armor was splattered with blood.
His gun lifted instantly.
The barrel pointed directly at Aegon’s head.
Aegon froze.
His legs gave out beneath him.
He collapsed onto his knees in the mud, tears streaming uncontrollably down his face as death stared directly at him.
The soldier could kill him easily.
One pull of the trigger.
That was all.
Aegon shut his eyes tightly.
But the shot never came.
Seconds passed.
Slowly, trembling violently, he opened his eyes again.
The Mountel soldier was lowering the weapon already.
Without a single word, the man turned around and began retreating alongside the rest of Mountel’s forces.
Aegon remained frozen on his knees staring after him.
Alive.
He was alive.
Around him, other Aldrack soldiers stood equally stunned.
Not one of them dared attack the retreating enemy.
No one.
Because every single surviving soldier understood the truth.
They were alive purely by the mercy of God.
That was all.
Had Mountel continued pressing forward even slightly longer, Aldrack’s army would have completely collapsed.
Above the battlefield, King Valeck stared in absolute disbelief from atop the walls.
"They’re retreating?" he muttered.
Even now, he could barely believe what he was seeing.
Moments earlier, he himself had been preparing to order a full retreat into the capital.
Another hour—
Perhaps less—
And the battlefield would have been entirely lost.
Yet somehow Mountel was withdrawing instead.
The king turned sharply toward the nobles and advisors surrounding him.
"Why?" he demanded.
No one answered.
None of them understood either.
Below, the battlefield remained covered in bodies dressed in blue.
The losses were horrific.
Even retreating, Mountel looked stronger.
More organized.
More disciplined.
Valeck clenched the stone wall tightly while his thoughts raced.
Why would they suddenly leave?
Had reinforcements arrived somewhere?
Had another kingdom attacked them?
Or was this some kind of trap?
One of the advisors swallowed nervously.
"Perhaps they feared losses if they approached the walls further—"
"No," Valeck snapped immediately.
His voice carried frustration and fear both.
"That isn’t it."
Everyone knew it.
Mountel had been winning.
Completely.
The battlefield itself proved it.
Valeck turned furiously toward his subjects.
"Find out why," he ordered sharply.
Silence followed.
"I said find out!" he shouted this time.
Several nobles visibly flinched.
"If we don’t know why they retreated, then we remain vulnerable," Valeck continued angrily. "They could return at any moment."
And that terrified him more than anything.
Because now Aldrack would have to remain constantly alert.
Constantly afraid.
Never fully certain whether Mountel’s army might suddenly appear again outside the walls.
One of the generals finally bowed his head.
"We’ll send scouts immediately, Your Majesty."
Valeck nodded stiffly.
Only then did he finally look back toward the retreating red army disappearing slowly into the distance.
Relief washed through him so heavily his knees nearly weakened.
They had survived.
Barely.
But even while watching Mountel retreat, Valeck understood the truth clearly.
Aldrack had lost this battle terribly.
And if Mountel ever returned prepared to finish it—
He wasn’t certain his kingdom would survive a second time.To survive, he would have to make concessions even if he had to give up the throne.
As much as it pained him he knew it was the right thing to do but he just wasn’t sure he could.
’Isnt it better to die?’ he wondered the thought of having to bow his head to another made his stomach roll in disgust.
