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248. Childhood Friend – Tactics

When I got struck by lightning for the second time, Lena flickered in front of my eyes. I really thought I was going to die, but Leo managed to stand up on his shaky legs and raised his fist.

“Woooooooo!! Swordmaster!”

“Charge! Charge! We’ve got the Swordmaster with us!”

Cheers erupted.

The soldiers gazed at the Swordmaster with admiration. They were so inspired by the unscathed Swordmaster after that lightning strike that they dashed through the heavy rain towards the enemy.

Fortunately, they hadn’t noticed that Leo was raising his fists instead of the sword that would have made him a useful lightning rod.

Thinking he should be more cautious, Leo swung his sword at a nearby knight. Whoosh! At the same time the knight dodged, Leo kicked to knock him down.

– Slap!

“What the hell…!”

But that knight wasn’t weak either. As he fell, he splashed muddy water on Leo and quickly slipped away among the pirates.

What a jerk. Fuming with anger, Leo raised his sword high.

He worried another lightning strike might fall, but then something white covered the battlefield. A wave of energy passed by, and Leo’s Oblivion Blade cleaved a knight caught among the pirates in half.

‘What the hell?’

I wondered what that was, but I didn’t have the time to ponder it. He was at the front line. Leo raised his Oblivion Blade to jump into the enemy camp like a beast. He figured if he mixed in with the enemies, it would be harder for the sorcerer to target him.

“Follow the Swordmaster!”

A brawl broke out that was almost hand-to-hand combat. The elite soldiers of Marquis Gaidan pushed forward, causing the pirate’s formation to start collapsing. The knights of the Orun Kingdom retreated adequately while fighting…

“Hey, wait a minute. We’re on the same side… Ugh!”

In the second row, a mixed force of nobles appeared, cutting down the retreating pirates. The knights abandoned the chaotic first row and joined the mixed force.

“Annihilate the remnants of the traitors!”

The well-formed mixed force clashed with the troops of Marquis Gaidan. Despite being far more numerous, Gaidan’s side staggered under the pressure caused by the pirates.

This is why units are split into first, second, and third rows. It’s not easy to regroup in the middle of battle.

Therefore, Prince Alzeor had thrown the pirates as bait, and Count Geogis Jermin had been flexibly commanding his soldiers, applying pressure to the front lines. The somewhat weary soldiers of Marquis Gaidan were being pushed back.

“…It seems there’s no choice.”

Leo Dexter sighed while encouraging the soldiers in the very front, looking ahead.

At this rate, we will lose.

He didn’t possess the {Tactics} ability, but he sensed the momentum had shifted to the enemy. If he wanted to turn it around…

“Damn it. Acting like everything is solved, where the hell did that Reb guy go?”

He’d lead the knights to break through the enemy formation and behead the commander. He wouldn’t return, but the battlefield would surely turn upside down.

But why should I have to go that far when it’s not my turn? All I wanted was to take Lena, who was in Gaidan’s territory, and leave this kingdom.

Since it’s not my turn, I wouldn’t get the ending anyway, and in fact, I was already married. I was confident I would live happily with Lena for decades, happier than anyone in the world.

However, if I pulled out now, Reb would die. I’d be wasting yet another chance.

[19/23]. It’s ridiculous that human lives are worth less than mere numbers, but I couldn’t just ignore it.

Determined, Leo gripped his sword tightly and was about to charge when a messenger rushed up shouting.

“Sir Leo! A message from Count Ogerton!”

“Perfect timing. Where’s Reb?”

“General Reb has left the command to Count Ogerton and gone to secure the forest over there.”

“What the hell is he doing with the enemy in front of him…? Got it. What did Count Ogerton say?”

The messenger relayed Count Ogerton’s request. The Count wanted Leo to create a ‘diagonal line’ in the front lines without charging.

“A diagonal line? What does that mean?”

“He asked if we could fight from the far side of the river. Since the ground is sloped, we need to hold the higher ground to withstand.”

Would that really help? But Leo bit his tongue.

The biggest factor impacting the victory or defeat of the battle wasn’t the soldiers or knights, but the general. The formation would change according to the commander’s tendencies, and victory would be determined in conjunction with the enemy’s formation and battlefield conditions.

Leo understood that much.

But there was also an unsettling thought. Count Ogerton was no general.

As a noble who commanded a territory and soldiers, he should have learned military tactics, but he had manifested talent as a sorcerer in his youth and studied at the Mage Tower. He likely didn’t know much about warfare.

‘…But he must have had some reason to make this request.’

He shouldn’t confuse the command chain during this urgent situation. Leo didn’t want to charge but thought it was fortunate that he had a new direction to move in.

Meanwhile, Count Ogerton at the rear command post was lost in deep thought. He swept his gaze over the heavy rain, visualizing the turning tide of the battle in his mind.

His picture was different from that of an ordinary general. Instead of tactics, the Count viewed the army as a living organism from a sorcerer’s perspective. Although he didn’t know tactics well, he knew more than anyone about humans as animals.

Just because they get slightly scorched doesn’t mean they immediately die; humans can endure even when pierced by ice spears.

If trapped alone in a dark room, they’d go mad quickly (though if the floor were made of soft soil, perhaps not), yet they could bizarrely withstand when hung upside down as a group.

The Count had had more than two hundred slaves in his personal research. He had repeatedly experimented with human endurance and sociality; hence, he accurately pinpointed the mental and physical state shifts of the soldiers.

‘They’re still okay, but…’

The raindrops drained their body temperature, and the muddy ground sap their stamina quickly. To Count Ogerton, it was clear that the front line had started to yield little by little.

It was because we were exhausting ourselves fighting the enemy while they conserved their strength.

To counter this…

‘If we could occupy the high ground, even just a little, it would help.’

A slope leading toward the river.

It didn’t seem like much of a hindrance at a casual pace, but with thousands of men, it was a different story. The more they held the higher ground, the more power would be put behind their downward strikes, and the less power the enemy would have in their upward strikes.

So, that’s why he ordered a diagonal formation.

If the Swordmaster was on high ground (even not counting the personal actions of the Swordmaster), the soldiers at the top would gain confidence to push back the enemy, while those further down would be able to fight more effectively from above.

Then we could hold out.

In theory.

However, the Count couldn’t bring himself to relax. As he gazed at the enemy formation, he grimaced.

While this side was noisy and chaotic, deep within were soldiers quietly awaiting combat. Expensive iron armor rustled as raindrops hit them.

They were the 12,000 heavy infantry boasted by the Lognum Royal Family. Slow on their feet but capable of facing two regular squads with a single unit, he’d heard.

Once we got tired out, they would come to clean us up. The fifty knights still mixed in with the second row were also a big problem, and it truly seemed a long, drawn-out fight ahead.

‘I’ve done all I could. Now I can only leave it to fate.’

Count Ogerton kept his worries hidden as he continued to encourage the Thousand-man Commanders.

Meanwhile, on the Orun Kingdom side command post, a loud voice rang out.

“This is ridiculous!”

It was the Second Knight Commander of the Orun Kingdom. He had refused the orders of Count Geogis Jermin.

“How could you say to capture the Swordmaster? That’s absurd.”

“Why not? There are two hundred knights; can’t you catch just one?”

“Capturing a single Swordmaster is possible. However, the Swordmaster isn’t alone right now, is he? Even if several knights surround him, the risk is considerable… it’s better to wait until there are no soldiers backing him up.”

“Oh my. I can’t find any honor among knights these days. Targeting from behind? I’m surprised.”

The Knight Commander gritted his teeth.

“Foolhardy actions do not signify honor.”

“Is the act of questioning a commander’s orders honorable then?”

“…The command of the knights belongs to the Knight Commander. And I’m sure Duke Alzeor has a reason for placing us on the front lines.”

“That was simply to intimidate them into surrendering. Well, if the Knight Commander intends to independently exercise command, I have nothing to say…”

The Count clicked his tongue and then scoffed.

“Are you perhaps afraid of the Swordmaster?”

“What? What kind of nonsense…!”

“I think we need to silence that Swordmaster as soon as possible. As long as he’s around, the enemy won’t falter. Am I wrong?”

“Whether that holds depends on one’s perspective…”

The Count waved his hand, interrupting the Knight Commander.

“What to prioritize is for the commander to decide. Yet you, my lord, are simply rejecting a reasonable strategy because it’s difficult. Do you intend to wait until the second row gets annihilated and the third row cleans up the enemy before moving? If so, what good are the knights? They might as well just blend in with the soldiers.”

The Knight Commander was so red with anger that his face couldn’t possibly get any more flush.

There’s a line to verbal abuse.

How dare you regard knights in such a way… The Knight Commander couldn’t contain his fury and shouted.

“Damn it! Fine! The knights shall go and capture the Swordmaster! But if the battle results are poor, I won’t let it slide!”

“There’s no chance that will happen.”

The Knight Commander glared at the unwavering Count and turned away, which was a stroke of fortune for Reb’s side soldiers.

As a result, Leo Dexter was not captured. Just as the Knight Commander had feared, he did not stray far from our formation and instead picked off the attacking knights one by one.

As the casualties piled up, the anxious Knight Commander ordered his knights to charge. He was trying to clear the forces surrounding the Swordmaster quickly…

“What are you doing? Do you think we have no knights?”

With the addition of over fifty knights from Marquis Gaidan, Count Ogerton, and Marquis Drazin, plans went awry.

The Knight Commander, who had gone too deep, met his end at Leo’s hands, and the two hundred knights were reduced to half and retreated. Leo’s side also suffered severe losses, but their morale soared to the sky.

“Long live the knights! Long live the Swordmaster! We’re almost there! Just a little more effort…”

– Chop.

The soldiers’ faces that had brightened suddenly turned stiff. The most elite forces of the Orun Kingdom, fully armed from leg wraps to helmets, marched heavily toward them.

Clang, clang. Their sturdy armor clattered against each other, and the exhausted soldiers of Marquis Gaidan and Count Ogerton gasped for breath. They had gone from 15,000 to just 6,000.

To annihilate 7,000 pirates and 10,000 mixed nobles, on top of two orders of knights, was quite a bargain. It was a great victory.

However, the reality that it wasn’t over yet loomed over the soldiers. Chilled to the bone by the rain, chills engulfed them, and their mud-covered legs complained of pain beyond mere fatigue.

At that moment, even Count Ogerton, their commander, let out a deep breath. In the distance, hope began to peek out from behind the heavily armed infantry.

“I almost drowned in the river, damn it!”

“Shut up.”

It was the 2,000 barbarian warriors that Reb had sent floating downriver. They charged in, blasting their horns as they overwhelmed the sluggish heavy infantry from behind, and Count Ogerton seized the opportunity.

They must have been caught off guard; attacking from both the front and back was a significant tactical advantage. Nevertheless, Count Ogerton’s expression didn’t brighten, as he doubted he could do anything against such elite forces.

Not a single one of the 12,000 soldiers showed any sign of weariness. The knights were still five times more numerous than us. All we could hope for now was…

‘Sir Reb, how is the forest doing?’

Count Ogerton glanced toward the forest on his right. That was where Reb had taken his 10,000 soldiers, and it was eerily silent.

Depending on who emerged from there, the outcome could change drastically, and soon the result was revealed. The soldier who burst through the bushes…

“Waaaaaaaaaaah!”

Was holding an axe.