Chapter 64: The Battle of White Mountain (Bilá Hora) 5

With his sword shattered, General Tilly found himself in a crisis.

Seeing him, Count Turen smiled viciously and said:

“Then go to hell, you son of a bitch from the evil Church!”

“Kuk…”

As Turen swung his sword, at that moment…

“General! Evade!”

-Chaeng!-

The next instant, commanders blocked Tilly’s path.

Enraged by their sudden interference, Turen shouted:

“These bastards! How dare you intrude on this sacred duel!”

“No time to listen to a heretic’s drivel!”

“If you want to cut down General Tilly, get through us first!”

Squeezing out their nearly depleted mana reserves to buy time, the commanders sacrificed themselves to narrowly create an opening.

In that gap, Tilly was forcefully pulled back by his soldiers.

“You fools! Let me go! What is the meaning of this?”

“We apologize, General! But there is no choice now!”

“The General’s life or death affects the entire army! You cannot die in a place like this, General!”

“Damn youuuu!”

Defeated in the duel and saved in a humiliating manner, Tilly raged.

However, as the Imperial Army’s supreme commander, he understood its gravity.

As unbearable and disgraceful as it was, he could only withdraw.

“Damnit!”

“General, we cannot remain here!”

“You must flee! The enemy is already upon us! If we stay, not just you but all of us will die!”

His aide cried out in terror-stricken voice.

Indeed, as he said, Tilly’s mages had reached their physical and mana limits.

At this rate, their forces were no different from 3,000 exhausted, injured regular soldiers without mages.

In contrast, the enemy relentlessly unleashed their mana on the weary allied forces, running rampant.

Tilly’s personal defeat against Turen, whom he could normally beat, showed the dire situation.

Finally realizing their limits, Tilly gave the enraged order:

“Order… the entire army to retreat… We must minimize further losses.”

“Yes, General! All forces! Retreat!”

Following Tilly’s order, his aide relayed the command to withdraw.

The Imperial forces struggling against the enemy turned to flee, and the pursuing Bohemian army surged with morale, ruthlessly cutting them down.

“The Imperial Army is retreating!”

“Don’t let a single one live!”

“For Bohemia!”

Amidst those shouts ringing out, the Bohemian forces struck the Imperial Army’s rear.

At their vanguard were the still vigorous Count Turen and his forces. Tilly’s army suffered further casualties as they desperately tried to shake them off.

Countless soldiers were killed or forced to surrender, unable to flee in time. But there was nothing even Tilly could do about it.

After that additional rout, the barely escaped Tilly and his remaining forces…

Then, at the site the Imperial Army had encamped, only the victorious Bohemian forces and a few surviving Palatinate troops remained, roaring in triumph:

“Uwaaah!!”

“We won!”

“For Bohemia! For Count Turen!”

“Damnit!”

Cursing, Tilly reined in his horse to a stop.

Thankfully, the Bohemian pursuit seemed to have ended. With a mix of slight relief and profound despair, he asked his aide:

“How many are left…?”

“800 mages… 4,000 regular soldiers.”

“Not even 5,000 left…”

“My apologies… Their pursuit at the end was too relentless…”

Considering they had set out with 25,000 troops, it was an excruciating defeat.

Of course, that didn’t mean over 20,000 Imperial soldiers died in this war.

Most were either captured, surrendered willingly, or scattered in the thick fog.

“A complete defeat… A complete defeat…”

Tilly spoke in resignation, his aide and other commanders unable to raise their heads.

They had boasted of surely finishing off Bohemia when they first marched out.

Yet in the end, it was their own army that was finished. In this situation, they could only worry about safely returning home, let alone a counterattack.

Their numbers had dwindled drastically, and even the survivors were mostly wounded.

The once proud Imperial Army was now a pathetic sight of the defeated.

Watching them, a bitter taste filled Tilly’s mouth as he reviewed their defeat:

‘Was this the goal from the start… The Palatinate forces, even the same Bohemian army… was it all for that one moment…’

While there were various factors for the defeat, the decisive one was the ambush by the separate forces at the end.

The fresh 3,000 reserve Bohemian troops had assaulted their utterly exhausted allies.

In hindsight, the very reason they pierced through the fog was likely aimed at this.

The thick fog obscured the enemy’s exact location and size.

Even for the veteran Tilly, accurately gauging the enemy’s strength was impossible in such conditions.

Moreover, his allies were already fatigued when ambushed.

Inevitably, Tilly and his mages were caught off guard, recklessly overexerting themselves. Tilly himself used his ultimate spell to drive back the immediate threat.

‘Thinking back, that was the mistake. Using mana recklessly without knowing the enemy’s numbers was an oversight… I should have considered they had hidden forces…’

As powerful as mana was, it could not be used indefinitely.

4th rank mages could only maintain condensation and body reinforcement for 30 minutes at most in combat.

A 9th rank Archmage like Tilly could fight all day at full strength, but he had expended high-level spells to turn the unfavorable tide mid-battle, inevitably draining his mana.

However, given the unclear situation due to the fog and the chaos among his allies, it was an unavoidable choice.

From that perspective, if not for the fog, and if his allies hadn’t been utterly spent at that moment, the war’s outcome could have been completely reversed.

In other words, the enemy initiated combat at this timing because they were aware of the situation, meaning Tilly had been thoroughly outmaneuvered.

Had the battle started just a day, no, even half a day later, Tilly could have entered with some leeway, avoiding such a disastrous defeat.

‘So in the end, we were completely outplayed from the start? Truly remarkable… This Tilly was utterly deceived by those Bohemian bastards’ strategy.’

Realizing he had been in the enemy’s palm from the beginning, Tilly felt admiration for the masterminds behind this operation even as he continued retreating, wary of further enemy movement.

As a commander, he paid respect to the architect of this strategy.

At the same time, he vowed to surely have his revenge later.

‘Those heretic bastards… Just you wait. For now, I retreat, but next time, I will definitely…’