episode_0262

Battle of Lake Simenotra (4)

As Claudia desperately ran toward the lake to save her troops, Arnim, commander of the 5th Corps, made the opposite choice to her.

His choice was to charge into the opponent’s formation, and by taking advantage of the quick mobility of the 5th Corps, whose main force was light infantry, he and the 5th Corps soldiers quickly broke through the burning forest and rushed toward the Tesseito garrison.

“Move quickly!! The enemy will use all their might to ambush! So, we will catch the enemy off guard, occupy their camp, and use it as a defensive position!! And we must help the 7th Corps retreat here!!”

‘It’s because I was greedy that our military ended up like this… Damn it!! Claudia, hold on!! We will somehow capture the enemy’s camp, at least until then…’

Although they bickered every time they saw each other, Arnim, who cared for her, felt guilty and prayed for her safety, urging his men to keep heading towards the enemy’s base.

Although his troops were damaged by the ambushes that kept coming out, he believed that the way to overcome this difficulty was to occupy the enemy camp, so he gritted his teeth and continued to advance, swinging his sword.

“Corps Commander!! The enemy’s camp is visible on the hill!! It was located closer than I thought!!”

Finally, the news that the enemy camp had been discovered brought from the front brought a slight smile to Arnim’s face, and he quickly ran to the front and gave orders to his commanders.

“Good!! The enemy camp will be completely empty, so the entire army will quickly rush in and occupy it, then set up defenses… What, what?!”

However, as soon as he entered Tesseito’s formation on the hill, what he saw was the Tesseito heavy infantry forming a wide defensive position, so he could not help but be taken aback.

“Uh, how… there are troops here…”

“Hmph! Our Duke of Thiruen knew you would come here! That means you guys were playing in the palm of the Duke’s hand”

Because the slope of the hill was quite high, the Tesseito army was completely invisible to the imperial army until they climbed to the top, and the Tesseito heavy infantry, which had been fully prepared and waiting for the Balkan army to arrive, slowly followed Esgran’s command. I started putting pressure on myself.

‘Damn it… I never thought they’d deploy troops all the way here… We’re at a disadvantage in terms of armament, morale, and physical strength… but we can’t back down after coming this far!! We have to break through somehow!!’

In the end, Arnim gritted his teeth, stood at the forefront, swung his sword, boosted the soldiers’ morale, and gave the order to charge.

“Drill through!! After all, those guys were fighting on horseback not long ago! They don’t even know how our infantry fights!! Charge!!”

The soldiers of the 5th Corps rushed at his command, but the infantry square of Tesseito’s army was stronger than expected.

‘Ugh… The fence built by the garrison wall on the hilly terrain is in the way, so our light infantry doesn’t have a good corner to dig into! Moreover, the heavy infantry at the front are made up of quite experienced guys… If they can dig in to the rear, they can open a gap, but in terrain like this…’

More than 5,000 troops attacked intensively, but the Teseito army risked their lives to maintain a square formation.

Even in a situation where numerous casualties were occurring, Tiruen’s adjutant Esgran’s skillful command supported the clumsy support of the rear heavy infantry and gave them time to hold on.

“Don’t fight too hard! Soon, His Excellency will come here after clearing out the enemy’s rear troops!! If we hold out until then, it will be our victory!!”

‘Damn it!! It’s just like that guy said… If time drags on, it won’t be to our advantage. In the end, you have to make a choice!!’

Even in this situation, the soldiers’ screams could be heard in his ears, so Arnim couldn’t bear the nervousness and bit his lip.

And as if to force him to make a quicker decision, an ambush force led by Tiruen was attacking them from the rear of the 5th Corps.

“Esgran!! It held up well!! Full army! Drive out the invaders!! Make them regret ever coming to this land!!”

The morale of Tiruen’s soldiers who returned to the garrison after crushing the 7th Corps and brutally trampling the rear troops of the 5th Corps was sky-high, and the soldiers of the 5th Corps began to be attacked from both the rear and the front. He let out a desperate scream and began to collapse.

Suddenly!! Suddenly!!

In addition, Tiruen, burning with revenge on Yuno, charged in, spewing out bloody sword energy and cutting down the soldiers at random, so Arnim was ultimately forced to admit defeat.

“Retreat!! Our 5th Corps is also running towards the northern lakeside where the 7th Corps is!! Let’s all form our own ranks… Ugh!!”

Kaang!!

Arnim, who barely managed to block the sword energy emitted by Tiruen, grabbed the flag of the 5th Legion and announced their retreat.

However, even as he announced his retreat, he walked in the exact opposite direction, toward the south.

“5 Corps!! Everyone retreat!! I will stop this place!!”

“Corps Commander!! Avoid it quickly!! If the corps commander is killed, it is no different from the fact that our entire corps was killed!!”

“No! It is I who led you into a trap with my greed!! So, I will stay until the end to buy time, so you guys get out of the way quickly!!”

“In that case, let’s fight until we fight here!! Wouldn’t it be okay to just kill a hundred soldiers per person? Isn’t that right, Corps Commander?”

Because Arnim was well-liked by his subordinates, dozens of troops gathered around him, and they drew their swords, determined to fight with Arnim until the end.

And their appearance seemed to have impressed Tiruen quite deeply, as he stopped the sword that was slaughtering the imperial troops, reorganized his troops, and approached Arnim.

“Huh~ You fell into my trap… but you seem to be getting along quite well with your subordinates, huh? Commander of the Balkan Corps. What is your name?”

“…Joachim Joshua Arnim!! He is the eldest son of Count Arnim and the commander of the 5th Corps of the Great Balkan Empire, appointed by His Majesty the Emperor!!”

Tiruen must have been quite satisfied with the sight of Arnim standing in front of him with his eyes lit up and fighting proudly, so he wiped away the sword energy from his sword and approached him.

“Yes. Son of Count Arnim. Do you have any intention of formally surrendering to our Tesseito? Although it seems like there are still quite a few shortcomings, even in such an unfavorable situation, the attitude is not to give up hope until the end and to exploit the enemy’s weaknesses. And a reputation that his subordinates follow even in the face of death. I quite like it. What is it like? Are you interested in working for me? If you surrender, even in our Tesseito…”

“Shut your mouth! As the commander of the Great Balkan Empire, I cannot surrender to the enemy!! I can’t betray the trust His Majesty gave me when I was still young like that!!”

Tiruen sighed in disappointment at the sight of Arnim rejecting the offer even before he finished speaking.

“Okay… then I have no choice. Still, since I like this talent, I’ll let him go without pain”

Tiruen again injected a lot of mana into his sword, and his sword was filled with dark, deadly sword energy, and he made fantastic sword moves.

‘Damn it… It’s on a different level from the sword technique I blocked earlier… There’s no way I could have blocked it… I wonder if I’m going to die like this… I don’t regret dying, but… I should confess to Claudia that it happened like this… ‘

Arnim, who closed his eyes tightly and waited for the sword to fly to his neck, realized that his neck was still intact even though a considerable amount of time had passed.

‘what? My throat was already cut and I didn’t know? Oh, isn’t it? That Tiruen guy over there has a stupid face… Huh?’

“Crrr even… Arnim, commander of the 5th corps. Go away. I will keep the author in check, so lead your troops and join the 7th Corps!!”

“Ajin!”

Arnim cheered when Troll Master Ajin, whose existence was kept in great secrecy only at the level of a corps commander or higher, appeared leading his clan.

“If Ajin keeps Tiruen in check, we can drive them out of here! Aren’t the Trolls the most powerful in the forest?”

” Krung … no! It is true that our clan is strong in the forest, but not in the burning forest! Our regenerative ability is vulnerable to heat, which actually reduces our combat power. Moreover, your 5th Corps is currently suffering severe damage and needs maintenance! So hurry up and take over!!”

“Oh, I understand…”

If Ajin could capture Tiruen, it would not be impossible to wipe out Tesseito’s base with his troll clan, so Arnim sighed with regret and led the remaining troops toward the north.

Meanwhile, Tiruen had no choice but to sit back and watch as Arnim led his troops to defeat the army.

This was because the shocking reality that the troll master who had been harassing his army so much in the mountains of the Zenon Plain was a member of the Balkan Empire and that trolls could talk struck him.

And it wasn’t just him, it was the same for the other Tesseito soldiers, who were instinctively taking a step back, oppressed by the intimidating feeling emanating from the giant troll.

“Kew… Damn the Vulcan Emperor… I don’t know how you tamed such a monstrous monster… but you will regret this fact being revealed… I’m leaving here for now!!”

When Tiruen withdrew, Ajin, who was keeping him in check, also headed north with his clan.

There was no need to risk his life since his goal of rescuing the 5th Corps commander had been accomplished anyway.

“Oh my god… such severe damage…”

“…. I didn’t know the damage would be this much… I’m sorry, Claudia. My greed got you caught up too”

As soon as the two young corps commanders reached the lakeside, they checked the troops by cooling their heated skin and equipment, and the results left them in great shock.

“7th Corps… Out of a total of 8,000 troops before the start of the battle, about 5,000 died, about 5,000 were missing, about 2,000 were injured… About 1,000 remaining troops…”

“5 Corps… Out of 7,000 total troops before the start of the battle, about 3,000 were killed, 3,000 were missing, and about 2,500 were injured… About 1,500 remaining troops…”

Claudia and Arnim almost collapsed due to the disastrous result of having only 2,500 healthy troops out of 15,000, but since they did not know when the enemy’s pursuing army would attack, they collected the wounded and fled to the Plain of Zenon as quickly as possible. I was on my way back to .

And after receiving the reports from the two corps commanders, Mayer had to burst out in anger, hurling all the non-cussive insults he could at them.

*Illustration of 5th Corps Commander Joachim Joshua Arnim angry at the outcome of the battle*