Blossoming Chaos and Death
“What’s happening?”
Rement muttered to himself in the midst of formation preparation. General Burling’s troops took the vanguard because it takes time for the entire army to get into a formation, so the other officers reluctantly agreed for General Burling troops’ to respond first when the enemies appeared.
Rement’s officers proposed preserving strength since crushing a thousand enemies is no achievement, so Rement agreed at last.
“The enemy has most likely started attacking the troops under General Burling.”
“With only a thousand enemies, the other commander is incompetent.”
“Truly, what a foolish move.”
Rement’s subordinates laughed. The officers’ reaction, is in a sense, a normal one. Attacking a 200,000 men army with only 1,000 troops is not sane.
Since there are 10,000 men in General Burling’s unit alone, Rement’s group did not find a failure possible.
Ugaaaaahhh…
Gyaaaargh…
Rement felt that he heard voices coming from a different direction than the voices he deemed to be the cries of the enemy forces.
“Oi… did you hear something just now?”
“Eh?”
When the officers heard Rement’s words, their expressions immediately tensed up. They were also battle-hardened soldiers, so their auras changed completely when they felt the signs of battle.
“Oi, that’s coming from the rear… no, something is wrong.”
“Yeah, the screaming seems to be coming from all directions of the army… that’s not it.”
“I can hear screams not only from behind but from within too… that’s impossible.”
An uneasy expression floated on Rement’s face.
“Just what is going on?”
The officers replied to the uneasy Rement nervously.
“Our army appears to have been pincer attacked.”
“Pincer attacked!?”
“Yes, I am afraid that those 1,000 men were just a diversion. I believe they wanted to attract our attention to the front and surprise attack us from behind.”
Rement did not seem convinced by the explanation and looked at his subordinates suspiciously.
“Why do you seem so confused then? An assault from behind is certainly a serious affair, but I don’t think you need to be that nervous about it. Just what are you confused about?”
Rement’s officers readied themselves and replied to Rement’s question.
“Those cries… I am uneasy because those cries seem not to be coming only from behind, but from within our troops as well.”
“From within… you said?”
“Yes, it doesn’t seem that we are only being attacked from the outside… the people in the middle of our army appear to have started fighting as well.”
“… Are you saying that there are traitors within our army?”
“I’m not positive that we were betrayed by our people, but it’s possible that they had people within our army to begin with…”
“Tch, using such underhanded means.”
An urgent report came as Rement was gritting his teeth.
“It’s terrible! Count Lugrites has been killed in action!”
“What!?”
A surprised voice escaped from Rement. Count Lugrites was a brave military nobleman who finished his formation in a short time, he was an extremely skilled commander. He was arguably the core of the allied forces alongside General Burling. His early death was truly a shocking and cruel joke.
“Who was it that defeated Count Lugrites!?”
The officers interrogated the messenger.
“The Elmec army. They assaulted Count Lugrites’ troops as soon as the outbreak of battle!”
“That’s ridiculous! Elmec’s troops are no more than 300! How could mere 300 men crush the Lugrites army!”
“However, that’s what the Lugrites survivors said!”
“That’s impossible…”
The messenger’s response was close to screaming. That granted the messenger credibility before Rement and his officers.
“Young Lord, we should promptly join the battlefield. Please, your orders!”
Rement immediately nodded to the officer’s proposal. Rement was young and hot-blooded, but definitely not incompetent.
“Enter a square formation! Assume attack from all sides!”
“Understood!”
Rement’s orders were immediately transmitted. The captains of each unit carried out the orders of the commanding officers and the troops quickly formed a square formation. This was proof that the Husbeis army was definitely not lacking in skill.
“… What’s that?”
Rement who was enclosed in the square formation saw something unbelievable. The whole army was in the midst of chaos, it was not surprising that the Lugrites army was destroyed.
The unbelievable thing that Rement saw were huge-bodies knights who were mercilessly mowing down the fleeing soldiers.
The faces of the knights were undoubtedly inhuman, with only thin skin plastered against their skulls. Moreover, their strength far exceeded the common sense of Rement and his soldiers.
He could see the great swords wielded by the knights severing bodies in half and sending them several meters in the air, only to fall unmovingly on the ground.
And that wasn’t all, when the corpses were exposed to a black mist, the corpses turned into tyrannical knights who immediately went on a rampage.
“W, what the hell is that. Those things…”
“Undead…”
“Those things turn those who they killed into the undead.”
The soldiers around Rement raised their voices in disgust and fear.
(Undead…? Perhaps, Baron Elmec was already killed?)
Rement recalled Burling’s question at the war council. “How come we are the first here?”
Rement instantly felt fear overtaking his body. He realized that the hunter and the hunted have switched positions.
(To lure us all the way here… is the Imperial Capital already a Capital of Death…?)
Rement’s thoughts of making achievements disappeared like melting ice when the realization hit him.
(We are going to get killed! No, we will turn undead like them!)
The next moment, the balance of Rement’s spirit collapsed.
“Withdraaaaaw!!”
Everyone was dumbfounded by Rement’s orders. Everybody managed to stand their ground in this orderless situation, but the commander tore it apart on his own.
“If we stay here, not only will we be killed, we will be forced to join them!”
When one of the soldiers ran off after hearing Rement’s words, the soldiers began fleeing one after another.
This spelled the collapse of the allied forces.