Book 3-6.2 Fighting 20,000 with 3,000
Egane urgently rushed back to Pareia, and the 3,000 warriors were divided up between the four Greatest Warriors’ commands.
“I pray that you do not die and definitely come back to me alive and well.”
That was the only thing Yulian said after gathering all of the troops. Everybody was satisfied with just those words.
“Let us run like a hurricane. Let us drench them in red.”
Yulian quietly said that to the Red Storm warriors as they quietly followed behind him.
The Wikaly warriors were full of rage.
Their morale had spiked up since they overwhelmingly defeated Pareia in the last battle, so trivial issues would not bring their morale down.
If they did not have that victory, their morale would probably be crawling on the bottom right now.
The reason was because the trip to the central oasis that should have taken them about a week has taken them longer than half a month.
It was because Pareia showed up and disappeared like the wind to hinder them, as if they were the Jeria tribe (a wandering tribe without a home oasis. They have special abilities that make others revere them).
The thing that smaller units had over large units was their mobility and ease of movement. They did not fight. They just showed up without warning and quickly disappeared.
But it wasn’t like they could just ignore them.
If they just let Pareia do whatever they want, they would strategically hit them and injure tens of warriors in the process. But more importantly, it was the fear that that group would work together with the enemy Glow and his personal brigade called the Red Storm.
The Red Storm swung their swords faster than any other Pareia warriors and moved much faster as well.
In addition, leading them was one of the desert’s War God who could not be stopped by even hundreds of warriors.
Runa had prepared many schemes to catch them - dig traps, prepare nets, ambushes, etc, but they were all useless.
That was why their only choice was to stop and create formations whenever the enemy units showed up.
In addition, since their supply transports were raided, the main unit had to move with the supply carts to prevent further raids. This made their speed even slower.
At the same time, they had no idea what happened to the unit of Pareia’s warriors that took over the central oases. All they heard was that they moved up north.
And there was no way for there to be any warriors remaining to defend the oases up north. All of the Wikaly warriors were gathered in the oasis where the Glow resided.
They wanted to quickly chase after Pareia’s warriors up north, but the 3,000 Pareia warriors behind them would not sit back and let them do as the wanted.
The morale of the Wikaly warriors which was as high as the sky couldn’t help but slowly fall back down.
“Fuck.”
As one of the Wikaly warriors started to swear, it created a domino effect and the warriors all started to whisper to one another.
The lead warriors tried to calm them down, but since they were annoyed as well, they didn’t put much effort to ending the whispers.
“Sigh~!”
Runa shook his head after seeing what was going on.
Warriors needed to know how to wait and be patient, but he could not see any of that right now. This was the problem cause by having a long time of peace.
That day, even though Pareia’s warriors were at such a disadvantageous position, he saw how all of them still precisely carried out the leader’s commands. These were valiant warriors who were thoroughly trained.
If the other Wikaly oases chiefs trained their warriors as Abham and he had done, they definitely would not have let 3,000 of Pareia’s warriors return that day.
“The warriors are faltering.”
Abham was looking around with a worried expression on his face.
“I’m sure they are worried about their families. They know that desert warriors will not harm anyone other than enemy warriors, but it is still concerning.”
Abham let out a small sigh internally at Runa’s response before speaking.
“They really are amazing. To be able to hold back 20,000 warriors with a brigade that is not even 50 people.”
“They have 3,000. I could do the same if I was just hindering speed and not fighting. In fact, I could do it for over one month and not a half of a month like this.”
Abham making the Red Storm into this amazing brigade was not good for the warriors’ morales.
As the Commanding Greatest Warrior, he should not be saying things like that.
The expressions on the faces of the lead warriors around him were already turning darker.
“They are just like an annoying hyena. Just hyenas that wait until you are out of strength before they approach. Nothing more than that, Abham-nim.”
Abham must have realized his mistake at Runa’s words, as he opened up his shoulders and moved his pirma to encourage the warriors. Runa could not help but let out a sigh watching Abham head forward.
They needed to merge with the 10,000 warriors currently with the Glow as soon as possible to slowly push Pareia out. The enemy had only around 10,000 warriors, and they should need at least another month to get reinforcements.
‘We need to finish it before then. We can’t let them run amok within our territory.’
Runa thought like that as he turned his gaze toward the quicksand river. There was something that was constantly nagging at him.
‘Did the enemy really travel up the quicksand river?’
He had thought about using the quicksand river a long time ago, but could not figure out a way to achieve it.
How could you use something that will drag you in even with the slightest misstep?
Runa was feeling like something was off, but decided not to pay attention to the quicksand river. It wasn’t like he could stop them even if he knew what they were doing.
Deep wrinkles were starting to form on Runa’s forehead.
Time quickly passed by.
Yulian and Red Storm, as well as the individual Greatest Warriors who were leading around 500 warriors each, seemed like they were flaunting that low number as they successfully managed to slow down the movement of 20,000 enemy warriors. The 10,000 Pareia warriors who were in the central oases used that time to move north to an empty oasis and avoided getting pincered on both sides by the Wikaly.
Runa wanted to quickly catch up to them, but the continued harassment from Yulian’s forces took up too much time.
Another half a month had passed by when they finally managed to catch up to the 10,000 warriors. He urgently sent a messenger warrior to the Glow’s territory up north to ask for a jointed attack, before starting to prepare a strategy to take back the oasis Pareia had taken.
A thunder-like message was delivered to Runa who was deep in thought. More of Pareia’s warriors had shown up in the central oases.
Runa could not help but be completely shocked. They had arrived about half a month earlier than he had anticipated. This was not possible. They could not move that quickly.
After a while, Runa had to accept the truth. Pareia had taken control of the quicksand river.
‘Since that has happened, are they going to pincer us instead?’
The moment Runa was sighing in disbelief, Yulian had already merged with Metro who had taken the northern oasis.
“You suffered quite a bit, Glow.”
Metro greeted Yulian and bowed.
“Have the other Greatest Warriors returned?”
As Yulian asked while getting off his pirma, Metro answered.
“They have all already gathered. Glow, you really are amazing. To do that with just 3,000 warriors.”
“The heavens have blessed our warriors. It also shows that we have enough strength to receive that blessing.
Yulian seemed to have changed a lot from this past month of battling. He had always been slim, but now, he had lost so much weight and looked so thin.
But the powerful muscles of his were still there.
In addition, his voice was calm and majestic. Metro thought this bloody war was helping Yulian grow and started to smile.
“Yes. This war will prove that to be true.”
“Let us enter.”
Yulian took the lead and Metro followed behind him. The moment they entered the leader’s paoe, Vibli, as well as the other Greatest Warriors who were covered in dust greeted, Yulian. All of them must have come to strategize as soon as they arrived and did not have time to clean.
“The damage?”
Vibli answered Yulian’s question.
“Of the 3,000 warriors, we only have about 1,000 left alive. Of them, 300 are seriously injured and cannot fight.”
To block 20,000 warriors with 3,000 warriors. Even though they did not engage in battle and just annoyed the enemy, it was not something that just anybody could do.
The fact that the Greatest Warriors personally took charge was the reason this was possible. But there was no way to completely prevent any injuries.
“Call the priests over to treat them as much as possible. They are heros. They are the heroes who fearlessly fought against the enemy to give our Pareia hope.”
“We have already informed the priests.”
“How is the morale of the warriors?”
This time, Metro answered Yuilan’s question.
“The morale is very high after hearing that our troops have once again taken over the central oases.”
“The enemy should also be excited because Abham is near. What have you decided to do?”
Vibli answered.
“We are still debating it. Regardless of which side we attack, we will be leaving our back vulnerable. The enemy has not made any movements yet.”
“We are bitten no matter what we do. But we cannot just sit back and wait like this.”
Vibli shook his head. He knew that Yulian was anxious right now, but they could not rush this.
“Glow, calm yourself. They are anxious as well.”
“We are at max 20,000 while they are 30,000. I can’t help but worry.”
“Don’t we have the Glow with us?”
Yulian smiled at Vibli’s words. He even thought that it would be great if he could divide himself into two or three and be present all over the battlefield.
“We must wait. The one that has taken control of the center is none other than Egane.”
As Vibli continued to urge Yulian to remain calm, Yulian nodded his head before coming up with an idea.
“What if we move someone else?”
“The other side is empty, but the enemy has more warriors than we do. If we just focus on defending the oasis, we should not have any problems.”
“From what I have heard, it didn’t seem to be well defended.”
“If an enemy manages to make it this far, it would have meant that the Wikaly was done for. That was why the warriors here were not trained as well.”
As Yulian slowly nodded his head, Vibli continued to speak.
“No matter how I look at it, it was completely different than the oasis that Abham was protecting. They are our enemies, but Abham and Runa, those two warriors are really amazing. I never expected the Wikaly to have such warriors.”
He was not saying this just because he had lost and had ended up as prisoners to the two of them.
Vibli was one of the people who had originally said that they could defeat the Wikaly in a head-on battle even with just 20,000 warriors while Metro used the quicksand river to conquer the center.
The other Greatest Warriors had agreed with his statement.
So how surprised were they with the turn of events? Hearing that Egane went back to bring up the 5,000 reserve warriors made them even more shocked.
“Then do we just have to wait forever?”
The Greatest Warriors looked around at each other at Yulian’s question.
Each of them shared their thoughts with their expressions, but all of them were hesitating. In a situation like this, the first to move was always at a disadvantage. Only if they could figure out how the enemy was going to move……
They would not be able to come to a solution even if they discussed for days. In a situation like this, a different type of good news was delivered to them.