Chapter 163: The Old Soldier
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Hoooooot!”
The citizens of this middle sized city showed a vacant look just as the war horns were blasted through the freezing wind.
Although the news of the alliance’s defeat had spread, none had expected the beastmen to come so quickly. Moreover, they retraced the routes that the human armies had taken, just to remove their opponent from play.
Gigantic battle beasts marched from the shadows, and hill sized dragon war turtles shook the earth as they neared the city. On the massive shells stood pale battle fortresses, from within, the sound of war drums and war horns could be heard.
The gigantic war turtles were quarter dragons by bloodline, and the spread of their massive bodies was not any lower than city walls. These were the beastmen’s most terrifying siege weapon.
“Doomsday Turtle! The bear king is here. It’s his white-tailed battle bear army.
Not many dragon turtles exist in this world, but only the one owned by Bear King was packed with a fortress. It was named “Doomsday Turtle”, and was Bear King Dunn’s mount and also his moving fortress.
Behind it, the quietly approaching behemoth could not be ignored. One by one, they walked out from the shadows, transforming into an actual nightmare.
The beastmen were planning to make it a quick battle from the fact that they were sending out their trump cards from the start.
“Behemoth!! A behemoth army! We, we’re finished… Everyone, run!”
The actual immediate threat was the dragon turtle, but the one bringing the greatest fear was nevertheless, the docile looking behemoth.
They were far less robust looking compared to the dragon turtle, and they did not roar like beasts due to the quiet nature. Dragging their three meter long sharp claws, they left a ditch on the earth, quietly moving forward, like a group of marching lazy boys.
Their sturdy gigantic arms, the thick hair standing straight like a gorilla, and under the thick hair, were a pair of fearsome eyes. From the looks alone, they were far less scary than the dragon turtle with horns and fangs, instead, they looked a little dimwitted. But reputation preceded all else, so nobody would ignore these fearsome giants.
Their silence was only to accumulate strength for their outburst. A true war beast does not have the habit of roaring, but only when the flesh and blood fell onto their gigantic claws, they will bask in the rush, and reveal satisfied smiles.
“These are the wildest battle beasts on earth, the number one species in land battle.”
Although that number one land battle beast still had a lot of rivals, but rest assured that they lived up to their reputation as the wildest battle beast.
By only showing their presence, it had already terrified the city folks, although the army only consisted of three behemoths, it was enough to sweep the north clean.
“Clang!”
“Hoot!”
Surprisingly, the gigantic beast stepped onto the back of the dragon turtle and with a powerful stomp. Using it as a jumping ramp, it took another step and landed on top of the city walls, like agile monkeys.
Giant beasts who were not any shorter than the city walls but were as agile as apes. Just like that, the ferocious battle beasts crossed the strong walls, but by the footprints left by them, it seemed like before the strength of the behemoths, the sturdy three layered concrete city wall were not much different from mud piles.
After the gigantic behemoths entered the city, the silent beasts finally started to grin. Under that crooked face, they showed their strange teeth, each molar as tall as a man, bringing great terror.
Blooming from the centre, causing internal damage, simple but effective.
And this was also the speciality of the white-tailed battle bear army, they did not use the commonly used “adding oil tactics”[1], instead he practised a direct breakthrough. Faced with these tough behemoth vanguard, when the gates were opened by the behemoths and the beast men entered, the individual strength difference would finish the rest. Dozens of cities had already fallen by such methods.
When one of the gold haired behemoth started to open the gates from within, the other two silver haired beast started their wave of destruction. The shivering humans could not even bring out anyone strong enough to stop the behemoths. Strong individuals no doubt dwelt in the city, but who would be foolish enough to try opposing an entire army?
The grinning beastmen could already see the future, it just like the other cities. Wherever the fearsome battle beasts went, people would scream and flee in all directions, and the mighty army would step into a city which offered no resistance.
But this time, there were some differences, some stood their ground.
An old soldier stood at the city gate, his rusty chain mail covered with dirt, and his brandy nose turned red under the freezing wind.
The old soldier did not charge towards the gigantic beast insanely, he did not even try to stop it, but only stayed where he was. And in that chaos, he still caught the eye of the behemoths.
Where he was standing happened to be the way the gold haired behemoth needed to go through.
The gigantic beast seemed to find himself challenged, and in a frenzy of rage, the beast’s eyes turned blood red, charged towards the old soldier.
“Old soak, you’re mad! Run now!”
He was not the general of this city, just an old soldier from the city defence army.
“Old soak” Ike, yes, this was his nickname, and was also his code name, the reason is that he loved to have a quick drink in the pub after his duty. Even while on sentry duty, he would definitely be carrying cheap wine in his arm.
“Old soak, aren’t you afraid someone will have to pull your drunken corpse from a drain pipe some day?”
Every time, when someone made this joke, the old soak would pat his belly, and laugh with his mouth wide open, showing his yellowish teeth.
“Come on, as long as Old Buck gives me bottomless dry gin, I will choose to die in the drain of your house tomorrow.”
At this moment, as if he did not hear the shout of his colleague, old soak Ike rubbed his nose, his blurry eyesight still staring at his own wine bottle.
“Bah, this ale is just as bad as usual, how much water did that bratty Little Buck add. Perhaps it is water mixed with a bit of ale after all. Hey, seems like he is losing his conscience, Old Buck is still more honest.”
After tasting this three coppered coin pot of diluted ale, Ike narrowed his eyes, it was as if he had returned to the past, at that time, when his brother and wife were still there. Although the dry gin in Buck’s bar was also bad, at least they served sufficient portions.
But during that time he was not called an old soak. “Arrow of Kashgar”, Ike was a well-known elite ranger, before he was transferred to the city defence army after he took an arrow to the knee. He was a famous bad a**.
“Somehow it feels like, something has changed.”
Although the weather was still as freezing, the pay was still as low, the ale from the “Old Buck’s Pub” was still as bad, but at that time, his life was considered well, perhaps. It was because those old bast*rds and old sods who accompanied him were still there.
“D*mn, these good for nothing beastmen! And the useless nobles! Running away even before the war starts, Little Synden, I’ll soon see your dad in hell. The things I’ll say to him, he’ll spank your butt when you join us, just like old times. Why, when you grow old you will start to recall these useless things.”
While pondering on how to complain to his former, now deceased superior, the old soldier drew a rusty standard iron blade.
“Puff.”
A spit of the ale, the wet long sword finally shone with dim light. The gigantic beast was already in front of him, but the old soak who was shaken by the earthquake set his helmet slowly.
“Old synden said, we soldiers are the face of his lord, we need to be aware of our appearance as we charge. Oh yeah, I remember it now. During this moment, we should shout that line, what was that again?”
A gigantic arm which could easily crush a bridge reached his front, and the old soldier stopped pondering, he shouted the line and started to swing his sword, with the full weight of his heart and soul. The sword that he gave all of him, bringing an arc of light, a faint blade aura appeared, this was the highest level of power Ike had achieved throughout his life.
“Slap!”
But with this absolute strength difference, it was not something that could be made up for with fighting will. The steel claw of the behemoth fell, and the only thing left was a lump of meat sauce and some blood stain.
Perhaps startled by the old soldier, or due to the fact that the old man and actually punctured the skin of the beast, the gold haired behemoth slowed down and stared. After having a good look at the corpse of the old soldier, only did it continue to hunt down other deserters.
The old soak was dead, and died in a terrible way. He did not have the power to defeat the enemy, nor did anyone witness his final, valiant act. His death did not rouse the morale, nor did it turn the tide of the battle.
This is war, there are no heroes. No miracles, only the bloody strong ones will prey on the weak ones.
But when he died, his last charging slogan still echoed in the air, carrying afar by the cold air…
“… The Spirit of Mist will never yield!”
———–
“You murderers! You are the beastmen’s accomplices!!”
As before, it was the old theatre that acted as the conference room, but this time, it was the furious Reyne who was spluttering at the alliance generals.
After the news of the beastmen renewed attack spread, the joint conference of military officers from different countries had a meeting for the whole morning, but they merely started from blaming each other and progressed to brainstorming on how to fortify the defence of Maple City. However, they still did not have any intentions to send reinforcements to other cities which were attacked.
“Ahem, your highness, you should maintain your royal manners and keep calm. You see, now that the enemy is strong, the best strategy is to retreat, and you see, fortifying the defence and gathering troops for the final battle is the correct way for now.”
“What happens to the cities and the citizens near the marching army of the beastmen? They are still waiting for our rescue. We can’t leave them to die.”
But her proposal did not get any response, instead, there were people mocking her on this.
“Why would you be so agitated over the matter of other countries, be careful, others might think that you have ulterior motives.”
“Hmph, can’t even see the situation clearly, no wonder she was marginalized. If it was not because of Lord Roland’s absence, I’m afraid that she wouldn’t even have the authority to attend this.”
“A princess should just be an ornament, better not to command blindly in a war. Rescue? Do we even have enough troops for the final battle?”
From a tiny and weak country, plus her lack of reputation due to juvenility, she was faced with prejudice, from the start of the discussion, even the aggressive, war-pursuing factions were focusing on the defence on fortifying Maple City. Reyne’s opinion had already been ignored more than once.
Her face turned red, but still she did not have any choice and finally, she left angrily.
“Being marginalized? What is happening nowadays?”
In a sense, that guy’s wild guess was near to the truth, being marginalized, this indeed was Reyne’s concern.
From some point, Roland purposely kept Reyne away from important matters, and this had caused the internals of East Mist to make wild assumptions.
If this had been done by others, Reyne would had suspected if they had an ulterior motive, as if they had the ambition to climb to the top. But for Roland who had no interest in power, nobody seemed to understand why he did that.
“He seems to have kept me from fulfilling any role.”
Thinking of her juniors who were busy in various aspects, while she was set aside, she couldn’t help to stop thinking on these.
“It started when Elisa came here, I wonder what did they discuss about. If she was only bad mouthing me, Roland wouldn’t have been changed so easily. Furthermore, his attitude towards me did not change, so why did he isolate me.”
After putting some in thoughts, Reyne faintly recalled something, but it was difficult to confirm it.
Then suddenly the sky turned black, leaving her no time to think, and she immediately looked for shelter to hide.
After just a few seconds, the clear sky turned into chaos, a huge flock of harpies tossed tar bombs down and retreated, driving the city fire brigade throughout the city.
And at the same time, the city air calvaries had embarked, bringing down as many of the enemy as they could.
Although unable to remove the enemy thoroughly, at least they would draw some blood in return.
“… Your highness, the generals request you to attend the discussion, now that the beastmen are gathering up, we fear that they will soon bypass the barrier and attack the city directly.”
[1] TL Note: In Chinese, “添油战术 – Sending troops slowly and increase them until the enemy is defeated