"So, he's finally attacking, aftmid turret continue the blue flag and harass the enemies' main force. Midfore turret and foremost turret, remain on standby with the yellow flag."
On the enemy's side. The monster hunters are taking the crossbow hits mostly on their armor, nullifying most hits, only taking wounds in less vulnerable body parts, allowing the allied martyrs respite, having only to deal with wounds that don't reduced battle effectiveness. The first scout unit is moving slowly, storing energy for their eventual turn.
"Monster hunters, fire!"
"Reload!"
"Fire!"
"The enemy is faltering! Advance!"
"Monster hunters! Use your swords, engage them in close combat."
Sergei Leian, upon seeing his frontal troops getting overwhelmed by the armored monster hunters supported by the martyrs, decided to raise the yellow flag in the aftmid turret in order to make the enemy advance forward into his network of defenses.
Meanwhile, the scoundrels and the assassins scaling the juggernaut's hull was yet to discovered by Sergei Leian with his level 15 awareness, even though he is testing his recently discovered battlefield map.
"To think that this map mechanic has synergy with awareness, it's pretty useful, albeit very disorienting, this thing has a really wide range. I wonder if I can control it only for this area?"
When he finally managed to filter the information in his map, he found out about the scoundrel and the rogues scaling the hull closing in on his rear. The tell tale white color for neutrals different from his blue colored party members.
"They want to surround me? Hmmm, a bit off from my predictions, but luckily, I can still manage this. Have the foremost turret change to the red flag, retreat to the defenses nearest to the bow. Midfore turret, raise the blue flag, have them rotate to support our aftmid troops Aftmid turret, raise the red flag, retreat to the position nearest to the midfore turret, we'll be setting up a nice surprise."
"Captain Philippe, our men has already captured the foremost position and the first scout units are already in position."
"My lord, the enemy, they're retreating."
"Maybe the rogues and the scoundrels already started? Very well, send in the first scout unit to keep up the pressure, have the monster hunter and the martyrs clear up the remaining pocket of resistance in the aftmid turret, we'll devour them all in one fell swoop."
On Sergei Leian's side, the adjutant is telling him about Philippe sending his scouts to chase his retreating troops.
"Survivor, our aftmid line is losing ground during the retreat, the captain has already committed the scouts, we are bleeding men every minute."
"Don't worry too much, we'll have them pay it back up, with interest."
In the foremost line, Sergei Leian's men are already dug in and are waiting for the rogues and the scoundrels.
The scoundrels and rogues have already climbed up from the hull and are already facing off with 25 2-person teams of 50 civic guards.
"They separated their troops?"
"Did we just cut them off like that?"
"We can't have our backs to them like this. We'll have to take them down first."
The scoundrels marched forward to assault their enemy with the technique they did in the past, shoot crossbows then sprint forward to engage in combat, not because they are incapable of other methods of engagement, but because they only carry few bolts for they are trained to infiltrate enemy cities and one can only have limited ways to hide deadly weapons like the ones they carry for they still to be able to do movements like scaling walls and sprinting very fast, unlike the civic guard who is first and foremost a city defense unit rather than an athletic infiltrator. Sadly, it didn't work for the scoundrels this time too, not only because they don't have the support of the martyrs anymore, but they're also facing the stronger firepower of the entrenched red flag's overlapping sentry defense.
The rogues are doing badly too, for they aren't trained by their assassin bosses for this type of work. They lack the range weapon to present a threat, plus they also need to directly engage the enemy in the battlefield completely removing their advantage of being in the dark, plus not being able to kill the opponent really wasted the harsh training they have been put through. They are not like trained killers the assassins made them out to be but more like sitting ducks in this type of training exercise.
"Oh, I didn't sign up for this, we're supposed to be rogues, we're killers, not actors made to play dead once some blunted bolt from some random guy managed to land a good hit! Ouch, That hurts! But only emotionally, cause I'm a rogue, you know, we are immune to physical and mental pain."
"Shut up, your dead already, get out of this place, you're ruining the scenario."
Back to Sergei Leian's side.
"Survivor, our troops in the aftmid turret and midfore are now mostly in position, but we still have some troops stuck with the chasing enemy."
Nevermind that, I hope the enemy likes this present of ours.
Past the forward side of the aftmid turret, Sergei Leian positioned a combined firepower 60 civic guards, 30 2-man teams from the midfore deck, protecting the stragglers retreating from aftmid deck, shooting down the scouts who keep coming in their range,
As time goes by, more and more stragglers from the aftmid side keep arriving in their final positions, and as they keep arriving, so do the scouts who would then be promptly removed from the fight by the ever increasing firepower of Sergei Leian's side as more men keep moving in the new cordon.
Finally, the captain noticed that more and more of his scouts keep coming out of the fight, when he sent somebody to investigate the situation, he found out that the enemy seems to have created a new defense line with such overwhelming firepower that his scouts may have been sent in vain. Before he can stop his scouts, he finally discovered that his first scout unit seemed to have been wiped out already, and that the enemy defense line in the midship deck has now swelled to the size of more than 80 men, some of these positions may have only one man on it, but still, it would be pretty hard to assault it given their overlapping defense. After searching for the last remaining pockets of resistance in the aftmid deck, his enemy has managed to receive another wave of troops to make their midship defense line of 90 people taking up more than 50 defense positions.
As his men managed to wipe out the remaining troops of Sergei Leian before they can retreat. He counted his own forces remaining. His monster hunter force has now 33 men, his martyr group has 45 men, and his last scout unit has 42 men. Barely able to make up 110 men.
On the side of his scouts, they managed to wipe out Sergei Leian's 25 2-man teams, albeit at an expensive cost. They started with 35 rogues and 78 scoundrels for a total of more than 110 men but ended up with less than 70 men, 24 rogues and 43 scoundrels are their only remaining troops.
As they were separated from each other, both sides weren't able to communicate and have no idea of the other's plight. For example, captain Philippe can see that they are at least fighting 100 men, while on the side of the rogues and scoundrels, they estimated that they have to deal with Sergei Leian's 60 fresh looking soldiers staying in the midfore deck. After thinking about their previous loses, both forces of the same team communicated by sending messengers on the hull. Philippe then decided that by only combining their troops can they at least wipe out this enemy of theirs.
"(Both our armies combined are of 180 men strong, while this guy seems to have 100 troops left. The rogues and scoundrels wiped out 50 men, losing 40 in the process, while we only defeated about 30 to 40 while losing about 50-60.)
"The best sure way for us to defeat them is to go straight to their headquarters to wipe out their command, in that way, these troops will become headless chicken. I never though that we, the more numerous side, will have to even result to the tactic of beheading the enemy army. Oh my, how the turntables!"
"Much appreciated sir, I take it that we have permission to kill this survivor, also called Sergei Leian?"
"No, you fool, I meant behead as in figuratively speaking, not behead in the literal sense."
"Oh, I almost though you want him dead, sire."
"No, just tie him up and bring him to me, is what I meant."
"No problem, sire. I think we can exploit a weakpoint they tried so hard to hide from our side. It might be beneficial for us to use this place as a breakthrough point."
"What is it?"
"Without your assistance, we might not be able to open this one, sire."
"Get on with it man, stop speaking like that."
"Like what, sire?"
"Damn it, you, Hah, just tell me what I need to do."
"Well, first, we have to thank our best rogue, who studied under Hassan il Sabah's direct line for this information. Well, that's me sire!"
Said the smug looking rogue to his superior.
"Please don't stray too far from the topic. What did you find out?"
"Well, sire, I found out that this Sergei Leian seems to have used the principle of disguising the most vulnerable spot into the most dangerous spot. A bluff, if you will."
"Id be more happy if you'd stop speaking in such a roundabout way."
"Well, sire, because the most dangerous spot is the weakest spot, only by assaulting it head on can we be able to break this formation. This spot is the key to changes of the whole formation. Once this part is broken, our side can funnel to this point and reach most of the enemy defense positions including their headquarters unhindered. We only need your side attract their attention and once we've taken this place we can put the brunt of our forces inside the enemy hinterland."
"Where is this position?"
"It's on the port side aft quarter of the midfore turret, we can coordinate with the scoundrels to create blindspots while us rogues approach this position while your men only need to assault the port side foreward quarter of the aftmid turret. We can then connect our forces and rush through the gap to engage their numerically inferior force in close combat. After we have managed to defeat most of their positions, their remaining defenses won't be able to stop our snowballing advantage, like a mantis before a chariot."
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"Good, that's exactly what I want to hear, plans instead of problems. Now go, finalize the plan, we'll resume the attack after 10 minutes, when everybody is in position and well-rested."
On Sergei Leian's headquarters.
"Survivor, their main force are concentrated in the port side of our defenses, with only sporadic troops in other areas."
"Oh, so they saw that one. Finally! Something to do. Raise the yellow flag in our only remaining midfore turret. Inform the aftmid troops remaining to stay in their positions and wait for my final signal to attack. Reload this crossbow for me."
5 minutes after the captain and the rogue leader talked to each other, the rogues found a small change in their objective.
"A chance! The enemy are moving their troops, forward you rascals, beat them while they haven't reached their positions yet."
Meanwhile. In Sergei Leian's side.
"Survivor, a detachment of the enemy force has assaulted and captured one of our positions during the movement of our troops and defeated 4 of our men. I'm afraid our defense has been compromised."
"A small matter, let them come, we still haven't run out of cards yet. To me, 3 of you! we'll have them spit out what they swallowed. Yo, last guy, be prepared to raise the black flag once you hear me shout the signal, okay?"
"Yes, survivor!"
After capturing their designated target, the rogues soon sent most of their men to cut off the enemy's rear from supporting their front during the captain's assault.
"Start the attack!"
"Monster hunters, advance. I want this place taken as soon as possible."
"Martyrs, hold on just a bit longer."
"Scouts, conserve your energy, we'll be depending on you for the final push."
"Sire, the enemy, they're collapsing, look!!."
Sergei and his men reached the position the rogues have just taken.
"This place shall be their doom."
Said he while aiming his crossbow at a rogue. Upon letting loose, the bolt flew high and landed straight on the rogue's forehead, knocking him unconscious instantly. Sergei Leian then handed his crossbow to a guy holding his bag of bolts. He switched to his bow and another guy handed him an arrow, he took aim and let loose the arrow to a rogue running to their direction, hitting him on the chest. As he switched to his crossbow, his target soon ran sideways but the technique effective against ordinary crossbowmen (100-198) had no effect on him who has already reached grandmaster in crossbows(400-498). Upon switching to the bow, he shot the arrow as soon he saw a mass of them charging, it hit a man on the head, almost breaking his neck but luckily for the man, another rogue noticed him and he was carried him out of the fight. Finally dropping his bow, and grabbing the crossbow, he shot without aiming to a guy moving on his main tank's flank, hitting the rogue with another headshot, making him unconscious. Seeing that his two supports are fighting one man each, he decided to help his main tank who is currently dealing with 3 enemies.
Sergei first threw his knife, hitting a man on his chest, distracting him, but allowed Sergei to dispatch him instantly with his mace. Sergei soon used his lute as a shield to charge another rogue, unloading all his momentum on the poor guy, who was also soon dealt a blow to the head. Seeing that Sergei is the biggest threat, the 3 remaining rogues stop dealing with their enemies to disable Sergei first. The farthest one charged Sergei, the closest guy waited for an opportunity while another distracted Sergei by half-heartedly swinging at him.
Sergei first thrusted his mace to the charging guy's solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him, then he was jumped by another guy who is currently trying to unbalance him by leaning backwards and the only remaining free rogue was not free anymore, for he was already pushing and puliing Sergei with both arms while using one leg and his waist to trip Sergei's center of gravity. Both soon found out that what they're doing is not effective for as soon as Sergei's hand found purchase on the man in his back, with one smooth movement, he threw the man on his back to the ground while smashing his other arm's elbow to the man on his side, hitting him on the ribs. All three rogues were soon promptly dealt with a blow on the head for each. It was also at this time that the rogue who found out about the other guy's broken neck had finished tying a makeshift stretcher and had just managed to put the guy on it. Seeing that the battle is already finished, the rogue communicated with the team.
"Uh, don't mind me, just passing through."
Sergei made his main tank guy help the rogue carry the patient away. The rest of the team then ignored the two as they scurried away. All 4 guys soon whispered to their partners.
"Remind me not to offend the survivor, okay?"
"Then you remind me too, pinky swear?"
The crossbow and bow dude swore on it while the main tank civic guard and the rogue only promised to do it after delivering the injured person to safety.
"What are you two doing? Let's recover the position. You crossbow guy, take those boxes and pile them up here. Bow guy, you leave my bow plus arrows and go back to headquarters, assist the other guy, should the enemy find this position a tough nut to crack, they would ignore us and proceed to HQ instead, now I want you to help stall time in there, and I want that black flag raised when the enemy has enough troops to take the HQ, do you understand me?"
"Yes, sir, raise black flag once the enemy has threathened the HQ."
The ex-bow guy said, regretting can be seen in his eyes as he was not able to accompany his new sworn brother-cum-comrade.
"Haiya!!! Nevermind, just tell that to the remaining guy there. Raise black flag as soon as you see the enemy approach."
After taking the connecting 3 positions and pushing the enemy team back easily, the captain happily met his rogues unaware that the enemy team has left due to seeing the yellow flag a while ago.
"That fight was a bit shameful, but that doesn't matter, the important thing is whether we have a straight path to the enemies' formation or not?"
"Yes, sire, we first took that place before assisting you here."
"Good, forward men, La victoire est a nous!!"
"VIVE L'EMPEREUR!!"
When the civic guard with the bow left, Sergei waited for the enemy while teaching his assistant methods how to improve himself in the way of the crossbow, while also nit-picking him on how slow he is in reloading.
"Why did you only reload 3 bolts? You know, I'm not bragging but I can shoot and reload at least 4 in the time it takes for you to reload 3. You're not even the one shooting, why are you taking so long, are you a pig? Even pigs can fly, but you even if you were to have wings you just might think it's a shield, that's how much of a daft you are. Might as well use them feathers to make fletching than make you wings."
"But milord, us humans can't fly, only those blessed by the bishop have the ability to grow wings."
Sergei found a better outlet, so he stopped harassing the poor civic guard.
"So this bishop, how do they make these wings exactly, where does their power come from?"
"Lord, no one knows exactly, it could be the mandate of heaven, or the wrath of the underworld. We only know that their power is beneficial to the world so they are accepted and worship by the people. Unlike those other guys."
Filled with curiosity, Sergei decided to ask further.
"Which other guys?"
The civic guard looked at every place around him to make sure no one overhears then whispered to Sergei.
"Captain Philippe's sworn enemy, the necromancers. Please don't tell him I told you that, he's gonna make me walk the plank and feed me to his kraken. Please, sir, have pity on me, I stilI haven't enjoyed my sweet, young and beautiful wife which I have been supporting ever since I started working as a civic guard."
"Oh, such cruelty, I like it. Now don't worry my man, your wife is safe with me, I'll be taking care of her once you're dead and gone from this world, you can go in peace already."
As he was getting ready to shout and tease the civic guard who is turning pale with grief, he caught sight of Philippe's main force who has gathered all their power already. He can see the energetic scouts dashing movements, the intimidating monster hunters moving forward, the rugged martyrs with their scarred bodies bravely marching on, the mysterious rogues moving silently and the capable scoundrels who kept reinforcing the main force in waves after being called back by Philippe.
Sergei then shot continuously with his bow and crossbow, the crossbow he used to make precise headshots while aiming his bow on the largest mass of enemies. His allies in the nearby positions also saw the enemy main force and due to the wider defense area of the yellow flag's defense, more of Sergei's men were able to protect their flanks than what Philippe and the smart rogue thought. Due to the arrows and bolts being shot from the 'supposedly' owned position, Philippe's main army temporarily stopped.
"Who can tell me why this happened? I thought you guys already captured this place."
"Captain, sir, they must have retaken this place from our troops."
"You! Why didn't you leave enough men?
"My lord, we left 10 people there, not one of their 2-man teams should be able to capture that place back."
"This will be harder to deal with. I don't suppose any of you has new ideas?"
"Milord, I learned from the enemy that they only follow the flags. I think we should head straight to the turret and bring the flag down, that should cause chaos among them. We have the advantage in numbers, we can then win this fight by wiping out their uncoordinated resistance one by one."
"When did they start to retreat again?"
"Just a few minutes ago sir, we assaulted that position in the midst of their retreat and defeated 2 of their teams in the process."
"Hmm, so this position must be important after all, they may have used their last reserves from their headquarters for this attack. This position must look tough but that doesn't mean their HQ also is."
"Monster hunters, toil away, I want that place taken back again."
"Scoundrels and scouts, follow the rogues inside and forcibly capture their headquarters, cut off their flag, then wipe out every last position they have. I'm counting on you."
"Martyrs, thank you for your sacrifice, but I may have to ask for you to exert a bit more effort again."
"Everyone, the enemy has nothing left to hide now, we are better than them, show these volunteers the difference between you and them, why they can only be volunteers and you are the professionals, everyone, I don't want to be defeated by that guy, if we ever get defeated, I'm gonna have to double your training, every single last one of you."
"Everyone, attack!"
On the other side, Sergei has already finished shooting all his arrows and is already reloading his crossbows by himself.
"I tell you, you're really bad at this, look at how smooth, how natural my movement is, don't you think it's better for your girl to carry my seed, instead of yours which can't even load a crossbow properly."
He was shooting and reloading while still having the leisure to talk to the sad-looking civic guard who might have lost his pride, and soon-to-be, his wife. If only for Sergei to notice that the enemy has split their forces, one side continuing the assault, and the other, moving inside his defenses.
"Oh, so he has already decided to cut off the command. Very well then, so be it, crossbow guy, you're lucky, we'll be retreating for now. But if we ever get defeated in this battle, don't blame me for stealing your wife and killing her husband indirectly."
"Yes, milord!"
Said the guy who has regained a bit of morale upon seeing that Sergei decided to retreat away from the battle and also from having designs on his wife.
"(I'm sorry hubby, it's not like I don't want to protect our honor, but can't because this man is really not ordinary, how could there be someone as scary as him, I just saw him knock out 20 men in this skirmish alone. Imagine that, knock out 20 men and it's not a real battle too, if this were real, then those 20 men would be dead already.)"
"What are you spacing out there for? My bolts don't carry themselves you know. Unless you want your lovely wife to carry them herself, I won't object if she also offers herself too, you know."
"Sorry, milord, I was just thinking of how awesome and cool you are. My seed doesn't necessarily need to exist but yours milord, yours would be instrumental in the expansion of the human race and it would be a pity for it to be lost. That's why I shall consider it my mission to find your grace women and ladies more beautiful, more highborn and more younger than my wife."
"It's good you know, by the way, what age is your wife exactly?"
"She has experienced 12 cataclysms, milord."
"What? (Oh, by the way, a cataclysm happens once every 300 days in this world, and is equivalent to slightly more than 16 months on earth) Nevermind, just find me older girls, preferably those who had experienced 14 cataclysms or more. (Almost shot myself in the foot with a minor right there, it's a good thing I'm merely joking with him, it's not like I was serious with him just know.)"
And so, Sergei justified himself that he doesn't really have the intention to prey on minors, so if you must blame somebody, blame the civic guard who tricked Sergei into thinking the girl is of legal age. Still, Sergei has even more reason to look down on the civic guard beside him, tricking underage girls into marrying him, who does that? But he remembered that he really isn't in a position to judge a place and their customs.
"Milord prefers those who survived 14 cataclysms and more?(praise the Allfather for not allowing this man to desecrate me and my wife's sacred covenant). Then miss Louise would be really a great match with someone as capable as you milord. She has just experienced her 14th cataclysm."
"Shut up, she is out of my league, give me something easy to deal with first, like A-HA, you're wife's older friends or family members maybe. But first, we must retreat, I still may not be able to take your wife, but whether or not you will return to see her again depends on this battle's results, you know."
"Yes, milord,(why is this fool not thinking with his lower head now, I almost though he's coveting Miss Louise, hah, the captain should be happy enough to throw this guy to the kraken instead of me. Oh, shat! Don't offend, don't offend, almost forgot how dangerous he is.)"
The civic guard thought to himself once he saw Sergei's bolt went through an unlucky monster hunter's eyes and blinded the martyr connected to him. The martyr, unable to withstand such damage, fainted, which soon resulted to the monster hunter being unable to extricate the bolt fast enough, making him half blind too. The captain seeing such a fiasco happen, sent 2 men to carry the guys to receive immediate treatment. He then shouted to the defenders.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT JUST NOW MOTHERFRICKERS? WE'RE PRETENDING TO FIGHT NOT FIGHTING PRETEND, ONCE I CATCH THE DEVILSPAWN WHO DID THAT, IM GONNA SKIN HIM ALIVE MYSELF!"
Meanwhile, our perpetrator here on the other side.
"That wasn't me, I use my own set of bolts you know."
The civic guard was dumbfounded for he was looking at the bag of bolts beside Sergei, all of them standard bolts used by their navy, courtesy of him picking them up from the battlefield.
"What are you looking at, never seen such a handsome man before? Quick, help me dispose of these bolts as fast as possible. You fool, don't just drop them all in one place, just pound them lightly on the battlements to make it look like it was used to shoot this place."
He did just what he said, pounding some bolts in the battlements as he was running away, carrying his crossbow to not leave any evidence but leaving his bow, intending to use it as an alibi that he was only using his bow and not his crossbow.
As they were running away, the captain furiously let the men charge forward to the estimated direction of the shooter, intending to find the perpetrator of this fiasco just now.
Meanwhile, the scouts and scoundrels have already sprinted ahead to the headquarters. The civic guards stationed there calmly raised the black flag and waited for the enemy to charge their spot. Upon seeing the black flag being raised, all the other civic guards soon left their positions and marched on their routes, finally starting the scramble which will determine the conclusion of this battle.