“Every little thing anyone does eventually adds up and affects things larger than they are. This often catches the unwary by surprise, and has happened repeatedly throughout history.” - Liang Shi-Zu, famed tactician from the Huan Confederacy.

The Free Lances detachment Erycea led started to pack their equipment and retreated from the frontlines shortly after Lili and Rózsa returned and made their report. They were sent out to perform reconnaissance on the enemies, and they had done just that, with no casualties amongst their own troops. The ramifications of their actions, however, would be felt on the frontlines for a while more.

A clerk and several guards from the invader forces were executed as they were blamed by the foreigners’ commanding officer for the unexpected loss of the military documents from his tent. The condemned individuals pleaded their innocence, but their pleas fell upon deaf ears, as none of the other officers were keen to cross their already irate commander for their sakes.

Several animal-loving officers amongst the foreign invaders were dismayed to learn that the kittens they had grown attached to over the past week had fled and vanished during the commotion that night, something that they chalked up to misfortune. Some of the more superstitious amongst the soldiers even called it a bad omen.

Entire units of the foreign army had to be secluded from everyone else due to the overpowering stench that seemed to have seeped into their bodies. Even during the fighting that followed, those units were tasked with making halfhearted assaults on the fortification’s eastern walls on their own, so that their stench wouldn’t disturb the other soldiers.

For the people who had the misfortune to be doused with the unpleasant stench, life turned to hell as they were excluded and isolated, all while they too suffered from the horrific stink. Some people even lost their minds and went mad, while a few others committed suicide because they couldn’t take it anymore, causing morale to drop like a rock amongst the affected units.

To make things worse, an outbreak of itchy rashes happened amongst the invading army, in a seemingly random yet widespread manner to the point that it couldn’t be contained at all. The rash mostly affected the neck and hands, and while relatively harmless, were so itchy that many scratched until they broke their own skin and bled just to get rid of the itch.

While the officers were mostly spared, such a large-scale outbreak amongst the soldiers remained a serious risk to morale and the well-being of the army, so the invaders had to take it seriously and assigned the healers and doctors they had in camp to deal with the issue. It took nearly a week before those doctors came up with a remedy for the itch.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

That week was one where the Kolitscheian forces that defended the fort being attacked by the invaders found unexpected relief, as the invaders seemed unable to focus on their offense. It was a much-welcome breather for the hard-pressed troops, and many prayed their thanks for whatever caused the lull in the enemy offense.

Said enemy offense renewed itself with vigor the next week, but the relatively relaxed week had allowed the defenders to recover their strength and stamina and put their full effort to the defenses once more, refusing to give any ground to the invaders. As such, the fort lasted longer than it was projected to, and held the invading army at bay for a good couple of weeks past even the most optimistic expectations, which allowed Kolitschei city to be further reinforced with troops from the Border Duchies.

It was only when a second invasion force – later discovered to be the one that had been besieging Oleynuos – arrived and added their numbers to the first that the fort’s defenders realized that they wouldn’t be able to hold on for much longer. In the end, the majority of the defenders retreated in good order towards Kolitschei city, while a volunteer force of rear guards held the fort behind them, with the intent of selling their lives dearly to allow their allies to retreat unmolested.

Their sacrifice – the rear guard were slain to the last man – bore fruit, as the invaders failed to realize that the majority of the defenders already retreated. By the time they realized, the escaping defenders were already too far to pursue, so instead the invaders chose to settle down in the fort and rest their forces for the time being.

While the invading forces recuperated from the long sieges they had just finished, the area west of Kolitschei city was transformed by a detachment from the Horst’s Hellraisers mercenary company into a field of trenches, traps, and minor fortifications, all designed to tackle the invader’s numerically superior force with lesser numbers.

Where the invading army – at least the ones gathered in Kolitschei – numbered well over a hundred and fifty thousand, Kolitschei itself only managed to muster around forty thousand soldiers, to which another forty thousand soldiers and mercenaries from Algenverr were added. Nestor and Griselda personally led the detachment that went to Kolitschei, while his younger brother Damien led another twenty-five thousand troops to face the invaders in Lovia-Hosberg, where the defenders fared better since they had to deal with fewer enemies.

So it was that in the early autumn of year 20 FP two massive armies faced each other to the west of Kolitschei city, in one of a series of battles that would determine the fate of the western Alcidean region as a whole, as they later learned. At a glance the defenders were outnumbered by nearly two to one, but they also had the advantage of the home ground and prepared defenses, which more than evened the odds.

The foreign invaders at the time had yet to realize that their opponents this time had learned far more about them than what they expected, courtesy of a successful reconnaissance mission by the Free Lances, and that they were marching towards foes that had prepared to face them properly, unlike all their previous battles.

So it was that the drums of war sounded and the weapons raised, as foreign invaders met with locals who were defending their homeland.