YEAR: 1724. AUGUST 10TH. LOCATION: MAIN COMMAND TENT OF IMPERIAL SECOND DIVISION SOMEWHERE IN THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE PLAIN OF JADE.
“What in the hell is Caelen thinking?” Major General Remnell couldn’t help but shout as he listened to reports after reports.
It was already bad enough that Major General Caelen ran off with the entire Third Division without waiting for his order, but he somehow made it worse as his entire division split up into multiple groups just like the 9th Corp wanted. He was playing right into their hands.
Not only that, but they were lost, completely lost that Caelen himself was just fighting any enemies he had his sight on. Remnell didn’t know if he was thinking he would find General Cedric like that, but it was causing a huge loss for both divisions. If he didn’t come to his right mind soon, the entire battle would be in the 9th Corp's favor.
Thankfully, all the soldiers were fully trained that it was preventing any massive loss that might occur. However, Remnell didn’t know when that would last. They had lost around 8,000 soldiers just yesterday as they were caught by surprise.
Remnell never expected a group of 5,000 soldiers would just attack them while they had 25,000. In fact, it wasn’t just Remnell, everybody was caught by surprise as there was a slight disorder for a few minutes. During those few minutes, the commander for those 5,000 soldiers, the man who called himself Osuman reached where Remnell was and tried to kill him.
If Remnell wasn’t surrounded by elite guards, he would have died from that attack. It was a near death experience and it was enough to give Caelen an excuse to depart from Second Division as he said, “I can’t go under a commander who almost lost his life to 5,000 soldiers.”
Remnell tried to argue back, but Caelen had already moved out and was blinding, attacking any enemy he had sights on. He moved too fast for the rest of his soldiers and ended up splitting up. Remnell had no idea where he was right now, but there was a report that he was somewhere between the south and east side of the Plain of Jade.
With Third Division splitting up, Second Division was doing their best to assist the battle in the best way possible. Remnell didn’t dream of attacking the 9th Corp directly as he and his troops already had their hands full not to get any of the Third Division killed.
“Lord Remnell!” Brigadier General Varian shouted, his face full of panic. “Lord Caelen and his troops are under attack by the enemy and they require immediate assistance!”
“That fool!” Remnell cried out, “Which troops are free?!”
“None my lord! Only 5,000 soldiers who are defending the main camp are free.”
“Then I will directly join the battle myself.” Remnell said, reaching out for his sword and armor. “Tell the men to be immediately ready for the battle!”
While Remnell didn’t care about Caelen who was acting foolish, he did care about the command. Currently, the entire Third Division was following orders from Caelen and if he was dead, then the entire command would collapse and that would cause huge loss. If it came to worse, it could also affect the Second Division and the entire operation.
“But my lord!” Varian protested. “You can’t just charge right into battle.”
“Then who will? We have no officers ready to lead 5,000 mens into battle except me. All of them are working to their bones to try to keep the line together.”
“I will go, my lord!” Varian replied. “I am a Brigadier General, I could lead 5,000 mens. I promise you I will keep Lord Caelen safe.”
Remnell tried to argue back, but the determined look in Varian’s eyes silenced Remnell. Instead, he handed his sword to Varian. Varian and Remnell were best friends who graduated from the military academy together, and Remnell trusted him like his own family.
“Use this sword.” Remnell said. “This is my family heritage, Windwhisper. It is enchanted with wind magic to make it lighter and stronger. You can also use some wind magic. It will help you in battle and I will take no for an answer. Now, go!”
Varian tried to refuse, but shut up when he wasn’t allowed to. Instead, he saluted with a smile as he left the tent, ordering the men to move out.
‘Please come back alive, Varian.’ Remnell thought as he painfully watched Varian marching into battle. ‘You were my only true friend. Please come back.’
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However, Remnell didn’t know that Varian wouldn’t come back. Not after he had met with the Shiena Kingdom’s future hero, the Silver Angel.
[(0)]
YEAR: 1724. AUGUST 10TH. LOCATION: SOMEWHERE IN THE EAST SIDE OF PLAIN OF JADE
‘Finally’ I thought as I ran with other soldiers. ‘We are finally doing something.’
An order was arrived by a wind bird that the 1st to 5th Company was to aid Brigadier General Lily of 1st Brigade in her battle against 8,000 Imperials. While the information wasn’t clear, the orders were to move as quickly as we could to assist her in the best way as possible.
It only took one hour to pack up and leave for the direction of the 1st Brigade. It turned out, there weren't any traps as we didn’t encounter a single Imperial as we moved out.
The trees were making it hard to go across in one big happy group so we were moving in smaller groups. Though it would cause a disaster if we encounter enemies along the way as we weren’t exactly prepared for any kind of attack. For one thing, we were spread too thin.
In the position we were marching, we had 1st Company along with Major Lyra in the center. The left and right were positioned by 2nd and 3rd Company while the rear was stationed with 5th Company. And finally, the front had 4th Company, aka me, with Captain Deryk. It might have been fine if we were careful but alas, we were not.
We weren’t exactly being careful of silencing ourself either once we were doing our best to run toward 1st Bridager. If an enemy wanted to sneak past us and go straight to the 1st Company, it would be like going around their own house.
The recruits were already tired from running with their armors and weapons on. It was a miracle that none of them had fallen to the ground as they looked like they would die in any second.
“We will reach the 1st Brigade in 10 minutes!” Derky shouted between light breathing. “We will walk from here but we will not take a rest until we know the situation.”
Most of the recruits looked like they were about to complain, but their friends stopped them, whispering that it was no good to argue back with an officer.
It didn’t take long before we could hear the screams and shouts of battle in the distance. Many of the recruits slightly shivered at the sounds as they feared about the possibility of death.
“Aria, with me. Rest of you, stay here and kill any enemies that might be lurking around.”
‘Why me?’ I thought, but I didn’t complain as I figured out this might be a good chance to obtain any information.
Deryk and I quietly crept along the trees as we made our way to the battle. When we spotted a clearing, we both hid behind some trees as we watched whatever was happening there.
9th Corp’s soldiers, the 1st Brigade, were fighting with a large number of Imperial soldiers. It was hard to tell from the view, but the Imperials easily outnumbered the 1st Brigade as they kept charging up against them.
The 1st Brigade in return, couldn’t do anything but to keep retreating to prevent any huge loss that might happen if they weren’t careful. The 1st Brigade was mostly using archers and soldiers equipped with large shields to fight, but even then, casualties were rising.
“What do you think of Sergeant Aria?” Deryk said in a joking tone. “Any ideas on how to kill the Imperials like you did last time?”
“I hardly think it is time to joke.” I replied back, scanning the battlefield. “I don’t have any good plans that would succeed.”
It was true. There was nothing we could do right now to achieve a victory in this helpless situation. Sneak attack might be the best choice, but the only problem was that the 1st to 5th Company was mostly made up with recruits. The enemy? They had veterans who had fought in the Eastern Line until they were here. They are likely to quickly react to the surprise attack and fight back.
The damage would be only temporary and it was likely that it wouldn’t cause any massive damage to the Imperials. If anything, we would be the one who would be receiving the most damage. It was a suicide.
A front line attack wouldn’t be an option and shooting arrows in the distance could have a chance at hitting allies. Then there was the trap option, but really, there wasn’t enough time to set up a trap. Even if we had enough time, the Imperials would likely take notice and attack us.
While I was pondering over my choice, some kind of sticky black liquid suddenly slipped into my clothes. I looked down and realized that it was some kind of oil spilling out from one of my pockets.
“Oil.” I murmured out loud, “Why do I have oil in my pocket?”
“You don’t know?” Deryk looked surprised as he took out a small bottle of oil in his pocket. “This is an emergency oil in case you don’t have any mana to start a fire.”
Why do we have something like that in the first place? People usually depended on these artifacts instead of normal tools like oil. Oil wasn’t exactly hard to get, but it was easier to enchant an idea.
It turned out, the military gave each soldier a bottle of oil because they had too much to spare and they were practically useless to many people. They are just used when people are in a desperate need.
Then, a bright idea came to my mind as I took my own bottle of oil which had a crack. I grinned as I looked at the Imperials.
“Deryk, I might have an idea how to kill those Imperials.” I said, “But I need everyone’s help on this one.”
Deryk only smiled. “Well, if you say so, what is your brilliant plan?”