Moments later…

The situation on the battlefield below is fluid, with most of the melee skirmishing already being over, despite barely beginning. When one of the enemy units reforms and regains coherence, a loud sound spreads across the battlefield when they approach Redwing Kingdom's soldiers.

…Boooommm!…

The new IEDs scattered on the ground go off, sending blazing hot fragments of metal flying everywhere. Some die in an instant when the small metal packages send shrapnel ripping through their vital organs, while some aren't so lucky. While a large portion of the enemy unit are still reeling from the previous blast, some writhing and screaming on the ground, more of the compact rectangular boxes are thrown their way. A few find a split second to leap away, and some only have enough time to catch a glimpse of them glow white.

…Booooooooommmmm!…

Another violent magic reaction rips across the battlefield. Thanks to the unrestricted and quite generous usage of the IEDs, the infantry unit throwing them has run out. The officer in charge barks out orders, and his men take their weapons in hand, charging in into the hanging cloud of dust.

They are very quickly both confused and horrified by the fact there is no one left standing to resist them. They bumble around in the dust, raising weapons at each other, only to lower them when the wind clears some of the haze and reveals them to each other. One of the men stumbles on the soft, uneven ground. When he looks down to see what it was, he recoils back in panic with a scream. A torn up, severed head gave way under his armored feet, sinking deeper into the softened earth.

On a hill above the battlefield, Straf watches the fresh levy soldiers chaotically try to find someone to fight in the dust cloud. He turns his eyes to the incoming enemy unit.

「Tsk… What the fuck are these guys doing?…」

He grumbles with his fists on his coat-covered hips, and a frustrated, tight-lipped grimace on his face. The men stumbling around in the haze struggle to identify each other close up, and fail to see the approaching units of Parnatau Kingdom. When the knocked out survivors wake up to experience the agony of being alive still, the general area around them turns even more chaotic, as the men who appeared dead are now back to life, screaming and crying at the inexperienced peasants with weapons.

Frightened and on the brink of panic despite winning the encounter, the infantrymen run out of the cloud and bunch up in a haphazard, circular defensive formation while the officer in charge attempts to rally them. Screaming, barking orders at them, and physically slapping some of their helmets, he slowly manages to calm the rabble down into following orders correctly. One of the soldiers points his armored finger at the hazy, man-shaped figures approaching them.

「…Man, they're going to get their asses kicked… And they did everything right, too…」

Straf continues grumbling as three different units of Parnatau Kingdom approach the lone and separated infantry unit.

「Well, it can't be helped. I guess this is just the experience difference between the late and early cycle troops. If only I had a radio or something, I could have-」

He throws his hands up with a resigned shrug of his shoulders. His head abruptly perks up, and his brows rise.

Snap!

With a grin on his face, he snaps his fingers and reaches into his [Portable Storage].

「…What's a radio?」

Stripe asks, side-glancing at Straf with her arms crossed. Lily grins with a smug, satisfied expression on her face while watching the mangled dead and wounded below.

「It's a thing that lets you talk over long distances… Like this thing…」

He pulls out the golden bracer, briefly showing it to Stripe. He then slips it onto his forearm.

「…Though usually it lets you talk two-way. I'll have to make do.」

He adds while raising the bracer up to his chin level, then shrugs his shoulders. His eyes turn away towards somewhere on the battlefield.

「Hey, you!… Yeah, you! This is your commander speaking!… Stop looking around like a dumbass already! I'm speaking directly into your mind with magic!…」

Straf speaks into the golden bracer, keeping his free hand's fist on his hip. Stripe looks around the battlefield, but can't find anybody Straf might be talking to.

「…If you understand, raise your right arm. If you don't understand, raise your left. If you can't hear shit, are stupid, and need me to repeat myself, raise your left arm and wave it…」

He adds, and lowers his bracer a little. Stripe notices one of the officers on the field raise his right arm in a fist, though he's swiveling his head around in apparent confusion.

「…Good… Now listen closely! There's a unit in trouble! Turn about-face then slightly to the left. There will be a massive dust cloud, one friendly unit, and three enemy ones… 」

As he continues explaining, Stripe notices the officer shout something at his men and wave his arms around. The lightly confused infantrymen turn around, jogging back and to the left.

「…There will be other units reinforcing you. In the meantime, haul ass to spoil their movement!」

Straf adds, then turns his eyes to the trapped unit that's awaiting to see who is approaching them.

「Listen up, there's no time to explain! Turn right and run! Fuck formation cohesion, just hurry up and get your men into the forest!…」

He barks orders into the golden bracer with Stripe watching. Near the rapidly clearing dust cloud, the officer's helmet perks up. With a sword in his hand, he shouts something, then runs off towards a forest off to the side, waving his free arm towards his men and gesturing them to follow. They run after him as fast as their weighty equipment allows, panting and gasping for air.

「…Hold your ground in the treeline, the reinforcements are already coming. Whether or not you manage to keep your unit cohesive through this will tell if you're worthy of being an officer.」

Stripe tilts her head, blinking her golden eyes at Straf from the side as he's commanding the officer below. The enemy heavy infantry notices Redwing Kingdom's men run out of the obscuring dust cloud, and they turn to follow them, pacing themselves on their march. He turns his eyes to the infantry unit in white armor.

「Hey, Rat Hunters! I've got a job for you!… You're going to reinforce a unit in trouble and flank the enemy!… And stop looking around already! Isn't it obvious I'm your commander!?…」

As they're cutting down the last of the opposing unit's men in close combat, Straf begins instructing the First Rat Hunters. Their banner, flapping proud above their heads, depicts a caged rat being poked with a spear. Their officer shouts something, and gestures his arm for his men to come closer as he listens to Straf's words.

「…You're going to take the long way back. Turn around then head left. Cut through the closest forest, and be ready for combat. There will be a trapped unit in an adjacent treeline…」

Straf continues commanding the officer. The mustached man waves his arm, and the unit begins running towards the forest.

「…When you're nearing the exit out of your own forest, try and charge into the enemy's back. Get them all. No mercy.」

He says, then places his fist back down on his hip.

「Heh. Well said, Straf… Now I understand why you have been so busy.」

With almost morbid glee, Lily grins up at Straf with her arms crossed.

「…Why didn't you order them to run? If you know they're outnumbered and will be slaughtered, why make them fight? What kind of a scumbag are you to do this to your own men?」

Stripe asks in an accusatory tone with a hint of confusion mixed in, blinking her golden, vertically-slit eyes at him.

「Run where, stupid? Didn't you see how they were panting and wheezing after just a few steps?」

Straf asks, pointing his hand at the pile of mangled corpses in cratered earth.

「What?- You can see that kind of stuff?…」

Her head recoils back, and her brows furrow in surprise.

「…Never mind that! That doesn't answer my question! You're just deflecting, you cold-blooded bastard!」

Stripe shakes her head, and with it, she shakes her momentary confusion off as she shouts back with her fists clenched. Straf lets out a lightly frustrated sigh.

「You're thinking about this in the perspective of someone who's light on your feet…」

He replies, turning his eyes to the battlefield. The three enemy units are cautiously approaching the lone infantrymen in the treeline, both sides pointing their weapons at each other.

「…I'd like to see you run around after I put you into a heavy-ass suit of armor and give you an unwieldy weapon. They were already winded from their stumbling over corpses.」

「Huh!? So why did you tell them to run into a forest away from everyone else!? You're just sacrificing them!」

「Pft. Yeah, right… If they ran, they'd just die tired after the enemy would catch up. This way, we have them where we want them instead.」

Shaking his head with his arms crossed, Straf scoffs as a snide smirk appears on his face. The cut-off unit below begins skirmishing with the enemy infantry, both hesitantly poking at each other.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

「What? You mean you wanted them to be stuck!? It sounds like you're just making up excuses after the fact!」

Lightly amused by Straf's reply, she gains an incredulous expression on her face as her mouth drops open. She points her hand at the unit locked in a low-intensity melee.

「Wanted to? No, I wanted them to fuck up their enemy and move on, but you're forgetting those are completely fresh recruits. They were probably only trained what「about face」means.」

Straf shrugs his shoulders as he continues watching the situation unfold. Though the literal decapitation of the enemy command was a devastating blow, the remaining junior commanders, while clearly overwhelmed by the sudden increase of responsibilities, are surprisingly competent and on a level equal, if not higher to Redwing Kingdom's officers.

「So now you're blaming new recruits!?」

Stripe's jaw drops in outrage, and she shakes her head lightly in disbelief at Straf's statement.

「Noo?- Actually, yeah… It is their own fault, but that's fine. I'll save their asses…」

He turns his gaze to Stripe and denies with his brow raised, before changing his mind. He then nods along with a shrug of his shoulders, and looks back at the contested forest.

「…Did you know that rats in water will eventually get tired and drown, but if you save them just before they drown and put them back into the water later, they'll be motivated as fuck to live?」

Straf remarks, glancing at Stripe while the combat at the treeline intensifies.

「What?…」

Her golden eyes narrow in deep confusion.

「Fuck off you whore!…」「…This is our land, fucker!…」「…Try it! Go on, try it! I'll fucking gut you!」

Clack!… Clank!… Clink-clank!…

The infantrymen hurl insults and threats at the surrounding enemies, menacing them with their spears, feigning thrusts and mixing in real ones. Spear shafts clack together as the soldiers try to knock each other's weapons aside. Half-hearted thrusts bounce off the armor and shields of the heavy infantry, and the noises of metal on metal echo out as some of them knock the spearheads away with their swords.

「…Yeah. They normally drown as soon as they're tired, but the rescued ones will swim for days without giving up, hoping the hand will come to save them once again.」

Straf shrugs as he explains in a casual, almost bored-sounding tone.

「That's…」

Stripe becomes greatly disconcerted, furrowing her brows.

「Cruel? Yeah, it is. But I could either tell you about that, or the whoop-de-fuckin-doo millennia old writings on the psychology of war again!…」

Straf exclaims, briefly spreading his arms, before returning his fists back to his hips with a large, fatigued sigh.

「…Quotes from that are almost as overused as the quote about abyss gazing back. My point is, they're cornered and they have no choice but to fight to survive…」

He adds, shrugging his shoulders with a nonchalant grimace. The first friendly unit is drawing near the corpse-filled pit while they march in a steady pace.

「…Moreover, these fucking dummies thought they were tactical geniuses, ganging up three-on-one on these guys like that. Now, normally, that'd be the right choice for these dipshits…」

Unimpressed by the enemy, Straf points his hand at the units locked in combat by the treeline. Stripe listens with her brows furrowed, and a wary gaze.

「…But with this thing on, I'm basically my own signals corps. There's something more damaging than a high caliber rifle round…」

Straf grins as he holds the golden bracer up to look at it. He notices the white of First Rat Hunters' armor peek through the leafless trees.

「…Clear, precise, concise information delivered fast.」

He adds, grinning as the Rat Hunters charge out of the forest towards the enemy. Holding their steel shields out, right before the impact, they let out a war cry loud enough to be audible on the hill.

「Heh. This is so easy with this thing, it's practically cheating. Playing against the AI in RTS games is tougher than this. It's like the bot fell asleep.」

Straf remarks, lowering his fist back to his hip while watching the flanking maneuver play out.

Completely oblivious to the danger behind them, Parnatau Kingdom's men have only a fraction of a second to react to the wild charge. Locked in a ferocious melee with the unit stuck in the treeline, they are forced to make a rapid decision who to face.

…Thud-Clank! Cla- Clank-Clank!…

The charging heavy infantry ram their shields into the opposing forces, sending them flying backwards as if hit by cavalry. Some of them slam into the trees, some of them are knocked backwards right between the friendly infantry in the forest, prompting the defenders to quickly stab and batter them dead, and some are trampled and crushed beneath the immense weight of the Rat Hunters' armor.

Seeing that the reinforcements have arrived, the defenders let out a cheer and sally out of the forest, poking and stabbing away at their now panicked and broken enemy. The infantry at the flank briefly attempts to back up their allies being butchered, but seeing as the tide is turning, they decide to turn around and run along with the third unit.

It's only then, when they realize that their escape path is cut off by incoming Redwing Kingdom's infantrymen. They lower their spearheads out of a marching position towards the escaping Parnatau Kingdom's forces, and begin jogging.

Now practically enveloped themselves, the two infantry units begin losing cohesion as panic and fear of immediate death sets in.

「…Get back here! I said get back here, you son of a bitch, or I'll put you in a mine for the rest of your fucking life!…」

「…Return to formation or I'll cut your head off right here, right now!…」

The officers shout and scream at the fleeing men, throwing threats their way, but it's already too late. Most have already dropped their weapons, and are dashing for the ever-decreasing path to safety while Redwing Kingdom's infantry closes in around the remaining bulk that was either too slow to run, or too slow to desert.

「…I don't get a word you said just now.」

Stripe declares with her mouth aslant, and her arms crossed.

「He he… Me neither. For a while now…」

Nona chimes in, grinning awkwardly behind her.

「That's fine. I think most people wouldn't- Eh?」

Straf shrugs, but then gets distracted by a small white speck slowly descending from the sky. He blinks, then looks up.

「Uh oh. Uhhhhhh…」

He rubs his chin while watching the snowflakes slowly descend from the overcast sky.

「Ah! It's snowing!」

Nona declares with an excited grin. Lily scoffs, apparently not interested by the fact. Stripe remains neutral, and simply watches the snow descend with Straf.

「…It looks like I have committed a classic strategic blunder.」

Straf declares with a tight-lipped grimace as he looks over the battlefield, and sees that unlike Redwing Kingdom's forces, the enemy soldiers are well equipped for the current weather…