"Hold the line!" "DO NOT LET THEM CROSS OVER! HOLD THE LINE!" The top General of the world church bellows, his voice echoing with the weight of the command. His orders are our lifeline, our only hope to keep the demon king's army at bay and protect our capital city.
The progress the demon army, with their relentless onslaught and oppressive elemental magic, has made in such a short time has been staggering and hard to keep up with, but they're starting to slow down. For one part, I have been instructed to hold my line as best as possible, but things start looking a little dire as we run out of supplies.
It is not just a matter of ordering the men to hold the line; it is a desperate struggle. The costs to slow down the demon army are devastating us, both physically and mentally. Our men's morale is plummeting, and we are burning through our food and healing supplies at an alarming rate, all while the enemy's advance shows no sign of abating.
I pray to god for guidance, but I do not see a good end to this chaos of slaughter and blood. What will I say to all the families of these honorable men giving their lives away for such a cause, a fight that we aren't even allowed to share with the masses as the pope wants to keep it secret?
I do not want to question the wisdom of god's choice, but I also think keeping this fight a secret hinders global support! We could absolutely use the help from outside forces! Specifically speaking, I am speaking from the nation of Sarielle, which is the leading global hegemon aside from the church.
"Sir, there are reports from the scouting units you sent, and they look dire, sir! Please take a look at them!" My assistant comes inside my tent holding a scroll, which he hands me and then leaves me with. I naturally open the scroll and look at its contents in awe.
{Kiki tono sougu - Kenichiro Suehiro}
{NEUVILE'S FORCE'S HAVE FALLEN WE ARE THE LAST REMAINING! THE DEMON ARMY IS REDIRECTING ALL OF IT'S FORCES TO OUR STRONGHOLD! THEY WILL ARRIVE ABOUT THREE DAYS AFTER THIS LETTER ARRIVES!}
Neuvile's army fell?! How is that possible?! That's nonsense! Neuvile had doubled our troops. If they fall, we will fall as well. I can't hold the line anymore! It would be suicidal to do so.
I immediately headed outside my tent and ordered a tactical retreat to move back to a better location where we could survive until the church sent us more reinforcements. Unfortunately, another small city would fall, but that would be a small price to pay for victory.
"Commander! We await your orders, sir!"
"Order a massive retreat! We need to get the hell out of this position back to the mountain pass. We are sitting ducks here!" My General looks at me perplexed like I was saying something crazy until I show him the scroll with the news, and he understands in a heartbeat.
"My lord! I understand what the problem is, but we have another problem! The demon army has us working 24/7. We can't move from this position without leaving significant forces behind to die for us!"
Dam it! That damn Demon King knows what he is doing! He's applying our war tactics on us because we didn't expect them to be smart enough to know them. How stupid of us! Of course, this demon king knows about warfare. He hasn't taken over so much human territory because of luck.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
"Do what you have to do. Let's leave the weaker soldiers behind and take the rest away. We either sacrifice them or risk all dying here." My general looks conflicted, but he gets to work as he probably understands our dilemma better than I do.
"Alright, please head out first, my lord. I'll have your royal guard ready in about 5 minutes." I nod at him and then return to my tent, where I begin to pack my things with the help of my elf assistant, Fiore.
A commotion happens right outside my tent as I pack my stuff up. I don't understand at first, but when my assistant Fiore looks outside and quickly gets stacked outside by someone, I know better what's happening. Could it be that the men want a mutiny? I guess I was abandoning them, so it would make sense.
With a possible mutiny in mind, I grab my sword and walk outside just to see my royal guard desperately trying to fight a small group of demons that had snuck close to me in the first place. I don't believe what I see, but I help my guards fight the enemies off once I realize it.
This new demon king was not playing around, uh? Kill the leadership and attack your enemies when they're without a leader geez, he's more wited than I expect by a long shot. Was that how he managed to take down Neuvile? If he's trying it with me, I wouldn't be surprised if he did that.
Unfortunately for you, Mr. Demon lord! I'm always at least one step ahead of someone like yourself! That goes through my mind until I wonder just how a group like this managed to get this close to me in the first place. We are surrounded by men from almost every front except from the... No! THEY CAN'T BE HERE ALREADY!
{Senritsu no toki - Kenichiro Suehiro}
"Fiore! Look at the southwest with your eagle-eye skill! TELL ME WHAT YOU SEE!" My cute little elf assistant immediately looks in the direction I commanded them to, and their face tells me all I need to know as they change their face to surprise and horror.
"A huge amount of demons are heading this way from that side. They're all using the ambush skill thanks to Eagle Eye, but I can see through it!" Fiore's response quickly prompts me to take drastic measures to order an immediate retreat.
"I'm the source of all power! Hear my words and heed them! Voice amplifier!" I didn't have time to explain things to the commanders or whatnot, so I used a semi-global spell to let me speak to most of the troops.
"This is Lord Zoe, and I have new orders that must be executed! Start evacuating from this position as soon as possible for your own sake. We must fall back to the Klaus Passage to the East! Find your way there in any way you can! We will try to hold the line for as many of you as possible!"
Many men don't understand why we must move, but most of them immediately obey my words, breaking away from their comfortable guard positions and other duties and moving steadily. I didn't want it to be a rushed move, so long as we were not in this open field, I could make something work!
Our current position was just too easy to take over in the middle of an almost flat plane. If we could get most of the men inside a forest line, we could make the demons fight harder, as we are better when there are things to put between us and them.
My problem now lay on who would have to stay back and fight for most to survive. I could just order the current line holders to do it, but they are already tired from hours of fighting. But if we get attacked in the forest, they will be of no help! I'm sorry, it is you who will have to die.
My heart feels terrible when I order the men who have been fighting for hours to keep on going as we head East until something awful happens at the front of the evacuation line when the line starts to be attacked by an ambush at the entrance of the cursed forest.
"WHAT?! They have us surrounded already?! HOW?!" A million things start going through my mind as I watch the north ambush move faster than anything I had ever seen. It was like the army was moving at 2.5 times the regular time speed, which did not make sense.
"Time magic? Is he really that powerful!? Shit! SQUARE! SQUARE FORMATION!" When the entire army realizes we are practically fully encircled, panic happens, which was the last thing I needed as many just began to frantically run away.
"Tsk! Fiore! Prepare the teleportation spell! We have no other way out of here. We will only leave if we can't win in any other way, understood?"
"Yes, master! But we can win!"
"I would like to have your optimism."