Chapter 313
The Oath and the Sword(2)
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Rodu’s soldiers were breaking down as the soldiers of the Royal Cavalry Academy forced them to retreat . The Seventh Swordsman Brigade at the fort felt intimidated from looking at the scene, but Rodu’s men could funnel into the fort as it was their last hope for survival .
And they even fought the Seventh Swordsman Brigade . To them, survival was all that mattered, not some chivalrous code of fighting till death . And that instinct turned them into raging battle machines .
And chasing after them were spears of light that devastated the army .
Sir Malocher, Captain of the Seventh Swordsman Brigade, never expected that the princess and her subordinates would have such an overwhelming force .
Not only did they locate Rodu’s army, but they also eliminated them easily .
Sir Malocher’s face went pale as the princess’ forces charged at him . What should I do now? He did not have any experience fighting a war, and could only look at his subordinates for help .
Amidst the heavy rain, a young man wearing the White Lion Armor raised his sword . He stood wordlessly like a statue, the sweat trickling down from his forehead to his cheeks .
“We’ve been found!”
“How?”
“We shouldn’t be thinking about that right now . ”
He lifted his head, Let’s change the game then .
Glaring trails of thunder flashed across the skies . . .
Leider Dulo’s POV
“Balta, you have a good student . ” Leider Dulo said as he received the command from the messenger .
Balta shook his head . “The princess is not cunning like her master Oberewei, and Makarov is not as decisive as she is either - meaning there must be an unknown commander amongst them . The Coast Guards have low combat effectiveness, so it seems like Owen is planning to use his overwhelming numbers to defeat the princess . ”
“Just like what we did back in Lohns . ” the other old man looked towards the direction of the port . He could only see the grey rooftops there . “Like a hunk of meat being ground to smithereens, Auoine’s final drops of blood are being squeezed out . . ”
“Archbishop, we are not insulting you . ” Leider looked at the guest beside him .
The man just smiled . “We made mistakes in the past as well . While tt’s not something we should ignore, the war is coming and I don’t wish to create misunderstandings due to our pasts . ”
The old man simply looked at him without saying anything .
“Old Leader…” Balta felt restless .
“Balta, you’re the leader now,” Leider said . “Don’t worry, I won’t punish Owen for this . Victory is the first priority in a war, and he has a good plan; overwhelming the enemy is a strategy as well . ”
“The princess might have a hard time now . . . On this battlefield, the people of Aouine are the victims . And they’re so outstanding too . What a pity…”
Brendel’s POV
The sky was turning bright .
But the war was still trapped in as many shades of darkness as before .
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Brendel received a message that the Coast Guards would be changing their battle tactics .
This isn’t a good move from our opponents, especially since their intentions were so obvious . Brendel smirked . The leader of the Coast Guards wants to have a dogfight with me .
Brendel was on the verge of erupting in laughter .
He remembered the wars he fought back in the game: fighting with the armies of Kirrlutz, the countless battles with Madara, and even his clashes with the Miirna .
Unlike those enemies, the Coast Guards were nothing but trash .
And he looked back at his allies .
The Big Three of Aouine: Rouka, Enrique, and Freya - a future Sword Saint, the future Master Strategist, and the future War Goddess . Not only that, there was Bennett, someone who led the Youth Police to fight and win against the One-Eyed Dragon Tagus, and lastly, Mok, the future leader of the Royal Cavalry .
Aouine’s future heroes and rising stars were surrounding him, the same stars who had struggled to save Aouine from its dark history . Although Aouine fell in the end, they were still heroes of great valor .
This time, the enemy was asking for trouble .
The enemies would never have thought that in the coming century when the players joined in the fray, the wars would undergo a drastic change . That would be a dark time where the flames of battle scorched the lands, but also one driven by hopes, geniuses, and innumerable crazy ideas .
And the tactics and stereotypes had changed drastically since then .
“Rouka, Enrique, Freya, Bennett, Mok, they are trying to delay us by fighting us in the streets . ” Brendel looked towards the battlefield and laughed . “They want to turn this into a bloody mill . I believe all of you didn’t slack off during the strategy class?”
Mok looked at him with a cold expression . Brendel’s words were accurate, but weren’t particularly impressive . I could have done much better than him . [TL: what a loser LOL . ]
Bennett was the only one quiet . Brendel’s change is really too drastic . He’s changed so much since escaping Bucce . Although I hate to admit this, but he’s no longer the son of the miller that I should look down on anymore .
Even though they were not on bad terms anymore, it did not mean that Bennett liked him .
Among the four of them, only Rouka Van Elvis smiled without a care . He had blonde hair neatly kept in a pony-tail and was wearing the Royal Cavalry Academy’s black uniform . He had the look of a timid newbie on the battlefield . At the same time, he was calm and collected amidst the chaos .
Rouka was the eldest child of the Elvis family, his father being the noble governing the fief of Elvis . The family had never produced any geniuses before, but Rouka was the one who finally broke the mold .
Back in the game’s history, when Rouka managed to play Duke Seifer like a fiddle, his tactics and gentle personality earned him the nickname ‘the sheathed blade’ . Once the blade was unsheathed, it was unstoppable .
However, Rouka died of sickness during the war with the north and could not join the second War of the Black Roses .
His death was considered one of the most unfortunate incidents of Aouine .
Certainly, Brendel would not let this incident happen again . He gathered all these youngsters to his side to prevent tragic accidents in this war, just like Enrique’s death to a stray arrow .
But without going through hell, how could they become fine warriors?
Brendel knew this well, and all he could do was to protect them .
“My Lord, this is not good news . There are more Coast Guards than us, and they have geographical advantage . If they are adamant about fighting us in the streets, I don’t think it will be easy to handle . ” Enrique said as he rode on his black horse .
He sounds just like Carglise . I remember that the two were so close they could have become sworn brothers . But why did Carglise sound so dull and quiet in the future? The decline of the Kingdom and Rouka’s death must have impacted him greatly . Brendel thought with a bit of pity .
“I don’t think so . ” He smiled . “I forgot that I’m here to teach you guys . Hah . In reality, it’s easy to break the Coast Guards just like we did to Rodu . ”
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“You lie,” Mok concluded immediately .
“Haha, I’m not too sure about that . ” Brendel laughed . “Mok, let’s make a bet . If I succeed, you owe me a favor . How does it sound?“
Mok looked at him . “What’s the favor?”
“Be my direct subordinate . How’s that?” Brendel snickered in his mind . Having the Iron Faced leader be my direct subordinate? What a joke . I still remember the troubles he caused me back in the game .
Brendel was a vengeful person indeed .
Failure? I never even considered that an option .
Mok fell silent . He knew that Brendel would not bet without confidence in his victory . But as they say, youth were the boldest, so he accepted the wager . “What if you lose?“
“I’ll be your adjutant general . ”
“Mok . ” Freya could not help but warn him, as she knew Brendel too well .
However, he only looked at her and replied, “Don’t worry Freya, I won’t trouble him too much . ”
“I’m scared it will be the other way round…” The future War Goddess was speechless .
“Okay then, the bet has been made . ” Brendel smiled . “Come here, I’ll tell you how to fight this war . ”
Freya’s worries turned into reality as Brendel started to speak .
In the next moment, the soldiers of the Royal Cavalry Academy moved in the direction of his sword . Looking down from above, they seemed like an endless number of swords flying along the streets .
It all happened in an instant .
In the darkness, the White Lion Legion’s officers were sweating buckets .
Countless scouts were moving in the alleys and streets all around them . The information they collected quickly dissolved the ambiguity of the situation .
The White Lion Legion’s military command panicked .
“How did they do it?”
“They are crazy!”
“Dear Marsha, this is impossible!”
Everyone was shocked .
In front of the Evergreen Plaza was a dense business area . The panicked soldiers under Rodu were running in all directions at their allies’ camps .
But unknown to the Rodu’s soldiers and White Lion Legion, the young knights of the Royal Cavalry Academy were carrying out their operations behind them . They formed small squads to hunt enemy soldiers down and then disassembled before forming groups and flanking the Coast Guards .
The result could only be described as a nightmare for the Coast Guards . It was something they had never encountered before . Enemies could appear anywhere and ambush them anytime .
The Coast Guards hurriedly formed their defensive line . It was based on the manual provided by the White Lion Legion . But to Brendel, it might as well have been nothing .
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The princess’s attack was like flowing water: constantly changing and unpredictable .
The free-flowing assault completely reversed the tides of war .
“Just how do they command their troops?”
“Transmission Crystals?? Impossible! Any form of magic communication should be disrupted in this large battlefield . Listen carefully for their communications! Even Buga’s personal mage couldn’t do something like this!” Forst growled at his adjutant general .
The man looked pale, not able to give an exact reply .
Forst knew that his anger would not change the situation and he looked up stiffly towards the map hung in the center of the tent .
The red lines indicated the Coast Guards’ defensive lines . They were so bulky most would find them laughable .
But they formed an absolute defense .
Even an army as powerful as Kirrlutz’s would not find any better defensive formation . Sure, it looked stupid, but-
It was impeccable .
Every piece of the defense was so flawlessly placed, as it was the product of generations of refinements . Like facing a titan, going up against it would only lead to two outcomes: kill it, or be utterly destroyed .
It was just like a perfectly engineered meat grinder, a self-destructing bomb that attacked not only the enemies but their allies as well .
The White Lion Legion had planned this bloody battle meticulously, all in order to defeat the princess .
But they did not expect the enemy’s next move .
They had scattered like sand and penetrated into the titan’s body .
In just a split second, the humongous and unwieldy formation had become its own worst enemy .
Their supposedly impenetrable defense was broken in the blink of the eye, and they still didn’t know how the enemy had done it .
They would never understand the reasoning behind the enemy’s actions . Logically, splitting up was suicidal for any army .
However, Brendel refuted that common knowledge .
They did not understand, just like how people did not understand the importance of information in wars when the radio was invented back in his previous world .
But it was not Brendel’s own efforts .
This battle model had been revised and implemented by other players . They were far more experienced at executing it than him .
But it was more than enough for Brendel .
A young man raised his hands and looked at the Wind Spirit Spider on it . He then tied a note onto it and let it vanish into the rain .
He turned his head to look at the man . His heart was pounding heavily .
No one here, besides “him”, understood just how important this battle was .
It was so important that, despite how brief it was, it left a mark in history .
Forst retracted his gaze as he realized his mistake . He looked at his attendees, the youngsters of the White Lion Legion, their faces covered in disbelief .
“Sir, how did they do that?” Someone asked .
“That’s not important . ” Forst was disappointed and stopped their discussion . He secretly wished that the future White Lion Legion could be calmer and more flexible than he was . “The reality is that the Coast Guards are losing, just like Rodu did”
The youngsters shifted nervously .
“Well, seems that you guys understand the situation now . ” Forst nodded . “According to the plan, it’s time for the Kingdom’s main army to bare their fangs . ”
Everyone looked solemn .
“Send this to Owen . Ask him to return to his own position . ”
“Franz, I want to see your soldiers at the stated position in time . ”
“Kaien, wear your cloak and get yourself ready . ”
“For Aouine!” All of them shouted in sync . Everyone stood upright and left after bowing towards their leader .
A young man crossed their paths and walked in after they left .
“Sir, an army is approaching our flank . ”
There was silence
“That should be Callun’s position . Who is it?”
The young man hesitated awkwardly .
“Answer me,” Forst asked him solemnly .
“It’s the White Lion’s battle flag sir . ”
Forst expression changed .
“Which squad’s?!” He quickly asked in an angry tone . “Who took action without
my command?”
“It’s…”
“Who?”
“It’s… the White Lion Battalion . ”
“The Battalion?” Forst froze . Was there such a squad in the White Lion Legion?
Wait… There was . But after King Erik passed away, this squad dissolved as well to honor his death . But . . .
Forst’s expression changed .