Chapter 19: The Ruthless Soldiers

Vladkov and Sorenberg strictly followed Komer’s instructions, selecting officers from the Storm Infantry Regiment as their assassination targets. Dressed as ordinary Storm Infantry soldiers, they had an advantage from the start. Faced with the Wild Wolves’ fierce attacks, few paid attention to these two ordinary soldiers. Yet, they managed to move freely among the troops, using their lethal skills to kill at least thirty officers at Vladkov’s hands, while Sorenberg’s knightly lances claimed the lives of at least another twenty officers.

Their targeted assassinations dealt a tremendous blow to the Storm Infantry Regiment. Without the officers’ command and coordination, the soldiers struggled to form effective defensive formations, allowing the Wild Wolves to easily find weaknesses and break through. This had serious consequences, as over a dozen groups that had initially formed solid defensive lines became chaotic and were eventually torn to pieces by the Wild Wolves.

Shatima, on the other hand, indiscriminately unleashed her murderous desire. Although she also wore the uniform of a Storm Infantry soldier, her behavior was extremely brutal and ferocious, like a wild boar rampaging through a farm. Her massive dragon lances, akin to killing blades, were aimed at those particularly distinguished knights. The knights’ flying lances were no match for this powerfully built, insane soldier. In less than half an hour, over a dozen knights died under her lances, forcing Mechenov to join the battle. He cast defensive spells on the knights while using minor offensive spells to stem Shatima’s onslaught. Even so, the knights could not contain this bloodthirsty madwoman with red eyes.

With the troops scattered over several kilometers of road, Karl Liebknecht could not discern the enemy’s intentions under such circumstances. He merely cursed the bad luck of deploying troops at this time, encountering such a once-in-a-century Wild Wolf migration. It was only when more and more officers died for no apparent reason that he realized something strange was going on—by then, more than an hour had passed.

The Wild Wolf pack finally lost patience. Facing so many human soldiers, they realized it was unrealistic to completely tear them apart. When a few purple-maned Wild Wolves led the way back into the forest, the entire pack began to disperse, with more and more Wild Wolves leaving behind the screams of wounded soldiers.

Viscount Saliman could hardly believe his eyes. In just over an hour, more than two thousand soldiers had lost their lives in this sudden disaster, with over eighty officers killed—rates unimaginable even in war. More than four thousand soldiers were injured, many of them frostbitten by the ice mist emitted by the wolves. The knights suffered even greater losses: three hundred knights died and over one hundred forty were seriously injured. Almost every knight was injured to some extent, as if the wolves were particularly interested in them. The entire knightly order was nearly rendered combat ineffective.

When this tragedy struck, Viscount Saliman could only cower within the ranks of his soldiers, praying silently. He had never encountered or heard of such attacks by thousands of magical beasts. He certainly didn’t want to die before even beginning his mission—dying at the hands of such inferior magical beasts would be a complete joke.

Karl Liebknecht calmly examined the causes of death of his subordinates. Aside from a few who died from wolf attacks, most were killed by knightly arrows. This confirmed his suspicion that the wolf attack was orchestrated by humans. The hidden enemies were using the wolf attacks to create chaos and carry out assassinations—a despicable act.

Browning was also furious. Although most of the knights died either at the hands of that madman or at the claws of the wolves, he didn’t believe his men could be completely unprepared for such attacks. Surely, hidden enemies had used some method to weaken their defenses, and magic was the most likely culprit. But where did the enemy’s magicians come from? Besides the Caucasus, could there be other enemies involved in attacking Homer? If not, then where did the Caucasus recruit such powerful magicians, and surely not just one or two!

Putting it all together, Saliman and the two commanders felt uneasy. The enemy wasn’t just passively defending themselves—they had already launched the attack. They had a bad feeling that the eight magicians and seven knights were in grave danger. With no news after so long, it was easy to imagine what they had gone through.

The effect of the Gray Wolves’ attack could only be described as barely satisfactory. Komer hadn’t expected the combat strength of the Storm Infantry Regiment to be as formidable as he thought—it was able to respond so quickly to the Gray Wolves’ attack, severely undermining his plans. Although the attacks by Vladkov, Sorenberg, and the dark magicians had some effect, it was still unrealistic to claim that this army had completely lost its combat capability just because of that.

Unwilling to expose himself directly, Komer ordered a retreat before the Gray Wolves withdrew. He believed it was not yet the right time to reveal his true strength; retreating for now was the best choice. He wanted to see how this army would react upon arriving at Fortress Bruce before formulating the best counterstrategy.

The long-awaited reinforcements encountered an unprecedented ambush, which immediately dampened the morale of the defenders at Fortress Bruce. Though the details were unclear, everyone understood that thousands of soldiers had already been wounded, and over two thousand more had perished in the Greenland Forest even before a single battle had begun—a reality that filled everyone with fear.

Just as Viscount Saliman thought despairingly that the magicians and knights had been ambushed by the enemy, the battered knights finally returned to Fortress Bruce. Upon learning that the magicians and knights had been attacked by the Azure Wyverns and might have perished all, Viscount Saliman, who had still held out a glimmer of hope, was forced to confront this cruel reality. Without the support of magicians, facing those fierce orcs head-on—although the Storm Infantry Regiment had shown its combat strength—Viscount Saliman wasn’t sure if the Homer army could achieve a complete victory.

Boroning had asserted that the enemy possessed powerful magic users, not just one or two, and they would surely play a role in this war. This grim news made Viscount Saliman even more hesitant.

The scouts of Fortress Bruce had detected the presence of the Caucasus army on the south bank of the Nise River. It was an army composed of fierce orcs, and according to the scouts’ intelligence, this army was well-equipped and clearly trained. Clearly, they were ready to deliver a devastating blow to the Homer army. If all these factors were taken into account, it meant the Caucasus side had been preparing for this battle for a long time, perhaps even looking forward to it. But was his own side ready?

Returning to the south bank of the Nisai River, Komer quickly joined forces with Fran, who was commanding three thousand Cossack-Leon Self-Defense Forces. It must be said that the army’s ability to reach such a level in such a short time was thanks to Fran’s relentless training efforts over the past period.

As for these half-orcs, expecting significant improvements in tactics and skills in such a short time was purely an unrealistic expectation. Fran had no choice but to focus on training their discipline—unconditional obedience to orders from higher ranks, with them simply fighting according to their commanders’ instructions. Their naturally robust physiques made up for many shortcomings, and as long as they obeyed orders, the army could be considered a success, albeit barely.

Watching squad after squad of fully armed soldiers march by, roaring and waving their massive halberds, those accompanying Komer on the inspection—whether it was Rebril and Mihajic, Vladkov and Sorenberg, or the mysterious magi standing in the distance—all wore expressions of contempt and disdain. Many of them couldn’t understand why their lord was so obsessed with training these simple-minded half-orcs. In their view, no amount of training could turn these half-orcs into a competent army; otherwise, they wouldn’t have continued to be oppressed by humans.

Yet Komer didn’t care about the opinions of these laypeople. Perhaps they were skilled in individual combat or magic, but in actual military training, their opinions often went in opposite directions and only served to hinder progress. What mattered to him was Fran’s opinion—the insights and judgments of professional officers were the only factors that influenced his decisions.

Fran had already told him that although half-orcs were slower to learn and took longer to be trained into an army compared to ordinary humans, once trained, their bravery and strength could pose an unimaginable threat to enemies. Their physiques, not much inferior to those of orcs, were their guarantee of survival in war. Anyone who underestimated this would pay a heavy price. Moreover, after each battle, this army would grow more mature and fierce—this was the main reason Komer valued it so much.