Chapter 113: The First Duel of Dragons 8
"My liege! Sixty thousand men have struck our central front! The Archduke asks for immediate reinforcements!" One man rushed to say, beads of sweat born not of fatigue but anxiousness dripping down his face.
Yet before I could say anything in return, another man equally as concerned as the first swiftly said "Sire, the southern passes are asking for reinforcement! They say the second and third wings, Morgana and Sophia have attacked them?!"
’What!’ I exclaimed out in my mind, when the third and most worrying report came immediately after "My liege, Lord Leonid has been attacked by both the dragon’s wings and he has been wounded! And some are claiming he is already dead or possibly even captured!"
The fortress tower froze, as if the man’s words were a spell that halted time for all of us, when like a lightning heralds a storm, the previous quiet erupted into a confused panic, with men scrambling in place like a flock of headless chickens.
"SILENCE!" I roared out loud, my divine power fully unleashed, before I quickly let loose a string of commands "Order all our reserve battalions to immediately come join the central army, and have my uncle take command of them! Also have the northern forces to abandon all defenses and attack the enemy immediately and flank the enemy in the center! And someone for the love of the Gods tell Isaac to come here! Now!"
"But my liege..." One man tried to argue, but Fallen Nemesis slamming into the wall a few centimetres away from his head, shut him up instantly; now was not a time for contradiction and dissent.
I then turn to Abraham and gravely said, my voice dropping the weight of a mountain on all those who heard it "The moment Isaac arrives, you and him are to promptly head to the southern passes and halt it’s collapse, understand?"
"Yes, sire." He confidently assured, his calm demeanour encouraging the faltering men around us.
Soon enough Isaac arrived, and he and Abraham went to complete their mission, while messages of the northern attack and the central defense began to pile one after another until it was starting to resemble a small mound of ever growing confusion.
And it was in this brief moment of pause I had, while the reports were being organized and prepared to be presented to me, that I thought of how could the southern passes have fallen so effortlessly.
’The south faced the least amount of bloodshed these past few days, except on the second, meaning the arterial forts should’ve all been in perfect condition, and the men couldn’t have been in the least bit weary or anything of the sort, so I find it hard to believe that my most elite army was defeated so effortlessly in a frontal clash when they held such an extreme advantage over their adversaries. Even if Morgana and Sophia were there, the collapse happened far too fast, after all they weren’t unchallenged, as Leonid was there. And that brings me to the other unsolved mystery of this nightmarish day; the swift defeat of my newest general and champion.’ I furrowed my brows even further as my thoughts reached this point.
’Leonid is not a foolish man, nor is he a weak one; even if he was outnumbered he should’ve been able to hold his own at least for a while until I could’ve sent for reinforcements, and if not he should’ve been at least capable of safely withdrawing, but to only fall but be imprisoned so quickly... that boggles the mind. This is especially so when we take his background as a former mercenary to mind, Leonid should be more than familiar with the legend of Maximillian’s wives, so it’s impossible for him to underestimate them, so how could he have fallen?’ I thought and thought, racking my brain for all it’s worth, until a single answer remained to me ’He was ambushed.’
But that in it’s self possessed several flaws within it ’For starters, where would they even ambush him, considering that the southern green passes were few and mostly straight forward and by this point were basically memorized by Leonid like the back of his hand, so how could they have outwitted him? Where in the name of all the Gods would they have caught him unaware? Where was this blind spot of ours?’
And then as I was mentally scanning the southern pass maps in my mind, it suddenly struck me, the only place where none of us would think to look, the place where we would never even give a second glance to, the sole area we never would have imagined a secret dagger be hiding.
"The red passes." I whisperingly muttered, before I hollered out to the gathered men around me "Warn The Grand Chamberlin and the Palace Guard Commander to be wary of the red passes! The Dragon’s second wing is probably laying in wait there!"
The men where shocked to hear my words, before they rushed to transmit the orders, even sending the warning not only through the signal corps in the tower fortress, but even sending a dozen messengers on horse back to make sure the two lords received word of the threat.
Once I was sure my missive was dispatched and would soon find it’s recipient, I calmed down and slouched back on my throne, as I quietly chastised myself for letting such a lethal oversight to exist right under my nose. Worse still is that it was so obvious once you thought about it; yes the red passes are a death trap, but those were for ordinary or low ranking martial artists, but for men and women who stood high above the sixth or seventh rank, these passes were only slightly more of an inconvenience than the green ones! This was doubly so for Sophia who was a water mage, meaning that those flash floods that occurred almost hourly in some of them were of no concern and if anything were an advantage; this is especially so after yesterday’s storm that had completely submerged many of these narrow canyons under raging rivers; meaning that even the usual patrols wouldn’t have even bothered to search there, making it the perfect hiding place for her to quietly wade her time in.
I finally found the missing piece I needed to connect all the seemingly disjointed moves Maximillian had made so far in this battle, why he focused his attack so heavily on the south on the second day, and then completely abandoning it. What he sacrificed ten thousand men to achieve. It was all to give cover to the fact that Sophia would be hidden behind our lines with an elite strike force, waiting for the perfect opportunity. It was all for this, for this moment when he was able to eliminate one of my three strongest pieces and finally equalize the unfair battle ground.
’His aim has always been the south and it’s commander!’ I thought in rage, having realized that I’ve been completely duped by him.
The various reports were at last done being organized at that moment, and their consensus was that it wasn’t looking hopeful. The northern attack had faced a number of slight backs in the form of many more black sand traps and sealed passages that delayed their advance. The center had become an infernal meat grinder, where we didn’t even have the advantage due to the fact that Maximillian had pulled his eighth rank falchion wielding general from the south to constrain my uncle from affecting the battle too much. While the south was basically a lost cause.
Even after the arrival of Isaac and Abraham, and them at long last halting the one sided massacre of Sophia and Morgana, the southern battle lines were continuing to lose ground. The defeat and later imprisonment of their commander had left their morale rattled, and then the unstoppable butchery of the dragon’s wives had inflicted upon them, left what courage they had left hanging by a thread; a thread that was clearly not going to hold for long.
I, of course knew this, but I simply had no more cards to play at this moment, all the troops I had have already been dispatched to hold the veritable onslaught in the center, and my northern offensive is yet to bear any fruit, leaving me no choice but to leave the south to fend for themselves, while report after report came, one after the other, to describe the continuously shrinking space we held, as fort after fort fell to Maximillian’s mercenary horde.
Just when I felt the skies and ground begin close in around me, as if wanting to strangle me, a sudden ray of light then pierced through the closing darkness, as an unexpected message blared through my ears.
"Lord Horus has led the two thousand camp guard to reinforce the southern passes and they have managed to temporarily hold their ground!" The air was still, his words even halting our very breath, for fear of accidently squeaking the smallest sound that would suddenly pop this mass waking dream we all feared would disappear. But after a few seconds of almost tentative pause, the men exploded in a wave of joy that nearly toppled the mountain we were standing on.
I was shocked silent when I heard the news, not knowing what to say, while the men loudly cheered his name. I finally broke from my stupor as I happily thought ’You have saved me yet again my friend. The empire and I now owe you even more than we already did.’
And is if the first piece of a domino had suddenly pushed over by this first letter of good news, more of it came flooding in, as the northern front had finally managed to get through Maximillian’s annoying ploys and they were advancing rapidly east, while facing minimal resistance.
The battle finally seemed to be stabilizing, if not turning in our favour when a booming laugh, accompanied by a whirlwind flame materialized before me, and as it faded it revealed the smiling, amused face of the War Dragon himself.