Fun Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord (Novel) - Chapter 106 - Miraculous Reinforcements

Chapter 106 – Miraculous Reinforcements

===================

Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

At the unbelievable sight before me, I doubted my own eyes.

I had been stunned enough when the wyverns appeared as soon as they saw the banners of Yerinetta, but this new shock was on another level entirely.

After all, the wyverns were being brought down one after another.
I had no idea what was happening, but the moment I heard a sharp sound slicing through the air and a low, rumbling impact at the same time, the wyverns’ movements went strange and they fell.

Something had attacked them.

That much I could understand.
But I had no idea what kind of attack it was. The common soldiers believed it to be some first-rate wind magic, but it didn’t seem to be that.

Then again, it wasn’t earth magic either.

“Captain! The Yerinetta bastards have stopped moving!”

“The wyverns have all been wiped out! All that’s left is the Yerinetta ground army, about fifteen thousand!”

Even while I was still thinking, report after report came in. The enemy also seemed confused by these sudden reinforcements, but we couldn’t afford to stop thinking ourselves.

“Strengthen the defenses while keeping a close eye on the enemy’s movements! The reinforcements look few in number! If they turn out to be a corps of magicians and get approached, they’ll be wiped out! If the Yerinetta army turns around, we strike their rear immediately!”

As soon as I gave the order, the soldiers shouted and moved to their positions. Light had appeared in what had until now been an overwhelmingly one-sided siege defense. The way the soldiers’ morale rose was extraordinary.

Now that the aerial threat was gone, I had no doubt the soldiers would charge immediately if ordered to strike head-on.

I’d already been placing heavy infantry one after another at the broken section of wall, but now I should have cavalry made ready behind them as well.

In a normal siege, months are the standard, and reinforcements are what decide the outcome. By that logic, if reinforcements with terrifying power appeared in this situation, then Yerinetta would almost certainly choose either to crush them first or to withdraw.

The one concern was that part of the wall had already collapsed. If the Yerinetta army was confident enough in its ability to break through, it might press ahead into the city without thinking.

“…Better to assume either possibility is on the table.”

Muttering that, I moved atop the wall to inspect the state of the defenses.

At that moment, a new report reached me.

“Captain! The Yerinetta army has split into two!”

“What!?”

I hurried along the top of the wall and moved to the edge.

Peering through the gaps in the parapet, I saw that the Yerinetta army really had split in two. About ten thousand in one body, five thousand in the other.

What was astonishing was that the ten thousand had headed toward the reinforcements atop the hill.

So they had judged that a mere five thousand men would be enough to bring down this Count Ferdinand territory.

“…Don’t look down on us, Yerinetta!”

My whole body trembled in anger, and the shout burst from my mouth before I could stop it.

“Warriors of House Ferdinand! They underestimate us! It seems they intend to destroy us with a mere five thousand! Are we truly that weak!? Answer me! Is our knight order truly such a feeble existence!?”

At my roar, the look on the soldiers’ faces changed.

That anger became morale, and their grip on their swords tightened. But the enemy still had that mysterious throwing weapon that had destroyed our walls.

A reckless charge would be folly.

“Rain arrows from the top of the wall! Hold nothing back!”

After ordering the archers, I turned to the cavalry.

“From here on, we will create openings in the heavy infantry line! We strike from an unexpected angle! But do not crash into them head-on! The enemy destroyed the walls with mysterious thrown weapons! The cavalry are to use every bit of speed they can to throw the enemy into confusion! Judging from how often they used them before, their supply is not abundant! Make them waste those projectiles!”

At my words, the cavalry drew their swords in answer.

Now was the time to strike back.

“Heavy infantry! Open the eastern side! On the western side, raise the great shields and fall back one step! Draw the enemy in!”

I moved the units and guided the enemy’s responses.

Judging from how they had acted so far, the enemy commander was inexperienced. And the time it took him to judge the situation after hearing reports from the front was fatally slow.

If they lacked only the wyverns and that mysterious weapon, there was no reason we should lose to them.

After watching the cavalry start their charge, I turned my gaze back to the battlefield.

The ten thousand enemy troops headed toward those reinforcements were charging in a manner that could only be called a full-on assault. The attack that had brought down the wyverns was launched several more times, but it seemed not to have much effect on ten thousand men.

If we struck out and broke through the five thousand on our side, the normal response would be to recognize defeat and withdraw. They would have lost their chance to seize the ground they came for, and lost their main force on top of that. There would be no point in continuing the battle.

And yet, that commander still had not given the order to retreat.

From our side, it felt like our expectations had been betrayed.

“The enemy turned out stupider than expected! The morale of those stuck to us is at rock bottom! Leave only the minimum force behind and go after the other body! If the ones behind us still won’t pull back even then, fine! Drive your spears straight into their backs!”

I tried not to show my impatience, but even so I couldn’t help speaking quickly.

Still, more than appearances or anything else, we had to save those reinforcements who had turned the tide of battle. I knew the soldiers felt the same.

As if resonating with that feeling, the soldiers roared and ran. Unfazed even by the explosions that shook the ground, they swung their swords to vent their pent-up frustration.

Then the unexpected happened.

The cavalry who had rushed out first to pursue the enemy’s back line were startled by the explosions of the enemy’s thrown weapons, and their horses stopped.

Infantry wouldn’t make it in time.

The magicians had already exhausted their mana.

The arrows wouldn’t reach.

“Damn it! Are they trying to crush our benefactors right in front of our eyes!? Somehow… somehow we have to…!”

As I desperately turned over ideas in my head, I watched the battlefield. The enemy had already reached the side of the reinforcements. There was no time left.

“At the very least, all of you, rush to support them so their losses are kept to a minimum!”

Just as I shouted that and moved to mount my horse myself, a commotion arose among the archers atop the wall.

“What is it!? What happened!?”

No… had the reinforcement party been…

Driven by dread, I turned around.

And yet what spread before my eyes was the sight of human beings being blown away as though it were a grotesque joke.

Yerinetta soldiers in armor flew through the air as though struck by a giant’s club. Every time that piercing sound and earthshaking boom rang out, cracks opened in their ranks, but this was clearly of a different nature from that attack.

“What is that!? Some kind of magic!?”

“No! Two full-body armored figures moving in an unnatural manner! They are running through the ten thousand Yerinetta troops!”

“What!?”

At that report, I ran up onto a higher vantage point.

Then I saw it: silver warriors, each a head taller than ordinary men, running through the Yerinetta army while swinging enormous swords. Why was I able to spot them so clearly among such a huge army?

Because, just as the report said, their movements were that abnormal.

Swinging longswords nearly as tall as themselves, the silver warriors leaped high enough to clear men entirely and raced around the battlefield as though space itself were too cramped for them.

Even when struck by swords and spears or shot by arrows, the two warriors did not stop moving in the slightest as they took on ten thousand men.

Their hero-like fighting style and strength robbed not only the soldiers but even me of words.

Meanwhile, the Yerinetta army, which had assumed it would win if only it could close the distance, fell into utter confusion.

Its formations and ranks collapsed miserably, and from one end of the field to the other soldiers began fleeing in every direction.

And then, after only a little more than ten minutes, the Yerinetta army had completely lost command and control, its line collapsed, and the soldiers who had been fighting abandoned combat one by one and began scattering in flight.