The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 87
The Western army that had infiltrated the Kalon Mountain.
Barret, who was in command, looked towards the direction of the Calliper army and sneered.
“These continental bastards are really nothing special. This makes me miss the days when we were having a civil war with the other leaders. Don’t you think so, Fischer?”
Next to him stood a giant with a sturdy impression. The giant was sharpening the tip of his spear with a portable whetstone.
“Hmph, don’t underestimate the enemy, Barret. The Calliper are the ones who killed Lexit.”
“Hmm…”
“There must have been carelessness behind his death. If we underestimate the enemy, we might get badly burned too.”
“Well, Lexit was an arrogant bastard. Dying because he let his guard down seems like a fitting end for him.”
“He was certainly skilled. Wade, who supposedly killed him… That guy might be somewhere on this battlefield.”
“Lord Hanneman also spoke about that guy. He said we have several individuals of that caliber in our camp.”
“That’s right. You’re one of them, Barret. How about it? Do you think you can live up to our lord’s expectations?”
“Of course. Whether it’s Wade or Juras Pamilion, they’re no match for me. I’ll prove it through this war.” Barret raised the corner of his mouth while fanning himself with an ornate fan made of feathers. “…It’s about time for the sun to rise.”
A scout appeared before him and prostrated himself.
“Reporting, sir! The Calliper army is preparing to move! They seem like they’ll move soon!”
“Good, let’s see how they’ll attack.”
Barret thought the Calliper army would attack. With their supply lines cut off, they must be feeling impatient.
By taking advantage of that impatience to inflict damage, they would fall deeper into his strategy.
That’s why Barret was preparing defenses by deploying ambush troops, but the report that came in was the exact opposite.
“Urgent news! The Calliper army is moving towards Beckavia! They’re trying to leave the mountains!”
“What!?”
It was unexpected. To not even make a single attempt to reclaim their supply lines and coolly abandon them.
‘Their decision is too quick! Could they have noticed my strategy?’
He shook his head a moment later.
If they had noticed the strategy, they wouldn’t be heading towards Beckavia. Instead, they would have tried to move towards Crossing to the east of the Kalon Mountains, even if it was reckless.
Of course, he had preparations in place for if the Calliper army moved that way.
“What could their intentions be…”
As Barret was confused, Fischer urged him.
“What are you hesitating for? Whatever it is, it’s going according to our plan. Contact them immediately and initiate the operation.”
“Kuk…!”
Barret suppressed his uneasiness and shouted. “Alright. Send the signal to Landon Crow to start the operation! We’ll pursue the Calliper army!”
The Western army began to chase after the Calliper army.
The key to this operation was that the Calliper army needed to appear to be fleeing. Only then would the chances of deceiving Beckavia through false information increase.
After a forced march, it took them an hour to catch up to the tail end of the Calliper army.
“Damn it, more time has passed than I thought!”
If Barret had miscalculated anything, it was that the Calliper army chose to flee too quickly.
Because of that, a lot of time was consumed in catching up to their tail.
‘We couldn’t even gain a numerical advantage. Right now, our forces are evenly matched. If they decide to turn their army around, we might end up being devoured instead.’
Therefore, they couldn’t just recklessly pursue.
Barret wanted to calmly form ranks and engage in battle, but if they did that, the Calliper army would escape even further.
‘If the Calliper army goes up too quickly, there’s a possibility the operation might fail… Somehow, we need to slow them down…’
Usually, cavalry would be used to slow them down, but this time, because of the operation to infiltrate the mountains, they couldn’t organize cavalry.
As a result, they lacked proper mobility.
That’s when Fischer stepped forward. “Give me 500 men. I’ll somehow hold them back.”
“…It seems that’s our only option now. Then I’ll leave it to you, Fischer.”
Fischer Partin.
He was one of the Five Dragons, a group of martial artists that Hanneman boasted of, and was known as a genius of spearmanship in the West.
He advanced to attack the rear of the Calliper army with 500 elite infantry.
* * *
A special force of 500 charging towards us.
I felt a strange unease from the giant leading them.
“What’s with that guy?”
A fighting spirit that sent chills down my spine.
‘Are they planning to forcibly slow us down with overwhelming military power?’
Since we hadn’t suffered any troop losses, the enemy couldn’t pursue us one-sidedly either. So their special force would try to slow us down while their main force formed ranks and approached.
‘Do they think we’ll just let them do as they please?’
Immediately, orders came down from General Delbadova.
“1st and 2nd Archer Units, turn around!”
The archers turned as if they had been waiting for this, loading their bows.
Dorofei, commander of the 2nd Archer Unit, took a deep breath and shouted. “Fire!”
Arrows flew through the air.
But the enemy was no pushover.
Judging that stopping to block arrows would make pursuit impossible, they made the insane choice to continue advancing while only covering vital points with their shields.
This was a choice that only elite troops could make. Regular soldiers would have been too scared to follow such orders.
As a result, about 100 soldiers fell with arrows in their thighs and shins, but the remaining 400 troops maintained their speed and approached.
“They’re just pushing through…! Archers, keep firing as soon as you’re reloaded!”
The continued rain of arrows brought down another 150 soldiers, halving their numbers, but the enemy finally succeeded in closing the distance.
“Uraaaah!”
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Large spearheads pierced through soldiers’ heads.
The giant at the front wasn’t satisfied with just that and swung his spear widely. The sharp blade of the spear beheaded five soldiers at once, as if wielding a sword.
“Mo-monster…!”
“Spare me!”
The soldiers were in a state of panic.
Regrettably, there was no time to save them.
Having chosen this strategy, we had to accept the risks.
General Delbadova, who had steeled himself to accept these risks, urged retreat.
“Don’t mind the enemies who’ve broken through! Keep moving forward without stopping!”
However, at this moment.
A situation unfolded that neither I nor General Delbadova had anticipated.
“Defeat the enemy!”
“Save the rear guard!”
“We’ve come!”
Suddenly, three groups charged towards the giant.
Casper, Joshua, Denian. They were the cadet commanders.
Each led 500 troops, totaling 1,500 soldiers rushing to save the rear guard.
At first glance, this might seem like a good choice. Theoretically, it would be the best strategy to quickly eliminate the infiltrating enemy and then retreat.
If they could even kill that giant who seemed to be a major force for the enemy, it would produce the best results if successful.
The problem was that the enemy wasn’t that naive.
“They’ve fallen for it beautifully…!”
To me, it sounded like the enemy was saying that.
As attention focused on him, the giant changed direction.
“We’re breaking through! Follow me!”
Leading only 70 men from his special force, the giant began to wreak havoc throughout our formation.
This completely halted the retreat of our rear guard.
Initially, we had planned to cut off the very end of our formation while retreating, but due to the cadets’ sudden action, the link between the tail and the main force grew larger, tangling up the overall formation and trapping our ankles.
‘This is bad!’
The enemy’s main force, already in formation, was approaching. At this rate, our rear guard might be completely annihilated.
‘We can’t suffer one-sided losses!’
I immediately sent a messenger to General Delbadova, requesting to turn the army around.
General Delbadova seemed to have the same thought, as he shouted to the soldiers, “Vanguard, turn around! All troops, we’re going to counterattack the enemy!”
The soldiers turned around in unison. And so, a full-scale battle between the Western army of 20,000 and our Calliper army of 20,000 began.
* * *
The chaos at the rearguard, which had now become advanced due to the army’s counterattack, made Casper bite his lip hard.
“Ruan…! That bastard…!”
At Casper’s signal, Denian and Joshua responded and followed, but Ruan’s unit did not.
As a result, the encirclement couldn’t be properly formed, providing Fischer with a gap to break through.
“It’s all his fault!”
In reality, even if Ruan had come along, they probably couldn’t have stopped Fischer, but Casper thought that at least the failure of this operation was entirely Ruan’s fault.
“Casper! What do we do now!?”
To Joshua, who asked with a pale face, Casper gritted his teeth.
‘Damn, this will surely be held accountable.’
In the end, it’s all about results.
If the operation had succeeded in saving the rearguard and killing the enemy’s armed forces, it would have been a military achievement, but since it failed, they would inevitably face disciplinary action.
‘I need to make up for this!’
The target he was looking at was Fischer Partin, who had broken through and was displaying unmatched prowess.
‘If I can catch him! If I catch him, everything will be forgiven!’
That’s when it happened.
Rumble! A unit heading towards where Fischer was. It was Ruan Chase’s unit.
“Ruan! That petty bastard!”
It was clear he intended to steal the military achievement.
“We’re going too! We can’t let Ruan take it!”
Casper and the cadet unit rushed towards Fischer. Noticing this development, Fischer muttered quietly.
“So the attention is focused on me. Very good.”
Barret, who was advancing, wouldn’t miss this opportunity.
Fischer hurriedly looked for an escape route. No matter what, it was time to get out now.
Ruan Chase charged at him. An orange aura was swirling around his sword.
“I’ll take that head!”
“Hah, you little runt.”
The two entered into combat.
Swish swish swish! A spear of swiftness that seemed to tear the air.
“…!?”
Ruan had no choice but to focus on withdrawing and avoiding the attack.
Fischer, not wanting to drag this out, immediately thrust his spear towards a vital point.
“Kuk! Haaah!”
Bang! Ruan deflected the spear with all his might. Admiration crossed Fischer’s face.
“You have quite some strength, but if you thought that alone would be enough to handle me, you’re mistaken!”
Surging aura. When a golden aura was imbued into his massive spear, it looked as if a dragon was writhing.
The connoisseurs of the West described it like this.
Golden Dragon Fischer Partin.
The most supreme and powerful among the Five Dragons.
“Die!”
The spear tip shot towards Ruan’s heart. This spear, imbued with the will to pierce through whatever stood in its way, was blocked not by Ruan but by Casper’s group who had barged in.
“Kill that guy!”
“…!”
While distracted by this, Ruan rolled on the ground and avoided the spear.
“Flies coming from everywhere…!”
Casper’s sudden action unexpectedly caught Fischer off guard.
In the current situation where the enemy’s main force was approaching, moving like this was a bad move from an overall strategic perspective, but it was a good move from the perspective of definitely killing Fischer.
‘Any more than this would be dangerous.’
At that moment.
Boom! A separate unit sent by Barret entered to open up a retreat path.
“They’ve come…! Good, we’re pulling back!” Fischer brightened and began to retreat.
Casper and Ruan tried to chase him, but Clang! After each receiving one of Fischer’s spear strikes, they were forced to step back, unable to overcome the momentum.
After thus driving away the group of cadets, Fischer was about to escape from the Caliber army’s camp when…
Fischer felt a chill run down his neck.
“…!”
A spear tip flying in from the side.
“There was one more fly…!”
Fischer swung his spear shaft to deflect the spear tip, but Ars stepped in closer, drawing the sword on his back with his left hand and swinging it towards Fischer’s neck.
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Looks like Ars is about to steal that kill. At this point when they get back it should be obvious to military guys that Ars is Wade.