39 Aikamad Tribe Annihilation (1)

The Aikamad Tribe proudly claimed to be experts at night raids.

That was because, in the wars to unify the divided steppe over the past fifty years, the Aikamad had always been one of the tribes most adept at night raids.

It wasn't because they had some special factor like brilliant strategy or brave warriors.

It was simply because their shamans were far superior to everyone else's.

The Aikamad shamans who cast enhancement magic, pain-immunity magic, fear-reduction magic, and even night-vision magic on ten thousand Aikamad warriors were among the finest on the steppe.

That mindset also showed in their preparations for night raids.

'We have the advantage anyway if we fight at night.'

Thinking that way, they prepared less thoroughly for night raids.

Their scouts had the ability to notice signs of enemy night raids, after all.

And in history, a night raid was a strategy that put the attackers at a severe disadvantage once discovered.

That was why they could sleep peacefully at night even though they knew the Southern Army had crossed the border.

"Anyway, those Southern Army bastards probably know damn well how strong we are at night raids."

"Besides, those without shamans won't even be able to attack properly at night. We'd be grateful if they came charging in stupidly after dark."

Their night combat prowess was already widely known throughout the West.

After all, the Aikamad were a tribe skilled at hiding beneath the veil of night and ambushing enemy cities.

Using the shamans' power to raid and burn cities in the dead of night was one of their specialties.

And like everyone else, the Aikamad never imagined they would be on the receiving end of their own specialty.

"Enemy spotted ahead! They look like Southern Army soldiers!"

So even when they heard that, the barbarian tribe's settlement wasn't all that rattled.

"Wow, they're really coming?"

"Looks like the Southerners have gone mad. Wake the shaman and prepare the cavalry!"

The reason they didn't panic was simple.

There were still several kilometers between the Southern Army and the village.

If it was the warlike Aikamad Tribe, they could easily finish preparations before the enemy arrived.

"Cavalry, forward! The moment the shamans cast their spells, charge! Show them the terror of the Aikamad warriors who fear no death!"

"Yes!"

Originally a nomadic people, they possessed a cavalry force of overwhelming scale. It was a scale the settled peoples of the Empire could never match.

Once the Aikamad cavalry started a charge, they were invincible.

It was just then, as they held that thought, weapons in hand and already mounted on their horses.

Fiiiiiiit-

With a chilling whistle, the things the Southern Army had hidden beneath the night veil revealed themselves.

And the horizon was stained with flames.

"...!"

They had no time to do anything at all. The hundred shells that cut through the night sky slammed into the center of the settlement in an instant, unleashing enormous explosions.

There wasn't even a moment to respond.

The ground flipped over and the whole world shook violently. Ringing kept echoing in their ears as if their eardrums had gone numb, and black smoke filled every direction.

Kuaaaang-

Five shells landed right in the middle of the Aikamad cavalry and crushed the warriors preparing to charge in a single blow.

The heavy horses were sent flying into the air like scraps of paper, and the warriors' bodies were scattered by the shock.

"Grrrgh...!"

The warriors, barely regaining their senses, looked around without yet understanding the situation.

The proud cavalry that had been raising each other's morale and preparing to charge just thirty seconds ago was no longer there.

Crushed earth and a blood-soaked parade ground. Pieces of horses and people scattered everywhere. The whole scene was unreal through and through.

"What on earth is happening..."

Because of that, their brains were slow to process what was happening.

That their laughing, chatting comrades had vanished in an instant. That the proud Aikamad cavalry had been nearly wiped out without being able to do anything.

Fortunately, the barbarian cavalry didn't need to think too deeply.

Because flames flashed once more near the horizon.

"...Huh?"

Before they could even take in the situation.

Once again, merciless destructive power swept over the settlement.

***

The firepower unleashed by the artillery units under the two divisions was tremendous.

The hundred field guns together smashed everything in sight.

Stone buildings were blasted apart by the shelling, and the settlement's wooden outer walls were riddled with holes. Shells fell one after another on the places where the barbarians had gathered, and the shamans' dwellings had long since vanished.

With the shamans who erased fear all crushed to pieces by the shelling, the Aikamad Tribe's settlement fell into chaos.

It was worse because they were used to fighting by erasing fear itself.

The Empire's army stood on the battlefield after overcoming fear.

But the Aikamad warriors, who had long fought with fear-erasing magic, had no idea how to deal with fear.

"Hiiik, save me!"

"Mom, mommm...!"

"Wh-where am I...?"

The sight of muscular, bare-chested warriors trembling like children in confusion was almost grotesque.

Especially when you considered they were the very bastards who used to cross the imperial border whenever the weather turned cold, ravage the West, and plunder it.

Five shells fell on the building where the warriors had hidden. In the wreckage blasted apart by sheer force, no trace of human beings remained.

The warriors who had lost their minds and stood dazed were no different. Nor were the warriors who turned and fled desperately.

Of course, some of them were still managing to cling to their sanity.

Mostly the tribe's elders and older warriors.

They were trying their best to contain the chaos and issuing orders.

"Snap out of it! If we're going to die like this, then let's fight first and die after! All units, charge!"

Three minutes into the bombardment.

Through the settlement's front gate, barbarian warriors began pouring out.

It was a disorderly, ramshackle charge, but the momentum itself was tremendous.

The barbarians had realized that staying still meant death, and this was their final struggle. Enemies who rush in with nothing to lose are always desperate.

"If they want death, then we should give them death."

In response, the Southern Army infantry also began advancing.

Beyond the artillery spewing fire as if to tear open the dark night, the army began moving forward in neat ranks.

Fiiiiit-

The illumination flare exploded once more. This time, it was above the heads of the barbarian warriors pouring out like an ant swarm.

Once again, what had happened in countless domains along the western border was replayed.

There was only one difference from then.

This time, there were no shamans to keep the barbarian warriors from feeling fear.

"Fire!"

Before the mounted machine guns and the infantry's volley fire, slaughter erupted once more.

Even the barbarians who had once charged through barrages of shellfire could not rush in recklessly this time. Before irresistible death, even the cavalry that ruled the steppe was powerless.

Bullets flew in and struck with speed dozens of times greater than that of cavalry.

Shells crashed down again and again whenever there was a moment to breathe, shattering everything around them.

Heavily armored infantry crushing aura users in direct close combat.

The plain before the steppe, tangled only with gunfire and screams, had become a horrifying mess.

"Advance slowly and keep pressing forward."

The barbarians' morale had already fallen so low it had gone straight through the floor.

Just how terrifying firearms were was clear from the fact that some of them were even trying to run back into the settlement where shells were still falling at that very moment.

Of course, those fools were soon swallowed by the black gun smoke and disappeared.

There were even a few who cried out for surrender.

But it was already too late.

"Did they accept the Westerners' surrender when they invaded the western border?"

"No, they did not."

"Then we won't accept their surrender either. Let's show them clearly just how terrifying the Empire can be."

The natives, trapped by the barrage and pushed back step by step, had by now been pinned against their own settlement's outer wall.

And there was no easier target than an enemy with their back against the wall and nowhere to flee.

"Don't let a single one of them live!"

Under the bright flare, the steppe was dyed red.

The bodies piling up beneath the settlement's outer wall kept growing, and there were also those trying to hide among them and shoot arrows.

But enemies with ranged weapons were simply the marksmen's top-priority targets.

It didn't take long for the barbarians who had rushed out in a fit of rage to be wiped out completely.

By the time all the barbarians who had surged out like an ant swarm were dead, the village interior was already a complete ruin.

"Have the battlefield cleaned up."

Toward that ruin, infantry units in perfect ranks began to advance.

They finished off the living enemies among the corpses, attacking everything in sight.

"It looks like the enemies are trying to flee."

In the distance, enemies could be seen fleeing toward the rear gate of the settlement.

But there was no need to pursue them.

"Leave them. They won't get far anyway."

Because waiting there was an even more terrifying unit.