Chapter 96
"They've come up with something we never imagined. But aren't they taking heavier losses than we are?"
The attack using ant pillars was an astonishing tactic, but it seemed inefficient.
"I suppose so, but they can definitely inflict casualties on us."
We are well trained and fully equipped. We won't lose to wooden clubs and stone tools. If we hold our defensive line, we can whittle down their numbers and win.
Conversely, the antfolk's strength lies in how easily they can use up their soldiers. They regard their losses as something they can simply replace, so even if it means taking somewhat heavier casualties, they will choose methods that reliably reduce our numbers.
"The front line is holding, isn't it?"
There had been unexpected developments, but the situation was not bad.
The soldiers were fighting well, too.
Yet I felt an indescribable frustration.
"Don't."
Having guessed what I was thinking, Sensei warned me from behind.
"The front line may turn into a melee. If you go forward, you could end up dead. I've told you before, but you're not going to the front line."
I contorted my face where Sensei couldn't see, then turned around with a composed expression.
"Of course. I have no intention of going to the front line."
"Good, then."
Sensei replied with an expression that showed he did not trust me at all.
Sensei—and many of the soldiers besides—did not approve of my taking command at the front.
The criticism was justified. I was effectively leading this army, and if I were killed, the battle line would collapse. I should not take that risk.
Besides, I was not the sort of person who belonged on the front line.
A mighty general confident in their martial prowess could stand at the front and lead the soldiers. But I had no more strength than an ordinary town girl, so I could not do that. I had already put on more than enough of a show to inspire the soldiers' morale, and there was little reason for me to stand at the front anymore.
I understood that, but every so often I found myself wanting to stand at the front anyway. I couldn't help feeling that I shouldn't be here.
It was probably guilt—the self-reproach of making the soldiers fight while I alone remained somewhere safe.
But I could not burden the soldiers for the sake of my personal feelings and self-satisfaction.
I concluded that the inexpressible frustration lingering in my heart was mere sentimentality and stopped thinking about it. For now, I needed to focus on the war before me.
"Another one is starting to form."
On the battlefield, antfolk were climbing over one another, and ant pillars were beginning to form. This time there were five of them. As more space opened up at the front, the defense ants had resumed their charges from the rear.
Exposed to the unrelenting attacks, the soldiers at the front must have felt as though they were being worn away. But we had no choice but to hold on.
"Graves, concentrate your fire and take them down one by one. Send word to every unit commander as well. If a huge pillar—or two or more pillars—starts falling toward us, authorize the use of the explosive magic stones we've entrusted to you."
The precious explosive magic stones had been entrusted to each commander, and I left it to each of them to decide when to use them.
On the battlefield, the arrows fired by Graves and the others smashed apart the ant pillars. Sometimes the pillars fell toward us, burying several soldiers beneath them. Both sides were taking casualties, but the antfolk were suffering more. Their swarm was gradually dwindling.
"Send word to Gran and Ragun's units. Advance and push in from both sides."
I ordered Gran and Ragun, who commanded our two wings, to advance. The enemy's center had strong momentum, but it was the momentum of insects that looked only forward. Their focus on the front weakened the pressure on both wings. We would use this opportunity to push in from either side.
Both Gran's and Ragun's units responded to my order.
They thrust their spears forward in unison to make the enemy falter and retreat, then advanced the rows of shields.
They steadily pushed the battle line forward from both wings.
Slowly but surely, our army began encircling the antfolk.
All that remained was for Al and the others to attack from the rear, and we would win.
I took my eyes off the battlefield and looked at the cliff rising even farther beyond the antfolk's main camp. I couldn't see them from here, but Al and the others should have been on their way there.
The plan I had devised was the classic hammer-and-anvil tactic: a flanking pincer attack in which the heavy infantry held off the enemy's attacks while Al's cavalry attacked from the rear.
The monsters' attacks focused only on what was in front of them. If we could get behind them, victory was practically assured, but in a flanking pincer, timing was everything.
In military chronicles, generals and brilliant strategists execute elegant pincer attacks, but there have only been a handful of successful examples in actual history.
Both sides would be maneuvering, so if our timing was off, the small cavalry force's charge would be easily stopped and annihilated.
Too early or too late would both be disastrous. It was a difficult, high-risk maneuver.
There was, of course, a reason I had chosen such a difficult tactic. It was to draw the antfolk out onto the plain and annihilate them.
If a large number of antfolk holed up in their nest, subduing them would be difficult. Inevitably, our casualties would be greater as well.
We had to somehow drag them out, cut off their retreat, and annihilate them.
"Hold on. If we keep them at bay, we've already won."
I encouraged the soldiers at the front from the rear. The key to a flanking pincer was defense. The firmer our defenses and the longer we held the enemy's attention, the more opportunities we would have.
At the front, the soldiers blocked the defense ants' rolling charges with their shields, fended off the combat ants' mandibles with their spears, and shot down swarms of soldier ants with their arrows. The soldiers at the front were fighting desperately to hold on. Seeing their fierce resistance, I found myself clenching my hands.
"Romelia, it's almost time."
Sensei cautioned me as I leaned forward. Right. I couldn't keep focusing only on the front.
Just as we were trying to get behind them, they were naturally thinking of doing the same to us.
"Assemble the reserves. Square formation."
I gathered the eighty reserve soldiers I had kept with me and arranged walls of ten men in two ranks on all four sides, forming a square to protect our headquarters.
"Mia-san, have the healers come to my side."
The healers had no combat ability and had to be guarded carefully. I couldn't expose the people Priest Note had entrusted to me to danger.
Miecha, one of the guards, took up a position right beside Mia-san. I felt reassured.
I shifted my gaze from inside the formation to the outside. Where were they? Where would they come from?
Even as I kept an eye on the front line and looked around us, Miecha, who had been standing guard, called out sharply.
"Enemy sighted."
In the direction Miecha pointed, a large number of antfolk had appeared.
They had appeared as though they had suddenly fallen from the sky, but of course they had not fallen—they had climbed up. Behind the swarm that had appeared, a large hole was opening in the ground, and antfolk were crawling out one after another.
They had dug a tunnel all the way from the nest to here and were attacking our headquarters.
"Just as expected."
Sensei clenched a fist, visibly excited.
Antfolk skilled at digging tunnels would never limit themselves to attacking from the front. We had known they would dig a tunnel somewhere and strike us from behind.
"Ben and Hans's unit, charge. Wipe out the enemy."
There appeared to be about a hundred of them. I sent the twenty-man unit I had kept in reserve against the enemy force.
The twenty soldiers advanced and clashed with a hundred antfolk.
The difference in numbers was obvious, but the twenty soldiers defeated the antfolk and scattered them.
The eighty reserve soldiers I had kept with me were not mere reserves. They had been assigned to the Cashew garrison from the start and had taken part in the dragon subjugation in Gilie Valley. Led by the awakened Ben and Hans of the Romelia Squad, they crushed soldier ants like dry branches, cleaved combat ants in two, and broke through the enemy formation.
They tore through the antfolk swarm as though cutting cloth and reached the hole from which the ants had emerged. They threw the explosive magic stones I had given them into the hole and sealed the tunnel.
It would take time to deal with everything, but I could leave that to them now.
"Romelia-sama, new enemy sighted!"
But there was no time to catch our breath.
The tunnel the antfolk had dug was not the only one. Two or three more holes were opened, and antfolk began crawling out.
"Borel and Gatt's unit, Glenn and Zeze's unit, engage! Sensei, take command of the reserves."
"Understood. Focus on commanding the army as a whole."
I couldn't keep watch over the inner area myself, so Sensei and I divided the duties. It was frightening to have enemies appear so close, but if I failed to watch the overall battle, our formation might collapse.
When I turned my attention back to the front line, several ant pillars had risen and were leaning toward the defensive line.
Otto and the others were using explosive magic stones to deal with them, but there were too many to keep up.
They were keeping the front line occupied while targeting our rear and throwing it into confusion, then using that confusion to increase the pressure at the front. It was a basic tactic, but an effective disruption.
A fierce battle was raging at the front.
Otto blocked a defense ant's rolling charge, and a combat ant tried to take his head in the opening, but Kyle's thrown knife stabbed into its head and stopped it.
Gran and Ragun were fighting ferociously as well. The two of them forged a path forward with their spears, parting the soldier ants swarming around them. When commanders advance at the very front, the soldiers have no choice but to follow. They put their bodies on the line and pushed the front forward.
"Jini, take four men and go to Otto's left. Tars, do the same with four men. Go to Otto's right."
I sent each unit to support Otto's troops. But we didn't have enough men.
"Bry, take five reserve soldiers and go to the left wing of Gran's unit. The casualties are heavy, and it may be overwhelmed. Sei, take five men and go support Ragun's unit."
The reserves alone were not enough, so I sent members of the Romelia Squad guarding headquarters as reinforcements as well.
"Romelia-sama."
Miecha called out that our defenses were growing thin, but I ignored the warning. Maintaining the front line was more important.
"Romelia!"
Velli-sensei, who had been watching our surroundings, cried out almost like a scream.
A new hole opened, and reinforcements emerged. There were two hundred of them. Leading them were neither combat ants nor guard ants, but thirty armored royal guard ants. They had still been concealing more of their strength.
"Miecha, Shuro."
I instructed the two headquarters guards, and both nodded before sprinting off.
"Graves! Drop your bow and support the rear!"
I gave Graves, who had been commanding the archers, the order to abandon the bow and strike at the reinforcements.
There were no more reinforcements after that. This was their entire fighting force. If we could endure here, we would win.
"Romelia-sama."
Mia-san spoke anxiously and moved close to me.
We had sent out every guard, leaving only the standard-bearer and the two trumpeters near me. It would not have been strange for the enemy to break through at any moment.
I drew my sword as a precaution, while Velli-sensei readied a club as well. If it came to it, we'd have only ourselves to rely on.
"This is bad, Romelia."
As Sensei said, the front line was somehow holding the enemy back, but the rear was on the verge of becoming a melee.
We were short of the forces that formed the army's core. I wondered what was keeping Al and the others, but told myself not to rush them.
We had no choice but to leave the timing of the charge to the two of them. Besides, the antfolk's main camp still had forces in reserve. The King Ant was protected by armored royal guard ants, with plenty of additional troops held in reserve. They had a clear view of their surroundings; a surprise attack would never succeed under those conditions.
We had to draw more of them out and lure those forces into action.
The moment we held out and they committed their final forces would be our opportunity.
"Everyone! Just a little longer. We're almost there..."
I was about to shout words of encouragement, but my voice was drowned out by a thunderous explosion.
"What?!"
Velli-sensei also cried out, almost screaming.
An explosion suddenly erupted at the front, and Otto and the soldiers around him fell.
"Otto!"
My shout echoed across the battlefield.