Chapter 106. The Siege of La Spezia (2)
I rode back and forth in front of the formation, shouting at the knights.
"Everyone, calm yourselves! Keep your heads cool! A god's blessing isn't omnipotent, and if you rush forward, you'll die just the same!"
I shouted while striking the knights' swords with Soul Reaper.
Fortunately, the knights relaxed their shoulders and managed to settle down.
"My lord, fall back now! The orcs are getting close!"
At Martin's shout, I circled around to the end of the left wing and withdrew to the hill in the rear.
It was where the Wood Golems were waiting.
Looking down from the low hill, I saw countless orc warriors running toward us.
Those lunatics are the crazy ones. Why the hell are they running?
It would already be difficult enough if they slowly advanced in formation.
If they ran around recklessly like that, they'd trip over each other and get trampled to death.
Almost as soon as I thought that, accidents began happening everywhere.
When one orc fell, dozens behind him fell and piled on top of one another.
That's a relief. The Great Chief doesn't know how to properly command his warriors. If Saru cooperates well, this battle should be over in three or four days. It doesn't matter how strong the Great Chief is by himself.
When the orc warriors finally came close enough, I gave the golems an order.
"Golems, throw."
Rumble, rumble.
Eight Wood Golems and the five Earth Golems I'd just created began throwing rocks.
The stones flew at tremendous speed with their increased strength and knocked the orcs down like bowling pins.
Kwaaagh!
Whenever one fell, the orcs behind him tripped over his body and went down with him.
Some were trampled by their own comrades before they could even stand.
I designated one of the Wood Golems as the squad leader.
Its arms became longer and thicker than those of the other golems.
"Golem, throw."
Whoosh!
The squad leader hurled a rock the size of a human head.
BOOM!
The stone broke through the air with a deafening crack and struck the ground.
A small crater formed where it landed.
Several nearby knights flinched.
My ears rang too.
"...Don't throw that fast. Keep it below the speed of sound."
Rumble.
If it kept producing sonic booms every time it threw something, my own troops would go deaf before the orcs reached us.
Then the front lines collided.
"Impact!"
BOOOOM!
The entire human formation rippled.
The charging orcs slammed into the first line of knights like a wave.
"Hold your ground!"
"Don't get pushed back!"
"Cut them down!"
There were places where the first line bent under the impact.
Whenever that happened, nearby knights pressed shoulder to shoulder and immediately straightened the line again.
All the formation training we'd done had paid off.
The blessing from Ares was also having a clear effect.
The knights moved faster than usual, and their bodies seemed overflowing with strength.
The second and third rows thrust their weapons between the gaps in the first line.
Orc warriors began falling one after another.
Blood sprayed everywhere.
The smell of it quickly covered the battlefield.
And so began a contest of pure strength that would continue for two full days.
* * *
On the third day of battle.
Great Chief Suji was growing anxious.
At first, the orcs had concentrated their strength against the human right wing and steadily pushed it backward.
But that morning, human cavalry had charged their flank.
The unexpected attack disrupted the orc line, and the humans immediately launched a counterattack.
In the end, everything the orcs had gained over an entire day disappeared.
The front line had returned almost exactly to where it had begun.
"Damn it..."
Suji stared at the human knights in irritation.
He had heard about formations like this from older warriors.
Human knights gathered together were like a castle wall.
A warrior charging them alone would simply die.
Hearing about it was one thing.
Experiencing it himself was another.
Breaking through that wall was far harder than he'd imagined.
Warrior Captain Saru approached him.
"Great Chief."
"What?"
"You must personally enter the battle."
Suji frowned.
"I know."
But his eyes unconsciously shifted toward the far left side of the human army.
Eric Marcel was there.
The platinum-blond human who had blocked his spear.
Suji believed Eric was at least his equal.
If Suji personally entered battle, Eric might do the same.
That misunderstanding was precisely what Saru had been encouraging.
"If the Great Chief will not go, then I will."
Saru struck his chest.
"Give me the elite warriors. I will break the human line."
He had absolutely no intention of doing that.
What Saru wanted was for Suji to personally enter the battlefield and become isolated.
"No. You command the reserve."
"Then the Great Chief must go."
"..."
"If neither of us goes, the warriors will continue dying without accomplishing anything."
After hearing the same argument several times, Suji finally grabbed his enormous axe.
"Damn it. Fine."
He stepped forward.
"I'll open the path myself."
The orc warriors saw their Great Chief approaching and hurriedly opened the formation.
A broad path appeared through the army like the sea splitting apart.
Suji began running.
His speed increased with every step.
Then he kicked off the ground and soared into the sky.
* * *
Martin, who had spent the entire battle standing beside me with my banner, yawned and stretched.
"Uaaah. The orcs aren't that impressive after all. At this rate, won't it end in another day or two?"
"If nothing unexpected happens."
The human right wing was performing particularly well.
Many of the knights and mages there came from beastkin territories, the Balkans, northern regions, and islands where combat was common.
Compared to Franche's knights, they had far more practical experience.
Our left wing was also holding up well.
Formation training helped, and the golems accurately throwing stones into dangerous points had made a big difference.
"Wouldn't it be better to send the mages in now?"
"No."
I had kept the mages assigned to me almost completely rested.
There were mages specializing in freezing magic, paralysis, and binding spells.
"If the right wing breaks, I'll send them."
"It looks fine to me."
I pointed into the distance.
"Look at that black goat-headed bastard."
The Great Chief was moving toward the right wing.
"If that thing jumps in, the line will break."
As soon as I finished speaking, the Great Chief began running.
Martin stared at me.
"Can he hear you from there?"
"How would I know?"
"Tch. Too bad."
"What is?"
"I thought he might come this way. I wanted to try fighting him."
"Don't."
"But I've gotten pretty strong lately."
"If you try a contest of strength against that thing, you'll die."
Martin had recently reached Upper-rank Sword Expert.
Ironically, it had happened after he was beaten half to death by the dark elf mage.
"Maybe rolling around in the dirt and eating soil is your secret training method."
"I didn't eat any soil."
"You had dirt in your mouth."
"That's different."
While we were arguing, the Great Chief reached the human right wing.
He leaped.
Then he crashed down.
BOOOOM!
The first row exploded apart.
Human bodies flew through the air.
One knight lost his head.
Another lost both arms.
Another was cut apart through the upper body.
The right wing had been breached with a single strike.
"...That goat-headed bastard really is fucking strong."
I immediately called my deputy commander and Hans.
The Knight Commander of the Golden Lion Knights hurried over.
"Commander!"
"Take the mages and reinforce the right wing."
"Understood."
"Hans."
"Yes, Commander!"
