Chereads / Conquering the Lower Realms / Chapter 45 - Battle

Chapter 45 - Battle

The three units of the Galli infantry kept advancing on the front made up of Saital's soldiers and the gathered adventurers. Galli was a kingdom that many labeled as barbaric. Their infantry consisted of barely armored axe-wielders with wooden round-shields. Their fighting ability was commendable but in truth, it bordered on being considered suicidal.

King Leonard watched the front line with worry. He had sent his cavalry to attack the enemies' left flank but there was no visible response. He felt that he was missing something.

Before he could figure out what bothered him about the current situation the Galli units halted their advance. With no other alternative, king Leonard had his frontline advance instead.

Furthermore, he ordered the adventurers to create some distance between themselves and the soldiers saying they could pincer the rightmost Galli unit using that maneuver. They suspected nothing and followed his order. King Leonard couldn't help but feel a little guilty for what he planned but those thoughts were pushed to the back of his mind when he noticed what had been bothering him.

The tree servants that made up the Galli kingdom's most feared combat form had been slowly advancing before and were now heading straight for his cavalry.

Those large animated trees would be the death of those riders. And since they were galloping at the highest speed they could muster they had failed to notice the approaching danger.

King Leonard gave some last orders to the remaining troops and departed. He channeled magic essence into his legs and his speed increased explosively. The sooner he caught up with the cavalry the better.

Meanwhile, the Saital soldiers were about to reach the Galli infantry when they suddenly shifted the direction of their March to the left. This left the adventurers further away from them and prompted the rightmost Galli unit to advance on the adventurers. The adventurers were now faced with a unit that outnumbered them 5 to 1.

By now the cavalry had also noticed the tree servants tried to evade them by swinging around to the left. Unfortunately, they had noticed too long and they could already tell that their turn would be successful before the walking trees reached them.

King Leonard was still sprinting but the distance was too large to cross this quickly. He wouldn't reach before the tree servants could rush into the cavalry.

He had to watch as the moving trees just threw themselves onto the riders and carved a good portion out of the unit. The cavalry had lost at least a fifth of their forces in this mess of pained neighing and crunching of crushed bones.

Finally, the cavalry had completed their turn and moved away from the tree servants. The tree servants wanted to pursue but at that moment king Leonard took to the skies with a mighty leap. The golden phantom gauntlets appeared and he dove into the mess of trees and brought carnage. Trees fell like an army of lumberjacks had just gone wild.

King Leonard was set on completely eliminating the tree servants but after he had killed a little more than half of them a powerful presence alerted him. A man with glowing light green hair that stretched for multiple meters was fast approaching.

King Leonard ceased his relentless assault on the tree servants and let them retreat. Then, he waited for his new opponent to get closer.

"That weapon is truly a masterpiece. It is a shame my kingdom couldn't obtain it."

"I assume I'm talking to lord Silva. Is it necessary for a god to use his oracle to get involved in human affairs?"

"That pesky light god of yours finally disappeared for a while so I can't waste this opportunity. If he returned and you also held this weapon it would spell disaster for my believers. Enough talk, time for a fight."

The ensuing battle was rather bland. Silva's oracle had a very strong body and easily tanked king Leonard's hits but Silva was the good of nature and growth, attacking wasn't his forte. The two were caught in a stalemate and the result of the battle would have to be determined without them.

Meanwhile, at the battlefront, the Galli and Saital lines met and engaged in a wild melee. However, the Galli held an advantage as their two units of 1000 wolf riders had used the gaps between the infantry units to mount a charge that caught the Saital soldiers off guard.

Next to the main battlefront, the 1000 odd adventurers were fighting a Galli infantry unit of 5000 by themselves. At first, the adventurers had much higher casualties but as time went by the adventurers seemed to grow stronger and stronger.

This was because most of the casualties consisted of E and D-rank adventurers. Once only C to A-rank adventurers were left fighting the difference in stamina became apparent.

To remedy that one unit of wolf riders detached from the main battlefront and hit the adventurers flank.

This removed some of the pressure from the Galli soldiers and allowed them to further push the Galli units back. The 300 paladins backed by 2000 priests finally went to aid the adventurers and took some pressure off them.

As it stood now no side held an advantage. That was until the adventurers suddenly broke away from the fighting and retreated using the paladins as cover. They had been reduced to 200 combat-ready adventurers that were dragging many wounded with them.

As if that wasn't enough the tree servants that had retreated under king Leonard's attack rejoined the fray at the main battlefront and wreaked havoc while they plowed through the Saital soldiers' left flank. Simultaneously, the wolf riders that were engaging the paladins returned to pressure the Saital soldiers' flank from the other side. This left the third unit of the Galli infantry to fave the paladins alone but put immense pressure on the main battlefront of the Saital soldiers.

At that point, the battle was pretty much decided. The Saital cavalry had circled around and tried to help but the fight was ultimately lost as the main battlefront of Saital was crushed by the tree servants.

With great frustration, king Leonard bellowed at his units to retreat and disengaged Silva's oracle. Saital kingdom made a full retreat and the Galli kingdom's warriors cheered at their hard-won victory.