"Everyone must march until we reach our destination, the capital city of Horizon," said Clarke.
The joint forces of Asphodel and Lynx decided to go and attack the capital, and their march to the heart of Lynx had just begun. The two joint forces were wary of each other, and trust was never seen in the slightest.
"We will move according to the plan discussed overnight. It is for the best to take that route."
To avoid moving their armies through dense forests, where they would be free to be ambushed, the captains had decided on a roundabout way to cross the land and attack the capital from behind.
The army with cavalry and footsoldiers and their weapons, supplies, and artillery began moving towards their destination, led by the captain and commander on their horses.
The march continued one day with no enemy soldiers; peculiarly, there was no enemy building to be seen. During the night, Yuuka brought his topic up in the discussion.
"It was strange that there were no settlements or houses on our way here."
Yuuka was joined by Clarke in his discussion, who wasn't much concerned about the fact.
"It is no issue. For its size, Lynx has too little population. It doesn't surprise me that there are no houses in this abandoned area. People tend to live together, not isolated."
That logic was enough explanation for anyone to understand and assume to be the reason, but Yuuka had doubts otherwise.
"This isn't sitting right with me."
"Who cares about that? Focus on how much distance we can cover tomorrow. Your men are slowing us down."
Clarke left the tent while throwing a jab at Yuuka, but was lost in his thoughts.
"The land was too flat; no trees? The air was dusty too."
If the land were unmanned, it should have been a dense forest or some trees, but no. Could people be removed from that to make it look like that?
"If that is how I think, she knew how we would travel across the country. Not us, but anyone. It was already anticipated by her long ago."
Yuuka understood that his enemy was a strong player. It would be a challenging battle for him.
The night passed, and the second day had begun. The soldiers got ready again and began to move with their captain leading them.
They moved throughout the day without any resistance once again. The distance between the capital and them was a little.
The soldiers felt like they were parading in a barren land; there was no enemy to attack or threat to be active against, but this changed as the second day ended.
Nearing nighttime, the army was confronted by a steep hill in their path; it had a significant size. Enough so to block the entire route of the military.
"Setup the camp for the night here, and some counts go for a look out on the other side of the hill."
Clarke announced his orders to the army, and everybody followed them accordingly.
In the tent, the captains of both armies sat and ate their loaves of bread while waiting for the scouts to return.
"The scouts have returned, sir."
"Send them here."
The scouts were called inside the room, and they seemed a bit nervous with people present there, but they relayed the information regardless.
"There is a small fortress beside the hill. It seems to be well guarded too."
"!!"
A fortress being located in a region that was also well guarded was certainly unexpected. Yuuka instantly spoke up after hearing the words of the scouts.
"We should attack the fort here. If it is well guarded, it should have a good amount of resources.
"How are we going to get through the defences?" said Captain Levi.
"We have the high ground here. It will work to our advantage."
"We still need a strategy; if you have a proper idea to win, open your mouth."
"Mr. Clarke, how about we fire on the castle?"
"Huh?"
"We could maybe fire the artillery on the castle to tear it down."
"So, you are just relying on our artillery for this task; you used our food to feed your soldiers, so you are trying to make us do everything, huh?"
The conflict between the allies had already increased to a high level.
"But didn't we just agree on fighting Lynx together?"
"But I did say together, you're just relying on us to do everything."
"Look, we are willing to give our lives."
"Enough of that; we could crush you right now with our army, but then we will be trapped deep inside hostile territory alone."
This was the truth: any fight among themselves could leave the other damaged and vulnerable on an enemy land alone.
"Okay, we will assist in this battle, but after this battle, this alliance will be no more."
Yukka immediately had the idea to use Brittania's superior artillery to their advantage.
"We will break down the castle with the artillery, and as it gets weaker and weaker, we will switch our fire to the troops."
"Then we shall fire another volley on the castle, which will scare the enemy troops, as one more shot and the castle will be down."
"Then we charge through, taking out the enemy forces and capturing any soldiers."
"Okay, we will go with this plan."
The next day, they placed almost 300 cannons beside the castle. It took a tremendous amount of effort to position the cannons. Several soldiers got injured and heavily fatigued while moving the guns.
But the cannons were ready to raise hell on the castle in the morning. The captain had taken their position, and the foot soldiers readied themselves.
"FIRE!"
"FIRE!"
The cannon shots came down from the sky towards the small fortress of the enemy. As the shots went through, they broke down the walls and sent the fort's walls into pieces.
The first volley of shots was just fired, and the second volley was about to begin, but before that, something strange happened.
"They are running anyway."
The soldiers guarding the fort seemed to be running away on their horses; they did not fire a single bullet or try to counterattack them.
Yuuka looked at the running soldier through his binoculars; he understood the purpose of their placement. We went to the confused Captain Clarke to explain the situation.
"Mr. Clarke, this is probably a decoy. They were just there to fool us."
"Fool us? How?"
"To waste our resources and time. We wasted a lot of things just to get our cannons across this hill and attack the fort. Which shouldn't have been done, considering our position."
"This is too problematic. If distractions like this keep coming, we will have no proper mindset or energy for the main battles."
"Yes."
"Means we need to go to the capital. No distraction. We will only attack if they attack us first, and we will try to avoid any conflict with the Lynx military otherwise. Get your soldiers together, Yuuka."
Yuuka nodded and left to arrange his soldier for further advancement. He did not try to comment on Clarke's tone or way of speaking because Yuuka noticed something interesting about the Britannian army while moving the cannons.
A weakness, something we could exploit; now he just had to wait for the right moment, and victory awaited him.
On his horse, Clarke got in front of the forces who had now crossed the hill; some troops were asked to go back, as it was impossible to move with such a number with the number of supplies they had.
Clarke made a victory chant to fire up his men and prepare them for battle.
"Soldiers, march with us and win this battle!!!!"
"Yes, sir!!!"
With this, the army made its final march towards the capital.
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While the joint forces of Asphodel and Britannia approached the capital, Milize had other plans to wreak havoc on the enemy. She was ready to make sacrifices, even for the tiniest of advantages.
"Is all the area evacuated? I don't want any people left behind in that area."
"Yes. It was all evacuated. We checked multiple times, and only the bigger prisoners remain there."
"Very well, then. We can proceed further." Milize looks at the ceiling as if imagining the future after making her decision.
"Look. I want you to go to the marketplace and release all the criminals into the city."
"..."
Milize words left Dixon speechless. He had no idea how to respond to this, but he certainly did not object to the decision.
"Yes, mam."
Or he didn't dare question the queen about her decisions. As soon as he heard the orders, he would obey them like a well-trained animal.
The capital patrol general, Dixon Rom, got the orders quickly, got in his car, and reached the central prison. He didn't even question the reasoning behind her methods.
Dixon walked into the office with his feet at full speed. We need to act to get plans moving at a convenient time.
"Captain Kevin."
He barged into the room of the chief of the central guard prison.
"Yes, Sir."
Kevin immediately stood up from his seat, surprised by the sudden arrival of his senior.
"I have a special order from the queen herself. I need you to release all the prison guards directly into the city. Also, light fire on the entire marketplace."
As Dixon ordered, the entire prison was opened, and prisoners were freed from their chains and set free to destroy the city in flames.
A trap lay in the open, hoping to catch a big fish.
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