61-1. Chapter 61 (Part 1)
“WalーWartime Battalion Commander!!”
Walm, who was called using an unfamiliar rank, called out to the soldiers on both sides of him as he sliced open the belly of the pierced goblin.
“I’m going to leave the position for a while.”
“Yes sir! Leave it to us!!”
Having received a reliable answer, Walm turned to the soldier who had called him.
The soldier, who seemed to have run all the way, was out of breath and his complexion was almost pale to the point of collapse.
“What happened?”
A broken radio-like noise was generated near the feet on which the red liquid was spreading.
Stop making noises…
Walm let his halberd pierce the tall figure. It was a Hobgoblin, but the voice he heard wasn’t so different from that of a normal Goblin.
With more than enough Company Commanders or those of higher rank buried underground, Walm was now reluctantly appointed as a Wartime Battalion Commander, and could no longer worry only about the enemies.
The messenger continued in a quavering voice.
“The-There is an emergency order, fro-from the Wartime Brigade Commander.”
Justus, although only a Company Commander, was the only commander on the ramparts during the attack on the Flame Emperor Dragon, escaped the Dragon’s Breath, and was now the Wartime Brigade Commander.
Even after the loss of the HQ soldiers who were originally the pillars supporting the brigade, apart from the temporary walls, given the busyness of the soldiers, the moving of supplies here and there, and the fact that there was still so much activity, it could be said that Walm was still blessed.
“From the Brigade Commander? Talk immediately.”
Walm wasn’t surprised by these words, but when he understood the content, his heart palpitations stopped. The reality he didn’t want to admit hit him.
“Request for help to defend the northern wall, a group of great demons… those ogres broke through the wall. Both the soldiers and the refugees there are dead, and they could use “Skill” and “Magic”!!!”
“The northern wall…”
Talking about which wall would break first, it would have been the temporary wall. Walm felt that the number of small monsters had increased, so he was sure that an army of monsters would attack the half-destroyed wall, but it was actually only a large number of decoys, and the northern wall, from which the guards kept being extracted, was attacked with the main force. He hadn’t expected that the monsters could exert such a strategy.
If the wall packed with a large number of soldiers is broken through in a short time, there’s a high possibility that elite monsters are there, as well as the commander.
Walm must immediately assemble the rescue team and rush over, but the question was how to maintain the temporary walls for which he was responsible.
Even though the number of monsters had decreased, there were still as many as 10,000 monsters trying to get past the temporary wall. If he left the personnel behind without thinking much, two sides of the wall could fall. In that case, Dandurg Castle would be completely destroyed.
Walm’s troops consisted of 500 regular soldiers and 1300 militia. Many of them were badly wounded and tired, and the number of armored militias was small. When it came to recapturing the walls and pushing back the monster from inside the castle, the militia who leaned on the walls and focused only on what was in front of them were useless. He needed a large number of regular soldiers strong enough to fight in the turmoil.
“Where is Company Commander Friug?!”
The name Walm called out was one of the four Platoon Commanders entrusted to him by Wartime Brigade Commander Justus. He and another one, were appointed as Company Commanders by Walm.
“I’m here, sir!”
The face looked rough and the whole body was slightly dirty, but the eyes hadn’t lost their sharpness.
“The northern wall has been breached by a group of powerful ogres. Soldiers must be sent from the temporary wall to clear the castle and recapture the wall.”
“No way, the northern wall has…”
Said Friug, pausing halfway as he lost words, but he immediately indulged in thoughts.
“I shall leave the command of this place to you. I will lead a team to embark on a recapture. How many regular soldiers do you need here?”
Friug asked one question with a slight hesitation.
“The skilled soldiers, may I know who you plan to leave here, sir?”
“Platoon Commander Napolk, the adventurer Amy, and the Deborah family.”
“Are you joking? We’re just citizens.”
Do you think a normal citizen can kill a bicorn?
Walm, who was about to spit out the word to the woman holding two horns of a bicorn, barely swallowed it back.
“You’re already a militia. Deborah, many even call you a Wartime Platoon Commander, you know?”
Even a capable militia was regarded as a Platoon Commander or a Squad Commander. There just wasn’t enough power in the current Dandurg Castle. Anyone who could be used, whether human or animal, whether a dog or a cat, would be used to the fullest.
“Hahahah, Highserk people are crazy!!”
Deborah laughed loudly, but there was no clear refusal.
Friug, who came up with the answer during his interaction with Deborah, spat out the words.
“I will hold out here for half a day with only half, 250 regular soldiers.”
After receiving a clear reply, Walm called out the Commanders’ names under his umbrella.
“Wake, gather the soldiers of your company. We’ll head to rescue the northern wall. Jol, your platoon too.”
Wake’s Company and Jol’s Platoon were added, reaching about 250 soldiers in total. The Commanders of both units began gathering the scattered troops.
Walm also called the names of two adventurers who had been demonstrating their skill and power on the front lines.
“Al, Fleck, you guys are going. I need a hand-to-hand combat expert.”
“What about me?”
“Amy’s 《Strong Shoot》 shines in a defensive fight, it can’t be helped.”
“This time, a flock of ogres? There’s really no break.”
“Really, this is too much. I’m going to die of overwork at this rate.”
The adventurers seemed tired of the sight of monsters. Still, they had become accustomed enough to the battlefield to make small talk now and then.
After gathering troops, Walm set out to recapture the northern wall.
◆
As Walm and his team approached the northern walls, the commotion grew. While distracting himself from the stream of fleeing civilians, Walm raised his voice to keep the soldiers from getting lost in the mayhem.
“Don’t stop! We’ll definitely take back the walls!!”
A halberd was thrust into the wolf covering the back of a refugee. It was twisted and sent the wolf onto the stone pavement.
The guards who were supposedly guarding the northern wall were hardly seen. From the walls, one monster after another slid down into the castle.
The damage was terrible. The entire cobblestone was flooded with fresh blood, and even soldiers who were in the process of trampling the viscera on the ground and falling over could be seen.
There were fewer places where there were no dead bodies. It had become a slaughterhouse for the monsters.
The monsters began to turn to the rescue forces for their next meal.
Walm was no exception, and four goblins, which had been playing with the corpse just a moment ago, approached him.
One goblin hurled a pathetic dagger to the waist, but was stomped out with a halberd, crushing its lower jaw and stirring its brain, before it could reach Walm.
Walm slammed the second goblin, which dare to step into the gap, in the temporal region. Its eyeballs trembled and turned in a weird direction.
Walm backed away a little and thrust his halberd forward. A third goblin struck the spot where he stood with a club, only for a hole to be open in its throat.
The last goblin leaped toward Walm while swinging a hatchet, but the tip of the halberd aimed at the body impaled it in midair. Walm then casually knocked it onto the cobblestones and trampled the head with his feet.
“Jol’s troops with the remaining northern wall garrison shall hold down the ramparts. The rest shall wipe out the monsters inside.”
There was a mix of soldiers, ordinary humans, and monsters in the castle, therefore a wide range of attacks like 《Demon Fire》 wasn’t an option. If Walm used it here, more people would die than monsters. All he could do was kill them one by one.
That said, the soldiers around him would only have been in the way, so he spread out the soldiers and began to destroy the monsters.
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