40. The Strongest Army in the Kingdom
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Chapter 40: The Strongest Army in the Kingdom

 

About one and a half weeks have passed since the destruction of Prashyufa. The First and the Seventh Army continued to make their way towards the next city while escorting the thousands of civilians. Things have gone rather smoothly up to this point. That is until a scout from Kazakiel’s battalion reported a lone army chasing after them. They were tracking them down by following the tracks from the carriages that were being used to carry supplies and escort the injured. They were a force of ten thousand dwarfs at least and were chasing after them with zeal. 

Klauna immediately called everyone for a meeting to discuss how to shake them off their backs or better yet, discuss battle plans on how to deal with them. They weren’t terribly outnumbered, but Klauna wanted to play it safe. Any single loss of soldiers here at this point could be considered a disaster. The Kingdom had very few soldiers left and even fewer in reserves. They were pretty much the only defence the Kingdom had against the legion of Alliance soldiers. They need to keep as many men alive as they could. Cutting down losses was the first step in achieving that.

Every single officer of the two armies gathered immediately and quickly formed a circle to discuss things. Everyone was there including Yuupiecca who ignored Medica’s orders to stay in bed and much to everyone’s surprise, even Scuttlelinaria. She was seen standing somewhat farther back than everyone else but was listening intently, never speaking a word. She wore an officer’s uniform, albeit very different from her original attire. 

Instead of the slutty revealing clothing that she used to wear, she was wearing very thick and modest clothing that hid all her features— even going as far as wearing gloves to cover her hands and a long piece of cloth to cover her tail. She clearly didn’t want anyone to see her body at all.

Ignoring her presence, Klauna began the meeting with a few pleasantries before getting straight to the point. “We got a bunch of dwarfs aiming to kill us. Our movements are definitely slower, so there is no chance of outrunning them. Hiding is not an option as well. They have expert trackers and we have no way of covering all of our tracks.”

Klauna nodded to Harbin, who went over to the table and placed down the Grimoire of the Analyst. She then chanted a spell and a small magic circle appeared underneath it. 

“Balestra, can you hear me? What is the status of the dwarven army and their destination?” Klauna spoke to the grimoire.

“We can hear you loud and clear, General Klauna. The enemy seemed to be moving as you predicted— along the long road. They are moving straight ahead without any breaks. I expect them to keep moving until dusk," Balestra’s voice came out of the grimoire.

“Noted. Keep monitoring and let me know if anything comes up.”

“Affirmative,” Balestra replied before cutting off communication. 

The magic circle beneath the grimoire died down and Harbin picked it up again once more.

“...You know. I didn’t have the time to say this before, but that book is really useful, huh," Leida commented.

“Indeed, big sister. Truly a useful tool," Samiyadare replied in agreement. 

Harbin, who had her ego stroked, gave out a proud snort at their compliments. 

“Kuh kuh kuh. Amazing isn’t it? This is the power of the Analyst relic and the culmination of our creativity, hard work and dedication! Originally the design was very crude and simple, only a two-way communication between all the grimoires and only effective for up to a few kilometres. But now! We have specific channels for private communication, volume control and we are able to boost the signal to a very long distance. We also….” Harbin who was excited, continued to explain the grimoire’s power and capabilities.

Leida and Samiyadare listened to Harbin with interested expressions and so did the other officers of the First Army. The other Analyst in the area, Yuupiecca, nodded with pride as Harbin told everyone about the book. It was one of those rare moments that the Analysts got to show off, so this was a proud moment for both of them. The other officers of the Seventh Army, although not as visible, let out a small proudful smile as well. They’ve come to respect the Analyst and considered them friends.

Even Klauna couldn’t help but let out a small smile. Though that smile soon turned back into a cold calm expressionless face after a few minutes. She then clapped her hands together to get everyone’s attention. “Alright, you had your fun, Harbin. Time to focus.”

“Ah! Yes!” Harbin saluted.

“We need to formulate a plan,” Klauna said once the whole room went back to normal again.

Leida let out a yawn and stretched her body. “I don’t see what is there to discuss. They are following our tracks, no? Just lure them into a trap and blow them up. Then, we surround them. Not really that hard.” 

“Luring them into a trap and then surrounding them sounds like a good idea. It’s just that, they still have more numbers than us. How sure are we that we can win? If things go south, we will be the ones taking massive casualties instead,” Kazakiel gave out his opinion on the matter, those of the Seventh Army nodded with him.

“What is this? You guys run away so much that you honestly think we can’t win this? This is the First Army, the strongest army in the whole continent. We have the strength to win and I know you guys are no slouches yourself. Aren’t you guys being a little bit too cautious here?” Leida said.

That question was responded to by Klauna with a shake to the head. “Being the strongest is not enough. Even the strongest can trip in battle, even the strongest are not immune to mistakes. I need results, not strength. There is no guarantee in a battle. I want strength to be a supplementary factor, not the decisive factor of our victory.” 

Klauna then pointed her finger on a map on the table. “We will stick with the plan, but we need to trim their numbers further. Dwarves are not agile. That’s fact, not opinion. We will use speed and vision to our advantage in a series of guerilla attacks. We quell their numbers and then we will purposely ‘get caught’ in a final assault, luring them into a sense of security. We need good terrain where we can negate their advantage. This place is a good one.”

“Hmm… It’s good I guess. It’s just that… the luring party will be in a very dangerous spot. Who is going to do it?” Leida questioned a part of the plan.

“Who else? What else could be better bait?” Klauna stared at Leida.

Leida raised her eyebrows. “... you jest.” 

“I don’t joke around, Liliel. Get ready, we are going on a hunt,” Klauna said to Leida.

Leida massaged her temples for a while before letting out a small laugh. “You are one crazy chick, you know that? Putting the most important person in the army as bait.” 

Leida then let out a sigh. There were a lot of things that she wanted to say against the plan but gave up on it halfway through. “Alright then, but if we are going to do this, then we do it my way! I want us both to go on a rampage!”

“... sure,” Klauna replied.

Leida then pumped her fist in the air. “Ah right! One more thing, Ticah! Let’s have a duel~!”

“...Duel?” Klauna tilted her head.

“I heard the rumours! You beat that Lionel! To beat a person who I can’t beat, you got my blood pumping alright!”

“...I admit defeat then. You can tell others that you beat me. I can’t care less about winning,” Klauna replied before looking back at the map, the other Ak’hims just looked on with a wry smile.

“No no no, you aren’t getting away from this so easily, Ticah. Let’s do it in a simple way. Whoever kills the most in the following battle gets to be called the strongest in the continent! Hell, I’ll even give the title of the strongest army if you win! Don’t you agree, guys?”

“Big Sister…” Samiyadere replied with a tired expression. The other captains of the First Army only shrug at her attitude.

“...Whatever. The plan is a go then. I want that army to be annihilated by dusk,” Klauna said before leaving the meeting room, the spear and banner on her shoulders waved about the area.

“It’s on, Ticah!” Leida waved her goodbye from within the tent.

 

* * * * *

 

In a small boggy terrain, overlooking a pit were Leida and Klauna. In the pit were tens of thousands of dwarves left to rot. The plan had worked splendidly. Kazakiel and the Cunnings from the First and Seventh Army dealt quite the blow to the Dwarven army, killing a quarter of them before luring them into the pit. It was then that the trap was sprung and a big explosion happened, killing even more. 

Before the soldiers of the Kingdom poured in, a large grade seven spell came out of the Analysts which caused the terrain to be filled with mud, causing difficulty for the dwarves to move. Sure it impeded the movement of the Ak’hims, but it impeded the short dwarves even more.

Not a single dwarf was spared in the battle. Every single one of them was killed with barely any casualties on the demon’s side. The First Army was no joke. They were as strong as they say they were. Demons with hundreds of years of experience. Many of them had multiple kills at the very least. Leida was right when she said that they would be able to win with just them and without all that fancy tactics. 

Though, it is always good to play safe. Minimizing deaths can go a long way.

Klauna and Leida being bait worked really well in making the plan work. It was a decisive victory, something of a rarity for the Ak’hims at this stage of the war. The soldiers of the First and Seventh army could be seen cheering, their morale boosted at the victory.

However, despite the victory, there was only one person who had a dissatisfied frown. It was Leida who was standing next to Klauna, fresh from a recent defeat against her. 

Yes, the Analyst proved triumphant over the Dragonicia in their duel. Klauna had indeed killed the most out of the two. As a matter of fact, Klauna killed the most out of everyone in the whole battle, totalling to almost four hundred dwarves. As a comparison, Leida only killed a hundred.

“I guess this means I am the strongest now,” Klauna gave a smirk towards the Dragonicia.

“This is not fair! You cheated!” Leida yelled out.

“All I hear is a loser's bark. You are the one who said it yourself, whoever kills the most wins. I won,” Klauna replied, her smirk turned into a sly grin.

“You stole all my kills! You were tagging next to me the entire time and killing everyone before I could! What part of that is fair! That’s against the rules!”

“You said that whoever had the most kills wins. You never said that the other opponent can’t actively prevent the opponent from winning.” Klauna shrugged her shoulders before walking away, leaving Leida in the dust.

It was that day that Leida learned one thing about Klauna. She learned that Klauna is a very petty person. She said that she wasn’t interested in winning, yet she goes all out in doing so— even going as far as sabotaging Leida to achieve her goals.

The title of the strongest does not suit her. Rather the title of ‘unscrupulous’ fitted her better.

 

I am back! Thanks for reading and don't forget to fav and comment! I may not reply to all of the comments but I do read them all.

Also, first comment gets a hug from me.

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