Pursuit

Sir Bearington is rampaging through the three armies of Kalthros, Hinthro, and Lithro. Ripping apart all the conscripts and fresh recruits. The more experienced and battle-hardened soldiers fare slightly better, mostly being smart enough to position themselves in a way that won't result in their instant death.

Deery, not being nearly as tough-skinned as Sir Bearington has more grace to his movements. Galloping through the battlefield in a way to avoid the strikes of the enemy soldiers. Drawing mana into the space between his antlers, Deery fire off a variety of magic spells, from simple mana bolts to more complex element based magics.

With most of their anti-air capabilities crippled, it's left up to General Garvin intercepting the bombs and the few mages of the crusading force that know barrier spells to deal with aerial attacks.

"Retreat! All forces make a full retreat to the rendezvous point! This goes for both Kalthros and Hinthro!" Garvin Shouts.

"Garvin! Who gave you the right to order my soldiers! I can't afford to have the stain of a retreat on my resume!" Raúl says.

Garvin wastes no time and punches Raúl in the stomach, "Look at this mess! Look at it and tell me we can win!"

"Soldiers of Kalthros, we're retreating for now! We underestimated them too much, this won't happen again," Viceroy Stanislav says.

Seeing how both his supposed allies are retreating, Raúl begrudgingly abides. In his mind he knows that retreating is the best choice and staying to fight is a death sentence. To him, a stain on his career is also a death sentence. But one option being an actual death sentence, he naturally puts his life at the top of his priorities.

Witnessing their retreat, the Oulvgar are joyfully cheering, "For the Goddess! Chase them until they're dead!" assuming joyful cheering is rallying their comrades to chase them as a predator chases prey.

It's rare for creatures like stags, beavers, and other such herbivorous creatures to experience being the predator and they'll naturally take full advantage of the opportunity to do so.

But the with the exception of the tanks, the other military vehicles are far faster than most of the Oulvgar. With the exception of the faster moving Oulvgar who can still give chase, the others are trying to salvage the tanks that got left behind as well as the various tanks and cars impaled by the Great Tree's spike trap, at least the Oulvgar that can fit in them anyways.

"General! They're chasing us!" A Lithro soldier shouts.

"Then slow them down, the machine guns on top of the car still works, go shoot them!" Garvin orders.

Soldiers shooting from the windows and mounted machine guns firing from atop the transport vehicals. Tossing grenades behind them, using crowd control spells aimed at slowing their pursuers. All manner of methods are being used to slow down the Oulvgar, but the fog makes it extremely difficult to pinpoint the exact location of the Oulvgar and more importantly, with the fast Oulvgar such as the large cats and deer Oulvgar chasing on the ground, they had failed to notice that in the sky directly above their transport vehicles are a large flock of birds, the Bird Oulvgar. By the time the crusaders noticed, it was too late as bombs had already begun to fall.

Given the high speeds they're moving at, many of the bombs failed to hit their mark. Be it a simple mistiming on the Oulvgar's part or good driving skills from the crusaders, many of the transport vehicles have come out unscathed from the bombardment. Although a few unlucky ones were blown up under the force of several bombs, the soldiers who survived the loss of the car were left injured and quickly picked off by the chasing terrestrial Oulvgar.

After what felt like an eternity to them, the remaining soldier of Kalthros, Hinthro, and Lithro, make it out from the fog. A sense of relief washes over them as the Oulvgar are no longer within their view.

"That was a disaster," Garvin bluntly says.

"It was a mix of us underestimating our opponents and not having sufficient information. Thanks to this fog, we can't reliably deploy any planes or helicopters, more importantly, those monsters… no the Oulvgar are seemingly unimpeded by the fog. We've had the suspicion for a while, but it's likely magical in nature and affects outsiders differently," Stanislav says.

"Sounds like you're starting to give those overgrown monsters some respect," Raúl says.

"It's natural to give strong opponents the respect they deserve. I chose to avoid the Warden because I respect his strength, even if he and his Warband have been a thorn in the Empire's side. And for your information, you lack such respect right now, Son of President Campoy," Stanislav says.

"You!" Raúl raises his fist in anger.

"Calm down! We have more important things to deal with than fighting each other. We should focus on the upcoming battles and take what we've learned from this and apply it properly. That is what I would like to say, but our forces have been reduced by almost 60%. We'll likely need reinforcements if we're to continue. In hindsight, we shouldn't have split from the Virpal and the Church just so we could avoid the Warden," Garvin says.

Moving back a couple of minutes to when the crusaders left the fog.

"Birdie, should we keep chasing now that they've left the fog?" Deery asks.

"The enemy is currently crippled, so this is a good chance to strike, but we lose the protection of the fog if we continue further. But this a good chance, even if we suffer some injuries, we shouldn't give this up," Birdie says.

Arriving on the back of Sir Bearington, Elizabeth jumps off, landing next to Deery and Birdie "No, it's better if you stop chasing here."

"Saint, is this the word of the Goddess?" Birdie asks.

"Astur said to keep you all from going too far. There are many unknown variables if we keep chasing, so it's better if we end the battle here. Not everyone is as tough or mobile as the Guardians, many of the other Oulvgar have sustained injuries. It's better to tend to the wounded than potentially increase their numbers. The only reason we haven't suffered more casualties is solely due to Astur's fog. Without it, Hadrow would have been easy pickings. The Monkey Legion and the Beaver Legion are carrying the wounded back to town, go and help them."

"By word of the Saint, your will shall be done," the Oulvgar say as they return to regroup at Hadrow.

And listening in on the conversation from the comfort of her house is Astur.

"I would have chosen to keep chasing, they really don't have any traps for their retreat and they're running low on ammo. But I suppose Liz wouldn't know this," Astur mutters.

"Hey what are you mumbling about?" Ystur asks.

"Nothing. And since your awake, why don't you go make yourself useful and help the Otter Logistics Department," Astur says.

"No, you were talking about Earth before I passed out before weren't you!? I want to keep talking about it!"

Astur picks up Ystur and carries her over her shoulder and out the door, "Nah, don't feel like it anymore," tossing her outside the barrier, Astur continues, "I'm going to take a nap, so don't disturb me."