19. Chapter 18: Emroy's bounty

CHAPTER 18: EMROY'S BOUNTY

In case the Toumareni envoy didn't get a positive response to the peaceful meeting request, each monarch had ridden back to his camp to lead his troops if need be.

And each and every one of them had noticed how the fireballs that fell upon the delegation had come from behind the troops of the Allied Armies.

"WHO DID THAT?" Roared Duran. "WHO IS THE TRAITOROUS BASTARD WHO LAUNCHED THOSE FIREBALLS?!"

Only silence answered him. Kelimel and Duran's personal guard. The nearby soldiers. Even his court mage remained silent.

"KELIMEL!"

His aide immediately snapped at attention.

"Yes lord!"

"BRING ME THE HEAD OF THIS… FILTHY…"

The rage filling Duran's mind kept him from telling any further. Not that Kelimel needed more to understand. As he turned his horse and picked ten nearby mounted knights to follow him, Duran's voice sounded once again.

"Kelimel, wait!" The King's voice sounded more composed. Finally, rational thoughts had come back and allowed him to think. "Don't kill the traitor! Bring him alive!"

The aide saluted and left with the knights in tow.

Grinding his teeth as he waited, he observed the situation.

The men in green on top of Alnus Hill has built simple defences, and he failed to see how they were so sure it would protect them against the tens of thousands of men that could assault the place at any given time. But at the same time, he could already spot a few advantages that gave them an edge. The first one was those kinds of horseless carriages he had seen drive around the hill, transporting men and equipment. And the second one, the most obvious, were the steel and iron… Beasts? Chariots? Machine? It was hard to describe. It reminded him of the war elephants brought by the Sultan Shaham the third, but bulkier and with a straight snout. Just by their size, he could imagine the havoc it could wreck by crushing men and beasts alike under itself.

Thankfully, the place his camp was set was on top of a nearby hill near Holy Alnus, allowing him to have a pretty good view over the wooden fortifications surrounding it.

And what he saw angered him to no end.

"That fool!"

He could see an army crossing one of the large wooden gates of the wall, and as he squinted his eyes he recognized the banners of the western monarch who thirsted so badly for Molt's attention. Duran could couldn't even remember his name, just his title: Tzar.

"You there!" Duran pointed to one of his horsemen who immediately faced his king. "Go talk to that fool! We cannot afford to make enemies with the otherworlders now that we declared we would fight off Molt's oppression! I don't care how!"

The horseman acknowledged the order, before spurring his horse forward the Tzar's army crossing the gate. He still had some time as the army hadn't crossed it in its entirety.

And as he looked over the allied armies around him, he was glad to see none of them had the same foolish idea. At his left and right were the armies of Dagobert of Esperia and Balambra of Shartim who had their men in formation, but not advancing.

The armies at their respective sides weren't advancing either. As there wasn't enough place for all the armies to attack at the same time, two or three other armies were camped behind them, including Sardasso's. He couldn't see any other armies as they were on the other side of Alnus hill, but he was glad at least half of the forces of the Allied Armies were smart enough to realize weakening themselves when they had just basically declared war on the Empire wasn't a good idea.

Plus, the men in green had accepted to meet the envoy. Duran didn't know what was said, but that simple fact proved they were open to talking.

Tzar Alexei watched with satisfaction his troops getting ready to attack. He didn't bring a lot of his countrymen, but what he lacked in manpower he compensated with mercenary troops. The chivalrous order of the Flying Feather, the various clans of trolls that lived on his lands and human and demi-human mercenaries from other countries made up the bulk of his forces.

One of his retainers approached him before kneeling and spoke in the language of his people.

"Tzar Alexei!"

"What?" Answered Alexei.

Before the retainer could answer, a horseman he couldn't recognize approached. His heraldry was complete unfamiliar to the Tzar.

"Your highness!" The horseman exclaimed. "I come from King Duran with a message! He implores you to refrain from sending your men to the men in green! We cannot afford to-"

The Tzar was quick to cut the horseman in his speech.

"King Duran can think whatever he wants! My loyalty is to my country and its people! The riches coming from plundering the other side will come to me, and to my lands! Now tell Duran that he may be the Lion of Elbe, but he's nothing in comparison to the Emperor! And I'm not about to risk myself and everything I own for some fleeting project! Now leave!"

Without waiting for the horseman's answer, he looked over his men, seeing that now most of them were ready. He may be eager to get rid of the men in green, but he was no fool either. He brought the attention of the horn bearer beside him.

"Send in the trolls."

The musician at his side nodded, before bringing the great horn in his arms at his lips. He let out three long bellows which sounded over the entirety of the army. Soon enough, the troll clans he had hired charged forward, roaring as they did.

About a hundred trolls, all under different tribes but all lured by the Tzar's promise to give them actual lands to settle on without being harassed by the Tzar's armies. The reality of the situation was that the Tzar intended to use them as cannon fodder, intentionally sending them where they would have the most casualties. Then, by the end of the fighting he would kill the remaining ones and finally have his people settle on and exploit the mountains rich in various minerals.

Trolls were terrifying opponents on their mountains, and by luring them out not only did he take away their usual terrain advantage, he also obtained a powerful meat shield for his soldiers.

As he watched the trolls charge up the hill, he heard some kind of strange noise he had never heard before. Some kind of regular staccato, as if suddenly a horde of woodpeckers came to life and assaulted an entire forest, soon followed by the particular noise of a horse charge from the other side of the hill.

He smiled. Some monarchs from the other side seemingly decided to attack the men in green, unlike his peers on his side of the hill. And judging from the noise generated by the horse charge, it must have been massive.

Soon, he realized the staccato he had heard was from the men in green's weapons, as flashes of light appeared from their strange black wands accompanied by the same sounds.

A handful of trolls fell to the ground, but they soon got back up and resumed their charge up the hill. The rest of them wisely raised their arms to protect their only weakness: their eyes. A grey cloud of dust followed the trolls as whatever the men in green were shooting clattered against the thick stone skin and the wounds quickly regenerated thanks the troll's legendary healing ability.

The fools. Did they not know that most conventional weapons were useless against trolls? Traditionally, troll hunting was done with fire, or an arrow through the eye, directly to the brain if one wanted to harvest their blood and organs.

Satisfied to see that his cannon fodder was doing just as he predicted, he spoke a few words to the horn bearer at his side and the musician let out two long bellows this time.

The mercenary infantry he had hired let out a loud warcry, before marching forward to the top of the hill. At the same time, The Chivalrous Order of the Flying Feather's horsemen and his own cavalry behind him prepared to move. With the mercenaries and his own army, he had about five hundred horsemen and four thousand foot soldiers.

More than enough to deal with the meagre forces of the men in green. He could barely count more than a thousand men in green on foot on this side of the hill. The most likely threat would come from the giant snouted iron beasts he could see further up the hill.

He raised his mace up in the air.

"EMROY!"

The horsemen behind him all answered as one.

"EMROY! EMROY EMROY!"

And as a cloud of dust raised from the hundreds of horse hooves trampling the ground forward, the same shout kept being repeated.

"EMROY! EMROY! EMROY! EMROY!..."

As his infantry kept going forward, he led the horsemen to the side in a pincer attack. Unfortunately, the men in green had put their men in a circle around the Gate, thus there wasn't any unprotected side to capitalize on.

"Men, keep going forward! While the infantry keeps them occupied, we will storm past them and slaughter directly their leaders who are hiding cowardly behind their soldiers! EMROY!"

Once more, the name of the God of Darkness sounded as the horsemen charged as one forward. Tzar Alexei knew there would be some casualties among his troops by doing such a reckless move, but it was little in comparison to the advantage that would come from taking out the enemy leader directly. And he also noted how the men in green used seemingly only ranged weapon. Hitting a moving target was way harder than a standing still one, and he counted on the speed of his horsemen to minimize casualties. Plus, the men in green's defenses were laughable. Some kind of metallic link, followed by a short wall barely reaching the height of a man.

"Spread! Spread apart! Don't make easy targets for enemy arrows!"

The horsemen did as per his orders. Now that they were noticed, a part of the men in green stopped aiming at the struggling infantry and moved their firepower to the horsemen. Men started falling left and right of the Tzar but he kept spurring his horse faster and faster up the hill. He heard a whistling sound above him, and he shouted to give himself courage.

"EMR-"

"Nice shot, Sergeant Major!" Complimented Hazama over the radio. The leader of the mortar divisions let out a simple "Thank you, General!" in response before continuing to rain death on the cavalry that foolishly tried to charge up the hill.

For now, they were taken on two sides. The northern side where Hazama was, where a force of about five thousand men tried to attack up the hill. It failed horribly. The infantry who was barely half-way to the JSDF's third defence line were being lit up like matches brought close to a fire, and the cavalry division wasn't fairing any better under the mortar fire.

And the tanks didn't even fire their main guns yet.

A moment of tension had stressed him earlier when the infantry's firepower couldn't wound the strange rocky beasts coming forward, but he was relieved when heavy machinegun fire started dropping them like flies.

He could already see them starting to run away, the movement of panic quickly spreading through the medieval army.

He picked up the radio at his belt and tuned to the frequency of the man leading the First Combat Unit, Colonel Kamo.

"Colonel, how are things on your side? Over."

The radio stayed silent for a while before an answer was given.

"Sorry sir, things are getting hairy here. A really large army is attacking us, I'm counting more than fifty thousands, in a combination of infantry, armored beasts and-"

Suddenly, the Colonel's voice was cut by the sound Hazama recognized a shooting handgun, quickly followed by a raging roar over the radio.

"Colonel! Colonel, are you alright?! Over!"

"They're sending in flying units in massive numbers sir, and a few of them manage to get past the AA fire! But we're alright. We've had a few casualties, nothing major. I've had to call in the reserve tanks to deal with their number, they're already starting to break! Over!"

"Casualties? How many? Over."

"Three confirmed, seven more being treated by medics. They didn't reach the second line if that's what you're wondering, but they're using… Well, magic, there's no other words. So far we've seen them launching fireballs, stone spikes, some kind of energy beams and some other stuff. Reports say that bulletproof vests are enough to deal with most of these. Thankfully, these casting bastards are easy to spot so we've focused our fire on them! Over!"

"That's three too much Colonel, I want you to route that army as fast as possible. Have the tanks drive over them if needed!"

Hazama tightened his fists. The first military casualties since World War Two, and it was under his orders. This was unacceptable!

"Alright sir! Over!" Answered Colonel Kamo.

Hazama was itching to go see how the battle was going on the other side, but doing that would mean that he didn't trust the people under his orders. And if he showed that, he would lose all respect from his troops. Instead, he ordered for any fire to stop as the enemy army on his side, now completely terrorized, tried to fit through the wooden gate they came through in a complete and utter rout.

The horsemen trampled the infantry in their uncoordinated galloping, the infantry ran over the bodies covering the ground and larger monsters sent men and horses alike flying in their desire to go away as fast as possible.

And as the adrenaline started to die down, many younger soldiers started puking over the realization of what they had just done. Because this wasn't a battle.

This was a massacre.

The shock of this sight wasn't felt only in Japanese minds.

Duran and his closest soldiers, on top of the camp his army was set on, watched wordlessly the sight of the Tzar's army being destroyed.

His army may not have been the most numerous and he didn't have the best soldiers, but still. An army five thousand strong was a force to be reckoned with. And the men in green were outnumbered at least three to one.

But even then. The Tzar's army didn't even reach half of the distance needed to get in close quarters with the men in green.

His cavalry corp of five hundred men? All veteran and trained soldiers? Gone, reduced to a pulp by fire from the heavens.

The hundred trolls? Beasts that no sane man would even consider fighting? Beasts that could regenerate a chopped limb in a single day? Only a handful were left, hurling men and beast alike in their path to safety.

The four thousand strong and prideful men, chanting to the god of war in defiance? Cut apart by bright flashes of light, loud explosions sending tremors that could be felt on the ground Duran stood on, and left with a meaningless death. Over two thousand men died in mere minutes before they realized only death awaited them, and chose to run away. Duran could only thank whoever was leading the men in green, because even he didn't wish for such a thing to happen to his opponents.

Or did he?

The running men slowly turned to routed legionaries in his mind. The countless bodies on the ground turned into mangled wyvern riders and their mounts. And Molt's disformed body laid on the ground in a pool of blood.

And he smiled.

No more noble sons and daughters sent in "education" to Molt's court, being basically taken hostage.

No more famines, caused by the Empire's greedy hand taking away much needed resources.

No more insufferably smug expression on the Imperial family member's faces as he renewed his yearly oath of loyalty to Him in his throne room.

Focused at the vision in his mind, he barely listened to the scout at his side reporting over the Red Shogun's, Cyrus the great's and six other nation's complete failure in assaulting the hill from the other side, resulting in the very same fate he could see in front of him.

He had even forgotten about traitor amongst his ranks who had cast those fireballs.

The soldiers at his side were the same. The young and fiery nobles who were pestering him to send them to "trample the men in green like an ant" were silent. The soldiers and priests of Emroy who were on the verge of mutiny after seeing such a "treat" and not sent to spill blood in Emroy's name were silent.

Nothing could be said at the industrial scale of killing that had just happened.

It had been woken up too early. It was angry. It was hungry.

It looked for a prey. It had hunted for weeks the long-eared mortals in the forest, but they were hard to catch, and not numerous. In order to satiate It's unending hunger, It had looked for a more substantial source of food, choosing to look for another mortal's nest.

There, they would usually by the hundreds if not thousands. And they would raise animals which were easy prey to It.

Flapping its huge wings, It saw such a dwelling placed against a river. A square dwelling, no doubt hiding plenty of food and with no means to defend against It.

Then again, what could defend against It?

Under its long life spanning multiple millennia, It had fought only a handful of mortals which could keep up with It's power. But none of them could ever wound It seriously.

As It was about to descend upon his prey, It's nose picked up a familiar smell. Fire. Blood. Metal. Fear.

A mortal army was near. Standing in tight packs and with slow response time, they made the ideal food for It. And even more, It wouldn't have to move aside their rock and wood dwellings to reach them. It wasn't afraid of them. It never was.

Switching the position of It's wings, It flew towards the source of the smell.

An army of green mortals, defending the top of a hill against a much more numerous mortal army surrounding them.

Whatever. It never took side. It just killed and ate until it was satisfied.

With a loud roar, the Flame Dragon nosedived towards Alnus Hill.

Hello there, author here

Here's Alnus, and the first contact between the two nations. I did say at the beginning of this story that I wasn't interested in writing big one-sided massacres, hence why meeting at Alnus Hill is taking a single chapter. And why I skimmed over the main assault from part of the allied armies.

Major Simi: They did indeed, hehehe. Now it's the Allied Armie's monarch's task to try to get it back up.

rmarcano321: Now why would I spoil that?

HyperionATLAS: That was my plan from the start and I plan to stick to that. Part of the reason I stopped writing my previous story was because chapters were too long and I realized over time how hard it was.

Kirov of the USSR: I would tell my fav historical song if 's channel didn't get deleted :(I think I miss the most landknescht songs.

DownTownAlpha: Thank you! Truthfully it felt like to me that people didn't like that much the part with Inspector Gennosuke and co so it feels really good to know at least one person likes it! I didn't forget about that character (nor the surviving mercenaries) so they'll come back!

TheGeekno72: Well, someone must butt in at some point, right?

That's all for this week! Thanks for the comments, and see you next week!