Enemy Retreats

Ronda

"Board!" I ordered with General's Orders.

Immediately, the orders followed, as the soldiers and powerhouses moved into the siege towers.

The battle had got a bad start and a few surprises, but it won't stop us.

I will conquer the city.

We still have the numerical advantage, and we just need to show them, that we will win this battle absolutely and their biggest surprises will be useless.

Mercenaries, especially foreign ones, will run like rats, they are. If we showed them; there is no chance that they will win.

The mercenaries were a surprise. Merchant States had told us that their mercenaries and adventurers wouldn't take part in the conflict of the region.

Whether it is against the undead or people. They wouldn't send their mercenaries in here, aside from a few exceptions.

So, they must be from somewhere else, not that I am much interested.

The only thing I am interested in is a victory. After I attain it, I will execute that bastard Cardin and all mercenaries remain in the city.

I want to imprint the facts on their mind. That nobody should stand against Deepond.

Those who do will turned to earth.

The soldiers reached the wall with eleven siege towers and began to fight the enemy on the wall.

Cardin is there, but the cripple bastard isn't finding himself. I wonder what Silver thought by giving the command to a cripple.

He wouldn't be able to motivate the army properly, which is a good new for us.

I pushed those thoughts away and focused on the siege towers. I didn't go up in there, nor did I let my son go in it. He wanted to, but it was too dangerous.

I will not risk my son's life or mine.

I am the commander, and my job is to command, not fight the battle.

It's the job of soldiers and powerhouses.

Still, I might have gone there. If Silver had been there; it would have been worth the risk, but since he is not there. I rather would not.

Hun!

Suddenly, I felt my Dengersense ringing up faintly, and a moment later; I saw a whole wall burning in a green fire.

"Its Alchefire Run!"

People shouted, and I could feel the panic spreading among the soldiers, with the morale depreciating fast.

It's bad, considering their morale had already dipped slightly because of our slow response to their huge barrage and explosion of the siege tower.

It scared them so much, that many soldiers and powerhouses had jumped from the siege towers.

Most didn't know what alchefire was till yesterday. When it had wiped away nearly half of the horde of two hundred and fifty thousand.

Seeing it even, I took a step back, before my eyes widened in realization.

"It's not Alchefire!" I informed through Army Telepathy.

BANG BANG BANG!

I had just done, and they started to react to the information. When suddenly my Dangersense buzzed, and I saw three siege towers exploding one after another.

Laris cast a shield and saved me from splinters while I watched in shock.

I quickly got control over my emotions, seeing the state of my army.

"It's not Alchfire!" I informed them again, but this time, it worked less as the enemy had intensified their attacks. Not just the spells, but also cannons and arrows.

BANG!

I swatted away the arrow, that pierced through Laris's shield. Only to see another siege tower exploding into pieces.

"Ram, the door open," I commanded.

It's not a strategy I would use. It's expensive in spells and cannonballs, but the bastards have destroyed five of my siege towers.

The seven alone wouldn't be enough. So, I am targeting the door parallelly. Once it has broken, I will push my army through it.

It will cause a lot more losses, but I have enough numbers to absorb it.

Though I had already decided that once, I got to the city. I will kill a lot of people. They could have made things easy for themselves.

It would have been a bloodless occupation, and that crippled would have got the great wealth and rank, but he chose the difficult path, and he will pay the price for that.

A few minutes passed and a massive battering ram out of the army.

The enemy attacked with spells and cannons and even threw the burning oil from above, but my mages reacted and defended against them.

General's Armament

I activated the skill on the battering ram. It will give a boost to the ram's effect.

BAM!

The battering ram had rammed into the door, but it barely shook. The bastards are using the skills and spells on the door; I am even sensing a different type of magic.

If I am not wrong, then the filthy orcs have also used their magic on it.

These bastards will be the first people, I will expel from the city. I can't stand them and their filthy faces; the emperor was right in removing them from the empire.

BAM BANG!

The ram crashed again, and at the same time, I saw another siege tower had exploded.

A powerful cannonball had avoided the shields and blasted it apart.

'How is this happening?' I asked myself. If it had been one time, I would have accepted it, but it had happened four times.

'Shamanic magic?' I couldn't help but ask myself.

I had no experience with it. I had never fought the orcs; I had a few chances early in my career, but I declined those.

Maybe I shouldn't have.

'Father!'

I was thinking about how to save half of the siege towers that had remained when I heard the painful voice of my son.

I focused on him and saw an arrowed pierced his shoulder.

I looked up at the wall and saw the same bitch who had sniped at me.

She has targeted my son.

Rage built in my heart, and I wanted to use every mage under my command to target that bitch, but I had controlled myself.

Knowing the injury won't kill him. I turned back to the battle, focusing more and more on the door as capturing the wall began to seem like a distant possibility.

If we had the siege towers intact. We would have sent our army and powerhouses on the wall, which we did in the first few minutes before they had started blowing them.

Now the door is the only option. Once we are inside, our powerhouses will fight their powerhouses.

It is there we will show the bastards our mettle.

'Hartis, I want the door broken,' I said to Colonel leading the charge at that.

I directed the army and defended against spells and cannons. Which they seemed to have in unlimited numbers, seeing their pace had not slowed down since the battle.

Minutes passed and the battering ram continued to ram at the door and, aside from small progress, they were able to move far, even with spell join.

Bang Bang!

I was thinking about diverting my army when I heard the last two back-to-back explosions.

Two more siege towers have burst into flames. Leaving only the four.

BANG!

I was looking at the flames when I heard the explosion close to me. I was so powerful that, it had broken through two of Laris's shields, even cracked the third one.

I looked toward the gate and saw the battering ram burning. With the burned, broken, and bloodied bodies of my soldiers everywhere.

Many are dead, while others screaming in pain.

I looked at the severed hand, that had struck against the third shield before falling down.

Bang!

I was processing it, when I heard yet another powerful explosion and, without turning, I knew that another siege tower had been destroyed.

The morale is down with many of the powerhouse injured and with few dead, while the enemy looks energetic.

They looked like, they could fight for a long time.

They barely suffered any casualties while we were reeling in them. Our numbers are not that good, that we could absorb it without suffering any consequences.

"Retreat!"

I ordered and immediately the army retreated, but the enemies didn't stop attacking us. Instead, they have intensified their attacks.

"We are retreating. Stop attacking us!" I shouted at the bastard.

There was no reply from Cardin, other than that irritating chuckle and

…

Cardin

I looked at the retreating army, and the burning siege towers before turning to Mage Zela.

The cannons that blasted the siege towers were under her control. They were the only things that I had no control over, and they blew eight siege towers.

The cannons couldn't do that with really powerful cannonballs.

They were powerful enough to destroy the siege towers, but they needed to reach there first.

The enemy had capable mages and there were tens of shields, but those cannonballs broke through all and destroyed those towers.

Feeling my gaze, she looked at me.

"Should I inform the lord about the situation, Commander?" she asked.

She didn't have to ask me about it, but it felt good she asked.

"Yes," I replied and turned to the enemy. They are retreating, but whether it is a temporary retreat or a full retreat, I don't know.

We will not be attacking with our soldiers. Given our numbers, it's risky.

It might look like they had suffered big damage seeing the destruction, but most of the enemy's army is intact and they didn't lose many powerhouses either.

They could attack us again, but we were ready to face them and this time, their losses wouldn't be small.