Jungle Warfare Is Hell (2)
The Great Rainforest stretching between the South and the East was a hellish place — sweltering, thick with every manner of venomous pest and blight — yet to the Eastern army it was familiar ground, a place that even brought a measure of comfort.
Though the Eastern forces were generally rated inferior in combat strength to those of the South, the North, or the Center, when it came to jungle warfare inside the Great Rainforest, and to battle at the Rock Fortress that guarded the entrance to the East, they were considered the strongest in the world.
In every war game ever conducted, the East had never once lost a jungle engagement within the Great Rainforest — an invincible record.
And for all the brutal environment of the deep jungle, their encampments were surprisingly livable. Mages rotated around the clock to maintain protective barriers that kept out venomous insects and wild beasts, and those same barriers even stripped the oppressive humidity from the air within.
The soldiers could live as comfortably as if they were drilling on their own backyard parade ground.
Knights stood watch in an environment so dry and pleasant it scarcely felt like a jungle at all, and while any other force would have watched its combat effectiveness plummet merely by standing still in such terrain, the Eastern army suffered zero non-combat losses and held peak condition.
From their perspective, the present battle was merely a nuisance.
The Tigerfolk and Leopardfolk — barbarian tribes serving under the Western army — had no reason to know this terrain, yet they appeared and vanished with uncanny stealth, carrying the West's newly developed weapons and inflicting small but steady casualties.
Eastern counterattacks were no less fierce, and they had managed to kill some of the Tigerfolk. But the survivors always fled with their fallen comrades' weapons clutched tight, making it nearly impossible to recover any spoils.
Word had it that the Leopardfolk had even struck the rear supply units, and because of that the Eastern army was maintaining a level of tension they had never felt even against the Iron Vanguard or the Rose Knights.
"For a bunch of primitive barbarians, those beastmen fight damn well in the forest. Tch."
"They can't keep this up forever. They're taking losses of their own, and they haven't properly cut our supply lines either. We're getting support from the Center — no matter how much money those bastards have, manpower isn't something you can buy. They're probably waiting for us to exhaust ourselves fighting the humidity and the pests in this jungle, but that's never going to happen."
"Idiots. They have no idea how strong we are in jungle warfare. You think a handful of beastmen who happen to be used to forests and jungles can do anything to us?"
"That loud, strange weapon of theirs is certainly powerful, but it couldn't punch through the thick trees or rock of this jungle. Jungle combat using cover is our specialty — nothing to worry about."
The Eastern army had taken casualties, but relative to their overall numbers the losses were negligible, and everyone knew the barbarian tribes were vastly outnumbered by humans. No one in the Eastern ranks was particularly concerned.
Prolonged jungle warfare was hell for those trapped inside it — but for the Eastern army, whose specialty was precisely that kind of fighting, even that scenario was fully covered by their manuals. Their confidence overflowed.
Then Ruben, overall commander of the Eastern guerrilla forces, appeared behind the chatting soldiers and snapped them back into line.
"You lot — are you underestimating the enemy? Cowards' ambush or not, these are the people who took the South by force, Iron Vanguard and all. A single moment of carelessness can bring defeat. Don't let words like that leave your mouths so easily again."
"C-Commander!"
"Apologies! We'll correct ourselves!"
"Neither the Tigerfolk nor the Leopardfolk can use magic or aura, but they are masters of moving with extreme speed and stealth through this jungle. In raw physical combat alone they far surpass us — and they're carrying those bizarre weapons on top of it. Always maintain six-man buddy teams at minimum, and never let your perimeter watch slip."
"Yes, sir!"
Having set the soldiers' minds straight, Ruben returned to the command post, rechecked his plans, spread out the tactical map, and prepared for the next day's operations.
Tomorrow the repairs on the Second and Third Encampments would be complete, allowing him to redistribute the soldiers currently packed past capacity into the First Encampment. The officers to lead each camp had already been designated. Starting tomorrow, they would be able to strike the enemy from three directions.
A frontal advance from the First Encampment had been blocked by an orc unit that spewed something at tremendous speed, but while the First held the enemy's attention, the Second and Third could hit the Western army's other facilities. That was entirely feasible.
Isaac, you bastard. Starting tomorrow, you'll feel with every bone in your body why the Eastern army is the strongest in jungle warfare.
Having finished his rough tactical review, Ruben patrolled the encampment to assess the situation.
"Any raids by the Tigerfolk or Leopardfolk?"
"There were localized skirmishes throughout the morning and afternoon, but we took zero casualties on our side. Looking at where the engagements occurred, it seems they're trying to encircle us in a ring."
"Hah. With those numbers, they think they can circularly encircle this massive force? They must have absurd confidence in that bizarre weapon of theirs — even after several of them died carrying it. The Second and Third Encampment repairs finish tomorrow, so focus entirely on perimeter watch today. Victory will fall into our hands without any need to rush."
"Yes, sir!"
Analyzing the way Isaac had been running his raiding parties, Ruben had already reached his conclusions.
The man had used the threat of raids to force the supply units to grow larger than necessary, then merged them with the garrison forces to deliberately oversaturate the headcount. From that position, there were typically three operations he might attempt.
First: having herded them into one place, annihilate them all at once. The Western army's weapons were certainly formidable, but they were far too outnumbered for that approach.
Second: fire attack. But while that might work on dry plains, the Great Rainforest's trees were so waterlogged that fire barely spread. The air itself was saturated with moisture, and rivers ran everywhere — this was no place for a fire attack to succeed.
Third: starvation. Having packed them into one location with more mouths than needed, food consumption would inevitably exceed projected demand, and people would start going hungry.
Once an army begins to starve, combat effectiveness and morale plummet to the bottom. And though the Great Rainforest might look abundant with food at a glance, nearly everything was laced with deadly poison — a green desert where local foraging barely worked.
If that was the plan, Ruben could give him credit for thinking it through. The problem was that Isaac didn't know they were receiving an endless stream of supplies, food, water, and manpower from the Center.
A temporary overcrowding was no problem at all, and the encampments they had established throughout the Great Rainforest over the years were more than plentiful.
No matter what Isaac tried, he couldn't land a fatal blow on them. Meanwhile, they could erupt from somewhere in the vast, sprawling Great Rainforest, ambush Isaac's forces and facilities, and vanish back into the jungle.
Even if the East's raw combat power wasn't enough to sweep the West away in a single stroke, they could hold out until death, grinding the enemy down piece by piece.
Isaac — not knowing that we have the Center's support at our backs was your fatal mistake.
Convinced of victory, Ruben continued his patrol of the encampment. Reports from the soldiers kept coming.
"Movement reports from an hour ago indicate the beastmen are pulling back. It appears to be a retreat. The funny part is… every single one of them said the same thing before falling back: if you don't want to die, leave this place before tonight."
"Leave before tonight if you don't want to die? What a ridiculous bunch. If they were that confident, they should have just attacked on the spot. Don't pay attention to that nonsense, but keep the watch especially tight — they might try a night raid."
"Yes, sir!"
Having given his final orders, Ruben took a moment to survey the surroundings. Owls sat perched on the branches of the densely packed trees all around.
An awful lot of owls today.
The moment the thought crossed his mind, the owls silently beat their wings and vanished into the jungle darkness.
Thinking nothing of it, Ruben was about to return to the commander's tent when—
Whoooosh—!
From high among the towering giants of the Great Rainforest came a sound like wind being split apart. Everyone looked up at the noise—
BOOOOOOM!!!
An enormous explosion erupted in the upper canopy of trees that rose dozens of meters high, and a deafening roar tore at their ears. At the same instant, something rained down toward the ground like raindrops — but at a speed no raindrop could match.
CRACK—!
The protective barrier that had been maintained around the clock to shield the encampment began spiderwebbing with cracks in an instant. Ruben's ears rang so badly he could barely hear, yet he desperately blew the horn and issued emergency orders.
"Enemy attack! All hands, wake up! Enemy attack! Prepare for assault immediately—"
BOOOOOOM!!!
BOOOOOOM!!!
But before he could finish, a second and third explosion went off. All of them detonated first against the dense upper canopy before ever reaching the ground — yet even from dozens of meters up, something poured endlessly toward the earth, and the barrier was now on the verge of shattering.
Ruben could no longer hear anything through the ringing in his ears. Instead, feeling the tremendous vibrations of each blast and watching the barrier about to be pulverized in real time, he screamed until his throat tore.
"Mages, restore the barrier at once! The enemy has opened their attack! Restore the barrier now! Pour every scrap of mana into barrier restoration!"
Then something massive came plunging straight toward the ground, this time dodging the trees entirely. The moment that steel-like object struck the barrier—
CRASH!
The barrier shattered completely and vanished, and the monstrous projectile slammed into the earth and exploded.