The Empty Fort Strategy (4)
The voice of Grautal crackled through the Communication Magic Tool.
<Lord Sternfeldt! The enemy knights are gathering!>
It was a far cry from the bored tone he’d used for the past thirty minutes, simply calling out coordinates for the Altar Cannons.
<The knights who were sent after His Highness the First Prince are regrouping as well, so be careful! They’ll likely launch an attack soon!>
“Confirmed. Over.”
<…Why do you always add that ‘over’ bit? Anyway, stay sharp.>
Hmm. So they’re finally coming.
It looked like the enemy knights’ all-out assault—the scenario I’d judged most likely—was about to begin.
From the moment they regrouped until they launched their raid… how much time did we have left?
Probably between fifteen and thirty minutes. That was all the breathing room remaining.
“Bruno! Go check on the infantry’s condition and the formation! The knights could hit us in fifteen minutes, so get over there and take command!”
“Huh? Me?”
Who else would do it?
“Who else is free right now?!”
Right now, Grautal and the other knights were busy relaying enemy positions because of the Communication Magic Tool’s limited range. They were essentially running a living relay, passing messages like batons in a race. At least they didn’t have to physically meet up every time.
In any case, the knights were all tied up with their duties and couldn’t return to the front. Hans and I were equally occupied, frantically pumping out Fire Balls from the Altar Cannons.
Besides, even if we stopped firing now, the enemy wasn’t likely to cancel their charge. And if we did stop, the First Prince’s forces would be in serious danger.
Therefore, among the few people with free hands, the only one who could even pretend to command was Bruno, the noble-born one.
Bruno seemed to reach the same conclusion after thinking it over. Still, the sight of him heading off made me uneasy, so I kept adding instructions.
“Check the wooden barriers too! Make sure the spears and shields are in good shape! Tell them not to just hold the spears—drive the butts into the ground and brace them under their armpits for a solid grip!”
“You don’t have to tell me the basics! I already know!”
…Did he really?
…Well, what could I do? Even if he didn’t, I couldn’t go myself. I had no choice but to trust him.
He did come from a knightly family, after all. He must have picked up a thing or two growing up. He’d figure it out.
More importantly, I had my own job to do.
“Hans! Lord Levenstil! We’re switching back to the coordinates I gave you earlier, firing at five-second intervals! One, two, three—Fire Ball!”
“Fire Ball!”
“Fire Ball!”
Shwoooong—!
Four spheres of flame streaked diagonally into the distant sky.
Why four when there were only three of us? Because I was operating two Altar Cannons at the same time.
My head felt like it was going to split open.
You know that training exercise where you draw a triangle with your left hand and a square with your right? It felt exactly like doing that nonstop for thirty minutes.
Even though it was the same spell, I still had to split my mana, form separate images, and handle both castings independently. On top of that, I had to keep giving orders, calculate timing and positioning, and make sure the Fire Balls landed in the same area as close to simultaneously as possible.
Trying to do all of that at once was enough to make even my brain feel like it would explode.
After firing for about two more minutes, I poured mana into the Communication Magic Tool.
“Ah, Lord Grautal. Can you hear me? Over.”
“Confirmed. Over.”
Looked like the wind direction had shifted in the meantime.
I corrected the firing trajectory based on Grautal’s report and gave Hans and Lord Levenstil the updated coordinates.
Then, not long after—
“Fire Ball!”
We resumed launching from the Altar Cannons.
Count Wint-Hafen simply couldn’t understand it.
How in the world were the enemy launching such precise attacks?
‘It’s too accurate and efficient to be random fire.’
He had already tested whether they were shooting blindly by observing if they struck the same spot twice, but they didn’t. He had drastically shifted the infantry’s positions to see if the enemy had scouted their locations in advance, yet the attacks still landed exactly on the new positions.
‘And these attacks are targeting only the infantry.’
It was obvious now—they were deliberately avoiding the areas packed with nobles and knights, relentlessly focusing solely on the foot soldiers.
‘Probably to maximize casualties.’
Even now, the power of the falling Fire Balls wasn’t particularly threatening.
A knight could easily dodge a lazily flying Fire Ball or cut it down with sword aura. Many nobles who took the field carried personal defensive artifacts to guard against stray arrows, so the damage might not be that severe.
Which meant the enemy was intentionally avoiding those targets. They could identify in advance where their magic would be ineffective and choose targets accordingly.
Grind.
Count Wint-Hafen unconsciously clenched his teeth.
‘If this continues, we will definitely lose.’
He was supposed to be leading an overwhelmingly superior force to certain victory, yet absurd variables kept appearing and ruining everything.
“Are the knights ready?!”
“Yes! They’ve all returned and finished preparations!”
A senior knight dispatched from the Eastern Knight Order answered the count’s roar. He was the very same man who had earlier been tasked with attacking the First Prince’s army.
“You already know what to do. Go wipe them out! Without fail!”
The senior knight mounted his horse, visibly tense from the fury in the count’s voice.
He immediately yanked the reins and turned his mount.
“Hya!”
In an instant, the knights surged out of the Second Prince’s camp. There were easily eighty of them—a massive force.
<Lord Sternfeldt! They’ve set out!>
Yeah, I can guess the rest without hearing it.
The enemy knights were coming for us.
<The knights are on the move! Their numbers are roughly eighty!>
Eighty, huh? That was larger than expected.
‘They must be committing the majority of the knights in the Second Prince’s army here.’
It was proof of just how much we’d been annoying them.
I launched three Fire Balls into the air.
Fssshooo—! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The spheres burst high above like fireworks, leaving behind loud cracks and bursts of orange flame.
‘Signal sent.’
Time to switch from offense to defense. The moment had come to pause attacks on the enemy main force and deal seriously with the incoming knights.
I poured mana into the Communication Magic Tool and spoke to Grautal.
“Ah, Lord Grautal. Have everyone return and report the enemy knights’ positions in real time. Over.”
<You’re not attacking their main force anymore?>
“Correct. I’m focusing on dealing with the enemy knights instead. Over.”
<From what I saw earlier, you were firing quite frequently, but can you really stop eighty knights with that?>
“…We’ll do it until it works. I’m the one who came up with this plan, remember? If it goes according to plan, we’ll be fine.”
<…Understood. Good luck. Over.>
Oh. He finally ended his reply with “over.” Even that stubborn old Grautal.
“I probably won’t be speaking again until the situation is resolved after this transmission. Don’t wait for my responses—just keep updating me on their positions in real time. Over.”
Not long after I finished speaking—
Thudududududu—!
The thunder of wild hoofbeats filled the area ahead.
They were still hidden by the trees from where I stood, but the infantry in front must have had a clear view of the charging enemy knights by now.
<Five hundred paces from our infantry! Four-fifty! Four hundred!>
The distance was closing rapidly.
I roughly calculated their speed from Grautal’s reports and hurriedly adjusted the aim of the Altar Cannons.
<Three-fifty paces! Three hundred! Two-fifty!>
Now!
“Fire Ball!” “Fire Ball!” “Fire Ball!”
Shwooooo—!
Four spheres of flame tore through the sky in perfect sync with my signal.
Kwa-gwang!
The explosions sounded from quite a distance away.
<Direct hit! But only some were unhorsed. Most of the enemy remain combat-ready! Approximately seventy-five left!>
So that strike took out about five? I hoped the impact of being thrown from their horses had killed or incapacitated them, but that was probably just wishful thinking.
I kept firing Fire Balls without pause.
This time I saturated the area roughly a hundred paces ahead of the infantry line, blanketing the ground in explosions.
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwa-gwa—!
The roar of the detonations echoed through the forest despite the distance.
<Success! Most of the enemy have been thrown or have stopped in place! Unfortunately most of the blasts landed in front of them, so few were directly hit, but the horses panicked and bucked them off!>
Wow, Grautal had a real talent for relaying information.
His vivid reports let me picture the situation clearly.
I’d heard that even warhorses didn’t get used to explosions and flames without specific training. Since gunpowder didn’t exist here, there probably hadn’t been much reason to train them for it. The horses must have gone into a frenzy from the sudden barrage.
So even if the flaming spheres hadn’t dealt much physical damage to the enemy, they had successfully halted the charge.
<However, some are still mounted and preparing to charge again! They’re turning their horses to regain distance! About thirty of them!>
Hmm. Still more left than I’d hoped.
“Hans! Lord Levenstil! Report remaining ammo!”
“About thirty minutes’ worth!”
“Same here!”
Hmm. I had about thirty minutes left as well. Since we’d based it on ten shots per minute, that meant roughly three hundred rounds per Altar Cannon remained.
“Everyone, fire as much as you can! Target the area within thirty paces of the previous coordinates!”
We would completely incinerate everything from fifty to a hundred meters in front of our infantry.
After that, I’d go finish off whoever was left.
With my own two hands.