Chapter 54
Chapter 54
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: Battle of Nakmanr (3)
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The original plan had been to form an encirclement and buy time.
To lure Lord Cain Blackguard into the Magic Frontier in person. In other words, the dwarves were nothing more than bait.
However, Mamba couldn't help tilting his head at the dwarves' desperate cries.
"Hold out for just two more hours! Then the Lord will come!"
'Two hours? They're that certain the lord will get here in a mere two hours?'
The initial plan had called for maintaining the encirclement for at least a week, maybe a month. And they expected results in two hours—not even a full day?
Yet it didn't feel like a lie; it was oddly specific. Did they have some ace up their sleeve?
Mamba's deliberation didn't last long. Soon, the snake clan's chieftain raised his hand and swung it downward. The signal to attack.
"Begin the assault! We have to end this as fast as possible!!"
'Just in case. Better wrap it up before those two hours are up.'
The enemy had wyverns. Meaning it wasn't entirely impossible for them to arrive within two hours if they knew the location.
The issue was whether they could relay that location... but word was they wielded some mysterious power called magic.
They must have used magic to send word. That would explain everything.
'So that's why they sent only dwarves into the Magic Frontier—they had something to rely on. Arrogant fools. I'll shatter that arrogance myself.'
On the battlefield, the judgment of the leader commanding from the front always took priority.
Hunts were full of variables to begin with. Just look at the bear clan's defeat.
The bear clan was a higher-ranked tribe with power to match. And yet they'd lost to their prey.
Who could have imagined that? In other words, nothing was impossible.
Having grasped that, Mamba planned to hunt as many dwarves as quickly as possible, then withdraw to their main camp.
Dwarves should have been easy enough to handle in truth, but the reality unfolding before his eyes was far different from his expectations.
"Their resistance is fiercer than we thought!"
"Tighten the encirclement and push them! Can't you at least manage that?!"
"Th-that's... They've slathered the palisade with oil, so climbing it isn't easy. And they're throwing rocks and putting up a real fight besides."
"Damn it all."
If it had been the bear clan, they could have smashed through with brute force. Unfortunately, the snake clan lacked that kind of raw power.
That left climbing as the only option, but even that was made difficult by the oil.
And the dwarves weren't just going to stand by and watch the snakekin scale the walls. They hurled stones and thrust spears.
It was a commendably solid defense. But even that would crumble eventually under relentless pressure.
"Target the palisade first! Once we break through by force, the rest will be easy!!"
"The dwarves have dug pits right at the base of the palisade—it's not simple!"
"Then fill them with dirt or corpses!"
They'd tried to encircle, but the enemy's fierce resistance left no room for excuses—not without at least some accomplishment to show for it.
Defying orders to fight and then losing would spell doom. Impatience began to grip the snakekin.
In contrast, the dwarves leveraged their numerical disadvantage through tools and tactics. It made holding out easier than expected.
But having useful tools and deploying them precisely where and when needed were two entirely different things.
Dwarf Grid, who had been fending off the snakekin with relative ease, clicked his tongue.
[What if it hadn't been snakekin but bear clan coming? Then the palisade and pits would mean nothing.]
[The bear clan won't come. Not ever.]
There was such conviction in that voice that he had no choice but to believe it for now. And the young lord did not betray that faith.
Of course, that didn't mean they could hold out forever. These were hastily erected barricades and pits at best.
The pits weren't particularly deep, and the palisade wasn't all that sturdy, so cracks began to appear bit by bit.
The pits filled with the corpses and dirt the beastkin shoved in, and the oil on the palisade started to dry.
Despite their desperate resistance, they were driven right to the brink of collapse. But they had already fulfilled their role.
KABOOM! THUD!!
"Gaaahhh!!"
"Wh-what the hell is it this time?!"
A massive explosion rocked the battlefield out of nowhere. Mamba hurriedly scanned the field as the blast sapped their momentum.
The moment he spotted the man slowly emerging from the billowing dust, Mamba's expression hardened.
A man with black hair and black eyes, shouldering a pitch-black greatsword.
Cain Blackguard.
He had truly appeared.
As the beastkin's minds went blank at the impossible sight, only Mamba managed to think rationally.
'No way... how in the world...?'
If he was really coming, Mamba had assumed he'd ride in on a wyvern. There was no other way.
Yet no wyvern appeared. And he couldn't miss their presence if they were there.
Besides, if they'd come with wyvern support, there'd be no reason not to reinforce this position.
And yet Cain Blackguard stood before them. How? In that split second, Mamba grasped the truth.
"Don't tell me... he was in there from the start...?"
It was judgment worthy of a clan leader. Unfortunately, it was far too late.
As he belatedly opened his mouth to relay the realization to the others—
He saw it. Cain charging straight at him astride a pitch-black, ominous fiend horse...
How had he pinpointed the position of their commander from the rear?
But it was too late to flee. He closed the distance in an instant, surpassing the beastkin with ease.
"Kgh!!!"
The only reason he survived was that he bore the title of king.
The snake clan's king, ranked fourth among the Seven Royal Beasts, wouldn't fall so easily. Mamba glared at Cain with blazing eyes.
Fine. Let's see who dies.
His beastly instincts began to awaken.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Deceiving the enemy was no easy task.
For starters, they couldn't deploy their full forces in an already disadvantageous situation.
For reasons unknown, the foe believed only dwarves were here. A fact confirmed through repeated deaths.
But of course, there was no way they'd enter the Magic Frontier with dwarves alone.
Two hundred dwarves. And a hundred soldiers including knights for escort...
Even three hundred troops couldn't match them head-on, so the only option left was striking at their flank.
Neither he nor his hundred escorts could be seen. The enemy would surely grow suspicious.
That meant the dwarves alone had to hold and endure.
In the end, they had no choice but to rely on Defeat Regression for that part. Confirm the enemy's numbers for sure, then adjust next time.
The oil on the palisade, the dug pits—all countermeasures born from Defeat Regression.
Even with such desperate preparations, the limit to holding out was barely two hours.
Yet that short span was enough to fool the enemy.
Judging enough time had passed, Cain quietly broke through the palisade and flanked them with a surprise attack.
Thus, the snakekin—whose attention was fixed solely on the dwarves—fell into true chaos, convinced reinforcements had arrived.
All but one, that is: their leader, who pierced the deception in an instant.
'He saw through the ruse, rallied from the chaos, and counterattacked. That was the cause of last defeat.'
Knowing the cause meant it could be fixed. That was why Cain rode his fiend horse straight for the leader.
Give him even the slightest opening, and he'd regain control and strike back immediately.
A fitting member of the Seven Royal Beasts... None of the Magic Frontier's four great powers were to be underestimated.
"Charge!! Kill them all!!"
"Open the palisade! We're going out too!!"
"Waaaaah!!"
As Cain boldly charged on his fiend horse, his escorts followed suit, and the dwarves flung open the gates to join the fray.
The sudden counterattack plunged the snakekin into instant chaos. Were reinforcements really here? What then?
"Wh-who do we kill first?"
"No, we have to rescue the leader first!"
"Nonsense! Block the enemy troops first!"
The clamor of the battlefield rang clear: voices thick with enemy confusion, footsteps lost in disarray.
Victory was within grasp, mere pieces away. And one of those was the head of the leader commanding the field.
Cain turned, locking eyes on the snake clan's chieftain. Fittingly, the enemy's goal seemed to match his own.