We Take the Lead
“Is everyone here?”
“Yes, sir! First Squad, all present!”
“Second Squad, all present!”
“Third Squad, all present!”
And then…
“Fourth Squad, all present!”
Arteon checked his squad members once more and answered in a clear, strong voice.
Hendris nodded.
“We will move to the western formation of the First Line and fight there. We wait here until the order drops, then join the battlefield at once.”
Only then did it truly sink in that they had arrived at the First Line.
Every soldier of the Fourth Platoon clenched his fists, faces tight with tension.
They would soon see with their own eyes just how terrifying the infamous battlefield of the First Line really was.
But still…
We’re going home alive. No matter what.
We didn’t go through all that hell just to die in a place like this…!
Every man steeled himself with desperate resolve and gripped his fists tighter.
And then…
“Move out!”
They advanced swiftly and linked up with the First Company. Ahead of them, a fierce battle was already raging.
It looked as though the line was holding—for now.
But our side’s losses… are heavy.
What stood out even more was the sense that this assault was far from over.
One strike to shatter the formation, followed by wave after wave of continuous attacks. An operation that gradually ramped up the pressure with timed intervals.
And among the Kar tribe, there had been one commander particularly skilled at exactly that kind of assault.
…Don’t tell me this is the sector Bractus is commanding?
Bractus was a Kar general of considerable renown even in the North. A man of formidable personal strength who was also a master of shifting tactics.
I’ve been burned by him more times than I care to count.
For now, all he could do was hope it wasn’t him.
Arteon waited calmly for the situation to develop.
And then…
“…….”
Pierland, leading the First Company, watched the battlefield with a heavy expression as well.
This latest Kar attack…
“It’s different.”
The pattern was slightly off from anything they had used before.
How to put it…
“It feels like they’re still holding something back, sir.”
His adjutant said from beside him.
Pierland nodded.
“This can’t be their full strength. A follow-up force will hit us soon.”
That was why they themselves had the newly arrived reinforcements standing by, ready for combat.
The one thing that still nagged at him, though…
Was the earlier mobile force nothing more than a prelude?
Pierland looked past the fighting toward the rear and drew a quiet breath.
He still could not fully grasp the enemy’s true intent.
Just then—
“Company Commander, all support units have been positioned. They can be committed to the field at any moment.”
Another officer approached Pierland and reported.
At the man’s clear eagerness to throw the troops in immediately—
“Not yet. Wait.”
Pierland’s voice was firm.
What mattered most on this battlefield was not the fighting right in front of them.
It was the moment this battle neared its end.
What choice they make then…
That was what truly counted.
Clang! Clang! Crash!
“Aaaaaagh!”
“Gyaaaah! Somebody help meee!”
A Kar warrior’s axe smashed down into a soldier’s shoulder; men screamed and crumpled to the ground. The defenders answered with their spears, thinning the enemy numbers, but it was nothing more than mutual attrition.
At the same time, elsewhere—
“Are the warriors ready?”
“They can advance the moment you give the order.”
“And the Jireun?”
Jireun—the Kar word meaning “to shoot.” On a battlefield like this, it referred to the elite units that slipped around the enemy’s flanks for a surprise strike.
Turak nodded.
“Thirty Jireun are already in position, watching the enemy’s side. Give the word and they will fly without a single mistake.”
To prepare this operation, thirty warriors had lain in ambush near the enemy formation for more than a full day, beginning in the darkest hours of night.
On an open plain with almost nothing to hide behind, the only way to make it work was to wrap themselves in thick cloth the color of rock and endure the cutting wind.
But Kar warriors were brave. These were men who had lived their entire lives in the harsh weather of the North.
“This cutting wind is our friend and our steadfast ally. It is also the iron mace we bring down upon the Empire’s dogs.”
“When I give the signal, commit the main force at once. After that, the Jireun will wait for a separate signal from me.”
“Understood.”
Turak bowed his head at Bractus’s words.
And then…
“……Soon.”
Bractus’s eyes flashed sharp as blades.
At last, as warriors died and the heat of battle began to ebb—
“Commit the warriors.”
“Yes!”
Turak raised his hand high.
“Commit the warriors! Begin the attack!”
Bwooooooooom!
The trumpet signaling the advance blared across the entire battlefield.
At the same moment, the Kar warriors who had been waiting charged toward the Imperial soldiers like a herd of northern bulls.
“Kuaaaaaaah!”
“Kraaaaaah!”
Their roars swallowed the field and sowed terror.
Just when the end of the fighting had seemed within reach, the follow-up assault crashed in.
“Th-these crazy bastards…!”
“How many of them are there…?!”
Even at a rough count it was well over two thousand—an enormous number.
Just how many thousands of Kar had been thrown at this single First Line?
But there was no time to stand around in shock. Hesitate for even a blink and your head would leave your shoulders.
“Dress the ranks! Shield-bearers to the front!”
“Hurry! Get those shields up!”
The shield-bearers in the foremost line staggered but scrambled into formation. They knew all too well what kind of massacre followed if the enemy hit them while they were still unformed.
“Move it! The enemy is coming!”
“Khh…! Bastards!”
“Fucking animals! How many of them are there?!”
These were soldiers already exhausted from long fighting. They could no longer even remember why they were here.
They simply endured and endured.
Alive…
I will make it back alive.
All they wanted was to see tomorrow’s sun.
And in the midst of that battlefield—
“Commit the reinforcements.”
Pierland gave the order to send in the troops.
Just as expected, the follow-up force was the enemy’s real strength. If they could stop these…
“This line is ours.”
Attack a dozen times, a hundred times. We will stop every one of them.
This was the First Company that had held the North until now. Even if hundreds or thousands of soldiers bled, they would never yield this ground.
“Repel the first wave, then immediately counterattack. We reverse the assault and wipe them out completely.”
“Understood!”
The adjutant answered loudly and relayed the orders to the officers.
And then…
“Fourth Platoon, listen up!”
Having received the command, Hendris faced his men with a grave expression.
“We commit to the battlefield right now! After we stop the enemy’s first wave, the moment the signal comes we charge straight into their formation!”
“……What?”
“We’re attacking them?”
The platoon members’ eyes shook hard.
It was only natural. Until now they had always been the ones defending, never the ones attacking.
And now they were supposed to attack?
“I-isn’t that a reckless plan?”
“Who said that? The moment an order drops, a soldier obeys. Wipe every other thought from your head.”
Hendris was trembling just as much. But the order had already been given.
There was no turning back.
Bwoooooooom!
The trumpet calling them into the fight rang out.
Hendris had no time for further words.
“All units! Charge!”
“Waaaaaaaaaah!”
“Waaaaaaaaah!”
The soldiers who had been waiting surged forward as one toward the Kar warriors ahead.
And in that instant—
“Bert! Do not charge out ahead of the line!”
“Got it!”
“Raymon! If Bert gets worked up, you calm him down. If you have to, crack him over the head with your spear shaft!”
“I’ll stop him no matter what.”
At Raymon’s reply, Arteon glanced at the squad members around him.
Every one of them was shaking, but—
At least they’ve tasted battle before. They’re not panicking.
It felt doable.
Whoosh!
Just as the Fourth Squad maintained formation and joined the fray—
“Aaaaaaaaaah!”
“Gyaaaaaaah!”
Eardrum-splitting screams and desperate, raw cries erupted all around.
A place where men killed men. Even if they had different reasons for being here, keeping one’s reason intact in that maelstrom of madness was no easy thing.
But still…
“Dieee!”
Arteon gripped his spear as a Kar warrior charged straight at them.
Hummmmm!
Mana already gathered in his hand was sucked into the shaft.
In that moment—
Crack!
The staff-like shaft transformed in an instant into a true spear and punched clean through the man’s throat.
Spurt!
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Bert’s eyes went wide as he stared at Arteon’s spear that had shot out past him.
“S-Squad Leader, what kind of spear is that…?”
“I’ll tell you later. Focus on the fight for now. More of them are coming.”
Perhaps because one of their own had fallen, several Kar warriors positioned ahead turned their gazes toward Arteon’s position.
“You Empire dogs I’ll tear apart!”
“I’ll smash your skulls!”
They raised their axes and charged straight at the Fourth Squad.
Six of them. As if nothing else mattered—they were coming solely to kill Arteon and his men.
But…
“Remember the sparring we did with the other squads. Raphelson, Zalbarog—do not let a single enemy coming from the sides get past you!”
“Yes!”
“Understood.”
The moment Raphelson and Zalbarog answered, the Kar warriors leapt from their positions and drove straight into the center of the Fourth Squad’s formation.
It looked like a ploy to shatter the tight formation in one blow, but—
“Wrong method.”
Slash!
Arteon’s spear shot skyward and skewered the man clean through the chest.
One strike. Instantly dispatching one of them, Arteon snapped his gaze to the next threat.
“Hyaaaaah!”
Crunch!
Bang! Thud!
With Bert’s roar, the warrior charging head-on was slammed sideways—and Raymon’s spear punched into his side.
And then…
“Stay back! Stay the hell back!”
Under the protection of Raphelson and Zalbarog, Graphil loosed arrows at the oncoming Kar warriors.
Not a single shaft missed; every one buried itself in a Kar body.
Boom!
In that brief span the Fourth Squad re-formed, locking their formation even tighter.
“……Huh.”
Arteon looked at them with a faintly stunned expression.
He had only put them through the training in the desperate hope of keeping them alive.
These guys…
They were becoming one.
And then—
“Squad Leader.”
Raymon called to Arteon.
“Please give the next order.”
“……Good.”
He had only been thinking of holding on. But with the movement they had just shown…
There’s a chance.
In the middle of this brutal battlefield.
“We take the lead in this fight.”
And so the Fourth Squad, now truly one, no longer crouched and waited. They launched the first attack against the Kar.