Ambush Beneath the Snow
Swift yet silent.
Certain the enemy was nearby, Tairen moved his soldiers along the terrain he had already mapped out in his mind.
He raised a clenched fist as he ran. The men behind him halted as one.
"…Found them."
Beyond the lowered gazes of the crouching soldiers, a group came into view. Roughly fifty Kar warriors had gathered there, and Vengen, standing at Tairen's side, twisted his face into a scowl.
Those bastards…
"If you give the order, I'll cut their throats in an instant and hang them just the same."
"We need to check whether there are other forces nearby," Tairen said carefully.
In a large-scale clash between main forces, biting into the enemy's throat mattered even at the cost of friendly lives. But in a small-scale engagement like this, minimizing their own casualties while inflicting damage was paramount.
As Tairen swept his gaze around, his expression hardened slightly.
This darkness…
With visibility so poor, gathering information was inevitably constrained. It grated on him, but the enemy would be in the same boat.
Tairen turned to Vengen.
"Take one platoon and search the vicinity. Do not go more than five hundred meters from this position under any circumstances."
"Understood."
Soon after, Vengen led a platoon out on reconnaissance. Tairen and the remaining soldiers held their breath and watched the enemy unit at the edge of their vision.
Is that their only bait…?
The direction the Kar were watching led straight toward the place where Imperial soldiers' heads had been hung high. Just as he had expected—if they had tried to take down their comrades' heads, those men would have attacked.
Mostly archers. If we can just close the distance… we can finish them in an instant.
Considering how the earlier recon unit had been wiped out, these would be archers of exceptional skill. Even a moment's carelessness would mean losing his men on the spot. Tairen watched them carefully as he waited for Vengen.
How much time passed? The chill of the wind slowly seeped into their bodies, and just as soldiers began to shiver from the cold—
"Company Commander."
"Report."
"No enemy movement within a five-hundred-meter radius. I even searched for tracks, but there wasn't a single trace."
"…Understood."
They had tested every possibility. Once his decision was made, Tairen's eyes took on the gleam of a beast of prey.
If we stay still any longer, we could freeze to death. Now we fight.
No matter how good their cold-weather gear, this was not a cold one could easily shrug off. Tairen extended his index and middle fingers and pointed forward.
Tension filled the eyes of the soldiers as they moved, bodies held low. Finally—battle. Their gazes locked on the enemies ahead as the distance steadily closed.
Scrub that barely reached the knees. Rocks scattered here and there. Because they were on a slightly sloping lower face, they could just manage to stay hidden by crouching. If not for this darkness, they might already have been spotted—and that possibility made their hearts pound all the harder.
Then, when barely twenty meters remained—when they had closed to a distance where the Kar warriors' voices and even the direction of their gazes were clear—
"Attaaaaack!"
"Attaaaaack!"
"Uwaaaaaah!"
At Tairen's command, Vengen and the soldiers of the 4th Company roared as they charged.
"Hyaaaaaaah!"
As the cries tore through the darkness, the Kar warriors flinched and looked toward the sound. The way they instinctively drew arrows and nocked them was the mark of seasoned warriors through and through.
But—
In the instant Tairen's sword flashed in the moonlight as he sprinted at tremendous speed—
Slash!
A Kar warrior whose throat had been cut collapsed to the ground without even managing a proper scream.
"Cut them all down!"
There were only about fifty of them. They needed to finish this quickly and move. Tairen cut down three Kar warriors in front of him in an instant and shouted to his men.
But at that very moment—
Suddenly the snow piled on the ground writhed, and something began bursting out from within.
"A-ambush!"
"Enemy ambush!"
"Form up! Don't scatter!"
From all around them, hundreds of Kar warriors erupted from the snow. Tairen's pupils shook violently.
H-how…?
There had clearly been no traces. Yet the Kar warriors surrounding them were enormous in number. All these warriors had been hiding in the snow, waiting for them.
…After they hid, the continuing snowfall completely erased the traces…?
Honestly, he hadn't noticed. He had thought the snow only came up to the ankles—but was the snow surrounding this area different? Moreover, there had been no such ambush at all in the direction they had come from. That was why they hadn't noticed.
And that wasn't all the enemy had prepared.
With a sound that sent chills through their entire bodies, something shot up into the sky. Tairen shouted on pure instinct.
"Arrows! Raise your shields!"
"They're coming from all sides! Cluster into a defensive formation and block the arrows!"
Vengen cried out urgently and began clustering with the soldiers. The shields they carried were bucklers—small shields no more than about forty centimeters in diameter. They could stop arrows, but in a massed volley like this, they couldn't cover the whole body.
Thud-thud-thud-thud! Thud! Thunk!
"Gah!"
"Gyaaah!"
"Press tighter together! Lower your stance and lock the shields!"
It had all happened so suddenly that even for veterans like them, forming a proper formation was no easy task. Arrows punched into the legs and arms of several soldiers, and the wounded began to multiply. Tairen bit down hard on his lip.
He had never imagined they would throw their own allies out as bait just to catch them.
Then Tairen spun around.
"We break out the way we came in!"
"Run! Hurry!"
"Support the wounded as we move! Those uninjured, stick to both flanks and suppress the enemy's attacks!"
The situation was clearly bad. But the direction they had entered from was still not fully enclosed, so an escape route remained. The problem, however—
Having to bring the wounded along…
—was that the situation was far too poor for those with wounded legs to move. Naturally, their speed had no choice but to drop.
"Loose! Don't let them escape!"
"This place will be their end! Let's cut their heads off and hang them too!"
With bloodcurdling cries, the Kar warriors loosed arrows again at the fleeing Imperial unit.
But then—
"Hyaaaaaaah!"
Tairen poured every scrap of mana he could muster into his sword. The mana concentrated in his blade vibrated faintly and erupted with tremendous force.
He slammed his sword into the ground. The shockwave sent the surrounding snow leaping to tremendous heights, forming a natural shield. A few arrows punched through, but more than half of the incoming volley was blocked and fell to the ground.
Tairen clenched his lip tightly.
At this rate…!
He couldn't keep blocking arrows forever. Yet fleeing was impossible—their rate of fire was simply too fast. With only a single escape route, they were sitting ducks for concentrated fire.
In the end…
We have no choice but to punch through the front…!
Tairen quickly scanned left and right, assessing their encirclement. In the first moment of being surrounded he had been too shocked to grasp it properly—
The encirclement isn't thick.
In the end, rather than a true siege, it had been meant to herd them into one place so the main force could hammer them with arrows. A judgment only someone skilled in battle could make. If he didn't decide quickly…
We'll be annihilated here.
Tairen gave the order.
"Vengen! Turn the unit around and attack their main force!"
When Tairen, at the rear, shouted at the top of his lungs, Vengen, who had been leading the soldiers at the front, spun around in haste.
"Attack the enemy main force! Hit them!"
It was a real-time change of plan, yet the soldiers wheeled about as one without the slightest disorder. Absolute trust in their commander. No matter the situation, they believed in Tairen's orders absolutely.
Only…
We're short on time…!
There was a real chance that nearly half the company would be wounded before they closed the distance. Even so—
We have to break through the front.
Because he knew that was the only path left open.
"Hyaaaaaah!"
To save even a few more of his men, the best course was for him to go first. Even if it was imperfect aura, it would be enough to draw their eyes.
"…What a remarkable commander."
It was a completely different caliber from the Imperial recon unit they had fought earlier. He had thought that the moment they were surrounded, they would panic and die like startled monkeys. Watching Tairen charge toward them, Bowukartaon could not hide his surprise.
Not only the quick judgment, but the aura flowing from the man's sword. Even if one couldn't call that power strong—
Has the Empire's level risen more than I thought?
Well, that one he had seen last time… had also been completely beyond expectations. That was why there would be no complacency.
Bowukartaon raised his left hand.
A flute's cry pierced the darkness. Now the warriors on the left would begin their charge against the oncoming Imperial soldiers. If the archers loosed again while they held them—
"With this attack, I'll kill half of them."
They would have no room left to resist. Bowukartaon coldly surveyed the battlefield.
But—
"…?"
Why weren't the warriors waiting on the left moving? Bowukartaon looked that way with a somewhat flustered expression.
And then—
"Imperial attack!"
"The enemy has struck!"
An unexpected assault by Imperial soldiers. Surely… besides these men in front of him… there were others?
Impossible…!
They had already checked the entire area. There shouldn't have been anyone else. Yet as the Imperial unit revealed itself from the darkness, Bowukartaon's face twisted violently.
"That man…!"
Bowukartaon ground his molars; his eyes bloodshot and veins standing out. The man at the very front.
Because it was the Imperial officer—Arteon.