Capítulo 26: Patience and Twenty Days
Hasdrubal rolled on the ground as he narrowly dodged Luthor's massive morning star, as it violently smashed into the earth, creating a massive crater were it landed. Before he could even catch his breathe Heinrich's great sword agilely sailed through the air as it viciously aimed at his throat, but Hasdrubal was even faster, and he swiftly parried the giant blade, making Heinrich's miss his mark completely, and causing a horrifying gash to appear in the earth next to him! Hasdrubal quickly grasped the opportunity that presented itself to him, and he horizontally slashed his serrated sabers at Heinrich's face, but before his attack could find it's target, Luthor appeared behind him and vertically swung his weapon, as he threateningly roared "Don't you dare!" Hasdrubal instantly threw himself to the right as he desperately dodged Luthor's destructive attack, leaving the earth to be pulverized under Luthor's titanic strength!
Both the Luminous and Eclipse soldiers were astounded by their generals' strength as they stared moronically at the wide trenches, and deep craters that marred the earth, and they all couldn't help but question loudly "Is this truly a fight between three men?!"
Hasdrubal panted heavily, while letteral lines of sweat poured endlessly down his handsome face, like flooding rivers, and his body ached horribly due to dozens of flesh wounds he sustained, as he thought 'Damn it all! These two are so well coordinated that they've been able to keep me on the backfoot this whole time!' And at that moment he heard the sound he wanted most, causing a small smile to appear on his exhausted face.
An ear splitting whistle silenced the chaotic sounds of battle for a few seconds, and the Vanar brothers immediately understood it's purpose, especially when they saw Hasdrubal's expression, and they refused to allow their foes to escape them twice in one day, so they both quickly ordered as they charged toward Hasdrubal "Break your formation, and slaughter the southern swine!"
Hasdrubal showed a mocking smirk as he calmly ordered "All forces withdraw." But the Vanar brothers refused to let them leave this easily, after what they had done to their brothers in arms. Little did they know that Hamilcar's whistle not only signaled for Hasdrubal to retreat, but also the battle mages that still lingered on the edges of the camp, hidden in the dense fog like vicious vipers, calmly laying in wait for their prey.
Luthor and Heinrich were adamant about chasing the enemy, and this time they wanted to completely obliterate them, but as they raced after Hasdrubal and his men, their forces, that were trailing behind due to their heavy armor, began to be pummeled by one earth or metal magic spell after another, forcing the Vanar brothers to stop their pursuit and rush back to defend the soldiers, as they bellowed at the top of their lungs "Where in the world are our battle mages? What the hell is Lucas doing?!"
Seeing this caused Hasdrubal's smirk to grow into a massive grin, as he safely withdrew with his men.
***Scene Change***
Hamilcar calmly walked across the Melting Mist Plains, as if he was taking a leisurely stroll in his own garden, while Horus and the Palace Guard quietly followed.
After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, that was only disturbed with the booming sounds of explosions in the distance, Horus who believed Hamilcar was dissatisfied with them being caught, and needing him to rescue them, said apologetically "My lord, I was the commander of this mission. I offer no excuse, and I accept full responsibility for my failure."
Hamilcar glanced back at Horus upon hearing his words and said in a tone that seemed emotionless, and yet was overflowing with charisma "Do not mistake my silence as anger or disappointment, I was merely immersed in my own thoughts. And no one will accuse you of failure, since you didn't fail." Hamilcar flashed a mysterious smile at the end.
Upon hearing his words Horus breathes a long sigh of relief, as he felt slightly embarrassed that he overthought Hamilcar's silence. But with the disappearance of his stress and guilt, his curiosity quickly took over, and he couldn't help but ask "My lord, may I ask you a question?"
"Hmm?" Hamilcar voiced as he turned to look at him.
"How did you know that we had been discovered by general Georgios?" As soon as the rest of the palace guard heard Horus's question they keenly focused on Hamilcar as well, since they were also wandering the same thing.
Seeing this Hamilcar calmly said "Instinct."
Hearing his reply they first showed shocked expressions, but it was quickly replaced with confusion, as they thought 'How could instinct possibly do that?!'
Hamilcar noticed this as he kept walking, and said in a sagely manner "It's pointless for me to explain, for it is something that can only be experienced. You will come to understand after scaling a mountain of corpses, and swimming against a tidal wave of blood."
This only served to further confuse the men, but they nonetheless gratefully said while slightly bowing their heads "Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us, my lord."
***Scene Change***
Less than an hour after the attack of the Eclipse Empire, Lucas and the rest of the high ranking officers were sitting in Georgios's tent as they were constantly issuing orders and scanning reports, when suddenly Heinrich burst into the tent, and grabbed Lucas by the collar of his shirt as he angerly yelled "You spineless worm! Do you have any idea how many men we lost due to their magic bombardment? Why the hell were our battle mages not covering us?!"
The other officers were shocked by this, and wanted to stop Heinrich, but not only was he stronger than them, but he was also higher ranked than they were. So they could do nothing but helplessly watch.
Lucas did not lose his composure and calmly said "Please calm down, general Heinrich. I didn't deploy our mages because it would have been useless to do so."
Hearing Lucas's answer only fueled Heinrich's rage and he kept tightening his grip as he said "Useless? Are you seriously saying to me it was useless? Hundreds of men died, you bastard! And worst of all, that sniveling rat Hasdrubal managed to escape from us because of that too!"
At that moment Luthor arrived and quickly said "Heinrich enough! Collect yourself."
Heinrich turned to Luthor and said in the same enraged tone "No, brother. Not until this damn..." But before he could continue his tirade, Lucas could no longer tolerate him, and activated his fourth rank aura, as he pushed the unsuspecting Heinrich off of him.
Heinrich stumbled back, while the usually calm and mild mannered Lucas wrathfully bellowed "You hot headed fool! Our battle mages didn't assist you, because they couldn't! The enemy was using the mist to hide, and they didn't use lightning or fire spells that could expose their position, so how the fuck were they gonna help you if they didn't even know where to shoot?!"
Heinrich quickly regained his balance, and wanted to retort, when suddenly a deep, furious, and menacing voice was heard from the entrance of the tent asking "What is happening here?" Everyone turned their heads instantly to see Georgios glaring at them with a dangerous glint in his eyes.
Both Heinrich and Lucas deeply lowered their heads, as they truthfully explained what happened. Upon hearing both perspectives Georgios punished both of them for creating conflict, and raising their voices at each other, especially Heinrich who raised his hand on Lucas who was his commanding officer in the absence of Georgios.
As the dispute between the two was finally over, Lucas began to report to Georgios saying " My lord, the Eclipse attack this time was very costly, but we managed to kill quiet a few..."
Before Lucas could continue any further, Georgios interrupted him saying "The number of people we killed or lost is not important, since their entire attack was nothing more than a smoke screen."
Hearing this the men showed confused and stunned expression, so Georgios began to narrate the events that happened, and when he finished Lucas urgently asked "How much of our supplies were lost?"
"Ten percent." Georgios calmly stated. Hearing this the officers all breathed a huge sigh of relief, as they thanked the gods for general Georgios's accurate instincts and fast reaction.
After a few seconds, Lucas's eyes shone with understanding as he said "My lord, this can only mean one thing!"
Georgios nodded and said confidently "Indeed, this can only mean that they are nervous about their supplies and wish to destroy our supplies so that we would face them in battle earlier!" The men all wore grave expressions hearing this.
Luthor then said "If they're so worried about it, then we should do the exact opposite, just like General Georgios said earlier today. We should wait twenty days and then crush them in one fell swoop!"
Georgios nodded his head and said dominantly "From this moment on we will turn this camp into an impregnable fortress! The first thing I want you to do is to sperate our supplies into five different parts, and store them in different locations, so that we deny our enemy from gaining another opportunity to destroy them all in one fell swoop again. Secondly I want to double the moats, the earthen walls, the spikes, the traps, and guards; and I want it done within twenty four hours! And finally I want you to send out patrols around the clock outside the camp to ensure this type of sneak attack never happens again. They will certainly assault us again and again, but we will simply hold them here until they are on their last legs, and then we will crush them! An iron patience will be our greatest weapon in this coming battle!"
As soon as he finished talking the men all saluted loudly, as they rushed to begin their tasks. But little did they know that they were dancing to Alexander's and Hamilcar's insidious melody, even if they supposedly foiled their plan by stopping Horus and his men!
Hamilcar's and Alexander's greatest fear was to face Georgios in a battle in which they were the aggressors, while Georgios would be the defender, since that is where Georgios's true talent as a commander would really shine, so they devised a way for him to lose his greatest advantage.
For a plan to truly be called genius it must be so flawless, that even when it fails you still win, and that is exactly what the diabolical minds of Alexander and Hamilcar concocted. You see if Horus and his men did manage to completely or nearly destroy all the enemy's supplies, that would greatly damage their morale, and force Georgios to attack them so that he could win this battle as quickly as possible. But if Horus and his men weren't able to destroy all or most of the supplies then that would once again reinforce the lie they spun about their desperate supply issue, and would not only encourage Georgios to attack, but would also make the Luminous officers underestimate them, giving them even more advantage in the coming battle.
And so in the coming days both armies engaged in small skirmishes across the plains, while Alexander kept up the ruse of him desperately wanting to fight a decisive battle against Georgios, until finally twenty days later, both armies lined up on opposite sides to start the battle that would be recorded down in the annals of history as the Bloody Battle of the Melting Mist Plains!!!
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