CH 137
Translator: Nisarah Editor: Fleeting
♦
From the other side of the river, Gezarius looked at the fort. The flag with the Zeavert crest was fluttering above the fort. There were few earth mounds around the fort while the fort walls themselves were made of what looked like wooden planks. Breaching this fort was an easy task for the demons.
Gezarius smiled ferociously. A fort like that would fall in a mere second under the demon army’s might. To think those humans would rely on a fort like that, they were quite foolish.
The demon army that gathered around Gezarius also smiled similarly. Gezarius then raised his voice.
“Devour them all!!”
Hearing Gezarius’s shout, the werewolves and the weretigers ran and crossed the river. After they had crossed the river, the demon army noticed the fort seemed to be too quiet.
Thinking that the humans were scared of them, the demon army sneered. Some demons, especially Lycanthropes who were well known for their excellent jumping ability, thought of using the earth mounds as jumping boards so that they could get inside the fort in one jump.
However, when they actually tried to jump from the earth mounds by exerting force, they unexpectedly fell into the said earth mounds.
What they thought were earth mounds turned to be thin layers of sand and soil on wooden boards propped up against some sticks. It was not something that could bear the weight of a large number of demons, much less their jumping force.
Furthermore, the pits they fell into were deep enough that demons could not get out of them easily.
“Fire!!”
Countless arrows rained down on the demon army, which couldn’t move freely because of the chaos among their ranks.
Two or three arrows wouldn’t be enough to kill a demon, but how about a bunch of them? That was more than enough to kill them. Some of the demons, especially one who fell into pits, ended up losing their lives.
“Cheap tricks!”
Gezarius’s voice resounded and overpowered the sounds of the arrows for a moment, but in the next instant, even more arrows rained down on the demons.
“They fell into the trap as planned.”
“Well, they have confidence in their jumping power.”
While observing the battle situation below, Welner responded to Holzdeppe’s impressed remark.
Welner looked behind him and ordered his subordinate to light up the smoke signal to inform Anheim that the battle had started, then continued his words, “When people saw a convenient thing that they could use, they tend to focus their attention onto that thing.”
“You are right.”
Ever since Welner heard from the Crown Prince that the Lycanthrope had an excellent jumping ability, Welner had been thinking about how he could take advantage of this belief. This trap was one of the ways Welner thought of.
The ‘glue’ that made the sand and soil stick to the wooden board was made with Keite wheat. Strangely enough, insects and animals didn’t eat this paste, so it was often used on farms.
“But to think that they came to attack us in broad daylight.” (Holzdeppe)
“That’s just how much they looked down on humans and that’s why traps are effective against them.” (Welner)
“The second wave is coming!” (Nameless soldier)
“Don’t worry. As long as they don’t jump to us directly, there’s nothing to be scared of.” (Welner)
Welner answered a soldier’s tense shout with a calm voice.
The sound of demons directly attacking the fort’s walls began to fill the battlefield, but Welner remained calm, as he knew that the fort’s walls were quite sturdy despite their appearance. Demons would not be able to breach the walls with just one or two attacks. Moreover, this was a great chance for Welner’s army to counterattack by falling big rocks from above the walls on demons below.
With a calm voice as if nothing had happened, Welner asked, “How is the preparation for the retreat?”
“The preparation went well.”
Welner nodded at Holzdeppe’s reply. If Welner wanted to, it might be possible to hold the demons down in this fort for a few days, but this fort was made with the intent to abandon it in the end, so Welner knew he couldn’t be greedy.
After all, the demons attacked the fort because they had underestimated humans. If his army stayed here for too long, Welner knew they might get surrounded by demons. If that happened, Welner and his army would have no other choice but to fight the demons head-on and they would die, since the difference in physical capability between humans and demons was far too large. Welner was even surprised by how fast the demons were able to cross the river.
As he observed the demon army’s movements, Welner judged that there was no need for him to make a huge change to his plan, so he ordered, “Alright. Let’s begin to retreat, starting from the infantries.”
“Yes, sir.”
As Holzdeppe left, Welner returned to observing the demons and instructed Neurath to begin the preparation for the counterattack.
A rare confused expression appeared on the faces of the demons. They originally thought that the walls of the fort were thin, so they used all their strength to break it, but they failed.
Amidst their bewilderment, the humans started to rain rocks on them. Some of the demons even lost their lives due to big rocks falling on their heads straight. Despite that, one of the demons succeeded in ripping the wooden wall, and the demons finally understood the reason the walls of the fort were unexpectedly sturdy.
The wooden walls of the fort were double-layered and there was the skin of Alligator Warrior between the two layers. The skin of the Alligator Warrior was so tough to the point that a normal soldier would only be able to scratch it using an iron sword.
Moreover, because the skin was sandwiched between 2 planks of wood, it would also reduce the impact of demons’ attacks. Although the wall of the fort would not be a match for an actual wall made of stones, the existence of the skin of Alligator Warrior made it even sturdier than a wall reinforced by steel plates.
In addition, the walls looked like normal walls made of wood from outside, so naturally, the demons thought they would be able to break them with ease, which was why they went to great lengths to get closer to them.
The archers commanded by Schunzel prioritized shooting arrows at the Lycanthropes that tried to jump over the walls. After all, the demons that were trying to break the walls would not be able to do so easily. In addition, the soldiers also threw rocks and even excrement at the Lycanthropes that were standing near the walls.
Ironically, the superior senses of the Lycanthropes made the attack using excrement work better than a poor weapon attack. Some Lycanthropes couldn’t stand the smell, so they distanced themselves from the walls and headed back to the river.
There were a few Lycanthropes who managed to barely jump over the wall, but they were immediately beaten to a pulp using one of Welner’s specialties, the group fighting tactic.
Gezarius’s lion face showed a clear irritation as he saw his army in a mess. Gezarius could not deny the fact that the humans have played him on the palm of their hands. With clear displeasure in his voice, Gezarius roared.
“Welner-sama, the enemies have started to retreat.”
“They’re going to regroup and attack us at once. Tell everyone to hurry up the preparation for the retreat. Be careful with the fire.”
“Yes, sir!”
Welner watched the enemy’s strange movement while thinking, I thought they were going to try a little longer, then Welner realized a certain possibility and smiled bitterly.
‘To think that I will be so dull to realize this possibility only now,’ Welner thought inwardly. The plan in Welner’s head began to change rapidly.
Gezarius roared and gathered his scattered subordinates on the other side of the river. Then he saw that the flag of the Zeavert family in the fort was taken down.
Gezarius was astonished to find that humans, who were having the upper hand in the war, were suddenly retreating. The knowledge and memory of Mangold and Puckler might be the reason Gezarius felt this way.
Gezarius raised his voice and the group of demons moved in unison to cross the river and head toward the fort. Surrounding the fort would take longer, Gezarius thought. He then checked his foothold to make sure that there was no other trap before finally gathering his strength on his legs and jumping. The rest of the demon army followed suit.
In one leap, the demon army succeeded in crossing the walls that were guarded by humans before. The inside of the fort was filled with strange dark smoke, causing the demon army to fall into confusion.
More than a dozen pigs were running around inside the fort because their buttocks were hit by soldiers. The pigs’ movements caused the black powder that had been spread on the ground to fly everywhere, causing the inside of the fort to be covered with black smoke.
Some powder entered the demons’ eyes, causing them to let out a painful cry while some powder entered the demons’ noses, causing them to sneeze and inhale more powder.
The gates of the fort were firmly shut, so the smoke could only escape from above. As the pigs kept running in fear and panic, the smoke thickened and now it was impossible for the demons to even see the walls.
In the next moment, fire arrows flew in from outside of the fort and the fire soared in front of Gezarius and the demon army’s face.
Right after Welner ordered the fire of the arrows and confirmed that the fire burned yellow, rather than red, Welner ordered his army to retreat at full speed. Neurath and Schunzel, who were retreating on their horses, asked Welner.
“Welner-sama. What the hell was earlier?”
“Is it magic?”
“It’s a phenomenon named dust explosion. It’s not magic.”
When a fine powder of flammable material was floating around in the air and ignited, it could cause an explosion. There had been dust explosion incidents with sugar and flour in Welner’s previous life.
“That flame will cause a lot of damage to the demon army…” (Neurath)
“It won’t, actually.” (Welner)
“Huh?” (Schunzel)
Both Neurath and Schunzel were surprised by Welner’s reply. The dust explosion would be dangerous if it occurred inside an enclosed space like an underground mine, but it wouldn’t be as dangerous if it occurred inside a fort without a roof, despite its visual impact. After all, the kinetic energy of the explosion would be released to the sky.
In addition, the fort was located near a river, so the air was quite humid, making the explosion less powerful. Even normal humans would probably only get a burn from that explosion, let alone the demons. Still, even though Welner used coal dust to induce the explosion, he was impressed by the visual impact.
“If you knew the explosion won’t be that effective, why did you do it?”
“The simple fact that the demons thought, ‘something has happened but we don’t know how it happened’ will hold them back, plus…”
Welner laughed as he galloped.
“…The demons would misunderstand that ‘human traps look flashy but they are not deadly at all’ so they will come to chase us without any fear.”
If Welner’s aim was simply to cause damage to the demon army, a simple explosion using oil or a pitfall would be more effective. However, his aim was to make the demon army look down on him even more, so he purposely chose the flashy but not deadly dust explosion.
“This would make the demon army think that the Anheim town’s walls were a bigger problem than any trap we could lay down, so the demon army would choose to get rid of us first.” Welner continued with a laugh while waving the Zeavert flag.
“The second fort will be our first turning point. Run at full speed until we reach it!”
“Yes, sir!”
In response to Welner’s voice, everyone galloped on the horseback toward the second fort while leaving a conspicuous trail of horseshoes.
By the time the demon army, who had been stunned for a while by the flames, got back to its senses and chased after them, Welner and his army had completely disappeared.
♦
From the other side of the river, Gezarius looked at the fort. The flag with the Zeavert crest was fluttering above the fort. There were few earth mounds around the fort while the fort walls themselves were made of what looked like wooden planks. Breaching this fort was an easy task for the demons.
Gezarius smiled ferociously. A fort like that would fall in a mere second under the demon army’s might. To think those humans would rely on a fort like that, they were quite foolish.
The demon army that gathered around Gezarius also smiled similarly. Gezarius then raised his voice.
“Devour them all!!”
Hearing Gezarius’s shout, the werewolves and the weretigers ran and crossed the river. After they had crossed the river, the demon army noticed the fort seemed to be too quiet.
Thinking that the humans were scared of them, the demon army sneered. Some demons, especially Lycanthropes who were well known for their excellent jumping ability, thought of using the earth mounds as jumping boards so that they could get inside the fort in one jump.
However, when they actually tried to jump from the earth mounds by exerting force, they unexpectedly fell into the said earth mounds.
What they thought were earth mounds turned to be thin layers of sand and soil on wooden boards propped up against some sticks. It was not something that could bear the weight of a large number of demons, much less their jumping force.
Furthermore, the pits they fell into were deep enough that demons could not get out of them easily.
“Fire!!”
Countless arrows rained down on the demon army, which couldn’t move freely because of the chaos among their ranks.
Two or three arrows wouldn’t be enough to kill a demon, but how about a bunch of them? That was more than enough to kill them. Some of the demons, especially one who fell into pits, ended up losing their lives.
“Cheap tricks!”
Gezarius’s voice resounded and overpowered the sounds of the arrows for a moment, but in the next instant, even more arrows rained down on the demons.
“They fell into the trap as planned.”
“Well, they have confidence in their jumping power.”
While observing the battle situation below, Welner responded to Holzdeppe’s impressed remark.
Welner looked behind him and ordered his subordinate to light up the smoke signal to inform Anheim that the battle had started, then continued his words, “When people saw a convenient thing that they could use, they tend to focus their attention onto that thing.”
“You are right.”
Ever since Welner heard from the Crown Prince that the Lycanthrope had an excellent jumping ability, Welner had been thinking about how he could take advantage of this belief. This trap was one of the ways Welner thought of.
The ‘glue’ that made the sand and soil stick to the wooden board was made with Keite wheat. Strangely enough, insects and animals didn’t eat this paste, so it was often used on farms.
“But to think that they came to attack us in broad daylight.” (Holzdeppe)
“That’s just how much they looked down on humans and that’s why traps are effective against them.” (Welner)
“The second wave is coming!” (Nameless soldier)
“Don’t worry. As long as they don’t jump to us directly, there’s nothing to be scared of.” (Welner)
Welner answered a soldier’s tense shout with a calm voice.
The sound of demons directly attacking the fort’s walls began to fill the battlefield, but Welner remained calm, as he knew that the fort’s walls were quite sturdy despite their appearance. Demons would not be able to breach the walls with just one or two attacks. Moreover, this was a great chance for Welner’s army to counterattack by falling big rocks from above the walls on demons below.
With a calm voice as if nothing had happened, Welner asked, “How is the preparation for the retreat?”
“The preparation went well.”
Welner nodded at Holzdeppe’s reply. If Welner wanted to, it might be possible to hold the demons down in this fort for a few days, but this fort was made with the intent to abandon it in the end, so Welner knew he couldn’t be greedy.
After all, the demons attacked the fort because they had underestimated humans. If his army stayed here for too long, Welner knew they might get surrounded by demons. If that happened, Welner and his army would have no other choice but to fight the demons head-on and they would die, since the difference in physical capability between humans and demons was far too large. Welner was even surprised by how fast the demons were able to cross the river.
As he observed the demon army’s movements, Welner judged that there was no need for him to make a huge change to his plan, so he ordered, “Alright. Let’s begin to retreat, starting from the infantries.”
“Yes, sir.”
As Holzdeppe left, Welner returned to observing the demons and instructed Neurath to begin the preparation for the counterattack.
A rare confused expression appeared on the faces of the demons. They originally thought that the walls of the fort were thin, so they used all their strength to break it, but they failed.
Amidst their bewilderment, the humans started to rain rocks on them. Some of the demons even lost their lives due to big rocks falling on their heads straight. Despite that, one of the demons succeeded in ripping the wooden wall, and the demons finally understood the reason the walls of the fort were unexpectedly sturdy.
The wooden walls of the fort were double-layered and there was the skin of Alligator Warrior between the two layers. The skin of the Alligator Warrior was so tough to the point that a normal soldier would only be able to scratch it using an iron sword.
Moreover, because the skin was sandwiched between 2 planks of wood, it would also reduce the impact of demons’ attacks. Although the wall of the fort would not be a match for an actual wall made of stones, the existence of the skin of Alligator Warrior made it even sturdier than a wall reinforced by steel plates.
In addition, the walls looked like normal walls made of wood from outside, so naturally, the demons thought they would be able to break them with ease, which was why they went to great lengths to get closer to them.
The archers commanded by Schunzel prioritized shooting arrows at the Lycanthropes that tried to jump over the walls. After all, the demons that were trying to break the walls would not be able to do so easily. In addition, the soldiers also threw rocks and even excrement at the Lycanthropes that were standing near the walls.
Ironically, the superior senses of the Lycanthropes made the attack using excrement work better than a poor weapon attack. Some Lycanthropes couldn’t stand the smell, so they distanced themselves from the walls and headed back to the river.
There were a few Lycanthropes who managed to barely jump over the wall, but they were immediately beaten to a pulp using one of Welner’s specialties, the group fighting tactic.
Gezarius’s lion face showed a clear irritation as he saw his army in a mess. Gezarius could not deny the fact that the humans have played him on the palm of their hands. With clear displeasure in his voice, Gezarius roared.
“Welner-sama, the enemies have started to retreat.”
“They’re going to regroup and attack us at once. Tell everyone to hurry up the preparation for the retreat. Be careful with the fire.”
“Yes, sir!”
Welner watched the enemy’s strange movement while thinking, I thought they were going to try a little longer, then Welner realized a certain possibility and smiled bitterly.
‘To think that I will be so dull to realize this possibility only now,’ Welner thought inwardly. The plan in Welner’s head began to change rapidly.
Gezarius roared and gathered his scattered subordinates on the other side of the river. Then he saw that the flag of the Zeavert family in the fort was taken down.
Gezarius was astonished to find that humans, who were having the upper hand in the war, were suddenly retreating. The knowledge and memory of Mangold and Puckler might be the reason Gezarius felt this way.
Gezarius raised his voice and the group of demons moved in unison to cross the river and head toward the fort. Surrounding the fort would take longer, Gezarius thought. He then checked his foothold to make sure that there was no other trap before finally gathering his strength on his legs and jumping. The rest of the demon army followed suit.
In one leap, the demon army succeeded in crossing the walls that were guarded by humans before. The inside of the fort was filled with strange dark smoke, causing the demon army to fall into confusion.
More than a dozen pigs were running around inside the fort because their buttocks were hit by soldiers. The pigs’ movements caused the black powder that had been spread on the ground to fly everywhere, causing the inside of the fort to be covered with black smoke.
Some powder entered the demons’ eyes, causing them to let out a painful cry while some powder entered the demons’ noses, causing them to sneeze and inhale more powder.
The gates of the fort were firmly shut, so the smoke could only escape from above. As the pigs kept running in fear and panic, the smoke thickened and now it was impossible for the demons to even see the walls.
In the next moment, fire arrows flew in from outside of the fort and the fire soared in front of Gezarius and the demon army’s face.
Right after Welner ordered the fire of the arrows and confirmed that the fire burned yellow, rather than red, Welner ordered his army to retreat at full speed. Neurath and Schunzel, who were retreating on their horses, asked Welner.
“Welner-sama. What the hell was earlier?”
“Is it magic?”
“It’s a phenomenon named dust explosion. It’s not magic.”
When a fine powder of flammable material was floating around in the air and ignited, it could cause an explosion. There had been dust explosion incidents with sugar and flour in Welner’s previous life.
“That flame will cause a lot of damage to the demon army…” (Neurath)
“It won’t, actually.” (Welner)
“Huh?” (Schunzel)
Both Neurath and Schunzel were surprised by Welner’s reply. The dust explosion would be dangerous if it occurred inside an enclosed space like an underground mine, but it wouldn’t be as dangerous if it occurred inside a fort without a roof, despite its visual impact. After all, the kinetic energy of the explosion would be released to the sky.
In addition, the fort was located near a river, so the air was quite humid, making the explosion less powerful. Even normal humans would probably only get a burn from that explosion, let alone the demons. Still, even though Welner used coal dust to induce the explosion, he was impressed by the visual impact.
“If you knew the explosion won’t be that effective, why did you do it?”
“The simple fact that the demons thought, ‘something has happened but we don’t know how it happened’ will hold them back, plus…”
Welner laughed as he galloped.
“…The demons would misunderstand that ‘human traps look flashy but they are not deadly at all’ so they will come to chase us without any fear.”
If Welner’s aim was simply to cause damage to the demon army, a simple explosion using oil or a pitfall would be more effective. However, his aim was to make the demon army look down on him even more, so he purposely chose the flashy but not deadly dust explosion.
“This would make the demon army think that the Anheim town’s walls were a bigger problem than any trap we could lay down, so the demon army would choose to get rid of us first.” Welner continued with a laugh while waving the Zeavert flag.
“The second fort will be our first turning point. Run at full speed until we reach it!”
“Yes, sir!”
In response to Welner’s voice, everyone galloped on the horseback toward the second fort while leaving a conspicuous trail of horseshoes.
By the time the demon army, who had been stunned for a while by the flames, got back to its senses and chased after them, Welner and his army had completely disappeared.
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