Chapter 173: The Mobile Field Army’s Counterattack (1)
Chapter 173: The Mobile Field Army’s Counterattack (1)
Despite the earth-shaking charge of the water buffaloes and the shocking attack of the giant ant corps, the Field Army troops were able to protect their Command. Right now, they were tending to their casualties and injuries and repairing the damages to the castle while waiting for their Commander’s return.
However, contrary to their hopes, their Commander did not return. All of them waited anxiously but Iron could not be seen. Only then did they realize that the situation that they tried so hard to deny had come true.
‘The Commander encountered a problem!’
This thought flashed in everyone’s heads.
The first to move was Ariel. Then, Cardro immediately went to where the drakes were to order the drake unit to go to the area where Iron fought at. He was aware of the seriousness of the situation so he tried to move as fast as he could with his subordinates.
But before they could move out, a small bird suddenly flew towards Ariel.
“Baep… sae?”
The little bird tilted its head cutely before pecking Ariel’s forehead. Then, Iron’s voice rang in Ariel’s ears.
― I don’t think I will be able to come back to Command any time soon because of the giant armored worm. Keep the Command safe until I come back.
Baepsae tried to fly after his voice was delivered. It seemed like the little bird wanted to return to its owner immediately after doing its job. But Ariel hurriedly pulled out a small bead, a communication crystal, and held it towards Baepsae. The only problem was that it looked too big for Baepsae’s small body to carry.
― Tweet!
Baepsae chirped and gestured towards the hesitating Ariel to place the bead on its back. Ariel’s hesitation grew after seeing Baepsae’s gesture but eventually placed the communication crystal, which was far larger than its body. Then, green mana appeared and covered Baepsae’s entire body as it carried the communication crystal as if there was no problem at all.
Ariel watched Baepsae carrying the communication tool blankly before coming back to her senses to call Cardro.
Cardro came running and stopped in front of Ariel as he listened to the entire story.
“So, you’re saying that… Baepsae came here… and told you that there weren’t any problems?”
Then, Cardro’s expression turned solemn.
“The problem is… we have to protect this place by ourselves for a while…”
Ariel sighed after hearing Cardro.
She thought that it would be fine if they could block their enemies once. But that wasn’t the case at all.
“First… let’s request for support from Southern Command and inform the Central Government.”
“The Central Government?”
Cardro’s eyes widened at Ariel’s remarks.
“We’re in a crisis right now.”
“But the Central Government…”
It would become extremely troublesome once the Central Government caught hold of their weakness.
“Just once.”
Ariel spoke with a heavy voice when she saw Cardro’s hesitance.
“What?”
Cardro looked at her as if he couldn’t understand her words.
“We only stopped them once but it’s already like this.”
When Ariel turned to look out of the window, she could see the soldiers working on the repairs and treating the injured.
“We’re not the Commander.”
The Mobile Field Army without Iron was no different from an empty shell. The insufficient power of the units significantly lowered the level of the entire Field Army. And they were in a situation where they did not know when they would have to face various mutated monsters.
“Hoo… Regardless, that’s the Central Government…”
Seeing that Cardro was still hesitating, Ariel had no choice but to call for the other commanding officers of the Field Army.
With Iron’s absence, they had no choice but to put their heads together.
Ariel and Cardro both fought in the battlefield, but after going around, they realized that they did not have the political power so they wanted to get help from others. However, most of their contacts were in the Northeast and the wizards of the Wizard Tower were all stuck in their small room. Even Leonhardt’s young lions were not helpful since they were only crazy about swordsmanship and battles.
“Leave this to me.”
Everyone turned to look at Carl Stein after they heard him speak.
“Everyone’s heads are too stiff… Tch, tch. Use your brains.”
Carl looked at them as if they were pathetic as he spoke. The gazes of everyone looking at him turned ugly. However, Carl just spoke as if he did not care about them.
“We will use the Central Government.”
“…What? How?”
Carl smiled wickedly as he answered Cardro.
“Think about our time in the Northeast.”
All of the officers tilted their heads in confusion.
“Ha… The Commander would immediately understand me if he was here. Tch, tch~ What is the most important thing for the Central Government?”
“Their own safety?”
“That’s right. That’s why they sent support to the Northeast. But, think about it carefully. What kind of place is this?”
Their eyes turned wide after hearing Carl’s question.
“Do you remember the Northeast of the past?”
Monster paradise.
This was one of the nicknames that the Northeast carried back in the past. However, this place was far worse than the Northeast back then. After all, this place was chock full of mutated monsters.
Because the South had to maintain the frontlines, they had no choice but to leave this place and neglect its maintenance. Thanks to that, the number of monsters kept on increasing. And for some reason the void energy continued to accumulate in this place too.
“It won’t be difficult for us to receive large-scale support from them if we let them know about the dangers lurking in this place.”
“But can the Central Government even afford to do that?”
“We also need to get support from the other armies too.”
When he said ‘use the Central Government’ he did not mean that they would simply receive enormous support from the Center. He meant to create a strong public opinion in their favor that would sway their decision and let every region send support to the Southeast.
“To do that…”
“We have to let them know everything about our situation. We have to tell them everything that has been going on.”
Carl frowned as he spoke.
“The problem is that we shouldn’t just inform the public about it, we have to create a stage where the entire nation can empathize and relate with us…”
If they were able to do that, they would have no need to persuade each region’s Command as well as the Central Government.
“That’s good, let us handle that.”
The twins behind Saeriden also nodded with their brother’s words. Everyone looked at them suspiciously. Saeriden grinned after seeing the look in their eyes. Their eyes were clearly expressing their doubts. It was like they were asking them how they could trust them when they were only crazy about swordsmanship and battles.
“It’s not us who will be doing it though?”
“That’s right.”
“Not us.”
The twins nodded as they spoke up in agreement to Saeriden’s words.
“Then, who…”
“My little brother.”
The others looked confused after hearing Saeriden’s answer.
“There’s this wicked bastard.”
“But his head is really good.”
Ariel’s eyes widened after hearing Ludem and Rodem’s words. Then, she asked carefully.
“By any chance, are you talking about Faulden?”
The others nodded at her question.
“That punk, he left the family to join an intelligence organization. From what I heard, he had already devoured the entire intelligence organization before we came here.”
“Can you contact him right now?”
Ariel’s eyes shone as she asked Ludem.
“Yeah. That punk gave me a carrier pigeon. He said that we should contact him if we need help, I think?”
“Then, that’s solved.”
Carl clapped his hands as he concluded the problem. All of the commanding officers nodded their heads. But just when they were about to clean up the information and the video recording crystal…
Ariel turned to ask Saeriden.
“By any chance… is that friend not interested in the army?”
Saeriden and the twins cackled as they answered at the same time.
“Yeah, no.”
Seeing their bright smiles, Ariel realized that there was no chance of recruiting their brother so she cleanly gave up the notion.
After the Commander-less commander meeting ended, the Field Army troops moved busier than ever. Iron’s absence made them feel and realize how deeply they were lacking so they turned towards themselves and recognized the things that they lacked and asked for help regarding these matters. They made the decision to endure the shame and disgrace of revealing their shortcomings to the entire Empire.
While a groundbreaking decision was being made in the Field Army…
Iron was fighting a difficult battle on his own.
‘Shrewd bastard.’
After fighting continuously for several days, the giant armored worm seemed to realize that it couldn’t easily turn him over so it decided to bide its time. Despite fighting him, it seemed like it had an information network of its own and was aware that the situation in Command was not good. Even though it was a worm, it was still amazing that it could use its head just like a regular human.
Iron couldn’t understand how such a brainless creature could use its brain but it would be his loss if he tried to focus on trying to think scientifically in this place.
“Huh? You’re back?”
Iron welcomed Baepsae back after seeing it fly from afar. But he couldn’t help but smile awkwardly when he saw the small Baepsae carrying a communication crystal that was larger than its body.
“How did you bring this?”
― Tweet!
Hearing Baepsae urging him to take it quickly, Iron hurriedly accepted the communication crystal.
“Is there someone listening on the other side?”
― Commander?
“Ariel?”
― I’m glad you’re alright!
Ariel shouted in relief.
Perhaps it was her loud voice that alerted the others as the other officers present on her side greeted Iron loudly too. That would have been fine, but everyone clamored to report as if they were trying to tell him how much the work had piled up. Thanks to their words, he was able to understand the current situation at Command right now.
― I’m sorry. But the absence of the Commander had resulted in a lot of damage…
Ariel felt apologetic as she watched the officers report to Iron one after the other. But Iron just shook his head.
“You did a good job. That decision is fine. In a crisis, the faster you throw away your useless pride, the better the outcome.”
Iron nodded his head as he praised Ariel.
“Can you hold on a bit longer?”
― Yes, sir!
“Good. Whatever you do, make sure to hold on. While you do that, I will make sure to destroy this bastard and come back.”
Iron turned the communication crystal off as he said so.
And just in time, the giant armored worm began to move with the giant worms.
“Right. Let’s see this to the end.”
The look in Iron’s eyes completely changed the moment he confirmed that the Command was still holding out well. He had completely erased all of the anxiety that was left in his mind as he placed his entire attention on the giant armored worm. The giant worms and the great worms would be blocked completely by the divine beasts so all that was left was the giant armored worm.
He had no problem with his survival out here. Food? All he needed to do was to grill the giant worms that he hunted and eat them. Poison? Contamination? Both could be purified with his holy power. Since his food had been solved, he did not have any more problems. After all, he could easily sleep anywhere. So, he could stay here without any worries and fight until he could kill the giant armored worm.
The giant armored worm had felt that Iron’s momentum had changed but it also couldn’t back down. Even if it retreated at this point, it knew that Iron would chase it so it chose to fight until one of them had died.
Knowing that it would lose as time went by, the giant armored worm began to devour more contaminated mana before eating the other mutant giant worms so it could evolve.
And to match its pace, Iron also trained so his swordsmanship could evolve and move a step further.
A day, a week, half a month, a month, a few more months had passed.
The more they fought against each other, the more their combat skills increased.
The giant armored worm sucked contaminated faster while Iron developed and strengthened his swordsmanship faster.
And the two beings’ fight for their lives did not end easily.
Meanwhile, the giant spiders and wasps moved to invade the area where the giant worms lived while several other mutants tried to dig into the gaps between the two and attack. But everytime they tried to go in between, all of them got killed.
The giant armored worm became more powerful as it ate other mutants and Iron also achieved a more refined and more compressed mana in his sword. The mutants that risked their lives to try and take advantage of the two became food for training for the two of them.
Baaaang!
Iron and the giant armored worm collided and created a huge explosive sound. The shockwave created by the collision between the soaring giant armored worm and Iron wielding the blackened mana sword completely destroyed the surrounding area.
Despite giving their all in that attack, they still failed to reach a conclusion.
“Hoo… It’s a tie again.”
Iron looked at the giant armored worm in annoyance. It seemed like the giant armored worm was also angry that it couldn’t finish Iron off and eat him.
“Tch. Truce.”
― Kiriiiiiik…
The giant armored worm grew frighteningly fast while fighting Iron and it had now become slightly spiritual in nature.
Right now, it agreed to make a deal with Iron for a truce. After all, the two of them had suffered great damage during the course of their battle.
The giant armored worm’s territory had been reduced while Iron’s Command was facing danger. That’s why they both decided to end this today and decided to keep a deal for the future.
So, they turned their backs against each other with a shaky truce that could break at any moment.
And just like that, Iron left the area that they had smashed into oblivion after months of fighting as he headed back to Command.
But the Command, which he had not seen in half-a-year, had changed a lot.