Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
An uncontrollable battle did not stop with a closure until late that night . In fact, Scarlet had decided to ask the soldiers to leave the battle at dusk . She did not want to be as crazy as Baery, who had seemed to realize something at the same time, so he gave the same order to his own military . However, neither party left the battlefield until late that night, which obviously showed what chaos there was on the battlefield .
Scarlet was good at employing different strategies to minimize her loss in battles . In Golman's world, she even had a history of winning battles with zero fatalities . However, once she was in real battles, she did not seem to have the control and management skills as did Baery . Baery had been trying to make the battlefield more chaotic, while Scarlet tried to keep it in order . The reality proved that Baery won, just as he had wished . Scarlet had been putting reserves on the battlefield in hopes of stopping the soldiers from feeling discouraged and losing the battle . If this were all Scarlet could do, any general could have done it . In other words, Scarlet had not been able to show anything special that she could do .
Scarlet had seen dead bodies before, but never so many . The trees in the valleys surrounding the battlefield had been destroyed . Bodies were everywhere, from the peak of the mountains to the bottom of the valley . Bodies piled on bodies, along the valley road, which was over 10 miles long . Some areas even had hills of dead bodies piled up . With the bright moonlight, Scarlet could clearly see everything .
Both parties sent out thousands of soldiers without weapons . Their job was to clean up the battlefield, move their peers' bodies, and save any survivors who were still mingled with the dead bodies . The craziness during the day had now gone . When soldiers from both parties met, they did not even care to look upon one another . Rather, they passed by each other without any facial expressions . There was an unwritten rule that soldiers cleaning the battlefield could not be attacked . It would not be good if anyone went against these rules .
The valley road had become a swamp, a murky situation created by the blood and flesh of humans and horses . Usually, blood dried quickly, but the power of nature did not seem to be enough, not when there was so much blood . There were dead bodies everywhere on the mountains, the blood of which trickled down to the bottom of the valley like streams, turning the whole valley into a bloody hell . Every step the soldiers took, there were squeaking sounds underneath their feet . It was easy for them to stumble on an arm, or to accidentally kick a head . The sounds of kicking or breaking an arm were always scary . The moaning from people, who woke up from the coma or screamed from the pain, were not the most scary sounds . The most scary part was the thought that the dead bodies could get up with the screams, if those soldiers accidentally stepped on them . Soldiers felt that even their souls were scared .
There was also a weird stinky smell in the valley . It was disgusting . A doctor told Anfey before that human's blood and flesh would not rot quickly . The weird stinky smell that lingered on the battlefield was from the not-digested food, or waste, left over after people's intestines were attacked . Of course, it did not matter that they were the soldiers from Maho Empire or Shansa Empire, they would not understand about anatomy . They only knew this was a hell for them . They wanted to throw up and run away . They wanted to scream with all the strength they had . They would rather be unconscious at this moment . However, they had to complete their job before any of those things happened . Otherwise, they would become part of this hell . Military law would not allow them to escape .
AdvertisementWas this one type of art? Scarlet remembered Golman used to tell her often that wars were a type of art . Seeing this bloody hell, Scarlet wanted to adapt Goldman's saying . If wars were a type of art, they must be the most vicious and cruel art that human intelligence had ever created . However, Scarlet still had to get revenge upon Anfey . She had done so much, and had taken in so much, that she had to kill the murderers of her mom by herself . She would enjoy it, or at least take anything that benefited her, no matter how vicious or cruel they were .
Scarlet walked to her tent with heavy legs . She knew well that today's battle had hit the Shansa Empire soldiers' morale hard . These soldiers held ambitions of building their careers and making contributions to their country as they chased after Baery's military . They did not know that Baery would give them a taste of what hell could be like . It was unknown just how many of them were scared . At this moment, the key was not to encourage the soldiers tonight, but to think about what they could do tomorrow . If Baery wanted to continue to fight with her, would she fight? The military resources of the Maho Empire were far superior to Scarlet's . If she had to fight with all she had, all the soldiers would die in about ten days .
Scarlet had headaches . It was like a swordsman, who was not confident with his sword skills, was being challenged by a barbarian . When the fight started, the judge suddenly made a new rule that the two participants could only fight with fists . One could give a strike first, while the other one could fight back with another strike . If the fight continued without any strategies involved, the loser would be the one who fell down first . Scarlet felt that she was that helpless swordsman .
The air in Scarlet's tent was filled with tension . Menkin had blood on his face . He sat on the chair without saying anything . Today's battle had left the guardian knights with high casualties . Over two fifths of the soldiers were either hurt or died in the battle . Before the battle started, many old men, whom he rarely saw, came to see him and asked politely, hoping Menkin could take care of their sons or nephews . However, on the chaotic battlefield, where generals could not see their soldiers—and vice versa—he could take care of no one . He was scared of estimating how many soldiers had died . He subconsciously knew that he would not be a commander anymore, no matter whether he won or lost this battle .
Scarlet walked to her seat and slowly sat . She cleared her throat before speaking . Suddenly, griffin screaming was heard from outside of the tent, and a gust of chilly wind passed by . Obviously, a griffin had tried to land outside the tent . The griffin rider pushed away the soldiers at the tent door before he could report to Scarlet . The rider rushed into the tent, "General, Miorich-led royal palace guards attacked the exit of the valley . The mercenaries of the League of Mercenaries surrounded us . "
Scarlet was stunned . Menkin jumped up from his seat out, enraged, and shouted:"Bullshit! We had a fight with Sacred City palace guards today . It could not be them . Are they ghosts?"
"Miorich, Miorich has not showed up yet," A general said with a trembling voice .
It became deadly quiet in the tent . He was right that Miorich had not shown up yet . If he showed up, the casualties of guardian guards would be higher . What made them feel lucky before, now became their nightmare . If it were possible, they wished they had heard wrong . If Miorich showed up on the battlefield during the day, he could have wiped out the entire guardian guards .
"Are you sure the information you received is right?" Scarlet asked in a low pitch . Her voice was trembling a bit .
"Yes, I am sure," the griffin rider said with a sad face . "General, do you remember how many days it has been since we have not yet received information from Blackwater City?"
"What did your griffin riders do?" Menkin yelled . "Why did not you send people to scout?"
"Master Menkin, I sent many griffin riders over, but eagle druids have been working for the Maho Empire . No matter how many griffin riders I sent out, they would disappear . I did not find that the exit of the Cross Valley was taken over by them until I took a squad of griffin riders with me to check it out . "
"Did the terrain around the valley exit look normal?" Scarlet asked slowly .
"Normal? General? I do not get what you mean," the griffin rider asked .
"I mean, did the valley exit have any magic explosion?" Scarlet asked .
"No," the griffin rider answered .
Scarlet punched her fists down heavily on the table, causing it to suddenly collapse and resulting in everything upon it to fall on the floor, scattering everywhere . The faces of the generals in the tent changed . They had never seen Scarlet lose her control .
"Are you sure the valley exit did not look like it had exploded before?" Scarlet asked again .
She needed to double-check, because she needed to know if her trump card, the magic weapon, was under the control of Miorich and Anfey .
"No, there was no explosion, general," the griffin rider said .
"General, what should we do?" a general asked at the top of his voice . When things came to this point, the strategic intent from the Maho Empire had become obvious . Maho Empire wanted to lure them to the Cross Valley to wipe out the main force of Shansa Empire with a flank attack .
Everyone looked at Scarlet, hoping she had an answer for them .
The chief commander's tent in Maho Empire was not as busy as Scarlet's . There were only two people in the tent: one was Baery, while the other was Stegar . Stegar casually tossed a mail on the table and said with a low pitch, "Saul said Scarlet should have known that valley exit is under our control now, especially after those few griffin riders escaped . It will take him some more time to set up the magic array . He asked you to…"
"I got it . I will buy him some time . I have tried my best today," Baery said with a smile .
"Today?" Stegar rolled his eyes . "Not to mention that Scarlet has known that the valley exit fell into our hands, even she did not know about it, you would have already scared her away . "
"You are not as good as me in terms of that," Baery smiled . "Many people think the military maneuvers could be so different—hard to predict and understand—but I think it was all about human nature . Scarlet only knew about military maneuvers, but she do not understand human nature . She is still a young girl . Her understanding of wars is limited . "
"Hehehe, I wonder who lost the battle to that little girl at the One-Line-Sky," Stegar said .
"This is the advantage I have, but Scarlet does not . " Baery was not mad at all . "I can lose battles, but Scarlet could not . If she lost one battle, she would lose everything . "
"Don't trump it up . Saul reminded us many times, asking us to be careful about Golman," Stegar said slowly .
"Golman . " Baery repeated in confirmation, frowning .
Chapter end
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