v5c24
A Messy Failure

Planchet did not know that he might change the outcome of a war.

If he had understood this, he would have felt incredibly honored.

Not even a quarter of an hour into the battle of Slofavien, many of Viero’s lord knights noticed that something was wrong. In fact, it was unusual that they did not feel something was wrong. When the knight named Planchet recklessly led his squire out of the linden forest and charged against a whole army of skeleton mages – of course, he thought they were Necromancers – the whole battle in Slofavien was destined to slide into the direction they could not have expected. Planchet’s move was like a signal to the other knights, asking them to go ahead and take their advantage. Although no one blew the trumpet, it was as if the horn had sounded at first, and all the knights who were ambushed in that area screamed and attacked from behind Planchet.

Just like that, the entire left flank of Viero’s army was affected in an instant, and before their commanders had time to react, they found that the entire front flank of the army was disconnected. Everyone could not help but be dumbfounded at that moment. Although they had more or less hinted to their subordinates that they could initiate the attack with their acquiescence to leave behind the troops from other regions to compete for the credit, they did not have to wait for that predetermined moment.

But the problem was that it seemed a little too early. The top commander on Viero’s side was slightly stunned before he cursed, “Who is that!” He roared, “Whose men are those?” Everyone around him was silent at this moment, because Planchet had indeed chosen a good time, so good that even the Bloodstaff’s army had not yet actually entered the Viero army’s encirclement.

The sudden attack also stunned the Undead.

The Dark Leaders from the Seas of the Dying Moon reacted very quickly and immediately stabilized their position. In their imagination, the humans were prepared and the skeleton army in the front was definitely untenable; they simply abandoned that army and retreated backwards to prevent the ambush of the human army from hitting their main force, but then the dark mercenaries, who were experienced in battle formations, were surprised to find that the human knights did not seem to notice them at all and instead, were charging forward in excitement. Of course, they did not think that the entire left flank of a large human army had broken off to attack their front, but that this was just a decoy, and if they dared to go forward to support or let the front retreat back to merge, then the main human force hidden in the surrounding hills would appear and give them a heavy blow.

This was a logical way of thinking, after all, no one would expect their opponents to suddenly go crazy, although sometimes the truth may indeed be ridiculous.

But at this time, the Bloodstaff could not help but be dumbfounded. “They aren’t the Vanmier army? Then where did all these human armies come from?” It would have been acceptable if the knights were just a wing of the Viero army, but the problem was that the Bloodstaff and the lords under its command had preconceived the idea that what had appeared was just a vanguard decoy of the human army, a vanguard decoy of more than 2,000 men, so wouldn’t the human army in ambush here be more than 20,000 or even 30,000? The Bloodstaff could not think of how these damn Aouines gathered so many people even if they used up al their brain juice. Of course, if they still had brain juice.

The Madaran Army’s hesitation fell on Viero’s side and became something else. The Bloodstaff’s army now had about a few thousand skeleton warriors visible, in which a third are already skeleton archers, in addition to a sizeable skeleton cavalry and mercenaries from the Seas of the Dying Moon. These were basically its entire force, plus hundreds of fearful spirits, as well as some ghosts, zombies and other miscellaneous Undeads, but they were not large to be threatening.

And now, the vanguard of the Madaran Army was under attack by the Aouines. The vanguard was composed of hundreds of skeleton warriors and dozens of skeleton mages responsible for casting Detection Spells, plus a few teams of skeleton cavalry scouts. With just this number, they had been able to hold the entire left flank of Viero’s army which put all the commanders of Viero in a panic. If the Madaran made a charge now, the left flank of the Viero army would collapse entirely.Many people were cursing the recklessness of the knights below, although they also wanted to leave Brendel alone for the glory and credit, but they did not expect the knights below to be more eager than them that even before the Bloodstaff army entered the encirclement, those damned guys had already started the charge in advance.

At this moment, these commanders immediately experienced the same helplessness that Brendel had experienced earlier.

However, just when they themselves thought that they would definitely lose this time, Madara’s side took a very cautious attitude, and those skeletons were obviously contracting their defenses, as if they were planning to abandon their own vanguard. The commanders of Viero’s army were overjoyed by what they saw, and they could not help but feel a little suspicious. What were these skeletons doing?

The lords of Viero’s army were not really stupid, they quickly guessed what the Madarans were thinking, but even if they did, no one dared to make a move. They could only watch the whole left flank charge towards the opposing vanguard, praying that those fools would realize the situation and retreat when they had taken advantage, and of course, praying for Marsha’s blessing so that those damn skeletons would never see the flaw. They did not dare to send more men to help the left flank nor make any reckless moves. Madara’s skeletons thought that they had sent the front knights but once the other troops were exposed, then they would realize that they were being set up, and it would be all over.

Duke Viero’s supreme commander could not help but sweat uncontrollably. He never dreamed that the battle would come to this point, and could only quickly order the noble private army ambushed in the main formation and the right flank to quickly adjust their direction, in case the left flank was crushed they could still hold up for a while. On the other hand, he was also silently praying that the Lantonilan Army could catch up with them and join the battle. The Madaran’s had nearly 10,000 troops, while the combined forces of Viero and Lantonilan had 15,000.

But what made him feel bitter was that it was the consequences of leaving the Lantonilan and Trentheim armies behind to act on their own that they were in this situation.

At this moment, the commander could not help but feel a sense of guilt.

And so there is a strange balance on the battlefield, both sides of the battle were praying for a miracle, Viero’s side hoped that Madarans would not be so quick to recognize the cheap mistake they made, while the Blood Staff was anxious to find out who was ambushing them and how many human troops were in front of them. According to the judgement of the Dark Leaders, there was at least an army of more than 20,000 people in front of them, and if this judgement was accurate, the Bloodstaff could only pray for a miracle to happen so that their army could escape from the hills.

They actually knew clearly that the army in front of them was probably from Viero or Lantonilan at this point.

But what happened next on the battlefield left everyone dumbfounded.

As the knights’ charge was underway, a light blue wave appeared on the meadows on the hillside and was moving forward.

The most glorious moment of Planchet’s life was about to happen. He was on his horse, holding his shield high and holding his lance. Although he stumbled all the way and his horsemanship was almost unsightly, but in any case, he was guiding an army to launch the attack. A thousand horses followed him – he was like the tip of the sharp spear, at this moment, he finally understood what the knights meant by ‘glorious’. This was the glory they talked about. He couldn’t help but shout, as if his voice alone could make these ‘Necromancers’ in front of him surrender their weapons.

He felt that he was the first knight to attack, and was about to bring a glorious victory to Viero. This time he was sure to become an important official of the Duke. Of course, Planchet could never have dreamed that the real important person beside Duke Viero, the supreme commander of the Viero army, would have dismantled him if it was possible.

But Planchet was not aware at all, still immersed in the romance of being a glorious knight. He suddenly felt that he had lived the first half of his life in vain, and that this moment was the life he really wanted.

For this moment, even if it meant death, it was worth it to him.

But perhaps Marsha felt this desire in him and was happy to push him in the back and let him achieve his ultimate goal in life. All in all, in the eyes of Planchet, those suckers, the Necromancers, should not make any resistance and just wait for him to kill them. These damned skeletons would be nothing and disappear in thin air. In the case of the human army, they might have been scared and pissed their pants at this moment.

But unlike what Planchet imagined, those skeletons raised their staffs right away.

At that very moment, he felt he might have been deceived.

Master Planchet used to listen to the bards in the bar about the prowess of the Mages, and it was another dream of his to become one. It was not until the last moment of his life that he finally witnessed the splendor of magic.

Actually, it was not that much splendorous –

The skeleton mage pointed a distant finger at him, and Planchet barely reacted before half his body swelled up and exploded into a bloody mist with a bang. This death for the knight lord was not a very successful end, but for the others it was only the beginning of the horror. This shocking way of death stunned all the squires who followed Planchet from behind. A living person just exploded into a puddle of flesh, and the flying spray of blood and organs splashed all over the people behind. Such an impact was unbearable to these temporary noble soldiers, not to mention that even real professional soldiers may not be able to endure it as well.

Therefore, naturally, the squires collapsed right away.

Their minds were in chaos and the only thought they could think of was to turn around and run. Then they collided with the knights behind them, and the center of the battlefield was in chaos. The skeleton mage’s black magic exploded the human knights one by one, and most of those knights were just at Planchet’s level. Although they had heard from various sources that the Undead was nothing much to be afraid of and could be weaker than human knights as long as they overcame their fear. Thinking about it, it seemed to be true. In fact, many of them went into battle with such a mindset, but the problem was that they soon discovered the gap between the ideal and the reality, and realized that overcoming fear itself was not an easy task.

Even the knights leading the group were scared out of their wits, not to mention the squires behind them. Those with a little more guts simply pulled the reins of their war horses around from both sides of Madara’s front, and some of these people were lucky enough to survive. The less courageous ones turned around and most of them collided with their own people, knowing that this battlefield had a certain slope, this kind of collision led to the predictable result of a large swath of knights being thrown forward off their horses, flopping down on the grass, and then trampled over by their less skilled colleagues behind their backs, which was simply tragic.

For those who were completely in shock, they rushed straight to the skeleton army. But the problem was that the number of people in this part was too small, and the few who rushed into the formation got stuck on the dense spears.

That was it.

In a mere ten minutes, the entire left flank of the Viero army was defeated by the Undead who had less than a quarter of their number, or rather by themselves. Of course, this was not because the quality of Viero’s noble private army was so bad to this point. On one hand, it was because their commander made a mistake. Due to fear that those knights from all over the world would drag the Duke’s private army down, they were all concentrated on the left flank. Of course, his intention was as it was because it seemed easier to battle this way due to the terrain, but he never thought that these damned guys would be so undisciplined and rush out on their own.

They even collapsed inexplicably.

Of course, this was also because most of Viero’s local army had never fought with Madara, just like in the first War of the Black Rose. Vanmier’s Army faced the Undead army’s defeat, in fact, that was not a reflection of real combat strength, but the human’s natural fear of the Undead.

But in any case, the current result was still a death sentence for the supreme commander of the Viero side.

No matter how weak their left flank was, the destruction of the entire left flank, exposing one side of their army for the opposite to attack, had announced the final outcome of the war.

The important vassal of Duke Viero stood there almost dumbfounded, his forehead already covered with cold sweat.

And at this time, both Bloodstaff and the Dark Leaders of Madara were equally dumbfounded. One moment they were praying that they could get out of this ambush in one piece, but the next moment what happened was like a botched hilarious drama that somehow played out right in front of them. The human army that had taken the lead, had come prepared, and had several times the number of their vanguard, had just routed itself.

What kind of drama was this?

The Dark Leaders under the Bloodstaff looked at one another. They came from brutal battlefields on the border of the Seas of the Dying Moon, and both sides of the war were veterans who had been in the battlefield for a long time. Few people would make such a low-level mistake on the battlefield. When they saw this scene, according to instinctive thinking, the first thing that came to mind was not that these humans on the opposite side were being funny, but that this was not a terrible trap. Imagine a trap that required the sacrifice of one or two thousand of their own people, the ultimate goal must be to wipe them out.

If these Dark Leaders could still sweat, they would have been covered in cold sweat like the supreme commander of Viero now.

But of all people, the only one who reacted first was the Bloodstaff, which had the most dealings with these Aouine people and was well aware of some of the other side’s temperament, and it realized almost immediately that there was something wrong here. Of course, their usual cautious self held them back from rescuing their vanguard, but they waved their cane and passed an order to the back. At the same moment he gave this order and a dozen Terror Phantom from the Undead whistled up and flew towards the Aouines in front.

If Viero’s supreme commander thought he still had a last chance before this, his hope would have been crushed right now. He immediately understood that this time it was all over when he saw the horrible flying Undead with wings several meters wide. The Madarans would soon find out what was going on. Imagine an army that had lost one wing, and in a short time there was no way to gather it back, exposed to the main force of the opposing army, what kind of scene would that be?

Not to mention that the other side still had the skeleton cavalry. They did not even have a chance to escape.

If there was any remaining hope in the heart of this commander at this moment, it should be hoping that the Lantonilan and Trentheim army commanded by that Lord Count, which they had previously left behind, would appear on the battlefield as soon as possible. The sooner the better.

……