48. Puppets In The Darkness

The sound of hundreds of men marching and horses galloping echoed loudly in Nathanial’s ears. He scanned the surroundings while remaining vigilant with the other patrolmen. Azure banners snapped in the wind. Their bloodstained colors hung lower than before as they were weighed down by the rain and ash of the night before. Many soldiers forced themselves to march in the columns with the leaves of nearby trees swaying side to side.

It had been hours since they last saw the Empire’s men, and unease was spreading through the ranks. They had fought for hours. Through the night and into the next day. Now, Nathanial and the rest of the two armies were slowly traversing through the forest and along the main road.

Even with the commanders, knights, barriers, and defensive artifacts in place, there was no telling what the darkness had in store.

Once nightfall arrived, Nathanial was sure the Empire would make their move once more. And the commanders, having expected this as well, decided that the best course of action was to march through the night and back toward the bastions of their homeland. The defensive fortresses that were raised as the intended final line of defense against the Empire.

There were a total of seven heavily fortified cities serving as the bulwark of the Everheart Kingdom. From the coast to the dwarven realms, Nathanial knew of Stonewatch, Highcrest, Dawnguard, Ironhold, Valor, Aegis, and the Stafford bastions.

The cities weren’t in any particular order, but with those seven cities, the Everheart Kingdom still had time to fortify its positions and solidify its supply routes.

However, the only problem was that Nathanial and everyone else who had retreated had lost contact with the Kingdom’s strategists. They had no clue how dire the current situation was. All they knew was that the Empire had led a spearhead and broken through the Fifth Army.

Then, wrapped around the eastern side to encircle both the Sixth and Seventh Armies in an attempt to fully eradicate their forces. Yet something had gone wrong with the Empire’s plans. They had failed to wipe out the Sixth Army, and according to the men who survived, it wasn’t a seven-star aura user that the Commander of the Sixth fought.

It was Emperor Nero Cladius Avalon’s brother.

An eight-star aura user.

Richard Cladius Avalon.

A foe that required the Sword Saint or their King, Alexander Aurelius Everheart, to face. And somehow, with the two seven-star commanders, they had pushed Richard Cladius Avalon back.

Even with morale being as high as it was, Nathanial couldn’t help but feel like it wouldn’t be enough. That the battle wasn’t over just yet.

If he were in the Empire’s position, then he would complete the encirclement and intend to fully destroy the Kingdom’s army in one fell swoop to cripple their fighting capabilities.

That made the most sense to him.

It would allow them to kill the commanders and wipe out the leadership of not just one or two armies, but all three from the Fifth to Seventh Armies stationed at the borders.

However, they needed to account for the Everheart Kingdom’s response, which meant that their greatest enemy was time.

Nathanial tapped his crossguard with his left index finger as he held it in both hands. He tried to visualize the entire situation and piece together the missing parts of the puzzle.

Due to the sheer size of the Seventh Army, it would be impossible for the Empire to wipe them out in a single night. And if they really wanted to trap both armies, then they would have to start the encirclement process on both sides.

So how?

How was it that the Empire failed to catch Commander Cronia’s men?

They could have trapped the Seventh, and with the Empire’s scouts, they would have been able to track their movements.

Nathanial placed himself in the Empire’s position. If he were commanding an army to ambush the Seventh Army, then he would have many scouts and forward parties looking for them in order to relay information properly. This way, he could pinpoint their path and cut off any retreat.

The only way for his plan to fail would be if the watchmen had taken out all of his forward parties. Then he would have to rush forward blindly to find Commander Cronia’s men.

And obviously, any sane man who was fully aware of the encirclement wouldn’t go straight into the jaws of a beast. Instead, they would retreat back to the safety of their—

Nathanial’s breath was caught in the back of his lungs.

That’s how Commander Cronia outsmarted the Empire’s tacticians.

The Empire didn’t lose in its tactics. They just didn’t expect the Seventh Army to perform a feat on the verge of insanity. Odds are, the Empire’s forces tasked with trapping Commander Cronia’s men continued to move forward in search of the Seventh Army, but never found them.

So that meant they overreached themselves, and even though they inflicted horrific damage on the Sixth Army—they had failed to secure victory.

Nathanial stared at the battered men in the other wagons. Their injuries were wrapped with fresh linen, and the distant groans of wounded men reached him from the nearby wagons.

If the Empire had just encircled the Sixth Army and used the forces meant to encircle the Seventh as reinforcements, then the entire Sixth Division would have perished in a single night.

They were far too ambitious with their goals, and that ambition created a weakness in the Empire’s tactics.

Now their foes were a step behind.

Nathanial glanced over to Jetson, the old man focused on steering the wagon with its passengers to its destination. Countless soldiers of the Everheart ranks surrounded him.

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This was the best location for him to test his heightened senses to their fullest capabilities.

He closed his eyes as a breath of fresh air entered his lungs. The surroundings faded from existence as the creak of wood and metallic scrape of plates vanished from his senses. Nathanial couldn’t hear the voices of the soldiers around him.

Not anymore, as he focused on what was beyond their party by reinforcing his hearing with aura. Combined with the heightened senses in his vow, the world expanded. One heartbeat became hundreds. Something Nathanial needed to concentrate on and tune out, just enough so he could only hear what was past the rustling leaves that became a sea of whispers.

It was faint, but Nathanial heard it. The songs of a battle repeating further out from their location. He listened closely to the blades clashing, the melody of steel meeting steel, but unlike before, the exchanges sounded one-sided.

He frowned, trying to make sense of the situation. Then came the snapping of a cloak and leather armor stretching as someone pivoted on their heel.

Nathanial recognized the noise, connecting it to the watchmen that were scouting the routes ahead and beside the army.

He calmly listened, gauging the situation of the battle.

The few elite of the Order were swiftly clearing out the remnants of the scouts who were trying to deliver information to the Empire’s chain of command. It didn’t take much for Nathanial to understand that their enemies were maneuvering around them as well.

But from the current battles, it seemed fruitless for their foes.

And to Nathanial, that made sense. The Empire’s command structure had to be damaged from the Everheart Kingdom’s counterattack. For them to still be fully functioning would be unbelievable.

“Well, it seems like it’ll be smooth riding from here on out,” Jetson said.

Nathanial immediately tapped on the wooden bench with his knuckles, causing Jetson to hold his stomach as he erupted in a roar of laughter.

“Ya believe in those superstitions?” he asked.

Nathanial shrugged. “Better safe than sorry, and besides, in a world with ghosts and such—I prefer not exposing myself to any bad fortune.”

“Too late for that, sir,” Percy chimed in, leaning over the edge of the wooden board at the front. “We’ve already had a bunch of bad fortune lately.”

“And yet we somehow made it through it all,” Fredrick added.