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Chapter 165 - Blood and Chaos (Thank you for your support, Joey McGowan!)
🕑 Added 2024-11-10 15:06:24 +0000 UTCThe humans and Aquarians were expecting that the orcs, goblins, and ogres would take a bit more time to gather their forces, but on the third day after they set their camp to block the advance of the invaders, they decided to launch an attack.
That was unexpected since intel said that they still had a lot of allies coming to join them. It looked like their nature to ignore strategy had reached a limit after they saw more than ten clans being decimated. At first, Remi went to join the front lines with a smile on his face. Ulric followed him, a bit nervous as usual, but soon he changed his mood when the battle started. Since then, forty-eight hours have passed.
“What is wrong with these bastards?”
Remi blocked the punch of an ogre with his spear, but the impact pushed him several meters backward. The ogre charged again, and he barely had the time to raise his spear to block the attack. The idea of attacking first and using his range never crossed his mind since he knew how those guys were crazy.
He was pushed away again, but before the ogre could continue, Ulric suddenly approached and then stabbed the ogre on the right left side, piercing his liver and the other organs, making the ogre paralyzed thanks to the pain. Despite that, the ogre looked at him with hatred and got ready to attack Ulric… only to be stopped by a thrust on his neck.
“I told you not to interfere, Ulric!”
“I would rather hear you complain than hear your mother and sister blaming me for your death… Besides, look around for a moment. Do you see anything worrying about having fair duels?”
Remi looked around for a moment while he tried to gasp for air and supported himself by standing with his spear. He saw humans and aquarians fighting together in pairs and in sometimes groups of three against a single enemy.
The orcs, goblins, and ogres were simply insane… They fought solo, but they fought until death without rest. Remi’s face was swollen after he got punched a couple of times after stabbing the heart of some enemies and, when he thought that they were done for, they would approach and still knock him down with a punch.
If it weren’t for Ulric covering for him, another enemy would have cut him down while he was stunned on the ground. That really hurt his pride, but he couldn’t say anything aside from complaining every single time.
Again, the orcs, goblins, and ogres were simply insane… They had been launching an attack that has been lasting for two days already. A lot more of them died, but they didn’t retreat. They would keep advancing even if they had to step on the bodies of their allies.
“Second unit! Retreat! First Unit! Step forward!”
The two brothers sighed in relief when they realized that they finally had the chance to take a break… it was a short one, though. They had thirty units in the area of one hundred men, and despite that, they could only afford to take breaks off half an hour. Enough to go to the bathroom, eat, and drink something and then return to the battle after being healed for a short while.
“Fuck…”
“Don’t curse while you are eating.”
Remi felt like cursing pretty much all the time now. Even when he cleaned himself a bit, he still smelled like sweat and blood. It goes without saying that his food didn’t taste good while he felt the smell. He sighed and then tried to change his mood.
“... How are the situations on the other battlefields?”
“If the enemies didn’t come, or allies for that matter, I would guess that everything is on a stalemate. They are using the same tactics in other areas as well, so everyone is struggling.”
After seeing so many people die, even some people that had graduated from the knights academy with him, Ulric thought that he would be more traumatized, but his mind was as clear as it could have been. He assumed that it was because his blood was still hot and then all those dark feelings would come at full force.
Still, he also had a feeling that he wouldn’t feel all that much. The reason for that was that something else came all at once to him… his life, his path, the story of his family. It felt like all those things were converging in front of him. The life that he had lived until now, he never questioned it. The training, the knowledge, the food, the clothes and the fame… all it felt natural until now, but now he could finally understand why he had those things. It was because the empire and his family fought for it.
Ulric thought that he would regret all the blood that he had shed and all the lives that he took, but he didn’t regret them until now. It was time to pay the price for everything that he had received in life… Besides, he knew that this battle wouldn’t have started if the war years ago hadn’t been started by the pirates of this land.
“Any news about that guy?”
Ulric sighed… he thought that his brother had finally forgotten about Regulus, but it looked like that wasn’t the case. Even though he could have died a dozen times already today, he was still itching to set the score. He had gotten stronger and his skills had been sharpened for fighting nonstop, so he didn’t think that he would lose like before.
“... The last thing I heard was that they would fill the labyrinth with water since we couldn’t afford to send more people to look for him and the enemies had started to prepare for the battle. Since then, we were unable to send messages to the other camps. No one found traces of him after we met him, so he might be able to escape without being found, if he uses the confusion of the battle.”
“Hah! He is an idiot. He will probably do something stupid again. Trying to play hero to get in the good graces of the people here.”
“If he were truly aiming for that, he would have joined their side. They don’t have archers at all and with his skills, he could snipe a lot of people from a distance. This battle only isn’t worse because the enemies don’t care about tactics. If they had interest in tactics and tools, with their numbers, they would be unstoppable. If my guess is right, Regulus can make enchanted gear… and that kind of power in the hands of the enemies would have made things a lot worse for us.”
The enemies barely used any protective gear. For them, the best defense was the highest and most powerful offense. So, considering how annoying they were already to deal with, any minor enchanted items would really turn them into hard to stop killing machines. In a way, it was truly convenient that they lived on an island, otherwise, they would have tried to conquer the whole world.
Remi felt a bit odd thinking like that when he was working for the empire and the empire was doing essentially the same thing… but soon he shook those thoughts away from his head. Unlike those barbarians, the empire could prosper by itself. It doesn’t need to constantly take resources from other lands it invades. He was that simple-minded.
Most people don’t realize that in their lives, when they live without thinking, they surrender the agency that they have over their own fates. Living without thinking can make a person live a more carefree life and not anguish over anything and that can be a good thing, but they also don’t realize that they are being pushed by a certain current.
The current only gets stronger the more people are pushed by it. Most people never realize what had happened until very late in life. Most people die without noticing that they had been part of the current. Those two brothers were too young to realize that. Perhaps Ulric had realized it, but one couldn’t say if he thought of this current as something good or bad.
“Second unit! Assume your formations!”
Ulric and Remi got up and then took a deep breath to join the battle again. Remi decided to focus on the battles a bit more in order not to need the help of his brother, but when he looked around, he soon saw him moving slowly. It looked like he was a bit hurt on his legs. His arms were covered with sword wounds that were closing completely.
Even if they had healers, their wounds couldn’t close that fast. While some specialists could do that, it was too inefficient and they would find better use with their mana healing a lot more people and saving time as well.
Remi took a deep breath. He realized that even though his brother was cautious, this wasn’t a battle that he could escape alive just by being cautious. Remi had no idea how many times Ulric also had gotten hurt covering for him, and that idea alone made him feel that bothered. He usually wouldn’t feel this way to about Jacques and Gerald, but things were a bit different with Ulric since he was older than him.
“Stay close and don’t take any chances. We won’t gain a lot of merit if either of us die here.”
“... What? Did you eat something bad and now you are feeling sick?”
“Shut the hell up, or I will shut it for you.”
Ulric shrugged and then he followed his brother. Soon enough, he joined the other members of the second unit and both of them couldn’t help but show complicated expressions. They were supposed to have one hundred people there, but they could only count seventy. Some of them were too wounded to move, but others died pretty close to them.
Those who were young and tried to prove themselves had met an early death… even those who were a bit older than those two had died as well… Most of those who had died didn’t like those two since they came from a famous family, but it was hard to hate them now after fighting side by side and seeing death together so many times in a row. The issues that they had before looked very small now.
Comments
ReadingObsessed
I don't care for these two very much. Simpleminded and obstinate. I register they were raised in a racist and xenophobic society but every time I can't help but see similarities to them and the callousness of the Nazis. They cut down other sapient beings without a second thought since they just don't see them as people. I'm not sure if this is the objective but I do find myself reading these chapters a bit faster than others.
Zero
Her-> his
ThoMiCroN
Remi had no idea how many times Ulric also had gotten hurt covering for her->him*
