Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 8

A grim expression graced Ludmila’s features as she silently watched the advance of her forces. It was true that they were rapidly gaining ground, yes, but the manner in which they did so was more displeasing than anything else.

Across the ten-kilometre-long section of her front, the members of her infantry squads flung themselves into the fray with wild abandon. They hacked, slashed, stabbed and bashed their way forward, though which way ‘forward’ was depended on which servitor one happened to be looking at. Some had separated so far from their comrades that she wasn’t even sure if they could see one another.

Was I really that angry?

The Undead servitors of the Sorcerous Kingdom supposedly acted according to the will of the one directing them. She was admittedly frustrated over the tactics that the Beastmen had come up with to isolate and destroy her troops, but she wasn’t furious to the point that she wanted her forces to throw caution to the wind and scatter in every direction as they rampaged throughout the front.

And, yet, here they were. Ludmila was reasonably certain that the Beastmen would have inflicted even more losses if she hadn’t called her Elder Liches forward to add to the chaos. Each one of them cast Summon Undead V, producing an Undead being known as a ‘Weep’. The eyeless, sore-infested things had a Difficulty Rating in the high seventies and she would have used them sooner, but they were too high to include in an Undead horde and would have been a constant drain on the Elder Liches’ mana.

“We need to reorder our lines,” Ludmila said.

“This one fails to see why such measures are necessary,” Saiko replied.

“They may not be necessary at the moment, but not taking every opportunity to instil proper martial habits into the Royal Army is tantamount to negligence. Discipline and technique are cultivated over time; they must be achieved in advance of any event where necessity calls for them.”

It was a question borne out of frustration more than anything else, as Ludmila already knew the answer. The Southeast Army Group didn’t have a chief of staff assigned to it. Instead, it was ‘administered’ as an extension of Army Group Centre, which was responsible for the security of E-Rantel and the capital region. In other words, its affairs were directed by the civilian administration of the Sorcerous Kingdom.

The priorities of the administration meant that their training and experience differed substantially from the Army Groups with military Commanders managing them. While the North and Southwest Army Groups focused on the development of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s armed forces, the Southeast Army Group did what the civilian administration considered important. This meant that their activities revolved around the duties that servitors deployed for domestic work were expected to know.

They patrolled the areas of the Katze Plains that bordered friendly countries, keeping them clear of wild Undead. The ruined cities concealed deep within the wasteland had been cleaned up and converted into training centres where Death-series servitors and Elder Liches familiarised themselves with customs routines and sentry duties. They even simulated various crimes for servitors-in-training to respond to. Soul Eaters practised pulling various vehicles around or were acclimated to powering industrial machinery. Outside of those activities, they were placed on standby – or, as Liane put it, placed in storage.

There were so many ‘in storage’ that the combined forces operating in the Draconic Kingdom barely amounted to five per cent of their total number. Any outsider who saw them would probably flee to the furthest corner of the world or just commit suicide thinking that the world was doomed anyway.

In conventional terms, the army groups managed by the civilian administration were trained as militia or meant to serve as ‘rentals’. It was strange to think it strange, as that was what security forces managed by civilian administrations generally were. What was actually strange was that the civilian administration was managing the Royal Army at all – and the majority of it at that.

The arrangement was yet another manifestation of the odd way that the Sorcerous Kingdom’s highest echelons did things. Under Lady Shalltear, Ludmila had drawn many parallels between her liege’s duties and her own, but there were still some things that were too foreign or just didn’t make sense at all.

Grand Marshal Cocytus was officially the head of the Royal Army, but Prime Minister Albedo was his superior and that somehow meant that she could take most of the Royal Army under her control for her purposes. Some of those purposes seemed reasonable – such as the need to train militia – while others felt completely arbitrary. ‘That’s how it works’ and ‘it’s the way things are meant to be’ answered little for Ludmila, yet, both Lord Cocytus and Lady Shalltear thought it a matter of course.

I should have brought my own regiments in…

Marshal Saroukhanyan’s insistence on handling the Beastmen in the southern provinces while the Royal Army dealt with the Oriculon Reach meant that Ludmila’s forces ended up staying at home. Not that the Southeast Army Group was so terrible that it merited replacement. In fact, they were probably as perfect as one could get for the task right up until the point where they met resistance from the warrior clans.

Since they were trained as militia, they operated in the idealised form that the civilian administration demanded. As a result, they ‘sorted out’ the Draconic Kingdom as they swarmed over it like a horde of groundskeepers, cleaning up towns, villages, and roads as they went. Refuse was picked up, buildings and infrastructure inspected, corpses – and pieces of corpses – were collected and vehicles parked in designated areas. Armies usually left a mess in their wake as a consequence of conflict, but this army did the exact opposite.

However, as nice as it was, that wasn’t the primary purpose of a professional military. When she was assigned personnel from the Southeast Army Group, Ludmila rationalised it as an exercise and practical experience for troops that sorely needed it. She even thought them ideal for the role as they chased the civilian tribes across the Draconian Kingdom. Unfortunately, that was all proven to be wishful thinking.

As with any army, the Royal Army of the Sorcerous Kingdom needed to be able to function as an army before entering any theatre as one. The lack of discipline wasn’t the first sign of the problem, either. Various issues manifested on an organisational level long before ones directly related to combat operations.

The sergeants weren’t accustomed to field operations and struggled to stay on top of everything. As a result, their officers worked nonstop to make up for the difference. This didn’t work very well when there were only five of them. An officer in the Imperial Army oversaw five Sergeants. In the Draconic Kingdom, Ludmila and her officers were overseeing thirty Elder Liches who were sergeants in name and two hundred more with their dominated auxiliaries. Things worked so long as they went roughly according to plan. They became a mess otherwise.

One might have seen this and concluded that the problem was a shortage of officers. But, while that would have helped and was slated for the future, the fact of the matter was that the organisational issues that they were facing wouldn’t have been as severe if the Southeast Army Group had the same training as the North or Southwest.

They could hardly blame the servitors for not receiving the proper training; they just had to ‘deal with it’ as Lady Shalltear was wont to say. Ludmila had brought up the issue with the general staff, and they all agreed that it was an issue. Agreement was all that seemed to come out of it, however, as the ways of the Royal Court acted as an impassable barrier to improvement.

How do I even deal with this?

It was said that, in lieu of the desires of the living, the Undead pursued what they considered important with an intensity that the living would consider madness. It was also said that summons desired nothing else but fulfilling the will of their master. The chaos below appeared to be the result.

Every Beastman slain signalled success. And, so, they went out and slew Beastmen without end. Not out of bloodlust or even the things that people commonly attributed to the Undead, but out of a desire to fulfil their purpose. Like children who wished only to please their parents, the Undead servitors gleefully went about turning the fields red with the blood of their foes. She idly wondered whether the Sorcerer King had ever experienced one of his Death Knights running off on him before.

“Are Olga’s forces displaying the same behaviour?” Ludmila asked.

“It appears to be the case,” Saiko replied. “However, the squads under her command are not achieving the same gains as those on the western front.”

She had hoped that the noticeably slower progress meant that she was able to keep her subordinates under control. Apparently not.

“What do you think is causing the difference?”

“Commander quality.”

Of course.

It wasn’t any particular thing that she did – it was her ‘build’. Job Class Levels were the go-to answer when it came to the analysis of the Elder Liches. They were probably on the right track, but it felt reductive to the extreme. It might have been that the sum of her life resulted in Job Class levels, but they were seen as the entirety of what a person was rather than being a part of them.

That sort of thinking didn’t sit well with her, and it had long become pervasive within the Sorcerous Kingdom’s Undead administration. She could understand the desire to ‘optimise’, but the way the central administration saw things precluded any notions of personal agency. As a Noble, she knew that things just tended to look that way whenever they were put to paper, but she was almost certain that the central administration literally saw people that way.

“One also needs to account for the possibility that there are differences in the opposition,” Ludmila told Saiko. “People aren’t summons, and armies are never perfectly uniform in troop quality.”

Saiko offered no response. The Elder Lich probably didn’t have any appreciation for what she had said. Even Nonna, who was in constant contact with Ludmila’s subjects, almost seemed offended when one Farmer’s yield was slightly different from another’s, or even with logs from woodcutters having different volumes or requiring different durations to season. None of her ‘audits’ turned up anything, but that only seemed to offend her even more.

Ludmila frowned as Raul’s Skeletal Dragon banked east before it reached the river.

『Raul, mind your positioning. You’re getting too close to the front.』

The Skeletal Dragon altered its course slightly. Ludmila turned her attention back to the Beastmen, eyeing the line of fortifications in the distance. She had watched their progress since arriving at the front and conducting attacks all night, though she was still unsure how the towers had come into being. Her best guess was that they used magic to shape the stone and Rol’en’gorek’s forces had mystics aplenty.

Overall, it was a normal enough thing. If people knew that they would fight a set-piece battle somewhere, they would inevitably raise some defences. The Imperial Army raised earthworks to counter their infantry-heavy opposition – both Demihumans and Humans alike. Re-Estize used anti-cavalry defences because the Empire primarily fielded cavalry. From what she had seen of Rol’en’gorek's defences during her flight with Ilyshn'ish, the Beastmen favoured high stone fortifications that commanded a view of the surrounding terrain.

Those defences run to the riverbank, but they don’t run along the riverbank. Are they that confident that they can resist Raul's assaults during the day?

The fortifications encircled Eastwatch, so it was also true that any attacks from the rear would be caught between the fortress city and the first defensive line. It made for an easy encirclement if they simply gave way to attackers and formed up behind them. Since they had proven that they could trap and destroy Death-series servitors, getting caught deep in the Beastmen’s forces presented substantial risks.

『Raul, keep your attacks quick and shallow. They may look soft along the riverbank, but that location is ideal for entrapping attackers.』

“Captain,” Saiko said, “the Beastmen are accelerating their withdrawal.”

Below them, Rol’en’gorek’s forces seemed to melt away, but it wasn’t a rout. Their warbands still maintained discipline as they retreated to their fortifications.

『Reform the lines. Do not pursue.』

She put extra emphasis into her order, hoping that it would count for something. Thankfully, the infantry squads stopped, though the Death Warriors pulled out their crossbows and continued attacking from where they were.

Well, I didn’t say not to attack.

Ludmila looked behind to the dominated forces bringing up the rear. The infantry squads had gained a kilometre on them since she called for a general advance. She returned her attention to the Beastmen and her eyes settled on where the highway spanned the shallow ravine in front of the Beastmen’s earthworks.

“They’ve set some sort of trap in the ravine,” she murmured.

“Studies have proven that Rangers cannot detect traps from over a kilometre away,” Saiko told her.

“I didn’t detect any traps directly,” Ludmila replied. “The Beastman forces are using the bridges to cross rather than just going through the ravine. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t – especially when they have enemies behind them.”

『All forces, advance. Maintain your lines.』

Despite seeing that Ludmila’s forces had resumed their advance, the Beastmen still insisted on using the bridges. There was definitely something waiting for her forces in the ravine.

『Infantry squads, once you enter the ravine, find some cover and hold your positions. Controllers, prepare a variety of Undead to investigate the terrain for traps.』

A bullet clanked off of the shield of a Death Knight. She gauged the distance to the ravine.

“That attack was from over seven hundred metres away…”

“We have no record of an attack being made from that distance by the Beastmen with such accuracy,” Saiko said.

Another bullet whistled in, taking the head off of an Elder Lich sergeant.

『Form shield walls! There’s a powerful Ranger in the enemy forces.』

A Death Priest restored the Elder Lich’s head. They moved to take cover behind the line of tower shields. More bullets struck the wall of metal.

“How are their shields holding out?” Ludmila asked.

“No damage has been reported so far,” Saiko answered.

Maybe they were using a specific set of Martial Arts to strike accurately from so far away. A Weep fell to the ground, its leg blasted off just above the knee. Another lost its arm at the shoulder, and the stump spurted sizzling black bile as the Weep ignored the damage and continued forward.

『Controllers, they’re imbuing their attacks with Holy Damage to disable regeneration. Expect to lose your summons, but don’t replace them just yet. Let’s pick up the pace.』

The wall of shields advanced at a jog, though it seemed like a walk with the fields churned to mud.

“Captain,” Saiko said, “high altitude observers have lost track of the Skeletal Dragon in use by sub-commander Raul.”

Ludmila stared at the Elder Lich.

“…what about Raul?” She asked.

“Unknown.”

“Contact his adjutant and find out what happened.”

She looked toward the Oriculon, but there was nothing to see but the sun reflecting off of the water. Did he get too close to the shore and get detected through Invisibility? That shouldn’t have been the case as she had just warned him about it.

“Captain,” Saiko said, “this one is unable to establish contact with sub-commander Raul’s adjutant.”

“The adjutant was destroyed?”

“The Message spell failed to reach its intended recipient.”

Which meant that the recipient no longer existed or was being blocked somehow. The former seemed to be the most likely case considering that they were flying over a river.

“Let’s gain some altitude,” Ludmila said. “Do not go within a kilometre of that wall. Whatever took down Raul’s Skeletal Dragon saw right through its invisibility. That means you’re at risk, as well. Try contacting Raul.”

A Skeletal Dragon and an Elder Lich adjutant. Squads of Death-series Servitors. Yet, even with all of that, the enemy managed to get him.

Ludmila looked toward the Oriculon again. She figured he would be next to untouchable when she brought him along. Now, she was wondering if he was dead. Could he be resurrected? If not, how could she bring herself to face the parents who had entrusted their son to her care?

“Captain,” Saiko said, “this one has established contact with sub-commander Raul.”

She breathed a sigh of relief.

“Is he alright?”

“The sub-commander is currently floating down the Oriculon. No injuries were reported. An Elder Lich has been dispatched to retrieve him.”

Saiko paused for a moment before speaking again.

“A Death Knight from Squad Twenty-Eight has been destroyed.”

A tendril of anxiety rose within her.

“That’s one of Raul’s…is something chasing after him?”

“Squad Twenty-Eight is currently attacking Beastman positions along the river.”

『Squad Twenty-Eight, withdraw into the river.』

“They are unable to comply,” Saiko said. “The entire squad has fallen victim to the ‘taunt tactics’ of the Beastmen.”

This again…

Her fading worry for Raul was replaced with mounting frustration. She still hadn’t come up with a solution for the problem aside from an all-out attack.

“Where are they?” Ludmila sighed.

Saiko pointed down at the bridge. Ludmila had the Elder Lich stand by while she carefully descended to take a closer look. By the time she came close enough to make out the details of the fight, it was already over. She returned to Saiko, not willing to risk detection with what appeared to be several powerful Rangers at large.

“I couldn’t catch any details,” Ludmila said. “How did they end up out of the river, anyway?”

“They were ordered to attack,” Saiko replied. “Going by what the squad’s sergeant related to this one before it perished, they were supposed to be part of a larger effort.”

“So you’re saying that only the first squad in the assault received their orders before Raul’s adjutant was destroyed?”

She wasn’t sure what to think. Not only was it an extraordinarily unlucky event, but the sole squad that had received its orders faithfully carried them out in vain.

Ludmila closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

『Olga, Raul went for a swim. Take command of his squads on your side. Also, mind your distance to the front. The Beastmen have spells or individuals that can see through invisibility, and they’re landing accurate attacks from a kilometre away.』

“Saiko, have our sergeants found anything in this ravine?”

“The Beastmen have prepared traps on their side of the ravine,” the Elder Lich replied. “Most notably are what appears to be Spike Growth spells.”

And, just like that, all of their weak Undead were rendered useless. Fleshy Undead would be sliced to ribbons trying to cross the Spike Growth. Skeletons would eventually get through, but a single bullet from even the weakest Beastman hunter would destroy them.

“What are they trying now?”

“We are investigating the extent of the Spike Growth effect with Blood Meat Hulks, as well as anything else that may be in place…Blood Meat Hulks are being destroyed across the front.”

“By what?”

“Unknown. Their demise was instantaneous.”

Ludmila waited as the sergeants continued their testing. While that happened, the Undead continued to gather in the ravine. She pondered how she might assault the Beastmen’s position.

“How high is this magical barrier that’s destroying all of our test subjects?” She asked. “Is it just a ground effect like Spike Growth?”

“Spectral Undead such as Wraiths have triggered the effect,” Saiko answered, “so it is not restricted to ground targets or those with physical form.”

“Check for a maximum height,” Ludmila told the Elder Lich. “I can’t imagine that it goes up forever.”

She peered down at a cluster of Wraiths as they emerged from the ravine, nodding her head slowly as a few crossed over the top of the barrier.

『Looks like the way across is over. Death Warriors, start tossing Undead over to the wall. Use lesser Undead until you’re confident you can make the throw.』

The Death Warriors already had some practice throwing other Undead around during the assaults on towns that they made along the way west, so it didn’t take them too long to figure out how much power they needed to put into it. Soon, Undead Beasts were falling amongst the Beastmen.

A Weep was intercepted by a defender’s bullet, but that only caused its skin to rupture and shower the Beastmen with poisonous black bile. When Death Knights started arcing through the air, however, a few of them seemed to bounce back and crash into the trees at the bottom of the ravine.

“I have no idea what happened there,” Ludmila said, “is there some other barrier in place?”

“There is not enough data for speculation,” Saiko replied. “The servitors encountering the ‘barrier’ only felt themselves being pushed back.”

She didn’t ponder the strange phenomena for long, as something far more worrisome appeared. A few dozen Beastmen – including two Lords – sortied from the tower overlooking the highway, sweeping north to clear the accumulation of Undead. Unlike the others, they didn’t seem to struggle against the Death-series Servitors at all, tossing many back into the ravine while keeping a few to fight against. Those that were tossed aside took significant damage as they fell back through the magical defences.

『A strong Beastman warband has appeared. Lure them north. Get them as far from the bridge as possible. Everyone else, gather to take the bridge.』

Not half a minute later, the Beastmen stopped and started fighting their way back the way they came. Based on the curve of the wall, they shouldn’t have been able to see what was going on at the bridge, but they still somehow knew what she was trying to do.

“That group of Beastmen is going to be a problem,” Ludmila said.

“Shall we have the infantry squads intercept them?” Saiko asked.

“No,” Ludmila shook her head, “they’re coming for the infantry squads.”

She wanted to withdraw her forces, but she couldn’t. They were fully committed to securing the bridge and were locked into a momentous push that was steadily driving the Beastmen back. To the side, the group of strong Beastmen was rapidly closing on the bridge.

『Incoming from the left flank! Brace yourselves!』

Even as her warning was delivered, the group of Beastmen shifted, taking on the appearance of a falcon. In the split second that it took for her to register the formation, it smashed into the press of Death Knights, squishing them even closer together. Columns of flame streaked down to set the Undead ablaze.

What in the world…

Were they Rol’en’gorek’s elite force? Something like one of the Scriptures of the Theocracy or Baharuth’s Whitesilver Imperial Guard?

Ludmila watched helplessly as her infantry squads were pushed back over the bridge. Death Knights seemed to fall apart from the mere act of being repulsed, and there were no more than a third left by the time they were thrown back onto the highway.

『All western forces, withdraw back into the ravine! Squads in the Oriculon, head downstream to the original front.』

“We need to consolidate for their counterattack,” Ludmila said. “This is–”

Too late.

Barely five minutes after retaking the bridge, the Beastmen were on the move again. Not just the group of elites, but seemingly all of the Beastmen not locked into their respective fights along the wall. Ludmila descended, picking up speed as she tried to make it to the reserve squads guarding the approach to Queen Oriculus’ position before the Beastmen did.

It looks like Raul’s squads will make it in time. Will it be enough?

There were two infantry squads on defence, plus three from Raul’s forces. In nearly any case, she would have thought it to be more than enough, yet, now, something told her that it wasn’t.

『Tighten ranks! Let none of them through!』

Ludmila came within a hundred metres of her forces, yet the Beastmen were faster still. Her grip tightened on her glaive as she waited for the inevitable impact and breakthrough. Then, to her great relief, the Beastmen stopped before the wall of black metal.

“「Turn Undead」!”

Her mouth fell open as the infantry squads broke and scattered.

Ludmila’s boots struck the pavement where her forces once stood. Her teeth clenched as she watched the tattered cloaks of her soldiers flutter in their flight.

I can’t let this happen. I won’t!

Her glaive cut a wide arc through the air as she turned to face her foe.

“Stand your ground!”

The world froze. No, it was the Undead that froze, and the Beastmen that froze upon seeing that they did. That moment lasted for a split second, and then her soldiers came roaring back to join their Captain.

Ludmila raised her glaive, brandishing its blade at the Beastman Lord towering before her. It regarded her with a calm look before vanishing from her sight.

In that instant, she activated Ability Boost, Strengthen Perception and Invulnerable Fortress. The Beastman Lord reappeared in her vision. She brought up her polearm to block his overhead strike.

…and then she was blasted away like a leaf in a gale.

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