Chapter 82 : Elf Knights and the Power of the Pike Phalanx (4)
Chapter 82: Elf Knights and the Power of the Pike Phalanx (4)
-Rumble, rumble, rumble!
The shock rising from the saddle hammered his buttocks. Through the narrow gap of his helmet, Baron Ludwig saw the pikemen who had protruded and become isolated, unlike the other units.
‘I shall crush you, you mercenary bastards!’
Baron Ludwig raised his voice, vowing revenge.
“Knight Order! Lances!”
-Whish!
The Order of the Black Rain lowered their raised lances in unison. The lances, firmly couched in the gaps of their armpits, were pressed tightly together, pointing forward.
The sight of those densely packed lances was extraordinary to anyone who saw them. If one were to encounter them without preparation, they would surely be turned into a pulp.
‘You bastard! You wouldn't have thought of this.’
Baron Ludwig ground his teeth. The surprising idea of bracing pikes in every direction to stop a knightly charge was certainly grand, but that was as far as it went.
A square phalanx had its gaps, and Ludwig was able to discover that gap in a brief moment.
It was the corner.
“For the brothers who went before us!”
“Grip your spears firmly!!!”
“We pierce through just like this! For an honorable death!”
“Kiyooooooooot!”
The corner was the only place that showed a flaw in the formation without any defense. Now that there were no auxiliary units on the flanks, that spot was a fatal Achilles' heel. Baron Ludwig, leading the Order of the Black Rain, moved as flexibly as a snake and charged toward that spot.
-Waaaaaah!
The sharp tips of the lances pointed toward the pikemen.
-Shoot! Shoot them!
-Thwip-thwip-thwip!
-Tink! Ting! Clang!
From the side, the archer units of the Count’s army hurriedly fired arrows. However, it was useless. It only served to further provoke the anger of the Order of the Black Rain.
-Rumbleeeee!
-Clang, clang.
And a moment later.
The anger-filled lance charge of the Order of the Black Rain began toward the corner that was exposed without any defense.
* * *
“Damn it! Block them!”
Shatien shouted.
However, he could not stop the charge of the knights who carried such momentum.
“Aaaaaaaagh!”
-Creeeeeak—snap!
-Crack!
The corner was practically defenseless.
It meant a situation where they could not be protected by anything.
The dense rows that had been packed to form the phalanx only suffered greater damage from the lance charge of the Order of the Black Rain.
“This is the end!!”
“I shall show you hell!”
-Crunch!
-Crunch! Crunch-crunch-crunch!
“Keep piercing through just like this! Do not slow down!”
“Ahahaha. You vermin. Die! Die! Die! Offer your insignificant lives to God!!”
The wedge shaped charge of the Order of the Black Rain crushed and pierced through the pike phalanx led by Shatien.
In an instant, half of the pike phalanx collapsed.
A wide path was cut diagonally through the middle of the phalanx.
“Shit!”
Shatien was horrified.
It was surprising enough that they discovered the undefended gap in that short time, but it was also astonishing that they could control the movement of the charging cavalry with such delicacy.
How could they turn their direction at an angle just before the head-on collision to pierce through the weakness?
‘Is this... what it means to be knights who have spent their whole lives on horseback, refining only battle skills-!’
The knights who had completed collective training were nearly invincible on the plains, and he felt he now understood why they received such an evaluation.
However, there was no time to be lost in admiration and confusion.
“Close in! First, raise your spears! Reform the phalanx! Quickly!”
Having pierced through the pike unit, the Order of the Black Rain led by Baron Ludwig turned in a circle and began to prepare for another lance charge.
He saw an intense will to annihilate the pike phalanx led by Shatien at all costs.
If they stayed dazed like this, they would truly be annihilated.
-Dudududu!
-Clatter!
He saw the Order of the Black Rain, who had reformed their lines, lowering their lances and pointing their spears toward them once more.
The spear tips glittering in the sunlight were overbearing. Shatien wiped the sweat that had trickled down without him realizing.
‘This is not easy. It is truly not easy.’
Would he be able to block that lance charge this time?
“Ugh. Ughhh....”
“Damn it... damn it!”
Unlike before, the morale of the pikemen was not very good. It was natural, given they had just suffered enormous damage from the previous lance charge.
They had formed their ranks by clutching their pikes as a conditioned reflex from their training, but their morale had dropped excessively. If things went wrong, they would fail to withstand the pressure of the rushing cavalry charge and flee.
“The phalanx is sturdy! Trust your comrades! This time, they cannot enter through a corner like before! In a head-on collision, the pike phalanx is invincible!”
Shatien shouted at the top of his lungs, trying to maintain morale and discipline by any means necessary.
The situation was a crisis of that magnitude.
To be honest, Shatien was at the point of thinking of a response while anticipating a desperate situation after the collision.
But just then, the sound of a horn trumpet echoed out.
-Bwaaaaaa-ooooo!
A sound that was similar but somehow different.
It did not belong to the army of Count Bellua.
It was the opposite.
“?”
“????”
It was the sound of a trumpet coming from the Imperial Army camp far away.
And it was the retreat signal for the Imperial Army led by Count Heinrich.
‘Ragnarsson!!’
Far away, the elf knights of Rostingia were devastating the main force led by Count Heinrich.
Clearly, the original plan was for the elf knights of Rostingia to ambush their flank while they blocked the Order of the Black Rain, but they were moving differently from the plan.
However,
‘It was even more effective! It was a truly excellent choice.’
They had aimed exactly for the gaps where the distance between units had stretched during the successive battles. The Rostingia elf knights led by Ragnarsson were piercing through the gaps between units and were toppling the Imperial Army itself.
-Bwooooo!
-Bwooooooo!
-Return!
-Retreat! We must save the main force quickly.
Because of that, the horn trumpet had sounded so desperately from Count Heinrich’s Imperial Army. Baron Ludwig exploded with frustration.
“Damn it!!!”
They were right in front of them.
He could have caught and killed that damn arrogant mercenary knight bastard.... The situation was not favorable.
“You bastard! I will spare you for now!”
In the end, Baron Ludwig spit out words that a third-rate villain might say and immediately led the knights toward his main force.
“That bastard! That one. Let us kill them all!”
“Uooooo! Yes, let us run! Let us crush their skulls!”
The excited mercenaries vented their anger and spoke thus. They were already in a state where they had seen plenty of blood, and they had lost many comrades. It was a natural progression for them to lose their minds.
“No! Do not pursue!”
Shatien ordered the mercenaries who were hurriedly breaking formation.
There was no meaning in pursuing them now.
-Boom, boom, boom
-Advance!
That was right. After all, the Count’s army could just do the finishing touches. Shatien breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the Count’s units advance toward the Imperial Army that had fallen into chaos.
“Ughhhh.”
“H-Help me. Please. Please, I do not want to die like this.”
The place where the knights had swept through was utter bedlam. Not only were limbs split, but internal organs had come out of stomachs, covering everything in blood and filth. Shatien hurriedly ordered the mercenaries.
“Recover the wounded and bind the surviving knights. Do not exercise violence afterward under any circumstances.”
A mishap might occur. Once the battle was over, they had to recognize the customs of the nobility in their own way. If they killed them to vent their anger, there would be no way to handle the consequences.
Even if they were enemies, the nobles could not stand having their customs violated.
As expected, that damn honor was the problem.
“A-Ahahahaha! Shatien!! Damn it!”
Still, there was a person who was positive in his own way despite such a somber atmosphere. It was Miles.
Miles, covered in blood, held his halberd, which still had bits of flesh on it, high and shouted.
“We won! We won! We beat down all those stupid knights!! Isn't that right? You morons!!”
“Ha, hahahaha!! Uhahaha.”
“That is right! Centurion Miles!”
“Long live Shatien! Long live Miles! Long live the Black Raven Mercenary Company!”
“We are the invincible mercenary company!”
Only then did the somber atmosphere revive. The mercenaries, who had been feeling a sense of defeat due to the shocking damage, finally realized they were the winners at that shout.
“Heh, thank you, Miles.”
“Don’t mention it. Doing that is my role as the adjutant, Shatien. Hehe. If you're thankful, buy me a drink. When we rest later.”
Seriously, he was an interesting guy.
Our Miles.
“Puff, puff....”
Shatien, with his tension released, breathed heavily.
‘It is over.’
It was a grand battle that showed the power of the pikemen without any filtration. The Order of the Black Rain, who would return to the north, would probably tremble at the mere sight of a pike from now on. And it was certain that the reputation of himself and the Black Raven Mercenary Company would spread widely across the continent through some channel.
That was right.
A historic battle that would later be called the ‘Grand Battle of Carcassonne’ had come to an end.
* * *
The urgent battle ended, and a tedious war of attrition began.
After exchanging prisoners, the Imperial Army retreated to Carcassonne, locked the castle gates, and held out.
Since there were quite a few wells inside Carcassonne, they intended to hold out somehow by using them for drinking water and even eating their horses.
A well built castle possessed truly terrible defensive power. Ordinarily, one would give up and return after besieging it.
However, Count Bellua’s choice was different.
“Besiege it. Loot the surrounding areas.”
Count Bellua began to loot all the other villages, which was very unusual. Normally, no noble would destroy the territory that would become theirs, but this was a different case.
“I will personally settle those damages later. Do not worry, my knights, and prepare for battle.”
He was determined to bring down Carcassonne. Thanks to that, the area around Carcassonne was literal scorched earth, but Count Bellua’s army obtained enough food to hold out for several months. And using that as a driving force, they strengthened their patrols endlessly to cut off the supply network entering Carcassonne itself.
Gradually, the smoke rising from the castle decreased day by day, and according to the intelligence heard, infectious diseases were even spreading among the people who were starving to death, turning the inside of the castle into a wasteland.
‘The end must be drawing near.’
Shatien thought thus as he watched. Hunger was not something that could be helped.
Why else would not even a single bird fly over the castle walls?
If a bird flew, the crossbowmen were busy hunting and eating it with eyes lit up.
The end was approaching.
This was something anyone belonging to Count Bellua’s army felt, not just Shatien.
“Shatien! Where are you going today?”
“I heard there is a village of woodcutters clearing the nearby forest. I plan to go there.”
“Ooooh, woodcutters! If we recruit them, we can fill the halberd unit to the brim. Uhahahaha.”
In fact, he did not know if it was recruitment or forced conscription, but Miles was just happy that his unit was being filled. After all, wasn't war in this era all like that?
And as they spent time like that, a mercenary ran over in a hurry.
“Centurion! We have a problem.”
“Hmm?”
A problem? Why on earth would there be a problem? Surely they wouldn't be crazy enough to open the castle gates and attack.
And yet, that "surely" was correct.
“The bastards are opening the castle gates and pouring out.”
“?”
“???”