Karl wanted to avoid being attacked by monsters in the darkness of night if at all possible.
The imperial soldiers would certainly fight well, but there was no telling whether the conscripts would be able to do the same.
To begin with, very few of them were properly armed. Some carried crude spears made by fastening daggers or similar blades to the ends of wooden poles, along with wooden planks torn from who knew where as shields. Those were actually among the better-equipped men. Many carried nothing but a club or an axe.
Fortunately, they continued forward without being attacked.
Perhaps because their group was so large, not even lesser monsters approached them. They simply advanced in silence.
Everyone gradually began to relax. It seemed they might reach Axe Sound Village safely at this rate.
Karl felt somewhat relieved as well. Having his first battle take place at night would have been dreadful.
“Lord Karl!”
Whether Karl's wish had reached the heavens or the depths of the abyss, he could not say.
As though some unknown being, god or demon, had been watching and decided to interfere, a loud shout called out to him.
From far away in the darkness came the violent pounding of hooves, followed once more by Bilford's familiar voice.
“The village is under attack!”
“Pick up the pace!”
The instant Karl heard Bilford's words, he shouted almost reflexively.
“We must stay with the wagons.”
Karl, who had been about to increase their pace with the imperial soldiers' running speed in mind, hesitated at Catherine's words.
He then began riding at a speed the wagons and conscripts could keep up with.
“Why?”
SNORT!
Karl's horse snorted.
The animal seemed frustrated that it could not gallop and was forced to plod along instead. Coincidentally, Karl was nearly beside himself with frustration as well.
At his question, Catherine answered.
“The imperial soldiers are more important than the people in the village.”
“I know that.”
“Whatever losses the villagers suffer while holding out behind the palisade will be nothing compared to the losses the imperial soldiers would suffer if they plunged among the monsters without protection.”
“……I see.”
At those words, Karl understood what Catherine meant.
Even if the imperial soldiers rushed ahead, they could not possibly slaughter all the gnolls surrounding the palisade. There were only thirty imperial soldiers. Even forming a defensive formation and protecting one another's flanks and backs would already push them to their limits.
They could not go on the offensive anyway. In that case, it would be better to bring the wagons with them, establish a formation, and share some of the pressure being placed on the village.
If they could get close enough, they might even attack from both sides any gnolls that entered the space between the village and the subjugation force.
“You mean to create a makeshift barbican?”
In other words, they would create something resembling a small barbican.
If it worked properly, the area between the village and the subjugation force's formation would become a killing ground. Naturally, both sides would have fewer directions to defend, granting them an enormous tactical advantage.
And if the gnolls forced their way in?
Then they would simply pour attacks into them from both sides and kill them.
“Exactly.”
Catherine nodded, impressed that Karl had understood immediately.
Karl felt that the time he had spent reading in the Imperial Archives had not been wasted, while at the same time admiring Catherine's ability to devise a simple and efficient tactic.
He had no leisure to notice that Catherine's voice had risen slightly because she, too, was impressed by him.
In the meantime, Bilford rode back and rejoined them.
He had ridden so hard that his horse was breathing violently.
“There are too many gnolls. I could not even count them all.”
Karl's expression hardened at Bilford's report.
“Was there anything else unusual?”
“They were using crude iron weapons they had made themselves.”
The more Karl learned, the worse the situation became. Bilford raised his right hand so Karl and Catherine could see it.
Quick-wittedly, one of the imperial soldiers brought over a torch and held it up.
What Bilford had brought back was a crude axe smeared with blood and pieces of flesh. A wave of rotten stench struck Karl, and he instinctively recoiled.
“It appears they copied a woodcutter's axe.”
Bilford pretended not to notice Karl's pale face or the way he struggled against the urge to retch. Karl could not afford to show weakness here.
Fortunately, Bilford's words allowed Karl to regain his composure.
Suppressing the urge to look away from the blood and flesh that undoubtedly belonged to a human being, he forced himself to stare directly at the axe.
The handle, about as long as Karl's forearm, was rough because the wood had been crudely carved, and parts of it had begun to rot from neglect.
The axe head was uneven and mottled with different colors, making it obvious that the gnolls possessed no proper knowledge of metallurgy. But its sheer size could not be ignored. It was nearly as large as a child's head.
It had to be correspondingly heavy.
And they were using such heavy axes not as tools, but as weapons.
It was something a human could not do even if he wanted to.
No matter how weak gnolls might be by the standards of monsters, they were still monsters. Ordinary humans could not hope to compare with them physically.
Karl recalled the stuffed gnoll Maldin had shown him at the banquet.
The hand gripping his scabbard trembled faintly.
The situation was far too dire for him to dismiss this as merely his first battle and treat it as useful experience.
Karl realized that the unease that had haunted him ever since arriving in Hilpin had finally become reality.
***
Despite the urgency in their hearts, they were forced to advance slowly through their anxiety and apprehension. Before long, lights and commotion began drawing closer in the distance.
The torches lined along the palisade thrashed wildly, resembling a crown of fire.
BARK! BARK!
All they could hear was barking.
But when those barks came from bipedal monsters the size of grown men, they were not sounds anyone could take lightly.
All the more so when there were enough of them to make the entire forest resound.
The voices of humans were completely drowned beneath the noise. Only the occasional piercing scream barely reached them.
Gooseflesh rose across Karl's entire body, and sweat burst from his skin.
Instinct told him that place was a deathtrap.
If he entered, he would die.
“…Bring the wagons forward! Hurry!”
Yet Karl tightened his abdomen and gave the order.
He ruthlessly crushed the urge to turn his horse around and flee immediately.
“Two men to each wagon. We will form a circular formation.”
“Yes!”
Catherine followed with more detailed orders. At her command, the imperial soldiers moved to the wagons and began driving them forward.
“Stay close! If you fall behind, you will die!”
Karl turned and shouted toward the rear.
He was worried the conscripts might flee.
A lone conscript who tried to escape under these circumstances would only die before getting far, but the human heart could not always remain rational.
So in a way, it was only natural that someone would run even after being warned.
“I-I cannot do this!”
One of the conscripts, who had been clutching an axe, turned and began fleeing.
Karl knew perfectly well that if one man fled now, the entire force might collapse uncontrollably. Startled, he opened his mouth to shout something.
“Leave him! It is too late! That man cannot be saved!”
Catherine's sharp shout cut Karl off before he could speak.
Instead of barking things like, “Do not run,” or, “I will kill anyone who flees,” she made it perfectly clear to everyone which side they needed to remain on if they wanted to survive.
Those who had been about to follow the deserter glanced around nervously, hesitated, then awkwardly ran after the rear of the subjugation force instead.
Karl's eyes met Catherine's.
He wanted to say something, but there was no time.
THUD THUD THUD THUD!
CLATTER!
The wagons pulled by packhorses raced forward frantically. A wheel struck a stone, sending one wagon jolting violently before it finally overturned onto its side.
“Get up and run! There is no time to lie there!”
Bilford shouted as he swept past.
At his words, the imperial soldiers staggered back to their feet and ran.
Supplies spilled from the overturned wagon. The horse, trapped by its harness beneath the wreck, thrashed pitifully, but no one had the luxury of paying attention to the miserable creature.
“Huff! Haa! Haa…!”
Karl struggled to steady his breathing as the battlefield gradually drew closer.
Only once they approached did he finally begin to hear human voices.
“Aaaaaagh!”
“Save me!”
“Die! Die!”
“They took Jack!”
“Aaagh! Let go! Let me go!”
“They are going to break through!”
Screams and cries of despair.
Everything between life and death existed there.
The moment Karl witnessed the full horror of the battlefield, his pupils dilated.
Haa……
Karl heard his own ragged breathing.
It sounded impossibly slow, as though some enormous beast were exhaling beside him.
His body swayed with his galloping horse.
The torchlight stretched into long trails across his vision.
The pungent musk of beasts, the metallic stench of blood, and the reek of rotting corpses burned his nose.
Barking.
Human screams.
The air felt so chilling that his skin seemed ready to peel away.
He could almost taste blood in his mouth.
Karl's widened vision took in the entire battlefield at once, like a scene torn straight from hell.
And then Karl felt an overwhelming pull, as though something were dragging him toward it.
“…Turn left! Turn left! Dame Catherine!”
Driven by a force he could not describe, Karl shouted with all his strength.
Following what Catherine had taught him, Karl lowered his posture and spurred his horse onward. At last, the magnificent Warhorse personally bestowed upon him by Emperor Madius unleashed its full strength.
The pure white horse shot through the darkness like a comet, instantly overtaking the wagons in front and racing at the head of the formation.
Catherine drew her spear and rode at Karl's right side, guarding him.
Karl's snow-white horse and billowing red cloak seemed to glow beneath the torchlight, making it plainly visible to everyone, even through the darkness, that he was riding at the very front.
The wagons turned after Karl, keeping Axe Sound Village and the attacking gnolls to their right as they gradually approached the monsters' rear.
“Take your positions!”
Just as Karl was about to say the same thing, Catherine's thunderous shout rang out.
She had been startled when Karl suddenly charged ahead, but she was even more astonished that, amid all this chaos, he had seized an almost unbelievably precise and appropriate position.
It was exactly where Catherine herself had intended to establish their formation.
The imperial soldiers drove the wagons into a circular formation, then immediately leaped down and blocked the gaps between them with spears and shields.
“Run! Hurry!”
Bilford's voice rang out as he led the conscripts toward them.
Still mounted, Karl frantically turned his head and surveyed their surroundings.
“Lord Karl! Remain here!”
Catherine, having grasped the situation before Karl did, shouted those words before leaving the formation and riding toward the conscripts under Bilford's command.
“G-Get ready!”
There was nothing Karl could tell the soldiers except that useless command to prepare themselves.
But it was enough.
The imperial soldiers had seen Karl's back as he raced at the very front and showed them the way, even in the face of the gnoll horde surging toward them like a vast wave.
“Ha!”
CLANK! CLANK!
The soldiers answered as they lowered their stances and leveled their spears over their shields.
The sounds of their armor merged into a single rhythm that rang clearly even over the cries of the countless gnolls.
‘There are too many gnolls, and they are spread too widely for us to use the subjugation force's formation as a barbican.’
Karl had never expected there to be this many.
To use their formation as a barbican, they needed to approach the palisade, but the entire open ground around the village was packed with gnolls.
The thought flashed through Karl's mind that they might all die here before Harmon could ever secure reinforcements for them.
But such weak thoughts would help no one.
Karl clenched his teeth and glared at the gnolls that had noticed them and were charging their way.
“Bilford!”
“Yes!”
Meanwhile, Catherine, who had gone to protect the conscripts from being attacked in the flank, shouted Bilford's name.
Bilford moved away from the conscripts and shifted to the right, toward the approaching gnolls.
Instead of drawing his sword, Bilford pulled the spear hanging from his horse and swept it around in broad arcs, blocking the gnolls' path.
BARK! BARK!
Gnolls possessed intelligence, but instinct ruled them more strongly than reason. They were closer to beasts than rational creatures.
Rather than perceiving the horse and Bilford as separate beings, they saw them as one enormous shape. With Bilford also whirling a long spear around him, the gnolls hesitated to approach and merely barked.
While they faltered, Catherine raised her spear high and slammed into the flank of one of the halted gnolls.
SWISH!
CRACK! THUD!
Catherine did not make the mistake of thrusting with the spear. Instead, she swept the long weapon in a fluid arc, avoiding the axe aimed at her horse and splitting the gnoll's skull apart.
Then, in a single instant, she used Mana.
Her spear flashed like a beam of light, knocking aside all the attacks the gnolls blocking her path unleashed at once before slaughtering them.
BAM!
“Ha!”
A gnoll collapsed helplessly beneath Catherine's spear.
Trusting its barding, her Warhorse smashed into another gnoll chest-first, knocking it down before trampling it underfoot.
Catherine released the reins and gripped the horse's sides firmly with both legs. In that position, she swept her spear from side to side, tearing through the gnolls in every direction before breaking through entirely and racing behind the conscripts to protect their rear.
The terrifying might of an Imperial Knight caused the gnolls to shrink back and hesitate.
Thanks to her, the conscripts safely reached the subjugation force's formation.
Bilford held his ground until Catherine returned, killing and pushing back gnolls with his spear. Once she drew close, he entered the formation ahead of her.
It would have been foolish for Bilford, a mere Squire incapable of even using Mana, to worry about Catherine.
“Those with spears, move forward!”
Karl picked out the conscripts carrying long spears and ordered them to stop any gnolls attempting to climb over the wagons.
He then stationed those armed with axes or clubs between them so they could attack any gnolls that managed to cross the barrier.
The formation was crude but efficient, its soldiers bristling with upright spears like a hedgehog as they waited in rigid tension.
“Focus only on the gnolls that cross the wagons! The soldiers of the Hardion Empire will protect you! Not a single gnoll will dare cross the shield of the Empire!”
“Ha!”
The imperial soldiers answered Karl's shout.
Their fierce spirit helped the conscripts cast aside some of their fear and steady their ragged breathing.
Catherine and Bilford took positions with their spears toward the village, where the gnolls' assault would likely be most intense, while a somewhat pale Milton dismounted and stood near Karl at the center.
Despite having said that he would entrust command entirely to Catherine if a battle occurred, Karl had done an admirable job calming the soldiers, establishing their formation, and raising their fighting spirit.
“Reinforcements have arrived!”
“Waaaaaah!”
A cheer filled with hope erupted from Axe Sound Village at the sight.
It was not merely that the defenders' morale rose because reinforcements had arrived. The gnolls, now caught with enemies on two sides, could not restrain themselves and surged toward the subjugation force in droves, visibly reducing the pressure on Axe Sound Village.
Although the formation could not function perfectly as a barbican, Karl's timely advance and choice of position had allowed them to establish themselves somewhere they could pressure the gnolls without suffering immediate losses.
From atop his horse, Karl watched the charging gnolls and tightened his trembling hand around the hilt of his sword before drawing it forcefully.
SHING!
Unlike his hand, which trembled with fear and tension, the sound of the blade being drawn tore sharply through the air.
Karl bit down hard on his lip.
Blood streamed down, gathered at the tip of his chin, and fell.
Suppressing the tremor in his voice, Karl shouted proudly.
“Fight! For the Empire!”
His voice rang clearly even through the clamor of the battlefield.
At that signal, the subjugation force thrust their spears toward the charging gnolls.
Karl's first battle had begun.