The first to meet the charging Gnolls were the imperial soldiers who had tightly sealed the gaps between the wagons.
“Hmph!”
THRUST!
Relying on little more than the light of the torches burning atop the palisade of Axe Sound Village, they thrust their spears at precisely the right moment.
A spearpoint cleanly pierced the exposed left side of a Gnoll’s chest just as it raised both arms high to bring its axe down.
GACK!
The instant the Gnoll faltered in pain, another spear darted forward and stabbed through its throat.
The soldier who had pierced its chest twisted his wrist as he pulled his spear free. The spear lodged in its throat held the Gnoll firmly in place so it would not be dragged forward while the other weapon was withdrawn, then likewise twisted and came free with ease.
THUNK.
Even after being stabbed through the heart and throat, the Gnoll staggered one step forward and somehow managed to strike a shield with its crude axe.
But there was no strength behind the blow, and it failed to leave so much as a scratch.
Even so, the fact that it could still attack after suffering wounds that would have killed a human instantly was terrifying.
A Gnoll was a monster, filled with overflowing savagery and tenacious vitality.
Even an elite soldier could die if he let his guard down.
The gaps between the wagons were not particularly wide. Two soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder could block one completely.
Naturally, a Gnoll flailing its limbs without discipline could barely force a single body through. If two tried to enter at once, they crushed one another so tightly that they could not even raise their arms, much less swing their axes.
In the blink of an eye, the narrow passages between the wagons were completely clogged with Gnolls.
The soldiers hid behind their large shields and held firm.
BARK! BARK!
A Gnoll, trapped between a shield and the monsters pressing in behind it, thrust its muzzle over the top.
The stench, the drool, the sharp teeth.
Yet the imperial soldiers did not so much as blink. They simply turned their heads and avoided it.
“Hold!”
The soldiers did not answer Karl’s shout.
Now that the battle had begun, opening their mouths merely to respond could cause them to lose strength at a critical moment.
“You! And you! Get behind them and support them!”
Catherine roughly seized conscripts who stood trembling with clubs and similar weapons and shoved them behind the imperial soldiers.
Those weapons would be of little use anyway.
Desperate to survive, the conscripts pressed themselves tightly against the imperial soldiers’ backs and pushed with all their strength against the broad forms covered in armor and cloaks.
“Hold! Keep holding!”
Catherine shouted as she moved around the wagons.
She could feel the unstable momentum of the subjugation force wavering. Aside from the initial spear thrusts when the Gnolls first charged, they had not attacked even once.
But not yet.
It was still too soon.
Karl wanted to order them to thrust their spears immediately.
But Catherine had commanded them to hold, so he forcibly suppressed his impatience.
“Milton, how many times can you heal someone?”
At Karl’s question, the pale-faced Milton thought for a moment before answering.
“It depends on the severity of the injuries, but if they are not fatal, I should be able to manage at least twenty times.”
Karl nodded and gave a firm order.
“Your first priority for treatment is yourself, Milton. After that comes Catherine, Bilford, and then the imperial soldiers. Do not forget it.”
Milton could use Healing Magic, so he had to be protected if they were to maintain their fighting strength.
Karl also understood why Catherine, a knight, and Bilford, her Squire, naturally had high priority.
And he understood why the imperial soldiers mattered more than the conscripts.
“…What about you, Lord Karl?”
Milton looked up at Karl in confusion.
Karl was both an imperial prince and the commander of the subjugation force, yet he had not even mentioned himself among the priorities.
Was Milton supposed to treat Karl before himself?
“I am of no use in battle and do little more than shout orders. Treat me only if you have strength to spare after healing every imperial soldier.”
“……”
Karl’s unwavering voice made it clear that this was not an empty statement.
It was an order that had to be obeyed.
Even in the middle of the fierce battle, Milton awkwardly raised both hands as though he meant to say something, only to freeze there in stunned silence.
Those words were heard not only by Catherine and Bilford, but also by the imperial soldiers who were squeezing every ounce of strength from their bodies to hold back the tidal wave of Gnolls.
Something seemed ready to explode inside their chests.
Catherine’s lips parted in bewilderment at Karl’s words, but she immediately forced herself to focus on the battle and began thinking again.
Despite the darkness and her lowered Visor, Catherine was an experienced knight. With her broad awareness, she took in the entire battlefield at a glance and realized that the time had come.
The Gnolls trapped between the shields and the horde behind them had been crushed so tightly that they could no longer move. Blood-flecked foam was already spilling from their mouths.
Their broken ribs appeared to have pierced their lungs.
Others convulsed, went limp, or vomited as vital organs such as their hearts were compressed.
Simply by holding their ground, the soldiers had incapacitated dozens of Gnolls.
And now the dying Gnolls that could not move were blocking the path of the healthy ones behind them, leaving the latter unable to advance.
The Gnolls that had been charging from the direction of Axe Sound Village saw the clogged passage and began circling around.
Only then did Gnolls begin attacking from other directions as well.
At that moment, Catherine shouted at the top of her voice.
“Front line! Step back!”
“HAA!”
The imperial soldiers, who had not yielded a single step until then, expelled their breath sharply and withdrew exactly one measured pace.
The Gnolls that had arrived first and been crushed at the front, already dead or on the verge of death, collapsed helplessly with their heads striking the shields.
Then countless more toppled behind them like falling dominoes.
The uninjured Gnolls trampled over their fallen kin without hesitation and climbed atop the bodies.
“Thrust!”
“Thrust!”
THRUST! THRUST! THRUST!
At Catherine’s command, the imperial soldiers drove their spears forward with all their strength.
The Gnolls charging over their comrades’ corpses were skewered and collapsed, clogging the narrow passages once again.
“Rotate!”
“Ha!”
The reserve soldiers who remained after the wagon gaps had been covered quickly switched places with those at the front who had endured the crushing pressure.
“Huff! Huff! Ghh! Urrgh!”
The soldiers who had wrung every bit of strength from their bodies to withstand the Gnoll tide staggered backward, leaned on their spears and shields, and vomited.
They were not showing weakness.
They had stood their ground without yielding even an inch until they surpassed their limits.
Their lofty morale and unshakable will deserved nothing but praise.
“You held magnificently! That was valor worthy of the shield of the Empire! Milton, heal them as much as you can without wasting your strength.”
“Yes, Lord Karl.”
Karl praised and encouraged them in a loud voice before ordering Milton to treat them.
There were limits to what ordinary rest could accomplish.
Leaving them in that condition would not allow them to recover properly, and if they rotated back into battle in such a state, they could be injured or even killed.
It was better to spend some of Milton’s strength beforehand to accelerate their recovery and allow them to focus on fighting.
With the entrances completely clogged by corpses, the Gnolls rushed around the formation until they finally surrounded it completely.
“Bilford! To the other side!”
“Yes!”
At Catherine’s command, Bilford headed to the opposite side.
Immediately afterward, the situation they had feared finally occurred.
“They are climbing over the wagons!”
A terrified conscript shouted.
One Gnoll stepped on the heads and shoulders of the monsters packed against the wagons, leaped upward, and climbed onto a wagon loaded with supplies.
“Thrust your spears!”
At Karl’s shout, the conscripts drove their spears forward with all their strength despite their trembling hands.
GRAAAGH!
The Gnoll atop the wagon was pierced by five spears and toppled backward.
They had stopped it successfully, but now that one attempt had been made to cross the wagons, there would be no containing them.
“Look only ahead of you! Your comrades will protect your sides!”
Karl shouted as he rode behind the frightened conscripts.
The hot breath of his horse, Karl’s voice, and the red cloak fluttering behind him like a tail swept past the conscripts’ heads and shoulders.
An imperial prince was riding behind them, encouraging them.
They remembered Karl’s back as he had galloped at the very front before the formation was established.
“Trust your comrades! If you falter because you cannot trust them, everyone will collapse! Look only at the enemy before you!”
Karl shouted until his throat felt ready to tear.
Mounted on horseback, he had a broad view of the entire battlefield.
That was why he could clearly see the tidal wave of Gnolls surging toward the subjugation force, whose defense consisted of low wagons rather than the sturdy palisade.
For now, they were holding.
But the course of the battle seemed to be sinking ever deeper into darkness.
“If you pull back your spear because you cannot trust your comrades, then who will stop the Gnoll charging at you? It will devour you, then slaughter your friends and family!”
Karl did not utter a single word about how dreadful the battle was becoming.
Speaking of such things would only lower morale.
Instead, he simply encouraged the soldiers and gave them orders so they would not expose any weaknesses.
“Spearmen, focus only on the Gnolls atop the wagons! Axemen, kill the Gnolls that tumble over the wagons! Kill them before they can get back on their feet!”
“Aaaaaah!”
As Karl continued riding and shouting at the top of his voice, even the conscripts came to understand exactly what they needed to do.
The red cloak frequently flashed through their vision as it brushed past their heads and shoulders, and it felt as though a scorching heat were spreading through their bodies.
Karl did not retreat to the center and merely babble orders.
He rode among them with his sword raised, urging the soldiers forward as though pushing at their backs.
Even the imperial soldiers who had been gasping in exhaustion after rotating out suddenly came to their senses, raised their spears and shields, and rejoined the line.
The imperial soldiers positioned among the conscripts held their unwavering spearpoints firmly toward the tops of the wagons.
Once those soldiers stood beside them, the conscripts remembered how they had refused to retreat while holding back an uncountable number of Gnolls.
Strength returned to their trembling shoulders as they tightened their grips on their spears.
The red cloak flashed through their vision, striking against their heads and shoulders.
Karl’s voice thundered through their chests.
Their heads felt dizzy, yet everything seemed impossibly clear.
“WAAAAAAAAH!”
Unable to contain the heat surging in their chests, they expelled it as a roar.
Mere conscripts from a rural village stood shoulder to shoulder and held their ground, releasing their explosive morale in a battle cry as though breathing fire!
Even Catherine and Bilford, who had already left command entirely to Karl, were startled by that eruption of fighting spirit.
And the exhilaration pounding against their own chests made their bodies burn hot as well.
The sickly Fourth Prince who had spent his entire life confined to a bedroom had transformed completely untrained conscripts into warriors whose courage rivaled that of elite soldiers, despite a battle that seemed impossible to win.
“Bring down the hammer of fire and thunder upon the wretched monsters that threaten the subjects of the Empire! Do not let a single one escape alive!”
Although they were barely maintaining their defensive line, Karl shouted as though they were already pursuing fleeing Gnolls to annihilate them.
He could hardly help it.
The words he was shouting were slightly altered versions of the speeches Aingir had used to inspire soldiers in the original story.
“The great scales of Hardion guard your backs, and the great eagle of Hardion watches over the path before you!”
Even as Karl continued shouting, more and more Gnolls climbed over the wagons.
Catherine and Bilford moved frantically, slaughtering the monsters, but in the end the sheer difference in numbers overwhelmed them.
Gnolls began slipping inside the formation.
The conscripts thrust their spears, swung their axes, and shoved with their shields, struggling desperately to kill them.
The imperial soldiers held their positions without wavering so that the conscripts’ morale would not break, fighting harder than anyone else.
And yet, at this rate, it still seemed impossible to hold.
“Aaaaaagh!”
At last, a hole opened in the line that had held so well.
One conscript who had been hacking a fallen Gnoll to death with an axe grew too eager and retreated a moment too late, blocking the spearmen behind him from thrusting in time.
A Gnoll landed safely and instantly pounced upon the conscript, burying its axe in his shoulder before biting into his neck and shaking him violently.
Its tremendous bite force tore away nearly half the man’s throat.
The conscript died instantly.
“D-Do not come any closer!”
There was no room to thrust a spear at a Gnoll that had already closed the distance.
The conscript who should have been watching the top of the wagon with his spear backed away.
“Hold your position!”
THRUST!
Catherine rushed in like a streak of light and pierced the Gnoll’s head with a single blow.
She roughly seized the retreating conscript and forced him back into line.
But after witnessing a man die horribly at arm’s length and seeing the comrade beside them retreat, the conscripts began trembling with fear.
Catherine and Bilford were doing everything they could to kill the Gnolls crossing the wagons, but two people could not defend every point.
“GRAAAH!”
“Save me!”
At last, while Catherine and Bilford were blocking another section, one point of the formation was breached.
A vision of ruin flashed through everyone’s mind.
They were only able to hold because they remained in formation.
If even one person retreated and the line collapsed, the soldiers would have their flanks and rear exposed and would no longer be able to fight properly.
It was over.
The instant that thought crossed their minds, a pure white comet trailing a red tail shot through the darkness toward the Gnoll forcing its way into the line.
CRASH!
The white Warhorse charged with fearless ferocity and smashed directly into the Gnoll that had just entered the formation.
“Lord Karl!”
Bilford’s horrified cry rang toward the sky as Karl, who had launched his first cavalry charge in his life, lurched violently and nearly fell from the saddle.
“Do not retreat! Hold your positions!”
Karl had even released the reins and was clinging desperately to the horse’s neck, yet he still shouted at the top of his lungs.
Even while Karl could do little more than hang on, the intelligent, well-trained Warhorse skillfully moved them away from the danger.
Once Karl had safely withdrawn while clinging to the horse, Catherine rushed in and swung the sword she had drawn at some point like a flash of lightning, slaughtering the Gnolls and securing the line.
“Huff! Huff! Huff!”
Karl gasped for breath from the impact, feeling as though he had just been struck by a carriage, and barely managed to sit upright in the saddle again.
His mind was in complete disarray, and his head spun.
When Karl finally managed to turn and look around, he clenched his teeth.
They were completely surrounded.
The imperial soldiers were growing exhausted.
The conscripts were terrified.
And there were still far too many Gnolls.
With no path of escape in sight, Karl tightened his grip on the sword he had never once let go.
As if I would die over something like this, after coming this far!