Release that Witch

After Iron Axe returned on ‘Seagull’ to the Cage Mountain command post the following day, the first thing he did was walk into the General Staff office.

“How was your journey?” Edith was sitting in front of the mahogany desk, calmly sipping on some black tea.

Although everybody had often worked until dawn and so busy that their brains were bursting the past few days, Edith still somehow maintained a refined image, as if she was naturally born with more energy and time than other people. Even Iron Axe admired her ability.

“The morale is encouraging.” His answer was brief.

“Then we can now begin the next step of our plan.” The Pearl of the Northern Region revealed a slight smile. “Speaking of which, the defending armies of Sand City have also retreated from the defense region yesterday night.”

“Then only Sedimentation Bay is left…” Iron Axe looked at the large map on the wall.

“I suggest to get them to evacuate as soon as possible and send out a squadron to receive them, we don’t need to wait until there is a break in the defense.”

Iron Axe nodded, agreeing with the judgment. There was very likely over fifty thousand demons gathered in the east from the west now. It wouldn’t be a problem for such a large number to surround the entire Sedimentation Bay. As soon as the demons’ troops gathered, it would be very difficult for the First Army to find another chance to retreat.

Since the aim of the war had never been focused on cities and territory to begin with, giving up Sedimentation Bay in order to preserve their troops was the obvious decision.

Ever since the enemy began their massive attack, evacuation processes had never ceased. The citizens and merchants that kept the city running were the first to be evacuated out of the city, following them were the noble families and aristocrats that chose to serve Roland. The current city was nothing more than a huge empty shell. As long as the command was given, the defending troops would move immediately.

“I… don’t understand…” Agatha who was flipping through the newest battle report suddenly muttered.

“Did something happen?” Iron Axe walked to her side.

“The difference between the death statistics… the demons’ losses are as much as thirty times as ours, how was this done?”

The four cities had all been attacked by enemies in the past week so the reports were sent over separately, and needed to be collected and summarized. In order to avoid miscalculation, she had looked over the calculations in her hands numerous times, but the answer still remained the same.

According to the statistics, over one thousand and five hundred people had died in battle in the four cities, while the deaths of the enemy were as much as fifty thousand; this could be entirely described as unbelievable.

If this was in the times of The Union, Agatha would immediately think it was an intentional fabrication by someone in a bid to falsify military achievements. But she had followed the First Army in battle several times, and with their system of having several parties examining the report, the likelihood of falsification was tiny. Even if they threw away ten or twenty percent of the difference, it wouldn’t change anything.

After all, when the First Army was in the Fertile Plains on their northern expedition, they had only faced a twenty-thousand-strong demon army! At that time, they achieved victory in the Battle of Taquila only by relying on the hundreds of kilometres long railway and constructing one fortress after another, which took almost a year.

This time, the plan of the General Staff was simply to keep retreating, how did they cause losses double that of the Fertile Plains in eight days?

Even though she was filled with confidence with the current humans, she was still astounded.

Agatha had originally thought that this battle would be extremely difficult.

“No wonder.” After looking at the Ice Witch’s statistics, Edith chuckled. “Honestly, the effects of this plan did surpass my expectations a little, but the credit can’t all be given to the First Army, the demons’ cooperation was also vital. The ambush on Hackzord probably left him with some serious injuries, causing him to have no energy to care about the details of the Front Line.”

“Only for that reason?” Agatha said disbelievingly.

“I know what you are confused about.” Edith waved her hand. “It looks like we got this result just after a few retreats, and our battle plan seems incredibly simple. But in reality, that is not the case. When you were in The Union you usually stayed at the rear so it’s not strange that you don’t understand—to put it simply, only the current First Army is able to execute this battle strategy.”

“The First Army that journeyed far to the Taquila Ruins can’t either?”

“At least, they wouldn’t do better.” The Pearl of the Northern Region explained, “The difference between retreating and being defeated is often as thin as paper. Just being able to maintain strict order under huge pressures is extremely difficult, let alone retreating orderly. If it had been those nobilities’ armies, I’m afraid that scattering apart upon command is the best that could be expected out of them. If the First Army hadn’t undergone the Taquila night raid, and the previous separated squads hadn’t demonstrated such zeal when executing commands, I wouldn’t have dared to take the risk and put this plan into motion.”

“Also, the effects of the new weapons are very obvious. In the streets of the city, without the support of Longsong Cannons, they were able to oppose the enemy just relying on general-use machine guns and cannon fire. And the biggest advantage to these weapons is distance, as soon as the the entire army can be moved, the advantage would be within our hands the whole time, and it would be logical to achieve such a result in this battle.”

Edith paused. “But it is the truth that we have lost our peripheral defense line, so our next step is the key part to our entire plan. As soon as the demons seize all four cities, they will definitely start planning the next attack. Cage Mountain is both a protective screen and the production site for the raw materials for the Glory of the Sun; thus, we can’t keep using the retreating tactic. We must take a step and decrease the enemy’s strength before they recover.”

“Red Mist…” Agatha said in a low voice.

“Correct, these four cities are all outside of the Red Mist region and the demons’ reliance on their supply lines will increase substantially, the reappearance of the Red Mist supply line is very likely. The battle front is now basically stretched across the entire Kingdom of Wolfheart, I don’t believe they will be able to reach everywhere.”

“Before the storage towers were constructed, the only thing that the demons could rely on were the the obelisk-like Fortress-like Monstrous Beasts and manpower for transportation,” Iron Axe added. “Before, the attacks they launched from the side flanks all started from the beasts, but according to Lightning’s and Maggie’s observations, their protection of the Fortress-like Monstrous Beasts dramatically decreased after large numbers of Mad Demons perished. Also, when they were attacking the four cities. the support line of the main force was all hidden inside the Red Mist. Now however, they will all be exposed under the eyes of the First Army.”

“The problem is that this means we need to take the initiative to strike,” Agatha said hesitantly. “The Fortress-like Monstrous Beasts can move around by themselves, and aren’t really scared of the attacks of the Aerial Knights, we can only send out land troops in order to destroy them. But if we can see the enemy, then the enemy can see us as well. Even if the protection of the Monstrous Beasts decreases, they can send out last minute reinforcements—adding on the journey to and back, we are very likely to lose the advantage of distance. If we were chased and caught by the demons…”

In the entirely exposed battle of their encounter, even if the First Army could defeat the demons, their own losses would be severe.

“Thus, speed is key.” Edith raised the corner of her mouth. “All we have to do it complete our counterattack before the enemy has a chance to react.”

But how could they do this? Agatha looked at the map and tried to find a path from Cage Mountain to the four cities. There were quite a number of paths between the two, among them were trading paths as well as the hard roads that were constructed later for speeding up evacuation. They were spread around like a spiderweb in between the four cities and Cage Mountain.

But these paths did not have the ability to decrease the distance. The First Army didn’t have a cavalry troop, even if they had large numbers of horses, it was doubtful whether they could catch up with the Fortress-like Monstrous Beasts. What’s more, there was a limited amount of weapons one could bring while riding, and this would not be enough for confronting those behemoths.

“Of course, it won’t happen now.” The Pearl of the Northern Region seemed to notice her puzzlement. “This plan still lacks a key element; only when it is in the right place are all conditions fulfilled. According to the plan though, you will be able to see it very quickly.”