Chapter 6 - Achievement on the Battlefield (2)
Translator: Rockgollem
The orc pikemen had us surrounded in an impassable wall. We were like fish in a barrel. The men were cussing out our regiment which had retreated.
“You bastards! You only need to save your own hides, is that it?”
“If I make it back I am chopping off that damned captain’s willy and shoving it in his mouth so he can’t give a shitty order like that ever again!”
Everybody was clamouring to go out with a last charge since we were cornered.
“Squad Leader Valler! Let’s take the fight to them!”
“He’s right! We can’t just die like cowards!”
I could understand that their frustration was on the verge of exploding. But if we attacked, we would all be dead men.
“You idiots! If we give up, we all die!”
I proclaimed with ample clarifications that no one was to charge without an order.
“What the hell do you want us to do then, damn it!”
“Why are you doing this?”
Complaints in rough tones spilled out from the ranks. Everyone was on the edge from being surrounded. It was times like this that I needed to reassure everybody as the squad leader.
“I’ll find a way for everyone to make it back alive! I’ll find it, so just wait a moment you impatient bastards! You all want to go back alive, don’t you?”
A lot of mercenaries were simple wanderers but just as many had homes and families to go back to. At the very least, these men weren’t someone who deserved to be abandoned by allies to die. I had befriended most of them in the past three months.
“von Horst! You said you had a daughter not too long ago!”
“T, that’s…”
“Marx! What about your mother! She waits day and night for you, but are you just going to die here?”
“Kuggh!”
“Telmann! That goes the same for you! You said you’re from Spandau as well! We gotta go back together one day!”
“Squad Leader!”
I shouted at the top of my lungs to spark their will to survive. This was when the orc pikemen started advancing. Their commander must have decided they couldn’t engage in one-sided negotiations anymore. They looked prepared to lose their colours. The cheap trick of holding the colours hostage wasn’t going to work anymore.
I really didn’t know what to do. But it’s moments like these one needed to appear confident. Everyone was looking at me after all.
“Hold out! Hold out everyone! I’ll find a way for us to make it out!”
Did my screamings work? The atmosphere had shifted. Everyone resisted ferociously while swinging their two handed swords.
“Waaarggh! Let’s go back! Back to home!”
“Right! We can’t die in a place like this!”
Another skirmish erupted and thanks to the morale boost, we held out fairly well. Eventually, the orc commander called in 12 goblin arquebusiers for reinforcement. He probably felt the situation was going nowhere.
“Make a barricade!”
I ordered the men to stack up the orc corpses. Then I shouted the moment goblin arquebusiers started firing.
“Down!”
Bang Bang Bang! Blam! Bang!
It was a deadly volley but we stayed closed to the ground and endured. The bullets clanged around noisily every time they struck an armour piece on the corpses.
“Alright!”
“Goblins ain’t nothing after all!”
Since we survived, the angry orc commander called in 12 more goblin arquebusiers. Firearms in this game was faithful to history and took forever to reload. The ones who already fired had retreated and were busy pouring in black powder and a ball into the barrel.
“Squad Leader! It looks like they’re lining up for another volley!”
Everyone planned to hide behind the mound of bodies again. I planned to do so as well. However, my past experience endowed me with decision making skill far better than others.
I had even played as a general directing the entire war in previous playthroughs. My insight went beyond a mere squad leader thanks to those experiences. I could roughly grasp the flow of the entire battlefield.
“They pulled the gunners from the flank! If that’s the case...!”
A sudden epiphany hit me and I stepped on the pile of corpses to climb up. The men who were crouching nearby were surprised and tried to hold me down.
“Are you crazy? Why are you climbing up there when they’re about to shoot!”
“Hold the Squad Leader down!”
However, I ignored them and surveyed beyond the encirclement. And I found what I was looking for outside the wall of pike encircling us.
“Come down! Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
I shouted as soon as I was forcibly pulled down.
“Hand me the horn!”
“They’re not going to come even if we blow the horn!”
“They’re not going to come even if we blow the horn!”
“Just give me the damn thing!”
I snatched the horn from his hands and started blowing it towards east rather than south, where our regiment had retreated to. The horn signal pattern was also something nobody recognized.
Buu-- Buuum-- Buuuun!
Buu-- Buuum-- Buuuun!
The men looked baffled at the signal with regular intervals. Marx couldn’t hold back his curiosity and asked.
“What are you doing? Are you trying to play a music?”
“It’s the signal for cavalry to charge, you idiot!”
“What? Cavalry charge?”
Before I could reply, bullets flew our way once again.
Bang! Bam Bang Bang Bang!
There were several injured men this time.
“Arrgh!”
“Kuaagh!”
We couldn’t dodge all the rounds since we weren’t in proper concealment. Orcs thought it was the moment to seize after hearing our screams and rushed forward once more. I was the first to stand up and proclaimed while aiming the pistol I had managed to grab.
“Listen up pigs! Hold out for just a little bit more! If the gods are with us today, we’ll make it out alive!”
“I really don’t understand what you’ve been saying since the start, squad leader!”
“If you don’t know, then shut up and swing your sword, you idiot!”
“Ah, I can understand that one.”
Pikes came at us from every angle. We did anything we could do to survive. I even threw away my sword to pick up a corpse to use as a shield.
“Just hold out! Don’t try to win.”
“Damn it! Just how long do we have to hold out!”
“How the hell should I know!”
“If you don’t know, then who the hell does, you crazy squad leader!”
There were only five men left swinging their swords.The rest were bleeding and groaning down on the ground.
“Ha… Damn it, are they not coming…”
I could only resign myself since situation had devolved so far. That was when a cool and clear voice pierced through the air.
“Don’t give up!”
Crack!
A lance from nowhere pierced through three orcs and broke into splinters. A knight emerged through a cloud of dust. Surprisingly, the knight’s steed was a unicorn.
The knight shouted towards me.
“Pick up your sword! Some path will only open if you fight for it!”
With those words, the knight crossed arms to draw a pair of pistol to shoot at orcs coming from either side.
Bang!
Two orcs collapsed with a hole in their heads in an instant. The knight did not miss the momentum to draw twin swords and scour the area of orcs like a fierce storm.
“They’re here!”
I cried out in happiness. Using the horn to signal the cavalry to charge had paid off. Soon, 50 knights were charging over in this direction in unison.
“What’s all this, Squad Leader?”
Marx couldn’t hide his surprise as he asked.
“You don’t know? Thanks to orc commander trying to hurry things up, an opportunity opened up.”
“Huh?”
“Since we were holding out, he pulled two ranks of goblin arquebusiers, a total of 24 over here. Naturally, their flank would weaken! Plus, the orc pikemen line was uneven since they were trying to surround us. It’s a natural target for the cavalry.”
“Goodness, you figured all that out and blew the horn earlier?”
“Of course. If our pike line was still engaged with theirs, the cavalry would have jumped in the flank like wolves long before this.”
The reason I climbed on top of the mound of corpse to look around was to find where the cavalry was positioned. I managed to find a group of them and blew the horn.
“Goodness! How did you know all that Squad Leader? Even on how to signal the cavalry!”
It wasn’t just Marx. Everybody was surprised as well.
“Doesn’t matter! Let’s get out of here!”
The knights managed to split the pike line into half and arrived. One of them shouted towards us.
“How many survived?”
“Twelve including the wounded!”
“Got it.”
He hurried the men to load us up on the horses. Other knights were fighting off the enemy meanwhile.
Bam Bang Bang Bang Bang!
The knights firing their pistols in unison broke the back of the orc front line and they were in full retreat. Their formation was now folding back on itself.
However, the knights knew they couldn’t sweep aside the entire enemy line just by themselves. Once the wounded were loaded up, they started to make their exit.
“Squad Leader!”
“Hurry, Squad Leader!”
“Hurry, Squad Leader!”
I was the last one left since I’ve been helping to load the men. I couldn’t find a knight to hitch a ride with due to putting the men first. Everybody was already getting out in droves. The situation forced me to abandon my sword and start sprinting with the colours in hand.
It really was a desperate all out sprint. I needed to make it out before the gap the knights had opened up got filled with orcs again. However, I attracted too much attention since I was carrying the colours.
I didn’t want to give up the colours after going through everything, but I didn’t want to die as well. A galloping sound rang out behind me while I was contemplating.
“You! You’ll go with me!”
When I turned around, it was the female knight who was first to arrive to the scene. She rode over to me and extended her arm towards me. My mouth opened wide at that moment. It was because I recognized the female knight.
“My god!”
Her! Right, she participated in the Battle of Hofheim. I focused so much on Iron Prince-Elector, I forgot all about her.
My memory welled up. She was someone I always trusted and relied on. I spent most of the 100 years worth of game time with her. I could not forget that unicorn steed and her saint-like appearance even if I wanted to.
The Sister Knight Templar, Walpurgis.
That was the identity of the knight who had jumped into the middle of the pike line. The world worked in mysterious ways. She still came to my rescue despite having never met me in this play through. I didn’t anticipate on meeting her in the first place since I was starting off as a regular character.
“Your hand!”
With Walpurgis’ help, I hopped on behind her with the colours in my hand.
“Hold onto my waist! We’re leaving in a hurry!”
Walpurgis drove her unicorn to glide like the wind. Plenty of orcs tried to dismount her with their pike but she deflected them all. It was a level of swordsmanship truly on an artistic level.
The real war had yet to erupt, but this already felt like the climax. In terms of the Romance of Three Kingdoms, Walpurgis was someone like Zhao Yun.
“Thank you for your help!”
I could only think I was saved from certain death. My heart beat rapidly at the thought of having escaped the maw of death.
“We were planning to break through in a different area of the line, but heard the horn. And I saw you and your men fighting desperately there. We couldn’t charge in blindly, but for some reason there were less gunners covering that flank. That’s why we could attack!”
Just as I thought.
“Thank you for your rescue. I thought it was all over for me, but I survived by my lady’s graciousness.”
“You and your men were worth it. I salute you for your courage to charge into the middle of enemy line to take their colours.”
Walpurgis was of noble birth, but she did not judge people by their status. She judged one’s worthiness by their courage.
“You praise me too much.”
“Praising too much? You say that even after taking the enemy’s colours. Look over there.”
Walpurgis pointed to a side while galloping atop the unicorn. I looked over without much thought but what I saw surprised me.
“Hurrraahhh!”
“Hip hip! Hurray! Hip hip! Hurray!”
Countless soldiers were screaming out their cheer for me. There were 10,000 men gathered at Hofheim and the battle was still at an opening phase. Majority of the men had yet to meet the enemy in battle and were advancing to the frontline.
There were several pike regiments amalgamated from various company size units marching forward for a decisive push. The soldiers in those regiments all cheered me on.
“You’re like a general in a victory parade. They all see the colours you have taken from the enemy.”
“Ah…”
Walpurgis asked something to me just then.
“I wish to hear your name.”
“I’m Valler from Spandau.”
After nodding as if she understood, Walpurgis slowed her unicorn down near the troops and announced to the troops nearby.
“Hear me! Valler from Spandau here has courageously taken the enemy’s colours! There will be many who takes enemy’s colours today, but remember that Valler was the first to do so this day!”
Countless soldiers in the area chanted my name.
“Valler! Valler! Valler!”
The ground shook every time they chanted my name. The pikemen were pounding the ground with their pike while standing still. It rang out like an earthquake.
“Valler! Valler! Valler!”
My whole body was shaking. It was something I’ve never felt no matter what kind of hero I played as.
“Valler. You need to respond to them.”
Walpurgis had intentionally slowed the horse. I nodded simply and raised the colours up high. Then another wave of cheer swept through the area.
“Hurrraaaah-!”
Along with the cheer, the regiments marching towards the enemy gave me a little ceremony. They lowered their regiment colours towards me as a sign of saluting me.
“Ah..!”
A chill ran down through my back. Saluting by lowering regimental colours was done rarely even for the Archduke or a king. It was truly a heartfelt and voluntary respect for a soldier who showed valour and achieved an outstanding feat on the battle.
TL Note: Sorry for late post folks, but can't post with mobiles away from home.
I've also been fiddling around which days to post since Saturday seem to overlap too much with Sky's main releases. For now tentatively, the date will be Sunday.
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