The scorching flames swirl around in every direction.
Everywhere, the piercing screams echo and the thick stench of death fills the air as people burn to death.
It was a situation that perfectly suited the word “hell on earth.”
In the midst of it all, General Spinola was doing everything he could to find a breakthrough.
“Damn it! We have to escape this place! If we stay here, we will all die! Lieutenants, go find a spot where the flames are weak and let’s escape through there as quickly as possible!”
“Y-Yes, General!”
In the deep forest, finding a way out was difficult, and with the fire raging, Spinola’s army was spiraling out of control.
General Spinola was straining himself to find a way out.
However, even the experienced and skilled commander he was, doing something in a situation where they’d been caught off guard was easier said than done.
Confused soldiers were running around, colliding with each other and suffering secondary injuries from the chaos.
The number of comrades engulfed by the flames was not high, but the chaos tightening around their minds was killing them.
On top of that, the toxic smoke from the flames was gradually swallowing the people.
In the thick of it all, several soldiers had already lost consciousness, causing further confusion among the troops.
But even in such extreme circumstances, General Spinola did not give up.
He had spent nearly half his life on the battlefield and faced countless threats to his life.
Because of that, he was trying his best to remain calm and handle the crisis without losing his composure.
‘We cannot collapse like this. The situation is bad, but if I can find a way out…’
Even in this urgent situation, General Spinola was considering his options.
Then…
“General! We found it! The fire is weak in the western region. We should be able to escape that way!”
“Oh! Yes!”
The urgent voice of his subordinate sparked a flicker of hope on General Spinola’s face, and he began to gather his magic internally.
And then…
-“All troops follow my lead!”-
In an instant, General Spinola’s voice amplified enough to shake the surroundings.
The confused soldiers began to pay attention to the general’s words, slowly regaining their mental clarity.
Next, what caught their eyes was the pillar of light conjured by General Spinola’s magic.
Even amidst the flames, it stood out clearly, and following it, the soldiers hurriedly began to escape the area.
Though there were still many who did not notice in the melee or were caught in the flames and killed, they had narrowly escaped a massacre that almost claimed all their lives.
Thus, General Spinola and his army barely managed to escape the fiery area and arrived in a relatively spacious farmland.
There, they quickly started regrouping and assessing the damage.
“How bad was it?”
“With those scattered, it looks like around 5000 troops have been affected.”
“Ugh…”
General Spinola had lost a quarter of his forces in the blink of an eye.
For him, it was an embarrassing situation he could count on one hand, yet he swallowed his anger and spoke to them in the calmest voice possible.
“The damage was unavoidable… for now, let’s regroup. We can repay this shame to them tenfold.”
“Yes, understood, General!”
Following General Spinola’s orders, the lieutenants moved to reorganize the soldiers.
Watching them, Spinola felt both surprise and irritation at the unexpected losses he had suffered.
‘The damage is significant, but more importantly, how did they know? We believed this operation was kept thoroughly secret…’
With the massive smoke screen created by General Tilly, General Spinola had not acted in a way that would raise suspicion during the march.
There seemed to be almost no leaks of information.
Yet despite this, the enemy was perfectly prepared as if they had known Spinola would come.
‘Does that mean there’s someone among them who can read our thoughts?… There couldn’t possibly be anyone that capable…’
General Spinola was well aware of Friedrich’s incompetence.
A clueless monarch who couldn’t read the situation and was dragged around by his wife and vassals.
There was no way such a person would be able to read his carefully concealed strategies, nor were there subordinates with such ability around him.
Additionally, although Moritz, the lord of Lorend, was a brave general, he was not exceptionally cunning.
He might be smarter than Friedrich, but he had clear limitations.
Thus, General Spinola found himself pondering the identity of the mystery enemy’s ‘brain.’
‘What kind of being is this?… To be able to read our numbers and set such a trap. If such a person exists in the enemy’s ranks, it would be an extraordinary crisis. It might not just be us at risk, but also General Tilly and Valenshtein.’
As General Spinola took time to regroup his troops, he naturally began to think about this formidable enemy who could threaten the empire’s future.
As dawn slowly broke, the surrounding landscape began to come into sharper focus.
True to its name, the lowland revealed the unique terrain of Lorend, showcasing the reclaimed land.
The people of the Lorend region had built dams to hold back the river and cultivated farmland on the newly created land.
The area where their army was stationed was also agricultural land created in this way.
Normally, it would have seemed fascinating and nice.
However, in the eyes of General Spinola, amid war, such details barely registered.
At that moment…
-Grooooan…
“…Huh?”
“What is that sound?”
Suddenly, a loud rumble began to echo in their ears.
General Spinola and his soldiers momentarily felt perplexed.
“Is it an enemy attack?”
“I don’t know. There’s only the sound; there doesn’t seem to be any particular signs of it…”
As they felt uneasy, General Spinola and his troops maintained a tense posture.
However, after a short while, nothing significant occurred, causing them to gradually relax their tension.
‘What the… was it just a sound?’
‘I got startled for nothing… Well, considering what just happened, it’s not weird to be scared…’
After a major incident, the overwhelming sense of relief that washed over them was immense.
However, at that moment, they were unaware of the truth.
That their moment of relief had just deprived them of their last chance to prepare.
-Krooooon!-
“What… what?”
Then came another intense rumbling sound.
This one different from before, it seemed to be accompanied by something ferocious, and the soldiers and generals were caught in a cloud of confusion and anxiety, just like General Spinola.
‘What is happening? Are the enemies coming with cavalry? If so, I’ll have to buy some time myself…’
General Spinola began to gather his magic, preparing for the encroaching enemy.
Then he and his soldiers focused their gaze toward the source of the sound, bracing for the incoming threat.
But then the next moment… what they saw before their eyes was…
“What! What is that?!”
“W-Water? A… flood! A flood is coming!”
“N-No! The enemies must have blown up the dam!… Ahhh!!!”
An overwhelming torrent of water surged forward.
Seeing it, the faces of General Spinola’s soldiers turned pale.
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