50 vs 150 (3)

"Is that not all the troops up ahead! Those rat-like bastards are using cheap tricks."

Guildmaster Vicente Thamus frowned as he stared at the encampment.

'How many of them are there? Just how many more are inside...?'

He had to deduce how many had pushed into the encampment.

'Bald Calvin, Mad Dog Pablo, Bradley—all are at the front.'

Were there any other skilled fighters?

'None.'

So, if they had simultaneously occupied various parts of that wide encampment and set fire everywhere...

"You sons of bitches! You deceived us about your numbers from the start!"

There hadn't been only thirty from the beginning.

They'd hidden plenty of troops somewhere and struck from behind.

Vicente's eyes quickly swept across this and that side of the encampment.

'At least twenty. Thirty? Maybe even more!'

If the encampment falls, everything is over.

Even if they wiped out these worm-like Brown Hawk bastards, if the main force of Red Eyes pushed in before they could regroup, there would be no way to stop them.

"Lorenzo! Maximo!"

"Yes!"

"Take two squads each and deal with the rats that snuck into the encampment! You two direct them personally!"

"Both of us, sir? Then here..."

"I'll command the remaining troops! Stop talking and move!"

"Yes, sir!"

Fifty-Squad Leaders Lorenzo and Maximo took two squads each—a total of four squads, forty men—and headed back into the encampment.

Now only sixty remained on the field.

Vicente Thamus's mind spun quickly.

The distance to the Brown Hawk main force was about fifty meters.

"Cease advance! Hold here! Form defensive formation!"

Eye Tooth's formation, now halted, rearranged itself into a defensive posture.

The front line thickened, and guild members in the second rank thrust their weapons through the gaps between their comrades in front.

The rear ranks pressed closer so the formation wouldn't break.

'Their numbers are still double ours. With a defensive formation, never will they dare strike first. Well... it'd be better if they did.'

Vicente Thamus planned to wait until the two Fifty-Squad Leaders finished mopping up inside the encampment and returned.

Normally, he would have advanced even with just the sixty here, but these were the ones who had completely devoured the Fifty-Squad led by Hakob.

Letting his guard down was forbidden.

Just as Eye Tooth's defensive formation was completed—

"Guildmaster! Over there!"

About ten men could be seen running down from the left hill.

'More troops?'

Another guild member shouted.

"Guildmaster! Over there too!"

About ten more were charging up the right slope.

Vicente Thamus's pupils shook violently.

'Just how many have invaded? Did they ally with the main force of Red Eyes after all!?'

Thirty at the front.
Ten on the left.
Ten on the right.
That's fifty, just here.
If there were twenty or thirty more inside the encampment, the total would exceed eighty.

While Vicente Thamus was running calculations in his head,
once again the Brown Hawk guild members charged rapidly, like cavalry.

The distance closed in an instant.

"... First Squad! Block the left! Sixth Squad, block the right! The rest attack the main force ahead!"

In the heat of battle, as the formation changed and members split off, squad numbers were reassigned from the left.

Vicente Thamus adapted to the ever-changing battlefield with know-how.

Fortunately, the guild members moved according to the re-assigned squad numbers and the guildmaster's orders.

"You may have played every trick, but this is as far as you go!"

With enemies from three directions, maintaining the current forward-facing defensive posture risked the formation being broken.

He had to move before being squeezed into an even tighter space.

Five seconds until the wings clashed.

As soon as the two wings on the flanks collided, he raised his fist, ready to charge forward.

Five, four, three, two...

"Huh?"

But, instead of charging from the sides, the threatening forces on the left and right simply circled around to Eye Tooth's rear.

Their mobility was incredible, hard to believe they were on foot.

"Damn!"

At the same time, Brown Hawk's main force at the front charged in.

Chang! Chang!

The two guilds clashed.

Roughly fifty from Brown Hawk.

About sixty from Eye Tooth.

The numbers favored Eye Tooth by a bit.

But because they had tightened the defensive formation, Brown Hawk now had them completely surrounded front and back.

The First and Sixth Squads, who had moved to respond on the flanks, were now awkwardly positioned on the diagonals.

It was as if twenty out of sixty had abandoned formation.

"Do not fall back! First and Sixth Squad, return to ranks immediately!"

Though Vicente Thamus had seen much combat as a centurion in the army,
this was all the order he could give.

* * *

At the same time, inside Eye Tooth's encampment.

"What? Where are they?"

"None here either!"

"None here either!"

The enemies that should have been in the encampment were nowhere to be seen.

"Fifty-Squad Leader! Here."

"Here too."

Guild members who had gone out on patrol, finding no foes, returned.

In their hands were already shattered pieces of explosives.

Fifty-Squad Leader Lorenzo examined the fragments his men brought.

"They definitely exploded simultaneously and all at once..."

Another Fifty-Squad Leader, maximo, ran over.

"We've been tricked! There's no one here!"

No one knew how the explosives had all detonated at the same time,
but they couldn't afford to waste more time.

"Let's head out! Join up with the main force!"

To fortify for a siege, the encampment's walls had been double and triple layered, and the entrances securely barricaded.

As a result,
the paths in and out were inevitably winding and narrow.

As Lorenzo hurried to exit, he spotted a young boy standing in front of the main gate.

An unfamiliar face.

He was clearly a Brown Hawk dog.

"Is this your doing? You rat bastard! Capture him!"

At Lorenzo's order, three guild members approached the boy blocking the gate.

The boy spoke.

"How long do you think it will take for all sixty to die?"

Lorenzo, who had given the order, tilted his head.

What was this nonsense?

* * *

Of twelve companions, the sixth—soldier Eiker—asked,
Sword in hand, Eiker stood before an entrenched army of fifty thousand.

"Eden, how long do you think a 1-on-1 duel usually takes?"
― Are you asking about my experience?
"Anything at all."
― It depends on the opponent. The longest was a full day and half, the shortest was in a fleeting instant.
"A day and a half, huh? They must have been formidable."
― It was a duel between two rivals who each defined an era.
"I see. So, how long do you think a 100-on-100 fight lasts? Do you think it takes a hundred times longer than one-on-one?"
― Not at all. If a hundred stab a hundred simultaneously, it's over in an instant.
"Then how long do you think a fifty-thousand vs fifty-thousand battle would take?"
― Are you talking about the enemy running toward us up ahead?
"Yes."
― Well, I've never been in one of those, so I don't know yet. Depends on the opponent.
"Exactly. Watch closely, Eden. This battle ends within thirty minutes. Whether it's one-on-one, a hundred-on-hundred, or fifty-thousand-on-fifty-thousand, what determines the battle time is not numbers, but the difference in skill."
― Thirty minutes, huh. Even with neither you nor I acting?
"Yes."
― We'll see about that.

'Three of them, huh...'

Even if about ten attacked me at once, they'd only stand a chance.

Of course, even then, with the thick walls arranged in zigzags, it wouldn't be easy.

Sring.

I unsheathed the sword he had grown accustomed to, now as if part of my own body.
At the Fifty-Squad Leader of Eye Tooth's command, three thuggish-looking guild members charged at me.

Tsk.

A fierce face doesn't win battles.

Vwoom.

In a situation where simultaneous attacks from the front, left, and right would be insufficient, the leading guy alone swung a huge axe.

Hey, don't they say your guildmaster's an ex-soldier?

Is this all you've got?

I easily dodged their ridiculous attack and sliced deep into the back of the guy's thigh.

"Graaaagh!"

I didn't sever bone, but by cutting all the hamstrings, one leg was now useless.

Even so—what were they thinking, clutching at their cut thigh in the middle of battle?

They should be mustering their senses and swinging their axe one more time at best.

Thud!

The one-legged guy toppled backward from the kick of a twelve-year-old kid.

Of course, it wasn't a normal twelve-year-old's kick.

The two who followed had to dive to avoid the rolling body of their fallen comrade.

No, they should have trampled over him and kept coming.

If the enemy was this clueless, swinging a sword hardly seemed fun anymore.

Squelch!
Splurt!

The first three who charged were instantly rendered combat-ineffective, becoming obstacles blocking the main gate themselves.

Stepping up onto the biggest one, he asked again.

"Hey, fifty-Squad Leader. How long do you think it'll take for the sixty out there to die?"

"You damned brat! I see, you must be the punk who took over Brown Hawk! Get him!"

Led by the Fifty-Squad Leader, just under twenty charged at once.

They had the order wrong.

They should have cleared the zigzagging barriers before rushing in.

The other Fifty-Squad Leader was waiting in the back with his men.

That guy was a little better.

Though it wouldn't change anything.

A fierce melee began.

From the enemies' perspective, anyway.

As bodies piled up in the narrow, winding entrance, the battle tilted further in my favor.

What was this?

I could probably hold them all off alone.

Still, complacency kills.

Though the entrance was tight and my martial power a level above, there were still just over thirty enemies left.

Finally coming to their senses, those in the rear began hauling away the heavy barricades one by one.

'Let's see...'

How much time has passed?

Squelch!

I skewered the side of an enemy who had been aiming for my flank under the pretense of checking the time.

Alright, enough playing around with these guys.

"Hey, fifty-Squad Leader."

"Th-that madman! Hurry up and kill him!"

"I'll tell you the answer. Ten minutes."

The Fifty-Squad Leader's face was flushed with rage.

He probably felt like he could kill me any second, but just couldn't manage it, so he was internally fuming.

"What is this lunatic babbling about!"

"Ten minutes. The time it takes for your base to collapse. The wasted five minutes dawdling in the encampment, then another five minutes spent on me. I'm leaving now."

* * *

"Evan!"

"Guildmaster!"

Good kids.

"You're doing pretty well, aren't you?"

The place I returned to could hardly even be called a battlefield anymore.

Eye Tooth's fighters, their morale completely broken, scrambled to escape or knelt down, begging for their lives.

Only the guildmaster at the center and a few loyalists fought on, eyes flashing as they wielded their weapons.

Now that the guildmaster was here, it was time to give orders.

"Third, fourth Squad!"

Bald Calvin and Mad Dog Pablo answered.

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

"Go to the encampment entrance and deal with the stragglers. They'll squeeze out single-file through the narrow gate, so take them down one by one."

"Yes!"

"As for First, second, and Fifth Squad, fill in and close the encirclement. Ignore anyone trying to run."

"Yes!"

Crack, crack.

I twisted my neck left and right to loosen my joints.

As befitted a twelve-year-old's body, the cracking sounded weak.

If I could hear a crunch, it would mean my bones had thickened at least a bit.

That could wait.

Raising my sword over my head, I dashed for the last skirmish on the battlefield.