Chapter 158 - 147: In Imminent Peril
Chapter 158: Chapter 147: In Imminent Peril
The Beastmen’s assault on Devil City was relentless.
This stood in stark contrast to General Dor, who was caught off guard when the Beast Emperor suddenly transferred away most of his elite troops. The army attacking Devil City, however, was composed of genuine elites.
When Prince Kase’s battle report reached the Beastman homeland, the entire Empire was in an uproar.
After all, they had been taking a frustrating beating on the central front. People had already begun to complain that every meter gained cost countless lives, and that the Beast Emperor’s Divine Kingdom could no longer hold so many fallen Beastmen.
As the direct commander of the central front, Beast Emperor Kemel’s prestige was plummeting. Prince Kase’s news came as a shot in the arm, instantly giving the flagging Beastman Corps a powerful surge of confidence.
Now, nearly every Beastman believed that as long as a major breakthrough was achieved on the Western Front, the central front would collapse on its own. Once they entered the Frankish Great Plains, the world would be theirs for the taking.
After deploying the Undead Mages, the Beast Emperor took an aggressive stance, reassigning all the elite troops of the Beastmen’s Western Front to Prince Kase’s command. Furthermore, he mobilized three ten-thousand-man Beastman Infantry Corps from the rear.
Devil City was completely surrounded by an army of well over a hundred thousand soldiers, and that was without counting the goblins and kobolds.
The races now being sent out to be ground down in the fighting were all well-known within the Beastman empire! Even the Beastmen themselves had become mere consumables on the battlefield, thrown into an endless sea of blood.
Flesh and gore flew through the air in Devil City, which had become a living hell.
.....
"Prince Noah has managed to break free, and Earl Wei Man is moving to rendezvous with His Highness the Prince.
Earl Wei Man sent a message asking where they should proceed after securing Prince Noah."
"My Lord, the fortresses along the Somme River have been mostly occupied by the enemy. Our supply lines are becoming impossible to maintain. We must decide quickly whether to fight to the death or retreat."
"My Lord, another message arrived from the Royal Capital today. Earl Feiman, Earl Rilan, and Prince Vesa have jointly requested that we dispatch troops to escort a group of people in a preliminary retreat.
They claim this will allow them to support Thermopylae and Fesa City, and slow the enemy’s advance."
"My Lord Marquis, Marshal Grantham has indicated that he will make preparations for a retreat and wishes us a safe withdrawal from the Western Front."
"My Lord..."
This was the first time Marquis Oscillate had appeared at a formal meeting since the battle for Devil City began, and he was immediately met with a barrage of questions and demands from his subordinate nobles.
Marquis Oscillate sat at the head of the conference table, his cup filled with well water from the city’s reserves. The tea supply had been cut off for some time, but the Marquis hadn’t pressured the logistics department to open a supply channel just for him.
Calmly listening to the reports from all sides, Marquis Oscillate took a sip of his well water. He looked at the panicked men gathered before him and suddenly began to laugh.
"Osa, even when we were trapped in Barishik, I never saw you hold your sword so carelessly. What’s wrong? The Beastmen attack, and suddenly you’ve become a lefty?" Marquis Oscillate said with a chuckle, looking at a long-haired noble to the right of the long conference table.
The long-haired noble who was called out looked down at his left hand, which was currently gripping the Golden Tier Magic Weapon passed down from his grandfather. Slightly embarrassed, Earl Osa switched the sword to his right hand.
This wasn’t the first time this had happened. Earl Osa had been left-handed as a child but was later trained to be right-handed. Some people still joked about it, calling him "Osa the Left-Handed."
"What is everyone so anxious about? Has Barishik fallen? Has Eilanshill fallen?" Marquis Oscillate’s scrutinizing gaze swept across the room.
"And what if we do fail? Devil City still has ample supplies, and His Majesty’s reinforcements are on the way. At worst, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to break through their lines. Have things truly gotten that bad? We still have nearly a hundred thousand troops.
I remember a time when His Majesty and I held Eilanshill for two whole months with just twenty thousand men. We managed to hold out until reinforcements from the Human Race arrived.
Considering our current situation, I believe we shouldn’t be panicking. In fact, we should be pleased.
Thirty years ago, the Western Front collapsed in the blink of an eye. It’s difficult to pass judgment on the rights and wrongs of what happened back then," Marquis Oscillate said.
Of course, this claim of "nearly a hundred thousand troops" was merely the magic of statistics. The entire Western Front had been progressively cut apart by the enemy, leaving Marquis Oscillate with sixty to seventy thousand troops at his disposal, at most.
Furthermore, the fortifications of Eilanshill City were far beyond what Devil City could compare to; after all, it was a city that had kept its name since the age of Atlantis.
Although Marquis Oscillate had not made a public appearance in days, he was aware of every detail concerning Devil City. He had remained behind the scenes precisely to wait for this moment.
Marquis Oscillate was well aware of his role as the backbone of Devil City. As long as he was present, any hardships Devil City had previously endured could be blamed on the fact that the Marquis was "indisposed."
If the battlefield situation continued to deteriorate even after he made his appearance, the morale of the entire army on the Western Front would inevitably crumble.
That was why Marquis Oscillate had remained behind the scenes, issuing orders through his adjutant. He would only step forward when the time was right—or when things could be delayed no longer—to make one last attempt to salvage his army.