Chapter 198: Breaking Point

Thick ice can easily hold the weight of a few men, or even a small supply cart. But right now, there were thousands of heavily armed men running, fighting, and falling on top of it...

Worse than the weight, there was the noise. Thousands of Jaegers were firing from the ridge.

The loud sound of the Swabian gunpowder created shockwaves that slammed into the ground. The force vibrated through the solid ice over and over again.

"Brandt!" Voss screamed at the top of his lungs. He turned his back to the enemy and waved his mace toward the snowy ridge. "Stop firing! Cease fire! The ice is breaking!"

But the battlefield was incredibly loud. The screams of the dying, the barking of the mastiffs, and the constant thunder of the rifles wholly drowned out Voss’s voice.

Another volley of lead poured down from the ridge. The heavy bullets smashed into the frozen lake. They chipped away chunks of ice and sent deep vibrations into the frozen water.

It was a sound louder than the rifles. A deep, bone-chilling groan echoed across the entire valley.

"Get back!" Voss roared. He grabbed Hans by the shoulder and shoved him toward the snowy shore. "Retreat! Everyone get off the ice!"

Though Voss moved fast, nature moved faster.

Right in the very center of the chaotic melee, the solid surface of the lake gave way.

A sprawling circle of thick ice, easily fifty paces wide, simply collapsed inward.

Hundreds of men suddenly found themselves falling into the dark abyss.

"Help! Grab my hand!" a young Jaeger screamed as he plunged into the freezing water. His leather coat and steel mace dragged him down.

"Aaaaaah!" a Spanish mercenary wailed. He thrashed wildly as the freezing water filled his armor.

Up on the ridge, Brandt finally realized what was happening down below. His face turned pale.

"Stop firing! Lower your weapons!" Brandt ordered desperately. He blew a sharp note on his brass retreat horn.

The thunder of the rifles finally stopped. It left only the horrifying sounds of splashing water, cracking ice, and screaming men.

The battle instantly paused. The deep hatred between the two armies was suddenly replaced by the terror of the freezing lake.

Down on the ice, Voss threw himself onto his stomach. He slid close to the edge of the newly formed hole.

"Grab my mace!" Voss yelled.

A young Jaeger reached out and grabbed the steel handle. Voss gritted his teeth. His muscles bulged as he tried to pull the boy up onto the slippery ice.

"I have you! Just hold on!" Voss grunted. His boots slid forward.

"General... it is too cold," the boy gasped. His wet leather armor was freezing in the cold air. It turned into solid ice.

Hans dropped to his knees right next to Voss. He reached down to grab the boy’s grey coat. "Pull, General! Pull him up!"

But the ice beneath them gave another creak. A new crack shot directly between Voss’s knees. It split the ice further.

On the opposite side of the hole, Reischach’s men were doing the exact same thing.

The rebel mercenaries lay on their stomachs. They extended their pikes and swords. They tried to pull their own drowning brothers out of the water.

Even the vicious war hounds whimpered. They backed away from the spreading cracks.

"Hold my hand," a rebel shouted, trying to pull a drowning pikeman up.

But the heavy steel breastplates were just too much weight. The rebel slipped forward. He fell face-first into the freezing water with a loud splash.

"Damnit, General, the ice is breaking under us!" Hans yelled. He looked down in panic as freezing water began to pool around his knees. "If we stay here, we all fall in!"

Voss looked into the eyes of the young soldier he was holding. The boy’s grip was failing.

"No, no, no! Do not let go!" Voss screamed. He tried to reach further down.

"I am sorry, General," the boy whispered. His eyes rolled back in his head as the freezing cold finally shut down his heart.

Voss watched as the young soldier sank beneath the dark water. He disappeared into the depths of the icy lake.

Dozens of other men were sinking right beside him. The heavy iron weapons of Alemannia dragged them down like stones.

"We have to leave them!" Hans roared. He grabbed Voss by the back of his fur coat and dragged him backward across the ice. "We are going to die, move!"

The hardest decision a commander can make was forced upon Voss. He had to abandon his own men to save the rest.

"Retreat!" Voss bellowed. He scrambled to his feet. He waved his mace toward the snowy slope. "Get back to the solid ground! Run!"

The surviving Jaegers did not need to be told twice. They turned their backs on the drowning men and sprinted across the cracking ice. Their boots slipped and slid as they climbed back up the snowy hill toward Brandt’s line.

"Fall back to the walls! Leave the water!" Reischach roared. His warhorse reared up in panic as the ice cracked near its hooves.

The rebel army scrambled backward. They abandoned their drowning friends in the freezing water.

They ran as fast as they could, slipping on the bloody ice, until they reached the safety of the spiked timber walls surrounding their fortress.

Voss and Hans crawled up the last few feet of the snowy slope. They collapsed behind the line of rifles on the ridge.

Voss panted heavily. His chest heaved. His clothes were soaked with freezing water up to his knees. He slowly stood up. He looked down at the frozen lake.

The gaping hole in the center of the lake was filled with floating chunks of ice, broken wooden shields, and the frozen, lifeless bodies of both Swabian soldiers and rebel mercenaries.

"How many did we lose?" Voss asked. His voice was rough.

Brandt stepped up beside him. His face was grim. "We lost about sixty men to the water, General. Another forty were crushed in the forest. We have almost four thousand rifles left."

"And them?" Voss pointed his mace down at the rebel fortress.

"The rifle fire tore them apart before the ice even broke," Hans said. He rubbed his hands together. "They must have lost at least four hundred men on that slope, plus whoever fell into the water. We hurt them badly, General."

Voss looked across the frozen lake. Baron von Reischach and his surviving army were safely locked behind their timber walls. The campfires of the fortress still burned. They mocked the freezing Swabian soldiers standing out in the cold.

Between Voss’s army and the rebel city lay the frozen lake, now compromised with a sweeping hole in the very center. If Voss’s men stayed out here on the exposed ridge much longer, they would freeze to death just like the men in the water.

Hans stepped up next to Voss. He looked at the broken ice, then looked at the heavily fortified walls of the rebel city.

Hans whispered loudly, "How the hell are we going to get through..."