Game of the Monarch

“My Lord, the battle line on the right flank is collapsing.”

“What’s the reason?”

“A unit with a large number of Experts attacked, sir.”

Adding heavyweights into a small unit to attack in a situation like this? Then the purpose must be…

“They’re aiming for my head.”

Milton nodded as he looked towards the right where harsh sounds and screams could be heard. It seemed as though the raging troops over there were the enemy’s trump card. Although Milton wanted to send Jerome and his knights to fight against them, the knights had to continue to fight against the enemy on the left side. The knights would come if Milton called them, but then, the left’s front line would be pushed back.

‘Guess I have no choice but to fight them myself.’

Thankfully, there was already a plan that had been prepared for situations like this. Having realized what was going on, Milton moved immediately.

“Rick, Tommy.”

“Yes, My Lord.”

“I’ll be charging the right flank with the rest of the knights.”

“My Lord, the right flank is being attacked by the enemy’s Experts. It’ll be dangerous.”

Tommy tried to hold him back, but Milton shook his head.

“We won’t be attacking them head-on. We’ll be implementing Operation Disruption 003.”

“Operation Disruption 003? Ah! Yes. Understood, My Lord.”

Rick and Tommy focused. They remembered the strategy Milton had made just in case an emergency situation occurred.

“Make sure to follow right behind me. Both of your roles are very important.”

“Yes, My Lord!”

“Yes, My Lord!”

Milton directly led his knights and plunged right into the fray to deal with the enemies on the right flank. But that was exactly what the Ghosts had wanted him to do. Their purpose was to break the right flank of the Southern Army and decapitate Milton. 

‘The elixir is still effective.’

The unit leader who led the Ghost Force checked his physical condition, then held his sword firmly. The elixir that the Ghosts took was a drug with limited effectiveness. Even if they had reduced the side effects of the elixir as much as possible through adaptive training, its time limit wasn’t something they could do anything about. So, they were grateful that the prey was appearing in front of their eyes. 

“All of you prepare yourselves. The prey has appeared in front of our eyes.”

“Yes, Sir!”

Following the command of their unit leader, the Ghost Force members all prepared to raise their Aura. There were 30 Ghost Force members in this Operation Rush Attack and only 10 of those members had shown their skills so far. Their enemy was probably charging recklessly at them right now because they didn’t know of that fact.

‘We can capture him.’

The unit leader commanding the Ghost Force was convinced of his success. Soon, the enemy’s leader would be right in front of his eyes. 

But then…

“Stop! All knights, hold your positions!”

When Milton had gotten closer to the Ghost Force, he gave an unexpected order to his knights. He had stopped them and then dismounted from his horse. And…

“All knights, spread out.”

He ordered his knights to scatter from their formation.

Knights show their true value when their destructive power multiples as they gather together and charge forward as one unit. So, when the knights suddenly spread out instead of gathering together, their opponents were confused by the unexpected development. 

“Do not be confused! All you need to know is the location of Count Forrest!”

Although the Ghost Force’s unit leader had also been flustered, he quickly got himself together and gave orders to his men. But, almost as though they had been waiting for this exact moment, Rick and Tommy moved as they had been previously commanded by Milton. 

“I’m Milton Forrest!”

“I, Milton Forrest, am here! Come here if you want to die!”

Simultaneously, Count Forrest’s flag fluttered in the wind in multiple directions as men began to announce that he was Count Milton Forrest. 

“Uh…”

Ghost Force’s unit leader was disconcerted by this unexpected situation. The enemy had spread themselves and hidden their leader amongst the infantry. And on top of that, flags had been raised everywhere and men were shouting ‘Count Forrest is here,’ left and right. There was no way Count Milton Forrest’s location could be found like this.

This was operation disturbance 003. Originally, this was a plan made to safely retreat if they were being pushed back during the battle. But once Milton realized that the enemy was rushing in to attack him, he rethought the plan. He realized that in a situation like this, he could still use the Operation Disturbance. And just as he had expected the Ghost Force was greatly bewildered. 

“Unit leader, what should we do?”

At his subordinate’s question, the unit leader was deeply troubled. He had led the charge without expecting something like this would happen. In an unexpected situation like this, the most important thing was the field commander’s judgement. He had to quickly grasp the situation and give the best possible command for that situation.

‘Retreat? No, we still have to achieve our purpose. Fight them one against one? The elixir’s time limit is almost up. Then…’

In the end, the Ghost Force leader made an unreasonable decision in order to achieve their purpose. 

“We’re dividing the unit into three. Behead every single one who claims to be Count Forrest!”

“Yes, Sir!”

As soon as the unit leader gave his command, his men divided into three groups. They attacked wherever people were claiming to be Count Forrest. Even divided into three groups, the Ghost Force composed of all Experts were still very powerful.

“Gahhhhh!”

“Ack…”

“Stop them. Stop the black skulls…. Urk!”

The Ghost Force plunged deep into the enemy camp, cutting down soldiers as if they were farmers cutting weeds. However, no matter how powerful they might be, once divided into three, the destructive power would also be splintered. But most importantly, the Ghost Force had gone in too deep.

“Surround them!”

“Surround them. Hold them back with your weapons!”

“Don’t be scared! Just because they’re experts doesn’t mean they can’t be stabbed!”

The Ghost Force was slowly surrounded by the enemy. As said before, an Expert doesn’t mean that they were unaffected by swords and arrows. In order to achieve their purpose, the special forces had been divided into smaller groups in order to “concentrate” their power and move “quickly.”

However, because Milton had hidden himself and carried out the Operation Disturbance, the Ghost Force had wasted both time and power trying to where their purpose, Milton, had hidden. Soon, they were surrounded and began to suffer heavy damages. Most of the ordinary mountain unit soldiers who had followed the Ghost Force had died. And on top of that, Milton had been keeping an eye on the enemy and made a move once they had lost their strength.  

“I am the real Milton Forrest.”

When Milton appeared in front of the surrounded Ghost Force, their eyes lit up and they rushed to kill him.

“Kill him!”

“We must kill him!”

It was impossible for them to survive and return. And since that was the case, the Ghost Force frenziedly rushed towards Milton, determined to at least achieve their original goal. Maybe it was also because they were anxious that the elixir’s effectiveness would soon be gone? But either way, the Ghost Force recklessly ran towards Milton. However, this was another of Milton’s traps.

“Fire!”

A quiver’s worth of arrows flew towards the Ghost Force as they charged at Milton.

Thnick! Thunk!

“Guhhhh…”

“Uck…”

Active in the frontline, Trike had commanded his archers to shoot countless arrows. In the first place, Milton had no intention of confronting the enemy with his tired knights. From the beginning, Milton had set himself up as bait to influence and break up the enemy. 

At the same time Milton had started Operation Disruption, he had also given orders to Trike to come to Milton’s aid. As Milton reveals himself as bait, Trike would lead his archers and commence with a focused attack to deal with the enemies. This plan worked out tremendously well. Even if they were Experts, they couldn’t avoid the arrows raining down upon them when their movements had already been limited by the enemies surrounding them. 

Thunk! Thap! Thnick!

“Ga… gahhhh!”

“You cowardly bastards!”

The Ghost Force members were riddles with the arrows raining down upon them until they looked like porcupines. 

Trike, in particular, was dazzling as he shot arrow after arrow without rest.

“I’m on fire today.”

Trike’s arrows were so fast and so accurate that even for Experts, it was dire. 

If you look for the most strongest and powerful man amongst Milton’s men, then without a doubt, it was Jerome. But if you looked at wartime accomplishments, then Trike had more military merit than Jerome. Trike’s superhuman ability in archery was maximized on the battlefield. Just in this battle alone, the number of commanders who had died at Trike’s hand exceeded two digits.

And so, Ghosts, the secret weapon that Siegfried had been training, were all being hunted down unilaterally.

“Gah… kill… kill him!”

“Kill Count Forrest!”

The Ghosts were stubborn even as they were dying, but in the face of arrows that poured down, that stubbornness was of no use.

“Urk… Long live Siegfried!”

 In the end, not a single Ghost was able to reach Milton. 

Milton tilted his head as he considered the last member of the Ghost Force fell, turned into a porcupine by the arrows. 

‘Long live Siegfried? Usually when these bastards died, don’t they shout, “Long live the Republic?”’

Milton wondered whether this black skull-covered unit was Siegfried’s private soldiers and not Republican soldiers. But that would be strange. Private soldiers were usually kept by aristocrats, so something like private soldiers couldn’t happen in the Republic where the feudal system wasn’t recognized. 

‘I’ll just keep that in mind.’

While it wasn’t important right now, Milton decided to keep that information in the back of his mind. After sending another signal to Trike, Milton began to move.  He had to quickly deal with the rest of the enemy in order to reduce the casualties in his army. 

* * *

“It’s been reported that the special forces failed, sir.”

“They failed?”

“Yes, Sir. Not a single one returned alive.”

Siegfried frowned as he listened to the messenger’s report. 

‘Is he saying that a unit of Ghosts failed? Without any results?’

One Ghost unit was strong enough to grind down at least one or two knights. But the enemy had defeated such an attack from the Ghosts. 

“Milton Forrest… I underestimated you.”

Siegfried realized that Milton was more powerful than he had thought. But Milton had also taken more damage than Siegfried thought. 

* * *

“Count Forrest, the right flank has taken more damage than expected. The entire army is collapsing from the right, sir.”

“I know. I’m looking at it right now… damn it. Those fcking monstrous skull demon bastards. 

Milton clenched his teeth. 

Although Milton had defeated one unit of Ghost Force, it wasn’t like he came out without any damages. The troops had surrounded and managed to overpower 30 experts. But thanks to that, it had taken more time than expected and the injuries on the soldiers who had surrounded the experts were too great. 

‘It was originally a plan that was made with the assumption there would be ten experts. The casualty was too great.’ 

Milton had never thought they would send 30 experts just to decapitate him. Thankfully, even though the right flank had collapsed, because the Southern Army had done well in the battle with the infantry, the overall damage to the entire army wasn’t that significant right now. But this was also a matter of time. After fighting, Milton had realized that the enemy’s soldiers were better than his. Left like this, the initial advantage would eventually disappear as time passed. 

‘Before that happens, let’s defeat the enemy one more time.’

Having come to a decision, Milton called for Jerome. 

“Did you call for me, My Lord?”

“Did you stabilize the left flank?”

“Yes, My Lord. The left is now stabilized.”

“Good. However, the damages on the right are too great so it’s about to collapse.”

“I will immediately lead the Knights and go reinforce the right flank, My Lord.”

Milton stopped him.

“Rick and Tommy will lead the 2nd group of Knights to fill in the missing positions. You and I will…”

Looking at the flags fluttering in the enemy’s base, Milton spoke to Jerome with determination.

“We will hit the enemy’s base.”

Milton planned to return everything they had done back to them. 

* * *

Leading the Southern Knights, Milton attempted to break through the enemy's base. Although he had the upper hand in the battles between the infantry, this was a bold move. But Milton had his own reasons. 

‘At least 30 experts pushed back our right flank. In that case, there’s no way they have the strength to stop me and Jerome from pushing our way in right now.’

Milton had judged that with Jerome and himself leading the main Southern Knights, they had a chance of reaching the enemy’s base headquarters.

“Jerome, open up a path! We’re breaking through at once!”

“Yes, My Lord!”

With his radiant aura, Jerome opened a direct path for them. 

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