Ouroboros Record ~Circus of Oubeniel~

Chapter 71: Battle of Clavicule 2 (1)

Battle cries, clashing of metal, and sound of gunshots.

Amidst the ear-splitting noise of the battlefield, Jrgen Bauer clicked his tongue.

An opponent who, until this day, should have nothing more than a small army and weak soldiers. A madman that he had underestimated, thinking that he could pull off one time tricks like scorched earth tactics. The man, Tullius Oubeniel, Count of Volden was deploying a masterful strategy before his eyes.

The new weapon, a mysterious fire-breathing tube the musket was the first thing that caught my attention, but the advance preparation to make use of it was also extraordinary. The arrangement of the fortifications in the basin of Clavicule, the battlefield, was unusual. The earthen walls were placed along the undulations of the basin making the difficult terrain much harder to traverse. Though the walls were weak and had to be restored frequently, the real issue was the positioning advantage it gave to them. The walls were shaped like a U against the St. Gallen troops that were attacking from the east side of the basin. If they tried to attack one of the walls from the inside of the basin, they would immediately be targeted by the troops on the other side and come under heavy musket fire.

The musket was a new type of weapon that the soldiers were not accustomed with. Furthermore, the people using them were hastily recruited soldiers. Normally, their accuracy should be poor enough for hits to be called lucky. But with the enemys strategy of concentrating fire, this was not an issue. They made up for what they lacked in skill with dense firing. A saying, Even poor aiming with multiple guns can hit their mark, later spread from this battle.

And then there were the earthen walls that stopped the St. Gallen army in their tracks while protecting the defenders who were shooting. It was only after the St. Gallen soldiers charged in that they realised how troublesome the walls were. Bauer found out that they were solid enough to hold up against an onslaught of spells and that they could be repaired quickly, but it looks like they were positioned such that attackers movements were hindered. In front of the earthen walls was a deep and empty moat. If the attackers were careless, they would get stuck and be shot down. Perhaps they dug the empty moats first, and used the soil from that to construct the walls. It was a clever move.

Bauer could also tell the trick behind the earthen walls. From the attacker's point of view, at first glance, the earth was only piled up to chest height. However, judging from the way they moved when they were hit by their magic, there must be a deeper space behind the walls. From the defenders' point of view, the earthen walls were more of a stairway, and they could shoot from the top by leaning over the top half of the wall. To avoid long range attacks such as magic, arrows and stones, they would duck down to the lower levels.

Efficient and practical in every way. It was his bad luck in encountering such a commander who was so thorough in his battle strategy.

But...

"How unfortunate for the Arquellian lord."

Bauer was convinced that he would win. The new weapons and unexpectedly strong defences combined were troublesome indeed. However, it was not a hopeless situation.

Because they, the attackers had approximately 40,000 people, albeit starving, while the defenders were a group of untrained soldiers with less than 10,000 people.

That is to say, they stood no chance.

"Hah......hah!"

The Arquellian soldier continued to pull the trigger over and over again after having already fired a round. His eyes were bleeding, his complexion was reddish-black, and even from afar, it was clear that he was losing a lot of blood. The platoon commander sharpened his gaze and shouted.

"You fool! Hurry up with the next round!"

"Why can't I unload the round?"

"Like I said earlier, thrust the gunpowder and the bullet in! Wha!?"

While the platoon commander was chastising his men for panicking, a St. Gallen soldier rushed in for the kill.

And then he laughed loudly as he swung his blood-soaked sword over his head.

"Hahahaha! What is it? Are you out of ammo for your strange weapons?"

"Ahhh, ahhhhhh!"

"You guys are weak after all Gah!"

"......This is B-09. -01 bunker is going down, evacuating to -01 trench. Over."

The St. Gallen soldiers had been finished off by slaves wearing butler attires. A strange sight on a battlefield. Still, the attackers far outnumbered the defenders. A group of soldiers had been waiting for the interval when the Arquellian soldiers had to reload their weapons and breached the earthen walls.

"Don't let a mere slave stand against us!"

"Die, slave!"

"Oh, come on, slaves! Do something!"

"Isn't that why the lord placed you guys here!"

Hilariously, the Arquellian soldiers clung onto the slave's arms and legs, waist and all, begging for help. They were literally holding them back.

"You are a hindrance..."

"Take that!"

And then they die, unable to resist the enemy due to the burden of somebody literally holding them back. Compared to the way the slave had earlier dealt with the intruding enemies, dying like this was unlike the full capabilities of the slave. However, in this situation where he was being dragged down by most of his allies around him, it was hard to do anything about it.

A similar scene was unfolding at the other trenches.

"This is M-20. Command, come in. Command, come in"

"Hey, there's a woman over here! Maid uniform too, must be another slave!"

"Since there is no response, I shall independently conduct a defensive battle. Defeat the enemy while supporting the evacuation of our allies"

"We're in the middle of a battle, keep your lusts in check! Shes stronger than we thought, just kill her!"

"Y-Yes!"

"Our forces are lacking. Requesting for immediate assistance from the command center. ......Gale Edge!"

"Gwaaahhhh!"

"Damn, you are a mage? Crush them with numbers, with our numbers!"

"Dont get ahead of yourself, little slave!"

"Ah......! Command, please respond......"

This was literally speaking, a human wave attack. The waves of people that had been pouring in and out of the walls gradually accumulated on the other side of the wall without returning. Initially, the Arquellian side had repelled them with heavy fire, but as time passed, their firepower weakened and they were unable to resist the St. Gallen side's offensive.

One of Bauers staff officers wore a grin on his face.

"There are no magic reactions coming from the fire breathing tube. If that's the case, its probably like a crossbow and will eventually run out of ammunition....... The mages were right, weren't they?"

"Yes. If it's not magic, then even though it is new to us, it will still obey the usual rules."

Bauer replied while gazing at the state of the battlefield.

The deafening sounds of gunfire were now only sporadic.

As Bauer and the others have surmised, the ammunition the defenders had for their muskets was finite. In addition, once fired, a second shot could not be fired unless the gun was cleared and the next round was loaded. A time-consuming process. So, to compensate for these shortcomings, they had taken the strategy of hiding behind those walls and keeping their distance from the enemy.

"Damn you, St. Gallen!"

"Wait, wait, wait! This distance is too"

"I see the enemies! Shoot, shoot them all!"

"Argh! Hey, I'm your ally"

In this way, they could not hold back and started firing from outside the effective range, sometimes misidentifying their allies as enemies who were retreating back to them or when they suddenly stood up. They had to go through the time-consuming reloading process again and wasted valuable ammunition. This was on top of the damage caused by killing one another. It was crystal clear that the Arquellian side would soon collapse.

"Truly, what a shame for the commander of the other side. If his soldiers had a little more skill, we would have been in grave danger."

Bauer let out a chuckle at the sight of the enemy soldiers panicking and misfiring. No matter how the commander did his best to come up with a good strategy, it was up to the soldiers in the battle to utilise it. A tactical disadvantage in battle would mean checkmate, that much is common sense. However, if you have a bunch of weak soldiers who don't know the first thing about combat, any kind of clever strategy will come to naught. They would simply be too inexperienced to follow the tactics. Preparing the right troops that can follow the orders is also part of the strategy. And, the lack of preparation also cannot be saved by superior strategy. In other words, although the Kingdom of Arquell had gained a tactical advantage with its superior stratagems, it had already been defeated in terms of strategy or more like, political strategy since it could not prepare capable troops that could take advantage of them.

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