Beneath the Red Dragon

Thunder Doss of the Golden Empire did not take part in the war council of the kings, but leaned on the outer edge of the Three Kings.

Perhaps it was also the Golden Empire’s long-proclaimed attitude of non‑interference in other nations’ affairs that made these kings more willing to accept the Golden Empire’s proposals.

One must know that alliances between nations, no matter how close, are always fields of mutual struggle and vigilance.

Without Charal Sesha personally sitting in command, it was truly inconceivable that the Hobis Empire could actually allow the Golden Empire’s great host and the Giants’ great host to use the cities on the Hobis–Marino Duchy border as strongholds at will.

Perhaps this could only be described as a miracle: the Ancestral Red Dragon Kalon Gogomola was like a catfish, stirring up those kings who had been trapped in dead water, making them, for certain beliefs, become exceptionally radical, utterly different from their previous conduct.

“We have received news: Beastman King Bossel Laine launched a full‑scale landing operation today,” Blue Dragon Doss spoke only after the discussion of the Three Kings had subsided.

“The Southern Noble Alliance’s naval fleet chained together requisitioned merchantmen and a great number of river craft, set them ablaze and sent them drifting down with the current. Coordinating with the pincer attack of the northern and southern fleets, they swallowed the Beastmen’s twenty‑thousand‑strong fleet upon The Sea.”

Charal Sesha’s gaze flickered; he was not moved by the losses of the Beastman Kingdom.

War upon The Sea is even harder to control than war upon the land, and the Beastmen’s fleets upon the waters have never been famed for strength.

He asked, “What is the outcome of the campaign? Those Noble Alliance forces may be sufficient in numbers, yet they should find it hard to withstand the Beastman Army.”

Blue Dragon Doss stepped out of the shadows, revealing a firm face whose hard lines seemed slightly softened; he smiled faintly and said, “Laman Beach has been completely seized by the Beastman Kingdom; Legendary Marshal Laird of the Rosetta Duchy was struck a grievous blow in a single attack by Beastman King Bossel Laine,”

“Legendary Warrior Laird’s Personal Guard, in order to cover Laird’s withdrawal, perished to the last man together with the fifty‑thousand‑strong host deployed by the Rosetta Duchy on the Laman Beach front,”

“The Beastman Army is already preparing to march north, to threaten from the rear the eastern segment of the entire Marino Defense Line, thereby easing the pressure on the frontal battlefield.”

The other three kings revealed looks of satisfaction. The Rosetta Duchy and the Dumyat Duchy were the two pincers clamping the main defensive front, while Dorabi City on the Marino Defense Line was the most important pass controlling the south from the north, able at any time to sweep east and west to encircle and support.

If Dorabi City could not be taken, then all the armies of the Alliance of Kings would find themselves in the plight of enemies both before and behind; the blockage of the supply lines would also be the final straw that broke the back of the Alliance of Kings.

Therefore, whether it was the Beastmen or the Three Kings now, all needed to break the joint defensive deployment of the three duchies in order to ease the pressure on the main front, and thus seize Dorabi City and take the whole south.

It could be said that once Dorabi City fell, the entire south would become a wide‑open plain, left to the Kings to gallop across; from then on, all would be decided by the edge of the blade.

“Then we, too, should move,” Shalos looked at the other two kings and said, “With the union of the Kings, the first battle must not suffer a setback.”

“Then let it be tonight,” Charal Sesha’s eyes lit up. “Fei Ou has already agreed to defect to the Kings. He is but a minor noble, not on the list of those whom the Kings must eradicate; however, to guard against a feigned surrender, we must act strictly according to plan.”

King of Dark Elves Anudale nodded and asked, “For you to enter the city in person—does that not carry too great a risk?”

Charal Sesha shook his head. “To gain rich rewards, one must assume corresponding risks.”

“Very well. Three quarters of an hour,” Anudale said in a deep voice. “If within three quarters of an hour we do not see the signal you send, the coalition army of the Three Kings will launch a full assault and storm the city by force!”

Outside the great command tent, within the dense forest, shadows wavered; blades, spears and swords glinted like a forest of steel!

…

The sky was exceedingly overcast; the biting cold pressed the damp cloud layers down much lower. Centered on Dorabi City, the Marino Defense Line stretched for hundreds of kilometers, like the undulating spine of a Starry Beast.

Yet even standing behind such a magnificent wall of defense, those hundreds of thousands of Warriors did not feel much sense of safety from its solidity.

Not only were the people within the city seized by panic; even the Marino Duchy’s Legions and the Warriors of the united forces of the Nobility were surrounded by fear in their hearts.

Looking down from on high, they stared at the black‑mass monster host and Giant Legion on the distant great plain, feeling a mighty pressure.

The Flying Dragons and Giant Dragons rampaging in the skies had already withdrawn, and Dorabi City’s logistical traffic had been restored, yet this was by no means good news.

For this also meant that this Marino Defense Line—an unsurpassed bulwark in the Mortal World of the Northern Continent of Aikania—was about to face an unprecedented deluge‑like onslaught.

The principle of “besieging on three sides and leaving one side open” is a common piece of knowledge to any soldier who has experienced war.

All the more so during these days when the Monster Corps patiently waited: the countless proclamations of surrender scattered from the skies by Flying Dragons and Giant Dragons, and the reports of the lines on the eastern and western fronts being successively broken by the Beastmen and the Three Kings, had driven these Warriors’ will to fight and their morale down to the depths of the Abyss.

Especially when they beheld that vast dark sheen of Armor, and those Giant Dragons, Demon Dragons and Flying Dragons that, against all expectation, remained standing in unshaken stillness, the courage in their hearts silently ebbed away to nothing.

Even across a great distance, they seemed to hear the sound of steel Armor clashing as the Warriors marched.