Chapter 745: The Remaining Army
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Almost all the people who arrived in Regina started scattering around, in order to persuade more free mages, they embarked on their journey once again at night.
As for Benjamin, he was headed toward the direction of the border by himself.
The Church might be sending their troops tonight, and he did not know if he would be able to get there in time. However, in terms of speed, he was the fastest among them. If he was able to get to the border before the war broke out, he might be able to save as much military force as possible.
He took the Prime Minister's badge with him, so he had the rights to control the military.
At the moment, about a little a little past one, the sky was extremely dark, and there was a very little trace of activity in the fields below him. Apparently, the news had not spread to Icor, therefore, the rest of the country remained very calm.
After flying in the darkness for quite some time, Benjamin suddenly saw a flame on the field in front of him.
He was instantly energized.
"That is…"
The flame was moving, and soon it got closer and clearer in his sight. He saw countless people holding torches in that dark field, were walking towards him in a rapid speed.
Were they soldiers?
Benjamin was a little surprised. After all, there was still a distance to the border, he should not have bumped into soldiers here.
With the approaching distance, the whole picture of the army gradually appeared in his eyes. They were extremely large in number, probably around tens of thousands of them, just by looking at them, it was already very overwhelming. However, they did not look very organized, or even a little messy. Many soldiers were carrying stretchers and there was a vague bloody smell in the wind.
Suddenly, Benjamin's mood sank to the bottom.
"They are Icor’s troops," The System said, "The Church is very quick to act, they destroyed the border defense that quickly. But you shouldn’t be too sad, at least, this wasn’t a total loss. There is still some effective strength left."
Benjamin took a deep breath, and, keeping silent, flew towards the army.
"…Who is that!"
As soon as he got closer, some people in the army noticed him. A few mages flew up into the air and look at him cautiously. Benjamin took out the badge that the Prime Minister gave him and showed it to the few of them.
"I am Director of the Magic Academy. I am entrusted by the Prime Minister to come forward and contact the defenders at the border of Icor. Did we not have a hundred thousand defenders? What happened?"
The few mages and soldiers around heard what he said and were surprised. They looked at each other, kept quiet and did not speak, the atmosphere was extremely heavy.
A moment later, a middle-aged man who looked as though he was the leader walked out from the group of soldiers.
"Director Benjamin, I’ve heard so much about you," The man nodded and replied, "I'm Kent, and I received an order to defend the border with a few other generals."
"General Kent, what happened? What happened to the other generals?"
"...Three hours ago, the Kingdom of Helius suddenly launched a sudden attack. Although we have received a warning message from the executive Prime Minister, the opponent’s army was too powerful, it was extremely hard for us to withstand the attack, so we have no choice but to temporarily retreat," Up until here, the general paused for a moment and went on. "Unfortunately, the other generals have sacrificed during the retreat."
Benjamin heard that, although he did not know these people at all, he nevertheless could not help but sigh.
To think the Church had acted that quickly...
Initially, they started a coup, then they took advantage of the confusion and the delayed news in Icor to send out troops that quickly that it was almost impossible, then immediately attacked the defenders at the border... They must have planned this a long time ago.
What a pity, be it the black operation of the academy or the spies in the other countries, none of them received information about this. The information network was apparently a failure.
"How many soldiers does the Church have?" Benjamin had no choice but to ask.
"There are at least three hundred thousand of them," General Kent's voice gradually became heavy, "At the beginning, the attack started with an astonishing explosion. Holy light cannons and some catapults directly were used to launch their attack on our outpost, causing the sentry to fail to report in time. Also, there were some disagreements among the generals. A few minutes later, the enemy soldiers were coming from all over the field, and we missed our best opportunity for a counter attack, after fighting for a brief moment, we had no choice but to retreat."
Benjamin nodded and asked, "How serious was the loss?"
"In order to stop them from chasing, we sacrificed a large number of soldiers, and now there are only about fifty thousand soldiers left. Before we even get to use the dozen of Holy Light Cannon, the enemy have already confiscated all of them."
"This…"
At that moment, Benjamin had a headache.
"We are incompetent, if only we decide to retreat earlier, we will definitely not lose that much," General Kent lowered his head, "I am willing to take on all the blame."
"Forget it..." Benjamin shook his head and said, "There is a war ahead of us, what is the point in putting the blame, let’s defeat the enemy’s troops and save Icor first.
Kent lowered his head and remained silent.
"So what about the mages? How many mages did we lose in the war?" Benjamin saw this, thought about it and asked.
"Because of the mages’ ability to fly, they are currently the most fully-preserved units that we have. There are still about 2,000 mages in the army now that still have the ability to fight."
Benjamin heard this, his expression changed slightly to the better as he nodded.
Finally a good news.
"Where do you plan to go now?" He continued asking.
"To the Rock City," General Kent replied, "So far, it's one of the closest cities to us and the terrain there is dangerous. That place is easy to hold but hard to attack, and it is the only way to get to Regina. We plan to get there, set up a base and try to defend against the Church’s attack."
"The Rock City..."
In Benjamin's mind, the System quickly transferred all the relevant information about the Rock City to him. The city was huge and their defense work was complete, however, the distance to travel there was not short.
With the speed of fifty thousand soldiers marching together, they would need at least two days to arrive there.
Would the Church not catch up?
"How far is the pursuing soldiers from the Kingdom of Helius, will they catch up?" Benjamin asked quickly.
"We are not sure about that," General Kent shook his head and said, "But so far, I have not seen any signs of pursuing soldiers. They should still be cleaning up the battlefield, maybe… General Ferrand, who is covering our retreat, might still be fighting against them."
Benjamin heard this and nodded thoughtfully.
In a sense, the remaining fifty thousand soldiers were considered as the "front-runners". Although at the end of the day, they might be the only front-runners left.
In order for the majority of the army to retreat successfully, they had paid a very heavy price.
"Continue retreating, I will go and have a look," After asking all about the situation, eventually, Benjamin took a deep breath, said that and headed towards the west.