Cthulhu Gonfalon

Night was falling.

The battle lines on the human side had retreated, time and again, by at least two to three miles.

This stretch of battle lines that measured two to three miles was covered with blood on every inch of this trail. With every step the humans retreated, many soldiers had to be sacrificed. Every retreat made often required them to put in several lives in order to avoid the collapse of their battle lines.

Despite the human commanding officers sparing no efforts in trying to grab hold of every opportunity in this war, the difference in strength was ultimately not something that wisdom could make up for. Even if they had tried all ways they could possibly think of, they were still unable to salvage themselves from a defeat.

What they could do was nothing more than try their best not to be in disorder despite the defeat and also not to collapse because of the defeat.

At the rear end of the human battle lines, the Goddess of Virtue wore a heavy expression like still waters.

"Do you need us to strike?" a demigod master asked.

The goddess shook her head and remained silent for a long time before saying, "Retreat to the defense line at the Great Wall. Let them attack the city!"

This was originally one of the pre-planned war tactics. It was just that it was beyond everyone's imagination that a war that everyone had originally thought would be easily won would finally end up like this.

Fortunately, the Great Wall was still there.

With this defense line that stretched across the eastern part of the northern land, which divided the Orcs' nation from that of the humans, even if the Orcs had the advantage, they could not win that easily either.

Even without the help of divinity, the humans could still rely on their advantage in location and number of soldiers to continue holding out.

The gods did not fall. It was just that their contact with the humans had met with some problems. When the problems were eliminated, it would be time for an all-out retaliation of the humans!

By that time, the disadvantage, in terms of the military strength of the exhausted Orcs, would be utterly exposed. It would only take one fierce attack to bring about the complete collapse of their entire battle line!

Until then, what the humans needed to do was only to try their best to endure.

Nightfall did not stop both sides from fighting on. It also did not slow down the retreat of the humans.

Emperor Ilo of the Orcs was still standing on his chariot, and the night wind was blowing against his long hair. The Lionman's golden mane had become snow-white with age; however, his hair was yet to be dry and withering. Just like the passion and fighting spirit in his heart.

"The humans are retreating. They probably want to retreat to the defense line at the Great Wall," he said. This was the first time he opened his mouth to speak since the war commenced. "If we want them to spill even more blood, we must strike with a fierce attack now."

"We don't have enough power for a fierce attack," a veteran of the advisory body said with a sigh. "We still have our reserves troops, but given the subsequent siege of the city, our soldiers need to rest now."

Ilo nodded slightly. He was not good at the art of war, so he had always respected the opinions of the professionals and went with the flow.

Just then, a young member of the advisory body suddenly spoke up. Very loudly, he said, "Your Majesty, I have a suggestion!"

Such unseemly behavior was bound to be severely reprimanded in the context of a human nation. But among the Orcs, this was not a problem at all. They did not really care much about things like "seniority" or "rules."

Ilo looked at him with interest. The first thing he noticed was that pair of fox ears. No doubt, this was a member of the Wilder family, who had always been known as the "Wise."

"Young Wilder, what suggestion do you have to offer?" the emperor asked.

The young Foxman blushed with excitement at the emperor's friendly disposition. He took two deep breaths, then in a voice as calm as possible, he said, "I think we should send a few mobility troops to destroy the human's logistics and supplies."

The emperor froze. Since the start of the civil war between the North and South of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, "mobility troops" had become such a notorious name that everyone would have known about it. Everyone had heard about it. The various countries on the continent, after further discussions, had unanimously agreed to endorse the treaty that prohibited the use of mobility troops against enemies' logistics and civilians. Now, this young Wilder's suggestion of having the Orc Empire form a mobility troop was equivalent to unilaterally tearing up the treaty. This was quite humiliating for the Orcs, who had always believed in keeping their credibility. It was something that they would be held in contempt for.

Emperor Ilo was also a man who valued credibility. So when he heard this suggestion, his first reaction was surprised. Then the next reaction was the want to refuse.

But he did not speak up immediately. Instead, he looked towards the other members of the advisory board.

As a ruler of his nation, before he made any decisions, he should always consult his ministers for their opinions before making decisions.

The members of the advisory board were all surprised and angry at the first instant. But were quick to register thoughtful expressions thereafter. After a while, a few of the oldest veterans nodded in agreement.

"Treaty or not, this is all meaningless now. This is going to be one great battle between the Orcs and the humans. The victor will become the overlord while the loser will most possibly be thrown out of the Main Plane. In that case; of course we should use any means possible. There's no need for any further scruples."

"Yes. We need to comply with credibility so as to get the neutral parties to support us. Now that the entire Main Plane is involved in this great war, it's either friend or foe. Where can we possibly find any neutral parties! Since there are no longer any neutral parties, why should we even be bothered about credibility and such!"

"But we have to be careful, though. We must not escalate this to a massive massacre; otherwise we might provoke His Majesty, the Void Mask…"

"His Majesty, the Void Mask, has clearly declared that, other than slaughtering and the refugees, he will not concern himself with anything else. So long as the mobility troops don't go overboard, he will not intervene at all."

"What's considered as not going overboard?"

"This… Let's have a good talk about this…"

Emperor Ilo nodded and got his advisory board to discuss the matter.

But before the advisory board could commence discussions, another suggestion was proposed.

"Your Majesty, since we now have the intention to send out a mobility troop to attack the logistics and supply lines of the humans, then there's no need for us to consider the issue of attacking the city," the oldest veteran pointed out. "Then our reserves troops need not rest, they can continue to attack as vigorously as they could. We should make full use of the advantage we have now and make as many kills as we can!"

Emperor Ilo unquestionably accepted his advice. So the order was issued.

This order was followed by more brutal killings than those in the day, and also, more bloodshed.

After a day of fighting, both sides were exhausted. Even the reserves troops who could rest during daytime found it extremely difficult to rest well in such an environment. So the conditions of both sides were in bad shape. However, the Orcs could make use of their massive magic spells to rapidly restore their soldiers to their normal state. The humans, on the other hand, were unable to do the same as they had exhausted their magic power.

To make matters worse, the Orcs generally had night vision, and so, nightfall did not hinder their vision. But it was not the same for the humans. Even with the light from torches and bonfires, most of the human soldiers' vision was still greatly hindered, thus making it difficult for them to see their enemies, launch impactful attacks accurately and even to avoid the attacks from their enemies.

Therefore, this very night, the humans suffered an extremely great loss. By daybreak, together with the drastic retreat by the human soldiers at their battlefront, the dramatic loss of human soldiers was equally shocking to their commanders.

Of course, in this night, the humans also made a few successful counterattacks. By relying on some prearranged set-ups that were originally located in camp, they had annihilated a large number of the Orcs soldiers. But from the overall statistics, in this short night, the exchange between the Orcs and humans had exceeded a ratio of one was to five. In other words, on average, every single fallen Orc soldier would be accompanied by five fallen human soldiers.

Not only that, those heavily wounded Orc soldiers could survive or even recover quickly by virtue of the healing power of divine spells. The humans, on the other hand, could not. They could only rely on things like healing potions and such that had been prepared in advance as means of emergency rescue. But the effects of such medication were ultimately, very limited. This made it almost impossible for them to save the heavily wounded soldiers. If factors in this regard were taken into consideration, then on this night, the loss ratio of both sides might even be more than one to ten!