Chapter 689 Unforeseen Surge
The Bridge right outside the Southern Gate of Liegan was a key trade route for the city. And given that Beluar's army had now occupied the state, the bridge was naturally raised to prevent Wolfen soldiers from entering the city and any civilians from fleeing.
However, some had already run away, and those who ran had encountered the incoming Zhupus army and informed them about the situation.
If the Zhupus army was going to attack, then they'd definitely target the Southern Garrison first so they could gain a foothold in Liegan.
The Southern Garrison was a fortress town, but although it was called 'town', it wasn't even close to the size of an actual town.
Village was a more apt word to describe its size.
As for the river that acted as the Border between Liegan and Zhupus, it was thigh-deep, which really wasn't that deep.
It was the kind of thing that trained soldiers could cross without too much issue.
If there was any problem with it, then it was the width of the river. Evan's plan was one that took advantage of the fact that due to how wide the river was, once they began crossing it, there'd easily be at least 1000 soldiers on it at all times until they had all crossed.
Since they'd be trying to get across as fast as possible before they were detected, then that number would be at least double.
And that was precisely what Evan wanted.
The invasion of the GEE was shocking, but the Republic of Wolfen had known the GEE had been eyeing them for a while.
Which was why they had already been covertly moving soldiers towards the border states.
However, the invasion happened faster than they imagined, so the soldiers had not reached the border states before they fell.
Said soldiers were still around Zhupus at the time of the attack.
When Liegan's Governor Doulton contacted Zhupus' Governor and informed them that they were being attacked by Imperial Soldiers, the army in Zhupus was immediately mobilized.
Mercenaries who had been hired by the government also took up their weapons, ready to end their pay.
They began marching towards Liegan, hoping the state could fight a defensive battle and hold out till they arrived, but the Lieutenant General in charge didn't have much hope.
The size of the force heading to Liegan could be estimated just by the mention of the commander in charge of them.
Wolfen had sent a full Corps of two 10,000-man Divisions to support Liegan. The main force of the attack was a cavalry unit, and there were infantry units in the rear as well.
With Liegan's original 20,000, this would have made for a force of 40,000 to resist the Imperials but unfortunately, Liegan had fallen already.
Still, the Lieutenant General still moved his men for one reason.
The Imperial Army Division that had attacked Liegan was the same one which marched in on Tomond this morning.
This meant they had fought two battles in a day.
Even if they were master levels, they would still be tired and need to rest, so the Wolfen General wished to attack them before they could have that chance to rest and recover their strengths.
But in reality, they hadn't fought much at Tomond since Evan did most of the work. They hadn't even lifted a finger when the Firecrest Camp was attacked so they still had a lot of energy left.
Beluar had moved 1500 men from each of the 20,000-man Corps he had sent to the other Four states to Tomond, and then left 4000 of the original Tomond invasion force.
The remaining 16,000, including the 4000 that watched Evan wipe the floor with the Firecrest soldiers then moved on to attack Liegan.
Their losses were barely a thousand, so they had 15,000 men left. What's more, there were still the uninjured soldiers of Liegan who numbered a bit over 7,000.
Beluar planned to put them at the Vanguard—a simple tactic to kill enemy morale since they'd be faced with their own countrymen.
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Gibun the Colonel was a man in charge of a Brigade of 2000 soldiers, and he was currently marching with his men towards the river separating Liegan and his home state, Zhupus.
The man was one of the rare Spirit Contractors in Wolfen, and his main contracted spirit was a water spirit whom he had been with since his teenage years.
Eventually, he married her when he grew older and because of their contract, she was with him even as he was in the army.
She was a Mid Rank Water spirit, but after achieving grandmaster status, she became able to take on a fully humanoid form.
She—Heina—was very strong, even more so than Gibun whom she was contracted to and was one of the highest levelled people in the Corps attacking Liegan.
Even the A-rank Mercenaries who were in the force weren't a match for her.
Part of the reason why Gibun had been deployed for this mission was due to the possibility of them having to launch an attack on Liegan, in case it had fallen to Imperials by the time they arrived.
Depending on the level of the river at the time they arrived, she could be called upon to do something about it to make it easier for the foot soldiers to cross.
However, this was not needed as when they emerged from the trees and got to the river, they saw that it was almost dried up, at least compared to its usual depth.
"This is strange…"
"Is it? We're in June and we haven't seen rain in weeks. I'm not surprised that it's gotten lower than usual."
One of the Mercenaries at the forefront spoke as he jumped down into the now ankle-deep river and stomped his foot on the ground.
The Lieutenant General cast him a side glance before ordering his scouts to check the area.
Thanks to the river bend, they could cross it from this point without being noticed, before marching along the border to reach the Southern Garrison.
Mages who could levitate would not need to cross on foot, as they could just fly across at a low altitude.
But this was something the Imperials could also think of so they needed to first make sure there weren't any scouts nearby, as well as use magic to mask the presences of those who had crossed over.
Thankfully, there were some trees around the area that blocked the view from the Southern Garrison so the lookouts there would not notice them on time.
After confirming the locations of the Imperial lookouts and checking for any soldiers patrolling, they split the 20,000 soldiers into two batches of five groups each and began to cross the river.
Time passed and the first two groups of 2000 soldiers each crossed the river. The next two groups began crossing at the same time, and it was then that it happened.
Since his Brigade the last group of the first batch was crossing next, Gibun moved closer to the riverbank and saluted the Lieutenant General while Heina looked at the river with a strange gaze.
Naturally, the Lieutenant General noticed that the woman's attention was elsewhere and when he traced her gaze, he saw she was looking at the flowing water.
"Heina?"
Gibun called out to her but she ignored him, walking close to the water with narrowed eyes. She crouched and then used her magic power to command some of it to rise up to her eye level, before then looking downstream, in the direction of the bridge.
All of a sudden, her eyes widened in shock and she snapped her head in the opposite direction and the words that escaped her lips next were ones that the soldiers certainly didn't want to hear.
"This is bad!"
"Heina?"
"We have to get out of here now!! There's a HIGH-RANK SPIRIT nearby and they've done 'something' to the water!"
"?!!"
The Lieutenant General's expression contorted and he turned his gaze in the direction of the 3,000-plus soldiers currently within the river.
Heina's statement of 'something' being done to the water reminded him of his initial concern about the river's depth and he quickly realised what was wrong.
"PULL BACK!!!"
He barked out orders with his voice infused with magic, not caring that the sound had gotten the attention of the Imperial Army lookouts.
[Unfortunately, it's already too late.]
A voice rang out across the area at that moment, its speaker duly informing them of the grim reality.
There was a loud roaring sound and suddenly, a massive surge of water began crashing down from upstream.
Around 4000 foot-soldiers had finished crossing, but there were easily 3000 that were still making their way across and over 10,000 that hadn't even begun to cross yet.
Some of the mages had already flown over, some were in the process of flying over and there were those who hadn't moved yet as well.
All three groups quickly took action, casting magic to create earthen, ice and wooden barriers to block the surging water, but Heina shook her head when she saw this.
"It's futile."
"What are you saying?! Join them as well!!"
"I can't."
The spirit shook her head when the Lieutenant General ordered her to move, and when Gibun turned in her direction he understood why.
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