Chapter 310 - Routing the Regulus Army

Kaiser had all the troops mobilize and soon their plan was put into action. Albert had hastened the army's movement because Cecil had personally attacked him earlier. He was blinded by anger that he had only ordered his soldiers to quickly hasten their steps to their demise.

Along the way, they were constantly ambushed by the Silvaria Army. The sudden ambushes caused so many casualties within the Regulus Army's ranks that Albert only grew more and more incensed.

He couldn't believe how cowardly the Silvaria Army was fighting them. They came unsuspectingly in few numbers and quickly attacked before retreating not long after laying waste to a few of his men.

Initially, the ambushes didn't affect the Regulus army too much, but as time passed by, the constant harassments had made every soldier alert and on their toes. They were so high-strung that even the smallest of noises would cause them to react and this put a strain on the mental state and morale of the soldiers.

Albert himself wasn't helping or doing any better. Instead of remaining calm and coming up with a countermeasure against the ambushes, he was growing angrier by the minute. He only yelled and berated his generals for being incompetent for not being able to stop the ambushes.

This further destroyed the troops' morale and the army's marching speed quickly took a hit. Everyone was being overly cautious to the point that they were moving at a snail's pace. The most disgusting thing that the Regulus army had to face was that no matter how much they tried to retaliate against the constant ambushes, not one of their enemies had been killed.

Injured, yes, but killed? No, not one of the Silvaria soldiers had received a life-threatening attack. Cecil and Lucia had a play in all this.

Upon a small mountain peak that overlooked the pass, Cecil was spreading out his senses and constantly monitoring the Silvaria soldiers' movements. He was holding onto Lucia's hand and sharing his vision with her. Lucia would then cast a barrier around any soldier that was about to receive a fatal attack and this helped keep every member of the Silvaria army alive.

Fatima and her unit were also there to see what was going on, but they only saw Cecil sitting down cross-legged while holding onto Lucia's hand. Lucia herself also had her eyes closed and was constantly mumbling and waving her other hand and forming a few magic circles in the air that didn't seem to be doing anything other than just hovering there for a few moments before blinking out of existence.

"Uhhh... Captain, what are your brother and his wife doing?" A member of the unit asked.

"He's protecting all our soldiers," Fatima responded. She had already heard about the details of Cecil's plan and she approved of him doing it. The only thing she couldn't understand was with what method Cecil was going to use to try and monitor the whole situation in the mountain pass.

At first, she thought that he would use a magic spell that would take him to the skies and let him monitor the situation down below, but contrary to her expectations, all Cecil did was find a mountain peak that was overlooking the pass and sit down quietly with his eyes closed.

"R-Really? He looks like he's just sitting there... and his wife seems to be doing something crazy..."

Serilla sighed and spoke up, "Darling is using his Mana Sense... by using mana, he can project his senses into the surrounding 10 kilometers. Everything his Mana comes into contact with, he can see and feel. He's established a link with Lucia so that she could also see what darling is seeing. This way, without needing to physically be there or see what's happening, darling can still help out and monitor the situation."

"O-Okay? Still... I find it hard to believe...it's like you're saying he has a radar in his head..." The same doubtful member of the unit said.

"Hmmm... darling said something similar. I'm not sure what this radar is, but if it's a device from your world that can be used to detect other life forms or objects, then darling's Mana Sense is the same."

After a few hours, Cecil and Lucia both opened their eyes and stood up.

"Ugh...that was annoying. Can't believe that idiot prince still hasn't gotten afraid and turned back by now..." Cecil said.

"Humu... that fool is only pushing his troops into a dead end... instead of doing anything to bring up the morale, he's just hurling out complaints and insults at his subordinates," Lucia added.

"How was it? Did you protect all of our soldiers?" Fatima stepped forward and asked.

Cecil gave a peace sign and said, "No worries, sis, they're all alive and healthy. Some of the soldiers even say that a guardian angel is watching over them, hahaha!"

"Then they would be referring to Lucia. Alright, where is the Regulus Army now?"

"Just around the corner—oh, here they come."

Fatima and everyone from her unit saw the Regulus army appear from the corner, they now firmly believed that Cecil had some sort of radar ability. They also looked around and saw the ambushing units appear on the other side of the mountain slope and when they scrutinized their numbers, not a single soldier was missing and the most surprising part was that no one was injured.

They all gave Lucia and Cecil an admiring look and Fatima nodded inwardly in delight and she ordered for the unit to quickly rush down the mountain peak and get into their positions. The Regulus army still had their formation placed farther away from the walls.

It seems that they had already received news of the Silvaria Kingdom's cannons and roughly estimated their range. They began setting up an encampment and once the soldiers and mages got into formation and all of their siege weapons and equipment were reassembled, Albert had his Generals order the army to quickly attack.

There was no strategy or anything. The army only uniformly rushed forwards with a protective barrier conjured by their mages protecting the vanguard from all attacks. Kaiser had already begun firing the cannons from the walls, but he was a little surprised that the enemy didn't experience as many casualties as he had intended.

The barrier protecting the vanguard was able to protect the soldiers behind it. Some cannon shells slipped past or were able to penetrate the barriers, but those were far too few. The destroyed barriers were also quickly replaced and for the shells that did make it past, their effects weren't so prominent due to the magical enchantments that the enemy soldiers had on their armor.

Just as the enemy vanguard was about halfway through the path leading to their walls, Kaiser immediately opened up the gates and had his troops form ranks in front of the walls. They had already prepared some traps, placed ditches and trenches in front of the gates and there were large metal spikes and barbed wires placed all around the front area of the gate.

This would hinder the enemy soldiers from advancing and while they were busy trying to make their way through the wired field full of traps and obstacles, the Silvaria soldiers would try to dispatch as many of them as they can by using arrows, ballistae, and the 'Light Bolts' that Fatima had taught them.

As for the soldiers that were somehow able to survive this, they'd be met by the iron wall of soldiers blocking their paths. Unlike the last war where the Silvaria army was reduced to a hapless state, in this war, both sides were somewhat on even grounds.

With no device to hinder their usage of mana, a single Silvaria soldier could rival 5 men from the opposing army. They didn't know it yet, but the Earthlings had a natural advantage in physique and mana compared to the native humans of Alterna.

Once the fighting on the frontlines had begun in full swing, Fatima immediately issued the order for the ambushing unit and her unit to descend the mountainside and attack the flanks and backlines of the Regulus Army.

Everyone, including Serilla and Lucia rushed down the mountainside and began attacking the enemy army down below. In this battle, Angelia's monster army was also deployed. Although the little girl wasn't present on the scene, the monster army was able to cooperate well with the earthlings and mow down the Regulus army.

It was too easy and Fatima didn't even feel the need to implement the latter half of the plan where they needed retreat and regroup. The enemy soldiers had low morale already and when they saw the Silvaria army rushing down from the mountainside accompanied by a few large monsters, most of the soldiers cowered and didn't even try to put up a fight.

For the ones that immediately dropped their weapons and gave up, the Silvaria soldiers would only knock them out and toss them away.

Cecil hadn't rushed down and only continued to maintain his Mana Sense on the entire battlefield. He kept a constant eye on every Silvaria soldier. Without anyone noticing, a small copy of himself had appeared just next to him.

"Hey Master~ are you not going to fight?" Silver asked as he viewed the battle that was currently ongoing down below.

"No need, Lulu and Seri are already taking care of my part. I'll just stay up here and make sure not one of my kingdom's soldiers fall."

"Alright~ well, should I head out and help you protect them?"

"Yeah, did you bring your big sister with you?"

"I'm right here Master Cecil," Yuna said as she walked out of a Misty Gate.

"Stay here with me, I'll need your help to pull out any soldier that needs saving from the battlefield."

"Alright."

Silver stretched his body a little before he quickly jumped up and landed himself in the middle of the Regulus army. He howled and began attacking every enemy soldier around him. He had shape-shifted into his battle form and all his beast-like features had appeared on him.

This was Silver's humanoid battle form and it was the same as Cecil's shape-shifted form that he had used in the previous war. All of Silver's abilities were enhanced and he was practically a humanoid weapon at this point.

Yuna's eyes followed after the shape-shifted Silver and she couldn't help but lick her lips.

"Yuna, stay focused please. You can do that all you want after the battle..."

"Eh? Ah! Uhm...s-sorry Master Cecil..."

"My gosh, just what did that brat do to make you fall for him this much?"

"Ehehehe~" Yuna began laughing bashfully at his words.

The two remained on the mountainside and Cecil would occasionally tell Yuna to open up a gate to bring away one of the soldiers he had spotted that was in danger, but Cecil was honestly quite surprised. The Regulus soldiers couldn't even hold a candle to the Silvaria soldiers.

The enemy needed at least a few soldiers to attack just one of the Silvaria soldiers to put them in some form of danger, and this wasn't guaranteed to occur because the Silvaria soldiers had each other's backs.

The only times when one of them would be put into mortal danger was when a magic spell had suddenly struck them without warning which would give the enemy soldiers the chance to quickly attack the fallen soldier.

Cecil didn't allow this to happen, of course. Whenever he saw such a rare occurrence happen on the battlefield, he would quickly have Yuna open up a Misty Gate and pull the soldier out of harm's way.

A few befuddled soldiers were lying on the ground a few meters away from Cecil's location and after healing them up, the soldiers would thank him and immediately rush back down the mountain to join the fray once more. The battle continued deep into the night before the Regulus army finally sounded their horn for retreat.

The Silvaria army had a complete advantage during the entire battle to the point where they pushed back the Regulus army to their encampment. It was only when the situation was truly dire that Albert sounded the horn for retreat.

Kaiser didn't bother having his troops pursue them. Once he had everyone regroup, he was astonished and pleasantly surprised to find that not a single one of his soldiers had been killed. There were no casualties in this battle and once he heard the report about Cecil's part in all of this from Fatima, he immediately thanked his son.

Although the enemy had retreated, the conflict still wasn't over. There was a need for Albert to answer for his crimes against the Silvaria Kingdom and then there was the score that Cecil had to settle with the Second Prince.