Lady Shani and the Thorn Clan's midnight attack had helped Warband Commander Natalie swiftly break through the Tower of Rings' hunter force's main formation. But aside from the hundred-man unit here, another five hundred men were now intercepting members of the White Oak Warband across the entire border region between East Prussia and Transia.
Six hundred against fourteen hundred sounded like a hopeless fight, but Natalie had said earlier that the Witch Hunters had fewer than five hundred men fit for battle. The rest were either disabled by the long years of war or wounded and still recovering.
They had also split up their forces, so the situation on the battlefield remained grim.
Still, there was some good news.
The psionic hunters hadn't been foolish enough to scatter all three of their main units. They had set up blockades in several directions, allowing half of the Witch Hunters' five groups to cross through the encirclement without incident and reach the area near the Andmar Hills.
But three squads had made it through the war zone safely, which meant the other two had surely fallen into the enemy's ambushes.
"Move, move, move!"
Happy Stick rode his horse and shouted to the Transian reinforcements, who had just routed two units of psionic hunter recruits and were now scattering to chase down the fleeing troops:
"Get all these wounded to the rear! Anyone who can still move, come with me! Niu Niu and Sister Pomegranate's squads are trapped in the middle!"
"Ah, we have to fight again?"
Chosen Construction Worker sat on a rock in the crowd, panting. The student, an administrative player, looked as if he'd been fished out of a pool of blood. With only two points in Strength and no Black Iron trial under his belt, he clutched a hunting