Mountain Guerrilla Warfare

"Ah!"

A scream rang out as a Tuwu soldier walking at the front fell into a pit, his body pierced straight through by wooden spikes.

Noncombat losses rose by another one. Moriarty's pupils dilated instantly, and a trace of bloodshot red appeared in his eyes.

"What happened?"

"Are you walking with your eyes closed?!"

Ever since the army had entered the Dragonbone Mountains, nothing had gone smoothly.

Accidents like this had plagued them all along the way.

As chief, he had repeatedly given strict orders to be careful, yet his tribesmen kept falling victim.

"Chief, calm down!"

"The enemy set traps along the way to impede our advance. They're obviously afraid of us and don't dare face us head-on.

Once we've sent the wounded out, we can come back and settle the score with them."

The old priest offered his tactful counsel.

The Cors Tribe had already suffered tremendous losses. They couldn't afford any more accidents.

Their chief was a stubborn mule. Once his stubborn streak took hold, he was capable of anything.

If his anger got the better of him and he canceled the retreat order, then kept leading the troops in a fight to the death against the enemy, they would be in serious trouble.

The enemy before them was no ordinary force. They had led them by the nose from beginning to end, and their leader was surely skilled in tactics.

Leading this remnant force, they could do nothing to the enemy even if they found their position.

Compared with the Holy Glory Empire, the Cors Tribe was simply too small.

The tribe's population was limited, and every soldier's life was a precious treasure.

"Move out!"

After glancing at the unlucky man in the pit, Moriarty decisively gave the order to march, not even stopping to bury the body.

While the ordinary tribesmen worried about the danger posed by the defeated enemy soldiers, he had long since shifted his suspicions elsewhere.

A Holy Glory Empire logistics unit had come to set up camp in a godforsaken place like the Dragonbone Mountains. No matter how he looked at it, something was wrong.

Since deploying his troops, he had yet to see an enemy corpse with his own eyes.

Considering that this was Goshawk Tribe territory, he could hardly help suspecting it was a rival's plot.

"Rustle, rustle..."

"Clang, clang..."

"Enemy attack!"

The warning ultimately came a step too late. Faced with the tumbling boulders, the soldiers had no time to dodge, and screams filled the mountain forest in an instant.

There was no need to count the casualties. The endless screams alone made it clear that the losses this time were substantial.

"After them!"

"No matter what, we must take down those bastards today!"

As he gave the order, the furious Moriarty raised his broadsword and charged out ahead of everyone else.

The relentless attacks had worn away the last of his patience.

At that moment, he no longer cared about the bigger picture. All he could think about was killing the enemy.

The rest of the Cors Tribe's leaders felt much the same way.

In all their years on the grasslands, they had never suffered such an outrageous setback.

With the war at this point, it was no longer simply a matter of victory or defeat. The Third Army soldiers involved in the attacks had become an obsession for them.

Unless they dealt with these enemies, none of them could rest easy.

But the mountain paths were rugged, and even the eagles of the grasslands were much slower once they entered the forest.

When they reached the mountaintop, all they found were severed vines and trenches covering the ground.

The traces at the scene showed that the rocks that had just come rolling down had been pried loose from the mountaintop.

Returning empty-handed yet again was like a bucket of cold water poured over Moriarty's head, leaving him on the verge of an emotional collapse.

The repeated attacks were clearly taking advantage of his ignorance of mountain warfare.

Even the chief had been driven to an emotional collapse, and the tribal soldiers beneath him were hit even harder. Every one of them was as wilted as an eggplant after the autumn frost.

They had given up hope of surrounding and wiping out the enemy. All they wanted now was to get out of this godforsaken place as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately for them, Howard had no intention of letting them leave.

The mountain squadron formed from selected hunters had performed even better on the battlefield than expected.

All manner of bizarre traps appeared one after another, coming together to form the most dazzling sight on the battlefield.

Even though the enemy spotted ninety percent of the traps in advance, the remaining ten percent still took a toll on their troops.

"Captain, word has come from army headquarters. The battle at the front is over.

The night before last, our forces launched a surprise attack and successfully surrounded and annihilated the Goshawk Tribe's main force outside the mountains.

The army commander is personally leading a force back as reinforcements and has ordered us to hold the enemy up for two days."

As he spoke, Reginald handed over the official document.

Ten days ago, if they had received an order like that, they would certainly have cursed.

Acting as bait was dangerous enough on its own. Having to block the enemy as well was practically a death sentence.

But now everything was different.

The enemy's mountain warfare capabilities were practically nonexistent.

Ever since entering the mountains, the enemy had been marching along the route they had laid out in advance.

After suffering so many setbacks, they actually dared to return the way they had come.

If he hadn't known there had been no contact, he would have suspected that the empire had planted a deathsworn agent among the enemy's leaders, deliberately leading the troops to their deaths.

"Send word back to the army commander. We guarantee we'll complete the mission!"

Howard answered calmly.

At the current rate, even if they did nothing, two days might not be enough for the enemy to get out of the mountains.

They had traveled light on the way in, so naturally they could march quickly.

Things were different now. After a series of unexpected encounters, the enemy camp was full of wounded.

Burdened with a group of stragglers, the enemy couldn't speed up even if they wanted to.

On top of that, the earlier series of attacks had left the enemy jumpy, and now they had to be cautious with every step.

Without sending people ahead to scout the way several times, they probably wouldn't dare move.

By the time the enemy dragged themselves out of the mountains, the main force would already have returned.

Though they had completed the mission ahead of time, Howard still had no intention of stopping.

Since mountain guerrilla warfare had proved more effective than expected, they would continue fighting this way and keep wearing down the enemy's morale.

If they could break this enemy force before the main force returned to reinforce them, that would be even better.

"Pick up the pace! Our allies are still waiting for us to reinforce them!"

Watching the marching column, Victor urged them on again.

To draw the enemy into the trap, the battalion tasked with luring them had only around seven hundred men.

He wasn't worried about their safety.

The Cors Tribe was a nomadic tribe, not a mountain tribe. By entering the mountains, they would be pitting their own weakness against the enemy's strength.

Even with three times as many troops, they wouldn't be able to use that numerical advantage once they entered the mountains.

If they dared split their forces to search, they would just be throwing their lives away.

What worried him was that the enemy would realize something was wrong and choose to retreat early.

Once the baiting operation became a blocking battle, the level of danger would instantly rise more than tenfold.

If they failed to stop the enemy and let them escape from the mountains, annihilating them afterward would not be so easy.

After all, he had just sent men to strike at their home base, and the two sides had become enemies who would fight until one was dead.