The battle of Ardinne was a great example of the Claudio Riberio’s main tactics during the War of the Empress. They made their enemies think they had the advantage over them, split them apart — made them abandon their advantage by their own volition, then surrounded the smaller armies and destroyed them before they could react. In fact, the battle of Ardinne was the first time they pulled off this tactic.

  The Claudio Riberios knew that Tarren D’Orlan’s army would march through the plain of Vardinne, located between Ardinne forest in the east and Vardi swamps in the west, to go and flank Kaisar’s army who was busy fighting the main army of Dante. Knowing their path, Oliver and Odyssus stationed their armies in Ardinne forest and Vardi Swamp respectively.

  Tarren, a competent general in his own right, knew there was a possibility of Oliver trying to intercept his army; he had already prepared himself for an ambush, which explained his quick response to the initial ambush. His biggest blunder was not factoring Odyssus in the equation, an understandable oversight considering Odyssus’ age at the time.

  Even though he had his own personal knight order and army, most people thought they were nothing more than ceremonial units filled with retirees and soldiers with dead-end careers. Tarren expected Odyssus to be protected in the rear by Kaisar’s army.

  Tarren’s rationale was … Normal, filled with common sense. In fact, that was what the adults in his faction expected Odyssus to do. However, Odyssus was never a normal kid. Ever since he could talk and walk, he had always been interested in military matters. He spent his time reading military books, playing war games with any courtiers that humoured him, and played mock battles with his playmates, often injuring them badly.

  On his 6th birthday, his father, Imperial Majesty Alexandross Casio Thenebros Azali, gifted him his own personal knight order and a battalion, an Imperial tradition. Normally, they were considered ceremonial and didn’t really function as proper military units until the Imperial Prince and Princess came of age. Thus, they were filled with retirees or soldiers who had trouble with their superiors.

  But not Odyssus. As soon as he got them, he immediately worked to turn them into proper military units. He used his allowance to fund the unit. While he didn’t take direct control of them yet, he allowed the experienced retirees to lead the unit and learned from them. He listened to young soldiers with troubled careers and put them in appropriate positions according to their talents. He drilled regularly and expanded the unit, turning them from a battalion into a proper division. He even let them get real battle experience by taking mercenary jobs or border wars, one company at a time—making their progress discreet from the watching eyes of Imperial courts. By the time War of the Empress started, Odyssus’ army was one of the strongest and best-equipped in the land.

  And that elite army was hiding in the Vardi swamp, biding for the right time to strike. A place where most generals would not expect to have any army. Crossing the Vardi swamp would cost a lot of lives, let alone garrisoning it. It was a place filled with disease, monsters, and swamps. For Odyssus’ army though, it was a boring place for a picnic.

  Thus Tarren’s defeat was set in place. He expected Oliver’s ambush— while he took more casualties than expected, it was still within calculation. When Oliver’s army immediately retreated inside the forest after the first engagement, he and his officers believed that Oliver’s goal was either to buy time or to harass their army the entire march towards Kaisar. They believed the best plan of action was to split some of their army to take out Oliver’s from the equation and continue the march; they still had a large enough number to effectively flank Kaisar even if they split their army. In the end, Tarren decided to split 20,000 of his men to deal with Oliver, leaving his second-in-command, Lt. General Jerome Havana Culia in charge of them.

  They left the plain, thinking they had already covered all their bases. And that was the opportunity that Odyssus was waiting and planned for. Once Tarren’s main army marched far enough they could not tell what happened in their rear, Odyssus executed his plan.

  He massacred the reserves stationed on the plain in minutes. Once he secured the plains, he had the majority of his army set up artillery installation, while he took 3,000 of his most elite and fastest army inside the forest, getting in position to hit Jerome’s army in the rear.

  Meanwhile inside the forest, Oliver had 4,000 of his men build a defensive entrenchments while the remaining 4,000 fought as if they were a rearguard. He had the 4,000 men split in two units, rotating them so only 2,000 men fought at one time while the remaining 2,000 rested and resupplied.

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  As soon as the artillery was in place, they fired at the center of Jerome’s formation. Odyssus had 2,500 men, split into two to hit the center left and center right of the formation respectively. While he took his most elite 500 and hit the center which was under heavy fire, not fearing the possibility of friendly fire, for all his 500 men were elite knights that could shrug off cannon fires—including him.

  *********

  BLAAAM!!! BLAAAAM!!! BLAAAAM!!!

  Krieg had been mercilessly smashing the monster for almost a minute. His arm starting to tire. If he was in his prime, he could go on for hours, but now, he could barely last for another minute. The monster was lighter than he initially thought— as light as one of the street urchins you could find in alleyways of Hazen. However, even though Krieg had been smashing the monster with his full power and weight behind him, it didn’t feel like he had dealt the lethal blow to the monster. The victory that he once thought in his grasp was slipping away.

  Maybe just smashing it all day long won’t kill it. He felt like he needed to deal other blows. He just couldn’t find the opportunity. He knew the moment he stopped swinging the monster was the moment the monster escaped his grasp. Then that will be the end of him. For he had no longer the stamina to dodge anymore nor the focus to pull off a perfect grab like he did before.

  Krieg looked around if any of his men could help. But he realized none could. Those of his men that were still alive… were either showing faces full of hope, hoping their boss could finish the monster without them—or they were already long gone, escaping their hideout, more scared of the monster than their boss’ anger. Krieg thought to himself, they were the smart ones. Maybe he should just throw the monster as far as he could and ran.

  Then, he saw something from the corner of his eye. A bunch of kids on the second floor balcony. One of them, aiming a gun at him.

  *********

  BLAAAM BLAAAM BLAAAM

  They could not believe it… Regulus was being rag-dolled. Eda, Grigori, and Azali looked like the world was ending. D’aka was reminded of his inexperience, that a fight was more than simple calculation of who was stronger. While John and Cooper were not sure what to think, deep down they were glad that Regulus was not as invincible as they first thought.

  “NOOO, Do something!” Azali panicked. She looked at the older kids for a solution.

  “Shit,” Grigori went to action. He aimed his gun at Krieg, but he had trouble aiming properly due to Krieg flailing Regulus around. He didn’t want to hit Regulus, but he might not have any choice. “Fuck it”

  Grigori clicked the trigger … Nothing came out. “What?” Grigori was confused, he just loaded this thing but it did not fire again when he needed it. “Stupid Gun”, so he decided to fling it instead.

  Paaak!

  Krieg deflected the gun using Regulus. He noticed the kids, but he decided to ignore them right now for they weren’t a threat to him.

  “Urrrgh,” Eda felt hopeless with the situation. She wished she could do something to help Regulus, but not only did she have no weapons — she was also scared to act. “D’aka,” She looked to D’aka for help, just like what most kids in the gang usually do. As she looked towards D’aka, she saw something that would make her feel ashamed for the rest of her life.

  Azali, the youngest, smallest, and powerless of them all, climbed the ledge to go help Regulus directly.

  “Reguluus,” She cried as she fell from the second floor. As she landed, she twisted her left leg, her head hit the floor so hard her wisdom tooth fell off— But she did not care about the pain. She rose up and limped towards Krieg, trying to free Regulus from his bully,

  “Let Go of Regulus!!!”

  Seeing a limping kid heading towards him, Krieg swung Regulus at her.

  “Azaaali!!!” Eda, Grigori, and D’aka screamed her name with concern. D’aka climbed the ledge, but it was too late. She disappeared as soon as Regulus went past her. All they could see… was fluttering hair… Wait, hair?

  ***********

  Blaaam Blaaam Blaaam

  Regulus was being smashed around. It’s been awhile since he's been smashed around like this. Usually it only happened when there’s a flash flood in the tunnel and they were too late to dig up.

  Usually, when he was put in a situation where he couldn’t control his own body, he tried to anchor himself to the ground nearby with his hand. Unluckily for him, the ground in this nest was too weak to tether him. Luckily for him, the one that was grabbing him was a living being, it’ll get tired if he waited it out.

  It’ll be over soon.

  Then something unexpected happened. Azali fell, hard. Without worries about her own injury, she rushed towards Regulus.

  Oh, no. Azali didn’t know he was fine. And the large human now swung him towards Azali. They’re gonna crash, and it will be bad. The weak Azali might not survive. Regulus needed to make a decision, fast.

  Luckily, he already had a plan. Unlike other Molrret, His fur came mostly from the top of his head. All he needed to do to escape the large human that was grabbing his fur was to shave it. And that’s what he did.

  Regulus moved his hand towards his crown, and he shaved his long fur in an instant. Now, he was free from Krieg’s grasp.

  Regulus' momentum was still heading towards Azali. So he wrapped his arms around Azali, and spinned mid-air to kill the momentum. Preventing Azali from turning to mush. However, the force of the rotation was still too much for the young body, she fell unconscious from dizziness. Oh well, at least she’s not dead.

  Regulus put Azali gently on the ground. Now that he was free, all he needed to do was …

  … Finish the hunt.