I, who was eager to retire, became an Imperial General.

Chapter 180 The Battle of Chokepoint Peak (Part 1)

"Oh!"

At 1:30 a.m., the battlefront at the throat-snatching peak.

Under the command of their respective commanders, the troops of both sides conducted several probing attacks and small ambushes in small squads in the central area of ​​the Throat Peak swarm before finally engaging in a full-scale firefight. Gunshots and explosions echoed continuously along the battle line, alarming countless magical beasts dwelling there.

Meanwhile, Major General Gary Madfang, commander of the 112th Division of the Fourth Orcish Legion, was waiting on the right flank of the Allied front, but his mood was extremely depressed.

Compared to Major General Demis Darkmoon, who was under the command of Roxie and led the Fifth Legion in direct combat against the enemy.

Having encountered no enemy troops and received no orders to attack after the engagement began, the 112th Division was more like an idle force at this point.

Despite being far more familiar with the terrain of the Throat Peaks in his own territory than Demis Darkmoon, the rightful heir of the Golden Lion Territory was clearly more so than Demis Darkmoon.

But that damned kingdom woman, just because of his previous defiance, threw him in a huff into this area with the flattest terrain, making it difficult to carry out a covert flanking maneuver, and where there was absolutely no chance of enemy troops launching an attack.

Aside from the fact that she was deliberately humiliating him and his 112th Division in this way, Gary couldn't imagine what other purpose this damned woman might have.

Damn humans, damn kingdoms, damn empires!
They all deserve to die!

Gary cursed inwardly, his face dark with rage.

Especially after thinking about how his side had been forced to sign that unequal treaty that nearly sold off half of its territory in order to request reinforcements from the kingdom, his hatred for humanity grew even stronger.

His broad, thick hands gripped the massive, three-meter-long double swords so tightly they creaked, and his large nostrils spewed out two terrifying jets of air.

Just as he was filled with resentment and was about to lead his troops to patrol around this damned place and, incidentally, chop up a few blind monsters to vent his anger, he was...

The next second, accompanied by hurried footsteps, he heard some news from his approaching adjutant that greatly surprised him:

"Chief, our reconnaissance troops have just spotted a group of enemy troops on the move, numbering at least two thousand. They seem to be planning to flank us through the area we are guarding, thus launching a surprise attack on the Fifth Army."

"We are expected to arrive in about half an hour!"

Huh? There really are enemy troops here?
Is the enemy's commander an idiot?
Why would they choose to flank from this area, which has virtually no cover after leaving the surrounding area?
Isn't this blatantly telling the opponent that I'm going to attack them from the flank?
Even a novice commander wouldn't make this kind of mistake!

Gary was incredulous upon hearing the news, but considering that the other party was an outsider who was unfamiliar with the terrain, it was understandable that he would choose this location to launch a flanking maneuver due to carelessness.

Moreover, since the start of the battle, his 112th Division had been stationed at this location and had never launched a proactive attack. With the fog obscuring their position, the enemy should have had no way of knowing their location.

So, this time, the meritorious service came to us willingly?
After quickly processing the information in his mind, a sinister smile gradually appeared on Gary's face. He then waved his hand and gave the order:
"Notify the troops to immediately hide in the surrounding jungle and await my orders to launch an attack!"

"Yes, General!"

Upon hearing Gary's instructions, the adjutant immediately ordered the waiting messengers to run quickly to their respective units to issue the orders.

Unlike the Allied forces, the orcs, who have always maintained medieval warfare methods, still use the classic human reporting method from the era of cold weapons to transmit orders.

Although the Allied forces also equipped the 112th Division with corresponding communication devices, not all officers were proficient in using them, and they often entered the wrong communication frequency, leading to confusion when relaying messages.

In comparison, it is actually less efficient and concise than communication by human intervention.

Moreover, unlike humans who fight with weak firearms, the lion-men's powerful physique and magical abilities allow them to charge forward while bearing enemy bullets and, relying on their terrifying strength, cleave enemy soldiers and their weapons into pieces.

So-called tactics often become a burden for the Mad Fang tribe.

After all, compared to the insidious schemes that only the weak would use, for the orcs, who have always considered themselves the strongest species, charging and tearing apart the enemy is the best way to show their bravery and honor!
Of course, this is on the premise that the enemy is not equipped with heavy artillery vehicles.

After all, the terrifying explosive force and impact of those magical cannonballs...

Aside from warriors who have reached the elite (high-rank) level and can use their superb martial arts or speed to break through it, warriors below the elite level are often crushed and torn apart by those cannonballs in an instant, thus being forced into the arms of the Great Sage.

It was precisely because he was unsure whether this enemy force was equipped with magic cannons that Gary patiently ordered his soldiers to hide and prepare for an ambush.

"Wow!"

As messengers relayed the ambush orders to their respective units, the soldiers of the 112th Division, after a brief commotion, reluctantly hid in the mountains under the command of their officers.

The once heavily guarded, flat roads were completely deserted within ten minutes. Gary himself lay on the ground, closed his eyes, and activated a spell to enhance his hearing, then focused intently on detecting the sounds of the enemy's advance in the distance.

After clearly discovering that the enemy seemed genuinely unaware and were indeed heading towards this location, about to arrive, he finally lowered his guard, stood up, drew his twin swords from his back, and stared unblinkingly at the misty dirt road ahead, his killing intent growing stronger.

As time ticked by, just as Gary was about to lose his patience, finally, accompanied by a series of footsteps, a dense group of dark figures appeared on the misty dirt road ahead.

Dark green uniforms, domed helmets, and that repulsive national flag—there's no doubt, this is a damned Imperial Army!
Hahaha, I never thought that even though I was placed in this godforsaken place by that damned kingdom woman, I could still gain merit. It's like the heavens are helping me!

Looking ahead, two hundred meters away, enemy soldiers seemed completely unaware that they had fallen into a trap and continued to advance unknowingly.

Filled with excitement, Gary intended to wait for the enemy to get closer before roaring and leading his troops in a charge. However, the next second, a lion-man's voice, completely unfamiliar to him, suddenly resounded throughout the jungle:
"Kill! Slaughter those damned humans!"

"!"

Upon hearing the lion-man's roar, the enemy troops, who were slowly advancing and about to be surrounded, suddenly froze. Then, with Gary's eyes wide with fury, they fired their guns and threw grenades to stop the lion-man soldiers who were charging at the unfamiliar shouts.

He then quickly climbed onto the damn car, stepped on the gas, and after a drift, sped away without looking back down the road he had come from.

"Crack!"

idiot!

Which idiot is giving orders like this?!
Don't let me find you!
Otherwise, this general will surely tear you apart alive!

You damn bastard!
Gary, who was betrayed by his 'subordinate' and whose hard-earned merits were lost, almost bit off his back teeth.

He was so depressed he almost vomited blood.

At this moment, he suddenly began to understand the feelings that Roxie had when he was cursing him in the command post.

But at this moment, he had no time to regret failing to maintain discipline, nor did he have time to settle scores with the idiot who caused his ambush plan to fail.

Instead, he suppressed his resentment and then roared with all his might:
"What are you standing there for? Chase after them!"

After saying that, he raised his twin swords with a grim expression and took the lead in chasing after the fleeing enemy.

As for the orders that Roxie was originally stationed under, he had no time to care about them at the moment.

After all, in the orcs' creed, ambushing is an insult to the fearless orcs.

If the enemy forces were wiped out in the ambush, that would be fine.

However, if not only is there no effective kill, but the enemy is allowed to escape, then it is a disgrace among disgrace.

This behavior can almost be seen as cheating in a head-on duel by using abilities that are not of orcish descent, yet still failing to defeat the opponent.

If this gets out, it will become a dark chapter in the history of this orc tribe that they can never escape for the rest of their lives.

Thus, they became the laughing stock of all the tribes in the Saga Kingdom.

This is something Gary absolutely cannot accept.

Therefore, in order to defend his dignity and honor, he had to kill this damned enemy army!

Only in this way can we safeguard the honor of the Mad Fang Clan!

Only then can he become the next patriarch of the Mad Fang Clan in the most dazzling manner!
"Everyone, catch up with and kill those damned imperial dogs!"

"Yes, General!"

"despair!"

……

"We've been tricked? Just as the battalion commander said, these orcs are a bunch of brainless idiots, hmph!" At the same time, as the 'humiliated' Gary Mad Fang angrily led his soldiers to chase after the decoy force that had been deliberately sent, they did not notice that shortly after they left, a slightly sleazy figure appeared in the jungle where they had been hiding.

At this moment, he was looking smugly at the direction the enemy had left, a wicked smile curling at the corner of his mouth, making his already sinister face even more unscrupulous.

That's right, this person is Miles Carrot, the company commander of the sniper company of the 1st Magic Battalion.

Upon arriving at the Chokepoint front, he led the sniper company, together with the reconnaissance company, and, following John's instructions, used the Magic Eye's ability to see through the fog to continuously survey the enemy's exact location in the sky.

Finally, an hour earlier, they successfully identified the Orc 112th Division, which John had designated as his primary target for breakthrough.

He originally wanted to apply to lead a sniper company to try to catch the enemy off guard, and then withdraw to the predetermined battle location in order to provoke the enemy and make them fall into a trap.

In doing so, he could wash away the humiliation of being regarded as a coward by the men of the 1st Battalion through his act of leading from the front.

However, this suggestion was directly rejected by the battalion commander. Instead, under the battalion commander's arrangement, he used his disguise magic to sneak into the vicinity of the enemy's jungle without being noticed, and then used the orc language that the battalion commander had temporarily taught him.

After the decoy force arranged by the battalion commander arrived, they loudly plotted to stage the previous event that seemed to encourage the orc troops to launch an attack, but was actually a reminder for friendly forces to retreat.

At first, he thought that this provocation tactic would hardly have the desired effect. However, after witnessing the enemy commander's face turn purple with rage as if his ancestral grave had been desecrated, and his extreme anger leading his army to pursue his own decoy forces, completely ignoring the orders to garrison, he was deeply impressed.

Miles then realized that he had indeed underestimated the cunning of the battalion commander.

Although he didn't understand why the commander of this unit was so furious that he was almost losing his mind after the ambush plan was thwarted.

But this situation is clearly related to the orcs' beliefs.

And it seems to be quite serious.

How does the battalion commander's brain work? His resume never mentions that he has studied orc civilization, so how does he know so much about orc beliefs?

"I can only say that you truly live up to your reputation as the battalion commander. Even I, Miles, have to acknowledge your mastery of such insidious and manipulative tactics!"

Miles was filled with mixed emotions, but he quickly composed himself. After reporting through telepathy and confirming that there were indeed no ambushes around, he restarted his magic pack and soared into the sky.

Then he led the soldiers who had been waiting high in the sky towards the ambush site that the battalion commander had calculated and prepared.

"Whoosh!"

……

At the same time, although the decoy force reached its peak speed thanks to the full-speed operation of the magic engine, its speed was irreversibly reduced after leaving the flat area and entering a more complex terrain with many vines.

This caused the orc troops, who were initially lagging behind in speed, to gradually catch up, and a clash between the two sides was inevitable.

However, the decoy force did not suffer many casualties due to the bombardment of a large number of magical grenades that they had prepared in advance.

However, due to the depletion of ammunition and the increasingly narrow terrain, before reaching the vicinity of the designated ambush location, in order to preserve maximum combat strength, give the impression that the enemy had completed the encirclement, and thus complete the subsequent countermeasures, the 112th Division was made to believe that the troops had lost their will to fight and only wanted to escape.

John still gave the order to the decoy troops to destroy vehicles near the pass to block the enemy's advance.

"boom!"

As the grenade destroyed the vehicle's fuel tank, orange-red flames and the sound of the explosion instantly swept through the pass, causing the ground to shake uncontrollably.

Seeing the burning scrap metal blocking the road ahead, Gary, who was in pursuit, didn't hesitate. He charged forward and slashed the obstruction into pieces with several strokes of his sword. At the same time, with a ferocious expression, he continued to pursue the fleeing enemy.

At this moment, under his arrangement, he had already dispatched troops in advance to block the enemy's rear and complete the encirclement.

In other words, the enemy forces in this area have lost all their escape routes.

All he needs to do is conduct a thorough search of the area with his own troops, and the enemy force will be completely wiped out by the blades of the Mad Fang Clan orc warriors!
And he could use this achievement of annihilating thousands of enemies to slap that damned kingdom woman in the face.

This is to let the other side know that the honor of the Mad Fang Clan cannot be insulted by anyone!
"despair!"

However, the moment Gary led his troops into the area already surrounded by his army, he felt a strange sense of unease.

This bizarre change startled him.

Is this just an illusion?

"..."

Gary frowned, his mind initially filled with anger, but this almost instinctive warning brought him back to his senses.

Especially after realizing that they had strayed far from their original stronghold and even become separated from the main force.

That sense of unease grew stronger in his heart.

As he examined the mountain range before him, now almost imperceptible, filled with a thin mist that had dissipated at some unknown time, he hesitated about whether to order his troops to withdraw.

The next second, the adjutant's puzzled voice slowly reached his ears:

"General, what's wrong?"

"..."

Gary didn't answer, but instead opened his eyes wide and kept examining his surroundings, trying to find suspicious ambushes or even enemy heavy artillery hidden on the top of the limestone peaks whose outlines had become clear in the distance.

However, they still gained nothing.

But the more this happened, the more uneasy Gary became.

Having already upgraded the Mad Fang Clan's unique 'Hunter' spell to the elite level, he found himself unconsciously causing his hair to stand on end, triggered by the spell's intuitive warnings.

And that sense of crisis, which felt like it was pressing on my heart, was becoming stronger and stronger over time.

It seemed that this seemingly insurmountable battlefield would not lead to a glorious victory in a few minutes as his own troops tightened their encirclement, but instead would become his final resting place!

Something is wrong!
Something is very wrong!

Feeling the inexplicable chill on his skin, Gary, his eyes gleaming, began to consider retreating.

But before he could even speak to his adjutant and order the messenger to immediately withdraw the troops from this strange area,

The next second, the adjutant's voice, tinged with surprise and uncertainty, slowly rang out from the air:
"General, the scouts just reported that they observed an iron pillar on the surrounding mountain peaks, and it seems that there are similar pillars on all the surrounding peaks. Could this be a new marker left by our tribe?"

Iron pillar? Marker?
Let's not even talk about what the point of marking these barren hilltops is.

Furthermore, even if it were to demonstrate the clan's authority, they should have erected a totem instead of just sticking in an iron pillar.
So, this was all done by those damned Imperial soldiers?
But what exactly is the other party's intention in doing this?
Gary was momentarily confused, but just as he was hesitating whether to see what these damned Imperial dogs were up to before deciding whether to order the army to retreat.

The next second, as if the final accumulation had been completed under the rising airflow, it suddenly fell from the sky with a blinding flash of lightning, attracted by the metal.

The pale white direct lightning strike, with the force of the impact, instantly dispelled the already faint mist in the air.

"Crack!"

The dull thud of thunder, along with the booming sound of the mountain being struck, resounded throughout the heavens and earth, spreading outwards with rolling thunder.

At the same time, the blinding light instantly turned the night into day.

The light illuminated the seemingly ordinary, wind-eroded pits in the mountain, revealing in Gary's constricted pupils the depths hidden within them.

Previously, due to the darkness, the barrels of the Empire's iconic heavy artillery went completely unnoticed.

Then, these heavy artillery pieces, which had been positioned to target the orc troops below by taking advantage of the terrain, simultaneously opened fire on the 112th Division, which was completely unaware of what was happening.

A deadly barrage was launched:
"Bang bang bang!"

……

(End of this chapter)