Chapter 791: Bait
...After the quarter-century meeting, His Majesty Pythor summoned his Marshals and told them that they would not back off and gave them permission to use all the Empire's forces for this war. He told them that it was a war against a full-fledged planetary empire and that they had to bet everything for victory.
After that declaration, batches of epic weapons started to arrive, epic weapons sufficient to arm a few hundred soldiers! Although they were not complete, eye-catching sets like the ones the locals had in Planet Nihari, they were still powerful epic armor and weapons. They were even exempted from presenting the offering of the energy pearls they had been collecting for the past few years to be used in this war!
Pythor also declared that the war was important to the Overlord, and that anyone who
performed a heroic act that contributed to the victory would be rewarded with a huge amount of Durger the Devourer's Blood...
With this kind of support in troops, equipment, and generous rewards, what can stop them? ...They came to Nihari thinking that they had brought a cleaver to slaughter a chick, That this *war* would end within a few hours.
And now, after a few hours of reaching Nihari---
"F*ck! F*CK!! F*CKKKKK!!!" First Marshal Celebus took several steps back and forth, kicking and smashing everything in his way.
An hour ago, the commander of the local army, the person suspected of being the Third Truth Truth Chosen, Robin Burton, announced full withdrawal.
In the blink of an eye, the Instant Space Portals opened and the local Emperors jumped in. Some foolish enthusiasts from the Great Serpent Emperors jumped in after them, but of course, these would never be heard from again...
Immediately afterward, the Sky sealing Grand Array began to shrink towards the north, opening a path between the Martial Emperors of the Great Serpent Empire and the remaining infantry forces.
Celebus, Xanox and Serpal... Each of these marshals took the rank not because they were loved ones of His Majesty, but because they were ruthless generals who chased victory anywhere, but when the locals withdrew and the array was revealed, they did not attempt to search for them and pursue the enemies but rather gave orders to land obediently, to give everyone the chance to lick their wounds.
And there were so many wounds to count...
In the battle that lasted a few hours, the 16 Fleets and the Three Marshals special forces lost a total of 250 Martial Emperors, some of whom were killed and some of whom received a metal stake through their chest and were thrown into the space portals as prisoners, of course, this is without mentioning the injuries covering the rest of them...
Fighting hundreds of Demon Emperors and dozens of warlords was not an easy matter. Even near the end, when the number of dead and Kidnapped decreased, all the forces of the Great Snake Empire were sustaining serious injuries, some of which were internal, such as tearing of muscles and vital organs such as the liver, and some of which amounted to the loss of a limb or two.
Immediately everyone started thinking... What if the Marshals' special forces weren't armed with that epic equipment? Will anyone be able to stop the Warlords? Would the losses have been limited to this point? An ancient planetary empire like theirs... would its army have been destroyed today?!
And even after all these sacrifices and the epic battle, they were unable to save anyone... More than 300 Martial Emperors were killed in the city, right under their noses, including 3 promising generals, and the rest fled with their tails between their legs.
"We lost all those good men before we even touched the ground on the planet..." Xanox's lips were trembling in anger.
"Coming here was a big mistake," Serpal muttered.
"Watch your words, Serpal! Are you doubting His Majesty or the Overlord?!" Celebus stopped moving and stared into his colleague's eyes
"It's not as if you're not thinking the same! Do you see all this destruction among our men? Also those 1.2 million law users from the 16 fleets who were killed or captured, and above them 350,000 law users from the five fleets!! Can you lot even count? We have lost a total of 550 Martial Emperors, AND 1.5 million soldiers bearing Durger the Devourer's blood. A disaster, an Unprecedented disaster... This is more than all our losses during the past ten thousand years combined! How many other planets could we have conquered with these numbers?!"
"...FF***CCCKKKKKK!!" First Marshal Celebus sent a punch that destroyed the small hill that Robin was standing on.
"...Everything is still within grasp, we fell into a trap, and it's not as if they didn't lose a lot as well. Our numbers are greater and our strength is higher. Next time this scenario will not be repeated. Also... Don't forget that there are other fronts as well." Xanox tried to calm his two colleagues down
"So what do we do now?" Serpal asked weakly, mentioning the casualty figures out loud made him frustrated, "We have 20,000 soldiers to take care of here and we can't leave them behind. Shall we stay put until the men return to us? We sent 400 Emperors to the North, so that if they can't save them, they will be able to return to us safely at least."
"...The order of events that led to the chase seemed like an accident, but thinking about it, it could very well have been a setup." Celebus stopped, furrowing his nonexistent eyebrows
"I agree with you, this is a trick of the Third Truth Chosen because he saw that we were on the verge of victory. It was an obvious bait to disperse our forces, but it is an irresistible bait..." Marshal Xannox clenched his hands tightly.
"There is a high probability that a trap awaits our men. We must hurry after them." First Marshal Celebus turned to face them
"What about the troops here?" Marshal Serpal pointed to the twenty thousand soldiers, all of them injured in one way or another, "If we leave them here without protection, the locals will surely come back to finish them off, we must not allow them to claim more lives, enough is
enough!"
The First Marshal waited for a moment and then suggested, "...Let's leave them with 150 Martial Emperors then. The Third Truth Chosen must have taken all his Emperors to set up an ambush in the north. 150 Martial Emperors would be a good number to protect these soldiers, and they could also make a base for us here in the central region instead of this mess."
"Alright, we will follow your words."
"I agree, let's go right away, although there is a difference of 6 hours between us and them now, but if they can hold on, we might catch up with them in time."
After the three marshals agreed, they waited another half hour until they chose 150 of the most injured and tired Martial Emperors among them to stay behind, and then the three marshals set off, along with nearly a thousand Martial Emperors, towards the North.
Three hours later--
*Bzzzzzz*
*Step* *Step*
An instant space portal opened in the middle of the city ruins, and Robin walked out with a smile and slowly looked around for a few seconds before a huge smile appeared on his face, "They left behind 150 Martial Emperors, huh? Looks like the bait caught a bigger fish than
expected."
*Bzzzzzzt* *Bzzzzzzt* *Bzzzzzzt*
Several portals opened next to Robin, and Demons of all levels began pouring out.