Chapter 659 (Patreon)

While Ajax, Aurexion, the prince and Gryndor’s elites were slowly moving towards the Republic’s capital, the battlefields all around changed significantly. More than that the change came almost overnight less than a week after Ajax’s display of power.

“Archduke, they’ve consolidated champions.” The news was a bitter one to swallow for the commanders and it was easy to see why.

“How bad?” A growled voice forced its way through clenched teeth as Archduke Warborne did his best to control his anger.

“We’ve lost five more squads and Champion Quietfeather.” The commander answered. “All of them were captured.” 

“Who are the squads from?” The Archduke asked, he knew that shouldn’t matter but it did. 

“Two from Brightstone, and one each from us, Sylvanthal and Gryndor.” The answer made the Archduke feel guilty at his first reaction. For a moment there he had wished that it was another of the few Republic squads that remained that had been captured instead of Brightstone’s. With the way things were going for the Brightstone might pull out of the war entirely and he couldn’t exactly blame them for it as their gains were minimal and their losses were mounting, losses now counted in champions and squads.

A quiet moment passed as the Archduke scribbled on a piece of parchment before calling for a runner and sending them straight for the Council. The republic needed to make some concessions to Brightstone before the news reached them. 

“And what did they pay for it?” The Archduke moved on to the next question in the change. 

“Seventy thousand troops, my lord.” A different commander answered. “Sixty five thousand regular soldiers and five thousand elites.” 

“How many prisoners?” Archduke Warborne didn’t know if he was hoping the number was high or low. 

“Four thousand elites and forty thousand regular soldiers.” That was a stark difference, one that drew a rise of the Archduke’s eyebrow as he focused on the commander reporting. 

“Their elites surrendered rather quickly, we suspect the regular troops weren’t informed that the champions backing them had withdrawn. In two cases this led to our own champion level forces joining the fight and trying to draw out the missing champions.” The silence after that was easy for all the people in the tent to fill in, with nobody at their power level to challenge them; the champions killed thousands in minutes.

It wasn’t a novel idea when the battlefields spread as far as they did in this war. Starting the war with champions backing most armies and then focusing them further by grouping them together was a common progression of a war that didn’t have a peace treaty signed in the first year. 

What was very uncommon however was not withdrawing your forces before grouping up your champions. The tactic itself was extremely effective as shown by the fact that they had lost five squads and a champion, and that wasn’t counting the champions that were injured as they managed to escape and their own armies left to fend for themselves. The price for such a tactic however was almost always a revolt from your own people for hanging them out to dry.

“We lost around twenty thousand soldiers and three thousand elites.” The commander continued. “Notebly most have been taken prisoner, and none of them are from Gryndor.” 

The prince’s decision to lead all of his own elites as a powerful strike force seemed to have worked out for Gryndor, his choice to change their destination to secure the prisoners Duke Hearthbound had captured also seemed to have protected them, mostly at least, from this change in tactics. 

“Let me know the moment they send out a demand for trade.” The Archduke said as he moved to exit the tent. He knew he would now need to make an appearance at the Council in person to discuss their next move.

The next few days saw a lot of movement from both sides of the conflict. Everyone was retreating from the front lines as champions and squads were creating groups of five from whoever was left. Up until that point only one battlefield that housed more than a third of each side’s forces had so many champions carefully watching but that was about to change.

“Why the long face?” The prince was a little surprised with how well the dragon managed to read his mood, he wasn’t trying all that hard to mask it but seeing as a different species that hadn’t met humans until a few months ago managed to notice it meant he should be hiding it a bit better.

“One of our squads was captured.” The prince answered. “The beastkin are getting desperate.” 

The prince knew exactly how his people had been captured and the strategic choice the enemy made so he proceeded to explain it to Ajax and Aurexion. Ajax was appalled by the lack of concern for their own people the beastkin showed, yet Aurexion was impressed by their strategy. The draconic social standards valuing personal strength a lot more made the strategy seem better.

“Were they lucky, or did they somehow find out?” Was the question Ajax asked. 

The reason for the question was simple. This change would force the Republic to get all of their champions, even the ones that were recovering, back out in the field or face an insurmountable number, and with all of the groups being so big the loss of a single battle might mean the end of the war. This would line up with Ajax’s delve that the champions that were recovering were meant to help with. 

“I don’t have any proof of a spy that could have leaked the information about our deal with the Republic but it's certainly possible.” The prince answered. “Its one of the issues with having a ruling Council, sensitive information like that is spread to a lot more people so it's much easier for it to leak.” 

This change now put Gryndor and Ajax himself in an uncomfortable position. Their deal was struck, from what he had heard the trade for Duke Fieldwealth’s son had taken place the day before so the prisoner they traded to the Republic had already been traded back to the beastkin. 

“Do we push for the help?” Ajax asked. 

Would they keep the Republic to the promise of having their champions help with the delves, this would make it take longer before they were back out on the field and could lead to the loss of a lot of ground as enemy armies pushed forward. Ground they had barely begun to make back since the arrival of Gryndor’s forces.

“I need to speak to my brother but I am inclined to give them a choice.” The prince answered. “They have their champions help, or they let me withdraw all of Gryndor’s champions and squads and let us enter with you.” 

The demand would be a bitter pill to swallow for the Republic. It would force them to honor a deal that would cost them a lot of their country as the enemy would surely push forward and capture a large number of villages and maybe even a few cities, or they would be forced to risk letting champions of a foreign nation enter their capital dungeons without supervision, the dungeon break they would be able to cause at that point could kill most of the people living in the capital.

“Its a good thing the war has started going so well for us.” Ajax said. “I doubt they would even entertain the idea of letting us enter unaccompanied otherwise.” 

For Ajax the idea of going with only Gryndor forces was one he preferred, not only would they be able to better work together to clear the later floors but it would also mean he wouldn’t have to worry so much about not showing off his real power. 

“Why is that?” The prince asked. 

“Because if the war was going badly, causing a high enough level dungeon break would be the perfect way to buy ourself time to prepare to deal with the beastkin.” Ajax answered. “And it wouldn’t just be us, it would be the same for Sylvanthal and Brightstone as well.” 

With the Republic’s central location a high enough level dungeon break would cause a large number of high level monster to spread out over the countryside, this would not only make the dungeons useless to the beastkin until they cleared them out but it would also stop them from pushing forwards towards any other nation with their main armies. All it would cost however would be breaking one of the biggest taboos when it came to war, causing an intentional dungeon break.

“That would make us into targets.” The prince pointed out.

“I’m not suggesting we do it.” Ajax raised his hands. “But also targets for who? The Republic would be no more, the beastkin would be coming for us anyway. All that leaves is Sylvanthal and Brightstone who stand to benefit and then face the beastkin after the Republic’s territory gets cleaned up before they can turn to us.” 

“You’re forgetting Shadow.” The prince pointed out. 

If the Republic was to fall the Stealth specialist champion could very well move to get his revenge by causing a dungeon break of his own.

“I doubt he would target us rather than the beastkin.” Ajax pointed out. “And again, I’m not saying we do this. I’m just saying be careful how you make the offer since that is one way to look at it if we suggest that only some of our champions come in with me.” 

The prince had to acknowledge the point. The idea of causing a dungeon break at that point was so absurd to him that he hadn’t even considered how it would look when he gave the Republic the choice. He was pretty sure his brother or father would have made the realization before the choice was ever posed but he was impressed that Ajax had noticed it when he didn’t. It was a stark reminder that Ajax’s growth wasn’t only in terms of power but also political.