Chapter 706.3: The Crazy Gray Wolf Army

Driven by the instinct to survive, the soldiers fought like hyenas backed into a corner, unleashing terrifying combat power and forcing militia units several times their number to keep their heads down.

Seeing a glimmer of escape, Prince Dilip, hiding on the second floor of a civilian house, excitedly stuck his head out the window and roared hoarsely at the soldiers in the market below, “Charge through! The road home is right ahead! What’s blocking you is nothing but filler cannon fodder! They are irredeemable trash and traitors to the Empire! Tell them with your rifles who the real warriors are!”

It was only thanks to the constant gunfire and artillery around them that the soldiers crouched behind cover couldn’t hear his shouting, otherwise, someone might well have lost patience and put a bullet through him.

Satish, the commander nearby, happened to hear it. His brow twitched violently, but he could only suppress his rage and pretend he hadn’t.

Damn it!

Who the fuck got us trapped here in the first place?!

Just as he was cursing under his breath, new information came in from the front.

A single company had successfully punched through the defenses on the eastern side, opening a route toward the outside of the settlement.

Hearing the good news over the radio, Satish took a deep breath, returned to the building where Prince Dilip was hiding, and shouted up to the second-floor window, “... Your Highness, our troops have opened a breach in the east! Please come down quickly, we’ll cover your retreat!”

Prince Dilip was about to agree, when he suddenly remembered General Alyang’s earlier warning and swallowed the words that had reached his lips.

“No! I won’t go that way! That’s a New Alliance trap! Have you forgotten how fierce their firepower was yesterday? How could they let us go so easily? This is definitely a plot, they’re deliberately letting us out to the east so they can wipe us all out in one fell swoop!”

Hearing his petulant declaration, Satish nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. To be fair, the analysis wasn’t entirely unreasonable. If he were the opposing commander, he would consider leaving a side open, but wasn’t that something they had to discuss before starting to break out of the encirclement?!

The breach was already open. Everyone could see a chance at survival, and now, the asshole was saying he wasn’t going to take it.

Is this a joke?!

Does he really think the men who opened the path with their lives is nothing more than figures on a tabletop?

“We have no choice!” Satish roared, barely restraining his fury. “We lost over 500 men just to open that breach! Even if it’s a trap, we have to gamble and push through! This is our only chance! They can’t capture everyone!”

“Commander Satish, I’ll say it again! This is an order!” Prince Dilip shouted, his face pale yet frantic. “Those who have broken through continue forward! The rest, break out to the north! If you refuse to obey, wait for His Majesty’s judgment!”

In truth, he had no idea what to do anymore. On the tabletop, where he usually played around and moved troops around, there were no bullets and shells flying everywhere, and a single wrong decision wouldn’t cost him his life.

Perhaps the only thing he had over a complete amateur was the knowledge that doing something was better than doing nothing.

He would just follow what Alyang said. If it failed, he could always pin the blame on that man.

Regret gnawed at him, he never should have asked Alyang for those troops to attack the Governor’s Manor.

Shame, it was too late.

From the very beginning, the plan had gone off the rails, and every stupid order he gave only made things worse.

If only the enemy would let him press pause and think things through...

Better yet, let him take another look at the possible outcomes of the battle.

Satish stared in despair at the prince standing on the second floor, staggered back two steps, his lips trembling. At last, he snatched the handset from the signalman and shouted desperately, “Units that have broken through, continue forward! All other units, attack the northern defenses! At any cost, charge through!”

Nothing mattered anymore. Offering loyalty to His Majesty might at least get his family spared.

With things already at that point, he could only go all out and see what happened...

...

On the eastern side of Kalaba Market. The continuous gunfire suddenly ceased, abruptly and without warning, like a candle snuffed out by a light breeze.

The soldiers that had already pried open a gap in the encirclement suddenly abandoned their momentum. Aside from the company that had already broken out and was still desperately pushing forward, the rest turned their guns and charged north instead.

It was as if they were tearing at the defenses purely for the sake of tearing them open, with no intention of escaping through the breach they had created.

Without follow-up fire support, the company that broke through was quickly captured, guns pressed to the backs of their heads as they squatted on the ground, filthy and dejected.

Meanwhile, the eastern defensive line, already breached, was awkwardly sealed back up again by hesitant militia movements.

The bizarre scene took everyone by surprise.

If he hadn’t been standing right there on the front line, Laxi wouldn’t have believed it. Even seeing it with his own eyes, he still froze when he heard the report from his subordinates over the radio.

“... They’re really going north?”

“Yes... they’ve concentrated all their forces on a northern breakout! Damn it, these guys have lost their minds!” Chaotic gunfire and ragged breathing crackled through the radio, a testament to how intense the fighting was.

Laxi immediately demanded, “How’s your situation? Can you hold?!”

“Shouldn’t be a problem... They have numbers, but most of them are exhausted... Do we let them go?” The reply came.

Relief washed through Laxi. After a brief pause, he issued a decisive order. “Hold your positions! At all costs, hold them! The New Alliance wants the Empire’s dogs to go east, do not let a single one go north!”

“Yes!”

Then, the channel went dead.

Laxi then instructed the men who had plugged the breach on the eastern side of the market to pull back.

He knew exactly who had given him his authority, and he knew that if he wanted the New Alliance’s continued support, he had to demonstrate value worthy of it. Fulfilling orders, even more than victory itself, was paramount.

He was eager to prove himself. Even if it cost him his last drop of blood, he would twist those hyenas’ necks back toward the east!

He refused to believe it. There was no way they would rather die than go east!

And yet, though the master’s orders mattered more than victory, it was impossible for Laxi not to feel puzzled.

Staring at the market entrance standing wide open in the distance, he remained silent for a long while before muttering to himself, barely audible. “I told you they would retreat north...”

At the same time, atop the wall of Rowell Camp, Peepo, watching the battlefield through a quadrotor drone, wore an equally stunned expression.

He had seen with his own eyes the soldiers break through the eastern defenses of the market.

Yet before he could signal the third and fourth companies who had been lying in ambush nearby, to intercept, he watched them abruptly abandon the breakout and attack north instead.

What kind of move is that?!

“It makes no sense...” he muttered repeatedly, disbelief written all over his face.

Just as he was about to report this anomaly to the rear command post and request further instructions, the drone feed showed another sudden change.

Unable to withstand the continued losses, the remaining soldiers gathered all their strength and launched a final, desperate assault on the northern defenses of the market.

That last burst of intense gunfire carried the hopelessness of a dying flame, and both sides paid a heavy price.

Even so, the militia holding the line managed to keep the defenses intact.

After several failed breakout attempts, the remaining thousands soldiers of the Gray Wolf Army finally collapsed, scattering like loose sand against the unyielding defenses.

Yet even then, they still did not retreat east, despite the militia there having left the door open for them.

They dropped their weapons, raised their hands, and walked out of cover in despair, no matter how loudly their officers shouted...

In the end, after realizing their orders were useless, even those officers raised their hands and emerged.

It wasn’t just Peepo who fell silent. Far away at the temporary command post, Ample Time and Old White froze in place as they heard the reports from the front.

The trump card unit the Xilande Empire had placed such high hopes in actually surrendered just like that?!

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