Chương 136: 136：An Impossible Victory Dispatch

The female commander, who had spent months shouldering a crushing, suffocating mountain of pressure, finally allowed every ounce of her lingering gloom to evaporate. Never before had the endless, dreary patter of the acidic swamp rain sounded so incredibly soothing, so beautifully melodic to her ears. Elena, dizzy from being shaken back and forth, could only sigh at her commander's utter lack of decorum. Yet, on her usually stoic and untouchable face, the ice finally melted.

A breathtaking, radiant smile bloomed across the cleric's features.

"Leona, look at yourself. You look exactly like a mad gambler who just swept every chip off the casino table," Elena said, gently brushing Leona's hands off her shoulders.

"To hell with gamblers! This is what they call having an eagle's eye for talent! I know how to pick my commanders!"

"Although..." Leona abruptly stopped her pacing. Her ruby-red eyes gleamed with intense curiosity. Several burning questions began to surface in her mind.

"Heavy catapults, Silver-tier mages, and an elite strike force capable of scaling sheer cliffs to execute a flawless pincer movement..."

"Just what kind of monster army has Soren managed to forge out there?" Once that thought took root, it was like a cat mercilessly scratching at her heart. She was absolutely dying to saddle up her fastest warhorse, gather her most trusted personal guard, and ride out to that volcanic territory this very instant.

"Elena, pack your things. We ride out immediately. We're going to Greywater Village to inspect our grand hero!" Leona declared, impatiently strapping her broadsword back onto her waist. However, Elena merely shook her head in resignation.

"Leona, calm down and think for a second."

"Warchief Blackstone's hundred-thousand-strong army hasn't retreated yet. The thousands of roaming orc warbands prowling outside our base camp are acting like rabid hyenas, constantly trying to tear our perimeter patrols to shreds."

"The Crimson Moon Knights are currently locked in a brutal stalemate across the entire frontline."

"As the Supreme Commander, if you and I abandon the command post right now to travel dozens of miles into the swamp... if the main camp suffers a large-scale raid while you're gone, the entire defensive line will collapse overnight." Leona's booted foot, which was already halfway out the door, fell back down in defeat.

"Damn Warchief... I swear, I'm going to chop that one-eyed giant's head off myself." Leona cursed through gritted teeth, forced to suppress her burning desire to see Soren, burying the urge deep in her heart for now. Borderlands of the Holy Halycon Empire. The Grand Commandery of House Valentine. Outside, the storm clouds were as thick as spilled ink. Heavy rain violently lashed against the stained-glass windows. Inside the main command hall, the atmosphere was suffocatingly grim.

Deep within the hall, over a dozen magical transmission arrays were flashing incessantly with warning red lights. The military mages responsible for deciphering the arcane ciphers were deathly pale. Cold sweat dripped from their foreheads as their quills frantically scratched across parchment, rushing one urgent combat report after another to the center of the hall.

"Report! The eastern watchtowers of Ironwood Fortress have detected massive mana fluctuations! Deep within the Misty Swamp, the 2nd and 6th Battalions of the Blackstone Warband have broken camp!"

"Report! Shadow Shaman totem poles have materialized in the Badwater Shallows! Over fifteen hundred Berserker Orc infantrymen are marching through the mud at full speed, heading southwest!"

"Report! Your Grace! Bloodfang Fortress has deployed three fully manned warbands! They are even dragging heavy siege-beasts with their rearguard! Preliminary estimates put their total numbers at no less than several thousand!" The frantic reports exploded across the hall one after another. And the final destination coordinates for all these movements pointed to the exact same location: Lone Cliff! Grand Duke Valentine, clad in his dark-gold heraldic uniform, stood like a statue before the massive tactical sandbox.

Listening to the cascade of disastrous news, there was not a single flicker of panic in his eyes—eyes that had witnessed mountains of corpses and seas of blood over decades of war. However, his brow was locked in a fierce, iron-tight scowl. The Grand Duke reached out and snatched up seven or eight black marker flags from the edge of the sandbox. Smack! Smack! Smack!

He slammed the flags down one by one along the perimeter of the basin representing Lone Cliff, completely boxing in the high ground and the relief forces from Ironwood Fortress that had just marched there!

"So that's their game!" Grand Duke Valentine hissed, pure killing intent seeping through his clenched teeth. Beside him, the grizzled imperial veteran, General Marr, his face marred by a vicious cross-shaped scar, took a long stride forward. Pointing directly at the isolated plateau in the center of the sandbox, he ruthlessly pierced through the enemy's tactical fog:"Your Grace, Warchief Blackstone usually acts like a brainless brute, but this time, he's pulled an unprecedented, brilliant open conspiracy!"

"Those five hundred Bloodaxe Orcs—sneaking deep into our lines without a single scrap of rations—they were never meant to be a surprise attack! They were a massive, bloody piece of bait!"

"The orcs accurately calculated that Lone Cliff is our sole logistical linchpin in the swamp. They knew we could never just sit by and let a nail of five hundred heavy infantry drive itself right into our army's heart." The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. The old general violently swept his hand over the perimeter, gesturing to the black flags representing the encroaching thousands of Blackstone troops.

"Right now, the main force of Ironwood Fortress has been entirely lured to the base of that high ground, preparing to assault the plateau."

"And now, the orcs' true killing blow has finally bared its fangs. They are going to use these several thousand troops to form a massive counter-encirclement around the edge of the mire."

"Once the jaws of that trap snap shut, the thousands of regular troops from Ironwood Fortress—and their two young commanders—will be swallowed whole! They'll be chewed up until not even bone dust remains!" Besiege the objective to annihilate the reinforcements! It was the ultimate trap! This chilling tactical breakdown caused the other high-ranking officers in the commandery to gasp sharply. A profound chill shot straight down their spines.

"And the countermeasure?" Grand Duke Valentine asked, not taking his eyes off the board.

"We must uproot the bait immediately!" Another commander, who led the knight orders, roared out, his eyes bloodshot:"We have to act before the orc main force completes their perimeter! We must preemptively butcher every single one of those Bloodaxe bastards on the heights!"

"If we do that, their counter-encirclement becomes a complete joke! Our forces can then occupy that very high ground to establish a defensive line and fight back!" But the moment the words left his mouth, a deathly silence descended over the hall. The only sound was the relentless rain hammering against the glass. Uproot the bait immediately? That was far easier said than done. Old General Marr shook his head with a bitter smile.

"Gentlemen, you've all fought wars your entire lives. Do you really not understand what it means to launch an uphill siege against a fortified peak?"

"The enemy consists of five hundred elite orcs clad head-to-toe in black iron scale armor!"

"Even if they're on their last breath, all they have to do is stand at the edge of the cliff and drop rocks! Our men down below would have to trade their lives just to gain inches of ground!" The old general held up two trembling fingers.

"Using conventional tactics to storm a natural chokepoint like that... even if we deployed the Empire's elite Long-Halberd Brigades, we would need a minimum of two thousand death-defying heavy infantry! We'd have to literally pave a road of blood using shields and corpses, launching relentless, rolling assaults day and night! Only then would we have a chance to grind those orcs to death through sheer attrition!"

The Chief Intelligence Officer chimed in bleakly:"And Blackstone's main army only needs one single night to close their encirclement." Checkmate. An absolute dead end. The braziers in the hall occasionally popped and crackled as the firewood burned. Grand Duke Valentine slowly straightened his imposing frame. As a commander, when faced with an inescapable death trap, the only option left was to sever a limb to save the body.

He rested his hand on the hilt of the ancestral broadsword passed down through generations of Grand Dukes.

"Since the heights of Lone Cliff cannot be taken in time..." The Grand Duke's icy gaze swept across every single commanding officer in the room.

"Relay my Lordly Mandate."

"Effective immediately. The three large heavy infantry regiments stationed at Snowwind Fortress on the border, the Empire's 4th Heavy Crossbow Battalion, and the Royal Griffon Knights—all forces are to break camp!"

"Abandon the fortified walls!" The Grand Duke pointed aggressively at the massive, terrifying expanse of dark-brown terrain on the sandbox that represented the swamp. He roared:"We march directly into the Misty Swamp! Push toward the Lone Cliff vector! They are to wade into that sludge and hold off the Blackstone Warband's thousands-strong main force with their own flesh and blood!"

"Your Grace, you cannot!" A general in charge of domestic logistics dropped to his knees with a loud thud.

"The mud and water of the Misty Swamp are highly toxic, and there is absolutely no solid footing for our warhorses!"

"For our heavy-armored regular troops to abandon their fortifications and fight the orcs inside their own bloody nest... not only will we lose all cover, but our soldiers will suffer catastrophic, senseless casualties just from the toxic fog and acidic sludge!"

"Even if we win this engagement and successfully rescue them, our Border Defense Army will be crippled for years!"

"Then what would you have me do?!" Grand Duke Valentine's eyes widened, radiating the oppressive fury of a cornered tiger.

"Would you have me stand by and watch as those beasts swallow Lone Cliff whole?!" The Grand Duke was well aware of how horrific the casualties of a swamp battle would be. But trapped in this tactical vise, with the enemy's main army pressing down upon them, this seemingly suicidal clash was the only way to forcefully shatter the board. Just as the Grand Duke hardened his heart, fully prepared to issue this ruthless deployment order—an order destined to consume an unimaginable number of human lives... VMMMMM!

In the deepest part of the command hall, under the heavy guard of several high-tier mages, the mercury-based magical transmission array—the specific array directly linked to Lone Cliff—suddenly erupted with an abnormally violent, deafening hum!