Summoning the Great Union: A new front

Chapter 11- The End of Altarus

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Kingdom of Altarus, about 40 km north of Le Brias

On this vast, empty coast in the wilderness, there was no place for people to hide. No fresh water, no resources, just land abandoned by people. However, the coastline was wide, so it was a convenient place for the army to land. After scouting the area carefully with their wyvern lords, the Papaldian army secured the bridgehead and set up an encampment. Their objective: Altarus’s capital city, Le Brias.
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Kingdom of Altarus, royal capital Le Brias

King Taara the 14th finished the preparations for his departure. The Altarus royal navy was defeated and the empire had already landed. From careful analysis of the magical communications before the connection was lost, they were completely destroyed without causing much damage. He prayed for the soldiers who died for the kingdom’s sake. They must have had families; some may have had parents to nurse, others may have been betrothed. However, they still went to die for their country.

The king contemplated idly: if they were able to push back the enemy this time, he would do something for the families of those soldiers, to honor them… Unfortunately, the empire was heading south for the capital, and they were both powerful and still in nearly perfect condition. Because they were being attacked by a superpower, none of their allies had come to help them.

The king could do nothing else but blindly hope for victory.

Altarus royal army, about 20,000 troops

The royal army was in position about 10 km north of the royal capital, Le Brias. Their objective was to secure the bridgehead north of the capital and wipe out Parpaldia’s 3,000 soldiers. Their giant army of 20,000 was assembled to steamroll the landing army’s 3,000. Normally, one would consider this arrangement overkill. No strategy could make up for the overwhelming difference in manpower. Furthermore, the enemy troops were simply in formation without any screens or shields.

Against a normal enemy, simply having these numbers meant they had already won. However, they were facing one of the world’s five superpowers.

“This should be our victory, but don’t let your guard down…”

King Taara the 14th gathered his resolve and determination.
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Parpaldia Empire army, ground force

The imperial army invaded along the southern coast. There were 3,000 elite troops and 32 land dragons.

Land dragons were large lizards said to only live in the Parpaldia Empire. Long ago, when the empire was still expanding, they found a way to control these land dragons. Their hard scales repelled both arrows and ballista bolts, so the imperial army easily dominated ground battles. Now, the empire’s overwhelming national power placed it in the top three countries in the Third Civilization alongside the high elves. The reason it gained superpower status was due to these land dragons.

Land dragons weren’t as mobile as wyverns, but their scales were much harder, and their fire blasts had a short but wide range. Wyverns can’t stay in one spot for long periods of time, so land dragons were ideal for defending positions. They were about twice as large as humans, and had fairly round bodies with a triangular head that could extend and retract like a turtle’s.

In addition, the Parpaldia army had human portable cannons and explosive shells, larger cannons pulled by horse, and flintlock muskets with lead shots. In the sky, there were wyvern lords scouting and sending information to the ground forces.

“The enemy’s main force has about twenty thousand men.”

“Twenty thousand, huh… They really did some work.”