A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 1011 - The Counterattack - Part 10
1011: The Counterattack – Part 10
1011: The Counterattack – Part 10
In truth, it was his blood that the man ended up drowning in, as Oliver seized on the brief window of opening to ram his sword through his neck.
The man dropped, and Oliver breathed a sigh of relief.
Even being of the Third Boundary as he was, the Second Boundary foes were troublesome – especially when there were so many of them.
He couldn’t afford to waste time on a single man that did not have the name of General.
“We’re almost out of time!” Lombard shouted.
“Make preparations for retreat, Patrick – those soldiers surrounding the tower base are elite.
You won’t break past them without a good amount of speed.”
“Retreat?” Oliver said incredulously.
That was the last word he wanted to hear.
He didn’t want to retreat for a second time, not when the tower was right there.
“It’s done!
The momentum is burned!
We’ve secured confusion – that is good enough for General Karstly,” Lombard replied.
The man seemed to have a cool understanding of the General’s intentions by now, to a degree that Oliver did not yet have.
He seemed confident in his conclusion, and showed no trouble with giving the order that they retreat.
“Not yet, Lombard,” Oliver said.
“Not yet – we can still push forward more.” ƒгeewebnovёl.com
“There isn’t enough time—” Lombard began to say, but Oliver was already scanning the battlefield, taking into account his men, and judging the distance between himself and the enemy.
All he needed to do was make it to the base rung of that tower, and then that would be it.
It would be him and the General.
“Damn it, boy,” Lombard cursed.
“Tolsey!
I’ll lend you to the Patricks.
Assist him in his charge.
I will make the preparations for our retreat.”
The bearded Vice-Commander seemed just as surprised as Oliver by the sudden order, but given that it came from Lombard, he did not doubt it.
The Captain accurately judged what their charge needed – it was sheer power.
The sort of power that came from a Boundary Break.
But it was not the sort of power he could offer up in the form of himself.
Already, another set of Violet Commandants was riding towards his men, and someone needed to be there to deal with them – a role that Lombard would have to fulfil himself.
“Quickly now!” Lombard shouted.
“If you’re to move, you move now!”
“Verdant!” Oliver said.
When they were in need of power, and a breakthrough, it was Verdant that they would have to ask.
“I understand,” Verdant replied.
“Blackthorn!
Have you men charge – and have them charge now.”
“Blackthorn troops, forward!” Lasha said without missing a beat.
The men moved just in time with her.
Despite the difficulty that they’d found during the course of combat, they still had the energy to obey their mistress’s orders.
They took the vanguard now, ahead of Oliver, and ahead of all the other officers, they fought to secure the front themselves.
“Jorah!” Verdant said.
“Understood,” Jorah replied.
He too had been listening in.
He motioned with his hand for Karesh and Kaya to step in close with him, and then he gave the shout to his men.
“TROOPS OF MINE, FORWARD!”
“BLACKTHORNS!
PART YOUR CENTRE!” Oliver shouted, only a few instants before Jorah and his men came clattering towards their rear.
It was a command from a Captain that they would rather have not obeyed, but being the disciplined lot that the Blackthorns were, they did not ignore it.
They created that space in the centre themselves, revealing a sudden gap.
“Karesh!” Jorah said.
First when that giant of a youth, with his massive greatsword.
There was enough space and enough time for him to step into a giant swing.
“URAHH!” He bellowed, bringing it crashing down on the three men in front of them.
Even with the force being distributed across the three of them as it was, it was still enough to make their knees buckle ever so slightly, and more than enough to pin them in place.
“Kaya!” Jorah said, and then it was the turn of both of them.
Right behind Karesh’s strike, they launched themselves.
Kaya still wore the same daggered gauntlets and he’d grown into a master of making use of them – and the unpredictability that they offered.
He threw himself forward ahead of Jorah, level changing in a swift motion.
He grabbed the Verna man’s leg under his shield, and he threw him backwards.
Through the gap in the wall that Kaya had created, there came Jorah’s shield.
He pierced a man straight through the side, making use of the chaos that had been offered, and then Karesh was there to finish the next man, before the three of them began to push forward, with their man at the back of them, securing the gap permanently.
“My turn, is it?” Firyr asked.
He was panting, and covered in blood.
He’d just killed his third Violet Commandant.
For a man that had just passed through the Second Boundary, and ought to have been the same strength as the men that he’d slain, he was putting in a remarkable amount of work.
“If you would join me, Firyr,” Verdant said.
“And if I could ask the same from you, Ser Tolsey.”
“But of course,” Tolsey said, dipping his head.
He was a man that acknowledged title.
Even if the circumstances were different, it was unlikely that he would ever be quick to deny a lordling.
“Yorick!
Have your men follow us!” Verdant called out to him.
Yorick shot a glance towards Oliver.
The man was weary beyond measure.
That glance told Oliver that he’d hoped for a refutation of that order somehow.
Both he and his men wished to catch their breath.
They weren’t used to fighting for this long, nor against opponents this powerful.
Oliver said nothing.
He’d given Verdant command, and he was not about to undermine him by suddenly taking it away.
“…Very well,” Yorick said slowly.
“The last hundred, I leave to you, my Lord.
May you secure victory.
I will meet with you after the fact,” Verdant said, raising his spear in a salute.
