0937 April 15th, 2020 CE

0448 Sun 15th, 2020 CE

Kingdom of Albea, Soane Continent

Retreat!”>>>

At once, the Guards stopped their advance and started backing up at full speed. Another one blew up as a TOW slammed into its turret.

One of the TOW operators laughed.

“Look at them go! They haven’t even fired yet and they are running.”

Then, the guns on all of the Guards flashed. A shell impacted close to their position and exploded. Another one was way off target. A couple flew right over them. The force from the overhead shells was easily felt by the mercenaries below.

Everyone turned their heads to look at the operator who said that.

“... I will… I will shut up.”

Miller watched as the elf tanks backed further and further away.

“They are out of range now.”

“We got six of them, that’s what I would call a job well down. Okay, boys. Time to pack up. We are moving.”

Wolfred dusted off his cargo pants as he got up. He watched as his men picked up the TOW launcher.

“Careful with them. If any of you break it, it’s coming out of your paycheck. I mean it seriously this time. And it ain’t cheap.”

They walked back to the Humvees and trucks that had been parked further back. Miller caught up to Wolfred.

“Where should we go?”

“Somewhere close by but not too close would be sensible. We are gonna keep ambushing them until they give up and go back home.”

A person came running up to them.

“Commander, there’s a knight on a horse coming in our way.”

Wolfred nodded.

“Stay on guard.”

Wolfred shouted towards the incoming horseman.

“Stop! Identify yourself!”

The horseman stopped and reigned his horse in.

“A messenger under the orders of Lord Commander Darkhorn! I have an important report to make to Commander Wolfred!”

“You are speaking to him right now.”

The horseman got off his horse, walked to him, and saluted.

“Sir, multiple elven tanks have overrun positions of the Ninth Division and Fifteenth Division. Lord Commander has ordered your unit’s retreat. You are in a dangerous position and under threat of encirclement. In addition, he has commanded your unit to reposition to help the Fifth Division; they are currently engaging enemy infantry. Scouts have also reported that elven tanks are approaching their position.”

“Got it. But what about the elven tanks that came through here?”

The messenger was alarmed.

“Elven tanks came through?”

“Well, no, we beat them back. 10 of them came and we destroyed 6 of them.”

The messenger blinked at Wolfred in surprise.

“You destroyed 6 of them?”

“Yeah.”

“...uhh… I… I will report this… um… where did you exactly destroy them? Can I take a look to confirm?”

“Not too far from here.”

Wolfred pointed towards the back.

“Go over that hill and there should be a clearing with their destroyed tanks.”

“Thank you.”

The knight saluted and rode off

Wolfred turned towards his men.

“Okay, boys, change of plans we are skedaddling. Seems like our friends in the Fifth Division need our help.”

Elven Headquarters, Subican Kingdom

Field Marshal Ianna looked at the battle report in surprise.

“Our flanking force was defeated?

“Only four out of the ten Guards survived. Some sort of anti-tank weapon is blocking the way.”

“So the hands of those slimy Americans have even reached here.”

The field marshal spat out those words in disgust. The adjunct continued his report.

“Other than that setback, all other positions are not facing any difficulties.”

“Categorize this as a small American unit that has come to support the Kingdoms here. We will have to find a way to deal with it.”

Kingdom of Albea, Soane Continent

The knight slowly trotted his horse up to the wreckages of the elf tanks. He stopped his horse and came down. He touched the twisted metal of one of the tanks.

“... they actually killed 6.”

Thirty minutes later

The sounds of gunfire echoed in the sky.

<<<“Halt! Keep security. Bravo 1, please move up to scout the area. We should be coming up to a battlefield. I don’t want any nasty surprises.”

“Got it. Bravo 1 is moving ahead.”>>>

One of the humvees got out of the line of vehicles and moved up from the sides of the road.

<<<“Well, seems like the Fifth Division is fighting elven infantry. I don’t see any tanks yet.”

“Is the road clear?”

“The Fifth Division is defending it. The elves are firing from a sparsely wooded forest. We can drive up to them safely.”

“You heard that boys. Go! Go! Go!”>>>

The line of humvees and trucks quickly whirred to life.

Flametail had her back to a mound.

“I now see why they wanted us to use these guns.”

The Fifth Division was holding extremely well against the attacking elven infantry. The AK-47s easily tore through the elve’s lines. However, the elves were still returning fire. If they had been using swords against the elves, they wouldn’t have stood a chance. Just then, she heard noises and looked up to see the Diamond Wolve’s vehicles heading towards her division’s position.

“They are using assault rifles!”

The elven infantry had been completely caught off guard when the beastmen started using guns. Their formation had been designed to counter the fast sword charges of the beastmen. This meant that they were bunched up together in multiple groups. They had been quickly gunned down when the beastmen opened fire.

As the Diamond Wolves arrived at the battle, they were greeted with a bizarre scene. Beastmen from a fantasy world donning medieval era armor and firing modern weaponry. Fighting Nazi Elves who had WW2 weaponry. It seemed like a real-life mash of Civilization VI and Total War: Warhammer II.

The doors of the humvees were slammed open as men jumped off of the back of the trucks that followed. They immediately set up positions in order to fire upon the elves. Wolfred popped up from the mound and fired his Ak-47. Besides him, beastmen and his members were also firing. An occasional shot from the pinned down elves would come but it usually missed. As the forest was not really that dense, it didn’t provide much cover for the elves.

The gunbattle raged for a while before the elves gave up and retreated.

Flametail came up to greet Wolfred.

“Surprised to see you here.”

“Got orders from your commander to assist you. There are tanks coming your way… speak of the devil”

A rumbling noise came from the forest. Wolfred turned towards his men.

“Get the Carl Gustafs! Elven tanks are coming. They will be close to us this time.”

The first tank appeared a few minutes later. Wolfred shouted to the beastmen.

“Keep clear of the back of the anti-tank weapon!”

The Carl Gustaf operator then also shouted.

“Backblast!”

A massive puff of fire came out from the back and a round flew out and hit the first elf tank. The tank stopped and exploded.

Halt! The beastmen have anti-tank weapons!”>>>

The group of remaining nine magipanzers instantly stopped their advance forwards. The magipanzer in the lead had been destroyed. The commander of the magipanzers made a quick decision.

”Second Platoon, you will flank from the right. We will flank from the left.”>>>

The five Carl Gustaf operators looked around.

“I don’t see any more movement”

“Was it only one tank?”

Wolfred got his binoculars out.

“There is trees blocking the way but I don’t see anything. Stay on alert. I don’t think there was only one tank. The one that just fired, reload, they could try to rush us so be prepared.”

A shout rang out.

“Tanks coming in from the left and right! They are trying to flank us!”

Tanks simultaneously came out of the forest from the left and right. Dirt was scattered into the sky as the elf tanks opened fire and hit the ground. The sound of machine-gun fire began.

“Fire!”

“Backblast!”

It wasn’t long before the firing died down. Suffering some light casualties, the Diamond Wolves had successfully beaten back the Elven armored assault.

Elven Headquarters, Subican Kingdom

“Sir, we have broken through at the left flank but we failed to break through the right. The plan won’t work under these circumstances. What do we do?”

Field Marshal Ianna hit the table with his fist.

“Dammit.”

This had ruined his entire plan. He wanted to encircle them and crush their center but that won’t work now that only the right fell. He thought it over for a while.

“We will keep a defensive posture on our right and center. Tell the units on the left flank to continue their advance as planned. Divert the 3rd Guard Magipanzer Company, the 19th Infantry Company, and the 36th Infantry Company all to the left flank. They will continue the push deeper into enemy territory.”

Right flank of the Soane lines

They had had some success while battling the elven infantry but it was short-lived as elven tanks soon showed up. The beastmen were unable to place their sticky bombs on the elven tanks as they were being heavily protected by their infantry. Commander Gladwine looked around at his dying men. He didn’t want to give the order but understood that the battle was lost.

“Retreat!”

Soane Headquarters, Kingdom of Albea

“Report! The right flank has fallen!”

Lord Commander Darkhorn showed no emotion at those words. Internally, he cursed at the fact that the elves decided to start an offensive when he did.

Left flank of the Soane lines

Before long, the Fifth Division and the Diamond Wolves also received word of it. After a messenger gave them the current situation, new orders were issued.

“Lord Commander has ordered your unit to begin an assault. Your job is to make the elves have to pull units away from our right flank.”

Wolfred turned to Miller.

“Hm. I have a better idea. We are splitting into two units. Your unit takes the TOW launchers. We will be taking the Carl Gustafs. You are to set up a defensive position and halt the elven advance. I’m gonna attack as ordered to.”

Miller thought it over and nodded

“Will do.”

The messenger looked quizzaciously as Miller moved towards the vehicles and gathered his men.

“Um, sir? What are you doing?”

Wolfred explained to the messenger. The messenger immediately protested.

“This is against orders!”

“Hm? It’s not against orders since you never specifically stated that my whole group has to attack. There was also no specific order preventing me from sending units to help the right flank. All I have to do is to attack the elves from this flank which is what I’m doing albeit with a smaller force.”

The messenger hesitated.

“But…”

He started to speak and trailed off since he didn’t know how to respond. Wolfred nodded.

“Time is off the essence, we will be setting off.”

“We will advance with you.”

Wolfred nodded at Flametail’s offer. He understood that with the Diamond Wolves split in half, it would have been difficult to advance by themselves.

Thirty minutes later

Wolfred drove his humvee through the sparsely wooded forest. With him were a bunch of other humvees and trucks. Up ahead were the Fifth Division and the Diamond Wolves that had the Carl Gustafs. They had been advancing for a good while. Wolfred got on his radio.

>>

Dalton Rodriguez was the one commanding the Carl Gustaf unit.

<<<“Nothing sir.”

“Keep an eye out. There are probably still tanks in this forest.”>>>

A few minutes later

There were sounds of explosions up ahead.

<<<“Rodriguez, what’s happening!?”

“Three tanks. They are taken care of. Probably the remnants of the ones that attacked us.”>>>

Nearly an hour later

Rodriguez came through the radio again.

<<<“Stop! We are seeing some elves.”

“How much is there?”

“Ummm… I think we found their main position.”

“Okay. Dismount! We are attacking!”

An elf sat there enjoying a talk with his friends. He was very glad that his company wasn’t the one who had been ordered to attack. The elves from the infantry company that came back from their failed assault were in terrible shape.

“Enemy attack! Enemy attack!”

He looked up to the shouts and blacked out as a 7.62x39 mm bullet went through his head.

Right flank of the Soane lines

“Hurry! Hurry!”

Commander Gladwine goaded his knights. The elves were hot on their trail. A tank appeared behind them. It stopped and started to turn its turret towards them.

“Dispers...”

The tank exploded.

Miller smiled as the TOW slammed into the tank behind the knights.

“Seems like we got here in the nick of time. We will stop them here. Don’t let a single tank through.”

A few minutes later

Gladwine trotted his horse up to ones who saved the survivors of his unit. He recognized the man as one of the commanders of the mercenaries.

Elven Headquarters, Subican Kingdom

“Our attack on the left flank has stalled and the right flank is being pushed back.”

Field Marshal Ianna sat down.

“Retreat and regroup.”

As the adjutant left, he could hear loud shouting behind him.

“This was all going so well! Until those idiots attacking the human empire messed it up! Now I’m stuck here…”