Chapter 6: The Battle with Water Behind
HAMMERING echoed across Mount Kugus.
More humans were on the mountain now than had been in the past several decades. The royal court requested the Foster Duchy to prepare a defensive force and dispatch it to the mountain, where they began building a military base.
Lushera looked at the map rolled out on top of a large tree stump. It was an old map, drafted before Kaphal came to live on the mountain. The facilities and roads had disappeared since then, but the landscape was largely the same.
On the other side of the map was a man around forty years old. He was a knight wearing relatively light armor and a flowing, robe-like surcoat. He had the trained physique of a warrior, but still had a bony, angular look, likely a natural physical characteristic.
He was Viscount Cristophe Murdeux.
The exact meaning of a lord varied somewhat between countries, but there were some commonalities across the world since the humanoid alliance that existed during the Human-Dragon War took time to break apart.
Generally, a family was given a title relative to their status, and that title was passed down through the generations.
Those lords who ruled over lands given to them directly by the monarch were the high nobility, called either duke, marquess, or count depending on their status. Then there were the lower nobles, viscounts or barons, who were vassals to a high noble and given responsibility of a city or small region. The monarchs generally included these lower nobles as part of the peerage ranking, but also gave the high nobles free rein to grant these titles to their vassals as they saw fit.
There was also a non-hereditary title, a lord or lady knight, which was given to common folk employed by nobles in important governmental or military positions.
Kugut’hulm was within the Foster Duchy, with the family overseeing it and Mount Kugus (the part in Setrayu, anyway).
Cristophe was a vassal of the Foster Duchy, though the Duchy hadn’t given him Mount Kugus as a territory. The land he was given responsibility of was a town farther to the south, but he was dispatched by the Duchy to lead the defense forces on the mountain.
Lushera had been on edge, wondering what kind of man he was, but he thankfully turned out to be someone worthy of respect.
“Variants aren’t really dragon servants,” she was explaining. “They don’t really listen to what the dragon says. Actually, it’s more likely they would eat the dragon if they got the chance.”
“I see. Then how does one control them?”
“Normally all you can do is let them loose, but in this case…we use this.” Lushera took out a blackened stone to show Cristophe. It had a very particular and odd smell. “Kaphal roasted this stone for a long time with her fire breath. Even humans can smell it, but monsters are even more sensitive to it. Variants generally don’t go near places that a dragon claimed as its own territory, so, if we place these in the right spots, we can section off a set territory for us.”
Dragon breath had a very particular smell to it. A dragon’s prey was generally dead before it could smell this, but it was sort of a general “dragon scent” that pervaded their entire body.
Kaphal had burned several trees around the nest with her breath, burning in this scent to lay down a boundary line and keep the variants away from Lushera.
Apparently, the scent came from their saliva. Crystallized pieces of the components of that saliva were called “dragon stones,” and used in high-end perfumes, or as valuable alchemical materials.
The variants the blue dragons brought knew the smell of a dragon and how powerful they were, just like the variants originally on the mountain. They could limit where the variants went by using that knowledge.
“Once the enemy comes, we can scatter attractants and stimulants to get the monsters worked up, making them attack,” said Lushera. “We’ve already tested that one. Basically, all we can do is make them stay where we want them until we use them, then point them in the right direction when we need them.”
“That should be plenty. I want them stationed today, if possible,” he said.
“I think we can manage.”
Powerful wingbeats overlapped the sky, cutting in front of the sun.
Lushera looked up to see Kaphal, a giant wolf-headed octopus grasped in her foreclaws. She was placing the variants herself, since they were clearly too much for humans to handle.
“How is the fort?” asked Lushera.
“Incredible, three times the size I had in mind. Since the mountain queen was kind enough to create the fort for us, all we have to do is prepare the fencing. Our information sources say the earliest Martgarz can make their move is in two days… I sincerely regret our lack of power which prevents us from confirming that information, but I am using it as a general target, making sure we’ll be ready by then,” said Cristophe, his feelings of shame showing through in his grimace as he rubbed his forehead between his brows.
It wasn’t healthy to rely on external human resources, ones you weren’t sure you could trust. Even Ivar himself said it wasn’t good, because Cristophe must consider the possibility that Ivar was feeding them false information. If Setrayu succeeded in overcoming this emergency, they would have to rethink how they did things.
Cristophe followed a road on the old map with his finger. “This was a trade route through the mountains before the dragon came to live here. I imagine Marquess Angus’s military will trace its remaining path. The road itself has already been swallowed by the mountain, but it is still geographically the easiest route to move an army through. And he wants to make a road through the mountain.”
They were currently in the process of rushing to make blockades along that route. Just like when Kaphal used magic to build their “house,” she created a stone building blocking the route, which the military used as a base structure to turn into a fort. This was the same method the military normally used for making impromptu bases, but having Kaphal’s help meant it was much larger and stronger than anything they could make with human magic.
“If I’m being entirely honest, it seems a waste to use the lumber from this mountain for something as mundane as a defense barrier, but we have no choice,” said Cristophe. “Our engineers should be able to take this incredible material and turn it into the best work they can.”
“Thank you.”
“Mm-hm. Ah, but…this won’t counter the dracovitae either.” His expression was tense, knowing there wasn’t a minute to spare now, while there were no enemy soldiers in sight. “We fight, putting our lives on the line for the Kingdom of Setrayu and all its people. But in order to win this battle, we must stop the dracovitae. Not just stop it. We must take it back. And to do that…”
“Yes.” Lushera nodded, not putting it all into words.
Most battles where there wasn’t an equal number of dracovitae on either side were eventually one-sided. Turning the tables in that situation required a power that went beyond normal human understanding.
Meaning Kaphal. Or, even if her strength paled in comparison to Kaphal’s, Lushera.
Kaphal and Lushera might not be able to defend the mountain without the knights’ assistance, but the reverse was even more true.
“As this is a battle in the mountains, it will be difficult for our opponent to form proper military formations. The basic strategy is to force them to stop at our stronghold, throw the variants at them to throw them off-balance, then send in your group, the anti-dracovitae squad, to take back the dracovitae. I would like to ask the mountain queen to assist from the skies. Having her cover defense from the dracovitae means the soldiers on the ground can act without reservation so long as she gives no room for an attack from the dracovitae.”
“Wonder if it’ll really go all that well…” said Weyne as he was passing by, sounding unconvinced. He and Timm were helping with construction work, the two carrying a massive, felled tree trunk between them.
Lushera had similar thoughts to what Weyne had said.
It seemed that Cristophe was building his strategy off the assumption that Marquess Angus would come straight for them, a simple attack. Not even monsters did what you thought they would beforehand, that surely applied even more to human armies, right?
“We cannot know for sure,” said Cristophe. “But that’s why the overall framework of the strategy should remain simple. It reduces the probability that we’ll make a fatal error and allows us to respond to our enemy’s tricks if we have the capacity to do so. And the exact same can be said by our enemy. I believe they will come for a head-on attack, because they have the dracovitae and that’s where they can put it to the best use.”
He looked grim as he carefully explained his expectations, but he wasn’t stating anything as certain. He was considering the situation, agonizing even more over the details, and making his decisions while still having his doubts.
“In addition to this strategy, I have been considering scenarios in which they don’t come for a head-on assault, and contemplating how we would handle those, planning a goal that will get us through this even if the worst were to happen. However…no matter what happens, no victory we achieve will be gained without the loss of life. We can only pray we settle this as best we possibly can.”
Hammering echoed across Mount Kugus.
Kaphal crisscrossed the sky in a hurry, not a cloud in sight as if the heavens mocked the gloom on the ground.