Book 2-5.6 First Battle Against Venersis (II)
Egane was confused after hearing Yulian’s voice from far away. He was hectically moving the warriors around and it was difficult to respond to the Shuarei’s movement, but he could still hold on.
Furthermore, there was no signal from the oasis indicating that they were ready.
‘Glow. What are you doing.’
Egane was wondering what was going through Yulian’s mind that he was acting different than what they had planned.
He had been paying attention to Yulian and Venersis’s battle while moving the formations, but it didn’t seem like Yulian was being pushed back too much.
There were many things on Egane’s mind, but the overall commander of this war was the Glow Yulian. Although it might be just in name, everybody knew it was the case. He couldn’t go against an order.
“All units retreat! Retreat back to the oasis!”
Egane also shouted loudly as he prepared to retreat.
Retreating while in the midst of fiercely fighting like this was extremely dangerous; you needed to move slowly to retreat safely.
At their leaders’ order to retreat, Pareia’s warriors hesitated for a moment in confusion, and the Shuarei warriors started to increase their momentum from thinking that they had won.
Everybody was surprised at Yulian’s command to retreat, but the person who was the most surprised was none other than Venersis.
If he moved a few more times, he would have been able to surround Pareia, but because of Yulian’s command to retreat, they were gathering back together.
“You saw it?”
“Is there a reason I wouldn’t be able to see something you are able to see?”
At Yulian’s answer, Venersis was thrilled that this young Glow could see the same thing that he saw.
If he was able to see the same thing, this young warrior had the qualifications to be his opponent.
Although it was questionable whether Yulian could catch up to his almost twenty years of war experience, he was still at the level to be on the same battlefield as him.
“I accept that. But at least for this battle, I will take the victory. All units, charge once more.”
At Venersis’s command, the Shuarei forces didn’t face their enemies head on again. They just avoided or pushed back the shamshirs coming toward them as they started to push forward once more.
Although Pareia’s formation came back together to retreat, it was not a formation that could respond to the attack. They slowly started to retreat while suffering at the hands of the Shuarei.
As the injuries to Pareia started to increase from the Shuarei’s movement, a large fire could be seen coming at the oasis.
“He’s ready!”
“All units, run toward the oasis! Do not think about anything else and just retreat!”
Yulian and Egane both continued to shout; Pareia’s warriors did not even look back as they started to run toward the oasis.
If the Shuarei chased them toward the oasis, even with Venersis in command, they were going to be defeated.
“Ah!”
“Aaaak!”
“Kwaaaak!”
As the chase started, the shouts of the Pareia warriors in the back started to come up from many locations. But Pareia’s warriors didn’t pay attention and focused on their order to run forward.
“All units, stop!”
As Venersis shouted loudly and raised his hand, the Shuarei warriors instantly stopped moving. It was indeed a very amazing leadership ability.
“You are not going to chase them down?”
Heldrew, one of the Desert Sword members who had been supporting Venersis for a long time, asked Venersis. Venersis shook his head.
“It is a trap. This is enough. Pareia will not be able to come past here and we will just take back the lost oasis later on.”
Even Heldrew who knew that whatever Venersis said was what they needed to do, couldn’t help but salivate at the sight of Pareia’s warriors running away.
They would be able to take down over 500 of them before they reached the oasis.
But that was just an estimate. As someone who followed Venersis’s command to the letter, he started to move for all units to head back.
Venersis stood their without moving and just stared deeply at the oasis. ‘What would be waiting for us in there?’ Even he had that type of question, but since his intuition was informing him of danger, all he could do was stare.
“The little warrior from back then. And the young warrior who was hit by poison. You now appear in front of me as a powerful young Glow. Fine. I will enjoy your challenge to my heart’s content.”
Venersis mumbled to himself without taking his eyes off of the oasis.
“Why did you order a retreat?”
Seeing that the Shuarei were not coming anymore and heading back as they fixed up their formation, Egane asked Yulian
“If we had retreated before the oasis was ready and the Shuarei attacked, it would have caused a giant hole in our strategy. Why did you do so?”
“Venersis, it is the same reason that he did not chase us all the way. I would assume it is.”
“Huh?”
“I saw it. I saw the Shuarei warriors moving according to Venersis’s command and our Pareia warriors slowly started to be surrounded.”
Egane and Trebol looked at each other at Yulian’s answer. Even while fighting against Venersis, he was able to see the movement of the enemy? As well as Pareia’s formation?
Even veteran warriors would have a hard time seeing the entire battlefield like that.
“Wouldn’t Venersis have stopped chasing us down because of that intuition? Looking at it from his point of view, he had no reason to stop. Unless he could see through our strategy.”
Yulian thought again for a bit before speaking.
“I may have made an error. I could have made Pareia fall in danger. However, if I did not do that, I felt like we would have been ripped to shreds and surrounded by the enemy. It was a really terrible feeling that I never want to feel ever again.”
The two Greatest Warriors thought long and hard about what Yulian had just said. They knew the meaning behind Yulian’s words. It was because they had experienced a similar thing before. That superhuman feeling that you feel when the situation turns extremely terrible. That seemed to be similar to what Yulian had felt.
“I don’t know what to tell you just yet. Honestly, war is somewhere that luck also plays a factor, so if you are uncertain about something, it is better to trust your instinct.”
Egane did not blame Yulian nor did he praise Yulian, as he continued to speak.
“I was feeling chaotic as well. Venersis was commanding them so quickly that it was becoming harder and harder to respond, and I was feeling that something was going wrong. However, we were not being pushed back too much and we just needed to retreat once we had Trebol’s signal, so I ignored that feeling. But hearing that the Glow felt that ominous feeling even more than I did, the Glow may have made the right decision. Even I am confused now.”
Seeing that the atmosphere was getting heavy, Trebol stepped forward and started to speak.
“In the end, we managed to take two oasis and Venersis has retreated. It doesn’t change the fact that this was Pareia’s overwhelming victory. The guardian must be blessing our Glow’s first campaign. There is no reason to suspect anything. We have won, and we have become the heroes who retrieved the oasis that we lose ten years ago.”
“If you complicate your thinking, things will become complicated. You are right. We have won.”
Egane accepted the fact as well, and it was only then that Yulian could finally smile.
But because the sensation he had on the battlefield was still fresh on his mind, it was true that a part of him was still feeling very frustrated…
