The Broken System - Chapter 5 The First Taste Of Battle.

The whole square plunged into chaos. Every magical spark breed new human. With leaf-shaped gladius and small round shield, they charged at anyone close to them.

Not just human, huge beasts started to appear one after another. Whether it was a bear or tiger shaped one, all of them were wearing small armour protecting its vital spots.

Kinoya didn’t even take a look at it, he just had one thought in his mind that was to flee. But he was greeted by a strange sense. None of the army around the perimeter of the square was moving.

‘Could it be a trial?’ Kinoya rejected that thought as he looked behind him. There was no way for those children and their parents to put up a fight against the enemy that was appearing every moment. They were there just for the slaughter. On the other hand what surprised Kinoya most was the movement of the enemies. They were too well organised to be just rebels or terrorist.

The black coloured magic circle screamed for one last lime giving birth to a giant beast before falling silent. The beast was over 7 meters tall. Its whole body was covered with shiny scales. Those scales were like a metal plate that was a size of a human head. It was stacked over each other. It was like a giant armadillo with a long thick scaled tail.

‘No matter what I have to escape.’ His sense was screaming inside his head. But before he could move the army started to close in. He bypassed the army and ran out of the square. He hit an invisible barrier before he could step outside the square and only to fall on his butt with his nose bleeding.

There were people with a peculiar dress, standing just outside of the barrier. By the looks, it was not wrong to say they are cosplayers. One of them was most eye-catching. The dress contained every shiny colour of the planet. He had a peacock blue colour hat on his head. On the hand, there was a spine of an unknown small animal with skull still attached to it. With contrast to him, the other one was totally grey except the weirdly shaped branch they were holding.

The magic circle had dried out leaving a burnt mark on the paved square. The intruders had assembled themselves into formation with the scaled beast at the centre. Four 8X8 formations formed on the four sides of the beast.

“I have never thought that even at the edge of the empire you people will prepare such a welcoming party. No one can match the grandness of the Krounen Empire.” The words felt sarcastic.

“We never said you are welcome here.” A voice thundered, “But as long as you are here there is no need for you to go back.”

Kinoya knew the owner of the second voice but he was surprised to see the first speaker was talking from the back of the beast. The army of the intruders was not more than 300, on the other hand, the empire army had more than 500 people inside the barrier. In a direct face-off there was no way the empire could lose but with the centre of the square taken, the empire’s army couldn’t be into the formation.

Right at the moment earth quacked. The scales of the beast started to glow in grey, and with it at the centre four earthen walls were erected, dividing the army into four groups. With the connection cut off, the intruders made the move. The four formations of the enemy moved towards the four regions.

Kinoya couldn’t see all of this. The 8×8 intruder formation came in the cone-shaped area as the smaller beasts were closing the mouth. With the barrier at back and enemies in front, Kinoya couldn’t escape the confrontation.

The empires side plunged into chaos. It was the survived civilians. Those who were closer to the barrier was lucky but most of them were closer to the centre. The order of the army impressed Kinoya once more. They assembled themselves to attack. They were not of the same troop, so their sync was little off.

No matter how impressed Kinoya was, he had no intention to fight. With the height of just 4 feet, it will be hard for him to manoeuvre a sword of his height. With the strength of just 16, he didn’t even try to use it without any prior experience. Rather with his agility, he was more confident of running away than fighting.

The unlucky civilians were cut down without any resistance. The intruder army didn’t differentiate between soldier and civilian. They were closing in without breaking a formation.

Even the empire’s army started to panic. Their make-shift formation was showing sign of breaking up. There was some who tried to fight against the intruders. Whether it was swordsman or spearman they all fall one after another, even two bearing tower shield wasn’t a match for them.

‘They may be well-trained soldiers but never ever they played an RPG.’ Kinoya could only sigh. 8×8 army formation, it was not something like an army of more than 100 couldn’t beat. It was just that there was none to lead them and without proper orders along with the loss of their few warriors their morale was wavering. The only ones who were doing their work were the archers. It was because of their periodic barrage of arrows the intruders weren’t able to charge in.

‘If the lips fall, the teeth will bear the cold.’ It wasn’t the voice of inside of his head. Rather Kinoya was trying to reason himself. ‘I have already done that twice. I am not going to repeat the fate again.’ With the resolute will, Kinoya climbed the wall. The wall wasn’t plane as a mirror, but with the rugged surface of the wall, it was rather easy for Kinoya to climb with above average dexterity.

’13 shield bearers, 27 spearmen, 42 swordsmen, 32 archers, on the other hand, there were 64 swordsmen with small shields. There were 8 cat type beasts and their tamers present. The swordsmen of the intruders were using gladius with the round shield but the army only has the scimitar’ After a quick compression, Kinoya shouted from 10 feet above the ground.

“10 Tower shield bearers at the front, anchor the shield on the ground, don’t give space. 3 on standby. 11 spearman on the second row one at each wing of the shield bearers, 6 on standby. Swordsman at the outer wing 20 on each side. At rear make 3 rows with 10 archers in each.”

The order was plain and simple. Easy to understand and easy to compile. But as expected it didn’t have the desired effect.

“Boy, quickly come down.” One of the swordsmen shouted. They never thought a child will climb up the wall only to shout nonsense. Other followed suits. “Go to the rear. It will be safe there.”

Never did he imagined that rather than mocking remarks he would be greeted by the caring ones. He didn’t know that just by not running away from the enemies he got the recognition of the soldiers. But it wasn’t enough to make them follow the orders.

And like Kinoya, the soldiers also didn’t have imagined that their caring remarks for a 6 years old child will give birth to the youngest and bloodiest general of the empire.

Due to carelessness, his hand slipped. He bumped on the wall to stabilize him again. The bump caused pain in his chest as something uneven was pressed against it.

A bulb lit up in his head. ‘At least it worth a try.’ He was quick to take out the badge and shouted. “In the name of Moon legion obey my command.”

For a moment all the soldiers were surprised. In the recruitment trial, the children were generally given a simple recruitment badge, that thing has very little or no use. People can join the army even without it. Above it the specially recruited children. And this child was holding a legion recruitment badge. Only those with great potential and backing can receive that.

“That is general’s badge, not a recruitment badge.” One of the archers shouted. And the silence followed. Nobody was going to question the archer’s eyesight, on the top of it, he was actually from the Moon legion. Even Kinoya himself took a quick look at the badge.

‘It is not the time to be gleeful.’ Kinoya scolded himself as he repeated the previous command. But the result was different this time. Kinoya was dumbfounded. He had heard about the military discipline but never seen it. They were like puzzle pieces fall into the gaps with perfect accuracy.

‘Being a soldier wouldn’t be so bad.’ With such thought at the back of mind, he gave his second set order. “Move as a single body, shield bearer hold your ground. Spearman attack the enemy vanguard from the behind the shield line. Archer concentrate your arrow at the wing of the first 3 rows. Rotate continuously so that the rain doesn’t stop.”

The command was given, now it was time to execute them. And the execution left Kinoya speechless.

There wasn’t a single gap between the shield bearers. Whether the enemy charged or pounced on the shield wall there wasn’t a single amount of movement in the wall. Hacking, stabbing, slashing nothing seems to be effective against the wall.

The spears were around 3 meters long was enough to attack the enemy vanguard while staying out of reach. If it was some other formation then the enemies would have jumped in but the constant barrage of arrows stopped them from doing so.

Kinoya didn’t know much about the other weapons but the bow was something he used for more than 10 years in this world. So he knew perfectly well how hard it was to rain down light arrows in such a close distance without hitting a friend who was in a 1-meter range of the target.

Even with perfect execution of the order, there was still something missing from it. After 8th round arrows the first one fall on the left flank. Within 2 rounds 2 more fell. But the enemy was well trained too. Whenever one in front fell the one at the back took its position. They weren’t having any problem. By 15th round with only 8 casualties, the situation reached stalemate again.

Just as Kinoya was thinking about the next step his danger sense was tingling. He moves along the wall. On the next moment 8 arrows hit the spot he was hanging from. Someone from the ground shouted in surprise.

“Concentrate,” Kinoya shouted. At first, he was happy that the enemy didn’t bring any archers. He underestimated the enemy, never did he thought that the beast tamers could use the bow. The beast tamers weren’t as accurate as the archers but were doing their work.

On top of that, he realised another problem. He didn’t know about any sign language or the flag sign so he had to shout out each one of his commands. There wasn’t any element of surprise. The enemy soldiers were constantly rotating themselves stopping other from getting tired. The Empire army was strong but he could feel that the longer it will drag harder it will be for them to win. He can’t concentrate the situation while running from the arrows aimed at him.

On top of that, he couldn’t mobilise the swordsman carelessly. He got a feeling that as soon as he will send the swordsman to fight the beast tamers will release the beasts. Even if they don’t do that with a longer scimitar the empire’s man will be at disadvantage against the short gladius holders.

The more he thought about it the more pressure he felt. It was not like the game or the movies. The reality was totally different from those. Here he won’t get a second chance like in the game, nor will the enemy let him go if he lost. Not everybody could bear the weight of others life. He had to think of something otherwise the whole formation will collapse from fatigue. The observed the field once more.