Dungeon of Niflheim

746  Chapter 746: Loss

Frost and Kiba carried the wounded Colonel Casper through the catacombs as quickly and as smoothly as possible.

He was unable to see nor hear the 7 Majors doing battle with the enemy nor eventually General Katrina bringing a final end to the day's festivities, but he did manage to hear the loud explosions that collapsed part of the passageways.

His face portrayed a clear look of worry, how many managed to escape in time? Was Kursch still alive?

"Don't dwell on it Frost, they made their choices as did I." Casper spoke words of comfort, but his expression was even tenser and darker than Frost's.

'You lot better return.'

By the time they reached the end of the catacombs and returned to Icethorne the battle was over. Katrina gave her order and moments later the frontlines began their retreat, falling back to behind the northern wall.

The sun had begun to set, and night was creeping in.

Today's battle was over, it was time to rest, recover and calculate their losses.

Frost used his shoulder to support Casper as he called for the left wing to stand at attention.

Standing together as a unit a few bare areas revealed themselves to the old Colonel. Tears ran down cheeks as some soldiers stood next to an empty plot, their comrades in arms never able to fight alongside them again.

Casper began a role call so as to calculate their exact losses and to commemorate the names of the fallen into the minds of those who still lived.

When he reached the name of the first Major who remained behind Casper struggled to speak, his heart lurched at the thought of pronouncing them as dead.

"Major Kursch….condition unknown."

"Major Kiros…condition unk…"

"Condition running late and heavily injured respectively Colonel." Suddenly from behind Casper 10 people passed through the portal alongside their battle mounts -well those that survived .

Upon his arrival Major Kursch interrupted Casper with a booming voice followed by victorious laughter.

Colonel Casper didn't turn around immediately instead he wiped away a few hidden tears before smiling from ear to ear.

"You're alive….Good that means we can proceed with the court martials then. Major Juniper please make the arrangements."

"Huh? Are you serious Colonel, that wasn't a joke?" Kursch who was ready to sing and dance after managing to survive their ordeal froze in place, his reverie immediately doused by a bucket of cold water.

In response Casper coldly glared at them all in a very serious manner. "When have you ever known me to make jokes when it comes to military affairs."

'Fuck!' The seven Majors all cursed internally as they saw Major Juniper -who didn't stay behind with them- approaching with a set of military documents.

Why was their Colonel such a hard ass?

Of course Casper was just teasing them, their court martial would only result in a minor punishment like cleaning out the latrines or doing the unit's laundry, tasks usually reserved for the lowest ranking soldiers and or hired civilians.

With the 7 Majors and 3 senior Captains returning alive -though Major Kiros was quite injured and had to be rushed to the medical tents- the total losses for the left wing was 144 souls.

It was a mere fraction of the total 8000 men and women that made up the cavalry corps' left wing but a painful loss, nonetheless. One that couldn't be completely overwritten by Katrina's announcement of victory and the wave of excited cheers and celebrations that followed.

If it wasn't wartime these men and women would likely drink away their sorrows at the military bar and relish in the fond memories of those that had left.

Alas alcohol was forbidden and mourning, true mourning for the dead had to be set aside. Any pain and anguish they felt needed to either be bottled up or unleased as wrath upon the enemy. Only when the war was over could they allow themselves to wallow in the pain.

While the left wing shed a few tears for their dead and managed to celebrate their success the right wing was filled with despairing wails and silence. Not a single person was smiling.

Because of their slightly slower reaction time, weaker teamwork and the unfortunate choices they made during their retreat the right wing suffered far, far greater losses and far more injuries.

Their death toll was over 600, over 4 times more than the left wing.

At this moment over by the eastern catacombs' entrance a Major with a large but thankfully not that deep wound across his chest addressed the soldiers of the cavalry corps' right wing.

Many of their number were seriously injured and had to be immediately transported to the medical clinic for treatment.

Colonel Ridge was included among this group and thus the duty of addressing those that remained fell to the Major currently standing on the podium.

The man was not young by any means, a senior in the field, even older than Colonel Ridge yet even he with his vast experience struggled to find his words.

His gaze crossed the field, taking in the many looks of despair, loss and the significant amount of voids left throughout their formation.

This was the greatest loss the right wing had ever encountered in the past several decades. The young, confident and boisterous juniors were at a total loss, their courage shaken as they witnessed their commander carried away in a makeshift stretcher.

The once invincible Colonel Ridge was covered in blood. Wounds so deep that his bones were on display and worst of all he no longer had a right arm.

While Colonel Casper managed to repel both Agabar and Celunia with his self-harming skill [Fury of the elements, Lighting Avalanche] Colonel Ridge was forced to sacrifice his right arm in order to leave their control and thus escaped in much direr straits than his counterpart.

Afterwards when the enemy General hunted him down, he survived by the skin of his teeth. If it wasn't for General Jessica's swift actions in redirecting the enemy's blow he would have died then and there.

Thankfully however he was only further injured and ultimately rescued by two Majors and two Captains who had volunteered to stay behind.

His return to the battlefield anytime soon however was unlikely, the right wing was thus left without their leader at their lowest point.

"…..Everyone stop your tears and silence your wailing. You are all proud sons and daughters of the War Ursa Battalion, soldiers. And soldiers do not show weakness." The lightly wounded Major, a senior by the name of Zed applied aura to his voice and spoke to all those that remained in a strict military fashion. When in doubt rely on your training.

They were soldiers, men and women of war, they should be treated as such.

"I know you're in pain because I feel it too, but we must not let it control us. Today we fought valiantly and killed thousands of enemy soldiers at the loss of a mere 600 of our own, a truly decisive victory by all standards!" Zed spoke from the heart and with a booming voice that echoed throughout the surrounding area.

""URAHHHH!!!!"" Zed's strong words resonated with the soldiers, and they loudly responded with a unanimous Urah.

They remembered who they were, their purpose, their duty and their honour.

They may have bled today but the enemy bled more and that was what mattered.

"VICTORY!!!"

"For the Empire!"

Zed let out a repressed breath of relief as the soldiers chanted and gradually regained their fire.

They were shaken but not broken, all they needed was for someone to point them in the right direction and thankfully Zed was up to the task.

"Not bad." A fair distance away Katrina who had recently returned from the battlefield quietly remarked. She was quite worried about the mental state of the Cavalry corps' right wing but thankfully one of their Majors took a stand and resolved her worries.

"I hope they take today's lesson to heart."

The right wing from a strategic standpoint actually performed quite well in response to the sudden ambush, unfortunately the timing and the forces involved were so well prepared that they inevitably suffered significant losses.

The lesson was not that they were weak, but that they had grown arrogant and looked down upon the enemy.

Ridge and his forces struggled to entertain the possibility that Vash and his army could pose a significant threat to them. Believing that as long as they did their part then they'd return safe and sound.

Casper and Frost did not have this weakness, they trusted in their sense of danger and were constantly wary of the enemy and thus retreated earlier and in fact forced Vash to make his move.

If Casper never launched that firework things could have no, would have ended much, much worse.

Seeing that the situation had been resolved General Katrina returned to the main command centre to oversee the complete retreat of their forces.

" Start the report, I want to know exactly how many soldiers we lost today as well as the amount of resources we expended." Katrina wasted no time at all in dealing with the 'tedious paperwork'.

"Yes General."

"Have the recovery and cleaning teams head out the moment the Vanguard passes through the gate, we're on the clock ladies and gentlemen. The faster we move the faster we can rest and prepare for tomorrow." n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"On it General." The officers stationed in the command centre loudly replied before setting off to handle their tasks.

There was much to be done before the day was truly over.