Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 408 Hear the Voice First
"General." A general wearing dark silver armor and carrying two swords on his waist called out softly from the top of Sol City. He raised his telescope and observed for a few times. He couldn't help but whispered, "Look at the giant army outside the city. Is there something wrong?"

Beside him, a tall and handsome old general stood alone and solemnly.

Unlike most human heroes who take good care of themselves and have the secret to maintaining their youth, almost every detail of his body proves his "old age". His face is full of wrinkles and ravines, his skin is rough and shriveled due to years of low temperature, wind and snow, his muscles are no longer as strong as they were in his youth, and his armor is also lacking in maintenance and is covered with cuts and has a dull luster.

But, in his case, old age seems to be something that can never be equated with senility.

Although the veteran is old, his brows as hard as a broken sword reveal a murderous aura that is even stronger than when he was young. As long as the young soldiers stand beside him, under the withered and dilapidated but immortal military flag, they will be involuntarily infected and inspired, just like following the general's path of progress in his youth, and bursting out with unprecedented fighting power.

This is the soul of a strong army. Veteran General Neo has been stationed in Sol for fifty years. He has melted his body and will into this steel city, becoming the soul of the last remaining army of the Storm Dynasty.

That's right. When the Golden Dynasty first conquered the North, they failed to capture Thor. It was not until the demise of the Storm Dynasty that the envoys went to Thor again with the royal flag and seal from Stonewell. Neo was forced to surrender in order to protect the soldiers and civilians in the city.

From then on, Sol remained the last private land of the survivors of the Northern Storm. As a sign of respect and to demonstrate its magnanimity, the Golden Dynasty promised Neo that he could lead his subordinates to continue to guard Sol until the veteran was willing to accept the dynasty's title and land grant and return to the marquisate reserved for him in the southern border to spend his remaining years. Only then would the dynasty send a new garrison commander to take over the city of Sol.

Everyone thought that the old general, who was already in his sixties at the time, would soon retire and return home. After all, his hometown was in Nimgfu. Having done this for the Storm Survivors, he no longer owed anything to the Storm Dynasty or the Ancient Dragon Dynasty.

But no one expected that they would defend for another twenty years, until the general was already in his eighties, until the Golden Dynasty lost the North again, and the Giant King personally led an army of 300,000 to the city, Neo still stood on the top of the city of Thor, as if he himself was an eternal military flag that would never fall down despite wind and rain and the passage of time.

Hearing the question from his favorite junior, Neo narrowed his hawk-like eyes, a hint of smile flashed across his thick, pale beard, and said, "Tell me, what's the problem?"

The young officer named Oglet looked around to make sure that there were no other soldiers on this floor of the tower. Even if he was wrong, it would not disturb the morale of the army. Then he spoke cautiously: "The number of military flags and tents outside the city has increased since yesterday, and there have been many more today. The cumulative increase has been 20% - that is, the enemy has increased its troops again. This is the biggest abnormality."

"The enemy's number is already more than five times ours. Is it a good thing to send more troops?"

"General, why do you have to test me again? The enemy chieftain, Calerius, appeared in front of the army half a month ago. If we need to increase the troops, we should have done it before he showed up, and encouraged the whole army with the power of the king's personal expedition, so as to break the city in one fell swoop. At that time, the enemy did increase the troops by 150,000, but we resisted that wave of attack. If we want to increase the troops again, we should do it gradually in the next two weeks, so as not to make it seem that the enemy chieftain's attack was frustrated and lacked confidence."

"However, the enemy showed no signs of increasing its troops in the past two weeks. Instead, they suddenly increased their troops by tens of thousands yesterday. There is only one possibility - this is a false impression for us to scare our army and prevent us from launching a sudden attack to disrupt their ongoing plans."

"Of course, if that's all, it would be better to maintain the status quo or do what I said, 'slowly increase the troops'. Based on our understanding of each other in the previous battle, the Giant King is not a reckless fool, and the enemy will not treat the general as a fool. This fake move will obviously be seen through by our army."

"Therefore, I speculate that the enemy may have set up an ambush on the way our army is attacking. If our army really thinks that they have found a flaw and underestimated the enemy, they can take advantage of the situation to ambush us and it is not impossible to break into the city along the way."

Neo nodded secretly, but his face remained calm. He just continued to inquire: "There is no problem here. Tell me about the 'plan' you mentioned. Why did they take this series of actions?" Oglet didn't expect that the usually strict general would actually confirm his speculation. He immediately became excited and said confidently: "What's so difficult about this? It's nothing more than transferring high-level combat forces to the frozen lake. Maybe Calelius will go there himself. Ever since His Excellency the Ice Dragon attacked Thor and injured Rexxar last time, and killed two first-generation giants in a row, the giants have hated him so much that their teeth are itching. Now that the Eastern War Group has been unable to attack for a long time, it is not surprising that the Giant King's Court decided to free up its hands to solve the frozen lake first. Is it?"

When talking about the second half, seeing the general's increasingly dark face, Ogret began to feel a little uncertain, but the North is so small, with only three battlefields at most. Putting aside the few scattered soldiers left in Ossarion from the direction of Otina, the only ones who can have a macro impact on the war situation are Thor and the Frozen Lake. How could this be wrong?
"It's not surprising, you head!" Neo was furious and punched Ogret, who was taller than him, on the forehead. "How many times have I told you to understand the overall situation, understand the overall situation! Why haven't you made any progress!"

"What is the Frozen Lake? The ancestors of the giants saw that their forbidden spells were powerful, but when they were thrown into the center of the lake, their strength was immediately reduced by half. The old giant king's court had been deadlocked for thousands of years and failed to conquer the place. He, Kalerius, has gone crazy and thinks that he can conquer it in a few days? If he really could, he wouldn't have come to Thor first. Wouldn't it be better to go and kill Bolerius directly?"

Ogret ran away with his head in his hands while complaining, "What else could it be? It's not a frozen lake. Could it be that Osarion suddenly exploded and killed an ancestor, scaring Kalerius into coming to help? Does he have the ability to let others wipe out the Northern Guard House without bloodshed?"

"I do not know either."

"You don't know either, huh?" Oglet's eyes suddenly widened. You don't know either, and you can still beat me up so comfortably?
“It’s precisely because we don’t know that it’s the most interesting thing.”

A visible smile finally appeared on Neo's old face. "Otina is impossible, and the frozen lake is also impossible, but the Giant King's Court has clearly withdrawn a considerable number of high-end combat forces. On the other side of the battlefield, in a place we can't see, someone must have done something that completely broke the King's Court's calculations, forcing the King's Court to devote a lot of energy to the south to deal with it."

"Thor is the lifeline of the entire northern border of the ice field. Now he is clearly within sight, but Karelius has to suppress his ambitions and be led away by the nose. We have not seen him in person, but have heard his voice first. Our group of unexpected friendly forces has really caused a shocking commotion!"

"Unexpected friendly forces," Oglet was stunned, "are they reinforcements from the Golden Dynasty?"

"Who knows? For now, it doesn't matter who it is," Neo stroked his beard and said, "Since they have bought us some breathing time, we should also buy them some space to move around."

"But the ambush just mentioned--"

"That was the attack route imagined by these giants with shit in their heads. Why should I follow the direction they set just because they planned an ambush?"

"Pass on my order! Before dawn today, the defenders of the South City will beat the drums to invite a fight. The defenders of the East City will go out of the city for 20 miles and pretend to break out. If they encounter the enemy, they will immediately return. You will personally lead 5,000 elite cavalry to break out from the West City and charge towards Otina for 300 miles before returning. Remember, bring back at least five heads of the second generation to see me!"

Hearing that he was going out of the city to kill the enemy, Oglet finally stopped feeling wronged. He quickly tapped his breastplate, held his two swords tightly and said, "I obey your orders!"

(End of this chapter)