Chapter 9 - Crisis

It had been about three days since I was confined to this room. Life was okay in here; I got food and could exercise inside the room. Occasionally, Jason would come to visit me, and I would tell him about how I had managed to survive, while he told me about the things that were happening above ground.

Apparently, the demons had been moving oddly for the past few days, having halted all their advances and focused almost entirely on maintaining the status quo. Jason told me that he would be leaving for the northwestern front, one of the most dangerous and combat-heavy areas within the western front. Being located in the mountains, filled with forests, it was the center of most of the enemy's ambushes, and if that were not enough, the number of beasts that would invade the northwestern front on a regular basis was another factor that made it a very dangerous area to survive in.

Which meant he would no longer be visiting me, and I was now truly alone. I had already guessed that I would no longer be hearing from Jason ever again.

"Haaah, I get why they have kept me captive, but it's not exactly my fault about the things that happened in the forest. Haaah," I sighed to myself and started to exercise. Tempering my body had become my favorite pastime in the past three days.

***

Meanwhile, outside Ithax's prison cell, hell had just broken out for those on the Western front.

"Fuck, get me Sleipnir. I am going to the front lines myself; I have no other choice," I said as I looked at the board with the map of the western front laid out before me.

I looked at the wooden pegs that were placed at strategic locations, where our men were stationed, and for each brown peg, there were two more purple pegs.

All of a sudden, the demons had launched their largest offensive maneuver to date, and the entire southwestern front had already collapsed, while the northwest was just barely holding on. The only place where we had held out comfortably was the main western front, but the moment the demons from the southern front poured in, that front too would fall. At that point, even if the northwestern front stayed secure, there would be nothing to gain, as the western base of operations would have already been captured.

"Retreat is not an option here. The moment we surrender or fall back, the floodgates would be opened, and hordes of demons would head straight for the center, and if that were to happen, the kingdom of Valloria would most assuredly fall," I said to my four commanders, two of whom I would be taking with me on a suicide mission to the southwestern front, while the other two would split their forces and would help out both the main and northwestern front.

"Eric, Dominik, our job is simply going to be to wipe out as many of the demons on the southwestern front as possible while we wait for reinforcements from the center to arrive. Meanwhile, Colt and Gregory will try to survive with as few casualties as possible. Both of you are only to maintain the front lines; do not advance. Let the enemy throw themselves at you, and keep a defensive formation. Even the demons, as plentiful as they may be, have a limited manpower pool," I finished speaking to my commanders, and sent them away after that so they could prepare for departure soon.

"Corporal, I will be taking all prisoners with me. Any manpower right now is useful. Since they are to be executed anyway or are being punished for something, causing them to act as nothing more than leeches on our limited supply, having them sacrifice themselves for the sake of the nation is a great privilege," I said as I started to adorn my armor.

"At your command, Great General Maximus," the young man said as he ran out of my room.

"Fucking hell, I knew that something felt off," I cursed, putting on my helmet and picking up my glaive, Malzorath, as I exited my room, heading straight for the stable.

***

"You're letting me out already? Wasn't I supposed to be under supervision for now?" I said as I looked at the soldier who came to free me with a confused look on my face. It had only been three days since I was sent to the cell; there was no way I was set free because I was found innocent, which must mean the situation at the front lines is much worse than I had imagined it to be.

My theory was only further proven correct when the soldier didn't answer my question and simply set free all the other prisoners, after which a man who looked to be a hundred-man commander stood right in front of the stairs that led to the exit of the prison.

"From today onwards, you will be following me. We are going to the southwestern front. You will obey my orders until this unit disbands. Now, follow me," he said, giving not really any information on

 why this was happening, but given the context, I am sure the smarter prisoners already had somewhat of an idea as to what was going on.

We were about to be used as meat shields, and there was nothing we could really do about this either. Considering they had resorted to using us as meat shields, even if we were to desert the field, we are more likely than not to die at the hands of demons anyway, and that is if we considered the possibility of deserting the field at all. After all, on one side was the dreaded forest where I had barely survived, the other was a land devastated by a decade-long war with the demons… there was quite literally nowhere to run.

"Let's go; they freed us, boys," said one of the 90-odd prisoners that were in this particular block of the prison. From what Jason had told me, there were about 100 such blocks throughout the fortress, each capable of storing 100 prisoners.

He had figured out that the western wall was one of the easiest places for the kingdom to send its criminals, as they could be used as bait, cannon fodder, and occasionally as a last defense. The reason this worked was because the prisoners were given a very enticing incentive to follow orders, in that if they performed exemplarily on the field if they were ever needed, all their charges would be dismissed.

"Silence," said the hundred-man commander, as the crowd started to get a little rowdy, after which he started moving up the stairs. "Follow me; we need to get you lot equipped and start heading out as soon as possible," he said without turning his head back towards us.

"In a rush as well," I muttered to myself as I too started to climb up the stairs. I had a feeling that by now the situation had already started to spiral out of control.