Summoning Total War - Chapter 26
Chapter 26: Move (Part 1)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The impact caused Murphy to fly all the way up into the air!
With a loud thud, he fell hard and flat onto the ground. His mouth opened, and he made an “ow” sound. On top of that, he vomited out a mouthful of blood. He felt like all his internal organs were churning inside his body. It seemed like he had seriously injured his chest, and the severe pain he felt even made it difficult for him to breathe!
A white figure ran toward him, and shortly after, Murphy felt a warm current flowing from his back toward all the other parts of his body. The figure poured a cold liquid into his mouth. It had a really greasy taste to it, but Murphy had an idea what the liquid was and swallowed a large mouthful of it.
The injury was subdued for the time being, and Murphy struggled hard to try and get up from the high priestess’ arms.
He could no longer spot the Karazan Hurricane Pterodactyls or feel their presence anymore. About 15 meters away from where Murphy was currently standing, a really huge Karazan Hurricane Pterodactyl was quietly lying on the ground. It was already dead…
A townsperson who hadn’t managed to dodge the creature in time had been pinned under the weight of the huge dead corpse, and it seemed that he, too, was already dead.
Just what in the world had happened earlier?
Murphy immediately tried his best to organize his thoughts and remember what had happened earlier.
He had held tightly onto the spear and had quickly lunged forward. At that moment, with Hamilton’s dead body lying right at his feet, he didn’t seem to fear death at all for some reason!
Murphy had carefully calculated the flying trajectory of the huge monster before him, and the leg injury he had sustained earlier made it clear to him that he wouldn’t be able to dodge it. However, even though there was only a 1 in 10,000 chance that he could injure the huge monster coming toward him, he had no intention at all of giving up, and was determined to do all he could to defeat it!
If there was really no way for him to defeat death, then he’d let himself be a hero for once in his life at the very least.
Murphy could vaguely remember that the Karazan Hurricane Pterodactyl’s flying trajectory suddenly changed, as if it were being controlled by some outside force, because shortly after it deviated from its original course, something strange happened. The Karazan Hurricane Pterodactyl was originally on course to fly right above Murphy’s head and then use its giant claws to grab him. However, the Karazan Hurricane Pterodactyl suddenly changed course, and the pterodactyl positioned its body so that it was diving downward instead. Just like that, with its head facing down, it rushed toward Murphy. This attack position meant that even if the creature had managed to kill Murphy, it also would have suffered serious injuries from the hard impact.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Everything that happened afterward seemed to be over in a flash.
Murphy lifted his spear, and the pterodactyl’s huge body crashed into his. His spear pierced into the pterodactyl’s jawbone, and Murphy was knocked more than 10 meters away because of the impact, while the pterodactyl’s skull slammed into the ground. The hard impact against the ground twisted the pterodactyl’s neck bone, and the leader of the pterodactyls died in an instant. As if they’d been given a severe shock, the other pterodactyls, who were hovering in the sky, all at once fled at a speed that was faster than when they had flown here.
Murphy slowly stumbled along to the side of the huge Karazan Hurricane Pterodactyl. This time around, he didn’t reject the high priestess’s help.
He quietly looked at the dead body of the prehistoric beast in front of him. Even though it was already dead, its corpse still nonetheless produced fear in him.
Murphy’s spear was stuck in the creature’s jawbone, and a large portion of it had penetrated its body.
However, Murphy was sure that this most likely wasn’t the main reason why the creature had died. Murphy’s eyes were fixed on the dead body of this huge creature, and he closely examined it and searched for any sort of clue as to why it had died.
In no time, he very quickly found the clue that he was looking for.
It was an arrow that was silver-white in color. Almost the entirety of it was lodged in the Karazan Hurricane Pterodactyl’s head, and only a small piece of arrow feather attached to the arrow could be seen sticking out of its skull. Murphy grabbed onto the arrow with both his hands and tried to pull it out, but it didn’t even move an inch!
It seemed as if the arrow had gotten stuck in the creature’s skull when it was shot through its head.
After trying his best to pull the arrow out a couple more times, Murphy eventually decided to give up.
Based on the current strength he had, he just didn’t have what it took to pull the arrow out of the creature’s skull.
“Who was the one who saved me?” Murphy thought as he looked all around him. He studied his surroundings, but all he saw was complete darkness.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
When the first ray of sunlight appeared in the sky, Murphy gave the order to move the territory.
Shortly after, it started to rain heavily, and Murphy had no choice but to let the injured personnel find a place to take cover from the rain.
In the rain, the wounded’s injuries could easily get infected. In an era where no type of antibiotic existed, and without alcohol to disinfect the injuries, one of the main reasons why many injured personnel died was because of injuries that became infected. The entire territory had suffered many casualties because of that one battle last night. Almost all the personnel that had taken part in the battle now had injuries all over their bodies. And regardless of whether the injuries were serious or not, if a large number of those injuries became infected, it would be a fatal blow to the territory.
After thinking it through again and again, Murphy finally gave the order to move the territory before dawn.
The huge fire had already burnt the original town beyond recognition.
The battle last night had also made Murphy realize that their territory’s location had made it difficult for them to defend it. Although they had defeated the gnolls last night, there were still over a thousand gnolls who had taken advantage of it being nighttime to escape. All these escaped gnolls would be a threat to them in the future, and there was a high possibility that these gnolls would team up with other stronger gnoll armies to attack them!
Murphy eventually decided to build the new town on a highland that was near the Nidoria River.
It seemed that the distance between this new location and the port would be less than 500 meters.
The highland was about ten meters higher than the surface of the Nidoria River, so there was no need to worry about the town suffering any sort of damage when the river’s water level rose. Next to the highland was a plot of fertile land that was about 30 kilometers wide. All they had to do was burn the weeds during autumn, dig a canal, and fertilize it for half a year. Then they would be able to plant some wheat the next year. It would most likely be impossible to reclaim all the land, but it wouldn’t be difficult to reclaim that portion of the land that was closest to the river.
They could dig and build a river that circled around the city and then let the river water from the Nidoria River flow into it. This way, it would make life easier for the townspeople, and it would form an invisible barrier at the same time.
This was going to be a prototype of the moat. Once the territory had developed to a certain level, they could start constructing the moat.
Relying on the construction of the port, this meant that there would be another layer of defense. Behind them would be the Nidoria River, and the river would also act as a line of defense that would effectively prevent any enemies from attacking them from behind!
On top of that, the trading that was going to occur at the port was going to be one of the most important aspects of Murphy’s future plans.
Moving the territory and adapting was going to be very difficult in the beginning, but as long as they got through the initial stages, then everything would become much easier when things started to take shape.
Better days would come again.
After the battle, Murphy had had the idea of wanting to get out of their entanglement with the gnolls.
If it was possible, he was going to give up a large portion of their current territories and planned to start expanding their territory from the other side of the Nidoria River instead.
His strength was simply too low and weak.
He ought to find a place that would allow him to properly rehabilitate.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
The casualty statistics quickly came out.
The Greek infantry had suffered more than 200 casualties, while more than half of the General Guards’ forces had been injured. The Spartan infantry was the most severely affected, having suffered the most losses.
Out of the 80 personnel that made up the Spartan infantry, only 11 of them were still alive…
On the contrary, the town militia’s casualties were few because the infantries were the ones who had charged to the front line of the battle. Out of one thousand conscripted citizens, only ten had died.
The entire military strength of the town had been reduced by half. However, although the actual number of dead people hadn’t reached this number, there were many Spartan infantry soldiers that had been severely injured, and it would be impossible for them to pick up a weapon and head into battle in that state. A large portion of them would be arranged to retire and would step down to become mere ordinary citizens, and the territory would arrange another kind of work for them to do.
War was cruel!
As for the defeated gnolls, more than 1,500 gnolls had been killed by the soldiers during the gnolls’ retreat, and about 800 middle-aged gnolls had been captured. They would be used in the territory as slaves and would continue being slaves until the day they died.
Even with that, there was a good amount of gnolls who’d managed to escape under cover of the night.
After the rain stopped, the plan to move the town started again. The citizens carried all sorts of things that could be used to the port, while the soldiers escorted the 800 gnoll slaves along.
General Hamilton’s corpse was carried away, and his father, the man who had the same determined look on his face, gave Murphy a salute.
“Ding! This man has extraordinary military talent. Would you like to promote him to General?”
“Yes,” Murphy said, not hesitating in the slightest to give the order to promote Hamilton’s father to General.
Afterward, the general’s attribute box appeared in his head.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Character attributes:
Name: Rio Darley—Culis [Berserker]! (He came from Sparta.)
Commander: ★★★★★
Management: None
Influence: None
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Title:
Authoritarian (Law +4, Upheaval +2, Influence -1, Citizen support -10%.)
Heroic Excellence (Morale on the battlefield +3, Citizen support as much as 5%.)
Excellent commander (Commander +2.)
Spartans (Law +3, Money bribery +400%.)
Injuries all over the body (Life +10, Influence -4.)
Inborn talent (Commander +3.)
Butcher (Bounty of loot increased by 10%.)
Gnoll slaughterer (This man hates gnolls to the core! When battling a gnoll, morale on the battlefield +3!)
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Follower:
Herald (Every qualified ruler needs a Herald, Commander +1)
Supervisor (Agricultural products +1, Influence -1)
