Gate of Dimensions

[Act 1] Chapter 14: A Suicidal War

"Dark elves?!" Mordred screamed.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Apparently, the Germans have gained an ally in the people you claimed to be a bug waiting to be squashed. Even with their small numbers, they are quickly gaining allies from everywhere."

"I don't care! We still have the numbers. Flying overhead I saw how tiny their army was, with enough troops we can crush them with everything we have. I want our forces to abandon the borders and head towards Camelot and receive directions."

"Well, that is the thing, your Majesty. Word got out of the three-hundred thousand soldiers of your Imperial Army, the two-hundred thousand levies, the thousands of beasts that joined the fray and the hundreds of dragons that were massacred, there has been mass desertion of the Imperial forces. Most have either went home, fled to neighbouring countries or turned back to banditry. All that is left of your army is maybe close to a million, but that is the report we got from the commanders themselves, others are likely to flee upon being called here."

"And we barely have enough men to man the fortifications on the Saxonian border," Duke Lazare stepped up.

Mordred smirked a grin. "Doesn't matter, we still have the numbers to match both the Germans and the Saxonians, the latter being just a bunch of clansmen."

At that Erenn stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, despite your best intentions to wage an all-out war against a people who we can't even get close to without exploding, now should be the time to pursue peace talks in order to save yourself, otherwise you will lose what you gain."

"No!" Mordred screamed, slapping the Archduke. "These people have chosen to ally with my sister against me and for that, they must die. They may have got the upper hand in that battle, but it was simple luck they had on their side. I will not make peace until I see every German's head on a pike for what they did to my army!"

"So despite what you have seen, you still think we have a chance against the German Army? We can't even invade the Holy State of Magic let alone a people clearly superior. I saw these people from a distance and I saw their exploding magic, their metal elephants, their iron dogs, their steel dragons and their thundersticks, all of which blasted us to pieces in a matter of hours."

Despite the excruciating detail, Mordred still did not budge from his position. Erenn almost lost his calm after his liege sniggered. "We still have the army to match them, it is all about how you plan to attack them. With our oversized army and our expanding resources, the Germans will be no match with their thundersticks if we happen to surround them." Mordred confidently deduced.

"How do you plan to defeat them, your majesty? We don't even know how to defeat a mage." Erenn demanded, grinding his teeth.

"By playing dirty. We band together with the last of our armies and set up a perimeter around my sister's last territories and lead large-scale skirmishes against their armies, creating a trap where they won't have a clue where to go next and forcing them to spend too much time to find a way through. And while that is going on, we burn every single crop we have, creating a supply shortage that not even these Germans can replenish without heading back to Guinevere."

While the rest of the lords applauded, Erenn, unsurprisingly, was sceptical of the whole idea. "Your Majesty, a scorched-earth tactic upon your own country is not the way to handle the situation, especially when the local population is already fleeing into their territory. You saw how fast those metal carriages went without a horse, they could pull anything."

"That's what the skirmishes are for, Erenn," Mordred smugly answered. "We will muster all those who deserted and force them the German's way. A good way to defeat our enemies and show what we do to traitors."