The World Dragon's Heir
Chapter 176: Overlapping Combat Zones

Chapter 176: Overlapping Combat Zones

Alexis led their guards back to the abandoned farmhouse as Dominic pulled the last of the bodies off the road.

The next group was approaching fast, too fast for him to join the group at the house. The best he could do was to put a dead soldier and a barrier over himself and lay down in the ditch.

With a bit of luck, none of the mortars would land directly on him, but his Area Barrier should be enough to take the hit without any issues.

One of the horsemen whistled as he skidded to a stop, and Dominic recognized a Cygnia Mechanical horse above him, along with the colours of the Royal Army.

The Riflemen had seen the same thing, and they were hesitating to shoot. This might be one of their own units.

"Shit, I don’t know what they ran into, but it was efficient. Someone go stop those trucks, the drivers are probably dead. Check the corpses for any usable intelligence." The leader of the group insisted.

Dominic calculated the odds that this was a trap, and then rolled the body off himself before getting to his feet.

"Advisor?" One of the soldiers asked, confused.

"Oh? You are ours then. Good thing we didn’t shoot first and ask questions later. What are you doing out here?" Dominic asked.

"The fourth reserve Regiment and the Biverlow Regulars have been assigned to take out a Dagos training camp in the area. What are you doing out here alone?" The Colonel replied.

"Killing Dagos soldiers, of course. But I’m actually with the Natural Sons Regiment. The idea is to make Dagos think that the Princess fled the Capital, so they send Royals out to chase her." Dominic explained.

"And then your riflemen get to ambush Dagos Royal Guards and possibly finish off the Royal Lineage.

That’s brilliant. Evil, but brilliant."

Dominic nodded. He liked when a man came to the right conclusions the first time.

"Don’t attack the villages, they’re just old people and cripples anyhow. The Riflemen have been acting as benevolent bandits, and the locals have been covering for us." Dominic added.

"I don’t see the riflemen." The Colonel noted.

"Thank you. That’s the point.

But they’re all within rifle range. If you want to search for intelligence on the bodies, go ahead. I didn’t get time to fully strip them this time. We will attribute the kill to your team, and you can rejoin the assault on the training camp."

The Colonel smiled. "You’re a good man, Advisor. And one hell of a field Commander if you managed this without a single dead rifleman."

"We haven’t lost a man since Burton. But that’s all on their own skills, not my orders." Dominic agreed.

The soldiers quickly searched the bodies along the road while a pair rode off to stop the trucks that Dominic had made idle away.

"Good work, Advisor. We will report in to the Capital tonight after the base falls." The Colonel informed him.

"I would thank you not to mention seeing us. The King knows where we are, and at the moment, he is the only one who needs to. Confirmed reports of our location and mission may cause Dagos to call off the search for the Princes, and we want to lure them into the ambush." Dominic explained.

"Where should we watch for your men next?" The Colonel asked carefully, trying to make it obvious he just didn’t want to end up in an ambush by his own allies.

"Once we are sure that they’re not going to come all the way here to check in person, we will make our way to Albroles. The city there is huge, it shouldn’t take long to bait out some big fish with banditry in the region."

"Understood, happy hunting."

The soldiers finished up and rode away, hurrying to rejoin the other units for the attack.

"How long do you think it will take before someone reports in that we’re in the Theton River region without the Princess?" Commander Dax asked as he left the ambush location.

"I give it about a week before the news is back to the Dagos Royals. The question is whether they believe it or send out an entire army to come and make sure that she wasn’t hiding nearby." Dominic replied.

"The better question is whether we want them to believe it or not. We could happily ambush soldiers all over Dagos if nobody was out looking for us." Dax reminded him.

"I can’t argue with that. Those shoulder fired mortars are stupidly effective. But we should clean up and leave before someone comes looking for us again. It was good luck that our men and not the enemy who heard the first battle, but they might have just been closest."

The important bits were looted, and the Regiment mounted up to return to their camp. Taking dozens of routes back, each with only a few riders, would make the area look well travelled, but not a single well-worn path that would let anyone passing know that there was a large force in the ruins.

Staying here much longer would make the routes in and out too well travelled, but they were doing their best to cover the entrance with branches and greenery after the patrols passed.

Once they were settled back into the camp, Dominic explained the situation to Princess Alexis, who called the leadership of the Regiment to join them.

"Gentlemen, the way that I see it, we have two choices. We can continue to work this area, hoping for soldiers to pass, or we can move west or northwest, where we know that there will be more soldiers moving down the major roads.

That’s the higher risk, higher reward option.

I am leaning toward pushing Dagos to send an actual army against us. Cavalry mounted artillery isn’t anything that they’re equipped to deal with, and we could cause massive destruction by the time that they adapted.

Every force that we keep in the northeast of Dagos is a force that won’t be headed to Cygnia.

I have faith that my brothers will settle this war soon, and when they do, it would be to our benefit to have some merits to show for ourselves." She elaborated.

It was solid logic. Dangerous, but potentially rewarding.