Enlightened Empire

Chapter 407: Order Into Chaos

As if he was stuck in a bog, Chalco was felt like he was slowly drowning in his desperation. At first, he had thought that his task would be easy enough: Just collapse the tunnel their enemies were trying to dig. The day they had succeeded in destroying the first tunnel, he had celebrated for the first time since the start of the war.

Although their losses had been heavy, he had been convinced that their enemies would become discouraged by their show of bravery from the on. Soon however, he had realized that there were multiple tunnels their foes had dug already. Still, those would only require some minor, additional effort.

His task had still seemed manageable then, but it had since spun completely out of control. Every time he thought he had a handle on the enemy, they either increased their efforts - throwing more men and materials underground - or they would come up with new tricks to foil his desperate attempts to defend his home.

And with every expansion of the conflict underground, Antila had to sacrifice more of its sons to retain a balance and prevent their complete collapse. Thus, their losses just kept climbing more and more, and yet the enemy tunnels crawled closer and closer to their walls anyways. By now, their position seemed truly hopeless. Even so, Chalco had neither the time nor the interest to consider giving up.

At least let my wall stand until the war is over.

That was the last pride he clung to. His hopes of saving his city had long been dashed. He no longer had any illusions about a reversal of fates, and was simply looking forward to their eventual defeat, so he could finally rest.

Though if there was nothing else he could do, at least he would hold off the tunnels long enough so that Antila's troops would surrender before his walls collapsed. At least this way, not all his work would have proven worthless. That was his pride.

Yet at the moment, even that modest goal looked like an impossible dream. While he stood there, with an axe in his hand and a small troop of his workers behind him, the warriors of Antila were once more fighting and dying before him.

Here as well. How are we supposed to get through this?

Like always, warriors were pushing and shoving against each other in the tiny corridors underground. This had been going on ever since the southern army had begun to connect its individual tunnels to create a large network.

With the heavy armors and shields the warriors wore, as well as the lack of space to maneuver, these battles almost always turned into pure contests of endurance. Not even the southern commoners with their sharpened sticks could change anything about that. As the warriors got more experience in this style of battle, they began to last a lot longer without major losses. Sometimes, it would take hours until any position within the tunnels got overwhelmed by a side. And so long as both sides still fought, there would be no going past them, since they would block the entire passage.

As Chalco tried to recall the approximate layout of the underground maze in his head, Qori returned from within one of the passages ahead.

"This one is blocked too, boss. Looks like the fighters will take a while until they are done," the warrior said. "So where to now?"

"This is troublesome," a hesitant Chalco replied after a long time of indecision. "Assuming the enemy's plans have not changed, we can suspect that their main tunneling direction should be right ahead of our position. There are three side-paths available that we could take to reach the position. However, we have checked all three paths, and all are currently blocked off by combatants."

"What about taking a detour?" Qori asked. In response, Chalco shook his head and explained.

"The workers only opened this new direction of attack two days ago. We have not had time to build any circumventing tunnels, and we do not know enough about the enemy tunnels in this area to traverse them. Who knows where we would end up if we just marched based on instinct."

"So we can do nothing until someone wins in these tunnels," Qori concluded.

"That is the long and short of it." Chalco nodded and crossed his arms.

Although they could do nothing at the moment, he was still calm. After all, this wasn't the first time they were stuck like this. In the narrow, crowded underground battlefield, most combatants were forced to do nothing most of the time.

In the early days of the war, this inaction had made Chalco nervous. Every time they were stuck like this, he would order his workers to start tunneling alternate paths, or help the warriors in their contest of strength by pushing from behind. However, most of their 'help' had shown no effect, and had only tired them out at critical moments. So over time, he had learned that it was smarter to just calm down and wait for the opportunity to show their best.

Thus, a relaxed Chalco stood there quietly, waiting. Only nervous shuffling and coughs in the corridor behind him reminded the architect of the workers who had come with him.

"Stay lively, men!" he shouted as he turned his head. "Only a matter of time until our guys break through. So we need to be sharp, sharp enough to cut off the claws that are grasping for our homes when we get the chance!"

Although his speech was vigorous, his men only reacted with some lazy grunts. Clearly, the weeks of constant work and fighting, coupled with the increasingly dire food situation in Antila, had eroded their earlier enthusiasm. Though the fact that he had made similar speeches many times before probably didn't help either.

At least in that regard, his overenthusiasm of the past had been useful. If they had some work to do, his guys wouldn't have to think about their hopeless situation all the time. As it was, their numb reaction felt dangerous. They wouldn't follow his orders much longer, and might just rout without enemy contact.

Just hold on a bit longer, Chalco prayed in his heart. Just until the guys above have given up.

As soon as he had the thought, it seemed like his prayers had been heard.

In front of him, the low grunts of strenuous, long-term combat changed. First, sounds of dogs mixed in with the rest. Not long after, sharp screams pierced through the noise of the tunnels and replaced all others.

They're here! Finally!

"Let's go!" he shouted towards the workers behind him, and then rushed into the tunnel from which he heard the shrillest voices.

For days, Chalco had watched as the war hounds of House Vareo had been transported over to Antila, and then retrained, specifically to support them underground. Back then he had asked one of the tamers of House Vareo how these beasts would even distinguish between the troops of Antila and Saniya in the chaos down here.

'They all smell the same,' was it? Chalco remembered.

Apparently, Saniya's troops were given soap as part of their standard rations, and indeed, they had found soap on many killed and captured enemy bodies. Although Chalco didn't understand why they would need such a luxury item during a war - and although he had been jealous of their strong supply lines that could afford to transport such useless products - he was now glad they got them.

Since all of Saniya's people were using the same soap, all of them smelled the same, and the dogs could be trained on all of them. As Chalco's worker team charged through the tunnels, he immediately saw the effects of the long training.

The dogs had been released from one of the many hidden entrances he had built over more than a full moon of work. As soon as the hounds entered the complex caverns, they changed the nature of combat underground. From one moment to the next, vicious beasts rushed through the darkness like ghosts and attacked anything they were trained on. As the beasts used side tunnels and small holes to attack from unexpected angles, the clean formations from before were torn apart and made way to unplanned chaos.

At last, Antila's troops had gained a temporary advantage, though Chalco knew that it wouldn't last for long. He wasn't sure how it would take for the southerners to deal with the hounds, but they certainly could only play a trick like this once. Most of these animals would never see sunlight again.

However, Chalco couldn't dwell on their fates. If he wanted their deaths to at least be meaningful, he had to fulfill his mission. At least that the hounds had made much easier than before. Within the chaos, Chalco's crew finally found a chance to move forward.

Slowly, they made their path north, ever closer to what he expected to be the position of their enemy's main tunnel. Every once in a while, they would see soldiers from either side, stuck in combat with each other. At other times, small packs of hounds would rush past them, mere black shadows rushing along in search for prey. Sometimes, they would have to wait for a while, but it wasn't like before. The sluggish underground battle had since come alive, and stalemates were quickly resolved within the chaos.

Finally, after a long and careful walk that avoided all threats, they saw something Chalco hadn't seen in days: A several steps wide tunnel, one which was high enough that he didn't have to bend down all the time. It was lined with wooden beams at even spacing, and lit up brightly by precious oil lamps all along the walls. Even the floor had been flattened and planed to make transportation easier and tripping less likely. Though of course, it had since turned into a muddy mess after days of neglect.

This had been the construction method for Saniya's tunnels early on. Since then, they had been forced to take many shortcuts to speed up their progress. Either way, the downright luxurious state of their surroundings told them that they had arrived at their main target: They had finally entered the third of Saniya's main tunnels.

Though when they arrived there, Chalco was shocked to see not a single soul in sight.

Has everyone disappeared to fight elsewhere? he wondered, though only for a moment. There was no time to lose after all. It was better to take advantage of the short peace so long as they could work undisturbed.

"Let's get to work!" he shouted thus. Immediately, Qori stepped up next to Chalco and shouted at the workers.

"Hear that, you lazy louts!? Bring down this one little tunnel, and then we all get to go back home for a full meal!"

Compared to Chalco's impassioned speech from earlier, Qori simple enticement was far more effective. As soon as they were promised a decent meal, the men got to work again.

As he watched the workers put axes to the wooden support in eager anticipation of a full stomach, the architect was saddened that a simple meal would be enough to motivate his men to such an extent. Antila had already fallen so far that basic necessities were treated like luxury goods. Meanwhile, the southern kingdom soldiers were still using enough soap that the dogs could smell it on them.

Their poverty was something Chalco felt deeply ashamed by, since he was responsible for all these men, his workers. However, it wasn't something he could change anything about. He himself hadn't had a full meal in quite some time, not since he had to give up his stash. Moreover, at this moment, he had far greater concerns, like their exact position, and the structure of this tunnel they had found themselves in.

To his left, he found a short section of tunnel that soon swerved left around a corner, so he couldn't see very far. To his right, the tunnel continued for a while, before the wooden supports and oil lamps along the walls disappeared. The end of the tunnel was covered in darkness, truly concerning. After all, this tunnel led towards the east, the direction of Antila's walls.

"Qori, get some men to stay at the corner over there," he said as he pointed to his left. "We need early warning if someone shows up."

Once he had finished his orders, he walked towards the right, towards the darkness.

"Boss, where are you going?" Qori asked, as he watched Chalcos follow the tunnel's east direction.

"We have to find out how close they have come to the walls. If they are farther along than our estimates, then we will have to increase our efforts in the future. My return will be swift. Qori will be in charge until then." After Chalco was done with his instructions, he continued on.

In truth, he only barely managed to keep his voice steady due to anxiety. And the farther he walked, the more confused he became. How far had these people dug already? This was closer to the walls than he had ever imagined even in his worst case scenarios. In his haste, he tripped over his own feet, and landed in deep water with his hands.

What is this, a side tunnel? he wondered, as he stared at the dark hole that had been dug out in the walls of the tunnel. Apparently, the Saniya people didn't have time to pump out all the water anymore. Instead, they were digging side-tunnels and let them naturally fill with water from the main tunnel to drain all the liquid. Maybe that was how they had been making such quick progress.

When he stood back up, he stared at his feet and realized that a piece of rope had entangled itself on his boots and caused his fall. Although he didn't know what it was used for, he freed himself and quickly marched on.

Shocked and confused, he continued to walk along the main tunnel, ever deeper. Once he had walked deep enough, the light from behind made seeing in front almost impossible. All the lamps had been left behind, so he could no longer see what was in front.

We cannot be far from the walls now, but it appears no one is here at least, he thought. They could never have reached them yet, could they? It appears the hounds have interrupted their work. We just barely prevented the worst.

Just as he finished his thought, a noise came from behind.

"Enemy attack!" he heard, before chaotic noises from his workers followed.

What happened? Again he looked down at the thin rope that ran across the ground all along the tunnel. Damned idiot, did I trip an alarm?

Rather than blame himself further, he clutched his axe tightly and rushed back. By the time he could see his men again, they were already engaged in combat. They were positioned right up to the bend on the other end of the tunnel. In lines of three they stood, somehow trying to hold off their enemies with tools made for construction.

Opposite them stood only two, but they were armed heavily. The warriors carried short axes and wore heavy armor. On their hips, they also carried two short muskets each. These special soldiers called 'grenadiers' had been deployed by the southern army since half a moon ago, and they had proven deadly effective in close quarters.

Damn, damn! Why them, of all people?

Whenever they ended up in a clinch with the enemy, these warriors would just draw their ranged weapons and shoot at point blank range. The short and heavy pistols were enough to punch through any armor at short distance, and the grenadiers carried enough powder and shot to last all day underground.

Desperately, Chalco rushed forward, to support his men before they would be taken apart. Yet before he even got close, he saw Qori behind the front line pick up a rock off the ground.

"Give it all you got!" he shouted. "They are only human too!"

With that, he chucked his stone over the workers, towards the heavily armored foes. Yet the stone didn't even hit the armor. Instead, it ricocheted off the ceiling and landed on an oil lamp on the wall. Straight away, all the oil stored in the lamp ignited and poured onto one of the grenadiers.

A sharp scream, high and shrill as if it came not from a human, filled the tunnel immediately. The burning figure lit the tunnels brightly as it flailed around. Straight away, the workers retreated to take their distance from the man, but it was already too late. Before they had taken more than a few steps, the powder stored on the man's back ignited.