Conquering His Cold Heart

Leo was by his father's side grasping onto his hand with reddened eyes. He was too weak to be on the battlefield at this point in the stampede, so he was regulated to managing the relief and forging situations. But he urgently made his way to the command tent the moment he saw his father being carried by Kiba.

When he arrived many others were already on site with panicked expressions, fearful of Kiba as well as the bloodied state of Douglas. Leo immediately took charge, stepping froward without fear to check on his father's condition before ordering for the healers and calming down the shocked soldiers and government workers.

"Leo" Frost spoke his friend's name gently causing Leo to tremble and turn around.

"Frost-senpai" Leo let go of his father's hand and dashed before Frost wrapping him up in a tight hug.

"Thank you, without you and Kiba my father would have certainly died." Tears flowed down Leo's cheeks as he thanked Frost. A couple soldiers that descended from the northern wall to guard Douglas looped him in on what happened once he got everything under control and questioned why Kiba was here with his father and Frost wasn't.

Frost patted his friend's head and returned the hug before they both broke away and Leo wiped away his tears. He couldn't be emotional at such a time, without his father in control the noble duties of the Furano house fell on his shoulders.

"Colonel Hamon how's the situation? Did you manage to drive back the rindars?" Leo shifted almost seamlessly from crying teenager to reliable young noble, a change that Frost couldn't help but be impressed by.

'He's not the same person I met a few months back.' A smile grew on Frost's face as he saw Leo not as the young boy he met but as a young man who could shoulder the duties placed on his shoulders. Douglas didn't have anything to worry about in regards to handing over his position, Leo was a natural leader.

"It's not too bad, Frost and I managed to seriously wound the leading rindar while Bastion, Major Tanto and Major Geoffrey wounded the second one." Hamon gave a quick report of the situation. He had kept abreast of the entire situation even while fighting against the leading rindar.

"Our elite fighters managed to hold back the tide successfully despite the absences of Bastion, Douglas and the others. And the wall managed to hold back the chaff that made it through without needing to expend another volley of arrows or overload the mage regiments."

The battle lines were split into four sections, the first line was composed of Furano's and the frost wolf battalion's elites, a regiment containing C-rank fighters. This group was in charge of forestalling the advance of the D and C-rank monsters and were placed in the vanguard position, in front of the northern wall.

Alongside them were the close combat B-rank fighters such as Douglas, Bastion and the two majors Tanto and Geoffrey. Their jobs were to control the actions of the B-rank monsters as well as aid the elite fighters in combat.

Next was the forces lined up on the northern wall, a very large unit composed of fighters just below the elite fighters in ability. Their job was to take care of the monsters that made it to the wall, stopping them from reaching Furano.

And finally behind them on raised platforms and lesser walls behind the great northern wall were the ranged corps. Mages and archers that would send their attacks over the wall and into the charging hordes, decimating large swaths and or preventing dangerous charges.

The siege weapons such as trebuchets were also part of this group or perhaps a fifth line but given the absence of ammunition and damage to the machines it was pretty much no longer active.

These lines did not break during the time he and Frost engaged with the rindar nor did they break when they retreated, a good sign.

"Good, good." Leo let out a relived sigh and nodded his head. He was worried that Douglas's situation may have caused a cascade break among the frontlines. His father was truly the heart and soul of the defence effort. Seeing him fighting alongside the soldiers and adventurers despite his nobility and even age inspired them all, filling them with pride and sense of duty.

An act that could unfortunately backfire if he was lost, thankfully the worst did not happen. In fact the soldiers and adventurers fought with even more aggression, pushing back the horde.

"With the injuries you and Frost inflicted, the effort of our elite troops and the addition of a new high level fighter do you think today's attack will continue for much longer?" Leo asked with a serious expression.

Hamon frowned and cupped his chin as he thought.

"Logically it should end soon but rindars are quite vindictive, they may no longer care about logic and instead play all their cards just for the chance to kill those who slighted them." Hamon responded after thinking for a few seconds.

Here in Furano and the other bastion towns the attacks in the late stages weren't like those that Frost, and his dungeon had to deal with. The waves wouldn't crash against the northern wall until their ran out of monsters no the situation would be more akin to a long term siege.

The B-ranks, the rindars in this case would allow for several hours of combat between their forces and Furano's before calling off the attack, retreating to behind the range of their arrows, magic and war machines and replenishing their forces until they had enough numbers to attack once again.

Furano relied heavily on this gap to rest their exhausted forces and swiftly clear some of the battlefield of the many corpse that strew across it.

"Leo I'll let you bring Frost here up to speed; it won't do us any good to have both me and Douglas out of the fight." Hamon gave a military salute to Leo and nodded towards Frost with a smile before reactivating the wind aspected spells on his legs and ascending to his previous position on the northern wall. His presence was a pressuring existence on the monster horde.

Just having him standing there made them wary.

Frost and Leo watched Hamon run through the air and land on the wall before emitting his heavy aura, announcing his return.

"Hopefully with Hamon having no signs of injury the rindars will think twice about continuing today's battle." Leo spoke with clenched fists. Though he wasn't able to be in the thick of the battle given his level of strength he was able to be in the know about the war's situation, his title as heir to the Furano Viscounty allowed him such privileges.

Knowing that his father was not on the frontlines by choice but that they needed him to be spoke of the danger they were currently facing, and this was just the beginning.

'Hopefully those reinforcements arrive soon.' Bastion repeatedly requested for high grade adventurers from the capital branch of the adventurers guild and along with Hamon's and Douglas request for more forces from the military their appeals were accepted, they just needed to survive until their arrival.

Leo then looked towards Frost as well as Kiba who was trailing behind him. With him added to their forces their situation looked slightly less bleak.

"Haaaaaaa" Leo sighed as his thoughts were conflicted, thankful that Frost and Kiba arrived to render aid when they sorely needed it but also worried about this chaotic mess that his friend and saviour had been dragged into.

"Come and sit, I'll explain the current situation." Leo gestured towards a nearby table and asked Frost to take a seat.

"Alright" Frost acquiesced, understanding that this was a serious situation.

"At the moment we're barely keeping our heads above water. Our ammunition is all but spent, we're using it quicker than we can craft it.

Same can be said with our stock of potions, the mid-stages done a real number on our reserves and unlike arrows or even equipment potions can't be made in a short span of time." There was a brewing process that couldn't be rushed or done by those without the necessary skills.

"We've had to rope in a large amount of able bodied civilians to help transport and carve up the monster corpses as our dismantling team was overwhelmed by the workload. My mother also worked hard to coordinate all the known merchants, smiths and other trade professions to generate temporary jobs for those who remain." Leo let out a slight laugh before continuing.

"Silver lining is the public order in the territory is pretty high given that everyone now has something to do, and our meat reserves are through the roof. There's so much that we can't store it thus the chefs of the territory have had their hands full preparing meals round the clock but regardless of how tasty the food is or how much energy it grants when eaten our men and women need sleep.

We don't have enough forces to create efficient shift schedules."

Leo outlined the situation at hand, stressing the major problems as well as their time schedule.

"4 days."