A thick vein bulged on Alex's forehead as soon as he saw fatty but Shen's words further infuriated him.
'For god's what the hell are you doing there?'
'A war had been waged between two Empires. People are dying. A defence line had already been captured but you still don't know a damn thing about the war.'
'Is he kidding or he is that irresponsible.'Alex muttered.
'Wait!'
"General Shen, what the hell is going on? Isn't this a Royal communication channel then why the hell are you receiving the call?" Alex shouted furiously.
"You know about the western front. It's so desolate and bleak. What can happen here? So I switched the channel to stop useless people pestering the Royals."
"Hahaha! Am I not clever?"
Alex nodded and said softly, "You are as clever as a donkey."
"What did you say?"
"Nothing!" Alex put on a stoic expression and spoke
"General Shen, Arkham has attacked us and we are in a bad situation right now. We need reinforcement quickly. Use the warp gate if possible otherwise the entire Western Front will fall."
"That can't be. First, transportation through the warp gate is expensive. Second, all the fronts are busy with the war. So, in a time like this, we can't send reinforcements as you demand."
"So, are you saying to kill us here or try to fend off the enemies," Alex asked with a sharp gaze.
"In a way, yes," Shen said with an amused expression.
"You are stationed there to do your duty. If not for all your negligence then how can a defence line fall so quickly." Shen spoke and snorted.
'The second Prince had said not to provoke you but that didn't mean I can't borrow a hand to kill you. As soon as you die, I will report this matter to the centre and ask for reinforcement but for that, you need to die.'Shen thought inwardly with a loud grin.
"The overall situation of Kinley is already quite grim. We cannot afford to spend too many resources. There will be reinforcements but for that, you have to hold for 5-7 days. I will immediately contact the Centre." Shen spoke after putting on a solemn expression.
Alex sighed and stared at Shen for a moment.
"General Shen, tell me the truth?"
"Just for some personal reason, aren't jeopardizing the safety of the whole Empire."
"Do you think you deserve the post on which you have been laying and sleeping lazily?"
Shen's expression distorted and he slammed the table fiercely.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I don't deserve this post. Who the hell are you to judge whether I deserve this post? Let me tell you when you are wetting your bed, I was already at the border risking my life."
"I have got here through sheer hard work, strength…"
"And treachery." Alex pointed out, causing Shen to choke his saliva.
His face became as red as a ripened tomato due to anger.
"I will not send reinforcements. You can die there. I will see who dares to set foot on the Western Front to collect your corpse."
"Is it your wish or Second Prince Hex? Cause you hold that much power?" Alex spoke with a mocking smile.
"Even the Second Prince agrees with-" Shen closed his lips and felt as if he had spoken something taboo.
"Bastard, you dare to argue with your senior officer. I will strip your posi-!"
Alex glared at Shen and just cut off the communication abruptly before letting him finish the sentence.
Alex threw away the stone and asked"Did you record that?"
"Yes My Lord!" Aeon muttered while stepping forward.
Aeon and everyone around him were sweating profusely listening to the heated conversation that happened just now.
Though they could see their Lord calm they could already feel burning anger radiating from him.
All they could do was burn incense for Shen who will soon meet a miserable fate.
Alex stared at the sun which was on its way to set while the men were working on setting up the line to meet the second wave.
Alex moved towards the commander and asked all the important officials who had survived to enter.
Barack along with others introduced themselves.
All of them were natives of this place and knew the entire terrain like the back of their hands.
Only the people who were native, took their duties seriously as for others it was better not to speak about it.
A map opened and rolled on the table.
Alex took out the marker and crossed four defence lines immediately which were in a perilous situation.
The only safe defence line was the third and fifth ones. The fourth one cannot be even said for a defence line.
"Tell me the fastest way to get to the rear?"
"Huh rear!"
The official's eyes widened. They thought that they were going to strategize about the battle that was about to come or about sending reinforcements to another defence line.
So, all of them were stunned for a moment.
Alex stared at them and spoke truthfully.
"We can't defend the second defence line. I will tell you honestly, without me this defence line couldn't even last for an hour."
"Now that we have defeated enemies here. They would all shift their focus here and come back stronger and you can't possibly ask me to defend this place with broken walls and a handful of troops before their huge army."
"And even if we turn towards others to help, we don't know about their situation. They might have already collapsed by now."
"If we don't move quickly we will be trapped from all around and isolated. And I don't want the people under me to die worthlessly due to some bastard scheme."
They all kept their mouths shut as they could feel the anger from Alex's tone directed at General.
"So, are we going to leave the defence line and flee away?" Barack asked.
"Yeah, our first preference is to preserve our numbers. We will first take a look and understand the overall situation of the defence line and Western front and respond with flexibility after joining with others. On our way, we need to find others and if possible I want to send a message to the nearby kingdom asking for assistance after getting to the rear."
Barack and others agreed to Alex's words as it was quite sensible. As Alex said, with their small numbers of soldiers of which most of them were worn out, and they couldn't tackle all the threats.
Their gazes turned towards the map and as they discussed, all of them concluded.
"This oath will be good. If we follow the road and water channel from here, we are going to reach it in around 4 hours."
It was one among the hundreds of paths that only the locals knew about.
"Four hours is still too much. The sun would set in three hours. We need to get there by 2 and a half or three before the night descends fully."Alex ordered.
"Now we cannot take the safe path now. What we lack is time and to shorten it, we need to move faster."
"How about we go through the forest and then the hill? All my soldiers are well-trained and moving through this place would save 45 minutes at least."Alex suggested.
The meeting didn't take too long and Alex was able to convince everyone properly to leave.
As he left the room, he was greeted by the sight of his soldiers along with Riya.
"All the preparations are finished from our end," Riya said.
The reaction was quite fast but the next thing he saw was the faces of the nobles whom he had been seen to be lazing around during the training.
