Johnson got up shortly after fainting.
He didn't let drowsiness overwhelm him and tried to get up.
At first, he thought all of this was a dream as his memory was still fuzzy but soon he felt relieved and realised that he had made it alive and thanks to some miraculous effect, all his wounds had healed and he was feeling more energetic than before.
He stretched and cracked his back as he could feel slight aches and pain due to lying on the ground
Though his wounds had been healed, he didn't overdo himself for fear of getting sick once again.
He glanced around and as he remembered the situation, he hurried his way to look at others' condition. In the spur of the moment, he had forgotten about the boys that were with him.
It was already nighttime and finally, when he saw the soldiers safe and sound, he sighed in relief.
They have just fainted and are now in deep sleep.
He examined their condition and all of them were in good shape.
Johnson looked around to find Aeon staring at him with a worried expression.
"Sir, are you alright now?" Aeon asked.
Johnson looked at Aeon's face and nodded his head.
'Huh! Weren't they sent to the fourth defence line? How did they show up here instead of going to other lines to help?'
He had forgotten about this matter due to the situation but now as his mind was clear, he wasn't able to let go of the thought that they had abandoned the defence lines and escaped here.
Alex and his troops should have been in the fourth defence line. Since other lines had been attacked, he should have shown up there.
He had heard that the situation at the border was quite bad. And knowing Alex, he expected him to be there and help them.
Johnson asked Aeon about all the details.
"When we heard about the Arkham Kingdom invasion, we headed straight to the Second defence line and successfully defended it from the enemies."
"So, why are you here now?" Johnson asked with a confused expression.
"Only My Lord can answer that question. He had some other thoughts about it and felt that it is a waste of resources to defend the Second Defense lines now."
Though he was curious about it, he was at least able to get rid of the concern after hearing about Alex's move.
"I expected nothing less from him," Johnson spoke with a sincere smile.
The surprise attack might have startled everyone which could interfere with their decision-making process. But still, Alex was able to take the best decision and produce the best result and prevent at least one of the worst-case scenarios.
And he could feel the reverence from Aeon's eyes and could imagine how great he was when he marched alone to the battlefield slaughtering the enemies.
After seeing Alex's preparation, Johnson could already perceive that Alex was preparing for war and now that someone like him was here, it added new life to the Western Front for now.
Johnson exchanged some greetings and walked towards the building where Alex was.
Alex greeted him and checked his condition. He confirmed that there were no major issues and asked him.
"Can you tell me what happened here?"
"Yeah."
"We were attacked by Arkham soldiers three hours ago. We were preparing to deploy 1000 soldiers to the 5th defence line but the Arkham soldiers surrounded us and attacked us suddenly. We quickly summoned our men and Commander Ruth took the charge but we couldn't do anything because of the overwhelming force of the enemy."
"Three hours...That was the time Alex took to reach here. Johnson had been unconscious for half an hour. It means they had already invaded for quite some time."
"Sir Johnson since you are the most experienced man here, I wanted you to take a look at the map and tell me why would they attack the reserve unit when they have already taken over the defence line."
Johnson nodded and looked at the Western Front map. The more he looked at it, the more confused he became.
After thinking for a long time, he found attacking here was meaningless unless they wanted to create a diversion.
Johnson's eyes widened as he noticed a yellow mark on the map.
"It can't be. They might have expected that some would flee or retreat seeing the situation of the defence line and come back to the rear."
"They wanted to take out the warp gate so they wanted to delay it so they sent out another troop to attack here."
"If a battalion from Kinley came here they would first rush here to offer help and forget about looking at the warp gate."
That was too shocking.
When Alex arrived here, he had been thinking about the attack here. He had already got the gist of their plan but the thing about warp gate was totally out of his mind because he hadn't imagined that the enemy forces had infiltrated this land since long ago.
Alex along with Commander Ruth had done some security checks and changed the man but he wasn't able to point out the spies or anything as he hadn't been to all Defence lines.
Moreover, the deployment of a sizable number of troops even before Alex appeared here and since they had been hiding in the vast land, went below Alex's radar.
Secondly, he hadn't imagined that Shen would play such a trick and swap the communication.
If he had relayed the news to the centre, even though they wouldn't send reinforcements they would at least send forces to secure the gate.
"It seems they have been preparing this for too long. They have taken all possibilities into account to make this war successful."Alex spoke with a harsh voice which made Johnson sigh heavily.
If he wasn't present here only god knows what would have happened. The Western Front might have already collapsed.
'Wait, since it had come to this then the old man should have already known about it then why the hell is he sitting still.'
'Old man, if you don't act, it is your land that is going to be snatched or did you push all the responsibilities on me after sending me here.'
'Damn it! You should have at least made me a general.'
Alex didn't know what his so-called Father Emperor was thinking but he understood one thing, he had relied on himself to solve this.
Maybe that old man also had a hand in delaying reinforcement cause he had already expected this war but he was sitting still like a stone.
Alex's headache seemed to be getting worse with each passing second.
"Shouldn't we assist the forces of the rear in this case? We should march towards them right now."
"It's useless," Alex muttered, shooting his head.
"You said that you were attacked three hours ago. It hadn't even been an hour since we had arrived. That is enough time for them to fall. When the defensive line couldn't persist for more than an hour, what could you expect from others?"
"You mean.."
"Yes, the warp gate has already been taken over or is in the process of taking over."
"It would take 30 minutes to reach there and if the warp gates are taken over and Arkham sends reinforcements we are going to die."
Despite such a tense situation, Alex wasn't in a hurry. There was no need to rush like a headless chicken and get beaten.
"I think, we should move to the next plan," Alex muttered and threw a knife on the map which landed on a forest covering a rocky land.
The rocky mountains of Terror Of Ranvier.
