Around that time, in the noble seating area...
Galvas's eyes widened in rare astonishment at the solid mass of dark blue shields forged in the center. Whenever Dolgan's unit slammed into them head-on, the front rank alone couldn't absorb the brunt of the impact, sending violent tremors through the wall of shields.
Yet, every single time, the soldiers in the ranks behind braced against their backs. Whenever someone reached their absolute limit, fresh troops stepped up from the rear to take their place. Because of this, the Eldran soldiers—who should have easily overpowered them individually in a direct clash—found themselves unable to gain any ground in the center.
"What in the world is that formation...? I never taught her anything like that!"
Galvas stood dumbfounded for a moment, but gradually, a grin crept up his face.
"Gwahaha! Well, well, Lydia, you've certainly learned quite the bizarre way to wage war in just two months! But just because I'm impressed doesn't mean I'm going to let you win! Dolgan! Don't waste your time grinding against their front! Shave them down from the edges!!"
Naturally, he wasn't cheering for his daughter. While he seemed delighted by the spectacle, the one he ultimately wanted to see victorious was the Eldran army. Every time he bellowed an order, the surrounding nobles glanced over, wondering what the commotion was about.
A short distance away, Alecia had straightened her posture without even realizing it, her eyes glued to the drill grounds. Even when the central shield wall was driven back, the soldiers behind braced and held their ground every time, all while another dark blue detachment made a break for the right.
House Eldran had supported the royal family since ancient times, and Galvas himself had lent his strength to her until she ascended the throne. Even so, every time the Silver Wolf banner on the right surged forward, she found her hands, clasped tightly in her lap, clenching with involuntary force.
"...Just a little more."
It was barely a whisper. She had no intention of letting anyone nearby hear it. Without even noticing it herself, Alecia's gaze remained fixed on the Razgrim army.
◇
I was still clinging to the fence overlooking the Grand Drill Grounds.
In the center, that bizarre mass of shields Lydia and the others had cobbled together was still holding out. Despite being battered again and again, it stubbornly refused to break. I didn't have the faintest idea how the mechanics worked, but as long as it kept them at bay, that was all that mattered. The real issue was the right flank. While the center held the line, Raisa and the others just had to seize that position. Even an amateur tactician like me could grasp that much.
"Go! Just one more! Take that, and it's over!!"
Right after I shouted at the top of my lungs, hurried footsteps approached from behind.
"Vain...! Seriously... you're way too fast...!"
Turning around, I found Clarice gasping for air. She must have bolted all the way down from the noble seats to catch up with me; the hair she usually kept in immaculate order was slightly disheveled.
"You ran after me?"
"Because you dashed off without a single word! I thought something terrible had happened...!"
Out of breath as she was, she certainly had no shortage of complaints. But before she could finish lecturing me, Clarice's eyes snapped toward the drill grounds.
"...The center, it's still holding?"
"Yeah! If we take the right, we win...!"
"I can tell that much just by looking!"
Snapping back, Clarice stepped up beside me and planted a hand on the fence. Despite usually wearing an expression that said military matters were best left to Raisa and Lydia, she was now staring fixatedly at the right base.
I shifted my gaze back to the same spot. Since we'd come this far, the minor details didn't matter. The center was holding, so all that was left was to capture the right and finish this.
So don't you dare let my three hundred coins slip through our fingers...!
◇
At the right base, Percival had already shored up their defenses. There was no momentary lapse like when they lost the center; bolstered by the troops Julius had redirected, a dense line stood before the banner. Even when Raisa and her troops tried to push in, they were halted in their tracks after a single step. Whenever they attempted to spread out along the flanks, an equal number of enemy soldiers maneuvered forward to cut them off.
"Don't panic and break formation! We just need to take it while the center holds out! Push together as one!"
Beside Raisa's booming commands, Lydia wasn't wasting time dreaming up new schemes; she was hyper-focused on where to commit her current troops to gain even an inch of ground. She tracked the number of Eldran soldiers shifted to the right, the headcount defending the banner, and the distance enemy reinforcements would have to travel from the center, but the opposition offered no easy openings.
Meanwhile, the clash in the center raged on, and the front rank of the Razgrim-style phalanx formation took a heavy beating.
"The front's at its limit! Rotate!"
At that shout, the soldiers in front didn't stubbornly hold their ground until they broke; they pulled back as the next wave instantly thrust their shields into the breach. Though the rotations were clumsy at first, they had gradually found a rhythm through repetition. However, Dolgan and his men weren't just pounding away at the front.
"The edges! Leave the middle alone, close in from the outside!"
Eldran soldiers swung around to both flanks, applying crushing pressure to the edges of the shield wall. Squeezed from the sides, the soldiers were forced inward, and the once-wide formation began to steadily contract. Even so, the soldiers in the center refused to yield. They focused entirely on defending their assigned ground: bracing when pushed, rotating when exhausted, and closing ranks whenever a gap threatened to open, buying precious time.
Meanwhile, the stalemate on the right dragged on without a decisive opening. Amidst the chaos, a single soldier peeled away from the frontal clash and bolted laterally. It was that slender soldier in the deep-set helmet.
Raisa's eyes darted toward the figure for a fraction of a second.
"...That one again?! Where do they think they're going this time?"
It was a soldier who had caught her eye multiple times since morning. Their movements were freakishly sharp, and for someone blending in among the rank and file, their presence was unmistakable.
Gash, however, was different. Though he winced at the sight of that figure sprinting to the side, the moment he traced the trajectory, he realized the objective.
"...The banner?!"
Serena wasn't trying to cut down enemy soldiers. She was charting a wide detour around the clash at the front, gunning directly for the banner planted at the right base.
"Right flank! One broke through!"
"Don't let them near the banner! Two of you, peel off and intercept!"
The Eldran soldiers caught on immediately, and two men holding the front line broke away to stop Serena. Yet she didn't slow down for a second, arcing wide as she closed in on the banner, forcing a third soldier to abandon the front line, unable to ignore her.
"Hold! Don't overcommit! Keep the front line solid!"
Percival's command rang out instantly. His reaction was swift, but three men had already made their move. It was an imperceptible shift, certainly not enough to shatter Eldran's defense on its own.
However, Raisa didn't miss that minuscule opening.
"...That scrawny runt went straight for the banner?!"
Lydia looked to the front at the exact same moment. A section of the line that had been an impenetrable wall just moments ago was now slightly thinned out.
"Raisa-dono, now! Drive everything we have into that spot!"
"Yeah! I'm on it!! Everyone, forward! Charge straight through to the banner!!"
The Razgrim soldiers surged forward in unison. It wasn't a clever new tactic to catch the enemy off guard, nor was it a calculated maneuver to outread them like before. They simply hurled every ounce of their remaining strength into the fleeting weakness created to intercept Serena.
The Eldran soldiers at the front shoved back immediately, but their numbers were slightly down from before. Raisa spearheaded the charge to pry that opening wider, while Lydia funneled fresh troops in from behind, wave after wave.
"Damn it!! In that split second?!"
Percival's panicked voice echoed over the din.
"Don't stop! When the front pushes, the rear follows! Take this, and the match is ours!!"
Serena, still bearing down on the banner, refused to stop and duel the soldiers pursuing her, continuing to sprint in wide circles around the post. Her mere presence forced the defenders to react, keeping several pairs of eyes and feet turned away from the frontline clash.
Watching her run, Gash let out a breath of disbelief.
"...Seriously, she's completely out of her mind!"
Yet, he didn't freeze in shock this time. He snapped his focus forward, threw himself into the ranks, and roared to the comrades driving the line ahead.
"Push! We've got this now!!"
The right banner swayed violently.
◇
"Whoa...?!"
I leaned even further over the fence without thinking. The banner on the right, which had barely budged until a moment ago, was visibly tilting our way.
"Vain, they're pushing it...!"
Clarice must have seen it too, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the fence beside me.
"Keep going! Just a little more!"
Even as we pushed on the right, the center was on the verge of collapse. Shaved down from the flanks by Dolgan's unit, the Razgrim-style phalanx formation had shrunk to a fraction of its original size. Even so, by constantly rotating the front rank, they somehow managed to keep the area around the banner protected.
Would we seize the right first, or would the center fall first? The contest had come down to the wire.
"Three hundred coins... three hundred coins... Please don't slip away...!"
"You're still worried about that at a time like this?!"
Clarice shouted, but I didn't have the bandwidth to deal with her. Just as the right banner tilted further toward our side, the Eldran soldiers shoved back, returning it to its upright position. Beside it, several soldiers remained glued to the slender figure circling the perimeter, while Raisa and the others drove deeper into the front line to capitalize on the gap.
"Just a little more! Take it!!"
Immediately after, the shield wall in the center buckled violently. An entire rank caved in, driving the supporting soldiers behind back several paces. Even so, the banner had not yet been seized.
"Vain, the center's falling apart!"
"I know! That's why you need to hurry up and take the riiiight!!"
Both armies lunged for the right banner all at once. Just when it seemed to tilt toward Razgrim, it was shoved back again. Soldiers from both sides swarmed the post in a frantic frenzy, to the point where it was impossible to tell from the fence who had their hands on it last.
And then—
CLAAAANG—!!
CLAAAANG—!!
CLAAAANG—!!
The bell signaling the end of the match resonated throughout the Grand Drill Grounds.
The deafening battle cries that had filled the air cut off instantly, freezing every soldier in their tracks. Beyond the rising cloud of dust, dark blue and ash silver soldiers remained locked in a tangled knot around the right banner.
Clarice caught her breath.
"...Which is it?!"
"I can't see a damn thing...!!"
Up in the noble seating area, Alecia stood motionless, while Galvas stared silently at the right base. Eventually, the referees rushed toward the banner contested down to the final second, and the dust cloaking the grounds slowly drifted away on the wind.
And the banner revealed beyond was—