The sun began to rise the next day as Megumi had marched the entire group of students up to the area, they were preparing to go in with an all-out assault to break Kebab completely and seize the central objective of the town. Day two was about to begin and Saunders was just getting into position.
"How does it look so far?" Kay asked Megumi, she was standing behind their only M6 Heavy tank as this was one of five tanks she had and they were the secret weapons of the siege. The tanks and the artillery had one simple objective, fire to soften up the redoubts and advance as the round nosed shells that Kebab was going to fire at them were going to do nothing against Saunders tanks so the tanks were going to be the shock weapon.
"I think we're going to soften up the redoubts first before moving in with the main force. Alexandra was right with the field between us and the redoubts being an open area of slaughter. The plan would be to launch an attack as wide of a front as possible by Alexandra. Once we begin advancing, the mobile cavalry under her command with Alexei's and Mahou's combined groups would rush to exploit any breakthroughs as well as intercept retreating Kebab students." Megumi explained the plan. "Mahou hasn't committed her school into the fray as of yet and is preparing to cross the Danube. We're just going to soften the ground up first while our reinforcements come."
"Okay, tell Mahou to bring everything over as I want these redoubts crushed by the time this day comes to a close." Kay responded. Lola came running over as she unslung her Berdan, the French-Algerian aristocratic student decided to give the order.
"Megumi, everything is ready, we are preparing to attack." Lola told Megumi with the news.
"Okay, all artillery guns open fire." Megumi gave the order, all the artillery guns began to open fire at the redoubts. All of their guns had begun to use up whatever ammunition that was brought up was going to be used up in this attack. Only the tanks held their fire as they were going to take out the artillery that might survive this barrage that was still going to fire back at them.
The positions on the redoubts began exploding, several of the earth and wooden reinforcements were blown to pieces as the artillery pieces fell down to the ground or were blown up, the kebab students ran back to cover as a few were struck with the firecracker rounds and sent flying. Megumi knew that Mahou will be coming to assist.
Meanwhile on the other side of the Danube. Count High School had finished organizing and they were preparing to move out.
"Suntem în stare de război cu turcii, legăturile noastre cu Înalta Poartă sunt rupte și când se va încheia pacea, nu cred că un singur elev va fi de acord ca Liceul Contelui să revină la poziția anterioară, prost definită, hibridă și jignitoare pentru interesele Contelui ca și pentru interesele lui Kebab." Mahou began reading in her school's language. Ileana was busy making some last minute changes as Noemi stood ready. "Divizia pentru onoare, braț prezent!" Mahou called out. The count students got out their Berdan rifles with bayonets attached. They were preparing to march.
"We're finally getting a chance to go into combat." Ileana began. She was excited for the chance to win some glory but she also felt nervous about heading into battle.
"Don't worry, I'm much the same way as well. My friends Marina and Mizuki are leading two other groups and they said they aren't going to make it through if Kebab has the defenses secured so we're going to rely on Saunders to make sure the redoubts are softened up before we launch our attack." Noemi admitted to Ileana that she was nervous as well.
"If not, we have the artillery." Mizuki added that they were going to launch their attack.
"Shh." Marina hushed the three of them from chatter. "Mahou is about to give the order." Mahou, who was on her horse, began to read out the last of the orders as they were preparing to move out.
"Înainte, mergeți, soldați ai liceului Count. Înaintați cu curaj. Și vă veți întoarce la familiile voastre. În școala voastră liberă. Eliberați de voi înșivă. Primiți de aplauzele întregii școli." Mahou finished reading out the speech, now she gave the order to move out. "Divizia... înainte Marș! Pentru Patrie!" Mahou called out, the fanfare of music began playing out as her horse went forth first followed by four of her highest ranking students. Then the bulge players and drummers followed behind with the students carrying their Berdan rifles. All marching to cross the Danube. Those watching ahead waved the students good luck as they began to march across the pontoon bridge to help reinforce Saunders. Ileana was blowing her bugle as she marched with the others across the Danube. The hussar cavalry followed behind as they were the next to join the ranks. The students began to sing farewell to their school for now.
"Drum bun, drum bun, tobă bate, drum bun, bravi români! Cu sacul legat în spate, cu armele-n mâini! Fie zi cu soare, fie, sau cerul noros, Fie ploi, ninsoare fie, noi mergem voios, drum bun!
Fie zi cu soare, fie, sau cerul noros, Fie ploi, ninsoare fie, noi mergem voios, drum bun!" The students chanted as they crossed the bridge, the adults looked on as the students continued to sing.
"Drum bun, drum bun, tobă bate, drum bun, bravi români! Cu sacul legat în spate, cu armele-n mâini! Fie la paradă, fie la război, Toți în rând grămadă, veseli mergem noi! Fie la paradă, fie la război, Toți în rând grămadă, veseli mergem noi!" The students continued to sing as the artillery batteries were being hauled behind horses along with their ammunition as they were now rolling forth next. The Hussars began to cross the Danube behind the infantry.
"Drum bun, drum bun, tobă bate, drum bun, bravi români! Cu sacul legat în spate, cu armele-n mâini! Steagul să lucească, steagul, pentru el trăim, Țara să-nflorească, țara, pentru ea murim, drum bun! Steagul să lucească, steagul, pentru el trăim, Țara să-nflorească, țara, pentru ea murim, drum bun!" The students chanted before they began to whistle to themselves, some of the groups had crossed the Danube as they headed off to their designated section of the front. Some of the students got held up as one of the artillery cannons had gotten itself stuck in the mud. The students grabbed it by the wheels and began to push it. The cannon became free as the students chanted happily, Mahou led the group as they continued to march off to their destination to partake in the upcoming battle.
Megumi's group had spent the last hour and a half pulverizing the redoubts as one of the firecracker shells had blown up one of Kebab's cannons. They had used a good amount of ammunition today and were doing their job to destroy the redoubts. Lola ran up to Megumi as she had some news for her.
"Megumi, Sofia has launched her attack on Krischina, the Balkan schools have launched their attack on Bukova Red and Count High School is finally arriving. We're going to be attacking the Gravitza redoubt and Gravitza itself, Alexei will launch his attack on Radicevo as he had taken much of the town and some of the redoubts during this time and has lost a hundred students in the process." Lola finished giving the reports on what exactly happened. Alexei launched his attack first and was making headway. Yogurt Academy was beginning its attack on a weakened part of the front and the Balkan schools were continuing the advance.
"That's good to hear. Count High School will be assisting us with taking the redoubt and Gravitza as this will be the main assault." Megumi told them as she was going to be using the secret weapon they had. "Everyone, stop firing, we're preparing to go on the offensive." Megumi gave the order as the guns fell silent. "Alexei had been assisted by that three-hundred-millimeter howitzer and it's the reason why he was able to advance so easily."
"Believe so, we managed to set that gun up on the hill just last night and we've been rotating it around, it still has plenty of ammunition to spare so it's going to come in handy in smashing enemy strongpoints." Lola replied. Alexandra rode up to Megumi on her horse with some news.
"Megumi, Count High School is in position and ready to go on your order." Alexandra began. Megumi nodded as they had two schools ready to begin the next phase of the plan.
"All students out of the brush and charge, tanks forward as well." Megumi ordered, the students and the five tanks began moving out from the brush across the plain, The three groups along with the other students began their frontal assault on the redoubts, determined to bust them open.
Some of the Kebab students had come out of their hideouts and began to take up positions. Ankara knew they needed to begin recovering the undamaged artillery to hold a better defense.
"Megumi has blown the place to pieces. Everyone, find whatever ammunition we have left and recover all cannons that have not been damaged." Ankara gave the order. She looked around and began observing the carnage. They had started this siege with 232 artillery cannons with all but two centered on the redoubts. And only about less than a hundred stood on the redoubts with some having just fallen off of them. The artillery crews descended the redoubts to recover some of the artillery. Others were just beginning to load shells into them. Ankara decided to pull back to somewhere which was much safer. The remaining students went forth into some of the fox holes created by the artillery craters or stood up on the redoubts. They were waiting for good moments to begin firing. "Now!" Ankara shouted, the artillery cannons began opening fire with the students firing from long range, their job was to take down as many students as they could before they were able to make any breaches in the front lines.
Megumi's groups were advancing on the redoubts as they prepared to storm their way through. Megumi's groups looked up to see the incoming shells land and explode around them. One group of students was flung in many different directions as another group was being shot down by the accurate fire. Some of the students, like the sharpshooters, leaped down into the craters and began firing back at the redoubts. Kay was one of the students that made it into the crater, and she slung the Berdan rifle off of her shoulder. She then began to take aim as the other students were firing away from the isolated crater holes. She spotted one of the artillery commanders and began to dial in her sights. With one swift pull of the trigger, bam! She shot the artillery commander down, she pulled on the bolt and ejected the empty shell, she swiftly loaded another shot in and took aim at the artillery crew. Kay fired her Berdan as more students were taken down and she scored the second shot of the day. Lola then slid into the crater as Kay was reloading the Berdan.
"It's insane. We're getting shredded out here." Lola began. She aimed her Berdan and fired, missing her intended target as Kay eliminated three students.
"I know that, but we expected for the landscape to be completely cleared." Kay replied. The Saunders students were stumbling back in the opposite direction as the three hundred or so Kebab Cavalry made their appearance. Megumi knew that her lines were at breaking point as the students were stumbling backwards.
"Get back out there! We're going to lose the tanks!" Megumi shouted. She was trying to restore order on the field while the cavalry was getting close. One of the M3 Stuarts had taken out two artillery pieces before it was falling back. The cavalry was getting closer and closer, but they knew they needed to hold their ground. Kay then ditched her Berdan rifle and got out the lever action. She aimed at the charging cavalry and began firing it away, the students on the horses began to fall off one at a time but they were getting close. Then came the trumpet sounds as more cavalry began to appear from behind. Lola turned her head to the rear to see the cavalry charging the other way, was Alexandra.
"Everyone ready bayonets!" Alexandra called out, she got out her saber while the students fixed their bayonets to their Berdan carbines. They continued to charge straight into the cavalry as some of the students fired their carbines at the Kebab cavalry. Some of the students were being taken off of their horses while Alexandra went in close and personal with her foes. She readied the saber and moved straight at one of the students, she swung the saber and knocked one of the students off of the horse. Another student tried to attack her but she jabbed the saber into another student, knocking her off of the horse. The small amount of Kebab cavalry were getting slaughtered as the tanks were acting as a breakthrough force while they were sniping the artillery pieces. Three hundred or so students have been taken down as the Saunders students were now breaking on through after they fell back and reorganized. The cavalry rode on ahead as the Kebab students tried to fire on them from their dug-in positions.
They had no luck as Alexandra's cavalry were better trained and organized so the students in the crater holes began to fall back to the redoubts while Alexandra and the others fired on the Kebab students while they retreated. However, Kebab still had the artillery on the redoubts as they began firing the artillery away. The firecrackers began to explode as the horses began to panic as the explosions were scaring them. Ankara had managed to stall Saunders for now and were making a slaughter of their cavalry as they had gotten too close and were tempting targets, more than half of Alexandra's cavalry were completely knocked out with the remainder falling back. But acting as a distraction, they managed to buy Megumi time to get close to the redoubts. Kay went up to the first redoubt and she began firing her Berdan rifle with the other students while Lola was panting as she was exhausted and felt her heart ready to pound out of her chest.
"We're here and poised to break through though this artillery is giving me a headache." Lola huffed while Kay kept firing her lever action gun.
"Yeah, we paid heavily to take this, and we hope we can join Alexei's group after this as he had the easiest time out of all of us today." Megumi responded. The students were clawing their way up as they kept firing away with their Berdans. After taking out some of the students on the redoubts, they began making their way up the slope while Kebab was desperately trying to reorganize. The position wasn't tenable and they knew they had to retreat.
"Fall back!" Ankara called out; she was giving the call to retreat. The students began running in the opposite direction as they didn't know where they were going to go. They decided to make a retreat back to the town and abandoned their artillery.
"The redoubt is ours and we just sustained heavy losses to take it." Megumi called out. She turned to the field they had charged across just to take it as many as a thousand students lay knocked out across the field and they needed reinforcements. She just hoped Count High School was doing okay.
During all of this time. Count High School was preparing for an assault. They looked ahead to see Kebab students trying to fish the artillery from the ground as Saunders had pounded the ground and destroyed much of the artillery in their area. Mahou was looking ahead through some binoculars as the last shells exploded over the area.
"Okay students, Saunders did something very generous for us. They've knocked out most of the artillery and all we need to do is break through and swiftly claim victory. I don't want anyone backing down from this fight, we are close to winning!" Mahou gave a speech to get the students excited with the prospect of victory. They nodded and Mahou got out her saber. "Attack!" Count High School students appeared from the foliage as some of the cannons went off, they were followed by cavalry and horses carrying some of the artillery forward. They were going to carry some of the artillery forward while the rest were going to cover them while the students and cavalry was going to shock the rest of the force hanging on the redoubts. The individual cannons began firing off as their shells began exploding around the Count High School students. Some of the students were carrying ladders along with them if they were going to scale the redoubts quickly. One of the Kebab students fired her rifle into one of the Count students before another student jabbed her with the bayonet. Another Kebab student appeared, and she swung her Berdan around and fired the rifle, dropping the student down. They continued the advance.
Mahou was carrying her saber with her as a Kebab leader of an artillery regiment was standing beside her destroyed cannon. She saw Mahou and pointed the revolver at her and fired. She missed as Mahou slashed the saber across the student, taking her out of the siege, the other students followed behind her. They reached the redoubt as they had lost a considerable number of students and cavalry so far. They weren't ready to give up just yet. Kebab High School students were firing their rifles from the redoubts, trying to pick them off. Mahou, Ileana, Noemi, Marina and Mizuki were all gathered around and ready to take the redoubt.
"We must take this! We must!" Mahou called out. They were ready to move out to capture the redoubt. "Ileana, play the bugle! We are doing this!" Ileana got out her bugle and began blowing into it, she was giving out the order to charge. Mahou began leading the students from their cover to take the redoubts. Kebab students were still firing from their redoubts, several Count students were taken out within minutes as they charged the redoubts. They shot at them within close range, but their numbers were too great. They shot the Kebab students back and took them out. The ladder students rushed forward once a path had been cleared and they held the ladders at the redoubts. The Count students began climbing up the ladders as they were now going to take the redoubts entirely. They began sliding down into their rear while others were firing at the Kebab students that were inside, the rest were retreating in a disorganized fashion, they knew they couldn't win.
"The redoubt is ours, we lost about a few hundred students in the process, but we've broken through the redoubts and there will be nothing behind us but the town itself. Give the news to Megumi." Noemi called with triumph. This part of the area was theirs.
"Megumi, we've broken through, Kebab's students are falling back, we're waiting to move into the new positions tomorrow." Ileana called out to Megumi through the radio.
"That's fantastic, Sofia has told me Kebab was on the run in their area after some hard fighting and the balkan gangs have broken Kebab in their area, it's all coming together now." Megumi replied.
"Good, you suggest that the siege will be done by tomorrow?" Ileana asked.
"That is something I am certain about." Megumi responded. The second day of the fighting was over. Kebab had been shattered and Megumi with the help from her allies had broken through.
That evening, the students were celebrating on the redoubts that they managed to capture earlier that day. Megumi was sitting down with the tsarevich as they were telling some jokes among themselves.
"So, we managed to capture Kars on the Caucasus and this siege is going to be wrapping up?" Alexei asked while he plucked some of the balalaika's strings.
"Pretty much so, we'll surround the main objective tomorrow morning and harass them with artillery, they'll have to surrender or something." Megumi replied. Lola came up to Megumi as she was carrying a message.
"Megumi, a message came through from Earl Gray, she wishes you to respond at once." Lola called out to Megumi. Megumi took the letter and opened it, and she began to read.
Dear Megumi.
Stop this siege at once, Kebab High School is suffering as it is and you're only making the problem worse. We demand that you make peace with them immediately or we will intervene on their behalf. We know what your intentions are and you're going to face the consequences.
Earl Gray.
Megumi froze, she didn't want a repeat of last year where her previous commander went too far that time and she faced the results, but Megumi felt confident enough they could handle Earl Gray without her intervening on Kebab's behalf.
"Ignore the letter for now as I want to crush what remains of Kebab, if Earl Gray comes, we'll stop." Megumi told the group as she tossed the letter aside. She was so close to her victory, and she was willing to do everything she could to achieve it. Megumi then walked away.
Earl Gray was watching this, and she was aggravated from watching the screens. Megumi had ignored the message and was most likely going to finish this match.
"She's just ignoring me?!" Earl Gray stuttered, she wanted to be number one as much as BC Freedom and Kuromorimine, now Saunders was breaking out and they needed to find a way to contain them. "Assam, mobilize the tanks, we're going to show Megumi who she is truly messing with."
The next day came as Saunders and its allies had the remaining Kebab High School forces completely surrounded with no way out. Megumi was confident and ready to blow them to pieces. The artillery was in place, and they were just ready for the order to fire.
"They have no way out of this now." Megumi began. They were about to get their revenge for what happened last year. The students were more than happy as they were rubbing their hands together. Suddenly they heard the noise of incoming tanks, the tanks weren't theirs.
"What's that sound?" Kay asked. Earl Gray had appeared with her Cromwell tank and several others as they were heading to Megumi to talk some sense to her.
"Megumi!" Earl Gray called out. Megumi turned her head to see who wanted to talk to her. "Stop teasing Ankara now! If you don't, we will declare war on you."
"War, we managed to beat Ankara fair and square, this victory is ours." Megumi called out with protest.
"We will be more than willing to humiliate you like what we did to Nicole." Ankara responded. They moved in but Alexei walked over to the girls.
"All right, all right." The tsarevich began. "Instead of fighting it out among each other, let's settle this with peace. Ankara has been defeated but the treaty should be able to decide who gets what. I am more than willing to settle with this." Earl Gray, Megumi and Ankara looked at the tsarevich, he managed to prevent them from fighting.
"Okay if we aren't allowed to tear each other's throats out, I will be more than willing to do that during a conference." Earl Gray told Alexei.
"Okay good, gather around at Kuromorimine as my sisters are willing to set up the peace." Alexei managed to get the meetings set up. Saunders and its allies had managed to win the war.
The conference will be round 2.
[A/N]: I was originally planning to split this up into two chapters, but the last day was uneventful with Earl Gray intervening and forcing peace between the schools. Now comes the peace treaty with both sides now going to mitigate the spoils.
Coalition students left: 5,935 out of 10,000
Kebab students left: 500 out of 3,000 (Surrendered)
