Alexandra was still reeling over the fact that Kay's attack went nowhere. When she began to think about what she was going to do the next morning, she knew that her attack was now all or nothing. She knew she had to break through the enemy lines regarding what was going to happen. She knew she needed to break through the enemy lines. The phone began to ring with Megumi at the other side, she was commanding the 3rd army.
"Alexandra, the 3rd army is ready to go tomorrow morning, we're working hard to sap close to the enemy trenches while you try your best to fend off Kuromorimine counter attacks which is draining the resolve of our armies." Megumi told Alexandra that they were just about ready to go. Alexandra nodded as at least Megumi was willing to give it a go to get to her objectives.
"At least you're ready to go but I don't know if my other student armies are ready, however?" Alexandra asked as she was uncertain on what to do, pause the advance or keep pushing onward. Nicholas was counting on her to take the railway junction at Kowel.
"I'll ask them if they are ready to go when the 3rd army's advance has stopped." Megumi responded to Alexandra that the advance from the various armies will be going in sequence in their order of attack.
"Okay." Alexandra sighed, at least Megumi was going to go first.
The next morning, Megumi looked up to see the enemy lines, the artillery had fired a couple days ago and now the front had been restrengthened before the artillery began firing again on this sector. Megumi knew that the artillery was the key to breaking through and the four waves were to supplement it. Megumi looked at her students and was ready to ask.
"Are you girls ready to go?" Megumi asked the 3rd army. The students hadn't seen much action so far and were eager to join the fight. They nodded as the artillery stopped firing. Megumi nodded before pulling out her revolver. "Let's do this, may god be with us." Megumi got out the whistle and blew it, she exited her dugout sap as the students followed in her wake.
The Bonple Legion of the Dual Alliance had taken a beating, but the students weren't ready to give up just yet. Some of the students got out their Mannlicher rifles and began firing away. The Mg08/15's the legion had borrowed began firing away too. Megumi continued to keep the charge up as the students in the first wave were starting to get shot down. Some of the students found cover and began firing their rifles from the craters that were bombardment earlier that day. Megumi looked ahead to see the Bonple Legion holding their ground and their advance wasn't going as fast as they were hoping it would be. Megumi knew that she needed to bring up another wave if it meant breaking through the enemy lines.
The second and third waves were called up as they were going to help the first wave to attack. The second wave came in as the Bonple Legion continued to fire away and reload. They were now focusing on the second wave as the first wave continued to move forward with the students pulling out their grenades and pulling the pins, the grenades were chucked into the trench as the machine guns were silenced and the remaining students scattered. The Legion, despite scattering, continued to fire away as Megumi looked up and the students continued to fire their carbines and rifles. Megumi knew they needed to attack and break the enemy lines.
"We can't turn back; we must take this trench." Megumi told the group that they needed to continue pressing the attack if they were going to charge in as the first wave prepared more grenades to blow their way in. They were going to charge into the enemy in the wake of the blasts. The students pulled the pins before tossing the grenades into the trenches. The Bonple Legion tossed back a couple of grenades but most of them exploded before they could pick them up. Those that were still standing looked up to see Megumi and her army charging in.
"Retreat!" One of the students shouted. The Bonple Legion began to retreat while Megumi and the others quickly pursued them. For Gisela, despite Kuromorimine's reinforcements, Alexandra's armies had managed to break through again. Megumi had chased the Bonple Legion to the Stokhod River and as a result, they decided to burn the bridges across the river. Megumi and her students had taken heavy losses when they arrived at the river. Megumi knew that she had to stop the pursuit.
"We're not going beyond this river; the bridges have been burned so we have no easy way across plus we've taken a lot of casualties to get to where we are. Someone go see how deep this river is." Megumi knew that they needed to halt their advance and wait for reinforcements before they could cross the river.
"River isn't very deep but the strong current could mean that we're going to have to wait." One of her friends told her that they didn't have to swim but they might get swept off their feet. Megumi sighed as this river was the barrier that was going to act as a major obstacle.
"Okay tell Alexandra that we broke through and had taken the territory up to the river." Megumi told the students to help her report the progress. Megumi picked up the phone and began to call Alexandra.
"Hello?" Alexandra asked if Megumi was calling her to report the news.
"This is Megumi and we managed to break through the Dual Alliance once again, we pushed the 1st army back and this included the Bonple Legion which has caused heavier casualties than we had anticipated, and we pushed them back to the Stokhod River. With this river, the 3rd army has been held and we need reinforcements to replenish the losses we have taken." Megumi described the situation that they had attacked but they were able to advance to the river, but they couldn't take the river that Alexandra wanted.
"Okay just as long as you broke through, that is what I care about." Alexandra told Megumi. They wanted to see if they could continue advancing and take objectives. Alexandra also began to think of Megumi's message of the calls they were going to make if they were to get reinforcements.
"I'll call you later to see if the other fronts are ready to go." Megumi replied before she hung up the phone. Megumi's attack had worked but they were taking more of a beating compared to the beginning of the offensive.
Manami and Gisela were debating on what to do, they didn't know what was next but with the 3rd army's attack, they knew they needed to start strengthening the more threatened parts of the front.
"Okay so we've launched three counter attacks so far yesterday but none of them had pushed the 8th army. We're wearing Alexandra down as the more we keep attacking, the more we slow the advance down." Manami described the situation that happened so far. The attacks were wearing the enemy down, but Kuromorimine was going nowhere regarding their situation.
"Okay just keep ramming yourself against Saunders to get them to get their students out, we don't know how many more students that Saunders has at this point but from the news that Maho had delivered from last night that the attack of the Saunders 4th army hasn't gone anywhere, and they had only taken the first trench line. I'm going to ask Maho to march some of the middle school students to continue patching the front together and depending on the strength of your first army, we will replenish that army first." Gisela told Manami that they just needed to take losses to inflict losses on Saunders. "I've already ordered Ausztria-Magyar to replenish the 7th army as they are just getting ravaged, and the Kuromorimine South Army is still doing okay but we're probably going to need more students to refill the ranks." Gisela told Manami to have Kuromorimine keep attacking to drain the offensive power of Saunders.
"Got you." Manami told Gisela before she got up and began to walk away.
While the 1st and 4th armies were getting replenished with fresh Kuromorimine students, the 7th and 9th armies were getting ready to advance further up the front lines, the enemy was weaker as Kuromorimine was patching together the more endangered section of the front. Naomi meanwhile was getting ready to cross the Strypa River to help take less pressure off of Alexandra and try to divert Kuromorimine's attention. The Strypa River wasn't as fast as the Stokhod but it was deeper. Naomi looked on as Alexei's success would inspire them to cross the river themselves.
"Get the rafts ready." Naomi told them. The students got their Maxim machine guns as three students were going to go on the rafts. Some would include just infantry but with the machine guns across, they could help with a breakthrough. Naomi looked at them as the artillery had stopped firing. "Now!" She called out. Naomi grabbed the raft, and they began to drag their rafts into the water. Once getting into the water, they boarded the rafts and began to make their attempt to cross. Naomi was doing her best to row across the river while the students on the other side were firing their rifles away, Naomi looked around to see the plastic pellets hitting the water. Naomi remained tense but she stood firm, determined to get across the river. As the first rafts began to make it to the other side, the students began to disembark the rafts and fire their rifles away to keep the enemy suppressed. Naomi decided to settle down and get note of where Alexei was as he was attacking alongside her.
"Yes, this Alexei, what is it, Naomi?" Alexei began while figuring out what they were going to do. Naomi was breaching the lines as this meant this was a good opportunity to keep pushing the enemy back.
"Where are you Alexei, did you break through again?" Naomi asked Alexei, she wanted to roll up the front to divert Kuromorimine's attention from Alexandra.
"Yes, we did, and the cavalry is helping us advance. Did you cross the Strypa River?" Alexei asked Naomi if she was able to hop over the river. Naomi continued to think about it for a moment while more students had rushed to the other side to help push the offensive onward.
"We did, we're preparing to take another city as I am needed there. I will give the report to Alexandra when the city has been taken." Naomi told Alexei that she was willing to push the offensive onward. Alexei nodded before he began speaking again.
"Okay, report back to Alexandra when the city has been captured." Alexei instructed her what to do when the fight was finished.
"Okay got you." Naomi told Alexei before hanging up. She decided to keep pushing on as this was a means of trying to get Kuromorimine to divert attention from Alexandra so the latter could continue to push onward. Kay's failure has caused the offensive to be shifted onto her so they could continue pushing the front forward.
Naomi arrived a few minutes later with her troops at the city of Detalyn. This wasn't the important objective to her compared to Stanislau, but it was a stepping point in the right direction. For Naomi, this was an objective that needed to be completed. The students entered Detalyn while the cavalry chased them out. The Dual Alliance had been torn open again and now Naomi had advanced. Naomi grabbed the phone and began to call Alexandra.
"Alexandra, this is Naomi. I got some news." Naomi began speaking. Alexandra was curious, what did the commander of the Saunders 7th army needed to say.
"Yes, go on." Alexandra told Naomi that she was listening to her. Naomi looked ahead to see that the army was racing ahead to clear out the rest of the objective before the river ahead was going to stop them.
"We captured Detalyn, we have the Dual Alliance on the run and even with their middle schoolers, we are still pushing onward." Naomi gave the report to Alexandra that they were still advancing despite the losses they were taking.
"Good, keep rolling that front up. We aren't going to be advancing into the Carpathians as I still want to take the territory from the mountains, Count High School would be the one to clear the mountains." Alexandra explained that they needed to keep going and with the capture of Detalyn, they could still threaten the front. What Alexandra didn't realize was Lola and the 11th army hadn't seen any action as of yet and using her would be helpful if they were going to continue rolling up the front. She knew she needed to give Lola the signal to attack.
Lola was busy observing as her army had only advanced in certain places to cover the flank of the 8th army. Lola was sitting on her horse with the armored cars in reserve when a message came to her.
"Solti is planning to launch a counterattack as she wants to threaten Alexandra's 8th army and try to recapture Lutsk." The messenger gave Lola the news that one of the students from the Dual Alliance was going to attack.
"Then why don't we attack them first?" Lola asked as she gave the suggestion to launch her own attack to try to forestall this attack.
"Good idea, we can try catching them off guard." The messenger loved this idea and Lola rode off on her horse and got ready for the attack.
Solti meanwhile was busy setting up plans for the attack she was planning on doing. What she didn't know was the fact that Lola was on the move and getting ready to fight. The artillery had pounded her defenses away and the students were somewhat demoralized.
"Is the artillery getting closer to us?" Solti asked. She decided to head outside to see that there wasn't any artillery, but instead it was a wave of students, cavalry and armored cars now crashing against the defenses. Lola was going all out with the attack and with this, it was clear that the offensive was going to try to drive them out. The students in the trenches began to retreat as the tidal wave of flesh and steel barreled to the trenches. Solti began to withdraw as some of the students pulled out their grenades and chucked them into the trenches en masse. With so many grenades landing at the same time, the Dual Alliance students attempted to scatter but many were taken out with firecrackers. Lola's cavalry and armored cars leaped over the trenches while the students began to do a trench sweep. The battle seemed to enter into a phase where Lola had the success. Megumi was watching this before she decided to call up.
"Alexandra, Lola has broken through, and the students of the Dual Alliance are once again in full retreat." Megumi told her friend that the retreat still had some momentum and Alexandra was still hoping for the same thing, anyone to divert Kuromorimine's attention from the 8th and 3rd armies respectively. This would allow Alexandra to advance to Kowel and try to swing south again as Kay's offensive had been stunted and was going to go nowhere.
"Good, tell the 11th army to keep advancing and attacking along their sector until the sun goes down as we have the afternoon to get through." Alexandra explained that the 11th army will have to keep pushing onward if they were to break the enemy lines.
"Okay." Lola told Megumi, if they were truly going to continue the fight, they needed to force the enemy hand and get them to be pushed back. Lola then hung up and decided to join the rest of the front.
Lola was on her horse as the 11th army was steadily making progress through the afternoon. The students were firing away as armored cars continued to bulldoze their way through the enemy. The Dual Alliance students were still falling back as Lola looked ahead. Finally, she began to have her horse gallop up as the students were still progressing. Lola pulled out her revolver and began firing away at the students that weren't going to go down so easily. Solti meanwhile was getting the 2nd army to retreat as the sun continued to set. For Lola, this was easier than she had expected for the 11th army and as the day ended, Brody fell to Saunders.
"The capture of Brody was not due to the success of Lola's 11th army but rather the demoralization of the Dual Alliance and their shortcomings in terms of equipment. The offensive is continuing onward even though losses for the 11th army are high. Much higher than we expected." Alexandra read the letter, Brody's collapse as well as the capture of Dealyn and the advance to the Stokhod River, Alexandra knew this day was still going well. Lola entered Alexandra's office, exhausted yet triumphant. "Rough day trying to capture Brody?"
"Yes, and Lemberg is still the objective." Lola began. She pulled out a chair and sat in it. "Losses of the 11th army are high and I lost three out of my eight infantry groups today, wiped out to no students. The Dual Alliance is slowing down and putting up more of a fight but even their shortcomings are proving that they are losing students just as fast if not faster than we are. Kuromorimine and its middle school ally are patching the front together and making it more difficult to break the enemy trenches." Lola explained that with the softer targets disappearing and them taking ground, Kuromorimine was replacing them and putting up a bigger fight than what she was expecting.
"Okay I might as well do some rearranging. I'm not sure about the 11th army getting reinforcements but I might as well start assigning other units from the front." Alexandra told Lola that reorganization was bound to happen later on tonight and with this, they could expect to try to stabilize the front a bit.
"I hope for the best, I'll see you around." Lola told Alexandra. She left the room and began to walk away. Alexandra still had work to do and getting help for her rapidly depleting armies was going to be the main focus.
Conrad, Gisela, Manami and Runa meanwhile were in a heated debate whether or not Conrad and Gisela would stop leading the front.
"The Dual Alliance can't effectively play its part in this battle anymore. With the stakes proving to be higher than expected and the Dual Alliance would have been completely wiped out if we hadn't shown up two days ago." Manami began the case with the incompetence of the Dual Alliance. "We request we take over the command of the entire front to try to improve the situation as we're moving more and more troops away from Verdun and now sending some to the Somme. We need to end this offensive as quickly as possible so we can send troops back to the west."
"What about us, what would we be doing to get the entire front back together?" Gisela asked as she was worried. Manami wanted to replace her and try to stop Saunders in its tracks.
"We need to figure out where we can patch the front up with new leadership as you and Conrad are no longer effective when it comes to moving the front forward and ever since those couple days ago, you've been going backwards." Manami explained that their leadership was incompetent, and it was leading to them rapidly losing their strength. Gisela began to think about this.
"We thought Saunders was incapable of launching any more major offensives. When did they have the guts to try to wipe us out?" Gisela asked.
"We don't know but their offensive has proven that the Dual Alliance is no longer useful in this battle. Gisela, this is important you better hand command over to us if the front is to be stabilized." Manami explained that she needed the front to be handed over to her if they were to try to fix the problem. Gisela gulped as fixing the problem would require her giving up commanding for the battle. Conrad looked at her as it was the best course of action.
"Okay, you win." Gisela told Manami. Runa slid her a piece of paper and began speaking.
"Sign here now and we'll stabilize the front." Runa instructed Lola to sign the piece of paper. Gisela read the terms of what Manami and Runa wanted. She grabbed a pen and signed her name on it. There was no way that she was going to keep the front together and needed to hand it over to someone with the experience of knowing how.
Alexandra meanwhile was rearranging the armies as the strength of some of the infantry groups were getting sapped away especially with the Kuromorimine counter attacks and the more and more costly actions compared to a couple days ago. Megumi walked in as Alexandra had called her over.
"Megumi, I have come to a decision after talking with Lola." Alexandra began. "I've decided to dissolve the 4th army to take the remainder of its strength to reinforce the 3rd army and the 8th army. The 11th army will get a little something, but I don't know if it will be enough."
"So, where's Kay and her friends going to go?" Megumi asked if her army was going to have some of its strength replenished, where were they going to go.
"Kay, Mika and Jajka will be joining the 3rd army along with Himari as her group is still at mostly full strength and the Guards division which is intact as it hadn't seen action. I will be taking the rest along with Lola getting a couple to strengthen her front." Alexandra explained that their two armies were in the dire need of replacements. Megumi nodded.
"I will see what I can do with the guards." Megumi told Alexandra. Megumi stood up and walked off. She was getting significant help, but she didn't know what exactly this was going to do to change her situation.
The offensive was slowly imploding in Alexandra's face.
[A/N]: Alexandra has launched an all-out attack and she is now taking heavier casualties. Four armies have moved up to support the 8th army but even then, the situation is still looking critical for both sides. I don't know if the offensive is losing steam at this point as the students are slowly getting ground down on both sides and even then, Kuromorimine's new leadership could change everything. Day 4 will be the turning point of the offensive. See you later.