Three hundred thousand troops. To march that number of units in such a span of time that a group of people that left a few hours ago wouldn't notice it was a nearly impossible feat. Shirou could only say nearly, because saying it was impossible would mean that the scene in front of him was nothing more than an illusion.

"Alguna, Elbe, the League Principality and Mudwan are the main vassal kingdoms that form the bulk of the main army. The rest of the conscripts are from various minor kingdoms under the Empire's banner." Cato explained to them calmly.

They were watching from a fair distance, several kilometers away from the battlefield that was Alnus. Even then, the rhythmic pounding of artillery as it battered an attacking force kept pumping in their ears.

"Ah, look over there." Where everyone else was in varying states of worry, Cato sounded positively relaxed, "Alguna's committing their demi-humans for a frontal assault. Not going to work, but it's the thought that counts."

They all cast their gaze where the old man was pointing. As he said, various bipedal creatures were stalking towards the artillery fire. A walking pig, a hideous looking green skinned thing, a purple skinned man with pointed ears.

Fantasy creatures, some of which Shirou had never even heard of, walked straight to their deaths. In some cases, he could see them charge through with no care in the world.

"Hmm. To think they would still have some left over." Cato talked as if he was talking about the weather, "I would've thought they would have run out of reserves after their northern campaign."

"You wanted safety for your entire retinue, correct?" Shirou started after finally regaining his bearings.

"You'll get it once you give us any information regarding the enemy." Itami continued the magus' train of thought. They were on a ticking clock, not one that they could afford to waste any time with.

When it came to war, to battles on this scale, there were a lot of factors to deal with. For example, the strategic positioning of forces, the terrain, the morale of the troops, and the capabilities of the enemy.

For their position, the JSDF definitely had the advantage. Being situated uphill was a momentous advantage, as the attacking troops would have to lug their heavy equipment against gravity. It was an advantage that the JSDF would be hard pressed to lose, even with the overwhelming numbers against them.

The terrain was much the same. The ground was soft, as a result of JSDF units upturning the ground for construction purposes. That, and the recent rain that came after the battle against Rubrasax, turned the dirt into a slog of mud.

The main issue was the morale and capabilities of both sides. On one hand, the sheer amount of damage to the enemy caused by the artillery was enough to break the morale of any well organized army. No matter how disciplined an army was, once one section fell into disarray, then the cascading rout would be impossible to stop.

That wasn't currently happening. The demi-humans weren't routing. They were walking with reckless abandon into their deaths. No matter how much artillery was thrown at them, not a single one broke rank. Not a single one flinched at the body parts that flew in their faces, no care for their allies that died a gruesome death.

With that in mind, then the advantage of morale was looking more and more on the side of the Empire's vassals.

Coupled with the surprise attack that happened, the magic systems that could and probably were in play, and you had a situation that was untenable.

If the answer to fix that lied in giving more people the help they needed, then both Itami and Shirou would do so with no reservations.

"I see, I see!" The old man nodded in satisfaction, "Well, for starters, you're not going to win out on morale, as you can probably tell. With the demi-humans in front, you've a better chance of breaking a castle wall than breaking them."

"We'll move while you explain." Shirou interrupted, "We need to get this information to command. Lady Valliere, would you kindly stay here and guard the civilians?"

"I would be honored, Lord Emiya, as will mine people." The elf was glaring at the invading army with hate, "In return, would thou kindly send these Imperials to their graves?"

With a grim nod, Shirou motioned for Itami to lead the way. Hurriedly, Itami ordered the Recon Team to prepare to move, even as the man explained the situation to them. The professionalism shone through for each one. Where they were joking and laughing before, now, they were solid blocks of ice.

The engine roared as the bumpy ride started. They strapped themselves in, with the wizard looking around like a child in a carnival, "Sage Cato, if you would?"

"Of course!" Cato, with a flourish of his staff, a small plane appeared before them. It took a moment for Shirou to understand, but when he did, he drew in a sharp breath.

A 3D map of the entire battlefield. What would take magi a good few hours of preparation, and familiars up and down the entire area, Cato had done just like that. More than that, it was also completely live, as he could see artillery impacts happen just as he heard them.

"Holy shit." He didn't know who said it first, but none of them could deny just how incredible it was. Commanders and generals alike would kill for something like this. Even in the best of times, information would have a delay, just because it had to be reported.

With Cato, that delay was nonexistent.

The wizard was proving more and more valuable by the second.

"They came from this direction," A purple arrow pointed down at the northern edge of the map, "The force we're seeing now is likely the returning units from the northern campaign, as I've said before. As for how they got here, it's quite simple really. Magic. The Kingdom of Elbe is famed for their horse archers, but less known is their contingent of mages. Standard operating procedure for Elbe battle tactics is to use illusion magic to mask their approach, though admittedly, their spells could use a bit of work."

The map zoomed in to the far edge of the map, and they were greeted with a shockingly close up view of a group of purple robed individuals. It was detailed enough that if Shirou wanted to, he could count the number of pimples on one man's face.

"Their illusions work on the principle of mirages. They only mask visual cues, and only beyond a certain distance. Elbe was likely informed that hostile forces had taken over Alnus, and had cast it before they even came close." The mages they saw suddenly shimmered, just as an artillery piece hit them.

In an instant, blood and viscera spilled. Body parts flew all over the place. Shirou watched intently. There was no reason for Cato to show this unless he was making a point.

And he was glad he did.

The corpses flickered once more, before the area shimmered in a soft glow. For a split second, he could see the previously annihilated mages were far further back, completely unharmed. Afterwards, the original scene came back in full.

"An illusion to fool whoever's shooting those fireblasts." Cato explained, and it clicked for Shirou why they were being shown this.

"The front lines are illusions as well?"

"Indeed. You catch on quick." The wizard nodded his head in satisfaction, "Standard doctrine in Elbe would have their illusions approximately five hundred meters in front of their actual forces. This becomes less so the closer they come, due to the limitations of the spell they use. This is up until one kilometer from the enemy, as by that point, the illusions fail entirely."

Cato frowned, "Actually, what I'm seeing now is a bit of a deviation. Normally, Elbe likes to be as close as possible before revealing themselves, and more often than not, they'd be within that kilometer before anyone knew what was happening."

"We'll have time to speculate later." Shirou interjected firmly. He knew that tone of voice. As different as Cato may be from their World's magi, it seemed as if the fascination to know was universal, "Anything else that we'd need to know?"

"Oh fine, ruin my fun." The old man rolled his eyes in an apparent show of exasperation. Shirou didn't particularly care. He needed to help the JSDF, else, everything that had happened would be for nothing.

"Sage Cato?" Itami called from in front. Shirou hadn't paid the man any attention for a while, too engrossed as he was with Cato's explanation, "Lieutenant General Hazama wants to talk to you."

The other man held up a radio receiver. They were in range of the radio systems it seemed, and Itami had used it to immediately call command. From the radio, sounds of shouts could be heard, before a gruff voice rang out, "Itami, hurry up and get whoever it is on already!"

"What a curious little thing!" Cato picked up the radio and started poking at it, "Is your General perhaps trapped inside?"

"It's a long range communication device, though due to limitations, we've been forced to use it only within a certain range." Itami answered with a calm that bordered on supernatural, "Hold this button if you want to talk, then release it if you want to listen."

"Hello? Is this the General?" Cato tentatively held up the radio and spoke into it, looking almost afraid that he'd break it.

"Whoever this is, you better have a damn good reason to call me when I'm in the middle of a warzone."


When they entered the concrete structure that was the JSDF's base, the sound of artillery fire only grew louder and more frequent. The sound of rifle fire was added onto that noise, a cacophony of weapons that Shirou had long since gotten used to.

With Cato's information, the artillery finally started doing real damage. The force of demi-humans that initially seemed like an unending tide soon grew thin enough that there was barely a vanguard for the human forces.

Soon after, those very same humans were gunned down by relentless machine gun fire.

Likewise, several mage units had been obliterated through pinpointing the exact location that they were casting from, courtesy of a back and forth between Hazama and Cato.

That didn't mean that the assault was over, though. As the demi-humans were nearly wiped, fleets of wyverns and their riders came swooping in to harass the artillery. They were met in force by anti-air guns that shot them completely out of the sky.

And on it went, as the Imperial vassals threw more units at them - horse archers, wyverns with mage bombers, and one time, Shirou swore there was a short wave of undead before they were wiped clean from the map.

Finally, the assault started to wind down, and soon, there was a lull in the fighting. For now, the JSDF had come out on top, with some minor injuries. The vassals were beaten back, and yet Cato and Hazama were still working on their defensive strategy.

All because the assault they had endured wasn't even that incredible in the first place.

By Cato's estimation, the vassal army had used fifty thousand of their units. Most of those were demi-humans that the Empire specifically bred to be mindless drones, such as orcs and ogres. The real force was still hanging in the back, around six kilometers out, just out of range of the L16 mortars that they were using.

To Shirou's grim satisfaction, they were that far after they had learned it the hard way.

All things said and done, with the tense silence that the battlefield was in, they had brought in the rest of the refugees, both elves and the people of Coda.

Understandably, the villagers were terrified. Not so understandably, the elves were pretty much relaxed. Both groups were given accommodations, though not without quite a bit of grumbling from Hazama.

Still, the price for the wizard's help was invaluable. Something as small as helping those who needed help was nothing for the lives of the men under Hazama's umbrella, and nearly the entire base knew that.

With a small sigh, he looked through the IR binoculars that had been given out. Apparently, they were the reason that the vassal army was spotted in the first place - they blocked sight, but not infrared. A curious distinction, and one that Shirou took seriously.

"Truly, the ideas thine people have come up with are fantastical, Lord Emiya."

Now, if only he also didn't have to be saddled with entertaining the leader of the forest elves. Don't get him wrong, the Grand Elder was a good person all around, but even Shirou had limits. That limit may or may not have been reached by the time the blonde asked about concrete.

He knew why she was doing this, though, so he couldn't really be angry.

The stress of just the past day was enough to wear a man down to the bone. The small, personal conversations that Adrianne started with him were good ways to relieve that stress, if only a little.

Now, if-

Movement. A blob of white.

A flare went up. Then another. Then Shirou's.

The battlefield lit up as if suns had come out from the dark. Shirou barely registered the gasp of surprise from the elf next to him as he Traced his bow.

The second assault of the Second Battle of Alnus Hill started right there and then.


A/N: I want to point out that the 300k troops that the vassals brought is very much canon. There's differences with tactics, yes, but the actual number is the same.

If you like what I do and want to support me, check out my P-atreon at P-atreon•com(slash)Almistyor.

And a special thanks to: Oliver vazquez, brutalcrab and Tassimo.