Mong Rau's troops approached the central forts, where the sound of battle reached their ears. Fau Tu's detachment was engaged in a melee with the two siege armies. They outnumbered the enemy at least two to one, so the general's reinforcements would tip the scale even further. They would make short work of them and turn to face the army chasing after them from the west.
Chief Tobogur commanded predominantly infantry comprised of Rausam and other species that were good on foot for the siege. That was why he ultimately decided to stay and hold back the eastern army. If they had retreated, the enemy cavalry would have harried them, making it nearly impossible to rejoin the coalition's main force. He could only pray that they made it back in time to relieve them.
Commander Yasuca decided to make a stand in a position where the enemy could not fully surround her army. The steppe warriors were now pinned between the earthen fort's walls and Fau Tu's troops, but the garrison was unable to sally forth to hit them in the rear since the gate was barricaded from the outside. The defenders had already expended most of their ammunition, so they could only throw rocks from atop the walls in an attempt to help their allies fighting outside.
Most steppe people were physically superior to the Samagshin in every way. It was a saving grace that the empire looked down on other species so much that it did not allow them to join the military in large numbers out of fear that they would form an internal resistance movement. If the enemy had the physically stronger species they treated as mere servants forming the backbone of their army, the steppe warriors would not have held out nearly as long. Still, the situation would only get worse the longer it went on since they were already tired from the siege.
Mong Rau's army finally appeared over the hill, signaling the beginning of the end for Chief Tobogur and Commander Yasuca. He commanded a sizeable archery unit, one of only a few in the Omagala Empire's military. It largely relied on crossbows since they were much easier for recruits to pick up and learn, and the enemies were usually their heavily-armored fellow Samagshin. But crossbows were overkill against the largely unarmored barbarians and much slower in reloading. Simple arrows would do the job much more quickly, and time was of the essence as the coalition's main army was hot on their heels.
Amiro drove his troops onward in a full gallop, leaving behind those who could not keep up. He had received the report that their siege units would soon be surrounded and annihilated by the enemy's overwhelming numbers. They needed to hit Mong Rau in the rear to take pressure off their allies. Hopefully, their momentum would carry them through to victory.
In this storm of uncertainty, Viyal watched from the other side of the unnamed river and already predicted the outcome of this battle. The coalition would not win here. Mong Rau would not fall today. And the empire's designs on the steppe would not end anytime soon. All they could hope for was for as many steppe people to get out of this alive as possible.
It was not a matter of being pessimistic. She could see from her vantage point what the armies involved could not. The eastern detachment sent a contingent to the other side of the earthen fort to supply the defenders with fresh ammunition. It would only be moments before they rained crossbow bolts down from the walls again.
At the same time, the large contingent of archers separated from Mong Rau's troops to finish off Chief Tobogur and Commander Yasuca. The Gadat general's army had been moving in reverse all this time, but now, his vanguard was back in its original role. They formed a wide battle line that moved toward the river on one side and curved back around toward itself on the other. It was a formation to stop the coalition army from wrapping around their flanks with their larger numbers. Only the fortress-like shield wall of the Omagala Empire could afford to do so against a massive cavalry charge.
And behind their lines, visible only to Viyal as she stood atop the tallest hill in the area, the Gadat engineers swiftly assembled something. They had taken it apart during their march, but now that they were going to engage the enemy, it was finally time to put it together. A dozen large ballistae mounted atop raisable contraptions were erected as the first volley of arrows impacted the front of their shield wall. The steppe riders could not see them as they were loaded and continued their charge.
Amiro rode at the front, his flaming red mane visible even from afar. Beside him were Gavro and his sons. The army formed a wedge behind them, ready to throw everything into shattering the Gadat lines. Viyal wanted to scream for them to turn away, but her voice would never carry that far. Even the battle roar of the nearly twenty thousand riders was a faint thunder in the distance from where she stood. She could not avert her eyes from this moment. It would decide the future of the steppe people and the realization of her prophecy.
The ballistas were raised over the heads of the soldiers and unleashed their deadly payloads. Each fired six bolts the length of an adult Samagshin. Be it fortune or divine providence, none had been aimed at Amiro and his contingent. However, the bolts cut through the steppe people's lines, ripping bodies apart with their overwhelming force. A wave of crossbow bolts followed, taking down many more riders.
However, their momentum could no longer be stopped. Viyal watched her father's Shinoon charge into the gap between two Gadat shields. Then, everything turned into a mess as the two battle lines clashed all along their lengths. The shield wall was ripped open where Amiro broke in, but his red hair could no longer be made out as dust was kicked up from thousands of trampling hooves and feet.
"Your father will be alright," Tashi tried to reassure Viyal, but she could not tear her eyes off the battlefield to look at him for even a moment. She was not one for prayer, but she pleaded to the god that spoke to her when she was reincarnated into this world to protect her family. It was all she could do now.
Mong Rau proved his worth as a veteran general with expert command over his army. Although his battle line was unexpectedly broken on the first assault, his troops quickly stopped the coalition army's advance with a second layer of shield bearers. The ballistae stood protected and continued to unleash deadly volleys into the attackers' ranks over the heads of the Samagshin soldiers.
At one point, the worst-case scenario must have happened in the surrounded army under Chief Tobogur and Commander Yasuca. They had continued to hold on even under a constant rain of arrows from Mong Rau's elite archery unit and fire from the wall behind them. However, from one moment to the other, it lost its cohesion and entered a rout. Perhaps one or both of the commanders were killed in battle.
Fau Tu recognized the changing situation and turned the majority of his army around to aid Mong Rau against the coalition's main army, leaving behind only a roughly equal force to deal with the remaining steppe warriors in their midst. But somebody took command and led the troops to find a weak point and break out of the encirclement. What could have been total annihilation turned into a quick escape across the river for a little over a thousand troops.
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Still, it meant that Mong Rau's army, which had managed to achieve a stalemate against the coalition troops despite being outnumbered nearly two to one, would be bolstered to near equal numbers. The coalition commanders soon recognized that something changed despite not being able to see past the front line. Their momentum had all but run out, but the Gadat army suddenly received a push from behind that allowed them to advance instead. The tides were turned against them in the bloody melee.
Thus, they disengaged in a hurry. Mong Rau commanded his troops not to chase and instead maintained his formation. He knew that they could not catch up to the various steppe mounts with their slower Doja Shou and would only face the parting shot if they tried. As the coalition troops retreated toward the river, the bear general ordered his men to secure the nearest earthen fort instead.
With this, a long day of battle ended without a conclusive winner. The losses sustained by both sides amounted to nearly the same in the end. However, that left the distribution of power in favor of the Gadat, as they reclaimed their forts in the process. What had been planned as an overwhelming victory to drive fear into the empire would now turn into a prolonged war. Since they did not annihilate the punitive force in one strike, the Omagala Empire would be emboldened to redouble their efforts to take this land. The emperor would soon send additional reinforcements to the successful general, who drove away the steppe people for a while.
Ultimately, the result was still better than if they had attempted to fight in a direct battle from the beginning. The coalition managed to shave off roughly a third of the enemy army with the ambush at the western forts. Only the latter part of the engagement turned messy and led to unnecessary losses.
Chief Tobogur fell in battle, killed by multiple arrows piercing his body. Commander Yasuca, Chief Ivakha's second daughter, was struck in the lower back by a crossbolt bolt and fell off her Hyarul. Her guard unit managed to carry her off the battlefield, but she was now paralyzed from the waist down. Several other chiefs had also fallen or were maimed. The coalition's morale, riding on a high from the many easy victories it had won before, plummeted to an all-time low. Throughout history, steppe people were capricious and only fought when they felt they could win. It would require a lot of convincing and maneuvering to keep the coalition together now.
In these uncertain times, the Snowblood swore bitter revenge for her daughter's fate in a passionate speech before the chiefs and troops. It managed to stave off the immediate dissolution of the coalition. They could not afford to lose again, or it would really mean the end of the resistance against the Gadat invasion.
They now needed to drum up support from far and wide and bolster their numbers again. Some chiefs murmured about perhaps finding a way to reconcile with the Ishtemur, which was the second-strongest tribe on the steppe, but they would never dare bring it up before Ivakha the Snowblood.
Viyal welcomed her family when they returned to the camp. Amiro had been shot in the stomach with a crossbow bolt and sustained many cuts across his body, but he walked on steady feet and spoke in his usual commanding voice. His brother and sons were in a similar state, but all that mattered was that they survived the battle.
However, many Zakhira warriors did not return. People Viyal had grown up with now lay dead on the other side of the river, left to the carrion birds. Sky burials were the steppe people's custom, but not being able to see the deceased one last time weighed heavily on their families. After all, the Zakhira tribe had been winning every battle until now, giving them the leeway to collect their bodies and return them to their families for the final parting rites.
Viyal could sense the shift in morale. Joy and laughter from when they successfully raided the Gadat were replaced by a downcast mood across the camp. Nobody wanted to show off happiness or make merry among their families when their neighbors were in mourning. It grew increasingly difficult to motivate the warriors when they came in for their daily training.
Her father not once mentioned the failure of her strategy. He and the other chiefs took full responsibility for the messy battle and the resulting stalemate. After all, they had decided to follow her suggestions because they did not have a better one. The Snowblood had talked to Amiro in private after the battle, admitting they would have reached a much worse conclusion if they had gone with her initial plan of splitting up the troops.
Thus, Viyal was allowed to join the next strategy meeting five days after the battle. Most attending chiefs were wounded, showing they had fought at the frontlines. Not one complained about their ailments and sat on their cushions with stoic expressions. They were a hardy people, used to pain and suffering. These wounds would not keep them down for long.
The chiefs began by suggesting what to do next. Various strategies for a swift retribution strike were brought up and picked apart by the others. None of them managed to gain much traction, and they reached an impasse again. They were now in a worse situation than when they first arrived here. While they had conquered the forts and slaughtered most of their inhabitants over the past two weeks, the enemy had now retaken them. However, whereas the garrison troops were barely better than the militia, trained soldiers manned the walls now, making the forts essentially impossible to assault again.
"Do you have no suggestions this time?" Altuna said next to Viyal. The young Mosyv looked up at her friend in confusion. Her elder sister had been hurt by her failure of a strategy, and many members of her tribe were killed. Did she still trust her to come up with something worthwhile after that?
"Not this time," Viyal lowered her gaze and muttered. It was not that she had given up after a single defeat. She had spent the last few days simulating scenarios and mulling over the coalition's options by herself. But she had come up blank on all of them after trying to take every possibility into account.
With their equal numbers, their options were very limited. Mong Rau distributed his twenty thousand remaining troops across the central five of the twelve earthen forts and abandoned the rest. Unlike when they dealt with the garrison, he would not fall for the steppe people's provocations, feints, and diversions. He concentrated his troops instead of trying to hold all the forts along the river with his lacking numbers.
The only weakness was the same as before: The supply deliveries. Mong Rau could not afford to send out too many troops to stop the coalition's raids. Perhaps they could starve him out through the winter and assault his weakened troops in the spring. But if the empire sent another army of a similar size to reinforce him before then, it would all have been for naught.
In the end, Viyal could not devise a convincing strategy. She could only let the chiefs discuss among themselves and maybe come up with something she could not think of. They had much more experience in warfare than she did, so she could learn from their debates and build upon her analytical skills with their knowledge.
Days turned into weeks. Without an overarching strategy, the various chiefs attempted to lure Mong Rau's officers out of hiding themselves. While the general was stationed in the central earthen fort, he delegated his officers to the other four, with strict orders not to emerge no matter what the steppe people did.
Chief Inalik once set free a group of Samagshin prisoners and sent them running back to the westernmost earthen fort. The officer inside did not send out his troops to save them, knowing it was bait. The Bavadi chief then sent some troops to kill them in full view of the gatehouse, but even that did not make the enemy move.
Several similar stratagems yielded the same result. Mong Rau's officers were too well-trained to fall for such obvious schemes, or they trusted their general's judgment not to leave the forts. Despite his title of Black Beast, he was exceedingly calm and rational. He was the worst matchup for the hotheaded steppe people who preferred swift attacks over sustained standoffs.
Thus, two months passed without any development. The Gadat remained holed up in the forts; no supply caravans came in all that time, and there was not a hint of even a messenger, let alone a reinforcement army. The coalition could not capture anybody to squeeze them for information, so it was left woefully in the dark as to the empire's plans.
Then, as the first snow fell on the Sunrise Lowlands, the coalition camp was in an uproar. Ivakha had sent out messengers to the other Shuva tribes, and they had responded. They were only a few days away, bringing with them hundreds of smaller tribes. The coalition would be bolstered by tens of thousands of fresh warriors.
Their reinforcements had come before the empire's did. Now was the time to strike and bury Mong Rau. And with him, the Omagala Empire's designs on the steppe people's lands.