“That’s not as much as what we have in Arh-Getlam,” said Sir DelVillar as he peered at the approaching enemy forces through a telescope. The old man’s eye was sharp enough as it was, so his use of a telescope on top of it meant that he could easily notice things that were not visible yet to most. The enemy force he was observing was still far enough away that it would have taken them at least another hour or two to reach the battlefield chosen by the defenders.

They had positioned themselves in an area south-west of Arh-Getlam, around half an hour’s march away, where their left flank was covered by a dense forest that spanned miles to the south and their right flank was secured by a rapidly flowing river. The ten thousand soldiers deployed closed the gap between the forest and the river, which forced the enemy to either go through them or to circle around the forest and waste some hours in order to reach the city behind them.

Sir DelVillar still had more troops, but he made the decision to leave the weakest third of his army and ordered those to help the engineers in reconstructing the city’s defenses while they held the enemy back instead, and only took the stronger ones with him to the field. Even so, it turned out that he had been misled by the early reports that believed the enemy to number about the same as Arh-Getlam’s defenders.

When the old knight looked at the approaching enemies himself, he realized that the scout had made a mistake. There were perhaps only around five to eight thousand enemies, though they were mounted and thus raised a great dust cloud as they traveled, which made the mistake more understandable. The scout wouldn’t have dared approach too closely and under the circumstances might have based their guess on the size of the dust cloud the enemies kicked up.

It was an understandable mistake, and for once, one he was glad of. It was always better to be over-prepared rather than be underprepared when it came to war and he was not keen to make such a simple rookie mistake.

The fact that the enemy army seemed to be entirely mounted also explained how they could traverse the distance between the nearest battlefield to the west and Arh-Getlam so fast. An army that traveled by foot would have needed at least two weeks time to travel that distance, and they would not have received the news of Arh-Getlam’s fall that quickly either. Combined with the time needed to make arrangements for shifting any significant part of an army to a different target, Sir DelVillar had estimated that he might have another week or two before any enemies came calling.

On the other hand, a fully mounted army could cover the same distance in a fraction of the time, with the actual speed dependent on the kind of mount they used. The demons used several kinds of mounts in their cavalries, so it was difficult to pinpoint which kind they were dealing with until the army drew closer, but Sir DelVillar doubted that they would be facing enemy heavy cavalry.

After all, the hefty armored beasts favored by the demons for use in their heavy cavalry were not particularly fast, compared to even a horse or the like. In return, such beasts possessed a thick protective layer of bony plates and had the power to directly push their way through troop formations with ease using their bulk and might.

Alissa’s group had never fought against demon cavalry so far, but they had been informed about them on prior occasions. The demons used mostly tamed monsters – something the humans also used for their elite cavalry mounts – for their cavalry forces, many raised from birth in captivity. Often a cavalier was literally raised alongside their mount for that reason, which allowed them to form a deep bond with one another and allowed the use of beasts that typically wouldn’t have accepted being mounted as steeds.

Their paths and classes were practically one that bound them together for the most part, with neither the person nor the beast capable of exhibiting their full prowess without the other. Based on anecdotes from the Kingdom’s own past historical figures, apparently some even earned skills that truly shared their life and death with their mounts. The two would either live together, or die together, with them often being able to shrug off injuries that would have normally killed one or the other due to the life shared from their partner.

It was in many ways a symbiotic bond, to say the least.

As time passed and the enemies approached closer, Sir DelVillar and Sir Inolet managed to discern more details about their opposition. They passed down the order to brief the troops about the foes they were about to face, a cavalry force around seven to eight thousand strong, mounted entirely on [Hippodracons], a kind of monster that looked as if someone tried to create a reptilian version of a horse with draconic features.

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They were notorious monsters known to be fast and lethal, one that hunted in packs and had great stamina. Unlike horses, they were entirely carnivorous, which rendered the steed just as dangerous as its rider, but were also known to be difficult to tame, even when raised in captivity. It took something from a rider to make a [Hippodracon] acknowledge them and let them ride on its back.

In other words, they were likely dealing with cavalry that was at the very least highly skilled, if not even amongst the elites of the demons. It might be difficult to defeat them in an open battle, but to just hold their ground in a defensive battle? Sir DelVillar was confident that his soldiers were at least up for that sort of task, especially on the morale high they’ve been riding since their victory.

Immediately the troops shifted their formation. The enemies were still far away, but it was better to be prepared beforehand. The troops could rest while waiting for the enemy’s arrival, and having them already in position would save time once the battle actually started.

They shifted to a looser formation that appeared to be made from many, smaller, half-circle formations, with the tips of every two neighboring half-circles meeting with the peak of the curve of another behind them. The formation was set up to slow the charge of a cavalry force and to take them down as they entered deeper, as the “weak points” of the frontmost line would coincide with the sturdiest part of the line behind them, and so on.

Meanwhile, the fourth tiers were dispersed in teams of twos or threes to a formation, mostly on the second line or further back, with only a few like Sir DelVillar himself stationed right at the front. Sir DelVillar positioned himself right at the tip of the center of the formation, for he would act as the reef that the wave would shatter upon.

The once distant dust cloud, that started as barely a speck on the horizon, slowly grew larger as time passed and the demons got closer and closer. The defending soldiers were still relaxed given the distance between them and the demons, though their eyes remained vigilant and looked towards their enemies to gauge the distance from time to time.

To their surprise, the demons actually stopped their rush a good half mile or so away from the defensive line the humans had set. Alissa heard Sir DelVillar sigh from afar, which was understandable. It would have been better for the defenders if the demons had been brash and charged straight into the defensive formation awaiting them.

Instead, the demons seemed content to engage them in a staring contest while they rested their mounts and bodies first, which was rather atypical behavior for them. Most demons the old knight knew tended to be hot-headed and would have charged straight in, instead. Whoever was in command of these demons clearly had a better understanding of tactics and strategy than the typical demon.

After several hours, when the sun had just started to drop from its peak in the sky above, the demons mounted up once more. At the sight of their enemies preparing for battle, the humans similarly picked up their weapons and lined their shields up with one another, forming shield walls in each small semi-circular formation as they eyed their foes from across the distance.

The demons started to advance on their mounts in a rather loose formation, though neither Sir DelVillar nor Sir Inolet could identify who gave the command specifically. Several demons gave the command to advance, but they were just subordinate officers, more likely than not, given that they were only in the late third tier of levels. Whoever was in command of the demon force was most likely a fourth tier, and they definitely had several, though none had shown themselves as of yet.

Which was yet another point of worry. It was rather atypical of the usually more straightforward demon tactics. Sure, the demons sometimes did engage in subterfuge as well, but it was typically on a small scale, not something on the scale of an army. It was hard enough for their commanders to get them to fight in an orderly manner, much less obey instructions perfectly.

As such, if a demon army actually reined in their instincts and completely obeyed their commander, that meant whoever was in command was held in great fear or esteem by the demons in question. Only under such circumstances would thousands of demon troops heed the words of a single person without any disobedience. Such a scenario typically didn’t bode well for the human side, though.

Sir DelVillar passed word to his subordinates and told them to be cautious. They were to prioritize stability and safety rather than attempt to inflict as much damage as they could to the enemy, a more passive way of fighting, but he felt it warranted given the rather unusual manner that the demon army ahead had shown themselves so far.

The enemy cavalry sped up to a trot and then a gallop when they were still a quarter mile away from the human formation, and everyone raised their shields and held it steady in preparation of what they expected to be a powerful charge by the demons. Contrary to their expectations, however, the demons did not rush into charge into the defensive formation.

At around a hundred paces away, the frontmost riders of the enemy formation suddenly veered sharply to the left and right while pulling out bows from behind their backs. The demons then nocked arrows to their bowstrings and let loose even as they rode off to the sides, and those behind them repeated their actions once they reached the front.

Instead of a devastating charge into melee, it was a rain of arrows that greeted the human defenders. Most of the arrows were stopped by their shields, but some either got lucky and landed on a fatal spot on a defender or were fired by more powerful individuals and directly pierced through the shield and armor of a soldier to lodge itself deep into their body.

The demon cavalry seemed to have no intention to engage in melee and simply repeated their shooting, their formation turned into one that was shaped like a sideways figure-eight as those who were once at the frontmost reached the rear and looped around to repeat the process once more. Like so, the demons kept the rain of arrows falling on the human defenders for a good while.

At least until Sir DelVillar lost his patience and ordered an assault by the frontmost line of the defensive formation. Unfortunately, as the human infantry charged forward, the demons pulled back and withdrew to a distance, only to return with their arrows once more when Sir DelVillar ordered his troops to return to the defense line.