Chapter Eleven - The Second Round of Fabre

[Author’s note: due to a number of suggestions I will change ‘spearers’ to ‘spearmen’ as well as ‘foreleg’ and ‘forearm’ of bears to ‘claws’ and ‘arm’ respectively from this chapter onwards. I don’t think i’ll change any of these from the past chapters unless i get told to do so by a lot of the readers because I’m a lazy person.]

Fabre chose twenty archers for the first round. He was certain this wasn’t the most effective method, but this guaranteed a number of things.

Firstly, he considered the opponents. Judging from the location - a linear dirt path with unnaturally thick forest to the side - it was most likely that their opponent would be running towards the barricade, or come via air. Naturally, the opponents would implement some kind of method to bypass the barricade; the noble picked out three most likely methods as using force to break the wall, climbing up the wall or flying over it. Out of the horsemen, swordsmen and archers, Fabre knew that the latter could effectively defend from two of the three methods; climbing and flying. Being able to deal with the flying opponents were the plus point in Fabre’s books since he himself was not very confident in dealing with them.

Secondly, there was less burden on Fabre; having a mix of soldiers meant that he needed to be alert in multiple areas. That alone is fine for him, but if the battles become intense, it also brought about more chances of making mistakes. Fabre was a young man who knew his own limits and strengths. While it was true that he has learnt about strategic tactics and controlling armies during a battle, he had never gotten the chance to apply it outside paper. and was lacking experience in that area of expertise. Instead, he knew he excelled in front-line combat. As such, his method required his own involvement in battle as well.

The first wave consisted of mountain beast of monstrous size and power, thirty-six in all, to which Fabre smiled. The boars were no threat to the archers, while the bears were slow enough to kill before they got the chance to climb. ‘First things first.’ Fabre mused while standing in front of the barricade, observing the incoming horde.

"Archers ready. Shoot together when a bear is in range.”

His command left his lips to which twenty archers armed, their bow strings taut. A moment or two later, the arrows were loose in the air.

Fabre’s indigo gaze followed the arc of arrows, landing accurately at a single bear. The beast vanished into a puff of smoke before it could even cry out.

Fabre’s smile broadened, having assessed the accuracy and range of his archers. He took his time to draw his weapon, a rapier gleaming brightly in the sun. After a light test of the weight of his weapon in hand, he mumbled under his breath before charging towards the boars, his neck scarf trailing behind him.

“Salamander, imbue my blade with your blazing power.”

His rapier erupted into flames, settling into a thin laser of a blade as he ran. He used the Mana in his body to propel his feet, each stride covering huge distances to reach the boars in no time. Before the beasts could even register that there was an enemy approaching, the flaming rapier had buried deep into the first boar’s body, the flames consuming it from the inside. Fabre’s attacks did not stop there, applying Mana to his limbs to make them faster and stronger, pulling out the rapier towards the second and third boars even as the first boar started turning into smoke. They both fell victim to the same fate as the first boar. Fabre took a leap back once the third boar was inevitably turned into smoke and only moments after that, the place he had been standing was crushed by an enraged bear’s claw.

“Archers fire at this bear! Salamander, become my allies’ strength!”

The noble commanded, and the flames around his weapon died down. The arrows left the barricade and sped their way towards the bear as Fabre expertly kept distance to the enraged bear’s attacks. As the arrows closed in, a ball of fire appeared from Fabre and ignited the arrows with flames. The targeted bear pulled up its claw to block the incoming barrage, and it was successful; all twenty arrows were blocked with its arm. All twenty burning arrows. The flames licked at the bear’s fur and within moments covered its entire body in flames before turning into smoke.

Fabre did not call upon his familiar again once the second bear was defeated. He could certainly end this battle early with it, but once the familiar tires out he would not be able to summon it again for a time. It was much better to let it rest from time to time in order to bring out its full potential. Also, for all he knew, the hordes after these could be tougher than these. Besides, he was certain that he was capable of hit and run tactics long enough to fend the enemy off with the current number of opponents left now.

A boar charged towards him with an angry snort. Fabre jumped with ease, stepping over its snout and landing quick thrusts of his rapier to its body. The boar did not die, but Fabre paid no mind, noticing that there were already other boars charging towards him. He regulated the Mana within his body in the way he had trained for drawn-out battles, using minimal amounts for quick jumps or thrusts. If one was observing Fabre’s battle, it was as if he was dancing amongst the monstrous mountain boars, whittling their health little by little as he approached a bear.

Now, Fabre’s rapier was designed with reinforced steel; its width was a little less than the width of his palm and length long enough that he would need to unsheathe with his arm fully extended. It was designed for piercing, but with an added flat edge to allow limited amounts of slicing an opponent - specifically around the thinner connecting parts of the body such as limbs or the neck. Fabre lured an enraged bear to charge at him. He focused a bit more Mana in his legs to allow faster movement, for even with Fabre’s skill he wasn’t confident that he could completely outspeed the bear’s attacks. As he saw its claw coming down towards him, he rocketed out of his spot, angling his jump such that he would land beside the bear rather than away from it. His rapier passed between the bear’s body and arm, cleanly severing it. The bear howled in pain, but Fabre did not give attention to that.

“Archers fire!”

Fabre’s command was obliged, and the third bear was defeated without being able to protect itself, the pain of losing a limb making its reactions too slow to block the arrows with its remaining arm.  

"Fabre Inmos. You have shown your ability to defeat the enemy with your own hands. Your skills in commanding an army is still questionable, however for the time being I acknowledge your ability to keep your men safe. You may choose four more men to recruit for the next horde."

The noble listened to the voice of the prince solemnly. When his evaluation was done, Fabre proceeded to study the new unit added to the list; spearmen. They boast in long reach with a shield for defence. The noble pondered if this was a hint to the next wave. If so, the monsters will be either be hard to reach, very tough or there will be an incredible amount to which one would need to control the field of battle. There was also a chance he was overthinking things, however. He still had his twenty archers ready so if it was a monster that is hard to reach, then he knew those can be dealt with. While it would be fun to fight tough opponents, if the amount of the tougher opponents were close to the amount of mountain boars from the first wave he knew he would not survive.

He pondered selecting the swordsmen as they are balanced in offense and defense for the cost of reach, however he wondered how helpful the four swordsmen would be. He himself was a valuable forward asset; in fact, Fabre thought, it would be nice if he was able to take the glory of killing the majority of the enemies. As long as the second wave do not have consist completely of strong monsters, he should be okay.

"Four spearmen."

He decided in the end. He lost the last match, ‘Protect the Maiden in Distress’, due to being careless. This time he wasn’t willing to risk the chance of an exceptionally strong ground opponent and so came the conclusion of choosing these soldiers. They were placed in the frontlines with Fabre himself. Once they were in place, he called out to all of his soldiers to instruct brief commands to use during the defence of the barricade - then the battle was resumed accompanied by the blast of trumpet sounds.

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Fabre observed the coming horde in concentration. The first thing he saw was the familiar tall silhouette of the monster bears, six in total. In his mind’s eyes he could already envision the tactics he would unfold and to bring them down. Next he caught the sight of the tigers. Their speed was almost unrealistic compared to their size, leaving the bears behind in moments. Fabre did not bother counting how many there were - he just needed to confirm the total size of them all to have all the plans set in his mind.

“Archers get into the bear-hunting formation. Spearmen, funnel formation. Move it, defend the barricade from the incoming enemies!”

Came the command from the noble while he, too, got into the formation he had told his soldiers earlier.

Fabre briefly glanced to check that everything was going as planned. The spearmen were all in front of him, two on each of his side, wide enough for them to be able to defend the entire length of the dirt path. They were currently standing in a V-shaped formation towards the incoming horde, with Fabre at the furthest point to the monsters. Just as the noble had instructed, the spearmen were crouching into a defensive stance with their shield ready so that they can receive any incoming attack with as little damage as possible.

The archers were separated into two rows of ten soldiers each along the barricade’s wall. They were spread out such that between two archers from the front row was an archer from the back row. The archers all readied their bows in preparation for the bears to enter their shooting range.  

The tigers and the spearmen clashed within moments of them getting into position. There were roars of ferocity as they collided, but the spearmen were able to withstand their impact; the tigers were big and strong, but the path wasn’t wide enough for more than five to stand abreast. If they had been approaching in an orderly and filed manner then there were no reason why six or even seven could fit, but they did not have the brains to think through nor were they able to do so due to their charging attack - if six or seven attempted to run while squishing themselves in a line, the outer tigers would succumb to grazing the trees on the side, not to mention the potential danger of tripping against other tigers’ feet or body and suffering damage even before they reach the soldiers. Due to this fact, each spearmen only had to deal with one tiger at a time.

The beast which aimed at Fabre was the first one to be killed. Unlike the spearmen, Fabre had charged towards the tiger, his rapier raised with the deadly tip towards the tiger. The speed of the beast’s charge fueled Fabre’s thrusting attack, allowing the blade to impale the beast with such force it had turned to smoke the moment it would have collided with the noble. The brown-haired noble slashed away the smoke to recover his visibility of his opponents. Like he had planned for, the remaining tigers charged towards Fabre, noticing the gap in the middle of the path. This allowed Fabre to focus on each tiger one-on-one, preventing the chance of being surrounded as well as not letting a single beast through to the barricade. He kept checking the status of his spearmen from time to time though, for if any of the four were defeated, the formation would crumble and he would have to regain control of the situation.

The archers simultaneously shot their arrows at a single bear. Twenty deadly projectiles landed at their target, making it disappear into a puff of smoke. The other seven bears stiffened into defence at that. The archers readied their arrows again, but this time the archers at the back row loosened their arrows a single moment after the front row. Ten arrows sailed to the second bear, but it was prepared. Using its massive claws it easily got rid of the incoming arrows, but the arrows which the back row had shot impaled the beast as it was drawing its claws back from the swing. It howled in pain, its eyes turning red in fury.

The next round of arrows were shot in three groups; five from the front row shot first, then the other five, then the ten from the back. The bear was prepared to claw away the first two shots as it had learnt, but again the arrows from the back row were impaled into the bear, leaving six bears to deal with.

“Archers to support formation.”

Fabre called out after checking that the second bear was eliminated. Similarly to Hywel, Fabre picked up the trait the bears had from the previous horde though in his case it was mainly thanks to his knowledge of monsters. Fabre had studied and read as many books as he can in relation to combat, from bestiaries of Glordia to the various forms of weaponry and their techniques. If it was in theory, he was certain that there were only a handful of his age who knows more than him in these area of expertise.

The archers changed their target to the tigers. The front row and the back row aimed at separate tigers who were blocked by the formation which weren’t engaged in battle with the spearmen or Fabre, however when any of the spearmen looked like they would be in trouble, the arrows were directed to the tiger they were dealing with. Fabre specifically instructed the archers to avoid attacking the ones being held back by the spearmen if possible in case monsters like the boars were to appear once more; that is, monsters who excel in powerful charge attacks. Tigers weren’t as beefy as the boars, but they had the upper hand in speed; Fabre doubted that the spearmen would last long if they were charged at over and over again.

The noble instructed the archers to focus on the bears once more when they started approaching again with their guards lowered. Once again, they were successful at taking down two more bears. By this point seven tigers had been defeated; three by Fabre, three by the archers and one by a spearman. That left two tigers being idle. Fabre applied mana into his feet and jumped up high, eyeing the two tigers at the back and the tiger that was attacking him. He shouted his familiar’s name as gravity took hold of him.

“Salamander, imbue my body with your flaming power!”

Flickers of red and yellow light appeared in front of the falling noble and soon he was encased in a sphere of spiraling flames. He landed right in the middle of the group of tigers, causing a loud burst of fire. The remaining tigers fell victim to this explosion, killing the three that faced the brunt of the attack at once. The other four suffered the aftermath of severe burns. Once the flames subsided spearmen, who were crouched behind their shield as they had been instructed before the battle when Fabre jumped up, quickly finished off the suffering tigers. Fabre stood up from his attack, glancing at the bears.

“Spearmen, prepare to circle formation.”

He commanded as he lifted his rapier up, pointing to the nearest bear. The spearmen obliged, lining up behind Fabre.

“Salamander, draw that bear’s attention to me with a harmless prank.”

A small flame appeared from the tip of his rapier, speeding towards the bear. The flame burst with flashing light and a loud noise as it connected. The bear gave an astonished snort before noticing Fabre in the distance. Its eyes turned red in rage and charged towards him, the archers no longer something it was cautious of.

As if on cue, arrows were unleashed towards the bear and impaling it to death. Quickly, Fabre casted the same spell at another bear; this time, the bear approached with more caution than the one before.

“Now, circle formation!”

Fabre called out as the bear was closed enough for it to strike him. The spearmen moved quickly, surrounding the bear with their spears ready. Fabre quickly joined them, circling the bear to quickly avoid getting hit. When its attention was at a different soldier, spears and rapier struck the bear mercilessly. The archers took care of the remaining bears with ease.

And so Fabre cleared the second horde with ease.