Chapter 62:

As I sailed through the air, I pulled out my dagger with my left hand from its sheath in the small of my back. Was this reckless? Maybe. But after months, I felt alive again.

I landed while spinning. A flurry of blades surrounded me as my spell took effect. The use of the spell was taking advantage of one of the more recent alterations I had made. I now could make the motion less about movement and more just about speed.

Four of the soldiers around me fell, creating a gap in the shield wall. It was just a small gap in a very long line.

A half second later, the impact of lances on shields, pikes into horses, and horses on people, and then, people on people resounded through the entire line.

Even the small gap I created allowed a dozen horses to penetrate deep into enemy ranks. The pressure forced the edge of the shield wall to buckle, and more and more streamed through. Each one forced the gap even wider. This was also just one of many places where our charge broke through.

I Danced between the charging horses as they streamed past me. When I got through, I had only a few seconds of calm before the second wave hit.

All the horses that hadn't made it through the shield wall either died or broke off. The riders guided their mounts through the perfectly coordinated formation where the second and third waves of horses left gaps for just this purpose.

The second wave hit, and I located my horse and Danced toward it. I grabbed its reins just in time for the third wave to slam into the enemy formation. By this point, the shield wall was completely decimated, and the charge just ran it over. Only the pikes behind it prevented the entire enemy formation from being overrun.

Our cavalry disengaged, and the mounted archers and mounted infantry with short bows sat 50 yards away, pouring arrows into the enemy formation. The enemy's archers started to adjust their aim to return fire, but as they did, we sprung our first real surprise.

The crossbow unit that had been hiding since before dawn stood up from the tall grass off to the side and released a barrage of over a thousand crossbow bolts into the archers' flank. This gave time for the mounted archers to retreat back into formation. Before they completely disengaged, the mounted infantry dismounted and handed their mounts off to the archers. They would take the horses back to camp. The infantry formation assembled its own shield wall and began a slow march in on the disorganized remains of the enemy lines.

I slipped back up onto my horse, ready to rejoin the fight, when I saw a messenger. A striped messenger uniform raced toward me, with no armor on the horse or man. The small-statured man bent low over the horse's neck as it moved at a pace I could never hope to match. The horse skittered to a halt.

"The Duchess calls you back to the command tent, my lord. You are needed," the messenger said.

I groaned, highly doubting that I was actually needed. Rather, she was just very unhappy that I had not told her this part of my plan. Still, I felt that my part was done as the infantry closed in on the disarrayed enemy.

The reason for the slow approach was obviously made a second later. I put a comforting hand on the neck of my horse as the trebuchets launched. The whistling of the metal containers filled the air as they launched deep into the ranks of the enemy troops. A half second later, the concussions of over a ton of black powder exploded across the thirty different payloads. The shock wave shook the ground, startling the horses. Bits of shrapnel tore apart large sections of the enemy's ranks. I was just glad that none of them had fallen short.

Along the way, I checked my medallion. Within seconds of the collision, I had met my quota, and nearly a thousand people had already died so far. Looking behind me, I expected a lot more would die by the time the day was over. Even though the enemy still outnumbered us, they were in disarray and being pushed farther back, out of position. The crossbow unit had gotten a second and third volley off, decimating their unprotected archers and cutting down their ranged units by half. And we were only just starting.

We continued back toward the command tent. Before we made it, two more flights of trebuchet shots had already landed, and the enemy's horns were sounding some signals. As I dismounted, I sent a command, and the flag for harrying the retreat was raised. I watched along the battle lines as the flag changed and the light cavalry started their trot earlier than they were anticipating. Still, they were ready to start chasing our enemies across the plains as the Aldorians retreated. The infantry stepped back, letting the enemy disengage cleanly.

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As I stepped into the command tent, a wave of cheers met me as the officers and guards clapped and bowed at my entrance. I waved for silence and surveyed the room. Not everyone was happy to see me. Several of the more ambitious nobles looked a little annoyed. Foremost among them was Earl Ingress. The most annoyed, though, was Alana, who looked like she was about to slap me. Instead, she settled for poking me in the chest, roughly pushing me back with the force of her jab.

"That was stupid," she hissed.

I lifted a shoulder in a nonchalant shrug. "It was necessary," I lied.

She sent me a glare, even as she assumed her position a little off to my left and behind me, her pen ready.

"Anything to report?" I asked to room.

I received a series of simple reports that confirmed everything I saw. Our plan had worked better than we had even hoped, and the enemy had suffered incredible losses. Many casualties, if not many dead yet. I pulled out my stone medallion and watched as the numbers didn't so much tick up but flew. Even now, many of the enemies were still dying of wounds from the shrapnel or the initial clash.

"Very well," I said. "Continue the plan. Let them withdraw and harry them on their way back. If they look to make a stand, we'll hit them hard again. But for now, I think we can say this is looking like a victory."

I could push harder now, but it really wasn't necessary. I had nothing to gain from it, and we'd only risk losing our own troops. Besides, we didn't even use half of the tactics I had developed for this, and if they thought that they could try again, they would be sorely disappointed. And if we hit them now, they'd be backed into a corner. And I didn't think that would be best for anyone.

Business as usual continued in the tent as messengers came and went. The map was updated as the enemy retreated. With the rotation I'd set up, information was never more than a few minutes out of date, at least from the view of the outside. Next time, though, I was going to have them build a tower, and we were going to have open walls so we could see the battlefield in real time rather than have to get reports. It wasn't like we were in a forest or the battlefield was large enough that, with enough height, we couldn't get a good image of everything.

For the most part, though, my commanders knew their job, and everything went smoothly. Alana was still quietly stewing behind me, but I didn't have anything interesting to say to distract her as everything was working. All the interesting stuff had happened over the past month. Now was just the execution of a plan. No surprises, no nothing.

I thought that too soon, though. A messenger came in, and instead of just updating the numbers on the map, he came up to me.

"My lord, the reserves went in early," he said.

I blinked. "What?"

"The reserves. Captain Tomlin ordered their advance."

"Why? What happened? Did the enemy do something unexpected? Is he cutting off a flanking maneuver?" I asked, thoroughly confused. Captain Tomlin had struck me as a reasonable man, but as far as I could tell, there was no reason for him to be moving.

The messenger shook his head. "Uh, not that I see, sir."

"How much did he take?" I asked, wondering if maybe he wanted personal glory and had taken just a couple squads or something.

"Um, all of them, sir," the messenger swallowed.

I looked at the map and grimaced. It had been a bit of a gamble to have the reserves double as camp guards and outpost protection. Still, I figured if we needed the reserves, we were likely in trouble. If we were winning, well, the reserves would be just fine. If we were in trouble, we needed everything we could get anyway. That was a mistake I wouldn't make again.

"Call the fifth unit back," I said, looking at the map. They were the closest. "Tell them to get in position to defend the right flank where the reserves were."

"Yes, sir," he said, snapping a salute and running out of the tent.

"Hmmm." I hummed. Normally, the messengers called me "milord," not "sir."

Looking up from the map, I heard a warning blast from a horn nearby as the sound of hooves echoed through the camp.

"Alaric, what is that?" Alana asked with a hint of nerves in her voice.