“Push, stab, and hold the line,

And life would be mighty fine,

Falter, tremble, and break,

And it’ll be your last mistake.” - Battle-Hymn sung by Clangeddin soldiers, circa 408-497 VA.

A battle could unravel at a pace that seemed horribly fast to outside observers. The battle at Nedja Plains was one such case.

While the battle remained relatively even for a while, with the Kolitscheian army at a slight advantage, even, the tables turned not an hour into the battle when the Free Lances mercenary company broke through the Kolitscheian’s right flank and disrupted their formation in short order. They fought their way into the enemy formation, and struck in all directions from there with a main thrust aimed to create an opening at the Kolitscheian frontline.

Once that opening presented itself, the First Legion of Algenverr, led by Nestor Ambroglio da Nunez personally, led a charge directly into the fray and further splintered the Kolitscheian right flank held by their fabled Warforged. Despite their valiant effort to hold back the enemy, the Warforged failed to hold the line and was soon swept aside by the Algenverr elites and their mercenary allies.

While the Algenverr elites turned towards the center of the Kolitscheian formation and struck hard to complete the rout, their mercenary allies went for the archers in the backlines of the Kolitscheian army. Those archers had not expected to be subjected to such an assault and in their panic, fired at the mercenaries. Many of their arrows failed to hit their target and instead struck the backs of their Warforged allies however.

Being struck from behind by friendly fire of all things shattered the once-high morale of the Warforged. They gave way to the tide of mercenaries that simply burst through their lines and charged at the archers. Before long, the right half of the Kolitscheian archer formation also shattered under the assault of the mercenaries.

When not even their fabled Warforged stood against the charge, the archers had even less chance.

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To further compound their misery, just as the archers started to break and run, a small unit of cavalry – not more than a thousand, gathered from all the forces that formed the coalition army – chose that moment to rush into the battlefield from the side, where they had hidden themselves out of sight prior to that moment. The riders mercilessly chased the escaping archers and ran them down where they could.

Soledad and her platoon – now numbering over forty riders – were amongst the cavalry. Due to the nature of the mission the Free Lances had to undertake, it was impossible for her people to fight together with them. Cavalry like hers couldn’t afford to get bogged down, which was what happened then the Free Lances charged into the enemy formation. It was only their unique makeup that allowed the company to make a gradual push into the enemy formation that well.

Now that they were unleashed along with what little cavalry the coalition army managed to scrounge up, Soledad led the charge enthusiastically, the rest of her unit following her closely.

Their targets, the escaping enemy archers, were already distracted with running away. Only very few even turned to face the incoming cavalry to loose an arrow, and those arrows inflicted negligible casualties to the onrushing riders and steeds at best. As Soledad and her riders had veered off to target escapees further ahead, they were spared from such a treatment.

With confidence, she directed her destrier mare towards the escapees. Her glave chopped down and decapitated one enemy as she rode past, while her steed bodily slammed into another and sent the man down to the ground, where he was trampled by many hooves that rode past. Soledad’s trained steed had not even stumbled in the slightest as its hooves trampled upon the man’s body.

One of the next runaways she ran into had turned and loosed an arrow at her, but Soledad shifted on her saddle and leaned to one side, the arrow barely leaving a scratch on the side of her helmet. Then she returned to a more stable position on the saddle and slashed upwards with her glaive all in the same movement. The blade caught the archer right on his right armpit and cleanly severed his arm.

Behind her, the heavy cavalry section of her platoon followed her path as they fanned out and struck any enemy that happened to come too close to them. Their heavy armor – which their steeds had as well – deflected the few haphazard arrows shot at them, while their weapons mercilessly reaped life and limb from their targets. Other enemies were simply trampled by the sturdy horses, their bones and flesh pulverized beneath many hooves.

Anatoli and the lighter elements of the cavalry squad swept in behind them and cleaned up the stragglers that the heavies failed to eliminate. Javelins and throwing axes were hurled from atop horseback with great accuracy, while Anatoli himself wielded his orcish greatbow with expertise and returned fire with heavy arrows nearly twice as thick as what the human archers used.

Despite their success, however, Soledad knew not to bite off more than she could chew. Just as her heavy cavalry approached the center of the archer formation where they were still more disciplined – the Free Lances had yet to reach them – she led her platoon to swerve around to the side. Rather than risk getting bogged down in the enemy formation, she brought her people on another cleanup run of the routed enemies.

By the time her people were done with that second run, the Free Lances had reached the center of the archer formation and further dispersed them. Soledad brought her riders into a slashing attack to further throw the enemy into disarray, working together with the rest of the company as they cut deep into the rear of the Kolitscheian army’s formation.

At the same time, where the main forces of both armies clashed, the battle also approached its mostly determined conclusion by then.