“To be able to choose where to fight is a blessing. All too often, the fight comes to you before you can prepare for it.” - Arakkesh Islvan, Mercenary from Ur-Teros, circa 229 VA.
“So, what do you see, boy?” asked Angus Harscape from atop his ram to Reinhardt who was standing next to him.
The coalition army’s full force was arrayed near the border between Kolitschei and former Royal territory, or the region surrounding Oleynuos that fell under the purview of the Royal family of Posuin when they still existed in the past. Across the border, they could see the enemy army arrayed against them, across the flat plains of the region.
Reinhardt was attempting to get a rough count on the enemy troop size since he could get an aerial view of the situation with Hannah’s help through his eyepiece artifact. Of course, the best he could do was guesswork given the distance he observed from, but it was still better guesswork than those who watched through spyglasses beside him could offer at the moment.
“Probably around two hundred thousand or so by my best guess,” he replied after a while. He mostly made his guess by experience and judging from how densely the enemy soldiers were packed together, using the coalition army as a comparison. “Only around a tenth are cavalry, though. Definitely fewer than what we had to deal with back then.”
“We did trample quite a few of their cavalry during the battle back then,” commented the old dwarf with a grin on his bearded face. The dwarven cavalry’s surprise assault had inflicted heavy casualties to the enemy cavalry, to the point that the army was feasting on meat from the dead horses in the days before they finished their preparations for departure back then.
“A lot of them are wearing equipment that looks a lot more like what the people here use,” Reinhardt added after taking a closer look at the closest enemy soldiers. “I’m guessing they’re escapees from the defeat back then who dropped their weapons and armor while running away. They must have re-equipped them with captured gear from Gestis and Wanarua.”
“It’s what I’d do in the situation as well,” noted Nestor as he nodded in agreement. “Can you identify any individuals that might be generals?”
The coalition army had caught the last two generals in the enemy forces when they made the surprise attack back then, with Angus personally having downed their commanding general without realizing it. It was only because his ram had a plate of armor with his house’s emblem engraved in it over its forehead that they were able to tell that he had been responsible for the capture.
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Because the ram’s headbutt had caused the emblem to be visible on the caved-in chest of the captured general’s dead horse, under which he was pinned. Since the former Graf was the only one whose mount had such an emblem on their mount’s forehead, it was easy to tell that he had been the one that caused the enemy general’s predicament.
As for the other enemy general, she had been veered to the south while attempting to escape from the onrushing chariots only to have an arrow suddenly pierce through her steed and kill it on the spot. Salicia had been responsible for the arrow, and the general just happened to enter her range. The one-eyed archer had not wasted the opportunity and the other mercenaries swiftly secured their captive.
They had also found out that the general captured by Angus Harscape turned out to be the uncle to the captive adjutant girl, Kang Hua-Li, who spoke common. Like her, he too spoke the language, and chose to cooperate much like his niece after he sighed loudly. Since the man’s leg was broken, though, he was in the rear of the army recuperating from his injury.
Meanwhile, his niece was actually present in the company of the leaders of the coalition army to help translate in case the enemy chose to engage in dialogue prior to the battle. She was dressed in armor – though unarmed – like what the locals of Posuin wore, with a helmet and mask that covered her entire face other than the eyes so that her identity as an informant would not be obvious to anyone looking.
“Hard to tell from the height, but there’s several in the middle of their forces who might be one, we might be able to guess easier if they come to the fore, I’d say,” replied Reinhardt. “Looking at things from above is great to get a look at the overall situation but is pretty bad when it comes to getting details since Hannah’s flying so high up.”
Hannah was flying particularly high that day since everyone in the coalition army leadership knew that there was a skilled archer in the enemy forces capable of sniping a target from distances they had only seen Salicia manage before. For the same reason, Salicia was also staying quite close to the group and kept an eye out just in case. She had demonstrated her ability to shoot out arrows from the air before, though they asked her to be there to warn them instead.
Guards that carried larger than usual shields were standing near the leaders for their protection in case the enemy sniper struck, though the dwarven leaders looked more confident in their heavy armor.
“Hold on,” said Reinhardt suddenly as he squinted his eye behind the eyepiece in an attempt to get a clearer look at the sight he was looking at. “One of the possible generals seemed to be making their way to the front, around the middle. Can you see them from here?”
“I don’t see any… no, wait, there they are,” said Angus Harscape as he brought up a spyglass before his eyes and peered through it. “Yeah, I think that’s the same style of armor as what our captive middle general wears, so probably the same rank?”
“They’re riding up alone,” noted Griselda as she too watched through a spyglass. “Perhaps they intend to declare something or negotiate?”
“We shall see,” replied Nestor with a nod.