“Battles could be boring spectacles where sweaty, bloody men and women brawl with each other for the whole day and come up with nothing in the end. It could also be a series of swift and decisive maneuvers that saw thousands if not tens of thousands slain within an hour or less. Hard to tell which you’ll be in until it actually happens, to be honest.” - Caine “Butcher” Georg, former mercenary turned innkeeper.

“We’ll crack off their left and you deal with the right, aye!?” yelled Barnaby over the din of battle as he rushed forward together with his mercenaries. The Brewers were positioned right next to the Free Lances so he was close enough for Reinhardt to hear and notice. It was a somewhat comical sight to watch dwarves run with their short legs, but when they were clad in full armor and wielding their wicked weapons and shields, any such thought usually died before they could fully form.

“You have the left!” Reinhardt yelled back. He himself was rushing forward as well, though not at full speed. The Free Lances were keeping pace with their allies so that both of their forces would hit the enemy force at the same time, as they were both serving as the tip of the spear for this offense, with the rest of the Coalition army’s left wing following behind them. “C’mon, boys and girls! It’s bloody time we earn our pay!”

Both mercenary companies pushed to the forefront of the battle lines, practically driving a wedge into the right wing of the Imperial army formation around two-thirds of the way towards the center. Barnaby’s Brewers veered left, the company’s heavy dwarven infantrymen forming their usual circular formation to grind down the opposition before them as Algenverrian soldiers followed up behind and cleaned up what they left.

Reinhardt’s Free Lances, veered right, straight towards the bulk of the enemy formation. Where Barnaby’s mission was to eradicate as much of the cut off forces of the enemy’s wing as he could, Reinhardt’s company would disrupt the rest of the enemy wing and prevent them from sending proper reinforcements. He would do that by giving them more trouble to worry about in the form of his own company.

All three strike platoons of the Free Lances pushed deep into the Imperial formation at full speed, this time holding nothing back as they either shoved aside or trampled their foes beneath their feet. Mischka’s first strike platoon was leading the center and displayed overwhelming force as the large-bodied therians of the unit spearheaded the charge and brushed everything aside with brute force.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

To the sides, the second and third strike platoons under Grünhidlr and Arne’s command also carved their way through the enemy forces with extreme prejudice, with Erycea’s and Alycea’s platoons positioned between the strike platoons to catch and slaughter the enemies they left alive. Alvaro’s and Astrid’s platoons covered the mercenaries’ flanks, while between them were the archers and skirmishers of Alva’s Branka’s and Egil’s platoons raining down projectiles towards distant enemies as they ran along with the rest.

In the center of the formation were Reinhardt’s and Elfriede’s units, acting as the reserves for the mercenary formation, while Nicole and Fatimah led their light infantry to sweep the remnants the company left behind in their wake, simultaneously covering the rear of the mercenary formation. Soldiers from Algenverr rushed to catch up to the mercenaries from behind, but consistently found themselves outpaced by the Free Lances, especially as they had to deal with the enemies not on the path taken by the company.

Even Salicia, who had been keeping quiet in the battle thus far because Reinhardt did not wish to expose her presence and skill to the enemy who likely had an equally skilled archer, went to work, though she kept herself mostly to closer targets, within two hundred to three hundred paces or so. She would occasionally rise up above the crowd with the help of two burly mercenaries hoisting her up and loose a few arrows, each one dropping people she suspected to be a commander of some sort.

That naturally resulted in a breakdown of communications, orders failing to reach officers who could enact them, and causing a worsening of cohesion on the Imperial army’s side. Combined with how the wings did not hold their best troops amongst the Imperial army, the mercenaries swiftly pushed their way through thousands of people and was only briefly halted when they neared the region where the wing connected to the center of the army’s formation, where the elites stationed there finally managed to get into formation and accost them.

The Imperial army elites halted the charge of the strike platoons briefly, allowing the rest of the mercenary formation to congregate behind them as well, at which point the shieldbearer at the front of the strike platoons gave way and allowed the waiting warriors behind them loose. Once again, the invaders’ unfamiliarity with fighting non-humans were brought to light.

Because they definitely had little to no idea on how to deal with a large group of large-bodied therians plowing down their ranks.

Reinhardt did not fail to take the opportunity presented before him and gave a signal for a full assault. Almost immediately, the Free Lances spread out wide as the other platoons on the side shifted to the front as well, pushing harder against the Imperial army formation, while Erycea’s and Alycea’s platoons caught up to the strike platoons and soon raced them into the midst of their foes.

All the while, the archers and slingers rained down projectiles on the Imperial army, accurately striking the enemy lines three or four people further away than where their own allies were or further. While the Imperial army elites proved their mettle in quickly responding to the assault, they proved lacking in their actual capability to withstand such a forceful push, and were immediately placed on the backfoot as the mercenaries pushed even harder.