“If you got through a battle with acceptable casualties, count your blessings. It won’t last.” - Pierre Gurthand de Balzac, retired mercenary captain.
“Aly, there’s some enemies moving towards your flank. Help Zyd and Arne out if necessary. We will be there before long,” Alycea heard her father’s voice through her receiver artifact suddenly while she was fighting alongside her platoon at the frontlines. She took a moment to push off her opponent before she diverted her attention to send a small stream of mana into the artifact to trigger the signal that she received the message.
“Roven, have half the platoon prepare to bank right, incoming enemies,” she commanded right away. If her father asked her to help out the third strike platoon, that meant the incoming enemies were likely more than what they could handle on their own. She knew that her father would also warn them already, so instead she focused on other matters first. “Also send a messenger to Mischka’s platoon to inform her of the development, just in case.”
“Understood,” replied Roven as he immediately set her orders into motion. While Alycea was the platoon commander, Roven was her second in command who got things done after she made the decision, as he proved excellent at the job. The delegation of duty worked fine for the platoon, so they kept the arrangement going over the years.
Alycea herself gathered her closest compatriots and formed a team, which along with several others shifted their position to the right, where they could aid the third strike platoon more easily. The rest of her platoon spread out more and made up for their redeployment, pushing hard against the enemy soldiers despite their overall youth.
It did not take long before Erycea noticed the enemies her father warned her about. A different group of enemy soldiers – easily noticeable since instead of wielding shields and one-handed weapons like the rest these ones carried fierce-looking two-handed weapons – that likely numbered in the thousands were approaching the mercenary forces from the central region of the Imperial army formation.
Due to their location, they would most likely hit the third strike platoon first. Zyd and Arne’s people had already shifted to a more defensive stance in anticipation, but each of them were clear that they would likely face great pressure until more reinforcements could arrive and help them alleviate some of it. Alycea’s platoon just happened to be the closest and most readily available of those.
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The clash when the Imperial army elites struck the waiting third strike platoon was quite deafening, and Alycea was somewhat impressed that the Imperials actually managed to push back the third strike platoon’s shieldbearers, even if they had the weight of numbers on their side. Out of the three strike platoons, the third was arguably the weakest as that large-bodied therians were concentrated in the first and they lacked a void mage like the second, on top of being the least experienced, but they were still a force to be reckoned with regardless.
Alycea immediately brought the prepared teams forward to help the third strike platoon engage these Imperial elites. She already noticed that both Zyd and Arne – people she often called “uncle” as they were the parents of some of her sister’s friends – were both already fighting at the frontline themselves, which they were not as eager to do unless they had to, unlike the other platoon leaders.
Spotting a group of enemy soldiers attempting to flank the third strike platoon’s formation, Alycea immediately struck at them with her glaive, forcing the frontmost soldier to take a step back and turn their attention her way. Almost immediately the twins covered Alycea’s left while Skuldj brought her shield up and covered her right as they joined the battle.
As two of the enemy soldiers turned their attention towards her – each of them had to deal with two or more enemies since they were outnumbered and spread rather thin at the moment – Alycea blocked one enemy’s blade on the flexible shaft of her glaive even as she caught the other’s strike with the protrusions at the back of her own blade.
Her first opponent was taken by surprise at the way the flexible Willow Heartwood shaft of her weapon simply bounced the slash off while barely even taking a nick from it, which bought her an extra moment she used to twist her weapon around, locking the second enemy’s weapon with her own, and violently twisted her weapon around.
The rotation almost yanked the two-handed blade out of her opponent’s hand, driving the man off-balance as a result even if he managed to retain his grip on the weapon. Alycea’s glaive disengaged from his weapon with another quick twist, then the weapon seemed to almost spring up towards the man’s face like it was a living serpent, leaving a bloody gash that sliced through one of the man’s eyes.
Even as her wounded opponent was screaming in pain, Alycea continued to maneuver her weapon swiftly towards her second opponent, who only barely managed to block her unexpected strike. Neither of them expected that the shaft of her glaive would be flexible enough to make such an oddly angled blow, and it had cost the imperial soldiers as a result.
While her second foe managed to block her strike, Alycea just shifted her grip and instead brought the back end of her glaive towards her opponent. The back end of her weapon sported a furnished, sharp, and fully functional spearhead, and with a twist of her wrist, the spearhead in question moved around wildly even as she stabbed it towards her surprised opponent.
Just as her opponent moved his blade to block her thrust, she twisted her grip once more, but in the other direction, and the wobbling spearhead suddenly turned rigid and flew straight instead. The sudden change caused her opponent’s attempt to block to miss the spearhead completely as it sank deep into his throat, leaving behind a wound that bled freely and would most definitely prove fatal given a few more moments.