“A Clever fox has three entrances to its burrow.” - Old Posuin saying.
“Get the wounded to the back for treatment, the rest of you, press them hard!” Reinhardt commanded his mercenaries. In the blink of an eye the situation turned, and now it was the God-King’s soldiers who were caught in an assault from three directions. Some of the dwarven cavalry had even circled to their back and struck there as well.
Reinhardt took the chance to pull back his elites into the protective fold of the rest of his mercenary company. Eight of the sixty with him had not returned, as they laid their lives down on the battlefield, but the rest made it through the brutal battle, if with varying amounts of injuries.
He himself was fortunate to have suffered only minor cuts and bruises, but nearly half of the survivors with him had injuries bad enough they retreated to the back lines for the company’s few healers and doctors to work on their treatment immediately.
Some others remained near the front lines to fight on, though, despite their injuries. He saw Yuri fighting with at least half a dozen spears and swords embedded in his flesh, though for a therian of his size, they were likely shallow, inconsequential wounds roughly equivalent with what Reinhardt himself suffered.
He even saw one of the soldiers sacrifice their life to stab Mischka with a spear. The forceful attack successfully pierced through the therian matron’s suit of brigandine, but what injury it did to her was evidently shallow, as she just nonchalantly crushed the soldier under her blade, snapped the shaft of the spear, and fought on unbothered.
“They’re fighting like those madmen we fought before, boss,” commented Ylisera from beside him. The agile elven woman was one of the few who pulled back from the fight practically unscathed, without even a cut or bruise on her. “Just… better trained and with discipline, and a shitload of gear.”
“That’s how they do it,” replied Elfriede to those words. “They chose the best out of the fanatics and drilled them until they became an elite military unit. We were honestly really lucky that most of the God-King’s hands were gone before we even embarked on this mission. That whole bunch are raving lunatics loyal only to their so-called God-King. These here… are probably the last ones.”
“We still saw no sign of the God-King himself though, lady boss,” said the elven prostitute turned mercenary with a frown. “They don’t have any carriages with them, and only a scattered few on horses who seemed to be commanders.”
“If it were me, I’d have the God-King disguised as one of the common soldiers,” replied Reinhardt. “That mist archmage of theirs also probably kept him further disguised, so nobody would recognize him on sight. One reason your eyes haven’t spotted him so far.”
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“We’ll just let the boys and girls press them harder along with the dwarves. I refuse to believe that they won’t attempt an escape when it’s made clear they would lose this battle,” he continued. “Whichever group made the escape, that’s where the God-King will likely be at.”
“Speak of the devil, I think they’re making their break right now, boss,”
“You’re right. Going for three directions too…” muttered Reinhardt as he peered closely to gauge the battlefield. The God-King’s soldiers had mounted a suicidal offense to push their belaguerers back for a moment, and three detachments - now suddenly revealed to be mounted, likely a handiwork of that mist archmage of theirs - made a run for it at the same time.
Two of the escaping detachments attempted to run north and east. Those were too far away for Reinhardt’s group to mount a pursuit, and besides, the dwarven cavalry had reacted fast and sent troops to chase them down. The last group ran southwards, and Reinhardt set his sights on that group immediately.
“Mount up!” he yelled. The command sounded a bit nonsensical since the Free Lances had no horses or cavalry with them, but their members knew what it meant. All the members of the group of sixty that had followed him, at least the ones still capable of fighting at the moment, either crouched down to all fours or jumped on the back of their comrades, as they took off in pursuit, with some others running alongside them just as rapidly.
Salicia also noticed the escape attempt from her distant perch, and had fired a couple arrows at the escaping group. They immediately noticed how one of her arrows just went through a runaway soldier as if it was air though, while another hit something invisible - the rear flank of a horse which reared up in pain and threw its rider off its back - which suddenly appeared in their sights after it was struck.
“The Archmage!” noticed Mischka who ran next to Reinhardt on all fours as well. Their group were close to the runaways and picked up speed fast as they closed. “I think we just hit the jackpot, captain!”
“If the archmage’s here, so would the God-King, most likely,” he replied in between strides, Elfriede riding on his back. “Pick up speed! The bounty’s dead ahead! Anyone got a good way to remove that damned illusion off them?”
“I got an idea,” said Elfriede from his back. “Just get me close enough so I can sense them!”
“Will do!” he said as he picked up his pace. Several bolts of fire and lightning seemed to appear out of thin air as he got closer, aimed straight for him and his group of chasers. Reinhardt nimbly leaped aside and barely avoided a lightning bolt that was meant for him, while behind him Mischka took a fireball directly on the shoulder, yet trucked on regardless, with only some burnt fur on her shoulder to show.
A moment later another arrow from Salicia flew and struck something invisible, as a soldier materialized into sight with an arrow through his head. She had apparently taken a guess based on the speed and angle of the projectiles, and guessed correctly.
The momentary pause that caused gave Reinhardt a chance to get Elfriede close enough that she began to notice the presence of others in her sensory orb of wind, and she quickly reacted as she pulled out a fist-sized bag from her storage and whirled it around on a rope over her head.
“Hold your breath!” she told him as she hurled the bag ahead of them, where it struck something invisible mid-flight, the shock triggering a small, enchanted crystal within the bag. The whole thing exploded in a puff of white which covered a wide area, white-flecked silhouettes appearing where there was nothing before, while others sneezed out of control, the invisible silhouettes flickering in and out of sight as their caster sneezed and lost concentration.
“I knew those flour-pepper bombs would be useful someday.”