By evening, Ariana and her detachment of 2 regiments–1.000 each–had arrived at the location near the forest opening. She told them to set up camp and she went to check the opening. It was a narrow strip of open land between a low hilly area and it was surrounded by dense trees. It was large enough for an army to pass through, but they had to march in a narrow formation.
This was an advantage for her if she had to defend the place from the enemy as they had to engage only a few of them at once in the narrow strip. She was thinking of making preparations for defences, but she wanted to make sure the enemy was on the other side and took the bait. She sent a scout ahead to look for a sign of the enemy, Bianca had told her the enemy would arrive by tomorrow.
However, she started to prepare the order of battle. She used the densely wooded hill to her advantage. On each side, she placed 3 companies–100 each– of ranged units with a company of melee units, then on the narrow passage she placed the rest of her army there.
In addition to her infantry regiments, she was given a company of cavalry and a handful of magicians to support her. She had planned a tactic to be used when the enemy decided to charge them. By tomorrow night, the scout reported the enemy had arrived, he estimated the enemy to be around 4.000 strong, consisting of 1.500 cavalry and the rest was a mix of archers and melee soldiers.
Ariana reported the situation to Bianca through a call and she also confirmed an army had arrived on the main battlefield, 6.000 strong. Bianca told Ariana to hold her position and defend the passage, at all costs. Ariana acknowledged the order and began preparation for the defence.
She told her men to build ditches, as well as to plough the land and watered them to make the terrain muddy. The ditches were built on each side of the passage and filled with water and in front of the battle line were wooden stakes to deter enemy charge. The place where she deployed her archers on the hill was dense enough to not allow the enemy cavalry to charge them.
She had them work overnight and by morning they all did all of it. A skirmish happened between the cavalry and the enemy most likely probing their defences. However, Ariana did not commit her whole cavalry unit as they were only a few.
A few days had passed and there was no sign of the enemy advancing, Bianca also told her there was no movement on the main battlefield. On the fourth day, at night, Ariana decided to poke at the enemy and provoked the enemy to attack them. She and a few of her men went to raid the enemy camp by shooting them with arrows and fled the scene when they were about to give chase.
They did it for 4 days with a mix of interval and time, confusing the enemy and making them more on guard at night. On the fifth day, the enemy finally marched forward to fight Ariana and her regiments. At the same time, the enemy’s main army also marched forward and fought Lucas and Duke August’s army.
Ariana saw the enemy had massive cavalry spearheading their formation. They stopped and from their formation came archers running forwards.
Ariana put one of her hands up. “Archers, forward!”
The archers on the main line moved forwards, just far enough for the archers to run back under the protection of wooden stakes if the enemy decided to charge. She placed only crossbowmen on the main line, the enemy archers would have a better fire rate but the crossbowmen would be able to shoot first before the enemy was able to get in range.
She ordered the archers on the flanks to stay hidden and hold fire. The skirmish between the ranged units began. The crossbowmen were able to shoot 2 shots consecutively before they had to reload and were able to shoot 6 times before the enemy archers were able to shoot back. When the enemy archers began their shot, they had lost a third of their numbers. However, the rate of fire of the archers made the crossbowmen have a hard time. The pavise–a large shield–was able to fend off most of the arrows and protect the crossbowmen from taking heavy casualties.
At the same time, magicians from both sides were exchanging spells. The enemy magicians were able to break through some magic barriers and put a dent in Ariana’s formation. After a while, the enemy called back their archers and moved forward with their cavalry and melee units.
“Archers, fallback! Prepare to target their horses!” ordered Ariana. On this narrow path, the enemy was bunched up and could not utilise their full force. The muddy terrain would make the enemy’s horses and heavy armoured infantry had a hard time traversing, and they would be the perfect target for the archers and crossbowmen on the flank.
The enemy’s cavalry slowly moved forward together with the infantry, the muddy terrain made the infantry slip and slowed their movement walking forward. When the cavalry was in the range of crossbowmen, Ariana ordered them to shoot. The dense formation made it easy to shoot them and taking a shot at their horses made their horses go into a panic, dropping their rider and running towards their infantry formation; creating chaos among the enemy's rank.
The commander of their cavalry ordered a charge. Ariana, on top of her horse, took a composite bow and aimed the arrow toward their commander. The commander of their cavalry was way outside the range of the composite bow, but Ariana had learnt that strengthening the arrow with magic, it would help the arrow to fly faster and farther, even to the point of changing its trajectory–it would take higher concentration to fully control it.
She took the shot and the arrow flew right into his head. The commander fell down from his horse and the whole cavalry was in shock, however, it did not break their charge. They kept charging forward under heavy fire of arrows and bolts. Some riders who fell were trampled by the others and those who were lucky ran back toward the infantry formation.
The constant fire from the archers and crossbowmen made the charging speed of the enemy’s cavalry dwindle and when they had arrived near the wooden stakes, their charge had lost its effectiveness. Some of the horses ended up hitting the stakes and the raider fell down their horse and were immediately stabbed by the infantry, and those who managed to get past the stakes were stuck in a fight with the infantry and had a hard time retreating.
The advancing enemy’s infantry columns were still far away from the fight and were slowly advancing forward through the muddy terrain. The constant barrage of bolts and arrows made the advance of the infantry no better than the cavalry. Some commanders of the infantry were either killed by Ariana or by arrows from archers.
Some enemy infantry groups were sent to deal with the archers up on the hills on the flank, but they were met with heavy resistance from the infantry protecting the archers. For the enemy’s infantry, their advance was hell, muddy terrain and constant barrage of arrows had dwindled their numbers and injured many. With them bunching up together, because of the narrow passage, it was easy for the archers to just shoot in the general direction of the enemy’s formation and their arrows easily hit the enemy soldiers.
However, the enemy still had much manpower left when they engaged the main line, albeit only some could fight effectively with the main line, while the rest were waiting behind and getting harassed by the archers. Ariana had joined the fighting on the frontline, the enemy was exhausted from advancing through the muddy train.
Ariana fought with several enemies, her skill from the academy training was shown in the fight. She strike precisely and swiftly on to the enemy and parried the attack coming her way, and she used magic to help her fight. The battle went on for hours, she was fighting for hours and was exhausted. She did not know what happened during the battle of the main army. She hoped they won it.
Ariana looked around and she saw her army was slowly dwindling and exhausted. The ranged companies from both flanks had joined the melee fight–they had run out of ammunition. Both sides had committed all of their forces to this pitched battle.
Bianca had promised her to send reinforcement when the main army had won the battle. But, she did not think they would hold until the reinforcements arrived. She was spacing out on the battle, thinking whether she should retreat back and abandon the position. A sword was about to hit her and it was too late for her to block the sword when she saw it. But, Sally who was near her for a while was able to block the sword and Olmund finished the soldier with a stab in the chest.
“Captain, don’t space out!” said Sally.
Ariana thought she would die from that. “T-thank you.”
Ariana could not believe she had spaced out in the fight. The Academy taught its students to always focus on a fight and if they were spacing out for even a second, that would mean they were dead. She continued fighting against the enemy together with the trio.
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Roni was fighting against an enemy when suddenly someone stabbed his leg. He fell down to his knee and was able to block a sword coming his way. However, another soldier swung his sword at him and luckily Ariana was able to parry him and killed the other.
“Aghh!” shrieked Olmund. He was stabbed in his stomach. He was able to fend off the attacker by stabbing him in the neck.
Olmund fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Ariana was about to run into him when an enemy soldier sunk his sword into his chest, killing him. Ariana was furious when she saw that, she ran into the man and stabbed him. However, she had left the wounded Roni behind and when she looked back at him, he had lost his head
Despair fell into Ariana, she had lost 2 of her friends in an instant. She had grown attached to them and had known them well. Back when she was training them, the trio would invite her on their outing to an inn and around the city, she knew them well. Olmund was a guy who had always flirted with a girl and Roni recently promised her childhood friend to marry her after the war.
She was distraught, she was fighting with anger and regret. She did not know what was happening to her. Her mind was a mess and when she looked at Sally, she did not want to feel a loss anymore. She remembered the order she was given, to hold the place at all costs, and wait for reinforcement to come. But, where is the reinforcement she was promised? Was it only a reassurance for me to keep holding this place? Was it a false hope and Lucas was only using these people as bait? Her thought was doubting Lucas’ plan and order.
She looked around and saw her army thinning out. She had a hunch that the enemy she was facing was the better part of the enemy’s whole army, and her hunch was correct. Despite the relentless barrage, and rough terrain they traversed and exhausted, the enemy was still eager to fight. She saw Sally was overwhelmed and she immediately helped her.
“Sally! Get up!” said Ariana. She was worried.
“Captain, thank you.” She stood up after she had fallen off.
Ariana's mind was overwhelmed with the loss of her friends and fear of losing Sally. “W-we should retreat!”
“What?” Sally blocked an attack from an enemy. “Captain, are you sure? We were ordered to hold this flank, right?”
“But, we are losing.”
“It doesn’t matter, the reinforcement will come soon.”
“They won’t!” shrieked Ariana. She looked like a madman.
Sally was surprised by Ariana shouting at her. “What? Are you sure?”
“Does it matter? If we stay here you might die as well! Robert and Olmund have died!” Ariana's anger had exploded,
“I-i know that Captain. It’s a battle, so death is not something we should be worried about,” said Sally. She was hurt by the death of her friends.
“Sally, I don’t want to lose you.”
“Thank you Captain for your worry. But, it is our duty to follow the command from the Commander to ensure victory.”
“Sally...” Ariana had a worried look on her face.
Ariana did not know why Sally said that, she was just a piece on board for Lucas. She had a dream she wanted to catch but why would she be willing to throw her life away in this battle? Ariana could not take it any longer, the thought of losing Sally was worse than any punishment she would receive for deserting.
“Retreat! Fall back!” said Ariana. She looked and shouted at a soldier to sound the retreat signal.
Sally was surprised by her decision. “Captain, no! We should hold on!”
“No! I am the commander of this army and I have ordered retreat, go and run from here!”
Her army began to retreat after the signal was given. Ariana knew the consequences of her insubordination, she knew Lucas would be furious at her decision. But, she was hoping on a single strand of hope he would forgive her, just because he had a romantic feeling towards her.
Not long after the retreat signal was given, a crashing sound was heard from behind the enemy line.
“The reinforcement has arrived!” shouted a soldier.
Ariana looked at the back of the enemy line and she saw cavalry donning the uniform of Duchy of Arubun. It was the reinforcement she had promised. A group of cavalry was led by Lucas to circle around the enemy and attacked the enemy from behind. The attack took the enemy by surprise and they immediately waver, some ran toward the forest to flee from the cavalry and those who stayed were slain.
Ariana was relieved that the reinforcement came. She was grateful because she was able to keep Sally alive. Sally stood beside her and looked at the routed enemy. Ariana hugged her tightly and tears ran down her cheeks. Their bodies were full of dirt, blood, sweat and mud.
Back on the main camp after the battle–her detachments returned to the main army–Ariana collected the belongings of Olmund and Roni.
“I will give those back to their family,” said Sally.
“Thank you, Sally.” Ariana cried and she picked up the tassel from Robert’s childhood friend. “This charm didn’t work for him, right?” she chuckled
“It did not.” It was 2 days after the battle when they buried the dead from the battle. Tomorrow the army would continue to advance to the Capital.
That evening, the sky was clear and Ariana could see the stars clearly.
“Thank you for worrying about me, Captain,” said Sally. Sally and Ariana were sitting on the field just outside their camp.
Ariana smiled at her. “It was nothing, the three of you have been my best friends since I arrived here.”
“Cap-tain.” Sally broke into tears and hugged her. Sally could not hold her sadness about losing her friends anymore.
“I am sorry that I could not protect the others. I was careless.”
“That’s fine, Captain. Death is inevitable, it will come to us sooner or later.”
Sally was right, death will come to them when it is time. Ariana wondered what it would be like if the two were alive and were there.
“Captain, what was your life like before coming here? I have never heard a lot of your story.”
“I don’t know what I should tell you anymore, I told you I attended a military academy in my country and graduated as an officer.”
“Of course, I know all of that.” Sally took a peek at Ariana. “I want to know more about your personal life, like about your family.”
Ariana went silent for a while. “My family?”
“Yes, or is it not okay?” concerned Sally.
“No, it is fine”–Ariana looked up to the sky–” My family is known as traitors in my country.”
“Traitors?”
Ariana looked at Sally, unsure if she wanted to tell her or not. “It was because of my grandfather… He abandoned his order and resulted in the death of many civilian lives.” Ariana looked at the field in front of her. “The people were made because he did that. They cursed him for not sacrificing his life.”
“It’s like… what you did back then.”
“Yeah, I made a pledge to restore my family name, but I just did the same as my grandfather did.”
Sally held Ariana’s hand. Ariana turned to look at her. “Will it be alright? You did it because of me right? Why?”
“Because I grew attached to you, as a friend.” Ariana rested her head on Sally’s shoulder. “Back in my country, no one would approach me and I was alone, even when I was at the academy.”
“Why? You were shunned?”
“Yes. Lucas was the first one to understand me and my trouble. He is so kind. I wanted to see him, but I wonder if he knew what I did, what will he say...”
Sally caressed Ariana’s hair. “I see. Do you like him?”
“We-well, I do. Actually, I think we are not just friends anymore.”
“Really? I’ll be rooting for you Captain.”
“Thank you. You know, you can just call me Ariana, since we are friends.”
“Sure, Ariana.”
This new world for Ariana was much kinder compared to the Galactic Imperium. She was able to make a friend and was happier. There was no prejudice towards her and she was not shunned by many. Ariana was tired of being discriminated against just because she was from a traitor family.
Bianca was looking for Ariana and she found her outside the camp, sitting with Sally. “Lieutenant Ariana.”
“Yes?” said Ariana.
Bianca's expression was of displeasure and disappointment. “Lucas called for you. Follow me.”
“Does he need something?” asked Ariana. Her eyes looked cheerful, she finally got to meet him.
“Take your happy face off,” said Bianca, curtly.
Ariana understood what she meant. “I-i understand.” Ariana turned disheartened.
“L-lady Bianca, if i–”
“Soldier, I‘m not talking to you,” said Bianca.
“Leave her alone.” Ariana defender Sally.
“Sure, let’s go.” Bianca escorted Ariana to Lucas’ tent. Ariana knew if Lucas heard she disobeyed his order and abandoned it, he would be mad. Ariana never would have thought her meeting with him after the festival would be him calling her for her insubordination. Bianca did not speak to her on the way, she was disappointed at Ariana. They arrived in front of his tent; Ariana steeled herself for whatever she would receive as punishment.