Gaius hurried up grabbed his bow and quiver and headed to the tent where Kennil was and saw him studying the map that he received during the meeting the previous night. Gaius couldn’t imagine much point in studying all that if he wasn’t planning on moving too much away from the walls. Still, he might be planning that in the future…
“There is a chance that some of the archers that use poison will be able to move to support their infantry before we retreat, be ready to use a piece of cloth to cover your mouth and nose if you see them approaching,” Kennil declared. “The other generals said that the poison stays in our system for several days and it gets stronger. We will be moving in ten minutes.”
“Understood,” Gaius said.
That was a worrisome type of poison… but Gaius imagined that he might get the Poison Resistance skill from them considering the appearance of the archers. They didn’t look like they would live for long, but they looked a bit resistant to it.
"Still, poison... can things get even nastier than this?" Gaius thought while furrowing his eyebrows. "This a large-scale war, much bigger than the other battles, and the enemies will do anything to win, so I should get ready for whatever happens."
Gaius wondered if he would be able to aim well while riding his horse. He had enough stability while galloping and following Kennil. He probably will have to take some time to aim since he would follow riding at his top speed… in any case, Gaius will have to take his time getting used to the experience.
“Now that I think about it… we never had riding lessons in the training grounds, are they only training us to become foot soldiers?” Gaius thought.
Around one thousand soldiers were already near the southern gate, battle-ready and willing to take as many down with them in that war… Gaius still had a hard time feeling that motivated. If the people of Lorencis state keep losing, the enemies might target his state eventually. Still… that all seemed pointless.
"It has been a while since Angela contacted me… I wonder if she thinks that I am wasting time with this situation… not like she ever said such things clearly before or did anything to prevent this kind of situation," Gaius thought while feeling like shrugging.
Gaius felt that he was growing a bit… That was a good chance to power up his troops, but that wasn't enough to make them fight eagerly. Things might change once things get dangerous, though.
Regardless, Gaius looked around and saw some soldiers of the city preparing to fight as well… they didn't have horses, but they still could cause some mayhem on foot while following the cavalry that came from another state.
The wind was blowing quietly in the early morning, even so, Gaius could tell that the enemies weren't doing anything on the other side of the walls… They attacked and fought until sunset the previous night. So, they probably weren't ready for that… they should have expected that such a thing would happen eventually, but not so soon… at least that was what Gaius thought.
The gates began to open as fast as possible as soon as Kennil raised his spear and everyone did the same in response to his actions. They couldn't alert the enemies any time soon in order to be as effective as possible… Still, things changed once the first raiders began to cross the gates. Kennil saw some of the enemies in the distance looking at them and they began to alert their allies. Kennil felt his body being covered by fighting spirit and his soldiers felt the same way.
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"WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The soldiers began to cross the gate while shouting to pump themselves up, things suddenly got pretty noisy, but Gaius kept his cool and silently followed Kennil. His horse still could follow him despite the fact that he was carrying a bunch of extra weapons, that was because Gaius himself was still small and light compared to the other riders.
"I guess this isn't half bad…" Gaius thought while nocking an arrow and pointing it at one of the enemies in the distance. "The motion is fixed as long as I remain in a straight line, so I can adjust it."
It took only one minute for Gaius to be able to have the enemies within his reach, but he didn't use his arrows yet… the enemies positioned themselves to fight and they all hid behind tower shields with spears being pointed at them… piercing those now would be tough.
When Kennil reached the enemy's lines, it felt like a truck had collided against them, five of them were blown away thanks to the impact and his spear also pierced the chest of one of them. He wasn't the commander of the army of Ekirenton's state for no reason. He was a powerhouse too. A bit lacking when it comes to his brain, but a powerhouse nonetheless.
The nearby soldiers moved to attack him or wound his horse, but Kennil's allies reached them first and attacked them. The group on the front only slowed down once they reached the third line of shields… with each impact, the horses lost speed, so it couldn’t be helped that such a thing would happen. Still, Kennil finally had the chance to swing his spear around and hit more than one enemy with each swing.
The grunts of pain and the metallic sound of weapons colliding made Gaius furrow his eyebrows… Kennil was strong, but the others close to him were at least twenty percent weaker than him, so they couldn’t keep up with him all the time. Meanwhile, Gaius was following him since he didn’t have to fight at close quarters… if things get dicey, after Kennil’s head rolls, his would be the next.
“And he said that I wouldn’t be in danger… not like I was expecting any real protection,” Gaius thought. "Well, time to get to work and increase the number of my employees that don't have breaks or are being paid for their services... to some extent."
When Gaius noticed some enemies moving from the sides to prevent the swings of Kennil’s spear, Gaius decided to move… the horse wasn’t moving all that much anymore, so he could aim his bow with a lot more ease.
Some of the enemies saw him pointing his bow at them, but they just shrugged after seeing his size. They didn't even have time to regret that… Gaius put an arrow on the neck of one of the enemies since the first target was wearing a thick helmet and on the second, he fired at the chest since he was wearing leather armor… that was weird, but Gaius didn't pay much attention to it.
Once Kennil realized that his right side was fine, he swung his spear at the left side… the enemies there had gotten too close and didn't have the chance to escape his attack.
"Two thousand points… they are a lot weaker than I had expected," Gaius thought.
Since they were infantrymen with no specialties, that made sense. Still, Gaius wondered why the enemies would make a side like that visibly clearer than the others… his first thought was that perhaps despite their unification, those people still couldn't work well together. That wasn't Gaius' problem, so he soon forgot about it.
Many enemies tried to surround Kennil since he was way stronger than his allies and he was also the commander of that army. The infantrymen of the city hadn't joined the battle yet, so the enemies had the chance now to get rid of him… Still, Gaius also got rid of the enemies of one side of the commander while he dealt with the other side… even after all this time, his skill with a bow didn't leave him.
Kennil looked over his shoulder to tell Gaius to keep it up and stay covering his right side, but then he noticed that he was almost out of arrows… he couldn't have brought anything else since he was also carrying the other weapons that Kennil would use… so, it couldn't be helped and he didn't say anything.
"Well now… what should I do?" Gaius thought while feeling like rubbing his chin.
Gaius didn't have any loyalty toward Ekireton's state or Kennil, both of them caused him a lot of trouble, after all. Still, leaving the commander to die there would be too risky… protecting him would grant him a promotion, most likely, and letting him die would be a failure as his squire. Still, if he had to keep fighting… Gaius only had one option.