Kaleb and his two companions walked leisurely in the direction of their camp. Miryodel was frowning. Yezdriel looked confused more than anything. Well, perhaps not as confused as Kaleb himself.

“What happened back there?” Kaleb asked.

“Something that shouldn’t have happened,” Miryodel said. Even though his words were absolute, his tone of voice wasn’t as certain. “That mage betrayed a tradition that has stood since before any of us could remember.”

“It can’t have been the first time,” Kaleb said. “Right?”

“Perhaps it has happened before,” Miryodel said. “But always with consequences.”

Yez sighed from beside them. “Most casters there looked too stunned to administer those consequences.”

“No,” Miryodel said. “Some of them could’ve done something. The mage that died. He doesn’t have the best reputation, specially among the more seasoned casters. They let the other one leave. That is what worries me. They let ancient rules rot for momentary satisfaction.”

“Ancient things are supposed to rot,” Kaleb said, realizing too late that his words might be offensive. He cleared his throat bashfully. “I mean. We learned that in my world. If you hold on for too long and too hard to the old, regardless of what it is, it becomes poison.”

Miryodel looked thoughtful for a moment. “Perhaps, but this one old thing assured me of my safety from outside forces if I ever landed in a duel myself. It granted a certain weight of security that I now find myself doubting.”

A self-assured voice suddenly intruded upon their conversation. “And you fancy yourself a duelist, do you?”

The three of them turned their heads simultaneously to the source of the voice, though Kaleb had already deduced the speaker from the all too familiar tone of voice. Master Beris. He was accompanied by four of the company’s men, surprisingly looking out of breath. Before Miryodel could begin to form an answer, the mage spoke again. “Come, there’s no time to waste. The camp is breaking. We’re marching. I’ve had to seek you out with a spell.” He turned around and headed back to the direction he’d come from.

The three of them hurried to catch up to him. Yezdriel was the first to get beside him and ask the question on all their minds. “What happened?”

“The Lorians are mounting a surprise visit,” Master Beris said without slowing down. “They managed to sneak a small fleet of transports through the guilds’ naval net. But it seems our allies have friends where their enemies don’t expect. News just got here. They’ll be landing a day and a half's distance from Whitestone along the coast.”

Kaleb found himself tense. He’d known some people who’d gone to war back home. He hadn’t known them too well, only enough to know that it wasn’t a pleasant experience. In fact, to most of them, it was a horrifying one. He reminded himself that he wasn’t even going to see the enemy’s frontline, that he would be safe. After a few quick breaths that did more to stress him than calm him, he found himself wondering about something odd. “A small fleet? They’re going to raid the city? With all of us here.” He raked his eyes over the forest of tents surrounding the city. There were thousands and thousands of soldiers here. How naive would they have to be to assault the city with such a small force.

Master Beris snorted. “Not the city,” he said. “Commander Ainsleys held off the Loryn Kingdom’s initial assault on the border. He’s been fortifying it ever since. They intend to surprise him with a pincer attack. A messenger has been sent, but there’s only so much the Commander can do against an attack from both sides of the border. Captain Simion just got word. We, along with all forces prepared to march immediately, are to counterpincer the infiltrators.”

Yez cursed. “They’ll be on a fast march as soon as they land. We might not be able to catch them in time.”

“That’s why every Awakened that can march has been mustered, including our own, at least those the guild’s stinking politics haven’t bogged down,” Master Beris said. “The Commander will simply have to hold them off until we get there. Now enough talk. You can bother the captain with your questions when we get to the camp.”

The camp was being deconstructed when they got there. Yezdriel and Master Beris were summoned to the captain’s tent, while Kaleb and Miryodel were ushered to pack up their belongings, which were still mostly packed up.

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The company was marching in short order, long before sunset threatened them.

Their company was joined in their march by two groups, including another mercenary company, larger in size but lesser in quality. According to Yez, less than a quarter of their numbers were Awakened.

A guild company was also accompanying them, perhaps equal to their company’s numbers. Apparently, they were from an Awakened Guild, mostly treasure hunters and adventurers. They hadn’t needed a long time to get themselves in marching order. But they weren’t very reliable in battle either according to Captain Simion, as they were neither trained nor educated in military matters such as those that could face them in the field, even if they were exceptionally skilled on an individual level.

All in all, they had perhaps five hundred troops marching to pincer the enemy’s infiltration force.

…

It took a bit less than a day of forced march to reach the landing site. The signs were obvious. Some of the scouts got to work translating the tracks in the sand and around the road, claiming that more than a thousand men had landed on this shore not too long before them.

They didn’t stop there for long. Their march continued once they had an estimate of the enemy’s numbers. Going by the reactions of the multiple leaders of their troops, Kaleb believed those numbers to be good news. If Commander Ainsleys could hold them off until reinforcements made it to him, the matter would be simple. Seeing them so confident did well to calm Kaleb’s anxious heart.

----------------------------------------

Almost three days later, scouts began reporting combat ahead. The Commander had apparently chosen to face the incoming rear attack with a primitive form of guerrilla warfare, starting intermittent short skirmishes against the enemy forces. Nonetheless, it wasn’t enough to allow the reinforcements to catch up to the enemy.

Kaleb noted how the scouts that reported this had odd abilities, ranging from being able to run very fast, to being able to run for very very long, to being able to see through the eyes of a tamed bird even if rather briefly. There were more, but Kaleb didn’t get to see every one of them.

This string of reports continued for a whole day before it grew quiet. Half a day later, their scouts reported that the enemy was crashing against the Commander’s lines from both sides. Thankfully, his previous fortifications helped him hold off the force on the other side of the border with a bit of effort, while the rest of his forces’ attention was focused on keeping the rear attack in check. That wouldn’t work for long, however.

The enemy on the other side of the border was already maneuvering from the flanks to avoid the fortifications and strike at the Commander’s small army, the latter’s troops too preoccupied with their rear to stop them. And the clash with the infiltrating forces wasn’t going so well either. It turned out they were elites of their own right, counting many veteran soldiers and Awakened among their numbers.

Thankfully, their reinforcements would make it in time, hopefully to turn the tables. It was unknown whether the enemy force had noticed them or not, but even if they did now, it was too late, everyone was tied up in battle.

As they finally climbed over the final hill separating them from battle, Kaleb and his allies saw the most shocking but perhaps unsurprising thing that could’ve happened.

Instead of nicely and conveniently staying still and being crushed to death by the incoming pincer, the enemy force abandoned their lines against the Commander’s forces to a flimsy rearguard and charged their lines.

Their unformed lines.

The enemy intended to break through them. Kaleb didn’t know whether that small fleet of theirs would return to take them from the same spot, though that was doubtful.

What wasn’t in doubt is how furious, or rather panicked, the officers around him were, pushing and cursing everyone into proper battle formation. Kaleb was pulled backwards by Yez, until he was a safe distance away from the front.

The hill they were on wasn’t at all steep, so their height advantage wouldn’t account to much, but still, they were outnumbered and every small boon mattered.

Their company ended up being placed on the left flank, while the larger one would hold the center, and the guild company would hold the right flank. The captain was yelling complex commands at his lieutenants, who were in turn yelling their own commands at the forming line of regulars.

Soon enough, Kaleb found six of the largest and most heavily armored of their company running towards him, which almost made him run the other way. They looked as if they were charging him. However, they came to a stop a few steps from him, and someone yelled for him to ‘Haste’ them.

Kalab got to work. So far, he’d managed the stamina and efficiency to Haste eight people at most, more than that and he would overdraw himself. However, he’d told the captain recently that he could only do seven, just in case. Superiors had a tendency to squeeze everything out of you. It appeared that the captain intended for him to cast it on only six of his men for now, keeping one in his back pocket.

Kaleb worked mechanically through the runes, casting Push Haste on each one of the armored men. The men quickly ran back to their positions as Kaleb gulped lungfuls of air after the stressful, consistent casting. Meanwhile, Yez was double-checking his armor, then hefted his large axe and shield.

A brief silence overtook them, all of them, And Kaleb realized it was the calm.

The lines were about to crash into one another.