Cutting a man’s throat open was a messy business. The blood could spurt as far as four feet away, and there was no good way of hiding that.
Fortunately, Neer and her team were more than capable of killing the enemy sentries without resorting to such crude methods. A dagger slid in between the ribs at the correct angle could do the job just as well, and it had the side effect of making sure the victims couldn’t scream since their lungs had a new hole.
I can’t say I ever thought I’d be leading a stealth mission to disrupt the enemy camp, but this isn’t so bad.
Violence was a necessity of life. Whether it was to establish rules or to get revenge, it could all only be enforced through violence. Neer didn’t need the additional reasons to slaughter her way through the slaving scum, but her men were still green enough that she had made sure to remind them they couldn’t ever know peace until they had secured it in blood.
Moving on to the next soldier tending to a fire-pit once her current one had finished bleeding out, wide eyes staring unseeing into the night sky, Neer avoided the sound-based traps the royalists had set up. They were minor runes carved in the scattered stones of the old riverbed, easily missable if one didn’t know about them in the first place.
Which was why she was grateful to the scrying teams for their efforts. It had felt like a waste at the time, but knowing everything about the enemy camp’s layout beforehand made her job more manageable.
Smoothly stepping behind the man, Neer waited until he had put down his flask and grabbed his face from behind. Her dagger flashed in the flickering light of the flames and buried itself in his ribs, drawing a pained exhale. Again, she kept him propped up against her chest, waiting for life to leave him, before she slowly withdrew, arranging the body so that, at first glance, it would only look like he had fallen asleep.
I’m the first to think we should fight in the open in a proper battle, but this is kind of fun, too. It cannot last forever, of course. Someone will notice us before too long, but the more we can whack, the less there will be to shoot at us once it’s day.
The fact that the enemy camp was split up in two, with the river coursing through, made her life much easier. She could understand that they didn’t want to give up one bank without a fight, but they should have taken possession of the eastern bank entirely if that was the case. Leaving only the younger, less experienced soldiers to hold it while the veterans and nobles lounged on the safer western side, if not in Stonebridge directly, meant they were open to sabotage.
As she had predicted, someone finally noticed the sentries hadn’t reported and had the good sense to raise the alarm, but by then, Neer and her team were half a mile away and already going over what they had learned for the morning assault.
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By the time Neer’s squad was ready to advance in full force, someone with some sense in their brain had taken over the royalist camp and reorganized things so that the artillery was waiting for them while a shield wall blocked an advance toward the bridge.
Her raid the previous night must have seriously rattled the leadership because the enemy army was ready for battle well before anyone should expect another attack.
Of course, Neer had expected this and brought her men to bear from the north rather than directly from the east like they expected her to.
She led her elite squad through the dense foliage of the northern reaches of the Darkwood, her senses sharp and muscles coiled, ready for the impending clash. The pre-dawn light filtered through the trees, casting eerie shadows on the forest floor. The air was thick with anticipation, every footfall muffled by the undergrowth.
Neer thanked the Light that the diviners had found such a well-hidden path during their scouting, as otherwise, she would have had to attack frontally.
As if I’d be that stupid. They have four times our numbers, and the cannons are ready to punish any charge, even if hiding them behind the lines of shields was a clever idea. Unfortunately for you, I’m the hunter and you the prey.
Once they stood at the end of the forest and only a mile separated her from the enemy, she turned to her little surprise, grunting for him to come forward.
The young mage did so with only a slight hesitation, standing next to her, his head only reaching her chest. She gave him a narrow look, trying to sense duplicity, but he merely smiled back.
“I’m ready whenever you are, my lady.” He murmured in that soft tone of voice of his, and Neer had to resist the impulse to bark at him to be more manly. This wasn’t the time for that.
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“How long do you think the cover will last?” She instead asked, turning to stare back at the enemy lines. With her show the previous night of directly targeting the camp, she had achieved her goal of showing them that putting up rangers and sentries would only lead to their deaths. This allowed her squad to get as close as they were, but the last stretch could prove fatal.
Yes, the enemy was expecting her to come from a different direction, but running for a mile would still take enough time for them to be able to reorient at least some of their weaponry and almost all infantry. Which was why she was deferring to the little mage as he prepared to cast his illusion spells.
“It should be enough to get you halfway there. I can’t guarantee more than that.” He said, and she gave him a sharp nod, motioning for him to begin.
Her trump card, Elias, took a deep breath, raising his hands to weave the intricate patterns of the spell. The air around them shimmered as he murmured an incantation, elvish words of power that wrapped around them like a protective cloak. Neer didn’t bother trying to understand them, knowing that fey magic would only reveal itself to those who the caster wanted. The squad watched in awe as their forms began to blur, blending seamlessly with the surroundings.
Neer felt the familiar tingle of magic washing over her, the sensation both comforting and unnerving. Magic had always been a tool she respected but didn't fully trust. Yet Elias had proven himself reliable, and she had to rely on his abilities to accomplish the mission the Grand Marshal had given her, whether she liked it or not.
"We're masked," Elias whispered, his voice slightly strained from the effort. "But we need to move quickly. The spell won't hold forever.”
“It’ll do," Neer replied, her voice a low growl. "Let's move out.”
With that, the elite squad began their stealthy advance. They left the dense foliage and rapidly reached the river bank. Somehow, their passage didn’t disturb the pebbles with every step, and their forms were nearly invisible to the naked eye. The shield wall around the bridge loomed ahead, unaware of the death creeping towards them.
Four hundred feet away, a sudden surge of energy pulsed through the air. Neer’s sharp senses detected the disruption a split second before Elias gasped in pain. The illusion faltered, the shimmering veil straining to hide their forms.
"Damn it," Elias panted, clutching his head. "They have a counter-spell. I can’t maintain it.”
Neer didn't waste a moment. “It’s enough. Move to the back and support! We're going in! RUN!”
The element of surprise was compromised, but they were still close enough to strike before the enemy could fully react. Neer led the charge, her sword gleaming in the early light as the illusion shattered completely. The royalist soldiers, caught off guard, scrambled to reorient their defense, shouts and orders mingling with the rumble of their charge.
Neer crashed into the first man before those behind him realized what was happening. Her sword cleaved through armor and flesh with terrifying ease. She relished the feel of the weapon in her hands, its weight a familiar comfort. She swung it with brutal precision, penetrating deep into the enemy lines.
The first tank she encountered barely had time to raise his shield before hers found a gap and split his chest open. Blood sprayed, and Neer was already moving on to the next target. Her men followed her lead, having been forged by Sir Gareth’s hellish training into a real force.
By now, the entire enemy force had realized they had been outplayed and that the revolutionaries were among them, but it was too late to bring the artillery to bear. Any barrage aimed their way would lead to a massacre of their own troops, and while some commanders might have been willing to go that far, the soldiers manning the cannons were not.
Rifles still shot their way, but the high quality armor the Revolution’s alchemists had prepared and the sheer speed at which Neer and her men buckled the eastern bank lines meant they avoided the worst of it.
The leadership’s first attempt to change the flow came as a group of knights, heavily armored and mounted, charged over the bridge and toward her, evidently meant as a decapitating strike.
Neer disengaged from the infantrymen and met them head-on, her sword swinging in wide arcs, wind blades following in its wake and forcing the group to split. She ducked under a lance thrust and brought her weapon up, the blade biting deep into a horse's neck. The beast screamed and toppled, taking its rider with it. Neer was on him in an instant, sword descending to end his life in a single, brutal blow.
All around her, the battle raged. Her elite squad fought with unmatched ferocity, their weapons finding gaps in the royalists' defenses. Brody’s warhammer crushed bones and shattered shields, while Elle’s twin swords danced through the chaos, striking with lethal precision.
Despite their superior numbers, the royalist forces were no match for Neer's elite. Panic spread through their ranks as they struggled to mount a coherent defense. They had expected a direct charge from an army of peasants and slaves. They got a surgical strike from Journeymen and Experts.
Neer pushed forward, driving the enemy back towards the river. “Don’t let them retreat!" she roared, her voice carrying over the din of battle.
The royalists attempted to fall back, desperate to cross the river and regroup on the western bank. Neer knew she couldn't allow that. She charged forward, her sword swinging with deadly intent. She cut down fleeing soldiers with ruthless efficiency, but there were simply too many.
By the time she reached the river, having cut a bloody swath through the enemies, most soldiers were across the bridge, and the artillery was finally free to start pounding them. Thanks to her personal endurance, she could attempt crossing it, but she’d be cut off from her allies, leaving them to fend off the incoming retaliation by themselves.
Pushing down her instinct to chase after the fleeing soldiers, Neer drew back, allowing the last few men to reach the bridge and rejoining her men.
Of course, Neer hadn’t come all the way to Stonebridge without preparing a counter, so she rushed to Elias, who had held back from the carnage. Without needing her prompt, he handed over a small bronze medallion covered with tiny, interlocking runes, and she pumped it full of mana.
The ground beneath her trembled, and a deep rumbling sound filled the air. The earth responded to her will, reshaping and rising to form sturdy walls of packed soil and stone just in time to absorb the first of the cannon fire.
The earthen walls held firm, the impacts causing only minor cracks and divots that were immediately patched up. Her squad quickly joined her behind the newly formed protection, dropping down in exhaustion.
"Thank the Light for Archmage Franklin's gift," Brody muttered, his warhammer resting on his shoulder as he caught his breath.
Neer grimly acknowledged his words. "It saved our hides, no doubt. But now we're stuck here. Attacking the bridge is suicide without the meat wall to protect us, so we're trapped until reinforcements arrive.”
“How long can you realistically hold? That thing has to be draining you pretty rapidly. I can provide some mana, but the illusion from earlier tired me enough. I already had to drink a potion,” Elias asked, fascinated by the shining amulet.
“I’ll hold as long as I need to. Sir Gareth will be here before long, and when he does, you need to be fresh enough to support his assault.” Neer replied and chuckled, “That also doesn’t mean you can slack off. We must keep our enemies entertained because if they realize we are just waiting, they’ll swarm across the bridge in full force, and it’ll be over.”