The adventurers advanced slowly, keeping their formation tight to not lose each other in the thick fog. The only certainties were the ground beneath their feet and the sun in the sky, visible as an indistinct blot of yellow, its powerful rays struggling to reach through the mist. Without proper preparation, the best they could’ve hoped for would’ve been to stumble into their enemies in an unorganized mob, but they’d used the morning hours well. There were hidden markers, telling them how far from the road they were and which direction to go, so the fighters of ninth auxiliary, spread out into a wide line, didn’t get lost as they quietly walked toward their target.
Already, Edwin could hear voices from up ahead. Officers shouted orders to calm their confused men, trying to keep their units together despite the reduced visibility. Still, he kept walking, doing his best not to make any noise. Thankfully, the last hundred or so meters were open ground with knee-high grass, as Edwin had a knack for finding dry sticks to step on whenever he moved through a forest.
They closed in further, and soon Edwin could hear the orders and conversations as clearly as if they were addressed to him.
“Foul magics, I’m telling ye! There be monsters in the mist!”
“Quit yapping over there and keep your eyes peeled! We might get attacked at any moment!”
“Fourth banner, move further to the rear! We can’t leave breaks in the line!”
Edwin turned his head to look at Bordan, raising his eyebrows. Seeing his questioning look, Bordan nodded, stopping and spreading his arms to the side. The other adventurers in the front row copied his motion, stopping the entire line within a few steps. Then, they settled in to wait. It didn’t take long.
“HARVAAAND!”
Hundreds of voices bellowed a battlecry as second battalion’s infantry charged the opposite side of the wagon train, crashing into the defenders with ferocity. Steel rang on steel and arrows thunked into wood, the sounds alone painting a picture in Edwin’s mind as if he was standing right among them. The voices of the Marradi defenders joined the cacophony as they met the charge, concentrating their troops on the attacked side. Again, Edwin looked at Bordan, but the former soldier shook his head, his face a mask of concentration. In war, so Edwin had learned, timing was of vital importance, and being too early was just as bad as being too late.
He could hear the exact moment the cohort commander ahead of him decided that there wasn’t a second ambushing force hidden in the mist, and that it was more important to reinforce the beleaguered left flank than stand here with all of his forces and stare into the endless grey.
“Third banner, link up with fourth and form a line. First and second, with me!”
Boots began stomping and metal scraped as the soldiers dissolved their formation and started moving about, half of the cohort turning their backs on the hidden adventurers, their minds already preparing for the fight on the other side.
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Bordan slapped Edwin’s arm, gesturing at their flag bearer at the same time. The young adventurer put his head back and pursed his lips. The whistle was a perfect imitation of a bird native to the Pel Darni region, audible even over the noise of battle. He sounded it once, and Edwin grabbed his glaive tighter. Twice, and Edwin lowered his head and leaned forward. Thrice, and his feet burrowed into the soft earth, propelling him forward like an arrow from a bowstring. There were no battlecries, no shouts or screams, no clamoring of armor and weapons, just the thumping of hundreds of feet on the plain, muffled by the thick grass and drowned out by the battle raging a mere fifty meters or so away.
Edwin had barely built up speed when he started to make out dark outlines ahead of him, which two steps later sharpened into Marradi soldiers. They were walking with their side to him, not even remotely ready to receive a charge. It only took three steps of his powerful legs to cross their entire field of vision, and they only realized what was happening when he was right among them. Using his bulk as a weapon once again, Edwin slammed into two of the soldiers, pulling them along with him and slamming them into the side of the wagon they were protecting, their bodies dampening the impact that caused the vehicle to sway. Shouts of surprise rose as soldiers turned in his direction, only for two hundred adventurers to peel out of the fog just behind him.
His first two victims fell to the ground, stunned, so Edwin turned to the ones that surrounded him. The first one wasn’t braced at all, barely getting into a combat stance, so a powerful kick sent him toppling over. The second one stabbed his spear at Edwin, so he swung his glaive in a wide arc to create some space for himself.
“Surround him! Don’t fall back! His weapon’s too long for close quarters!” a soldier shouted, doing a decent job at rallying the men around him until an axe split his helmet from behind.
Unprepared as they were, it only took seconds for most of the remaining defensive unit to be wiped out, a few pockets of resistance forming as groups of soldiers put their backs to the wagons and covered themselves with their shields, forming small, spiky fortresses. The adventurers largely left them alone, as they weren’t their target. They had just been in the way, and now they weren’t.
Hearing the commotion, the Marradi that had just vacated the position turned around, funneling back through the narrow spaces between the wagons to aid their comrades. In several places they managed to understand the danger and hunker down, blocking the flanking force from sandwiching the front line that was engaging second battalion’s forces. In others, they weren’t. In others again, it didn’t matter at all.
“Ready!” Edwin grunted, bracing himself against the wagon ahead of him with his arms and forehead. Moments later, the first marksman stepped up onto his shoulders, pulling himself up on the wooden roof and making way for the next one. The human ladder had been Bordan’s idea, and while using Edwin as a step wasn’t particularly necessary, Bordan had insisted that he was perfect for the job. While Edwin didn’t particularly enjoy the experience, he had to agree that it worked rather nicely. Above him the first crossbows snapped, as the marksmen fired into the uncovered backs of the Marradi defenders.
“Last one,” one of the other adventurers yelled into Edwin’s ear, slapping his back to get his attention. “Let’s go!”
With a growl, Edwin hefted his glaive and followed the others. They only had until the fog cleared or the enemies managed to properly rally and put up a coordinated defense, so they had to make every second count. He rounded the side of the wagon, spotting a line of Marradi shields. Without hesitation, his glaive rose above his head and fell toward the unluckiest of the soldiers, the misty air whistling through the magestone roots of its hilt.