“Enemy left!”
The call went up from behind and was immediately picked up by more voices.
“It’s a trap!” Bordan bellowed. “Retreat! 5th division, retreeeat!”
The Marradi, however, weren’t going to let them get away this easily. They’d walked into their trap, now the jaws were closing from both sides. They turned on their former pursuers with a battlecry, locking them in melee and preventing the front line from turning around.
As Edwin held his position in the second line, he looked around for the additional personnel. As far as he could see, being part of an actual battle had forced Ferraline and the others to shed what bravado they had displayed before, and they stuck close to their assigned protectors who made sure that they didn’t get left behind or walked into the actual fighting.
“Ca-Cavalry left!” someone screamed, their voice breaking.
“Fall back!” Bordan roared immediately. “Break off and run! We need to get out of the open!”
The bend of Artelby’s walls hid the approaching enemies, but Edwin could feel them long before he could see them. The last battle had seared the sensation into his brain, the earth below his feet vibrating as hundreds of horses charged towards them. Next came the noise, the low rumble of the hooves and the clarion calls of their hunting horns. Finally, the outer edge of their formation became visible around the walls, their armor and streaming banners less imposing without the sun sparkling off the steel, but even more threatening in the dim grey of what little light passed through the dark clouds overhead.
The knights were still quite far away, the lack of cover actually coming in useful for once, as the cavalry hadn’t been able to sneak close without getting spotted. Still, the distance was shrinking by the second, and first battalion’s heavies were having a hard time separating from the enemies chasing them. Thankfully, the Harvand forces were not unprepared for this possibility.
“Second line: Juniper, Juniper! Ready… Now!”
The Harvand shield wall swung open as every second man stepped behind his left neighbor, only for the adventurers and light infantry waiting behind them to charge through the gaps and attack the Marradi line. Edwin kicked a soldier onto his butt, then sent his glaive to bite deeply into a shield, but he was one of the few who did any damage to the Marradi. The real purpose of the maneuver was to stop their pursuers in their tracks, even if only for a few seconds, and it almost achieved its purpose just by announcing a code the Marradi didn’t understand.
First battalion’s men turned around and booked it, the heavily armored men running across the field faster than they ever had before. If they were to keep going like this, they would be absolutely useless by the time they arrived at the outpost, but it was the only way to keep ahead of the lighter Marradi soldiers. After only a few short moments, the former second line disengaged again, following the heavies with ease as they started to put some distance between themselves and the pursuers who gave chase without hurry. Edwin looked to his right and cursed. Less than thirty seconds had passed, but the cavalry had already crossed half the distance. The Marradi didn’t exert themselves in the chase because they knew they didn’t need to.
“Defense force, to the right flank!” Bordan shouted. “Close with 3-2 in the front, 9-1 takes the center, 3-1 the rear! Move it!”
The cohorts that had defended the outpost earlier, and who had been put on the outside of the fleeing Harvand formation by code Juniper, shifted towards the approaching horses. Edwin was starting to worry that the plan would falter right there, that it had been too complex and ambitious to swing around the fleeing forces while keeping their distance from the Marradi infantry, all without losing cohesion. Seconds ticked by with the knights coming ever closer, until finally the adventurers caught up with 3-2, the infantrymen having slowed down to allow them to close.
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“Halt! Prepare to receive charge!”
The three cohorts formed a ragged line, the thin strip of winded warriors the only thing separating the charging knights from the backs of the fleeing soldiers. Salissa came to a stop on Edwin’s left, taking her place in the line.
“You ready?” Edwin asked. Salissa just nodded, breathing heavily from the sprint with her eyes fixed on the horses that were crossing the last hundred meters.
“Ready defense!”
The command sounded weak in the face of the thunderstorm of hooves and steel that raged towards them, but out of the corner of his eyes Edwin could see Ferraline shouldering through the line a few fighters to his right, extending her arm past the shields. Salissa did the same, her Pioneer sword pointed at the knights who were almost upon them. They were so close, Edwin could see the murderous grins and masks of concentration on their faces as they prepared to ride down the lightly armored defenders with swords held high. Edwin’s heart was pounding in his ears, the adrenaline and mana mixing in his bloodstream causing his entire body to vibrate, the deepest parts of his human brain screaming at him to run – no matter if away or toward, just run! Barely able to keep himself stationary, Edwin didn’t even realize that he was bellowing a wordless shout, challenging the approaching knights to face him if they dared. His cry almost drowned out the order, but only almost.
“NOW!”
All along the line, over a dozen mages wearing infantry armor and adventurer clothes converted fire. In a single instant, the space in front of the ragged Harvand line turned from a lush field into the fiery gates of hell. Waist-high green grass simply disappeared, turning to ash and smoke while giving way to blackened earth. The heat was so intense, the backwash that found its way around the mages’ conversions alone was enough to cause the Harvand soldiers to gasp for air and shield their faces. The knights fared much worse.
Horses screamed in pain and fear, and the orderly charge instantly devolved into chaos. Mounts no longer obeyed commands, instead trying desperately to distance themselves from the roaring flames. Many tried to veer left or right, turning into those beside them. Others stopped in place, throwing their riders and blocking those that followed. The ones at the very front of the charge got the worst of it, catching fire like matchsticks. Two of the mages had to cut their flames and throw up shields as horses blinded by pain and panic kept rushing forward, only to crash into invisible barriers a mere meter away from the defenders.
Edwin couldn’t look away. The smell of burnt hair and flesh filled his nose and the screams of men and mounts drowned out all other noise. In planning, the tactic had sounded great. Now, he only felt sick. It wasn’t even over.
The mages cut off their conversions, as there were no more enemies within its short range. None that were a threat, at least. The remaining knights, mostly the ones who had been in the back and had been too far from the flames to be affected, were starting to regroup when the next order came.
“Fire.” Ferraline’s voice was cold as ice as she adjusted her casting hand, raising it slightly. Edwin watched the lines around her eyes deepen as she concentrated, then a fireball sprung into existence at her fingertips and shot toward the remaining knights, followed by three more from different points along the line. Where the Marradi fireballs were easily a meter and a half in diameter and filled with bright orange mana, hers was a third of the size and an angry red. Instead of arcing high into the sky and slowly falling back down, it sped across the distance with the slightest of arcs, more like a bolt than a rock from a catapult. That was where the differences ended, though.
The first fireball impacted a knight in the shoulder, and the explosion ripped him clean off his horse and flung him into his comrades. The pressurized mana inside the spell erupted outwards, coating everyone within twenty meters in liquid flames that couldn’t be extinguished by natural means. Then came the rest, half a second behind Ferraline’s, and the horror began anew. Explosions toppled horses and threw riders around like dolls, magical fire eating hungrily into those who survived. They were followed by a second volley, then a third, the spells being joined by a cloud of arrows and a smattering of crossbow bolts as first battalion’s archers and the adventurer marksmen joined the fight.
It felt like it lasted an hour, though Walter quietly informed him that barely a minute had passed. The green field in front of their line was gone, replaced by a vision straight out of a nightmare. Burning corpses of men and horses alike were scattered across a wide area, while the wails of those that still lived echoed from the nearby walls. What few knights had survived the onslaught were running, galloping away from the field of battle without daring to look back. Nobody else made a sound, soldiers of both sides unable to turn away from the otherworldly horror that had unfolded right in front of their very eyes.