Year 12.328 After the Founders Autumn 57 14:43.

The encampment of the Oderick army was agitated. It had increased it’s number to about 5.000 men but about half were levies with little to no experience, gathered to make up numbers.

Marquess Bascus, a powerful Oderickian young aristocrat with lands on the border, was the leader of this army. He had received information from his scouts that a army led by the Lusian king himself was approaching, so he ordered a retreat to the castle of Catalunia were soon large reinforcements would arrive to confront the Lusians.

This army had served well its purpose of delaying any small bands from entering Oderick territory, so there was no reason to stay anymore.

The Marquess followed the common procedure of a retreating army: broke down camp, organized a rear guard and made the supplies and men ready to move as quickly as possible, he was no newbie at war. A few hours after the king’s arrival, the army was already on the move and with a large number of scouts on the lookout for any surprises.

“Milord! Milord!” a knight arrived at the head of the column where the Marquess currently was.

“What is it men, is it the enemy?”

“Yes Milord, an enemy force approaches, thousands strong, most likely engaging the rearguard already!”

The Marquess did not panic, but was still amazed by the decisiveness of the Lusians, there could have been ambushes when attacking an enemy that had been in an area for long so it usually isn't wise to take action before scouting the location, and as expected he did prepared some few tricks in case the enemy came for him.

“Do not panic, if the enemy came this fast they are most likely an all cavalry force, we have hills and forests around with some troops in there in ambush, the moment they get too close these men will stop their momentum and drive them back”.

The marquess did not expect to defeat the enemy, his only desire was to stop them and make them hesitate to fully commit to battle, giving him time to retreat to the Catalunia castle, which wasn't that far away. He knew he would have casualties for they were facing cavalry, which likely meant skilled and well armored troops, however as long as he managed to limit his losses to his rearguard, mostly made of levies and mercenaries it would be an ok outcome. Confident, the Marquess moved on.

Unfortunately for the Marquess, he never fought against Totila before, obtaining his military experience from fighting other lesser commanders, had he done so he would have abandoned everything on the camp and made a run for it rather than trying to bring everything back.

A few minutes later, a huge roar could be heard, as if a dragon had descended from the skies, the Marquess even thought that perhaps a big monster was nearby. He wasn’t that far from the truth.

The rear of the Odererick army had positioned themselves in a strong defensive position, surrounded by trees and some hills, they blocked the way to the rest of the army and the forest and hills made it so the enemy could not mount a charge in their flanks. They also had previously constructed some basic earthwork to fortify themselves as well as placing some man in the forest to mount an ambush, making it unwise to attack it head on. This made the rearguard confident.

The rearguard then saw the enemy coming to them, raising a large cloud of dust behind, much ahead of the Lusian contingent they saw a single warrior coming to their lines, giant and imposing, using a magnificent red and dark armor made of several plates and chainmail. The Oderickians were stupefied by his bravado and wondered if he and the cavalryman were mad, the man charging isolated like that and the horseman charging at a fortified position.

At that moment however, the giant Totila used a trick he learned in his many years of war, he concentrated his mana in his throat and air around his stomach and launched a devastating roar that shook the very soul of the enemy.

The Roar could be heard miles away, to those close it almost seemed as if a powerful thunder or dragon befell them. Many in the earthworks pissed themselves at the shock, some were even paralised for a moment unable to process what just happened. It was a powerful magic for use in warfare, still one that is hard to do so and dangerous if not done correctly.

However, Totila was not yet done.

“Breach!” he shouted to the man behind him.

A moment later, the mages, mounted at the head of the charging column, launched spells at the earthworks, fireballs of concentrated air and heat that at contact with solid objects, exploded with the sudden expansion of air(much like how grenades works), spreading flames everywhere this heated air went.

An individual fireball was not enough to make a hole in the fortifications so that a man could pass, but several shots concentrated in a small area were enough to create a breach that the cavalryman could use.

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With 40 mages working on it, they managed to create a few breaches in the fortification, where the first to enter was Totila. Swinging his large warhammer, Totila broke armour and bone alike, a mercenary tried to get away from the initial shock from the giant’s roar and stabbed at him with his spear. Only to see the big man parry his spear and flick his wrist to quickly turn the warhammer at the mercenary’s head, breaking his neck with a small movement.

Another Oderickian aimed for Totila horse, but a warhorse isn't just a mount but a weapon by itself and the one that Totila rode on was a special one, with a mix breed of a horse-like monster and stallion. Highly intelligent and insanely strong the mount, called “Abomination”, bit the Oderickian spear shaft and throwed the man into the raging flames on the earthworks.

There was complete chaos in the Oderick reaguard center, which was made even worse as the knights and man-at-arms arrived after Totila and the mages made new breaches in the earthworks.

Usually there would be mages to support the despaired Oderickian center, but there were few of them and the few they had were all at the ambushes location, unable to help their comrades.

Mages are a rare and powerful resource, so most would not risk them and place them in the front like Totila did, which is why the Marquess gave the rearguard only about 10 of them and placed them in a more safe region, which was the ambushing positions. this decision ended up making the center way more vulnerable to a mage’s attack, plus, the shock from Totila's overwhelming roar made the soldiers in ambush delay their attack for some minutes.

When the ambushing units finally sprung into action the fortifications were already overwhelmed and were routing. Thus, rather than taking the Lusians by surprise while they were busy, the Oderickians instead were noticed by some man on standby in the most rear part of the Lusian charge.

Quickly, some Lusians broke off from the main assault group and charged at the ambush Oderickians teams, engaging them with steel and magic.

Totila, finishing a few remaining stranglers in his proximity, did not waste his time. He gathered all the men he could in his vicinity and quickly rode to the main column of the enemy, where the Marquess was.

It didn’t take long for Totila to find the retreating enemy.

The Oderickians were scrambling to organize in order to receive the enemy, however it was clear that they were in complete confusion, unable to organize.

Large armies of tens of thousands could take up to several hours to organize a line for they had to do so through shouts, messages, banners or musical instruments. Even when only considering a few thousands thousands soldiers, any commander would still require quite some time to make his man ready to receive an enemy. Unfortunately for the Marquiss, he did not have this time.

Unable to form a wall of spears and shields in time to take the Lusian cavalry head on, the Oderickians in the main column were swept aside, being crushed by hooves and impaled by lances.

The Oderickians mages casted several spells in order to counter-attack, but they were sporadic and unorganized due to panic, being neutralized by the Lusian mages easily who quickly launched a concentrated casting of spells, killing or disabling most of the Oderickian Mages.

In the midst of all this, Totila was sending fully armored man to meter away with his warhammer, resulting in ragdolls on the ground, reaching ever closer to the Marquess.

“How… is that a monster..?”

“Milord!! Please come to your senses and flee!”

The Marquess bodyguards urged him to flee by shaking their lord's shoulder. The eldest of them and captain of his bodyguard units then spoke up.

“Sire, that is most likely Totila, the father-in-law of the king. Also called Totila the Mauler. The reason, you can see for yourself.”

The Marquess could see indeed, this giant was using a large two handed warhammer with one hand, his opponents were unable to block it with a shield for they would join their panoply as one on impact with Totila’s warhammer. While evading was very hard, for this giant could swing the warhammer with much speed and agility, despite his size.

At this point, the entire bodyguard of the marquess was prepared to die here in order to give time for their lord to flee and regroup the remainder of the army. The Marquess however could not see how he could escape at this point

“I doubt that monster will allow me to do so… If so it’s better if I at least die with some Honor.”

"Unacceptable sire.” Said the Marquiss bodyguard captain, who then gave the Marquess a battered helmet and pointed to a fallen soldier.

Understanding what his captain meant the Marquiss said:

“You really are asking me to shame myself?”

“Yes sire, because otherwise our honor instead shall be shamed for letting you die” responded the Marquess captain.

“....You’re not being fair Avaris”

“I am sorry sire, but in this situation i have no choice”

“Fine… In case any of you die, I shall make sure your families are properly compensated”.

“We thank you sire. And may the Sovereign guide you.”

“May The Valorous give your arms strength” Said the Marquess as he bid his most loyal man farewell.

By the end of their chat, the captain of the Marquess bodyguard unit dressed as his lord and went to confront Totila. Never to return again.

By the end of the battle, the army of the Marquess was basically lost, with 2.000 dead, 1.000 captured and a 1.000 deserted or became incapacited.

The Marquiss managed to flee by disguising as a common soldier, however he paid the price by losing almost all of his army and retinue, some of the soldiers have been with him for decades.

In the retreat he suffered further losses to desertion and death due to wounds, he only wasn't totally annihilated because some of the fleeing soldiers managed to inform the main army gathering at the Catalunian Castle, who sent some reinforcements.

But still, like he predicted, when he arrived at the main army camp he was shamed in front of many nobles by the king of Oderick and the great noble, who condemned him for the loss of so many soldiers. As punishment, the Marquess lost some of his land, noble rights and was demoted in rank to a count, however from this defeat, he would some years later grow.