Forest Fight
Amar had been maintaining her hold on the Root Ability so far, but she let that go as she started to sense the enemies crossing its boundaries. There were at least five enemies from her initial count, and Amar informed the rest of the group of such.
By that time, the scouting party could hear their enemies hacking their way through the woods, the sounds coming in over the suddenly silent song of the forest. Their party arrayed out in a loose wedge shape, Amar still tucked in its center.
The Harthian troops came streaming out of the trees, their typical white and black garb a stark difference to the earth colors around them. On first contact, they didn’t shout, and wordlessly assembled into a counter formation and began advancing. Lt. Raster was the one shouting, trying to disseminate tactics. While Amar respected his attempt to control the situation, it just served to highlight the seemingly large difference in experience and cohesion between the two scouting parties.
There were a few tense seconds before the fighting started. Both sides looked across the distance, trying to gauge where a weak point may be had. Lt. Raster was holding his nerves, but the rest of the group wasn’t, hands and knees trembling at points. Amar realized that while the Legion was looking for a single weak point, their enemies must see nothing but openings, indecision arising from the multitudes of options.
Then, they made their move, and the battle was truly underway.
The enemy's left flank pushed out suddenly, sweeping into the Legion group’s right. There were two sword wielders and someone with dual axes that looked more appropriate for forestry than combat. Still, the precision with which he carried his weapons of choice spoke of a dangerous level of skill.
The rest of the Harthian soldiers slowly engaged from the front, content to let their compatriots do the majority of the aggressing. The Legionnaires engaged their opponents, the clash of metal loud in Amar’s ears.
She took a deep breath, taking stock of the situation, before identifying what she had to do. Dashing over, Amar joined the conflict.
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Despite what he had said, Logan actually teleported up into a tree perched above the conflict before making any rash moves. Logan’s aches were a constant reminder not to underestimate the situation, and he wasn’t keen for any more of them. Instead, Logan spent a few vital seconds understanding the situation before jumping into the middle.
From above the formations the two sides were clear, although Logan didn’t have much of a grasp on the tactics involved. Instead, he tried to gauge the confidence of both sides, and how that compared between the two.
In that regard, the Legion was clearly following behind their enemies, who looked to be pressing into the Legion, being the aggressors and not allowing them space to think. Especially down the right hand side of the field, the enemies were really trying to push their advantage.
However, so far, both sides had come off relatively evenly, with only superficial cuts occurring on both sides. It made Logan question his decision to come help out, if only for a moment. Then, Logan saw a familiar piece of Divinity that rewarded his actions.
“Bear Claw!”
Logan heard Amar shout some familiar words. Then the same Blessing that Old Jeremiah had used flashed out over the right hand side of the field, bashing back their enemies as Amar committed to fighting down the flank.
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However, that’s just when their enemies decided to push forwards down the front, clearly having waited for the Legion’s formation to overcommit to their flank push. Racing towards them, the enemy's formation held solid as they rushed the main force from the Legion. However, all Logan saw was an invitation.
Now that the enemies were rushing in, it left a lot of exploitable space for Logan to teleport into. So readying his Soul Sword, Logan prepared to do just that. When the pattern of Logan’s tentacles was perfect, Logan used his Blessing to appear down on the field right behind the most isolated enemy, pushing almost by himself down the Legion’s left flank.
A casual horizontal swing introduced Logan to the fight, and both sides quickly took notice.
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As the soft thud echoed over the battlefield, the attention turned towards Logan from both sides. He saw looks of confusion from the enemies that mirrored the vague looks of recognition from the Legion. However, this wasn’t the time to get distracted.
“Keep going!” Logan yelled out.
At his words, the brief spell broke, and the fighting recommenced. This time, instead of pushing into the Legion however, the enemies had decided to deal with the thorn in their side, and protect their own flank, turning towards Logan and advancing. Three of them coordinated to try and close in on Logan’s position. They clearly hadn’t seen how Logan had arrived on the field, and didn’t expect Logan’s greatest Blessing.
Logan focused in a way that had long become a second habit, letting the white lines that designated his teleport locations file into his vision. However, his companion beat him to the punch, shocking Logan.
Remy teleported down in front of his companion, and let loose their second Blessing, the one Logan had ripped from the Depth Wyrm. Suddenly, a screeching shriek filled the air, literally. The enemies who had been trying to advance on Logan found themselves battered back by the Rizzel’s Divinity, which created openings in their formation.
Already ready to teleport, Logan made the most of those openings, jumping into the middle of the already flustered soldiers, and getting to work. A quick thrust knocked one opponent's sword away, even as Logan spun and slashed another enemy. Their armor provided a resistance that Logan had never felt with his Soul Sword, meaning he didn’t manage to finish him off, but the man’s torso had still taken a pretty harsh wound.
The enemies stabilized, at least until Logan teleported away, back to his initial perch. Then, Logan heard them speak for the first time today.
“What, where did he go?”
“Huh?”
“Be careful, everyone. We may have to rethink this.” One of the women in the group said.
“Quiet, you know it doesn't matter unless we manage to complete our jobs. We almost made it, we just need to finish up this last thing, yeah?” The leader of the charge said, swaying the others.
“Alright boss.”
“Then keep attacking! They have to be almost here!”
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Logan looked back down at the skirmish. Logan’s interruption had done some good, letting the Legion take back the initiative and the advantage in the fight overall. Their enemy’s formation had broken with their fighters collapsing towards the left flank, splitting their forces into two smaller groups that the Legion had wedged between.
The Legion used their superior positioning well, their earlier nerves seeming to abate, as they started pushing in at their enemies in white and black. Although they seemed determined, it wasn’t long until the Legion’s advantage was overwhelming, and their remaining enemies surrendered instead of fighting to the death.
As they rounded up their defeated foes, the Legion kept glancing around into the darkness. Logan thought it was wise to remain wary, until he realized they were likely looking for him.
The thought made him sour, Logan still upset with the Prince for costing him his place in the Legion, and the Austen Kingdom as a whole. Hiding out in a tree watching people he had beaten get tied up made Logan feel like Batman. He had always thought that the caped crusader was awesome, but for the first time, Logan realized how lonely a life like that was.
Then, Remy rustled up against him, bringing those thoughts to a halt. If Logan was Batman, that meant Remy would be Robin.
I couldn’t ask for a better sidekick. Thanks for helping out down there, Remy.
-No problem!-
Logan smiled at the pride in Remy’s mental voice. The little guy was always surprising Logan with how much he had grown, and it was great to see his efforts paying off. Looking back below, Logan realized that the Legion had started setting back towards the Fort.\
However, Amar had remained at the rear of their formation, lagging around the site of the battle for much longer than he groupmates. Teleporting down, but remaining in the foliage, Logan called out to her.