CHAPTER 14 – SHOWING OFF

The first week of school quickly ended without much difficulty. On this fine Saturday morning, I had woken up without the assistant of Erika for the first time in a while. It was because I was excited for the large-scale warfare that would be hosted in the aptly name Conflict Valley behind the academy grounds.

My friends were equally as excited as me if not more so. We had been limited to only studying theory in class for the past week and itching to have a good all-out brawl. I was also hopeful that I could find out the average skill level of these students before the combat classes started.

Summoning Skoll and Hati out I attached a custom-made harness to them and attached it to a large modified open-top carriage. Before leaving for the academy, I had specifically instructed some skilled craftsmen and rune mages to work together to make this carriage I had designed. I was intending for Skoll and Hati to pull us in the carriage to Conflict Valley. Think about how shocked some of the students would be when they saw the two large Sky Wolves coming towards them. Just thinking about it made me smile.

Ignoring my derpy smile my friends silently got onto the carriage. As soon as everyone had gotten onto the carriage, I made a final check of the harness and equipment to make sure everything was safe. When I was sure that it was safe, I had Hati and Skoll move out quickly increasing the pace.

As Skoll and Hati accelerated the wind was starting to mess up my hair so I remembered to activate the runes on the carriage that would put up a minor wind barrier that stopped the wind from blowing directly into us. Observing that the minor wind barrier had indeed been fully deployed I ask my friends if they had put on their seat belts.

Confirming that they had secured themselves to the carriage I gave Skoll and Hati the command.

“To the sky.”

In complete synchrony Skoll and Hati leapt off the grounds and started running through the sky as easily as they had on the ground. As we passed the academy buildings many students on the ground had frozen in place as they saw us flew by.

Sitting in the back my friends started laughing and point at the people on the ground who had minor accidents due to being distracted by our appearance. Urged on by my friends’ laughers I did a lap around the whole academy before heading back on course to our destination.

Like the students back at the academy, a few of the senior students that had arrived early to Conflict Valley to prepare for the event were equally shocked at our appearance more specifically Skoll and Hati’s appearance.

The student council president Amelia, who had come to supervise this event had even commented that if this was a real war and I showed up with Skoll and Hati the enemy would instantly have their morale lowered while simultaneously boosting my allies. She added it was sad that the carriage couldn’t be used in this valley and that it would be better if I had a war chariot made as well.

Winking at her, I continued to disconnect the carriage from Skoll and Hati. Curious about what I was about to do Amelia wanted to ask but ended up not saying anything and just silently watched me. With the carriage finally disconnected from Skoll and Hati a few of the curious senior had gathered beside Amelia and my friends as they observed what I was doing.

Standing at the right side of the carriage by the wheel I activated a few runes. When I designed this carriage, I had designed it so that it could be stored conveniently and be used in all situations and terrains as I was going to use it in battle and various situations. It was safe to carriages don’t belong on the battlefield as they were large and not particularly mobile. A war chariot on the other hand was much more mobile but could not usually move in rocky terrain. However, this was not an issue for me. I had Skoll and Hati who could fly. This was why I had designed the carriage to not only be used as transportation for groups of people, but also as a weapon of war.

As the runes on the carriage took effect shining in a mesmerising blue colour the open-top carriage started to morph into the shape of a chariot than shrinking in size but could still carry two fully arm warriors.

Fitting the now full transformed chariot onto Skoll and Hati. I turned to Amelia, I showed off my war chariot like a young child.

“You were saying.”

“I was saying that with this chariot your enemies would easily be crushed in a war but remember today you will be fighting a practice battle so make sure you grab a practice weapon from the stand. I don’t want you to hurt someone while you’re moving at high on that chariot.”

Stating that I understood I headed to the stands and grab two practice spears with a cloth wrapped around the tip, bow and quiver of wooden arrows that were also wrapped in cloth. In these large-scale practice battles, they would often dip the weapon in paint so that they could mark that someone had been wounded without injuring someone, but as they still hadn’t allocated me to a group yet, so I had to wait.

With the students slowly arriving at Conflict Valley I received many curious glances, but I guess it’s not as impactful when Skoll and Hati are on the ground. I’m sure they will be shocked when they start flying.

When about half the students had arrived a member of the student council came and informed me that I had been assigned as one of the two commanders and was to oversee the blue legion.

I had been expecting that I would be made a commander at some point as I was a member of the royal family, and it wouldn’t be appropriate if I was made a common warrior. But it was completely out of my expectation that I was instantly made the commander on my first time. I could understand making me an officer but being a commander was not part of my current skill sets.

Now that it had been decided all I could do was accept it and lead the only way I know how, by example. I got onto my chariot and head to the base that had been allocated as the blue legion base. There was already about a hundred people that had gathered there when I arrived.

Seeing them just standing around I started my plan of action. I had a group of ten people that were holding practice spears to guard the entrance to the base and inform those that came to gather where I was. I had gathered the people that were in the adventurer course to prepare and to head out and scout the area documenting things like how the ground was, visibility around various areas particularly blind spots, and available hiding places. I requested all the people that were experienced as officers to come find me as they would continue to serve in those roles. The rest were to distribute the paint to everyone.

There were more than a few that didn’t like listening to the commands of a twelve-year-old but if the commander’s patch I was wearing on my full plate armour didn’t convince them my name as Princess Ayra Asteri Kar did. As the final group of people arrived here, I noticed that only Louise, Lyn and Chandre were in my group the rest were in the red legion.

For today’s battle, it was a simple battle to annihilation where both sides sort to incapacitate the other’s legion to force a surrender. It was in no way a battle where both sides fought to the last person or to capture all targets.

The senior with experience as an officer gathered around me explained how these battles usually were fought. I had an idea, but their words helped me confirm my beliefs. The first commander to take control over and prepare their legion would have an advantage over the opposing side.

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The group that I had sent out to scout the area had returned briefly after I had finish understanding how these battles usually were. Checking the map that was not to scale I found that various places would serve as good ambush positions.

Now that I had an understanding of the battlefield, we were at I quickly started organising everyone into their preferred weapon and combat style. I had all the knight course students that were on horseback to gather separately as they would serve as the cavalry.

Everyone else what split into crews of three to four-member with that included at least one student from the adventurer course to serve as a scout, at least one member from the knight course proficient with a sword or spear and at least one student proficient with a bow.

In their group of three to four, they would make up a crew that was the smallest military unit Kar used.

Three of these crews coming together would make up a squad that would be under an inexperienced officer. I had placed Louise, Lyn and Chandre as officers into these formations to give them experience as officers.

Two of these squads would come together to form a patrol. And would be under an experienced officer.

Finally, four patrols would make up a platoon and would be led by a more experienced officer. These platoons would be our largest infantry formation.

I currently had five officers that had experience commanding infantry platoons. Four were allocated to command a platoon each the last one was left to command half of the cavalry, serving as the light cavalry while I commanded the other half serving as the heavy cavalry.

With the legion having finally established a chain of command I started by sending out the light cavalry around the base to serve as scouts and early warning as to their main mission. They were also tasked with slowing down and harassing the enemy force with ranged hit and run tactics as well as any other skirmishing tactics at their disposal. Their main targets included strategic assets such as cavalry and ranged troops. However, if they were outmatched, they were to retreat immediately as their main role was still to serve as a skirmish force.

I then boldly position two of my infantry platoons one on each side of the valley walls and had them wait on standby until the enemy showed up. Where they were then tasked to break off into crews of three to four and similarly adopt a hit and run tactic. These troops would serve as the main screening forces and would be set to support both the light cavalry that had been sent ahead and the main force that was still getting ready as well as to guard our flank.

Our main force which was composed of two infantry platoons and two patrols worth of heavy cavalry were getting ready in front of our base it was a risky move as we would essentially be leaving our base defenceless in the event of a defensive battle, but this wasn’t a normal defensive battle but a battle of annihilation. This was why I was trying to use skirmishing tactics to disrupt the enemy’s main forces without tiring out my main force.

If my forces were still overwhelmed, I still had the heavy cavalry. I didn’t have a lot of heavy cavalries, but they serve well as shock troops. Giving time for the main infantry force to reform itself.

No sooner had we finished preparing and giving instructions to the main forces than a member of the light cavalry informed us that they had located the enemies’ main forces that were marching on us and had started to engage them with their bow and arrow. While they started the march of their main forces before us it could be seen that their commander wasn’t a very strategic-minded person. It was estimated that the enemy had suffered serious losses to their cavalry as they were not well organised and were just clumped together by their roles as archers, cavalry, light and heavy infantry which was the standard practice that was common to many countries including Kar.

This gave us a serious advantage as the enemy now had a crippled cavalry. Hopefully, the light cavalry can keep this up, so it won’t even need to come down to the head-on collision between the main forces.

As the battle progressed and messengers came and went it could be seen that the enemy had started to retaliate by having their archers mingle with their heavy infantry and pre-emptively firing their arrows before our light cavalry could reach them stopping their assault.

Analysing all the information I had received so far it was safe to say that over that the enemy main force composed of around five hundred troops including all those that had been ‘killed’ this meant that there were still around two hundred troops specifically light infantry troops that were unaccounted for. It was most likely that like me they had been sent to flank us and were along the valley walls.

Knowing all this I order for the light cavalry to retreat behind the main force and rest for now. I ordered for the main forces to start their march forward and that the two screening platoons were to be wary of the enemy flanking us.

All my guesses on the enemy approach had come true. The flanks on both sides had engaged with the enemy’s light infantry troops that were surprised to see us. They really were underestimating me for being young. The two infantry platoons easily repelled the enemy’s light infantry.

Before us in the open valley I could see the enemy main force approaching us it looked like the light infantry sent to flank us had re-joined their ranks and like us that had opted to not guard their bases as their numbers wouldn’t suggest it.

When we were around two hundred away from each other both legions stopped and held their formation. A tall male in full plate armour with a commander’s patch riding on a horse move forward to stand before his troops with what remained of his cavalry forces. I could imagine what he wanted to do. He was most likely trying to go for an all-out final charge.

However, it looked like I would have to disappoint them. Having Skoll and Hati move forward before the blue legion I was intending to use Skoll and Hati to disrupt their charge and I was more than seventy percent sure that it would work even if I was alone.

When the enemy commander ordered the charge, I had Skoll and Hati also move out pulling my chariot along with them.

Animals like horses were called animals because they did not possess the magic crystals or cores in their body. This meant that they couldn’t use magic. Unlike normal animals, magic beasts could use magic as they had magic crystals and cores in them. Today I would once again demonstrate the difference between magic beasts and normal animals.

As Skoll and Hati charged at the enemy they let out a booming roar which caused the enemy horses to be worked up into a complete frenzy.

Take this opportunity I place an arrow onto the bow and drew it to the limit aiming at the enemy commander. There were two ways to win in this battle the ‘death’ of the enemy commander or the enemy commander concedes. As I let the arrow loose, I quickly drew another arrow and prepared to fire it. As expected, the enemy commander was no slouch, he easily got his horse back under control and deflected the arrow. Moving onto my other targets I hit three other cavalry members before the enemy commander reach me.

Throwing my bow at him, I grabbed my spear stabbed towards him. Slash my bow in half he continued to parry my swear. While I had the advantage in range with my spear it was clear that I was losing out in mobility fighting on the back of a chariot. Thus, I jumped onto Hati’s back and decisively cut the cord that was attached to the chariot to Hati. Leaving Skoll to pull the now empty chariot alone.

Now that I was on Hati’s back I had regained my mobility and continued my duel with the enemy commander. Usually, a horse had better speed and endurance than a wolf. But that was a normal wolf, against Hati who was larger, faster and had more agility the enemy’s horse was also starting to tire out as it was carrying someone with a large build in full armour and itself was covered in lamellar armour becoming ever so slightly slower.

I continued to rain down strikes on the enemy commander adopting the fire form that would make even Anna proud. Behind me I could hear the enemy cavalry trying to out maneuverer our infantry but were destined to be disappointed as we had adopted a clear chain of command, they quickly repealed the enemy.

Encouraged by their success I renewed my onslaught of spear strikes adding in swings and slashes to limit the enemy’s movement. Seeing that he was at a disadvantage here he called for the charge of his main force. Similarly, I also called for my full force to charge including the two infantry platoons that had been guarding our flank to surround the enemy forces moving from their defensive role to that of an offensive role.

After what seemed like hours but was just a quarter of an hour had passed the enemy commander and I were still in a deadlock, but different from the blue legion his forces had completely fallen into disarray. I reminded him that it was time to surrender as his forces had no hope of winning now.

Unconvinced he push my spear away and charge me with his sword no longer holding back.

Twirling the spear around using the force of his parry I smacked it into his head using the end wrapped in cloth knocking him off his horse and out cold.

Someone from the blue legion had called out loudly causing the battle to end.

“Commander Ayra has slain the enemy Commander Ryan. The blue legion has won!”

Finally, I had won. Against a vastly more experienced enemy, I had won. Using tactics and strategies that I had never learnt if I had led the blue legion to victory. Overjoyed I cheered at our victory along with the other member of the blue legion.

From this battle, I gained confidence and newfound knowledge of my ability as a commander. But I also started a legend. A legend that would be told for many generations to come.