“At the end of a day of carnage, after all the violence and fighting had wrapped up, all that remained to do was to handle the aftermath.” - Old soldier’s proverb.
“I see you had returned,” said Orica when she noticed Aideen’s slender form walking amongst the burly orcs of the gathered horde.
Even while she led her Clan to the thick of the fighting, the matronly Warchief kept track of the situation of the battle. She also received reports from the fighting on the flanks. Both flanks held strong against the human cavalry, without yielding even a step, but the end result of the fighting on the two flanks could not be any more different.
The right flank had taken nearly as many casualties - fortunately not too many dead, but still a lot of injured - as they had dealt out to their human opponents. In comparison, the left flank barely took a couple dozen casualties, all of them having the misfortune of having drawn their last breath before Aideen arrived there. The healing she delivered even while she fought alongside them had kept everyone else alive, and soon after the humans broke, back on their feet in perfect health once more.
Aideen herself looked none the worse for wear, other than the tears and bloodstains that were present all over her clothing. Orica knew that those who had returned from death like her human guest could ignore injuries that would have downed even the strongest of warriors, but it was the first time she saw someone who combined that quality with the ability to just remove their injuries at a moment’s notice.
“Yeah, felt better now, thanks,” replied Aideen as she gave a humble shake of her head. If the reports Orica heard was to be believed, the slender human woman had taken out over four dozen of the cavalrymen on the left flank on her own. Such a display had both shamed and incensed the orcish warriors there to fight to their utmost as a result, and the cavalrymen they faced broke after leaving more than two thirds of their number incapacitated or dead on the battlefield. “Any place that might need a bit of patching up?”
“The right flank would appreciate your attention, I am certain,” replied Orica with a toothy smile on her face. The humans on that side had eventually broken too, but they had fought longer and harder than their brethren on the left flank, which led to many more casualties on that side. That, and the lack of a healer of Aideen’s caliber being there. “They got a several hundred injured at least. You all right with that?”
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“Consider it taken care of,” said Aideen as she nodded and walked past the orcish Warchief on her way to the opposite side of the field. There were injured and dying everywhere on the battlefield, but there was only one of her, so she could only do her best one part at a time. “You can have those who are injured badly but could be moved sent over there and gather the ones too badly off to be moved. I’ll help them out as well as fast as I can.”
“Thank you,” said Orica sincerely at her guest for the past decade and a half as she gave her a parting nod. The battle itself was over, the human army broken before the horde of orcish warriors and hunters, though it naturally also took its toll on them as well. This time the human army routed slower than the previous time, and as a result, at least a couple thousand orcs must have paid for it with their lives, with a much larger number amongst the injured.
On the human side, nearly half their army lay dead on the battlefield, the majority butchered as they routed and tried to make their escape. The human cavalry was even worse off, with less than a third of their numbers leaving the battlefield on their own power. Most of the humans who had fallen were finished off, with a couple hundred who had earned themselves some respect from the orcs taken captive, their injuries treated.
It was a greater number this time because the humans had fought longer and harder, which gave more chances for some of them to actually impress their opponents with their courage and skills, inadvertently. Orica found that she did not mind the possible infusion of more human blood into the clans. After all, those who had chosen to join them had by then truly became part of the Clans they now belong to.
Most had even fought together with their newfound family in this very battle, against those they would have called their own friends and compatriots just years before.
Like before, the escaping humans had scattered into the prairie, and the orcs had stopped chasing after a short distance, leaving the fates of the escapees to the mercies of the land. Later records noted that out of the sixty thousand strong expedition, barely ten thousand managed to return home to human lands, with the rest lost to the prairie.
Out of the survivors, none of the major nobles that accompanied the expedition counted amongst their numbers. Only a few minor nobles - vassals of the major nobles that sponsored the expedition - survived and managed to give their report. As a result, political turmoil enveloped many areas of the Clangeddin Empire as relatives of the lost nobles fought each other over their rank and inheritance. The turmoil got so messy that the crown eventually stepped in to end the fighting a few years later.
As a result of the debacle of the expedition, many ancient noble houses of the Empire found themselves demoted and nearly destitute. They had lobbied for and sponsored the expedition, with great losses amongst the populace of the area they ruled due to the expedition’s debacle. Those points were used by the Emperor to note their “unwise” rule which resulted in their demotion, accompanied with the confiscation of some assets and privileges as punishment.
The orcish clans of the plains indirectly benefited from that political turmoil in the empire, as it meant that the humans were too busy with themselves to bother them. As such, the prairie enjoyed a prolonged peace that lasted nearly a century long.