When Nua and Sado returned to camp, everything was in flawless order, and the pair rode up to the position to resounding cheers. Onimeus was quick to present himself and knelt before his Duchessa. “My lady.” He said proudly, “We are ready!”
Nua pushed herself up and backward off the horse and it continued for several paces as she landed on her feet in the muddy ground. The whole land around them was a churned up mess, as was a good chunk of the field over which she’d ridden to get there. “Good… but get up, you’re too old for that.” Nua said as she came near and extended her right hand out to him. It wasn’t lost on her that Komestran warriors were watching her help the old general to his feet. Nor was it lost on Sado, and she half suspected that Onimeus knelt intending for all of that to be seen.
He grunted as he stood, and when he was up, she gave a brief order. “Double ration of beer tonight, and every man and woman gets a double ration cup of rice and a double helping of bread. Eat hearty, drink, screw or sing, but when the arrow goes up, everything is done for the night.”
“My lady, I will pass the word…” Onimeus promised, nor was he the only one.
Nua however, did not remain to watch the soldiers lose themselves in a relative feast, departing instead for her command tent.
When she reached it, pushing aside the flap and entering, Sado followed.
“Sado, you can leave. I’m going to sleep for a few hours. Go find one of the camp followers that have shown up, screw yourself silly for the night, we have a busy day tomorrow. I want to make sure everything goes smoothly for us, while the other side pitches a fit.” She laughed a little, and Sado stared at her blankly for a moment.
“I… don’t get it. My lady was that a joke?” He asked and scratched the side of his head.
Nua rolled her eyes, “You’ll laugh tomorrow… or maybe not, nobody laughs at my jokes anymore.” She grumbled a little and then shook it off, “The point is, get out."
“And leave you unguarded? My lady I am your bodyguard while Lady Solution isn’t here, would she leave you?” Sado demanded, but more than his defiant tone, Nua saw his fragile, darting expression.
“No, she wouldn’t. But then…” ‘She’s not a human so I don’t have to worry about what she’ll try to do to me when I’m helpless and asleep.’ Nua cut off the words before she could say them and slowly spread her hand over her face, covering her eyes, her long ears spasmed as she cursed herself and grumbled under her breath. “God’s bones… I’m a vile bitch.”
‘Sado has never been anything but good and loyal, and I’ve been treating him largely like shit for months now…’ Nua accused herself, and went to sit down on the cot where she would sleep.
“Mistress?” Sado asked, “Is something wrong?”
Nua gave an unhappy nod, she looked down at the muddy ground under her boots and sat her hands on the metal lining of her cot. “Yes, but nothing you need to worry about… I think this whole thing with Vargas has just brought out some of the worst parts of myself and I just took a long look at them. I didn’t like what I saw. You’re just trying to do your duty, and I need to stay out of your way when you’re doing that. You’ve earned my trust, and I’ve withheld it when I shouldn’t have. It won’t happen again.” Nua promised, “Go ahead and stand guard. But after I wake up, you go and get some sleep yourself, I promise I won’t be leaving this tent.”
She then took her boots off, laid down on the cot, and wordlessly closed her eyes. ‘I never thought I’d see the day that I’d let another human near me while I slept… maybe… maybe I need to rethink a lot.’ She thought, and drifted off to sleep.
In the morning, their allies began to arrive. The various mercenary companies were few in number, but their ranks held many, many more than Nua’s Breakers.
They didn’t appear to have much in the way of discipline, everybody walked more or less at their own pace. Still, they followed orders, and the heavy sound of marching feet echoed as they took long positions on the wings. Their long spears bristled like hedgehog points, most wore chainmail armor and carried short swords, bows were unequal in number and mostly the sort a peasant might use to hunt.
There was no unity of step to them, though when they reached their places, Nua saw that they at least stood still well enough.
‘About three thousand from the city itself, another twenty-five thousand mercenaries from three companies. I’m the smallest of the lot, no wonder Prince Isaura and Aubin were doubtful.’ Nua considered as she trotted her horse to the front. Her unit was taking up their own pre-planned position as well, just in front of their camp. However, unlike the others, her army held no long spears, but shields and swords with heavy armor instead with a double line of halberdiers every double row back..
“Are they ready, Onimeus?” She asked the old general.
“Yes, ma’am.” He replied, “I drilled them on this many times.” He pointed between their ranks down at their feet, then at the concealed traps in front. “We churned up the ground quite a bit beforehand, and we painted the steel, this will be a bloodbath.”
“All of Mict’aratz will fear Komestran might again.” Sado said happily, “Natural slaves? No… good ones… to the right leader.” He glanced toward his mistress from her side atop his own horse, and she acknowledged the praise with a glance.
On the far side of the field, Fen’sai and their allies began to arrive. “Straight forward.” Nua glanced at them, “A nice long line of long spears at the front, shields at the side, light cavalry at the back to fend off flanking maneuvers. That’s the way the game is played when you don’t have the most disciplined soldiers.”
“Yes, mistress. But when you do have them…” Onimeus began to say.
“You get to flip the board and play a whole new game.” Nua finished the sentence with a predatory grin spreading over her face. Far over the field, Nua heard the booming drums of Fen’sai and their allies, and the sound of marching feet.
She turned her horse around, removed her feet from the stirrups, and pushed herself up so that she was standing on top of her saddle and looking out over the massed ranks of thousands, where she could be seen in turn by all of them. “They’re on their way, so I will make this quick! Since your defeat, lies have spread that Komestrans are born to bow and scrape, that you were ‘never’ anything to be feared. Today you get a chance to prove that wrong or prove that right. Today you show that there is nothing more terrifying than a Komestran on the battlefield!” Fists began to pound chests in answer to her.
Nua shouted over the maelstrom, “But remember this also! Who fights the best, wins freedom for a loved one. Win this well, and nobody will question the restoration of your city! Nobody will want to fight you again! You fight not for me alone! Your fight for me, is a fight for everyone!”
“Raise the banners and blow trumpets! Here they come!” Nua shouted, and the small core of musicians raised the long brass horns, and blew. It was almost enough to give others pause. Almost.
From within the ranks, the banners rose behind her, golden fabric with a white tree whose branches were of knives.
The massed ranks came on. They had clearly all decided that the Kai’sen center was the weak point, and the commander chose to take advantage of it. She heard the faint noise of distant drums, and cavalry began to make their way to the front.
“They’re taking the bait.” Nua said, her predatory smile not leaving her face as Onimeus gave a quiet nod.
“Yes they are, cavalry to break us up, and their swords to widen the gap, that just leaves their long spears.” He said with a slow, patient voice.
“Make ready!” Nua shouted over her shoulder, and the first drum sounded.
The cavalry began to charge, the infantry behind them began a low jog. “Almost. Come on you sons of bitches…” Nua muttered, quietly willing everything to go according to plan.
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Aubin looked from his position among the Kaisenian spearman, “Is she insane? They have no spears out, they can’t have that many powerful warriors, not so many to stop a cavalry charge!” He groused, “What the hell are they thinking?! Is she suicidal?!”
He was just about to give an order to turn part of his numbers at an angle to fend off the gap the bitch would inevitably lose, when all hell broke loose.
The horses began to fall with screaming whinnies of pain, flinging riders down into the muck and mire, not all of them, but every time one fell, it stopped a half a dozen more who crashed into those in front. Knots formed every few feet. He gawked as a drum went out and the ranks of Komestran infantry knelt, picked up long spears that were double the normal length, and then shoved them hard at an angle against the ground. They then let go, rather than hold them in place. The few cavalry to make it through whatever magic had stopped the rest, were impaled.
Whatever orders were shouted, twenty five heavy infantry moved forward, walking between the spears and executing the surviving cavalry, before falling back into line.
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“Light them up!” Nua shouted, and behind her ranks, a drum pounded again. The enemy infantry, advancing behind the cavalry that were still in chaos, were badly slowed by the disruption. Nua didn’t need to look back, she looked forward, overhead, her archers launched flaming arrows toward the knot of men… and hell sprang up from the churned up ground.
Fire roared to life and caught men and horse alike in its rising, long strips ran through their massed ranks, and as the soldiers sought to escape the flames, they ran into only more flames, or knocked over their comrades, trampling many to death, or tripping one another up and causing them to fall into the flames in turn.
“How’s that for a ‘flame prison’ Vargas?” Nua murmured with her eyes viciously locked on the horror in front of her. The panic was worse than the fire itself as horses and panicked men trampled one another in their haste to flee.
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“Arrows!” Nua shouted, raising her left hand, and at the sound of a boom, the horrific whistling sound of arrows taking flight and soaring through the air began. The wails of the fleeing were redoubled as shafts found their marks. A pitiable wail came up among the ranks from those lucky or unlucky enough to have survived fire and falling arrows, called for aid that would never come. Another flight followed the first, and few wails remained. Before her eyes, those who lost the strength to scream often at least found the strength to crawl away. The squelching of flesh and armor in the muck and blood was obvious to her sensitive nose, as were their aching moans as they struggled to survive.
It was not enough to move Nua to anything but thought. “If he’s smart, he’ll withdraw. If he’s really smart, he’ll stretch out his line to make up for the loss and try to envelop one of our wings, if he’s a god of war, he’ll stretch out his line, mass at one position, defend at the other, and try to break one of our positions.” Onimeus remarked.
The enemy commander proved to be none of those. As if he could not accept those losses had happened, he only adjusted the march to avoid the area of the battlefield that was now on fire.
“Ready the cavalry.” Nua ordered, and the drums resounded again.
“No reports of scouting?” She asked as a precaution she knew she needn’t ask.
“None. Unless they used magic, which we can’t rule out, but none of our own casters detected it, and we sacrificed the mana of one for the whole day just to look for that.” Onimeus answered.
“Good call.” Nua replied. “How long does it take from the woods?” She asked.
“About thirty minutes. All the Sellsword company has to do is hold out for a little while.” He clenched his jaw, “If they fail, well… hopefully ‘slaughter’ takes a while.”
“They’re not mine.” She stated indifferently, but kept an eye on the mercenary company assigned to the left wing.
It took several minutes for the slow formation of Fen’sai mercenaries to advance, but when they did, it quickly fell into a brawl between them and the Sellsword company, ten thousand against ten thousand, it was a crude slugging match as spears broke and men began to fall to swords for killing and small shields to protect themselves.
The horn rang out, and shortly after, the thunder reached her ears.
“Fair fights are for morons.” Nua smirked as Onimeus’s cavalry swept around the side and smashed into the right flank and rear of the opposing mercenaries, pushing deep into their lines, spears sometimes ran two or three men deep as heavy armored soldiers decimated their numbers. They then began to withdraw, trampling those not killed, and seemingly riding away, only to then instead swing their horses far behind and turn again for another brutal charge..
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“This has to be Onimeus’s work.” Aubin reflected as he watched the cavalry swing away, take up another short spear slung over the back side of the horse in what might as well be ‘spear quivers’ and charge again.
The mercenaries crumbled completely and fell into a rout, the screaming and dying and the smell of blood began to waft over the entire battlefield.
The far right flank of the Sellspear company was engaged, but with the collapse of the left wing and the burning alive of so much of the center, Fen’sai’s commanding general appeared to have had enough, with reserves beginning to withdraw rather than attempt to reinforce the line or send in valuable magic casters on a suicide mission.
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“Sound the general advance.” Nua said, and Onimeus raised his fist, the drums began to beat in earnest, and her forces began to move.
Far from the general rumble of the uncoordinated armies of her allies and enemies, they marched in perfect sync, drums kept the rhythm and the noise of their stamping was shaking the ground around them.
Soldiers drew their swords and began to beat their closed fists over their shields, warning the world that they were coming.
The drums began to beat faster as they closed in on the fixed position of the remaining host engaged with Aubin’s right flank.
Nua drew a common sword from her side and raised it up overhead. She then drew it back, and flung it forward, sailing end over end through the air to impale in the mud. Her soldiers charged with a defiant roar ripped from a demon’s own mouth, swarming around and past her, Nua’s elites were the first into the melee. She kept a special eye out on Vargas.
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Vargas ripped into their ranks like a man possessed, he carved a path of slaughter three ranks deep before his comrades began to catch up to him and pressed deeper into the gap. With the line collapsed the Komestran infantry began their deadly work with gusto. Forming a line within the line, they pressed one another forward and filled every gap between their comrades as neatly as a door closed into its frame.
Vargas didn’t need to know what was happening, he could feel it pulsing around him, the smell of blood was familiar, intoxicating, the feel of the sword in his hand was liberating. The feel of comrades at his back and at his side, even moreso. He shoved his sword into a throat and watched as the man who had the misfortune of facing him went from battle anger to fear and disbelief in an instant, as if he couldn’t understand how this had happened to him.
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“Ready?” Nua asked her bodyguard.
Sado drew his sword. “I am your sword.”
Nua didn’t need more than that, she spurred her horse forward and crashed into an unbroken segment of the line. She could hear Sado activating martial arts of his own, and did the same herself. [Unliving Strength][Speed of Death][Assassin Strike] Her knife was in her right hand and shoved through an eye as she jumped from her horse as soon as its momentum stopped. Sado’s was beside her, and they began to carve a path of bloody carnage through the flank. Her left hand darted out and grabbed hold of a rusty helmet. The man beneath it turned in alarm, his eyes widening with brief shock before the fury hit. Through the magic of her false hand, she felt the roughness of the crude metal, and knew it to be inferior, like the skills of her target. She squeezed, crushing the metal beneath, and splintering the skull into the brain. His eyes rolled back in his head and sticky brain matter dripped from the fingers when she released him to his final resting place. Nua felt Yersin drawing in copious negative energy from the deaths around her, and sensed his pleasure when the skull crunched in the fingers of her false hand.
A fireball flew past where she stood, and without even thinking about it, there could only be one source. ‘I should have known she wouldn’t stay with the magic casters.’ Nua thought with a mixture of happiness and annoyance at the relative defiance of her orders.
Another, and another, and another lit Fensian mercenaries aflame, the warm glow of fire and the smell of burning flesh was never far away as she cut her way further and further into the line. ‘Kaiji, you have no idea how much that aches.’ Nua forced the thought aside and grabbed an unfortunate by the throat.
She squeezed the left hand, and life fled into the gem and out of the body she held, until it fell in a heap at her feet.
‘He’ll populate a world before this battle is through.’ A part of Nua understood as her knife opened up another throat. The screams of dying people, once a tumultuous cacophony, a chorus of death that was a tribute to her god, began to fade like a symphony that had reached its crescendo, and was finally reaching its end.
Battle cries turned to screams, screams turned to pleas, pleas turned to whimpers, and whimpers to silence.
And then the swords of the victors rose up over the bodies of the dead, and one final roar echoed. Though here and there one of her banners had been splattered with blood, likely cast off from a swinging sword, none had fallen into the mud.
Nua turned her eyes to the retreating host. ‘The cavalry are still relatively fresh, I could have them pursue… but then, I shouldn’t press an enemy trying to return home, let alone a desperate one. And for that matter, Fen’sai might be a client one day. I would sour business with them if I slaughtered their city’s forces directly that way. Besides, it’s better for me if their inept commander stays alive to command another day. But… perhaps a lesson is warranted.’
She whirled in the direction of where her cavalry were reforming their ranks, spotting them quickly, she took a small horn that hung from her neck, then put it to her lips and blew. The long blast from the ivory horn reached across the battlefield and she gestured vigorously toward the retreating host. Three blasts gave the command, and they were on the move.
‘That will hurt them, let them run home exhausted, bleeding, and terrified.’ She wiped some of the blood from her face and with some satisfaction, whipped it from her fingers down into the mud and bodies that lay around her.
Her reverie was interrupted when Aubin rode over on horseback and slid gracefully down from his mount to stand in front of her. He stuck out his hand before the sound of hoofbeats had even faded, and Nua took it proudly.
“Do you believe me now?” Nua asked with a polite smile just below her bloodstained face.
“Yes. You’ve earned your bonus, Fen’sai and their allies will no doubt pay whatever indemnity we impose. Remain two days in camp, and I will have your bonus, along with food and drink to compensate you for the wait, dispatched to you. But how… how did you stop their cavalry?”
Nua gave him the sort of sweet smile a girl might give a boy who had just asked her to dance. “Special warmagic from my homeland. Onimeus seems to have some skill with it, but nobody can do quite what I can. Not as far as I know anyway.” She said, and then thought with barely concealed amusement at her own lie.
Nua sniffed the air, burning flesh was wafting to their position to mingle with the foul stench of blood, shit, and viscera they were already mired in. She looked over at the spike emplacements that destroyed what little cavalry made it through her series of traps. A horse’s body slumped on the ground, half of its head dangled from the spike and Nua made a mental note. ‘Remove the spikes, the rods that hold them, and all of the hidden stakes and wires that tripped up the rest. I don’t want them finding out my ‘warmagic’ is not magic.’
“I’m no goddess of war… but I was not without skills to draw on before coming here. Now good luck to you, I’ll leave my soldiers to their work, and we’ll await your promise at our encampment.” Nua stated, and with her business done, she turned away to go and retrieve her horse. As she mounted it she turned it toward the old dark elf, the beast reared back a bit at her tug on the reins and she ordered, “Call off your men, and draw your mercenaries away. Per our agreement, the wounded are my property to dispose of as I see fit.”
“Yes… of course. You have certainly done what you said.” Aubin’s dark complexion paled as he took in the horrorscape around him, then went to his own horse to carry orders to the hired mercenaries to begin to pull back.
Onimeus rode over to her just as Nua calmed the armored beast, and she was quick with her orders. “Onimeus, order the men to gather our dead, our wounded, and as many of the enemy dead as possible, we can divide up the plunder after we’ve seen to our own. Also, see if there are any surviving wounded from the other side, or our ‘allies’.” She gave a dismissive snort at their performance, but otherwise thought nothing of it.
“What casualties do you think we took, by the way?” Nua asked with greater interest while looking around the field.
“Among your core twenty-five? Mistress I would say none. Among the rest? A handful at most.” Onimeus replied after glancing around himself. Here and there, the wounded were starting to stir as they recognized it was ‘relatively’ safe to do so again.
“Tolerable.” Nua said, and as she said it, Sado, Kaiji, and Vargas approached.
“Sado, Kaiji… Vargas. You performed every bit as expected… but Kaiji, you know you should have remained with the magic casters.” Nua said with only the most mild remonstration.
Solid red eyes bored back at her, “No. I would rather be whipped for disobedience than leave your side when you run into a fight. If you charge, I will charge with you, mistress.” Kaiji’s eyes were defiant, but her lower lip trembled, revealing the depth of her conviction that cut Nua to the quick.
“What am I to say to that but… thank you?” Nua asked with a mockingly martyred sigh, that turned the quivering lip into a broad and joyful grin.
Sado knelt in the mud, he was coated in even more blood than Nua herself, to the point where his face was more demonic than human. “Thank you, my lady. I’m glad you approve.”
Vargas took position by Sado, and looking up at the wood elf on horseback, the urge to fight her roared to life, her fearless blue eyes were on him after her praise, her hand was close to her knife. ‘Could I defeat her?’ He wondered, recalling the way she had crushed a man beneath his helmet, and the way she’d dispatched Bracer before. After a long moment of hesitation, he went down to one knee and lowered his eyes. “Thank you… my lady.” He replied somewhat begrudgingly. “Though my skill paled before yours.”
“I don’t know that I agree with that assessment, but regardless, when we’ve made our way out of here, I will have an assignment for you. For now, help with the dead and wounded, you’ll get your share of the plunder, the same as the rest.” Nua gave the order and he was quiet and unmoving for a moment.
“I will? I thought…” Vargas stammered.
“That I might hold back your share because of who you were?” Nua said from atop her horse, she spurred it a few feet closer to him.
Vargas gave an uncomfortable nod.
“Sergeant Vargas, I gave you your rank for your skills. I gave your wife freedom for your accomplishments. You applied both of those today. If you decide, when all is said and done, that you hate elves still, including your pregnant wife and the child she bears for you? Come see me. If you decide you want to challenge me? Come and see me. But as much as I admit… I despise what you were, you haven’t decided who you are. If one man can change, another can too. I won’t give you reason for your hatred for me. You’ll need reasons of your own if that’s your choice. You did your job and will be treated like every other soldier. Now get to work.” Nua ordered, and a sullen Sergeant Vargas slowly rose to his feet, bowed his head, and turned away to follow her orders.
“Is that wise, mistress?” Sado asked from where he remained on his knees.
“Maybe not. But the judgement is mine and I’ve made it. I don’t believe he is all lost to me yet.” Nua briefly bore a sympathetic smile, “Not many men live two completely different lives, I can’t imagine what he’s enduring now. When he’s found his way, one way or another, the problem from my perspective, will be solved.”
“If you say so, mistress.” Sado said, turning to look behind him while Vargas took two bodies by their heels and began to drag them into a waiting heap.
Nua nodded firmly. “I do. And speaking of saying so, you get to work too, Sado. Organize the wounded and get our magic casters on healing them. I don’t want a single life lost needlessly.”
“Kaiji, help with the magic casters, I’m going to see the ambassador. I think Botisa will be pleased with our demonstration.” Nua didn’t bother to hide her pride, and her clear happiness was infectious.
“As you wish, my mistress!” Kaiji exclaimed, “I will rejoin you as soon as everyone is taken care of.”
For a moment Nua was about to order her to remain at the back with the magic casters, but then thought the better of it. “That will be fine, once everything is done, we will have somewhere else to be, and I’ll have questions for you before we go and before we get there.”
“Mistress?” Kaiji asked with an uncertain look.
“We’re going to Da’nak.” Nua explained, “To meet with the one they call the Queen of Vexation, Queen Vexia.”
Kaiji’s purple face turned an almost ashen gray. “Mistress, are you serious?”
“Yes. Why?” Nua asked with curiosity. Her golden left eyebrow going up when she asked.
“She lives up to her name, mistress. She lives up to her name.” Kaiji shuddered, then bowed, “I will see to your orders my lady, and tell you everything I know, as soon as you are ready.” The demon-elf then departed with a heavy shudder at their next destination.