Chapter Sixty Eight

Their War Here

ANNA

Sleeping in a tent alongside the army was a new experience. And not a very comfortable one, if Anna was being absolutely transparent. Kristoff though, seemed to be at home with it, taking to the military life like a fish to water. Nonetheless, morning came soon enough, and Kristoff was shaking her awake before the sun had even made its appearance. Normally she wasn't one to wake up before the sun was well up in the sky, but under the circumstances, she supposed that luxury or comfort wasn't something that one in her position ought to have.

It made sense too, because no one knew exactly when the Southern Isles would strike, even though King Ulrich had promised to attack in the morning. General Matthias had set up a rotating guard detail from the detachment of reconnaissance squads, perched up on top of the hills overnight to keep watch. They would be able to see the navy coming in from a mile away, and they would signal to the ground forces which would set the entire battery of artillerymen into motion. But nothing had happened just yet.

Annoyingly though, there was a heavy fog that had formed about half an hour ago, and lingered in the air, refusing to lift. Therefore, the signallers couldn't see very far in front of them, which posed a massive threat to the Arendellians. If they could not see the hostile fleet approaching, then their chances of defending their home were greatly diminished.

However, the flip side was true for the Southern Isles. They would be going through the fog blind, only to emerge into Arendellian waters without being able to assess the strength of the defence. The fog was detrimental to both sides, and from what Anna could gather from Matthias' grumbling, she could tell that it might mean a lot of bloodshed and destruction before it was all over. And who knew which side would still be standing by the time the battle ended?

Anna shook her head as she stood by Kristoff's side, watching Matthias address his soldiers one last time before deploying them into their various positions. She couldn't help but feel a niggling feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach, and for someone who was usually rather optimistic about most things, this was eating her up on the inside.

"You sure you don't want to get back to the castle?" Kristoff asked. "It's still not too late. It'll be a lot safer there if anything goes wrong here."

"Kristoff, this is where I need to be." Anna set her jaw. "Beside my people as they fight."

He nodded, though evidently unhappy, and turned back to the scene of soldiers moving out quickly in their various units and companies to deploy in their respective roles. The coast road was littered with men dressed in green, some towing the three twelve pounder cannons towards the centre of the metaphorical line on caissons.

Matthias had told her that one gun placed on shore was equivalent to three naval guns in the water since the former had far better stability and hence accuracy, and this brought some assurance to her. The shore guns were strategically hunkered down behind high piles of sandbags that were meant to act as defensive barriers to protect their own guns from enemy fire. It would certainly not do if the enemies incapacitated the Arendellian shore guns, effectively removing the frontal resistance out of the battle.

One battalion of light infantry stood on the coast road in a thin line formed in two ranks as backup in case the fleet got too close to land. The coast road wasn't very long, exposing only a section of the Arendellian harbour and the city beyond to the Southern Isles navy, but again, the terrain's limitations worked both ways.

The fjord's two sides didn't give the navy a lot of space to navigate the waters since it was rather narrow, which made it a poor spot for the Southern Isles fleet if they were to be caught in the crossfire between discharges from the two opposite hills. That was assuming of course, that the Southern Isles didn't somehow turn this into an advantage.

The rest of the soldiers, which didn't exactly amount to many, were manning the Arendellian ships and civilian boats, with the lighter guns such as the six pounders and the eight pounders put in place with an understaffed artillery crew working the guns and recalculating their trajectories and angles one last time for good measure.

On the two hills overlooking the fjord, two batteries were perched with four eight pounders and four howitzers, precisely aimed at the waters below to catch the hostile fleet in the crossfire. These cannons were all manned by the two best artillery batteries in the division, since on the western border of Arendelle, the bulk of the army would be made out of infantry and cavalry troops, with a few batteries of artillery to assist, of course.

Each cannon was manned by two gunners, four soldiers and an officer, due to the lack of manpower. The first gunners of each cannon primed their pieces and loaded them with powder, while the second gunners fetched the powder from the magazine, and kept ready to fire the cannon.

Meanwhile, three soldiers would stand by to clean the large weapon with a sponge to cleanse it of filth and dirt which might affect the performance of the weapon, and the fourth would stand by to constantly provide the rounds to the gunners.

As for Maui, who was their big gun, so to speak, he was up on one of the two hill together with the artillerymen, just waiting for the Southern Isles navy to visibly burst forth from the fog, so he could join in the assault. It was a relief to know that the nearly indestructible demigod was on their side, though Anna didn't know how much he could withstand. After all, as far as she could tell, he had not been in a war himself.

All in all, Anna dared to say that the Arendellians were ready…but when the fighting started, it might be an entirely different matter. She fingered the scabbard on her hip. A worried Matthias had armed her with a rapier just to be safe, but she hoped that the battle wouldn't come to a point where she had to use it herself. Kristoff himself was adamant on keeping her by his side at all times, having armed himself with a cavalry sabre of his own and a knife or two on his belt.

Thankfully, her friends Olaf and Sven were nowhere near the battlefield, having been evacuated together with the rest of the Arendellian civilians. This is no place for them.

And neither it is for me, technically, Anna mused to herself a little belatedly. But yet, here I am.

It was nearly seven before one of the reconnaissance squads on the hills signalled and the shouts of the lieutenants followed. Alerted soldiers scurried about to make haste in their final preparations and Anna watched with bated breath as the outline of the first line of menacing looking ships from the Southern Isles fleet were vaguely visible emerging from the fog. The battle of the coast road has begun.

ELSA

A distant rumble echoed throughout the air, and Elsa turned her head quickly. The noise had come from the coast road, it seemed, which could only mean one thing. The Southern Isles navy had already reached Arendelle's waters, and Anna's side of the battle had already commenced.

She felt worry begin to creep through her mind again, and shook her head as if it would rid her of her thoughts. There wasn't time to worry about her sister now, especially not when she herself was about to head into a battle. She stood atop the hill where the Arendellians had made their camp, together with General Frederick and their artillerists. The bulk of the artillery had been sent over to the coast road where there would be more use for them.

Here on the western border, what was left of the Arendellian artillerists had been deployed at a ridge slightly below the crest of the hill, where they would be relatively well shielded from enemy fire. At least, that was the hope. They had with them four nine pounders, two eight pounders and only one twelve pounder, which seemed miserably pathetic compared to what the Imperial Horde had at its disposal.

According to Frederick's reconnaissance unit, they had spotted six twelve pounders and two howitzers on the opposite side, with a couple of eight pounders held in reserve together with two eighteen pounders which were pretty much siege pieces. It was safe to say, that the Arendellians were quite severely outgunned, and Elsa wasn't liking the sound of that.

Down below on the ground, Frederick had deployed the single infantry division comprising of two brigades which numbered to about ten thousand men, not counting the squadrons of cavalry riding in the wings of the column. In comparison, Kane had two divisions of soldiers with him, numbering to roughly thirty thousand men, triple the forces that the Arendellians had.

"This doesn't look good." Elsa said under her breath.

"It does not." Frederick said grimly, though no more expressive of his emotions than usual. "But like I mentioned, Your Highness, the enemy commander will be intending to make this a battle of attrition. To wear us down for as long a period as he can, because he knows he has the men to spare. At some point, sooner or later, he knows that we will break."

"So we have to hope we can end this quickly." Elsa glanced at the Imperial Horde whose infantry had already deployed neatly into column formation across the field.

Frederick nodded. "But for now, the ball's in their court."

Elsa's eyes flicked down to where the Arendellian infantry were waiting. They had already taken their positions across the width of the field, a distance in front of the farmers' village. It would give them cover to fall back to if things got ugly or out of hand, and she made an educated guess that it probably might.

She scanned the battalions in formation, and with great difficulty found Janus waiting with the Northuldra who were taking the roles of skirmishers, together with Deirdre, Jordan, Vonco and the others. The only sorceress who wasn't involved directly in the battle was Holli, who was spearheading the medical operations at the rear of the camp where it was much safer.

A few wide canopy tents had been constructed for those who had been wounded in battle, and for the understaffed regimental medics to tend to them. With Holli around, many of them would recover much quicker than expected, which was a relief. The "witch doctor's" powers would come in the most useful there, and certainly not on the frontline where she would most likely get shot and killed by a random musket ball.

The thought didn't exactly bring much comfort since the vast majority of them would still be in the most vulnerable position in her opinion, and she really hated the idea of Janus, Honeymaren, Ryder and the rest of the sorcerers charging out in loose order to weaken the enemy advance. But then again, someone had to do it. She badly wanted to join them down there to fight alongside her close ones, but not yet. Not until Frederick had given the signal. She had to trust that his plan would work.

"I know this might seem repetitive, Your Highness." Frederick said. "But I still strongly urge you to reconsider entering the battlefield. It's no place for a princess."

Elsa glanced at him and set her jaw. "We do what we have to do, Frederick. It's the only way we're going to beat the Empress and her forces, and you know it."

He gave an almost inaudible sigh. "I suppose I do."

Elsa turned back to her front sharply as the first boom from the opposite hill reverberated across the terrain, and the first round shot catapulted through the air with nothing but deadly intent. It arced wildly and crashed into the downslope of the hill with a bassy rumble, sending dirt, debris and grass flying everywhere.

Frederick swiftly turned to his aide-de-camp, an artillery captain, and nodded. The captain in turn gave the orders to his lieutenants, and one of them waved a semaphore flag to convey the message to the cannoneers below.

Elsa jumped as the deafening roar of a friendly twelve pounder thundered, a cloud of smoke rising from somewhere below on the ridge where the cannon had been put to work. Her ears throbbed from the reverberation, and was quite certain that she had gone deaf. But no.

Another cannon answered from the opposite end, followed by a second belch of fire, and then a third, as more balls arced through the air and landed a distance away from their intended targets, destroying whatever they touched. On the Arendellians side, a spotter watched the trajectories of their own cannonballs, and flagged corrections for the gunners to adjust.

Sticking her fingers in her ears, Elsa watched as the to and fro argument between the two artillery batteries began to rise to a heated crescendo of eruptions that seemed to grow more deafening with each boom, and storms of metal and smoke filled the air. The battle of Arendelle has begun.

Author's Commentary:

It's really hard to describe terrain and military strategy. It sounds so much more coherent in my head, if only I could legitimately sketch out the placements and all on photoshop or something. Hopefully it's not too confusing, because to me it sounds logical.

Just to make things a little clearer, a battalion usually has around 600 - 1000 soldiers, a brigade has 2000 - 5000, and a division has 10000 - 15000. You get the idea.

Anyway, let's get this show on the road. Excited for y'all to see the climax, starting right now.