A/N
Starting this before I'm done 26, because big huge battles are fun and challenging to write. This will likely be the largest, most chaotic battle to date, so I hope you guys enjoy.
I am going with the original setting for this battle, because it is an awesome battleground; an open field, flanked by steep hills from which archers and artillery can fire, or behind which flanking forces can be hidden. The main forces have to fight over the center, but the hills will be hotly contested as well; abandon the field, and the hills can be encircled. Ignore the hills, and the forces on the field will be decimated! So many tactical possibilities! SQUEEE! Ahem... I like tactics. It's manly. Ignore what you just read there, that was... someone else. Not me. I'm manly, and manly guys don't squee... EVER.
Ooh, speaking of manly stuff, Vikings season 2 just started! SQUEEE!
Disclaimer: Nintendo owns it all...
Chapter 27
With a Heart of Steel
Mighty horn calls sent the Crimean Liberation Army's camp into a frenzy, calling all soldiers to arms.
"Looks like they're willing to give battle after all," I observed grimly as my friends geared up for battle around me. Barely a kilometer away from where we stood Daein's army was deployed across a wide plain in between two rocky, wooded hills, their many banners flapping in the wind while the midday sun glinted brightly off thousands of armored men. "Must have gotten tired of running."
"Well, they picked a good spot to make their stand," Matt pointed out, hastily doing up his sword belt.
I nodded in agreement, frowning as I considered their position. With the hills guarding their flanks, a frontal assault would put our army directly into a meat grinder, and that would only get worse if Daein put archers up on the hills. They had indeed chosen their ground well, and it looked like we would need to take those hills before the main army could advance.
"Adam! Got orders for you!" Al's voice yelled from behind me. I turned to see the archer fully geared up and jogging around camp, her bow and short spear on her back and a rough sheet of parchment clasped firmly in her hand. Rolf, Shinon and a few Begnion men were right behind her. "Ike says your unit has to escort an artillery crew up the east hill."
"Artillery? When the hell are we gonna have time to deploy that?" I asked incredulously. Just moving the equipment up there would take all day.
"Don't need to; aerial scouts spotted a bunch of Daein ballistae on both hills this morning," Al explained, then made to run off again, leaving the archers behind with us.
"You coming with?" Beth called after her, slinging a huge wooden roundshield across her back.
"Messenger duty!" Al replied over her shoulder as she left. "You'll have to make do without me!"
"Ye be careful out there," Neph said quietly to me as she emerged from her tent, tightening a strap on her pauldrons.
"I'll try," was my grim response. "Where you headed?"
"Center. I'm with Ike and the main army," she replied. My heart skipped a beat, but I kept my face composed; that was the most dangerous place possible, far as I could tell. Jarod appeared in my peripheral vision signaling that the rest of the unit was ready to go, and I had to cut my goodbye short.
"Come back alive," I said simply, and quickly turned to rejoin the sergeant and the rest of my warriors. All fourty spearmen looked ready and eager, and Matt, Beth and Ilyana stood in the ranks as well.
I greeted Jarod with a nod and a clap on the shoulder. "Did you get the extra weapons?"
"Ten billhooks. Passed them out to our best men as planned," he confirmed. I noticed that most of the soldiers had one-handed axes and short swords belted at their sides as well, no doubt scavenged from the previous battles. Good, those will help if our shieldwall is broken.
"Good. We'll have a few guests this time around," I indicated Shinon and the artillery crew. "Apparently Daein's got artillery up there on the east hill. We'll be taking it for ourselves." Jarod nodded and waved for the men to follow.
We marched to join the eastern forces, stopping behind a copse of trees near the base of the eastern ridge to await the signal to attack. Jarod set about explaining the plan to the soldiers while I hurried to meet with the Begnion commander in charge of the eastern flank. The captains of several other, full-strength companies were already there, gathered around a stump where the commander had a map of the area spread out. Judging by the number of officers, there were four or five other companies committed to this flank. I received a reproachful glare from the Begnion commander when I arrived a few seconds late.
"So nice of you to join us," the commander hissed adding "Bloody sellsword," under his breath. I could have ignored him - after all, I was a knight of the Royal Guard, and me and my unit technically answered to the Princess and Ike, not Begnion - but since I had to work with him I figured that would be a terrible idea.
"Sorry commander, we were just picking up some extra gear and people," I apologized, ignoring the jab about my former status as a mercenary. He hissed in annoyance and continued the briefing.
"As soon as that signal goes off, all of our men will advance up that hill. Aerial scouts reported artillery being set up here and here along the ridge,"the commander said, indicating two points along the ridge that would provide a good view of the main battlefield below. "It's a safe bet that Daein'll have their longbowmen set up there too, so keep your shields up and be ready for some heavy fighting."
I glanced at the map and immediately saw a heavily wooded area marked to the north and east of the ridge. I frowned; that could be bad. "Those woods could be hiding anything; I could split off part of my unit and scout the area while you do that," I suggested. The last thing I want another massacre like Tor Garen.
The commander scoffed at the notion. "We have no idea what's over that hill, son," he replied in a patronizing tone. "I've no doubt that Daein has some kind of trick or trap planned, but if that's the case I want all of our forces together and ready to meet it. So that means no one is going off to hide in the woods, am I clear?"
I opened my mouth to protest, but a glare from the commander made me reconsider.
"Now, there will undoubtedly be a counterattack, so we need to overrun those archers and whatever else might be there, then dig in and hold that ground until our own archers arrive. The assault begins soon, gentlemen, so get back to your companies and have them ready to move," the commander ordered.
I returned to the men wordlessly, doing my best to hide my worry. Unfortunately, Ilyana saw right through my façade the instant I arrived.
"Hey, you don't look so good," she commented. She held out a piece of bread. "Hungry?"
"I'll be fine, Ilyana. Stay with the artillery crew for now," I replied, too tense to find her misunderstanding funny. I clapped Jarod on the shoulder, and he immediately let out a string of yells and curses that had all of the men standing and ready to go.
"Artillery crew stays to the rear! Keep your ranks tight and your shields up, no telling what's up there!" I bellowed, taking my place in the line next to Jarod. A booming horn call sounded an instant later, signaling the attack, and together with the hundreds of other soldiers we began our advance up the east hill.
For the first few minutes our advance was screened by the steep, rocky terrain, but as the ground leveled out the rocks gave way to an open, gentle slope leading to a wide, mostly flat hilltop. Warning shouts rang out from the Daein warriors as we emerged from cover, and suddenly hundreds of figures began appearing on the crest of the hill.
"Archers!" Rolf, who had the sharpest vision, yelled.
"Halt! Shields up!" Jarod and I both bellowed, as similar cries rang out from the companies to either side of us. With some reasonable cohesion the men stopped and crowded close together, those of us in the front forming a screen with our shields while the back ranks hoisted their shields over their heads.
"Incoming volley!" Jarod hollered as the sky filled with hundreds of whistling arrows. They seemed almost to hang there for a few seconds, and then suddenly they were upon us, thudding loudly into our shields. The tip of an arrowhead poked through my shield just above where my arm was, and the man beside me grunted and slumped as an arrow slipped through a gap in the shields and bit deep into his chest.
"Push forward!" came a cry from further down the line, and our line began to advance slowly under the withering barrage of Daein arrows, shields still held high. They were an effective protection so long as we held together, but even then the occasional arrow slipped through and dropped a man writhing on the ground. There was no time to stop and help the wounded, though, and the men simply pressed forward to fill any gaps left by the fallen.
"We're getting close!" Jory, one of the younger soldiers, cried after a minute, peeking over the top of his shield as we advanced. Indeed, we were so close that if we started running now we would be upon the Daeins in a matter of seconds, but I saw that they had arrows nocked and ready to fire.
"Hold ranks!" I yelled. One of the companies further down the line broke formation and charged, only to get a point-blank barrage of longbow fire. Dozens of soldiers fell. The Daeins in front of us loosed their arrows as well, but they collided uselessly with our shieldwall. I spared a glance Jarod's way as the last few arrows plocked into the ground before us, and he grinned eagerly.
"CHARGE!" we both cried.
Screaming, my company broke into a run and sprinted headlong towards the Daein bowmen. The shield screen lost some of its integrity, but the Daeins didn't get the chance to fire another volley or even nock their next arrow as we crashed into their lines. I didn't bother drawing my sword for the first man I hit; bracing my shield with both hands, I bulled into the archer, knocking him to the ground and leaving him for the men behind me to finish. Swiping my shield to drive the men nearest to me back, I drew my sword and started stabbing at whatever happened to be nearest. In the press of bodies there was little room to maneuver or pick out individual targets, but against lightly armored archers that mattered little; unequipped for close quarters fighting, the archers beat a hasty retreat, many bearing vicious wounds.
"Hold together!" Jarod cried as some of our men started pursuing the archers. "Infantry coming!" Sure enough, I could see lines of Daein infantry coming to the aid of the archers, forming a front line behind which the archers rallied.
"Shieldwall!" I hollered as the company reformed around me and the Daein infantry began a counter-charge, the archers rushing in behind them to add to the weight of their charge. With a determined roar, the Begnion spearmen around me locked their shields together and braced for impact.
We met the Daeins shield to shield, and while our overlapping shields gave our line stability the onrushing Daeins lacked, the sheer violence of the clash sent men from both sides stumbling back or falling under the trampling feet of their comrades. One particularly large Daein sent two men from the company sprawling, and he and several of his comrades rushed through the breach in our lines.
Ilyana was there before I could finish ordering men to intercept them, and three of the four Daeins charging through the breach collapsed twitching to the ground in an ear-splitting crack. Beth and Matt were on the lone straggler right away, Matt cutting deep into his back as Beth knocked the man flat with her shield, while both Rolf and Shinon shot through the breach in the shieldwall, sending the next opportunistic Daein slumping and steming the tide of attackers long enough for another pair of Begnion soldiers to fill the gap in the wall. All along the line, the battle turned into a vicious pushing match, with warriors from both sides struggling to hold their ground and to get their weapons around the shields of their enemies.
"This is getting nowhere fast, sir!" Jory grunted as he thrust his spear over the shieldwall. A pained cry sounded over the grunts, shouts and clashing weapons, but no Daein fell from that blow. Instead, they renewed their assault, forcing the young soldier back a half step. He was tall and strong, though, and managed to hold his ground; the shieldwall held, for the moment at least.
"Captain!" Jarod shouted from my right. He'd grabbed hold of a spear that was being thrust over the shields at him. For a few moments he pushed against its wielder, then suddenly changed direction and tugged sharply on the shaft. The Daein spearman slammed into our shields, and for a few seconds his head and neck were right above the top of my shield. I lashed out with my sword, gashing his jaw and neck and drawing a gurgling shriek from the Daein spearman as blood spattered across my face. Jarod released the spear, and the bleeding Daein disappeared behind our shields.
"Not making much headway," I grunted when I had a moment to catch my breath. The Daein in front of me tried to get his weapon under my shield, and I had to return my attention fully to the task of not dying, batting the weapon low and hacking at it's wielders' hand.
"Go for their legs!" Jarod bellowed after a moment, repeating the call so our men could hear it over the din of battle. "Cut their legs!"
Many of the men lowered their spears, stabbing low as their sergeant instructed. More and more pained cries sounded from the Daein ranks, and the pressure on our shieldwall lessened slowly as wounds piled up on the Daeins in the frontline. Despite the grim circumstances I grinned at Jarod, seeing the brilliance of his order.
"Brace!" Jarod hollered, and the frontline of Begnion warriors put their shoulders into their shields, while the ranks behind us crowded in, adding their weight to the wall. As soon as they were all ready, Jarod nodded to me.
"NOW MEN! PUSH FOR ALL YOU"RE WORTH!" I cried, driving forwards against the ranks of the Daeins. For the first few seconds they held strong and our feet dug deep furrows into the snowy ground, but the wounds to their legs were taking their toll; the first rank of Daeins began to give ground, and with their comrades behind them driving forward in attempt to counter us, the Daein line began to collapse in on itself.
"It's working!" Jory cried, elation and bloodlust plain to hear in his voice.
"Keep going! Push!" I yelled, driving forward another step and ducking my head as a Daein sword prodded above my shield. The company let out a mighty shout with that last push, and finally the Daein frontline crumbled under the weight of our advance. The men behind them were suddenly stumbling forward over their weakened comrades, and just like that the Daein lines turned to a confused, disorganized mess.
"CUT THEM DOWN!" the sergeant screamed, and all at once we broke the shieldwall, rushing into the vulnerable Daeins in a vicious frenzy. We fighters in the frontline tore easily through the Daeins - mostly the remnants of the Daein bowmen - and any wounded left in our wake were quickly put down by the second line of warriors. Again the Daeins broke and ran, but this time there was no line of infantry to protect them; the men facing us were routed.
With no living enemies in my immediate vicinity, I took a glance at the rest of the battle to see all four of the other Begnion companies were having similar success; the Daein resistance was minutes away from crumbling completely. Turning my attention forward, I finally caught a glimpse of the Daein artillery just beyond the retreating Daeins; it was set up where the hilltop dropped off into a sharp cliff, no doubt providing a good view of the main battlefield below. Their crews were more concerned with the fight on the hilltop, though, frantically trying to turn the ballistae around to face us. I snarled; we can't have that.
"Press forward!" I yelled, getting the attention of any men near me and gesturing towards the artillery with my sword. "Don't let those ballistae fire!" The company charged onward, the artillery crew following close behind. The ballista crews managed to get one weapon turned around just before we got there, and I found myself staring down the length of the massive bolt as they aimed it right at me. "Fucking hell!" I screamed, diving to the side as the artillery piece fired at point blank range.
The ballista shot buried itself into the ground where I'd been just an instant before, and the rest of the Begnion spearmen ran by me as I struggled to my feet. Lightning cracked and the man who'd fired the ballista fell in a smoking heap, and the Begnion warriors were on the rest of the Daein artillerymen an instant later. Few of them were equipped for battle, and the Begnion spearmen wasted no time cutting them down.
I hauled myself to my feet as the Begnion artillery crew rushed to the now unoccupied ballistae, and hurried to take stock of the situation.
"Jarod! How many did we lose?" I called to the sergeant, who was busily completing a headcount.
"Ten. Three dead, seven wounded," came the reply. I nodded, feeling a sharp pang of guilt for the losses. It's not bad, I reminded myself grimly, forcing any emotion aside before it could become a distraction. Ten men counts as acceptable losses. "Now what, sir?" Jarod asked anxiously.
Our orders were simply to protect the artillery crew, and the other companies were doing a fine job holding the hill; The hill's defenders were dead or routed, and while a few Daein banners to the north heralded the advance of yet more Daein infantry, the Begnion troops were already establishing defensive lines to repel the counterattack. Of more concern to me was the main battlefield below, where I could hear the booming horn calls and shrill battle cries of a massive battle. Fearfully, I took a few steps closer to the edge so that I could see the battle, and instantly felt my stomach drop.
It was a sight unlike anything I had ever seen before, not even at Tor Garen. Countless thousands of soldiers filled all the field between this hill and the next, clashing violently as archer and artillery fire rained down on them from the western hill. In some places the lines still held strong, the walls of tightly packed shields and spears driving hard against each other, but in many other places the battle had turned into a vicious melee. Hawks and pegasus riders swarmed through the air, harrying the Daein ranks from above while flights of ravens from Kilvas struggled to intercept them. It was impossible to tell where Nephenee or any of the other Mercenaries were in the mess, but I could see Ike's banner flying in the center, where the ranks were still holding strong.
"We stay here for now," I ordered finally. It was the last thing I wanted to do, but I knew that the artillery would have a far greater effect on the battle below than me leading a handful of warriors into the Daein flanks. "Keep the artillery safe until our longbowmen get up here."
There was no protest from the spearmen as they took the opportunity to sit, rest and tend their wounds, but I was left pacing impatiently, eagerly awaiting the chance to get back in the fight. As it turned out, I didn't have to wait long.
"Captain! Ravens incoming!" Jarod cried suddenly, pointing to the north where the counterattacking Daeins were engaged with the Begnion shieldwall. As I watched, dozens of black, winged forms rose into sight. Some of them split off to attack the Begnion shieldwall, but the majority made a beeline for the artillery.
"Damn! Form a ring around the artillery!" I hollered, knowing we had to keep those ballistae firing into the main battle. Thank goodness Jarod drilled the men on his counter-raven tactics.
"Double line, like we practiced!" Jarod added, arraying the men properly for his tactic. "Second line two paces behind the first, billhooks in front."
As the more experienced and disciplined of our two archers, Shinon had already fired a ranging ballista shot into the main force of Daeins below, but Rolf looked nervously towards the oncoming ravens. He started to turn the ballista around to shoot the ravens.
"Keep to the plan, Rolf. We'll deal with Kilvas!" I snapped impatiently. I turned to Ilyana, who stood in the middle of our defensive circle. "Ilyana, I need you to keep the air above us clear. Any ravens try to attack us from above, I want them fried and crispy!" I ordered. Her stomach rumbled loudly but she nodded her agreement, and luckily I had no time to dwell on the disturbing implications of her reaction.
"Keep your spears out!" Jarod was yelling to the men as I returned my attention to the oncoming enemies. They were only seconds away. "They won't throw themselves on a spearpoint!"
Just like the sergeant predicted, the first few ravens veered away from the spears leveled at them by the front ranks, choosing instead to swoop down upon us from above. They were fast, but Ilyana was ready for them. Her hands glowed with energy as crackling bolts of electricity filled the air above us, and three ravens were thrown away as if struck by Thor himself, leaving only a few smoking feathers and the faint smell of burnt chicken. Not known for their courage, the remaining ravens backed off and began circling our formation like carrion birds over a corpse, slowly tightening the ring as they closed in from all sides.
With Ilyana blocking their favoured attack route, the ravens finally swooped in at the infantry, tearing at the shieldwall with their beaks and talons. They made little headway - the unit was far more experienced and disciplined now than they were at Tor Garen - but just like the first time I fought Kilvas' corsairs at sea all those months ago, the ravens used hit and run tactics to stay clear of our weapons.
"Alright men, let's give them an opening," Jarod said after a few minutes of our fruitless efforts to harm the pesky laguz, keeping his voice enough that the circling birds wouldn't hear. The order was passed quickly throughout the unit, and one by one, the ten men we'd equipped with billhooks before the battle stepped back from the front line, leaving noticeable gaps in the formation.
This time when the ravens swooped in at our lines, they veered into the gaps only to find their way blocked by the spears of the second line. A few couldn't stop and were impaled, but most stopped just short in between the two lines of infantry, right next to our billmen. As soon as they did, the billmen lashed out with their billhooks, snagging the raven's wings and slamming the creatures to the ground, then driving the vicious weapons into the ravens' torsos to finish them off. Seeing this, more of the beasts tried to attack from above again, but Ilyana was already filling the air with lightning, and those ravens were soon dead, smoking corpses.
I grinned and clapped Jarod on the shoulder; after my last encounter with Kilvas' corsairs, it was nice to see them at a disadvantage. The last few ravens beat a hasty retreat, seeking easier targets.
"Banners to the south!" one of the spearmen called as the last of the ravens pulled back.
"'Bout time the longbows showed up," I grumbled, nonetheless glad to have things going according to plan for once.
From the second line of warriors, Beth let out a cheer. "Those ravens'll think twice before coming back n- Oh fuck!" she gasped. I followed her gaze and looked more closely at the approaching banners; black dragon sigils on red cloth. These weren't friendly. The soldiers bearing those banners came into view, carefully maneuvering their mounts through the steep, rocky terrain, and I realized why the archers hadn't shown up yet: Daein heavy cavalry.
"Dammit, Daein cavalry must have gotten behind us while we were engaged up here!" I cursed, trying to hide just how worried I was; ravens were wicked opponents, but a facing down heavy horse with nothing more than infantry was another thing entirely.
"Those ravens were just a distraction," Jarod agreed, dead calm. Without missing a beat, he directed the men to tighten their ranks around the ballistae. "Billmen keep to the rear; anyone breaks through our lines, you pull them out of their saddles!"
The Daein cavalry assembled into a line as they reached the hilltop, facing the rear of the Eastern Commander's infantry line where it was still engaged with the first Daein counterattack. Yet more infantry streamed up the hill behind the cavalry, but the Daein horsemen didn't wait for them to assemble. War horns and battlecries broke out from the gathered horsemen, and Jarod and I could only watch in horror as the Daein cavalry smashed into the rear of the Begnion line. The fight for the eastern hill, it would seem, had only just begun.
I had no clue how long we fought up there. The sky had grown darker as angry stormclouds rolled in and the air filled with smoke as mages in the main battle below the hills cast more and more spells. Jarod and I directed the battle as best we could, struggling to keep our small formation intact as Daein infantry attacked from all sides. No cavalry had come for us yet and the ballistae at the center of our formation were still firing, but our situation was bleak. Several times a man would fall dead or unconscious and only a desperate blast of lightning from Ilyana kept the enemies at bay long enough for someone to plug the gap in the shieldwall, but even so we were running short of men.
The other Begnion infantry on the hill were even worse off; the initial charge of the Daein heavy cavalry completely overwhelmed one of the companies, and we could only watch in horror as their ranks crumbled, then disappeared entirely under the press of Daein horsemen and infantry. Another company was nearly overwhelmed as well, but their captain formed a line of volunteers to hold the Daeins at bay while what remained of his company retreated to join us. Three dozen of the hundred men in that company made it to our defensive ring, and bolstered our faltering line just enough to keep us from being overrun. From the brave captain and his volunteers, cries of "For Begnion!" and ""Boyd! Boyd the Great!" could be heard for a few minutes, but soon they too fell under the Daein advance.
The Begnion Commander on this hill gathered most what remained of his line - still numbering several hundred - in a defensive circle, and from the few glances I got of their battle it seemed they were actually holding their own. They were surrounded, though, much like my unit was, and there was no sign of reinforcements.
"Cavalry!" Beth, who had just finished cutting down one Daein who'd gotten through the shieldwall, cried, pointing her axe towards a force at least a dozen horsemen. They must have disengaged from the other fight and were now charging across the hilltop towards us, no doubt hoping to shatter our weakened ranks. The Daein infantry scrambled out of their way, parting ranks to offer the cavalry a clear run at a weak point in the circle of Begnion spears.
"Ilyana!" I hollered, pointing to the oncoming threat. The mage was clearly tiring; though she fired a blast of lightning into the charging horsemen, it was far weaker than many of her previous bolts and only killed one horse. The other horsemen swerved around the fallen mount and rider and kept coming, hardly slowing.
"Brace!" Jarod cried, rushing in to shore up that section of the line himself.
I tried to join him, but a Daein axeman broke through our lines from my left and hit me with a flying tackle. There was a terrible chorus of clashing weapons and screams of both men and horses, but I couldn't see what was happening as I struggled with my Daein attacker. Finally managing to get one arm free, I slammed my fist into his face, flattening his nose and making the man recoil just enough for me to pull a dagger and jam it into the side of his neck. I rose, shoving the dying man aside as I retrieved my sword, and a shrill battlecry broke out behind me. For a second I thought I was dead, but the cry was cut short by a crack of thunder.
"You owe me food!" Ilyana's voice cried as a smoking Daein corpse fell beside me, and I turned to thank her for the timely save only to see that several Daein knights had broken through our lines and were hacking their way through our ranks. Jory got a billhook lodged in one knight's breastplate, but even as that knight was torn screaming from his saddle another wheeled his mount towards Ilyana, who had just marked herself as an high priority target with that last blast of magic. She backpedalled frantically to get away as the man lashed out with his sword.
The knight got between Ilyana and I, and I wasted no time slashing at the knight's leg, my blade cutting deep into his flesh just below the bottom of his chainmail hauberk. The man screamed and turned his sword on me, but I was too close; grabbing hold of his leg and arm, I yanked the man partway out of his saddle. His own weight did the rest, and the poor bastard toppled from his mount to land hard on the frozen ground. I slammed the pommel of my sword into his exposed face, then drove the point of my sword down with both hands, the tip piercing his damaged chainmail with a wet crunch.
Hoofbeats heralded the arrival of another rider, but before I could engage the new threat the man's horse fell dying under him, and the rider's leg was pinned under his mount. Jarod didn't even bother extracting his spear from the dying animal, leaping atop the struggling rider and slamming the edge of his shield into the man's head until he stopped struggling. Behind him, the spearmen were reforming, using the reach of their spears to drive the Daein cavalry away.
"We're holding, sir," Jarod reported grimly as he stepped over the dead Daein to meet me. He cast a weary glance around our tattered formation. "For the moment."
I looked around the battle too, but a quick look at the Daeins surrounding us gave me some hope; their ranks were thinning, and our numbers were just about even. "We're wearing them down," I added hopefully, but Jarod just frowned.
"Not fast enough, and we're still surrounded," he growled. "Can't keep this up much longer, sir!"
"Then we break out," I declared, forcing myself to sound confident. It was really the only option I could think of, so I steeled my resolve and committed to the decision. "Bust through their lines with part of our force and get behind them. Keep the shieldwall intact while I do that!"
"Yessir!" the sergeant replied, moving to the shore up the weakest part of the line.
Taking a deep breath, I picked three people out of the rearmost ranks who bore no serious wounds. "Jory, Matt, Beth! With me!" The three fighters I'd called gathered quickly, Jory quickly exchanging his billhook for a dropped shield and pulling a one-handed axe off his belt, and I led the way as we pushed through the ranks to a point in the line where the Daeins were weakened.
"We need to break out and get behind them!" I yelled to the group over the din of battle as we shoved our way to the front. One Daein bulled between a pair of Begnion soldiers to meet us, but Jory swung his axe over the man's shield and nearly took the Daein's jaw off. I pushed forward into the gap left by the fallen Daein, forcing the next few back with a vicious swipe from my shield. Jory and Matt rushed in to support me, and together we locked our shields and drove through the Daein ranks, forcing an unfortunate pair of Daeins before us as Beth protected our flanks. The Daein ranks were thin and disordered here - only three or four men deep, and fully focused on the Begnion shieldwall - and we busted through too fast for most of them to react. As soon as we were clear, we overwhelmed the few Daeins we'd forced out ahead of us.
Seeing that we'd broken through, several Daeins broke from the rest. To my surprise, it was Beth - who just days before had been distraught over her first kill - that rushed to meet them first. One Daein swung a sword at her head, but she stepped inside his reach, slamming the edge of her shield into the man's shoulder and using it as a barrier between her and the man's sword arm while she swung her axe up under his shield. Matt, Jory and I were right behind her, engaging the next few Daeins while she struggled.
My opponent and I both struck each other's shield several times before the man aimed a stab at the right side of my shield; a quick sidestep let him slip past, and I flipped my sword over my shield and cut the back of his neck as he stumbled by. The man tried to turn and face me, but I brought the sword across into his face. He flopped to the ground, dead or unconscious, and I turned back to the rest of the fight just in time to see Beth throw her axe to land squarely in the chest of the last Daein, who'd been charging at me.
"So what's this I hear about you buying food for people who save your life?" the curly-haired girl asked as she pulled her axe from the corpse.
"I had it," I growled in response. That's two now! There goes a week's pay... "Now let's get back on task!"
We rushed back into the Daein lines, cutting down as many as we could while they had their backs turned. It dawned on me that such acts would have revolted me before, but I found that now I just didn't care; the only thing that mattered was killing them first. Our efforts paid off, widening the breach in the Daein lines so that more and more Begnion soldiers were able to break formation and join us. Finally, the battle was starting to sway in our favour.
I was drawn away from the fight a few minutes later as Jory suddenly hooted and pointed to the south. "Sir! Reinforcements!"
Looking to the south, I saw another force of mounted men-at-arms moving up the hill, following the same path we'd taken earlier that day. These men, though were flying Begnion banners and were led by a familiar, red-armored figure.
"Kieran!" I hooted in recognition. "We've got this battle now!" I hollered to encourage the men around me.
Kieran didn't waste time lining his men up to charge; seeing the two beleaguered rings of warriors, he launched what cavalry he had into the two battles, leaving any stragglers to catch up. With the Daeins so focused on the defensive formations, they fell easy prey to the disordered cavalry. The Begnion soldiers took heart at the sight of reinforcements while the Daeins quickly lost their taste for the fight; what few Daein cavalry remained fled, their fast mounts getting them clear of the vengeful Begnion infantry. The remaining Daein footmen, however, had no such luck. When their ranks broke - and they broke quickly after Kieran's arrival - my men tore into them with a vengeance, cutting men down left and right and chasing down those who tried to run. I couldn't have stopped them even if I wanted to. Only Matt and Beth restrained themselves.
Kieran rode by me as the last Daeins fell, his armor spattered in blood and a cocky grin plastered across his face.
"We're winning this!" he cried, pointing down the hill towards the main battle. Without archer support from the two hills, the main Daein army was being driven back across the field, leaving behind thousands of corpses. From the western hill, I could see hundreds of Begnion cavalry streaming down into the Daein flank. "I'm going down there to cut off the retreat! Can't have that cur Oscar stealing all the glory!" Kieran added, spurring his mount onwards and leading his men-at-arms in a similar flanking maneuver.
I considered joining him for a moment, but a look at my men - many badly wounded and nearly falling down from exhaustion - changed my mind. Indeed, as the adrenaline faded I felt several minor wounds on my torso and arms keenly, and noticed that the gloves on my sword hand were torn, the fingers bruised and bleeding. I called for the company to halt and tend their wounds - Daein didn't have a chance in hell of taking the hill now. I then found a spot mostly of dead bodies and sat down to watch as the Daein defenders, who had resisted our invasion so bravely and for so long, were surrounded and cut to ribbons by Crimean Liberation Army.
A/N
Alrighty, so there is by far the biggest battle I have written so far, but definitely not the biggest I have planned for this fic. Thank you for reading, even though I made you guys wait so damn long. Love it? Hate it? Totally not worth the wait? More on the consequences of this battle in the next chapter, by the way.
Small announcement; I am going away this summer to study French in a French-speaking area (the best way to get truly bilingual, or so I hope), so I might not be able to update as much. That being said, I have some long train rides ahead of me so that might not be the case... but then I'm always a slow writer.
Okay, review response:
TelliusFan: You are right to question the main character's decision-making skills. Without getting too spoilerific (look away now and think of puppies if you don't want ANY spoilers) I will say that you may find as the fic goes on that there is a big difference between what the character should do/choose, and what he actually does. In essence, people may begin to find some (or many) of his choices to be very questionable, and not always based on sound reason.
Also, if he were ever to hear that Soren is *GAME SPOILER ALERT* the son of Ashnard, a Prince of Goldoa and the rightful King of Daein, I think he would either A. consider everything from Radiant Dawn to be absolutely false, or B. flip a table. Possibly both.
As always, thank you so much to everyone who reads and reviews. Seeya next time!