Sorry for last Sunday. I had some surgery on the Saturday and was entirely not as recovered as I imagined I would be. Non-invasive surgery apparently does not mean "will be totally able to concentrate" the next day.
Cover Art: GWBrex
Chapter 72
The church's camp was at least five times the size of their own.
There were thousands of tents in the process of being erected in a tight, square formation, with angular valleys and channels between them. Horses in their hundreds were being set to pasture with low wooden fences erected, while cows and sheep and pigs for food were being put in areas of their own. Wagons led by horse and donkey carried wood here and there, and a rough perimeter palisade wall was being slowly built up, along with a raised wooden section in the centre that he imagined was to be a pantry.
It was like watching a town spring up in real time. Busy ants milled about while huge ships had run aground to disgorge building material and workers. Trees were cut and dragged back, and parties fanned out in every direction looking for food to forage and harvest, or animals to hunt. They might be able to find the latter, but not in sufficient quantity for the thousands of people down there, and Jaune and the faunus had made sure there wouldn't be any fields of harvestable crops left.
"They're industrious," said Sienna, kneeling beside him on the ridge. "You have to give them that. Then again, I'm sure we could build a small town as well if we had as many people as them. Looks like ten thousand to me. I expected more."
"That's half their forces," said Taiyang. "They land the first half and set a base up while the other half comes with fresh supplies a day or two later. There's not much we can do about that. We could move against one hundred Chosen with the element of surprise, but even this number is twice our own, and they'll have a defensive position to hold." He looked to Jaune. "Not unless you have some big magic up your sleeves."
The encampment was wood, and would burn, but that alone wouldn't shift them, and there would be a lot of Chosen down there. More than a hundred. Ozma agreed in his head. "The time of underestimating us is at its end. We cannot singlehandedly break an army of this size." Jaune shook his head at Taiyang. The man grunted.
"I thought as much. I don't fancy our odds attacking them, either. A good siege assault needs three-to-one odds on average, and we have half their number. They could hold us off long enough for their reinforcements to land and rout us. If they didn't just smash our army to pieces."
"Doesn't the Branwen tribe attack villages much bigger than it?" asked Ruby. "Quality vs quantity works there. Why not here?"
"Because that's battle-hardened raiders attacking defenceless village folk," said Yang. "And it's intimidation as much as anything. We storm them, kill anyone who fights back and take the walls, then demand their surrender and tribute. Mom doesn't target places with actual soldiers."
"Some of those ships are damaged," said Sienna, interrupting them before they could get going. "It looks like our fleets are doing good work. They might have even sunk one or two ships. It won't make a huge difference, but any supplies they carried will be at the bottom of the ocean." Sienna sighed and pushed up off the ridge's edge. There was a small chance they might be spotted, but it was slim, and they were far enough away that it wouldn't matter.
After being caught in traps already, the church wasn't going to blindly pursue a small group of people and run into another.
"We should choose our battlefield if we're going to face them," she said, mounting her horse. "They're the ones with limited supplies, so they will have to come to us. We pick somewhere where we have the edge."
"If we fight near a mountain then we can use magic to form a landslide," said Ruby.
"So can they," replied Sienna. "Our armies will rely on the same tactics, and theirs have more experience with them. We must assume that any magically focused tactic we might use can, and will, be used against us."
"Could we abandon the island and move on Vale while they're stuck here?"
"We could try—"
Jaune shook his head. "No. Salem is watching this all via Grimm. We know that. If we try to escape this army to Vale, I guarantee we'll be beset with aquatic Grimm all the way, and then an army of Grimm once we reach land." Then she'd make up some stupid excuse like his insanity had taken hold, and how he'd used his own Grimm on his allies. The faithful would lap it up. "Sienna is right. We need to do something about this army, even if the odds are against us. Only when it's fully dealt with will we be able to turn our attention to her."
/-/
The amount of time they got as preparation felt absurd. The church had landed an army, they had an army, and it felt like they were supposed to be at one another's throats immediately, but the reality of it was that they were busy mustering and building a camp, and that gave them days to scout out the island for a good spot.
Sienna wanted an area close to the shore so that they could retreat to their ships if needs be, but they were also heavily outnumbered – by cavalry, especially – so that meant any flat ground was an absolute no. They needed rough terrain, and preferably some high ground. The problem was that elevation and coast didn't go well together, and when it did, that meant you couldn't quickly get down onto said coast and into ships.
Where cliffs met the shore, it was a fatal drop for anyone, and where the shore met ground at a safer incline, it was mostly open terrain perfect for the church's cavalry to sweep around and flank them.
In the end their battlefield was to be beside a river delta, where the thick river split into many smaller ones leading into the ocean. It was wetland, and mushy, making footing difficult for them but practically impossible for cavalry, especially on the charge. They had the many small rivers to their left, and a forest to their right, both of which would slow down any flanking forces. The area before them was still wet and marshy, but there was time enough for them to prepare. While the church built fortifications, they laid wooden logs down like flooring, and constructed, of a sort, some flat ground for their forces to stand upon.
It was packed soil and earth held in place by logs driven into the mud to shore it up, and it was by no means perfect. It did let people in armour stand side by side without their feet sinking into the ground, however. Furthermore, the mouth of the river was so wide and so deep that they could even park a single ship in it and use it as an anchor to hold their left flank.
The right was much more open. Dangerously so. The woodland was thick enough to cause issues for cavalry, but would hide any infantry coming through it, and given the enemy army outnumbered them four-to-one, they would want to envelop them at some point. With the river too wide and deep to wade into, that meant over half the enemy army would inevitably be coming into and through that wooded area.
It came as a surprise both to him and to her various commanders when she said she wanted him in charge there.
"Me?" asked Jaune.
"Sienna, are you sure?" asked one of her advisors. "No one doubts the boy's courage, but wouldn't it be better to have someone with a little more experience holding our flank? It's where the battle will be won or lost."
"It's going to be chaos is what it is. Absolute madness. Open warfare among the trees, with no formations, no sense, and little cohesion." Sienna stared at each and every one of them. "Strategy isn't going to matter much there. It'll come down to sheer, destructive potential. You'll be taking half of our most aura-capable warriors," she said. "Make the most of them. Burn the forest down if you like. Do whatever you need to but make our right flank a hellscape that they can't get through. The rest of us will hold the line."
She said it like them holding was an inevitability, but he knew it was all so much bravado. They had a defensive position, but the church had the numbers, the equipment – even the better armour and weaponry. It wasn't going to be a simple matter, but then holding the flank was going to be even worse.
"It's the most important role," said Ozma. "It makes sense she would want us there, though I agree placing us in charge is strange. Perhaps she believes our aura-trained soldiers will simply feel more comfortable following your orders rather than hers."
"When you say half…"
"I mean half," said Sienna. "Half our numbers, half our army, arrayed on the flank. It's strange, I know, but we expect the enemy to do the same. You'll be going up against half of their army, so you'll need half of ours. If we give you anything less, then our flank will fold faster than a blade of grass."
And then it would be a slaughter.
Even if a retreat was called, the flank would need to hold longer, as they'd be the last ones to retreat. And, if they somehow won, then they could sweep around and envelop the enemy's flank as well. Jaune doubted that would happen. If they started winning, then the enemy would draw back to re-assess and come up with a better plan. They weren't going to just stay in a losing battle, and they had the temp to dictate the flow of battle.
"Steep odds have been defeated in the past…"
True, but had the church ever been defeated in such a scenario?
Ozma's silence was telling.
/-/
Jaune gathered everyone he could who he thought might be useful in some small way. It was just about everyone he knew. They sat outside, under the stars, around a roaring campfire with warm food and beer. The river water was considered to be mostly fresh, but the last thing they needed was anyone getting sick before a big battle, so Sienna had seen fit to open the alcohol stores. It was safer, with less risk of food poisoning or illness.
Other than hangovers, that was.
The big surprise was learning that no one was going to stop people getting drunk even before the battle. When he asked why, they'd explained that it was better to have drunk soldiers than terrified ones, and that it was just the normal way of doing things. A soldier shaking because of alcohol was no worse than a soldier shaking because of fear, and one was less likely to break and cause a mass rout. Jaune wished he was drunk now, or could be, because the conversation was tense.
"So, let me get this straight," said Adam. "We're to have, maybe, two and a half to three thousand men. And we're against ten thousand?"
"That's correct."
"And we have to hold or the main line collapses?"
"That about sums it up."
Adam's answer was to take a long, long drink.
"There's no point complaining when we're already here," said Nora. "They told us overthrowing the Schnee would be impossible as well, and yet it happened. We have a forest to work with. It'll need to be guerilla fighting."
"That only works when we can continue to retreat and draw them in," Blake pointed out. "We can't do that, or they flank the main line. We need to hold the forest, and that means they'll close with us eventually. We need to fortify it somehow. Traps would be the most obvious solution. We should get started on that soon."
"Traps alone won't cut it," warned Taiyang. "The first few will be caught off-guard, sure, but they'll soon learn to take it slowly and be careful. Magic alone won't, either. It's going to come to melee sooner or later. The only question is whether we hold a set line or skirmish."
"We can't hold a line against them."
"Only skirmishing with them will mean they can keep pushing us back. Sooner or later, we'll need to hold. What then? Where? We have lumber aplenty. I doubt we can build a proper fortification, but we should be able to build a waist-high wall out of stacked logs. Pack it with dirt behind and we'll at least have three feet of elevation. It's better than nothing."
"Won't that have to curve all around to the coast as well?" asked Jaune. "There's a chance they send a small force to just sweep all the way around and come behind the forest."
"Aye. We'll need to make a curved wall, like the corner of a circle. It'll need to connect from our main line, curving through the forest, then cutting back out until it reaches the shore. The problem is that out line becomes thinner the longer we make it, and the enemy can choose where to press." He made a fist. "They choose to concentrate it all on one spot and everyone we spread out becomes useless."
It was so much harder than he expected it to be. The main line just had to stretch between the river and the woodland, and every inch of it was going to be engaged. It had to be, because if the church left one flank free then they could mount their own envelopment. Their own flank was so much worse because the enemy just needed to punch through, and because not every part of it would be engaged.
But if we leave even one hole in our line then they'll see that and send someone to probe it.
It was so very complicated.
"We can use magic as an alert system," said Ruby. "Only have a few people on the furthest line but have them cast up fire as a signal if they need help."
"Who would we send to help if we're in trouble?" asked Blake.
"Our reserve force," said Adam. "We'll need to keep a good number in reserve. As Taiyang says, they might look for the right spot to apply the most pressure. We need to have a big enough force held back that we can react when that happens and send them to shore up the point they choose. Arc is going to have to be in that reserve force."
"What!?" Jaune leaned forward. "I should be in the main battle!"
"You will be. The main battle will be wherever and whenever they decide to launch their real attack. Everything before will be probing us for a weakness. We can't have that come far on our right, and realise you're stuck on our left."
"He has a point," said Nora. "If I was them, then I'd choose to attack the area you weren't fighting in. They'll keep you distracted and push somewhere else."
She was right. He hated it, but she was right. The church had the numbers to send probing attacks and try to flush him out, and they could keep him swimming in enemies while they looped around and attacked the main line from the rear, routing them and cutting off their only chance of escape at the same time.
/-/
A big advantage to having so many people capable of magic, even if it was amateur, was that it took very little time to start knocking trees down to build a low wall. There was a lot of danger, especially when people were throwing balls of fire to explode the base of trees, but it was fast. Tall trees were cut down, then broken into smaller chunks where they fell and used to fashion the wall under Taiyang's instruction.
Calling it a wall was too much. They rolled trunks over and stamped them down into the wet ground, then caked the front with mud and dried it, and even more at the back to form a ramp, before placing another log on top and doing the same. It was more like a hill with the front exposed and the back being a ramp up to a raised platform their people could stand on. It was too uneven to try and make a proper wall on top of that to hide behind, so they turned to making stakes instead to plant down sticking out the front.
Faunus with torches came and shaved and burned the tips to make them hard and sharp. No one was going to run into and impale themselves on these, what with the ground being so rough that any enemy would be coming in at a slow walk, but it would slow them down and make melee difficult. They'd have to either fight between the stakes with limited movement or try and clear them out while under fire from arrows and magic.
The platform ended up being about four feet high – which was more than Jaune expected. Being able to knock down trees so quickly had helped a lot, and they didn't have to drag the lumber around because they could just form the barrier wherever it fell. A few hundred more had been tasked with digging ditches and trenches ahead of the line, mostly just to make things difficult. Again, no horses were going to be charging through the woodland, and infantry would be coming in slowly as well, so it was doubtful anyone would go spilling into the ditches. It was just to break up formations, tire out the enemy, and make it close to impossible to bring wagons or supplies in.
On their side, the ground was flattened out to make all that easier. Little caches were set up where wagons had their wheels locked or cut off, and they were buried in the ground with crates of food and medical supplies sticking out. Arrows in buckets were arrayed everywhere up and down the line, with it never being much more than ten metres between any point at which to restock. Javelins and spears were stuck point down behind the barricade so that defenders could reach back and grab a new one if they had to.
Jaune couldn't help but think they were all very vulnerable to archers on their own side, what with them being made to stand four feet off the ground with no cover, but there wasn't much that could be done. Taiyang's suggestion was instead to just take the enemy's cover away as well by cutting any trees nearby down and burning the logs. Give the enemy nothing to use, and hope their forces, with aura unlocked on everyone, might give them the edge.
It was industrious work, and even if it wasn't as neat or orderly as the church's camp, Jaune felt just a little better about things once it was done. They had a long and snaking forward wall, a second to fall back to, supply points, plenty of ammunition, and a forest absolutely coated with nasty spike traps, pits, deadfalls, and ditches. The faunus were in good cheer as well, or they were putting it on to a convincing degree. Adam and Blake were busy whipping them up.
"They may outnumber us four-to-one," shouted Adam, "but remember that they still believe Salem's lies! They think aura is some tainted force of evil in men, and some divine sign of grace in women. Over nine thousand of the ten thousand we might face are going to go down screaming if they're hit with a single arrow. Us?"
Adam took an arrow in hand and stabbed it into Blake's chest. She stood there proudly and held her arms out as the arrow broke on her aura, the shaft snapping and the arrowhead dropping to the floor. The crowd cheered.
"We have aura!" boomed Adam. "And we know how to use it! When you see their fancy armour and their banners, remember that it's all just a show. We have the better armour. We have aura! The worst of us can take enough of a beating to put five of them down, and they don't yet know it! They think they're safe in their big formations." He drew his sword and held it aloft. "We'll show them the error of their ways!"
"Remember to keep your aura up!" shouted Blake. "And to switch out with the reserves when you get tired. This is going to be a test of endurance, so we'll need to make them bleed harder than us. Also, they won't have nearly as much magic as we do. At best, they'll have a few hundred Chosen among them. We're all capable of some degree of offensive magic, so you see a formation of ten people or more, you hit it!"
"You heard her!" shouted Adam. "If each of you takes down four people, we'll win this. Four. That's all we're asking. Four people when you have the high ground, when they can't use their cavalry, when most of them don't even have aura, and when they've got to come to us!" He laughed loudly. "Easy, I say! The church should send more!"
More cheers and roars of approval. This was what they needed – leaders who would tell them what they wanted to hear, but also make it sound achievable. And it sounded like it was. Just four people each? That was doable with aura. Jaune almost believed what they were saying and was beginning to think himself that this wouldn't be so hard.
But this wasn't the only battle.
Even if they won here, they needed to win with enough numbers left over that they could fight off any Grimm and launch an attack on Salem herself behind her city walls. They needed to kill four each and come away with as few losses as possible at the sane time.
The work was completed not a moment too soon.
Mounted horsemen had been sighted in the distance, hovering about but never coming close. The enemy's scouts had found them, and soon their army would be on the march. Hungry and far from home, and eager to put a stop to the Dark Lord once and for all.
My doctor: "Please be very careful with your throat around particles and any foreign irritants."
The straw barn in the next field over: "Man, it's hot. Guess I'll catch fire now!"
I mean, I have the window closed so I'm fine, but I also have the window closed on a hot day. Sadge.
Next Chapter: 6th August
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