Opening Stages

It took a little over four hours for Lord Umber to lead Hadrian's army to a location that would give them a clear advantage in battle.

The place that Lord Umber chose was a decent sized hill to the South-West of their original position. The hill was steep enough that men or cavalry charging up it would be greatly slowed down. The South part of the hill had a forest, whose borders started halfway up the hill and stretched to the East and the West for a good distance, providing cover for some of his troops to hide in.

His army arrived at the hill an hour or two before noon. According to his scouts, the enemy army was still another five or six hours away, so Harry decided to use this time to prepare for the battle as much as possible.

The first thing that he did was to split his men up into different groups. He had four hundred men in total, as well as just over one hundred Giants and one hundred Children of the Forest.

He split the men into four groups of one hundred each. One group of men were in charge of moving the wagons to the top of the hill and placing them in a line to the North and South sides of the hill, just a few feet from where his men will stand during battle. The wagons would act as makeshift barricades, hopefully discouraging the enemy from attacking from the North or South and encouraging them to attack through the gap in the East. Funneling the enemy and making numbers mean less. The men had to dig holes or find rocks to place by the wheels of the wagon, to prevent them from rolling. Once they were done with that, he had those men move to help with other tasks.

He had another hundred of the men helping fifty of the giants cut down tree branches deeper into the forest to make into wooden stakes. These were sharpened and smacked into the ground in front of the wagons at an angle to make a barrier of wooden spikes. This made attacking from the North or South even less appealing.

Giants were strong enough that each one of them had very little trouble digging holes' two meters deep and two meters wide. He only had the men there to scatter the mounds of dirt that was dug up, in order to try make the holes a little less obvious. In barely an hour there were fifty holes scattered across the bottom of the hill.

Harry had the Giants start digging additional holes even further away, among the field to the East of the hill, where the enemy army is most likely to charge from.

While this was happening, another fifty giants and one hundred men were digging holes at the bottom of the hill. The plan was to have various holes scattered around while leaving a corridor in the middle of the were breaking down trees and large branches. Almost one hundred men were sharpening those branches and placing them at the bottom of the holes that the giants had dug. Turning them into pit traps with wooding spikes at the bottom. The rest of those men were sharpening smaller branches and fletching them into arrows.

After an hour, he had those men who were working switch with those that weren't, so that each of them would have time to rest before battle.

The Giants worked for two hours straight, as they were stronger than men and would have less pressure on them during the battle.

During this time, he had twenty of the Children of the Forest move the mammoths to the West side of the hill and keep them out of sight. Fifty of the Children were standing over the pit traps that were complete and using fascinating magic, that Harry was going to do his best to learn, to make grass grow over the top of the holes, each blade of grass weaving into and out of each other, between a few small branches placed over the holes to make the structure strong enough to stand over the hole and not topple over its own weight. The end result was that each hole was hidden in plain sight. Making a deadly surprise for a charging enemy.

The rest of the Children were using their abilities with skinchanging to hunt down certain enemy scouts, to keep the preparations he was making for the battle a secret. At the same time, they were spying on the enemy to find out the composition of their army, who their commanders were and who else helped with the scheme to sneak an army this size into the North. While at the same time, thinning the enemy numbers whenever they get a chance.

By the time the enemy army was an hour away, there were one hundred pit traps scattered throughout the east where the enemy army will charge from. Each of these traps were incredibly well hidden and each of them was deadly. His men had made another thousand arrows to add onto the stocks for the battle and wagons were set up on the hill to acts as barriers, hopefully forcing the whole enemy army to attack from one direction.

Now, Hadrian was sitting in a tent that was set up for him to wait in and receive reports, so he can comfortably plan while his men were working. He had Lord Umber, Lord Karstark and Lord Manderly with him now that each group of men they were overseeing were done with their preparations.

Lord Umber had a mug of mead in his hand, his third one in the last quarter hour. Hadrian tried to get him to stop drinking as he would need his wits during the battle, but Lord Umber just waved him off, saying he has fought while he was so drunk he couldn't even remember his name, or his reason for fighting, and he still came out of it alive.

It was at that point that Hadrian realized there was really no point in arguing. He wasn't ever going to be able to make Lord Umber drink less. Trying would just get the Lord mad at him.

Lord Karstark and Lord Manderly were far more controlled however. Both Lords were still nursing their first cups of ale and listening politely as Lord Umber told his sixth, definitely embellished, story involving some battle or other.

Harry himself was currently drumming his fingers on the table and listening to Lord Umber with only half an ear. He was currently more interested in waiting for Leaf to finish receiving her report from one of the other Children of the Forest.

Unfortunately, many of the Children of the Forest lived almost their entire lives in seclusion in the tunnels underneath some of the Weirwood trees North of the Wall. As a result, most of them can't speak anything but their own tongue. Only Leaf and two dozen others have the ability to communicate with men and most of them only speak the old tongue.

So Harry put Leaf in charge of relaying all of his orders to the other Children and receiving and translating reports from them to him.

He continued to tap his fingers on the table as he listened to Lea and the other Child, Bark, converse in their musical tongue.

It was several minutes of back and forth between the two Children later before Bark was finally dismissed by Leaf. Once Bark left the tent, Leaf took a seat near his table and waited patiently.

Harry cleared his throat, catching the attention of Lord Manderly and Lord Karstark, who were quick to try and bring the Greatjon out of his story and back into the present. Luckily, Jon Umber could hold his liquor and it was easy to get him to pay attention.

Seeing that everyone was ready, Hadrian gestured towards Leaf and spoke. "Leaf, you may begin."

She took a moment to look each of us in the eyes before she started. "There are a few different things you should know." She sighed slightly. "The army is larger than we thought. There are around three thousand men." She paused slightly to let that sink in before continuing. "Leading the army appears to be a group of Septons. There are seven of them. Six of them look like average Septons, if more fanatical in their devotion than most, while one of them wears armor and seems to have martial training. The others are deferring to him most of the time."

Harry drummed his fingers on the table. "This confirms it is the Faith Militant."

Leaf nodded, confirming his words. Lord Umber growled slightly at this news, while Lord Karstark sat up straighter and Lord Manderly sighed.

He gestured for leaf to continue her report. "Five hundred of the enemy soldiers seem like they might be knights, they have horses and will no doubt act as cavalry during the battle. A thousand of the infantry look like they might be soldiers. They seem to have some training, most are wearing some type of armour and have weapons. Even if they are rusty swords. The rest are only dressed in furs and seem to be carrying tools such as hammers, knives or other random things they could find. "

Leaf took a breath before speaking again. "My people have been successful in hunting down their scouts who stray too close to the Giants and mammoths. We have been using skinchanging to do so and are keeping out of sight for now, as instructed. They found a few of the mammoth tracks, luckily most of them blend in with the tracks from the rest of the army and the enemy didn't examine them very closely, so they were dismissed. The enemy should have no idea my people and the Giants are here. "

Harry smiled. "Good."

Leaf continued. "I had some of my people use birds to spy on the enemy commanders as you ordered. Several things have been made known. First, all of the men in the army originate from the Vale. They came partway through the Weeping River by ships almost two moons ago. The men were originally supposed to split into seven different groups and spread over the North. Each group would be led by a different Septon. Each group would operate independently of each other but with the same overall goal, to cause chaos and disruption in the North. To weaken the North and those who follow the Old Gods. They were meant to cause as much damage to the North as possible until they were caught. Each group was supposed to have no idea of what they others were doing to make tracking them more difficult."

Harry was no longer smiling. Such a thing could cause a large amount of damage to the North. Depending on where the groups spread and on what they did, they could have caused serious problems. If they caught him off guard and managed to sneak into Wintertown, they might be able to even kill members of his family if they ambushed them.

Such a thing could not be allowed to stand.

Leafs voice drove him out of his thoughts on how to send a suitable warning South, so this event doesn't repeat itself. "It seems we've actually been fortunate. They were supposed to split up a moon ago but when they heard Lord Stark was travelling to The Wall, they decided they could not let the opportunity slip past them. The group stayed together so they could ambush you on the way back to Winterfell My Lord. "

He almost wanted to laugh at the irony of them doing him a favour by trying to kill him instead of doing what they were meant to. His lips twitched up slightly despite his best efforts to not smile.

Lord Umber had no reservations. "Hah! They are lambs who think to hunt a wolf!" He laughed. "Now they are going to be slaughtered!"

He let the lord get it to of his system for a few seconds before he gestured for Leaf to continue. "They are set to arrive in a little over an hour." She finished.

Harry allowed himself to relax and slouch back into his chair for a few moments. He was careful to show the Lords that he was relaxed and that he wasn't worried at all. He was projecting a casual feeling with his actions. As if this was just another normal day and he wasn't about to lead them into a fight against an army five times as large as their own. This had the effect of keeping everyone else calm and composed.

After half a minute of silence he sat up and addressed his lords. "I believe that with the help of the Children and Giants, we should be able to win this battle with little difficulty. We have the men with the better training and equipment. We will have an advantage in terrain and defenses. This battle is not what truly worries me my lords. What worries me is that we have to fight it at all."

Lord Umber and Karstark were both looking confused but Lord Manderly had a look of realization on his face. Harry gestured for the Lord to speak.

Lord Manderly was happy to oblige. "How could an army with such numbers sneak so deep into the North without anyone noticing?" He didn't give any of the others time to speak before answering his own question. "They couldn't. Not with such numbers and not for so long. We know they came into the North itself from the Last River. Which means they crossed through Bolton lands. Lord Bolton is anything but incompetent. If they came so close to his home, he would know about it. The question is, is Lord Bolton actively colluding with the Faith Militant or just turning a blind eye to their actions for his own plots? My coin is on the latter."

Lord Umber practically exploded out of his seat. He threw his chair back and slammed his fist on the table with a roar. "That no good snake! I always knew the Boltons were shits but to go against the Gods?! That fucking…."

Harry let Lord Umber rant for a minute longer because in truth, the Lord shared his opinion. Hadrian knew Roose Bolton was a bastard, but he never expected him to work with the Faith Militant either.

After a few more seconds of ranting he cleared his throat and asked Lord Umber to calm down and retake his seat. He did so without any complaint and Hadrian continued speaking. "Now none of Lord Boltons forces are among those present. There are no other armies within a few days of us either. That doesn't mean Bolton won't attack in a few days once we are weakened and have let our guards down. To that effect, several Children of the Forest have been tasked to use skinchanging to locate Lord Bolton and see what he is doing. One of my Huntsmen have been tasked with sending a letter to my uncle Ned, telling him to fortify Winterfell and to send us men as soon as possible as reinforcements. Just in case. Another letter has been sent to Last Hearth and the army each, also asking for reinforcements. If Lord Bolton does attack, hopefully those reinforcements will arrive on time to be of help. Keep in mind, the Boltons have always been slippery and there is no proof he is colluding with the Faith. He might not attack at all, thinking he can get away with his treachery."

All of the Lords looked a lot more nervous now that they realized there was a chance they will be attacked by an even larger and more deadly army in the days after this battle.

Harry waved his hand dismissively. "But that is a worry for another day. For now, get the men ready for battle and into the correct formations. "

All three of the Lords and Leaf stood before quickly leaving to their individual duties.

An hour later saw Hadrian standing on the highest point of the hill within the fortification of wagons he had set up. From his position he had a great view over the entire battlefield. He was also well protected. There were ten guards around Harry and Lord Manderly. Beyond those guards were fifty archers.

These weren't normal archers though. For the past two years Harry has picked select groups of young men to train in archery and upper body strength. He did this in the hopes that they could learn to properly wield the longbows he had designed. For the last six moons, he has had over one two hundred men train relentlessly with the bows. Fifty of those men were with him today. The rest were at Winterfell.

With greater power and range than any bow that was not Weirwood or Goldenheart wood, he fully expects they will reap a bloody toll on the enemy today.

Beyond the archers, lined up in rows between wagons, was the rest of the army. Five rows deep and eighty men across. Four hundred men stood ready to face an army much greater in size. Fifty of the men scattered between different rows in the middle of the formation were his guards, hence they were well trained and very well equipped. One hundred of those men were from the different Lords guards so were also decently trained and equipped. The rest of the men were from the newly formed Northern Army and so were also very well trained. All he men at the front three ranks were armed with spears and shields. Lord Umber was near the front line and Lord Karstark was near the back.

In the distance, near the other side of the small valley, the enemy army had just finished forming into ranks themselves. Thousands of men formed, making a giant body of men that was slightly intimidating to look at. Even to Harry.

He could see that some of his men were starting to shift nervously. No matter how well trained they were, this was the first battle for many of them as they just got out of their training. He could understand them being nervous.

That doesn't mean he won't try fix the problem.

"MEN!" He screamed. "THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF SEVEN WORSHIPPERS COMING TO TAKE OUR HEADS! THEY BELIEVE THEIR GODS WILL GRANT THEM VICTORY! BUT THIS IS THE NORTH! THE OLD GODS RULE HERE!"

He took a breath before continuing. "TODAY WE WILL SHOW THEM HOW LITTLE POWER THEIR GODS HAVE!"

His men screamed in agreement.

Harry smiled slightly before taking a small cup of water from one of the four soldiers who had been chosen to serve as his aides during this battle. This mostly meant running orders for him to different commanders. Or handing things to him.

He took a small sip of the water and savored it for a moment. His throat was a bit scratchy from all the shouting. Once he had finished, he gestured to the other soldier who was holding a far eye.

Harry was quick to put the device to his right eye and look over the enemy army. He could see that the less well equipped men were in the front, with better equipped men behind them and the cavalry at the back of the formation. The seven septons who were supposedly in charge of this force were sitting on horses a little bit behind the cavalry. They were surrounded by a hundred well equipped guards from what he could see. He couldn't see any archers among the enemy formation.

Harry continued to watch as the enemy formation finished forming up over the next several minutes. To Harry, it simultaneously felt like an eternity and an instant. Before he knew it the enemy army was formed up and ready.

It wasn't long before the enemy made a move.

Form what Harry could see, five hundred of the least well-armed and equipped enemy troops started charging towards his front lines in a fast walk. A few moments later the rest of the army started forward at a much slower pace.

Honestly, it wasn't a bad move on the enemy commanders part. They sent their least valuable troops to test his men. To keep them busy or to tire them out.

As Harry watched those five hundred men rapidly closed the distance to his army. Still, he did nothing.

Lord Manderly voiced the question. "Should we not prepare the archers my lord?"

Harry shook his head absently while not removing his eye from the enemy. "I want to keep the effectiveness of the archers a secret until the second wave moves into range. The first wave is no danger and surprise should make the archers all the deadlier against the better armed men."

When the first wave reached the bottom of the hill he started to see the effectiveness of his traps.

As he watched, dozens of men fell into the first dozen holes hidden at the bottom of the hill. Screams and cries echoed out from the men as they fell to their deaths or gruesome injury. Some unfortunate souls didn't die when they hit the spikes at the bottom of the holes, instead they were trapped screaming in agony as spikes pierced though their bodies.

The whole army stuttered to a moment as the men hesitated to move forwards after witnessing the fate of their comrades. When they moved forward it was a lot slower, with a lot more hesitation.

Unfortunately, this meant that the traps were a lot less effective, but some men were still lost regardless and only half the traps were discovered as men started following in the steps of those in front of them, so that they could easily avoid the traps.

Before long the first wave reached the front line of his army. The first line of men that clashed with his army almost immediately died to the longer reach of his mens spears. The entire first wave stuttered to a halt as the enemy tried to press through and suffered grievously as a result. The first wave was dropping like flies. While his men were holding strong with only a few deaths so far.

By this time, the second wave was a little over five hundred yards away. Seeing the first wave getting cut down, they rapidly increased the speed of their charge from a steady walk to almost a sprint.

Harry gestured to lord Manderly who was quick to understand what he wanted.

"Archers!" The lord shouted. "Nock!" The archers were quick to follow his commands.

"Draw!" Fifty longbows were drawn back.

As the second wave was just a little under three hundred and fifty yards away, Harry nodded to Lord Manderly who was quick to comply and bellowed. "Loose!"

Fifty arrows flew into the air, before the arrows had even reached into the climax of its flight. Lord Manderly was calling for the men to nock and draw again. Before the first wave of arrows had reached the enemy two hundred and fifty yards away, Lord Manderly was calling for the second volley of arrows to loose.

When the first wave of arrows hit it had minimal effect on the enemy forces. They were still at a very far range and his archers weren't skilled enough to be accurate at that range. Quite a few arrows landed short still. Less than half a dozen men died from the first volley with a few more injured.

Harry was a bit disappointed in that. He should have waited a few seconds longer and it would have had a greater impact.

The second wave of arrows did a lot better. All of the men were well within range by this point. Over a dozen men were killed with another dozen injured. Unfortunately, his men still weren't that accurate at this range.

Bing hit by two consecutive waves of arrows at such a long range away had the desired effect on the enemy army. The shock of being pelted with arrows from so far away caused a lot of men to stutter in their running. Greatly slowing their advance from the run it had been for a few seconds.

That was long enough to be hit by the third wave of arrows. Killing and injuring even more men than the previous wave. At this point, close to forty men in the second wave of infantry were killed with twice that injured.

While this was happening Harry could see the hesitation to approach his men visibly growing across the men in the first wave. Before long, over two hundred men were dead and three hundred were standing still. Too afraid to approach any closer.

Seeing that they were continuously being pelted with arrows and that the first wave was close to running, the second wave started charging even faster than they were before they slowed down. As they got closer, his archers kept sending more waves of arrows. By the time they had reached the bottom of the hill seventy yards away, two more volleys were fired upon them. With each doing more damage than the previous volleys.

The men were in such a rush that a lot of them ran into the hidden pit traps that weren't uncovered by the first wave of men. This once again caused dozens of deaths and caused the army to slow. It also had the added effect of causing the enemy to form into lines and wind their way between the holes. Making them more clumped together and as such easier targets.

"Fire at will." Hadrian said.

"Fire at will!" Lord Manderly repeated his command in a bellow.

His archers were only to eager to let loose. At this range his archers were fairly accurate and the bows had enough power to punch through all but the best made armor. Dozens fell under the constant onslaught of arrows before the men reached the first wave. By this point over two hundred men in the second wave had been killed by a combination of arrows and traps.

"Shield wall." Harry called.

One of the men by his side blew the horn once. The men in the front three ranks of his army, being relentlessly drilled by this point, quickly locked shields with the second rank supporting the first and the third supporting the second. The rest of the men in the fourth and fifth ranks with spears and shields tried to imitate them but weren't that well trained yet and only managed a sloppy imitation. The men without shields and spears were scattered throughout to kill anyone who manages to get past the reach of the spears.

The momentum of the second waves charge pushed the first wave forwards, forcing them to charge his forces or be trampled under the larger force behind them.

It was honestly a more effective strategy than Harry would have liked. The first wave became almost a sacrifice to his forces as they were shoved onto the spears by the men behind them. His mens spears were weighed down by enemy corpses, giving the men behind those corpses a chance to close the distance with the front ranks.

Luckily, the most well trained men were in the front few ranks. All of them trained extensively in how to hold a shield wall, the hill also gave them an advantage as the enemy forces were slightly tired at this point from running up it under arrow fire, while avoiding traps.

The enemy army crashed into the front ranks and pushed them back slightly, but the wall held. One or two of his men died but in general their armour and shields protected them well. The enemy forces were less fortunate as his men in the second and third ranks used their spears longer reach to stab at the enemy through the gaps.

While this was happening his archers were still using their greater height advantage to pour arrow fire into the enemy ranks. At this range most of their arrows landed and most of them killed enemy soldiers.

This battle was turning into a gradual slaughter of the enemy soldiers as they kept trying and failing to pierce through the shield wall. A few of his men had died, but the soldiers were well trained and filled in most of the gaps pretty smoothly when that happened. Soldiers who got through any gaps were quickly taken care of Lord Umber and his forces.

The enemy commander must have realized that things weren't going well. For the rest of his army started charging. All of the cavalry formed up into four lines quickly before breaking off into a charge at his formation. Quickly closing the gap to the bottom of the hill.

Harry would admit he was impressed by their ability. The cavalry of the North he has seen was nowhere near as good as this.

It didn't really matter though, as the cavalry got to the bottom of the hill and the different lines started to quickly make their way between the holes, Harry spoke again. "Give the signal."

The horn blower was quick to comply.

Two quick blasts of the horn rang out.

The results were almost immediate. By the time the enemy cavalry was half way up the hill the plan had already started. Howls came from the woods only fifty yards to the left of the charging cavalry. Hundreds of them. All at once.

Then hundreds of wolves sprung out of the forest under the direction of the Children he had hidden there. They charged straight at the cavalry while snarling and howling. The effect of the enemy cavalry was immediate.

The horses and men panicked. Some men were kicked off their horses while other horses panicked and stumbled into some of the pit traps. When the riders had managed to regain control of their mounts it was already too late.

Much of the momentum the horses had was lost so when they crashed through gaps left by their second and third wave, into his front line, they did a lot less damage than they otherwise would have.

They managed to push through the first and second lines before they were stopped and the gaps filled in. Unfortunately, they still managed to cause a lot of chaos and death to Harrys men before the charge was completely stopped.

That was when the wolves had finally closed the distance on the enemy cavalry. What happened next was easy to guess. The wolves took down horses and men alike in groups of three or four. The horses who weren't attacked freaked out and went on a stampede in the opposite direction throwing even more men from their saddles. It was absolute chaos.

That was when the Giants and Mammoths came around the North side of the hill and hit the enemy from the other direction. The enemy army crumbled. The giants and the mammoths cut through them.

Harry gestured for the horn to be blown once again.

His men, who had only been holding their positions until now, started to advance. Slaughtering those in front of them. The battle turned into a route. The enemy only had one direction to flee and they did so by the hundreds, in a panicking frenzy. He saw more than one person cut down their own allies on their way to safety. Through the eye glass he could see that the Septons in charge of this army were already fleeing as fast as they could.

Harry smiled coldly before turning to Leaf. "Have the rest of the Singers hunt down all the survivors with the wolves. I don't want any of them leaving the North."

Leaf was quick to turn to one of her sisters and speak in her language. A few moments later the Singer rushed off and she turned back to Hadrian. "It will be done."

Harry turned back towards the battle and saw the few pockets of survivors rapidly getting cut down. He knew they won today but he couldn't help but clench his teeth in anger because he knew the truth.

They were lucky. This army was filled with untrained peasants with commanders whose idea of strategy was to just rush him with superior numbers. If this group had stuck to their original plan and tried to spread out in the North to cause chaos, then the damage they could have inflicted could have been severe.

He would have to take steps to stop this from happening again.

Read ahead: Pat_ (slash) TheLifeandTimes19.