Chapter Three: Creeping Assassins
I
By the tenth day of the battle, the fighting between the Azure Knights and the Eighth Legion had grown more bitter with every passing sunrise. Atop the desks erected in the commander’s tents of each army where not even voices clashed, to say nothing of blood-splattered swords and spears, still a struggle fiercer than that on any battlefield played out.
“Shackson’s unit will run diversion. Lieutenant Hank’s and Lieutenant Libra’s units will be in position to launch a pincer maneuver if the enemy shows signs of scattering their forces.”
Felix issued one order after another as he moved pieces around on the great deployment map laid out on the table.
Meanwhile—
“The enemy force in the rear is probably a decoy. They want us to split our forces. You can be sure there’s a large force nearby waiting to spring an ambush. Have Myne’s unit find them and take them out, making sure the enemy doesn’t notice.”
Even as Ashton saw through Felix’s plans and moved to snare him, so too did Felix repay him in kind. They both possessed unquestionable military genius—the tacticians of later generations were unanimous in their conclusion that no one had ever matched them. Logic dictated that, pitted against each other, the battle would turn on pure strength of numbers. Though the Eighth Legion had commanded an advantage in the early stages of the battle, helped along by Olivia catching the Azure Knights off-balance with her lone charge, with each passing day, the Azure Knights grew more incisive with their movements. Strangely enough, the course of the battle had started to shift in the direction Sofitia had anticipated.
Ashton began to receive report after report of punishing battles as the number of wounded soldiers crept up. Black clouds brewed in the skies above the Eighth Legion.
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