II
Luke’s Cavalry Regiment, the Eighth Legion
Major Luke Crawford and his regiment of four thousand riders spotted an enemy unit camped over the hill. He sent a runner to alert main command that they had located the enemy, while to his own unit he gave the order to halt. There were around two thousand of them. He ought to have the overwhelming advantage...
“The enemy hasn’t noticed us...?” he said, glancing at his sister Ellis who rode alongside him.
She grinned contemptuously at him. “No way. If we’ve noticed them, you can be sure they’ve noticed us. A convenient interpretation is a dangerous thing, you know.”
“Then why are they just sitting there, if they know we’re here?”
Tried-and-true military wisdom said that they ought to retreat. Words could not adequately express the weight of a twofold difference in numbers, and the psychological impact on the soldiers would be considerable. Given they still weren’t moving, he had to consider that there was a specific reason for it, such as a trap.
“No way is it a trap.”
Luke stared at Ellis. “What makes you so sure?” He didn’t ask, How do you know what I’m thinking? The thing about being flesh-and-blood was that sometimes they somehow just knew what was on the other’s mind. Of course, Luke didn’t need to think to know what was on Ellis’s mind, given that it was almost entirely occupied by Olivia.
“A trap is most effective when you set it where the opponent will run, right? Set one in a place like this, and ta-da! You’ve made your enemy suspicious! That’s hardly a trap. Now, I’m going to need you to stop talking like a moron or you’ll trash the soldiers’ morale.” Ellis’s sharp tongue was unrelenting. Luke scowled back at her as hard as he could to make his annoyance plain, but it slid off her like water off a duck. He was confident that she’d felt nothing at all.
Folding his arms, he went on. “So you think they’re totally confident they can handle a force that outnumbers them two-to-one?”
Ellis put a finger to the corner of her shapely lips. “I mean, that’s not that uncommon with armies who pride themselves on their might...” she said. “But not the Azure Knights.”
“And it’s because you’ve fought them that you think that, is it?”
“There’s that, but also my big sister’s blinding majesty. I didn’t get the sense they underestimated us, at any rate. Even though, to be honest, our soldiers are so much worse it’s laughable.” At the end, Ellis’s voice dropped to a whisper only Luke could hear, perhaps out of consideration for the soldiers around them. She laughed with a touch of self-derision.
So according to Ellis, the Azure Knights would not be letting down their guard, even against an opponent they outclassed. Put another way, there was no weakness there they could take advantage of.
“Well, seeing as we can’t read their minds, I suppose we’ll just have to go in and see what happens...”
If he were Ashton, perhaps he could have deduced the enemy’s intentions, but this would likely all be over by the time the runner returned. All else aside, dithering here with a two-to-one advantage would only lower morale for a certainty, just as Ellis said.
“Seems fine. I mean, overthinking isn’t going to get us anywhere,” Ellis said as though it wasn’t her problem, raising her hands in mock helplessness. An excess of caution would only dull their movements and their judgment. Luke had his forces advance on the Azure Knights. He led two thousand riders, while the other two thousand followed Ellis.
The riders would divide to the left and right, swinging around in a large arc to strike the Azure Knights on both flanks. They came over the crown of the hill, building speed on the slope. Luke urged his horse on, then called out to his aide, who rode at his side.
“How are they responding?”
“Nothing yet. It looks like they plan on meeting us where they stand.”
“Not wanting for confidence, are they?” Luke said, then shouted, “Ride them down!”
His soldiers replied with a gallant cheer. As the Azure Knights spread out into a fan-shaped formation, brandishing their great shields, the riders cut boldly through their ranks. Luke was with them, throwing himself into the fray.
“Defense! High tower formation!” In one fluid motion, the shield bearers raised their great shields to create an unbroken wall. Of course the Azure Knights would utilize the Helios Knights’ favored defensive maneuver. Yet the attack had not been as hard-fought as Luke had expected. If they pushed on, taking full advantage of their numbers, they could crush the Azure Knights.
And that’s what’s so odd. No one would hail the Azure Knights as the empire’s greatest if this were really the best they could do. And yet at that moment, Luke was yet to see any sign of a spectacular charge from them. In the end, he went on swinging his sword without arriving at a sure answer. Then, a soldier came galloping over to him, looking utterly panicked.
“A new enemy force is approaching us from behind!”
“Did you say ‘behind’?!” They had scouted out the entire area before beginning the attack. Luke had been told there wasn’t a soul in the vicinity besides themselves and the force they were currently engaging, which now only added to his shock. Loudly, he demanded, “Did the scouts miss them?” The soldier insisted firmly that such a thing was impossible, then, from behind, was stabbed through by the spear of a sneering Azure Knight.
“By the looks of you, you’re in command of this force,” the knight called to him. “And yet the look on your face says you have no idea what’s going on.”
“I suppose you’ll be kind enough to enlighten me then?” Skillfully guiding his horse with his legs, Luke slashed his blade in a series of blows, but though his attack was in no way lacking in force, the other man brushed him aside, wielding his long spear as though it were a sword.
“You played it too by the book. Of course, I’m the one who made you do it.”
Luke took this in. “So you had an ambush lying in wait?” He put all his might into repelling the incoming spear, but the man’s balance did not so much as waver. A thin smile pulling at his lips, he unleashed a wild series of stabs.
“An ambush? But you checked at the start and found there wasn’t, didn’t you? No, no doubt about it, the soldiers who sprung that attack on you from behind are the ones who were just here.” When Luke only stared at him, the man went on. “And now it seems you have even less idea what’s going on. You idiots were so preoccupied with flanking us, you lost track of our front and rear. And that’s how you ended up here.”
“Your front and rear...” Luke repeated. “I see. That was some brilliant maneuvering. I was totally taken in.” All he could do was laugh at his own carelessness. While his forces had been single-mindedly focused on the flanks, the soldiers who had previously made up the center had slipped out, then circled around to their rear. The fan-shaped formation and the great shields had all been to manipulate them into narrowing their field of view. It also explained why the enemy attack had been so feeble. Luke expected that around now, Ellis must have fallen into the same trap.
The two men exchanged a series of blows, then moved away from one another as though following the steps of a dance. The man deftly pulled on his reins, not gloating in his victory, but rather indifferent.
“Your mobility galloping down the slope, the excellent discipline of your soldiers despite their inexperience. Your maneuvers were crude, but solid. I commend you—you are a commander of no common skill. Unfortunately, luck has not been on your side this time.”
The man spoke as though to comfort him, but Luke knew it had nothing to do with luck. This was a total tactical defeat, and no one knew it better than he did himself. He felt cold sweat on his cheeks.
They’ve backed us into a corner. How are we going to get out...? he thought. Ellis, you’d better stay alive.
As Luke’s unit teetered, surrounded by enemies and on the brink of annihilation, Ellis’s forces had hurled themselves into yet another hell.
“We’re gonna be in for it if this keeps up, sis!”
“Quit squealing, I can hear you! If you’ve got time to yell, spend it on killing a few more soldiers! And don’t call me ‘sis’!”
The attacks came in without pause. Ellis parried and dodged, sometimes scattering petals of blood as she bellowed at her aide, who swung his spear like a madman at her back.
Much as I hate to admit it, the moron’s right. This is getting seriously hairy. I bet my dumb brother’s in the same mess...
From the outset of the battle, Ellis had felt something amiss in how slow the Azure Knights were to attack—entirely at odds with their expert defenses. But in the end, she had prioritized momentum. In hindsight, it was clear they had been trying to make her do just that. She had been unbelievably careless.
Anyway, we need to break out of here before they surround us completely... Ellis’s sword never stopped moving as she searched for an escape route. Thirty minutes later, a message arrived.
“Ma’am, Sharna’s platoon found a weak spot in their ranks! We can hightail it outta there!”
“Where are they now?”
“To the right of where we charged the enemy, maybe a minute away on horseback.”
Ellis went through her mind and pulled up the information about the area the scouting party had brought back.
But just beyond that should be...damn! They really are sly bastards. Their commander must be a real twisted piece of work. Coming from Ellis, this also served as a compliment. This commander had made an escape route just obvious enough for her allies to have picked up on it. They would successfully break through, only for every last one of them to be dragged down into the abyss. They would never evade it, not unless their horses grew wings.
Except for one thing. Ellis smiled.
“She’s finally gone funny in the head...” her aide whispered with an air of tragic desperation.
“Only thing that’s funny around here are the wisps of hair clinging to that skull of yours. Anyway, get the troops into an arrowhead formation.”
“We’re gonna make a break for it from where the report said, then!”
“Who said anything about that?”
“Eh?”
“Don’t ‘eh’ me. If you’ve got time to gawk at me, spend it on getting the formation ready! Go on, scram!” She poked her aide in the back with the point of her sword to hurry him along. He quickly spurred his horse to gallop. Ellis gave a vigorous swish of her sword to splatter the blood adhering to the blade on the ground.
Except, she thought, I’m a twisted piece of work myself. I can’t believe my own brother walked into this stupid excuse for a trap.
When the arrowhead formation was complete, Ellis had them act as though they had taken the enemy’s bait, only to instead charge right at where the defenses were thickest. Naturally, the Azure Knights had not seen this coming, and while Ellis lost a great many soldiers, they successfully broke free of the encirclement. An hour later, they rendezvoused with Luke’s unit, which had also suffered heavy losses. When she saw her brother was safe, she heaved a private sigh of relief.
In the confines of a narrow valley, what remained of their forces locked up in a strong formation, and they just managed to evade the Azure Knights’ pursuit. In all, around four for every ten of their soldiers had been lost. It was a crushing defeat.
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