Chapter 26 - Camp Followers and Princess Amara (4)

Once more inside the familiar pavilion of Princess Amara, I listened to her commands.

“Listen very well here, Verath. I will not detach you to any of my divisions as that will only lead to confusion and mismanagement. In addition, I have a feeling that you do not work well with others. Instead, you will act as a soldier under my personal command. You will be the shadowy dagger with which I will wield mercilessly to sow discord against the damn Laden army.” She paused, waiting for my affirmation, her look suggesting that she would accept nothing else but one answer.

“Of course, commander. My weapon shall be yours for the duration of this battle.” My words were not exactly lies, just half-truths. After all, my weapon would indeed be hers, just not in her hands, but lodged in her mortal wound.

“Very well, then. The main task I will have you do today will be to test the extent of your ability.” There was an expectant look on her beautiful face. “I am expecting to be enlightened, Verath, as I have a feeling you are not what you seem to be.”

I nodded and proceeded to follow her out of the pavilion even though she had not exactly specified what she wanted me to do.

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When the day was over, I had a new nickname—The God of War. It was flattering to say the least and not undeserved as I had challenged and beaten over a hundred soldiers of varying expertise. I became a little tired of keeping track after the first hundred soldiers and captains whom I had dueled and won in short time. It starts to become tedious and stale after the first dozen or two duels.

Princess Amara also gave up trying to find someone to beat me, leaving me standing there above my fallen opponent, but not before she left a few last words to tell me to meet her early next morning for the battle.

When night turned, I avoided the area for the whores and left quietly to spend time alone at an isolated place. It was time to get more practice with my magic, specially earth magic.

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Early next morning, I stood next to Princess Amara on her horse with my own horse of a soft brown color mixed with some black around the rear sides. She had a purposeful and confident look on her face as if victory was already within reach.

The wind was also calm on the day of this battle as if anticipating what was going to happen soon.

Off in the distance on the other side of the grassland, I could make out ten thousand soldiers lining up on their horses even with my human eyes. The Laben army looked fearsome with their extra three thousand soldiers, all of whom were most likely equipped with high-quality armors. Money could buy you anything in this greedy world, even a small kingdom.

On our humble side, we had seven thousand soldiers excluding the thousand and a half or so camp followers who would not be joining the battle. We were split into two forces with Commander Amara leading three thousand soldiers and the other four thousand soldiers led by one of her trusted subordinate general, an experienced female leader by the name of Seraph, who had not been there at the meeting.

General Seraph, a fearsome woman who was taller and more muscular than most men, would be the vanguard of our forces. Her height added to her black horse, which was by far a head taller than most horses, made her easy to spot. There were also short spikes along the edges of her armor and the middle had the large white star symbol blazing proudly.

The simple plan for the battle was for General Seraph to distract and take the brunt of their ten-thousand strong army, while Commander Amara would flank them on their left, trying to penetrate through to the enemy leaders. Then I was to be released like a mad dog onto their armies, biting at them on their heads.

My own plan for the battle, however, would be different. I would be walking on a thin line where I needed to balance both armies on a scale, giving neither a winning edge. Instead, I would have to force both armies to continue while thinking they could win, until every soldier was dead on the battlefield.

I realized that it was a hasty plan with many holes, but I had no choice but to do this to kill every human. Then it would be time to kill all the camp followers who would be waiting impatiently for the outcome of the battle; a dreary prospect which I did not find likable in the least. But it was either my life or about twenty thousand humans—the blood mark the eldest had drawn on my stomach had made sure of it.

Personally, I found my life more important than theirs but that was just my subjective opinion. I was sure the other twenty thousand would have a more opposite opinion on the topic of their deaths.

Looking around, I could feel the tense and nervous expressions on the faces of the masses of soldiers, all of whom I did not know nor cared about. Their faces were partly hidden by the opened helmets and their sheathed swords hung from easy to reach locations on their horses.

When the sun was finally at its highest position and Princess Amara judged it was time for the battle to begin, she motioned to her herald to proceed. The herald, a young male soldier equipped with light armor and a short sword, took out a large horn held in both hands and proceeded to blow into it.

The sound from the horn was heard all over the grassland, reaching easily toward the other army and five seconds later, another horn that came from the other army resounded across the plains.

This was the signal both armies had agreed upon to start the annual battle; this way, everything would be fair and there would be no ambushes. The battle would just depend on the numbers and qualities of soldiers mixed in with tactics from the commanders.

Princess Amara waited for a short moment, watching General Seraph ride out leading her four thousand strong army as the vanguard of our forces. Then Princess Amara kicked her horse into motion and cried out in a loud voice.

“Let us kill these motherless sons of bitches and show them that we will not wallow in defeat! For Sendarid Kingdom!” she shouted, raising both her sword and shield with the symbol of Sendarid decorated onto it.

The soldiers shouted the last part along with her and cheered in an attempt to get rid of their nervousness.

Our forces neared the other charging army who was already engaging General's Seraph heavy-duty army, which consisted of four thousand heavily-armored soldiers; these soldiers were the strongest and largest of the Sendarid army, specially chosen to take every attack head on and last a long while with their huge one-handed rectangular shields.

When our army flanked the left of the main battle, a rain of arrows which blotted out a part of the sky fell down upon us. The enemy army had been anticipating this flanking maneuver and had set aside a thousand archers on horses standing behind another thousand melee soldiers who were guarding their front. The enemy army, after all, had more than enough soldiers to spare for an attempt at hindering our maneuver.

Shields were raised, but a few unlucky dozen soldiers on our side died instantly as the arrows hit unprotected, vital parts. Thankfully, Amara had predicted the rain of arrows and had ordered her captains to spread out the soldiers a small distance apart from each other to avoid collisions with the dead.

Three arrows slammed into the black shield of the princess, who was riding alongside me, but none of it penetrated far enough for a hit with the way she had expertly blocked them. When a few of the arrows flew toward me, I drew out the bastard sword and deflected them all with the weapon. Not one of the arrows had enough piercing power to penetrate through and get stuck in my weapon, which was basically a thick slab of durable steel.

We were now a short distance away from the left flank where both the main armies of both kingdoms were engaging. The two thousand enemy soldiers, however, were blocking our way. We would first have to get rid of them so that we would not leave our backs exposed.

When we neared the two thousand soldiers, the enemy archers had all switched to their various melee weapons and charged at us along with their front soldiers.

Their simple tactic was to distract our three thousand soldiers long enough for their seven thousand strong main army to wipe out General Seraph's four thousand. Beside me, I saw the princess give me a commanding look and I nodded back in response.

It was time for her to get the first real task out of me and to milk out the measly amount of gold I had cost her for all it was worth. I kicked my top-notch horse to go faster and very soon, I was at the head of our army and Princess Amara a closed distance behind me.

In just a few seconds, I would meet the first line of charging enemy soldiers. Then a sleek steel-tipped arrow, too fast for my horse to dodge, flew toward me. I had to praise at that enemy archer's precision and his prodigal ability with the bow; it was almost impossible to hit someone with such a precisely aimed arrow while riding a horse at breakneck speed.

The arrow instantly pierced through the head of my horse; I had felt no need to protect the head of my horse, thinking that such a thing would not occur. Anyways, even if the horse had been protected, the strength of that arrow would have pierced through the protection anyway.

I could have also blocked that arrow with my weapon, but I felt no need as I was going to abandon my horse anyway. It would have only dragged me down, literally and metaphorically, in fact. By the time my horse was falling down, I had already stood up on the back of my horse.