Chapter 94 - Devastation

[4 Days Remaining]

“That looks a little bit intimidating,” Lana commented from behind me. Beside her were Efari, Eden, Kiara, and Bronze Knight Commander Orik.

“Don't you think that's a bit of an understatement there, Gold Knight Commader Lana,” Orik said with a calm yet somewhat glib voice.

From his voice and words, I could tell that Orik was somewhat nervous. It was only natural, since the enemy army was just on the horizon. And this, combined with the fact that their army was more than one-fourth of a mile wide, could only create a tense and somewhat unnerving mood.

Our crystal clear view of the enemy army also did not help alleviate the nervousness in the air. Some of the younger soldiers in our army, the green ones who had not seen even one battle, had even puked their guts out from the growing tension.

They were afraid of the enemy army, who far outnumber us. The odds were not with us. It was a little more than two to one—a little over 50,000 against our measly 20,000. The only advantage we had was our defensive advantage.

Archers, mages, and other long-range attackers in our army had been positioned on large, mage-made platforms that were up to a hundred feet tall. And up ahead from the platform that I was viewing the enemy, there were many

barricades of earthen spear, mazes, and walls.

“Waah, they are as numerous as ants,” Eden said in a happy voice. “I just hope they put up a good fight.”

“Sounds rather tedious,” said Kiara toward Eden.

From the vantage point I was standing at, I could tell that the enemy army had somewhat slowed their speed down.

“They seem to be moving rather quite cautiously,” Orik said. “It is only to be expected though. One should always expect trickery and traps from the enemy army. It is what I would do.”

After some more time of observing the enemy's movements, I turned around. There was nothing more to be gained. The enemy army was only vigilantly and cautiously proceeding toward us, slowly, but inevitably, coming closer to the third and fourth regional earthen defense. Up in the sky, the enemy Air mages were scouting our positions and numbers.

There was nothing I could do to retaliate against these Air mages though. They were too far up and too far away. It would also be quite dangerous to have a battle between our Air mages and the enemy Air mages when the enemy forces clearly outnumbered us.

As I left the platform to go toward our ground defense, I felt Kiara, from beside Eden, silently watching me go down the slope. If I had to venture a guess, she was most likely wondering what we were doing in this war between two human sides. It had nothing to do with us, after all.

-------------------------------------

Night soon fell, but the tension in the camps did not dissipate.

The enemy forces were purposely traveling slowly, and we could see light from fires a few miles away inside the enemy camps.

Sentries were posted in our camps as a worst case scenario, but we all knew in our hearts that the enemy forces would not attack yet. An army, especially a numerous one, after marching for more than half a day, obviously required rest.

No, the enemy would take their sweet time so that they could fight in their best condition. In the front of our camps, the rows of earthen platforms with spears made of hard earth formed a series of palisades. A crude defense, but nonetheless, we needed every advantage we could get.

This was where our defense would take place.

Now, we could only wait for the enemy.

--------------------------------

[3 Days Remaining]

The next morning came slowly, like the dead slowly trying to escape from its grave. Ever so slow, the sun rose with the crack of dawn.

The day was still, “hotter than the heat between a whore's legs,” as one of my cruder soldiers puts it. The weather near the areas around Shail Kingdom was usually always warm and sunny with few days of rain.

War and battles in the rain was a messy business, as I had found out during the period of turmoil. Blood mixed with raindrops shedding onto the greedy earth was never a good practice. It made for messy falls, and I had seen many soldiers succumb to these tiny mistakes. Mistakes which took their lives.

The green smell of crushed early morning grass was ever present. My eyes observed my surroundings with little curiosity. Some of the soldiers looked as if they had had fitful sleeps, night a tedious embrace to them.

“Morning, General Verath,” a knight captain greeted as he came out from his tent. He looked energetic and was all smiles. A glorious fool he would turn out, I believed.

“Morning, captain,” I replied, not knowing the knight's name.

The central camp, the place where I temporarily resided, was located at one of the larger raised platform. It had a clear view of the numerous enemy camps over the distance.

With my dragon eyes, I could see that the enemy were preparing to move out, getting closer and closer toward us.

The ground would soon see blood in as little as three days, I estimated.

-------------------

[2 Days Remaining]

The enemy forces were close now. We were just a few miles apart, too far for mages to attack, and too far for archers to launch arrows. Cavalry also seemed reluctant, both on our side and the enemy side.

As for the other six fronts, messages had arrived that the over 100,000 enemy forces had begun drawing closer.

--------------------------

[1 Day Remaining]

Tension was high in our camps, no doubt, in the enemy camps also. Today would be the final day before the battle would begin, both of our forces in peak conditions. The last day of a nervous-wrought peace.

The expressions the men and women wore, and the emotions they gave out were palpable in the air. You could almost feel it, sense it around you. It was a high-strung tension, as if your heart and neck had been garroted.

I nodded toward Gold Knight Commander Lana who was standing beside me. “I will trust you to watch my back, vice-commander.”

“You can count on it. Don't recklessly engage the enemy also,” Lana warned. “Though I know that you are a pragmatic bastard.”

“I shall take that as a compliment,” I replied. “And do consider the timing of the strategies we made in our meetings.”

Lana chuckled a little. “To think I would have someone who is more than ten years my junior tell me that.”

The Gold Knight Commander held out a gloved hand.

I grabbed it.

“We forge our own paths and make our own luck. Neither gods nor others may steer our helms. That said, let us both return alive.”

Lana's hand pulled back from mine then, and she left to prepare for the upcoming battle.

Likewise, I would also need to do so.

---------------------------------

Riding my black destrier, a behemoth of horses, I stood at the front with my three “wives,” beside me. Behind me were twenty thousand soldiers and battalions of mages. In my left arm, I held a black winged helmet which was opened in the front; in my right arm, I held a longsword of black sable. For my body, I wore a set of enchanted black armor made out of material which somewhat enhanced your magic, similar to the material of my sword.

The formation of our army was simple.

Archers would go toward the raised platforms to the sides and let loose rain of quivers for all they were worth. Mages, likewise, were spread throughout the melee soldiers for various reasons such as defending from the attacks of enemy mages.

At both of our flanks, there were one thousand cavalry on each side. In the center and serving as the vanguard were heavily armored units with shields and swords, numbering five thousand. And directly to the sides of the heavily armored units were various sword wielding infantry, which numbered about ten thousand. Behind these engaging units, there were spears, which numbered about three thousand soldiers.

As for the enemy forces, they were somewhat similarly structure, except the enemy had more than twice our numbers.

A loud horn signal was heard from the enemy side. It reached all the way across the one mile distance that separated our two forces. I watched as the enemy forces started marching toward us, closing the one mile distance.

I waited until the enemy forces would be within a minute's reach of our long-range units which were camped on the earthen defenses and platforms. Then I put on my black winged helmet and pointed my sable longsword at the opposing army.

The herald, the banner carrier, saw my gesture. There could be no mistake in it. He blew furiously into the enchanted horn, further signaling the start of our battle.

The blood of men and beasts would dye the ground red today. And I would be the first to spill it.

Time coalesced into a slow entity. It felt as if both armies had started marching toward each other in slow motion. Then reality intruded and everything came alive, moving quickly.

The heavy infantry units of the enemy forces parted to let through two hundred black robed mages. I felt, sensed, and saw a mass gathering of the threads of magic. Various colors joining together.

Then the magic was unleashed.

A crackling wave of fire mixed with lightning and other various kinds of magic came surging toward our vanguard. The wave was enormous, more than four hundred feet wide and more than seven feet tall. It ate at everything, and devoured all the grass as it came into contact with the wave.

“ATTACK FORMATION ONE! PIERCER! SHIELD FORMATION TWO! REFLECTION!” my most senior mage captain yelled out. He was the leader of all the battalions of mages that had been assigned to me.

At his words, two hundred mages that had been closely following our first row of heavy infantry vanguard came out to the front. Most of the mages were densely packed in the center, and formed the tip of a spear.

Devastating fire magic, lightning magic, mixed in with a column of water magic from behind, was unleashed in the shape of an arrowhead. It met the crackling wave of fire the enemy had shot with a flash explosion of various arrays of noises and fire. The center of the destructive arrowhead, however, pierced through that wave of fire, while the sides of the arrowhead were canceled and overwhelmed by the enemy's magic.

But that had all been accounted for by the commanding mage captain. More than a hundred fresh mages came forth from our light infantry units and formed dense shields of water and fire that curved upward slightly at an angle to allow for better reflection and defense. The enemy wave of fire magic was stopped stone cold with those shields.

Huge bursts of steam exploded outward, temporarily impeding the vision of both sides. It was only temporarily, however, as Air mages from our side and the enemy's side cleared away the steam with air magic.

Eden suddenly laughed out loudly from beside me. The excitement in her voice and face was obvious, similar to that of a child with sweet-tooth that had obtained a most delicious candy. “This is exciting! So this is how you wage war?”

Eden jumped forward from her horse, yelling the Ancient words, “Vurdus Incentia.”

A more than twenty feet tall vortex of flames surrounded her in midair before instantly becoming absorbed by Eden's body and hands. Her hair and hands turned scarlet-orange, an indication of the living conflagration of flames she had transformed into.

“Damned dragon,” Kiara said, surprising me a little with her somewhat vicious tone. “Always jumping into battles without thinking.” Saying that, Kiara also jumped forward from her horse. “Vurdus Glacia!”

A blizzard storm of shards of ice and snow so dense that you could see nothing through it surrounded Kiara in a spherical radius of more than ten feet. The sphere of blizzard soon disappeared and her appearance changed. On her forehead was a sparkling blue circlet covered with frost and twirling around in floating circles around her body were more than two dozens ice shards of the purest white mixed with just a hint of blue.

The two female dragons were soon side by side and made short work of the more than two hundred and fifty feet distance that separated the enemy army and our army.

I shrugged a little at Efari and some of the commanding knights in the front. Eden charging ahead of time had been wisely considered, so we had already made plans to include that.

Unlike the two dragons that had just sprinted toward the enemy forces, I utilized my horse to gallop across the distance. It would just be somewhat demoralizing for our side to see the general run toward the enemy forces by his lonesome, not even riding his horse.

I charged at the enemy with my black longsword held steady and Efari riding beside me.

“RALLY TO GENERAL VERATH!” a Silver Knight Commander shouted.

“FOR OUR GLORIOUS SHAIL KINGDOM!” another shouted.

I didn't look back to see what was happening. The plan was for the heavy infantry vanguard to lead with the mages spread between countering the enemy magic. Then the cavalry would circle around the flanks of the enemy and attack their sides. The cavalry would go around the earthen obstacles and the few raised platforms that were located near our sides.

From the sides of my eyes, I could see our some of our Fire mages and Air mages shooting magic down below at the enemy from these raised earthen platforms. One Air Mage Battalion was also fighting in midair with an enemy squad of flying Air mages.

The battlefield was a chaotic mess with rains of fireballs harrying both sides and the occasional lightning strikes creating chains of shocks across the battlefield. Pools of water were also formed on the ground, causing enemies and allies alike to slip and become crushed.