Valkyrie's Shadow

Empire in Chains: Act 6, Chapter 31

Empire in Chains: Act 6, Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Traditionally, being assigned to the right flank of an infantry formation was an honour, but Joachim wasn’t sure what it meant if one was on the right flank of a formation of Ogres. When it came to wars between Human armies, the right flank was reserved for the strongest, most experienced soldiers. They were tasked with breaking through the enemy’s left flank and initiating a sweep of the enemy’s ranks.

This basic concept of breaking through an enemy flank with a particularly strong force was not limited to that positioning. If a weak portion of the enemy army was identified far enough in advance to reposition the elements of one’s own army, then a Commander would often opt for that instead. A strong force could also be countered by numbers, such as the annual skirmish with Re-Estize where the Imperial Knights faced four to one odds. There was also the odd deployment of forces in Katze Plains, where the Kingdom’s Marquis Boullope placed his levy and powerful personal retinue on the left in a direct challenge to the Empire’s right as a show of prestige amidst the pageantry of the annual skirmish.

Many options were available to be employed by the Imperial Army to create variations on this simple, yet effective tactic. In theory, at least. The Legions were drilled in these tactics, but, as of yet, hadn’t had the opportunity to use them against another army. For instance, they could have their War Wizards facilitate breakthroughs by focusing bombardments on a specific part of the enemy’s forces. Against Re-Estize, whose Royal Army consisted primarily of levies lacking the discipline to move in their tightly-packed formations, it was presumed to be a lethal option that the Imperial Army could employ at their leisure.

The most terrifying option, however, came into play when the full might of the Imperial Army was brought to bear against the Empire’s enemies. This option employed the champions of the Empire: Fluder Paradyne, the Great Imperial Knights and the Captain of the Whitesilver Imperial Guard. They were individuals who could destroy companies, divisions and even entire Legions on their own, but it was not the reason why the option was terrifying. The true reason was that their deployment would be answered in kind by the deployment of the opposing army’s champions.

At that point, it was no longer a conventional battle. Regular men were simply corpses unaware that they were already dead. The champions of a country held other champions in check and the fact that they were committed to battle meant that the fortunes of war and the fate of millions rested on their shoulders. If one side lost theirs, they could either concede defeat and surrender, flee for their lives, or sacrifice countless numbers of regular men to restore the balance of power by overwhelming the enemy’s champions. The last option was unlikely to be successful, as they could easily withdraw to recover.

Glancing ahead over the men of the Baroness’ bodyguard, Joachim wondered if they were aware of what was about to happen. There was a significant change to their formation, which was that Lady Zahradnik was now leading from the front. Her resplendent white armour caught the moonlight that filtered through the trees; the silvery blade of her glaive glowing with the soft pale blue of a holy weapon. He had not noticed that attribute of the weapon before and a part of him considered it ironic that she wielded a holy blade as the representative of an Undead sovereign.

Though they had witnessed her in a duel, they had not yet seen the Baroness fight in a pitched battle. Her weapon was a polearm designed for the battlefield, so Joachim could only assume that the coming night of fighting would see Lady Zahradnik fully blossom into lethal splendour.

?Five hundred metres. Double time.?

Their cadence picked up, dominated by the thudding footfalls of their Ogre and Troll allies. Joachim hefted his warhammer, raising his heater shield to chest height.

“Oh boy,” Redwyn said from beside him. “Here we go.”

“Different, huh?” Joachim smirked.

“Just a bit of an understatement, dontcha think? We’ve been tramplin’ Demis up ‘till now and suddenly we’re in over our heads.”

“I wonder about that,” Joachim said. “Each fight shouldn’t be too different from hitting a large tribe. The difference is that this battle is important enough that our Captain is in front.”

?Three hundred metres.?

“Our Captain, huh,” Redwyn replied. “I don’t think we can go back to our old ones after this.”

Snorts and chuckles rose from the squad. The Fire Cleric’s words had the ring of truth to them: everyone knew they were being led by a woman who would likely live on in song as a Great Captain long after the battles she fought were long passed. After she left them, the tales of her exploits were likely as close as they would ever come to her again.

?One hundred metres. Pace yourselves and do anything stupid. Work together to take down your targets; watch each other’s backs. May Surshana guide your hand.?

A surge of power flowed through Joachim’s body, filling him with a sense of conviction and sharpness. Lady Zahradnik bolted forward with jaw-dropping speed, clearing the ground as she went from tree to tree. Moonlight flashed off of her glaive as she arced through the air and landed in the middle of the Demihuman camp.

The largest Demihuman – an Ogre roughly three metres tall – was split from shoulder to waist as she hit the ground. A crimson flash swept horizontally across three Ogres to its right. She didn’t spare a glance at her victims, pivoting to lop the heads off of two more Ogres behind her. In three strokes taking less than two seconds, six Giantkin were dead. She moved on before the two halves of the first Ogre finished sliding apart, skewering a Goblin mystic through the throat as it started going through the motions of a spell.

?About eight hundred in this detachment…well, not for long.?

Shouts of panic and screams of terror rose with the whirlwind of uncompromising violence that tore its way out from the centre of the camp to its far end. Those on the outskirts turned their attention to the sudden commotion from the interior, only to be bowled over from behind by the charge of Lady Zahradnik’s company.

“Uh, how do we tell all these guys apart?” Pol asked as he drove his spear through a nearby Goblin.

“The ones that aren’t shittin’ themselves are ours!” Gaston answered.

“Oh Lord, my God of Fire, inflame the hearts of thy faithful with righteous courage – ?Bless?!”

“‘Ey Redwyn, do our Demis even follow The Four?”

“Shut up!”

They stabbed and bashed their way around the right edge of the camp, giving the allied Trolls and Ogres on their side a wide berth. Joachim’s arm worked swiftly, his warhammer putting holes in Goblin and Ogre heads alike. Occasionally, a friendly Goblin with a smouldering brand snuck up behind one of the Trolls in their way, disabling its regeneration while Frank and Igvel juggled it between them.

?Finish your fights and form up! Moving in a minute.?

Moving…?

He raised the visor of his helm with the lull in the battle, turning his head to examine the camp. They had already made their way around to the other side. Nearby, the Demihuman ranks were forming. Many of them were snacking on various body parts that they had picked up on their way out. Joachim and the others joined them, trying to ignore the sounds as they devoured their victims.

“Do we have any wounded?” Joachim asked.

No one answered. Going by the impression that they had pretty much walked over the camp, he wondered how many of the defenders had even fought back.

?Next target is two kilometres south of here. Let’s go.?

They departed at a quick march, making their way over the rocky terrain. Joachim thought he heard the distant sounds of battle to the west.

“Destin, is that the battalion fighting out there? I can’t tell if I’m hearing things.”

“Yeah,” the Ranger replied. “They started before we hit those Demis back there.”

“How are they doing?” Igvel asked, “They got the hard part, yeah?”

“Yeah. They’ve got seven companies plus the air wing, so if it’s a group like we just fought they should be okay.”

Joachim looked ahead to the figure of Lady Zahradnik as she moved between the trees like a pale spectre. Their progress slowed when they came across a brook that cut deep into the stone. The Baroness and Ough hopped over the gap with no issues, but the rest of them had to follow the chasm west until they found a stretch narrow enough to cross.

Distant shouts drifted through the trees, this time closer than before. Joachim had resolved to keep track of their position, but the turns they were taking to get through the forest rapidly rendered his mental map useless.

?Five hundred metres. They’ve started moving so keep an eye on where I’m going. Rangers, run ahead and start harassing that group. That crossing cost us too much time.?

Dark figures swarmed through the sparse undergrowth as the company’s Goblins responded to her orders, their shortbows in hand. He had always thought Goblins chaotic and undisciplined but seeing hundreds seamlessly flow together at the Baroness’ command was swiftly changing his opinion of them.

?Three hundred metres. We’re chasing them from behind so I’ll be charging at two hundred metres.?

Angry roars sounded from ahead, which Joachim assumed was the result of their scouts harassing the warband. While the Goblins’ bows were limited in range and power, they employed steel-headed arrows from the battalion’s supplies, shortened for their use.

Another surge of power flowed through him as the Baroness darted off. They were too far to make out the details of what went on after that, but the roars of anger turning into shouts of panic were informative enough.

“Say,” Yohann said as they jogged after her, “how come that Skill is so cold? My regular company Cap’n uses it and it’s always got this hot feelin’ to it.”

“She does it on the regular, too,” Merg added. “Captain Hawke can only do it when he’s good ‘n angry.”

Joachim felt like he should know the answer, but, as a Cleric, he never felt the need to speak to his family about their Command Skills. Maybe House Zahradnik had a different way of learning them than the officers of the Imperial Army.

“You guys sure are calm with us running straight into a fight,” Winson grumbled. “And so am I. What the hell is this?”

“It’s a Sergeant thing, yeah?” Redwyn said, “Or a Captain one…”

“What do you mean?”

“Before the changes to the army,” the Fire Cleric said, “my old company had the same thing going on. Once you settled in, you just got firm. Started shrugging off stuff that’d usually get ya scared.”

A battle cry sounded to their left as Ough raised his massive staff and charged. His fellow Trolls followed, steps rumbling over the ground. Their highly noticeable entry to the battle was ample warning for the Demihumans in their path, but knowing about the attack helped little. Skulls and chests were transformed into paste as they were introduced to excessive amounts of brute force.

Disconcertingly, Lady Zahradnik’s continued drills with the Mountain Trolls were showing success in instilling proper technique into the dimwitted Demihumans. They now rarely swung at random, instead using the handful of basic principles that they were taught to maximise the physical power and speed behind their strikes. Those attacks were still mundane in nature, but, apparently, it was common for Demihuman warriors in the Sorcerous Kingdom to wield Martial Arts and the Baroness entirely expected Ough and his fellows to grasp them at some point.

“Uh…at this rate,” Pol said, “there ain’t gonna be much left for us, yeah?”

Himsel snorted.

“The next round of awards is gonna look weird.”

They waded into the thoroughly scrambled remnants of the enemy warband, searching for Trolls and other notable opponents to take down. Over their time in Lady Zahradnik’s Demihuman company, they found that it was more efficient to engage resilient targets like Trolls, which freed up their Ogres and Trolls to rapidly dispatch large numbers of weaker opponents. The value of their ‘shock troopers’ was surprisingly high given their simplicity, adding an element to their arsenal that they realised was notably lacking in the Imperial Army now that they had become used to working with them.

?Finish your fights and form up! The next warband is crossing four hundred metres to the southwest!?

Joachim’s gaze went from squadmate to squadmate, trying to discern their condition.

“Call out if you’re injured!”

“Over here – I think I timed a Fortress wrong.”

Frank turned and winced, gingerly lowering his shield to the ground. It took a Middle Cure Wounds spell to restore him to nominal condition.

“Thanks, Ward,” Frank nodded. “How many more hits like that can we take?”

“Not that you should,” Joachim frowned, “but we can probably get through four more battles like that.”

A flash of orange light cast long shadows through the trees as a Fireball exploded to the southwest. It was followed by another, then another further to the west. Six consecutive explosions drew a line stretching in the distance over a kilometre away.

?Time’s up – moving out! Rangers, after we make contact with this next group, move west to support the left flank of Ray’s battalion.?

The next warband could be seen from a distance, silhouetted by the periodic flare of Fireball spells striking the main body of the advancing Demihuman army beyond. Their battle with the preceding group had given them plenty of forewarning and they had turned to receive their charge.

A steady rain of imperial arrows delivered by Goblin shortbows peppered the warband’s massed reception, taking a grievous toll on the poorly-armoured tribal warriors. Lady Zahradnik landed somewhere behind them, her work going on unseen to her company on the other side. Ough and his Trolls lay into the front with sweeping strikes of their staves, smashing away Ogres and Goblins in twos and fives.

Despite the overwhelming assault, the sheer numbers remained a problem. There were over a thousand directly ahead of them, reportedly five thousand beyond and an unknown number on the far side of General Ray’s battalion. The forest around the General’s forces lit up and the main Demihuman army closed on the distant bright spot on the battlefield. Fireballs from the War Wizards overhead grew less frequent and Joachim could only imagine that they had run out of mana trying to thin out the massive force.

Redwyn cast another Bless spell. Despite its weak effect of slightly improving the accuracy of attacks and bolstering morale, it affected all allies within its radius, making it a highly efficient spell for large-scale warfare. There was another highly-efficient battlefield spell called Prayer, which brought divine favour upon all allies within its area of effect while bringing disfavour to all enemies in its radius at the same time, but it was a Third-tier spell that neither Joachim nor Redwyn could cast.

The squad’s Cavaliers thrust their spears into the mass of enemies as they closed with the Demihuman line, working as quickly as possible to dispatch them. They couldn’t advance any further, however. Arrows and stones bounced off of Joachim’s plate armour, tossed over the enemy line towards them as the entire front ground to a halt.

“I’m not sure if we should be wishing we had a Wizard to Fireball these Demis,” Redwyn said, “or happy we all have the armour to deal with this crap they’re throwing at us.”

No one had the breath to respond, arms ceaselessly working their weapons as they attempted to push through. Joachim drew back to heal Pol. Igvel moved to cover them.

“I take back what I said about not having enough for us,” the Cavalier said. “My damn spear feels like a whole fucking tree right now.”

“Redwyn,” Joachim called out as a stone arrow bounced off of his helm, “handle fatigue on your side.”

“I hear ya.”

Joachim held his hand out over Pol.

“?Resurgence?!”

“Damn it all,” Pol said, “it’s the slave driver spell.”

He supposed that it might be seen as such. The spell was often used to extend training drills in the Sixth Legion.

The Cavalier returned to the line. Joachim went from man to man, removing the effects of their exhaustion. It cost roughly a third of his mana, but they were only just completing the first part of their battle.

“We need to pace ourselves better!” He told them, “If Redwyn and I have to do this one more time, we’ll be out of mana.”

Joachim drew his warhammer again and the men moved aside as he once again took his position on the front. A few thudding steps were the only warning he had before a huge Troll filled his vision. The log in its hands whipped down towards the top of his head.

Shit!

?Dodge!?

His body moved without conscious thought, swiftly evading what he thought was an unavoidable attack. The improvised weapon smashed into the stones, sending debris bouncing off of the greaves of the men to either side. In front of him, the Troll suddenly jerked as it was driven through the space in the line, tumbling forward a half dozen metres.

Lady Zahradnik followed after it, driving her weapon into the back of her prone target several times. She reached into the satchel at her waist, producing a crystal vial. A quiet hiss rose in the air, filling his nostrils with an acrid odour as a green liquid was poured onto the fallen Demihuman.

The Baroness’ gaze flickered over Joachim before turning out to examine their surroundings. Most of the enemy were dead or scattered, leaving the strongest few behind to be cleaned up.

“Thank you, my lady,” Joachim said. “Do you require any healing?”

“I’m alright,” Lady Zahradnik replied. “This is the second…”

“The second?”

“The second notably strong individual in the area, including Ough. I’m trying to figure out how many are potentially left in the enemy force. General Ray hasn’t reported the like on his end, so I’m hoping that this is it.”

Joachim looked at the melting body.

“Do you think there are more?”

“It depends on the ‘recruiting radius’ of this Goblin army. Mithril-ranked targets and above have to be dealt with by myself or Ough before they can inflict significant casualties on everyone else. At least some of them should have turned down the offer to join as Ough had, but my main concern is that our enemies managed to recruit one of the more powerful beings on the plateau.”

“…how powerful are we talking about here? How many?”

“Ones in what we consider the Realm of Heroes. If this plateau has been left relatively untouched, there should be enough territory up here to support around two of them. They aren’t necessarily individuals who will cooperate with a Demihuman army, however. Magical Beasts; Monsters; Heteromorphs…though not all of them are necessarily hostile. Unfortunately, unless we happen to trip over them, we won’t know what’s out there until they show themselves.”

The sound of Ray’s battalion clashing with the Demihuman forces not far away rose in intensity. Lady Zahradnik took a deep breath.

“One last group before we’re done,” she said.

“That ‘group’ is five times larger than these other ones,” Joachim frowned.

“Plus their Commander,” Lady Zahradnik added. “Let’s get to work.”