Chp.31: March against the fairies

Over the next few days, Sarpa completely took control of the entire ogre army. All the chieftains now obeyed him and the soldiers followed him faithfully. His was the last word in any discussion and no one ever questioned his decision. He had, though he still didn't say it openly, become the supreme commander.

From that moment it was done as he said: all ogres were subjected to the same training regimen. Sarpa immediately showed himself to be a demanding and incorruptible leader, but at the same time respectful and attentive to the needs of his soldiers. He continued to sleep and eat with them, without ever demanding preferential treatment, a more comfortable place to sleep or even just better food, something that no chieftain, let alone a supreme commander, had ever done throughout the history of the ogres, earning even more respect from the soldiers. He also modified the entire military camp to make them safer: imitating the tortoise formation, he built palisades for greater security and made sure that everyone had their own shield with them while they slept, in addition he arranged the sleeping places in the best way so that the ogres would be exactly in the right spot in case of attack.

Sarpa knew what his next move was, since Haku had informed him earlier; using every means at his disposal, consequently, he prepared the soldiers in the best possible way so that they could be ready for what they were supposed to do. Luckily, ogres learned quickly, at least when it came to following basic orders for battle. When Sarpa judged that his soldiers were disciplined enough, he announced that the time had finally come to take action: he intended to directly attack the opposing military camp and exterminate most of the fairy army, ending that war once and for all.

Such a decision until recently would have met strong resistance in the council of tribes, but now Sarpa had supreme authority over everyone, so it wasn't difficult for him to convince the chieftains. With all the power that he now had, basically none could oppose him. Furthermore, the soldiers were happy with his choice to take action: they were sure that if he had been the one to lead them they would have had the upper hand. After all, under his leadership they had been able to kill thousands of fairies by staying on the defensive: so why shouldn't they have achieved a similar result by attacking?

On the day of departure, Sarpa mounted a small wooden pedestal to be seen by the whole army, and there he shouted: "My companions! Friends! Brothers! We have waited too long! It is time for the fairies to pay for their actions! They have taken us our friends and our children, they killed lots of our comrades, they even attacked one of our cities! Well, I promise you that today we will demand justice! The great Baat is my witness: before the sun goes down, their military camp will be a heap of ashes!"

"YES!" was the cry that rose from the soldiers as soon as they heard it. The battle roar of the ogres rose into the air, followed by exclamations of joy.

"LET'S SHOW THEM!"

"THEY MUST PAY!"

"AND THEY WILL PAY FOR IT, DEFINITELY!"

Sarpa realized that saying those things no longer gave him any guilt now. Evidently, by now he was so used to it that he no longer even felt the taste of hypocrisy when he behaved in that way. He hoped that the god Baat didn't punish him for his arrogance: after all he hadn't blasphemed his name, since he really meant to do what he had promised, even if he didn't do it for justice but for himself and for the dragons. And he also had sworn an oath in the god's name to Haku, so he was sure Baat wouldn't have been too harsh on him. Ultimately he had respected the laws of the supreme god perfectly, so there was no reason for him to punish him.

The army immediately set out on the march. However, it wasn't a march like any other the ogres were used to. The soldiers this time traveled in neat lines, one behind the other, in perfect synchronicity. There was no longer any sign of the undisciplined and ragtag army they once were.

Sarpa sighed. If the ogres had been a more united race, and not divided by constant internal strife, they might have been able to defeat the fairies many centuries earlier. After all, it took just one supreme commander who had some good ideas to completely transform the army. If they had been like this from the beginning not only would the fairies have been no problem from a long time, but humans would have been a much lesser threat too. But it didn't matter now: things would have changed forever, and the ogres would soon have became a single kingdom whose power would have slowly grown until they became a strong opponent for anyone.

As soon as they crossed the border with the fairies, Sarpa ordered: "Keep your guard up! As soon as you hear the clatter of wings, get ready to fight!". The ogres grumbled in agreement. All of them were ready to face whatever horror the fairies presented to them.

The ogres marched on, but it wasn't long before they heard the familiar buzz of wings. "NOW! OPHIOTAURUS TAIL FORMATION!" Sarpa shouted. The ogres complied immediately and just like in the turtle formation they placed three rows of shields for protection; only they didn't just do it on the front side, but on every side of the army. In a single second, the ogre army became like a giant serpent armored on all sides. That was the reason of the name was 'ophiotaurus tail formation': the tails of these animals, in fact, had the shape of a snake's one and they were extremely resistant.

The fairies arrived shortly after: they were probably only the vanguard of their army, since they were still quite far away. As soon as they were there, they fired several arrows at the attackers, but of course they didn't penetrate the powerful shields at all. "JAVELINS!" Sarpa shouted, and suddenly the front rank of the formation parted in several places, revealing ogres armed with thousands of spears who hurled their weapons at the faeries. Soon after, the formation closed again. Several hundred fairies were immediately shot and fell to the ground dead or wounded.

But unlike the turtle formation, the front file didn't charge to finish them off; on the contrary, the ogres kept the formation intact. They marched on, well protected by their shields. Every minute Sarpa yelled again: "JAVELINS!" and the formation would open again, but the openings were always in different places, making it impossible for the fairies to predict where the wall of shields would open and therefore not allowing them to fight back. The spearmen hit the fairies and then the rest of the army killed them as they passed over them. Therefore, the fairies were unable even to slow down the advance of the ogre army.

Some of the fairies, shocked by that situation, abandoned their initial position and tried to counterattack physically, assaulting the wall of shields with swords or daggers; but the ogres had made the shield wall virtually impenetrable and killed them effortlessly by passing their weapons through the thin gaps between the shields.

The ogre army was like a huge armored monster that advanced through the forest regardless of the attacks of their enemies. Nothing the fairies did could even scratch the ogres' extraordinary protection; on the contrary, what the fairies got was only a large number of dead. In a little time, at least a thousand of them had already died. By contrast, the ogres hadn't yet suffered a single loss: the attacks of the faeries were like rocks thrown against a mountainside.

The fairies soon abandoned their arrows and began bombarding them with increasingly powerful objects; however, the ogres proved invulnerable to them as well. Sarpa had had as many enchanted shields prepared in the previous days; they normally would have been a privilege of the elite, but now that there was a new supreme commander it was done as he said. These enchanted shields formed the front line. All the explosive objects that the fairies owned left just a few scratches on them. And the ogres behind them continually swapped places with the following rows, thus having time to rest and not get tired even if they were continually subjected to the shock waves caused by the explosions.

The fairies then decided to use poison: they had many magical items that could release poisonous gas into the air. This time they were more successful, but still the formation didn't break: even if some ogres taken by surprise fell under the cruel power of the poison, their place was immediately taken by another ogre. Besides, Sarpa had already thought about that eventuality: under his order, the soldiers in the first line took out a leather band and placed it over their mouth and nose. That leather band had been enchanted by the few mages present at the ogre camp and they could therefore also protect against poisonous gas.

Therefore, the fairies failed to achieve anything even with the poison gas. Or rather, they did something: they made the ogres even more angry. Sarpa decided it was time to start using stronger tactics, so he yelled: "NETS!"

The formation split apart and several ogres appeared and tossed something similar to small cubes into the air. The cubes spun for a while, then they unfolded and became nets at least twenty meters long and five meters high. The fairies who were hit by it were no longer able to free themselves: they had in fact been sprinkled with the nectar of a special forest flower which made them extremely sticky. Each net caught up to fifty fairies at a time, and many of them died as soon as it fell to the ground. The survivors tried to use their weapons to free themselves, but they discovered that the wires were very stiff.

The throwable net was a tool familiar to the ogres, but Sarpa had put the mages of his camp to work making them rock-hard; a little innovation that he further improved by showing them some runes of resistance that he said he'd seen on some items the fairies used. Now the nets were not only streamlined and sticky, but also nearly indestructible. This caused the fairies to remain trapped until the army caught up and killed them, also retrieving the net in the process. As for the unfortunate few who attempted to rescue their companions… they only fell victim to the sticky nectar themselves, and were killed as well.

The ogre army seemed literally unstoppable. The fairies had never faced such a well-organized enemy who had taken countermeasures against each of their weapons. They couldn't attack head-on because the ogres were protected by their shields and would just have killed them one after another, they couldn't attack from a distance because the ogres killed them using spears and nets, and even their magical tools were proving useless. Their casualties now numbered in the thousands, and they hadn't even managed to diminish the number of ogre soldiers in the slightest.

In the end, the only solution the fairies found was to retreat and litter the ground over which the ogres were supposed to pass with traps. However, this solution also proved unsuccessful. As soon as the ogres figured out the trick, they simply started throwing stones in front of them continuously to set off the traps before stepping over them, effectively rendering them ineffective. The march of the ogres slowed a bit because of this, but it didn't stop.

The humor of the ogres was extraordinarily high: never had they heard of an army of theirs that had been able to push so far into fairy territory while suffering so few casualties and exterminating so many fairies! Even if they lost in the end, that feat could already be considered legendary! This was to be a battle sure to be remembered by generations to come, and they were all there to take the glory!

And obviously, the credit was only for one person. Sarpa marched proudly and with his head held high, firmly protected by his shield, with a smile painted on his face. Even though he knew the hard part of the battle was still to come, so far he and his subordinates had the absolute advantage. Also, he had absolute faith in Haku's plan: until now the dragon had always been right, so why should this time be different?

However, the most complicated part of the battle was approaching: after a long march, the ogres had arrived near the camp of the fairies. The real fight was about to begin.