(IN) Chapter 19 - Safe Zone Ambush

25th of Craving, night time.

The sudden silence of the crickets and other beasts of the night warned most of the experienced warriors that something was amiss...

"Duke, Bran! Wake up! Something's wrong!" Byran silently shouted through the thin cloth walls that separated their walls as he began putting on his armor.

Galleo and a couple of other Knights that were old veterans of War were also already awake, quickly preparing each of their war gear...

Sadly, despite the quick reaction of the Veterans within the Main Reinforcement Army, it was already too late.

The quiet attacks of the enemy barbarians had already descended.

The linear arrangement of their camps made the tents susceptible to flanking from the left and right sides of the line. And so the attacking barbarians who attacked from both left and right quickly broke through the camps.

Luckily for the army, many veterans awoke just in time to form some sort of resistance.

"Rise up my brothers! The Barbarians have come! Show them what the Light can do! Deus Vult!" A crusading Knight of the Church roared as other Holy Knights quickly formed a circular shield wall around him. Making a great dome of light that protected everyone around them, healing the wounded along the way.

"The Barbarians are coming, boys! A silver coin for every barbarian head you take!" A commander of the Golden Denari shouted as he stabbed an enemy Berserker on the chest, turning his men's unending thirst for money into a great thirst for blood.

Of course, the Knight Orders lead by the other great families also came together to fend off the numerous waves of barbaric Warriors.

Though not as notable as the first two orders, the myriad of plated Knight Veterans wearing different helmets and donning different Noble Family Crests formed a bulwark against the incoming waves of barbarians in front of the line where the main force of the Northmen was situated.

The horde of Northmen Warriors descended like an unstoppable wave of death, cleaving stray Brunesman in their path, stopped only by the myriad of Knights who waves their banners in protest against the hordes of barbarian axes!

Although the front lines held their ground, not much could be said for the middle segments of the line where the bulk of common soldiers were situated.

The common soldiers, most still asleep were mercilessly slaughtered by the enemy...

Luckily this slaughter, though grievous, didn't last long, as the main army's commanders quickly formed ranks under the orders of the Commander General.

No one could hear the old man's shouts at first. But then as he released a great shout that resounded throughout the battlefield, everyone began to order themselves:

"FORM RANK! THOSE WHO RETREAT GET STABBED IN THE BACK! SO FORM RANK!" Old man Alexei shouted to the top of his Aura-Powered lungs.

Hearing the Commander General's words, most of the men who started panicking and were thinking of escaping began to think twice, in fear of getting stabbed in the back, either by the barbarians or by their fellow soldiers who might've misunderstood Alexei's words.

By the time they had regained their thoughts, some of the quicker soldiers had already formed ranks, leading the initially escaping soldiers to instead follow the bandwagon and also form rank.

Such was the great skill of Alexei in leading armies of men. If it was any other commander, they would probably have made a flurry of long commands that would've just confused the soldiers even more.

Instead, Alexei used two simple words to reorder the troops:

"Form ranks!"

And even added the bonus possibility of getting stabbed in the back to halt the panicking soldiers from making a rash decision. Inevitable giving more time for the men to form their ranks...

Alexei stood on a small hill nearby to see what was happening on the battlefield, thinking to himself: [Dammit! I shouldn't have let those shit faces (Nobles) decide how we'd camp!... Safe fucking zone they said!] Alexei ruthlessly berated himself for being complacent.

"Sir! Are you alright?!" One of Alexei's loyal Knights asked in concern, seeing how Alexei's grabbing his chest as if he was in great pain. Alexei might've been a great legend, but even legends get worn down by time and old age.

"I'm alright! I'm alright..." Alexei waved his hands as he formed composure, sending a flurry of simple yet concise orders to the different lieutenants in the field.

"Haaa... maybe I'm getting too senile, too old for this..." Alexei murmured in a faint breath, barely heard by the Knights around him. Of course, none of these experienced veterans agreed with the old General's words.

If this was any other Commander, the camp would have already fallen, and their common troops routed. Only Alexei, Brune's Legendary Last Standing Wall, could've flawlessly performed a feat like this.

*ROOOAAARRR!* """FOR TYRRR~!""" The Northmen shouted in great roars.

Seeing as how the Brunesmen have already seen their ambush, the great Warriors of the North need no longer to keep the eerie marching silence.

And so, throughout the night, great cries of war from the berserking Warriors from the far north echoed and bashed themselves against the staunch battle cries from the Great Knights of Brune. Lined up spears pierced through Northmen skin whilst barbaric axes cleaved through Brunish armor. The melee between the ambushing Northmen and the newly formed ranks of the Brunish soldiers had reached a stalemate.

But this stalemate didn't last long as Alexei shouted:

"WINGED HUSSARS! CHARGE BOTH COLUMNS!!!"

Alexei commanded his exclusive personal troops, the Household Troops of the Blauschild Family - The Winged Hussars to flank the Northmen attacking the left and right sides of the line.

These Winged Hussars were the combination of heavy plated Knights and the heavy ranged troops commonly used in defensive Siege warfare. They were the perfect evidence of the Bizmach within Alexei, whose Ducal House was known for their love of using heavy ranged units in their defensive sieges, despite Alexei's staunch denial...

Holding their heavy crossbows or one-shot blunderbusses, they charged through the lines of barbarians currently in melee with the Soldiers of Brune, giving the Brunic Soldiers an upper hand in battle.

The Winged Hussars, first fired off their ranged shots to disorientate the enemy and then using that chance to whip out their long and thin yet accurate lances to precisely couch out the Northmen's ranks, debilitating the enemy's warriors.

The decorated metal wings on the Hussar's horses distinguished them from all the other mounted Knights, making them quite memorable to the helpless victims of their charges.

"VA-VALKYRIE! VALKYRIE!!!" The fleeing Northmen shouted as they saw these angels of death sweep through the battlefield.

The lethal charge under Alexei's command gave the Brunesmen a miraculous counterattack that would've almost won Alexei the battle within the middle line... if not for the fact that this was not all of the Northmen's troops.

"Tch! The Brunefolk weren't as soft as I thought they were..." Ulfskad the Bloodhound, speaking in a different rougher language than Brunish, clicked his tongue as he ordered: "Release the Cavalry! Ha, do these men think only the Horse can be a noble steed?!" Ulfskad scoffed in his deep and almost bear-like voice.

When Alexei finally thought they had fended off the Barbarians, a deep rumble sounded through the battlefield.

From the forests flanking both sides of the camp's line, a few Mammoth Herders whose riders pulled on the great beast's tusk to guide their path of destruction rushed out of the forests.

Followed by some Bear Climbers and numerous smaller Wolf-Riders, the three hordes of beasts stampeded through the middle of the Brunic Lines, decimating most of the common soldiers within the Army.

Unlike horses who didn't charge straight at the enemy, due to the possibility of death by impalement of the spear.

Mammoths cared not the tiny spears waved at them by man, and mercilessly charged through the formed up ranks of the Brunic Soldiers like they were stepping on ants.

No flanking, no tactics, just pure brute animalistic force...

"Gang up on the wolves and bears, but leave the Mammoths to the Knights!" Alexei shouted.

Alexei tried ordering the Veteran Knights and Sword Masters within the Army, all capable of releasing Aura, to hunt down the Mammoth beasts on a one-on-one fight. But sadly, said veterans were already too busy at the front lines holding off the main Northmen Army, also with their own great warriors, or suicidal Berserkers who parried the Brunish Knights in skill with their barbaric instincts.

Even Silvan's Uncle who was a well-known Spear-Wielding Knight was dueling a Northman Warrior... Sadly he quickly lost an arm for being too cocky and was immediately killed off.

Seeing the lost cause at the middle section of the line, where most of the common soldiers had already died from the enemy's animal stampede, Alexei decided to give up on the bulk of the common soldiers to concentrate his command in the front of the lines where the Veterans were somewhat holding their ground.

Alexei formulated a plan of retreat that could save most of the men here in his final act of desperation, but that too was cut short as all of Alexei's final strands of hope was extinguished when a desperate shout alerted him of the horrors that the Northmen had brought to the battle...

"Milord! A TARASQUE!!! TARASQUE!!! THEY'VE LED A TARASQUE HERE!" A hunter from the Pendragon Faction alerted Alexei of the incoming Tarasque heading straight to the bulwark created by their elites.

"Alls lost..." Alexei murmured when he realized what the Barbarians had done.

But as everything seemed hopeless, a sudden thought crept through the old man's mind...

[Wait... has the reserve already fallen?] Alexei wondered as he realized no news was heard from that section...

"IT'S GONE?!!" Alexei's eyes grew large like a cartoon character's when he saw that not only was the reserve somewhat intact, they've even managed to slip away from the enemy's ambush...

Little did Alexei know that whilst he was busy fending off the barbarian assault, a small hero was being born within the ranks of the reserve.

And that hero, a tired-looking fat Count riding a visibly exhausted horse, was riding up to him right now...