Chapter 34: The harmony of swords, spears, blood, and grasses (2)

- How many men did we lose?

- 4000, Milord.

- Collect the bodies and burn them, and then continue building the fortifications, better finish everything at sunset.

- Yes, Lord.

Impetus gets off his horse and checks the surroundings. The road has now turned into a giant crypt. Ravens flying everywhere, try to eat what's left of the dead soldiers. We can smell blood all over the place, from both sides, Fortunians and Grasslanders, there have been more than 22000 men fell in the previous battle.

A well-dressed man with a distinguished armor rides toward Impetus:

- The enemies do not seem to fake retreat, they have set up a camp 20 miles from here.

- Thanks, Kruger.

Impetus sighs, about 20000 Grasslanders have been stopped forever here, but the fighting on other battlefields is also important. They need to somehow defeat the Khals here and match to aid them. He starts to think, they have about 30000 men, mostly infantries, fighting with cavalries on the open field will be a suicide. So, how to defeat them?

An idea appears on Impetus's mind, the king once said:

- When two armies are fighting with each other, not only the strength of soldiers is the feature that decides who is the winner, but their mental states and terrains as well.

Impetus hails his guards:

- Ask Lord Kruger to meet me immediately. Stop building the fortifications, ask the cooks to prepare food for the soldiers, we march at nightfall.

**********

- Turmerk, we have lost a battle, we should attack now right after they win. They'll be overconfident now and won't expect us to come.

Khal Turmerk, the leader of the three khals who attack the Greenears Road. They have sustained heavy casualties in this war. 20000 of their brothers have failed here. It is reasonable for them to seek revenge immediately. But after considering for a while, Turmerk gives his opinion:

- Brothers, I know you want to seek revenge for your tribesmen. But we need to be wise, the enemies are more disciplined and have the style of fighting that I've never met in my life. From their banners, they must be soldiers from the Kingdom of Fortuna. As I heard, it is a very strong kingdom to the East.

- So we just ignore them? After all the deaths of our brothers?

- No, we won't let our brothers die unrevenged. But if we attack them now, we'll be destroyed again by their formations. We need to wait.

- For what?

- Three roads lead to Carrasona, our allies are attacking the other two. They have fewer men than us, there should be a time that one of them is defeated. When that time comes, we can attack them from two sides and crush them.

- But what if they attack us now?

- We are camping in an open field, if they attack, we just need to mount our horses and hit and run their army. Our ancestors had used this method to defeat much stronger enemies. No, make sure that all the horses are ready and the riders are well-rested.

- Aye.

Midnight, the camp of the Grasslanders is in total silence, only light from several torches of some men patroling can be seen. As their commander has ordered, all the riders sleep cautiously with their weapons beside and their horses just a few steps from them. In case the enemies attack, they'll be able to get on horses immediately.

They have been marching for a long time and have just fought a decisive defeated battle. As a result, they want to rest and sleep soundly this night. Unfortunately, they won't have that chance. Roars coming from an unknown place rise in the quiet night. All the Grasslanders wake up from that loud noise and are ready for battle. They all get on watchtowers and walls of their camp, ready to repel any attack. However, nothing come.

20 minutes, 40 minutes, 1-hour pass, and nothing happens. Just when before the soldiers decide to retreat to sleep, they hear the roars again. About 4000 cavalries can be seen from outside their camp, they throw torches toward their walls, causing a little fire, but nothing is serious. And then, their enemies retreat. Turmerk, who is observing, clunches his fists:

- What are they doing?

The same thing happens for two hours more, the Fortunian just come forth to attack and then retreat again and again. At this point, Turmerk realizes that the Fortunian infantries can be seen nowhere and know what the enemies are trying to do, he groans:

- THEY ARE TRYING TO DISRUPT OUR SLEEP. THEIR INFANTRIES ARE NOT HERE, LET'S GO OUT AND KILL THEM.

His men get on their horses immediately, Turmerk mounts a horse and leads his troops outside of the camp to attack the enemies, which is about 10000. Seeing that the other two khals do not follow him, he only shouts: "traitors" in his head, the enemies' numbers are small, maybe they are all the cavalries they have, if he destroys them here, the enemies will have no chance to confront them in open terrains. He shouts:

- CHARGE!!!

His riders follow right after him, charge forward the Fortunian riders. However, the latter retreats to the wood, which strengthens the statement that the Fortunian main army isn't here inside Turmerk's head.

Keeping pressing the Fortunian riders, they get deeper into the vast grasslands. Many Fortunian riders fall under the arrows come from their pursuers, which boosts the morale of the Sabertooth tribesmen.

Two armies keep running and pursuing until the Fortunian men ride into a huge mountain ravine. Turmerk slows down a little to observe if there is any ambush set up but he doesn't notice anything suspicious. He waves his hand and the Grasslanders continue to ride, release their anger of being defeated earlier on their running enemies.

The ravine seems to lead to an unpassable terrain, and the Fortunian cavalries can not run any further, the Sabertooth tribesmen aim their bows at their rivals. However, the ground starts to shake and they are going to experience one of the scariest scenes that they can dream of.