Chapter 31: Sink into the pit

Four days since the attack on the caravan.

An hour before midday at the east gate of Neiza.

Baron Jar is on horseback in a full set of golden extravagant-looking armor, surrounded by his entourage, which includes Uren in light steel armor, and his guards of two knights and four amateurs, the group are outside the town's gate and is waiting for the army to assemble in the wide field.

Baron Jar is barely a knight-level awakened and didn't have any extensive combat or battle experience, he had the usual training when he was younger but stopped after inheriting the territory at the age of twenty-two. He mostly rely on his knights for planning and carrying out battle tactics for him, he usually just sat at the back and watch from a distance.

A lone rider arrived and stopped his mount a few meters from the group, the soldier on horseback bowed to his lord and then nod to the knight at Baron Jar's right side, a confirmation that the army is ready to depart.

Sir. Ludwig Benny is Nieza's chief knight, a burly man even in his forties, with short brown hair and neat looking mustache, sideburns, and beard. The knight is in fact the real military commander of the army. The senior knight turned to his lord and said, "we're ready to march my lord".

Baron Jar nodded to Benny, and the latter then yelled loudly for everyone to hear, "Move out!"

Baron Jar has around seven hundred and fifty men marching in four columns, his army is made up of two hundred fifty heavy horsemen, three hundred infantry, and archers, with an additional two hundred well-equipped mercenaries. Baron has three knights and twelve amateurs with him since he has to leave at least one knight in the town, while the mercenaries have three knights, which includes their commander.

At the rear of the army is a caravan with twelve enormous-looking wagons, guarded by a unit of mixed light cavalry and footmen.

After four hours of regular paced marched, Baron's army arrived on a wide plain before a vast forest to the east of Nieza. In front of them, just outside of the forest, facing their way is the young viscount's army already in battle formation, and has probably been waiting for them.

Half an hour ago, the scouts reported a sighting of Viscount Vallen's army, just at the west border of the forest. Baron Jar and his men were somewhat taken back, they did not expect the Viscount of Piran to meet them in the field, they initially thought that the young noble would hole up in his town.

....

While his men are forming up hastily, Baron Jar and his entourage trotted to the front to have a good look at the opposing side.

Viscount Vallen's army is divided into five separate units. The three units at the front have forty men on foot, Half of which are armed with three inches thick rectangular wooden shields with metal frame, that is four foot tall and short swords, while the other half has sixteen-foot pikes and also short swords strapped on their side. These units are fifteen feet apart from each other, while Gallahan is on horseback circling around them and yelling orders.

"Eyes at the front! Stay in line!"

In the middle is their light cavalry of eighty-five riders, where Eric and most of his knights and most of his personal guards are positioned. Twenty feet behind them is a group of two hundred men that are comprised of conscripted villagers and prisoners from the baron's caravan in a four-man deep line, they looked to be poorly armed but in a tight formation, overseen by Trim and Spencer on horseback.

....

After scanning the Vallen's army using aura improved vision, a dark-skinned bald knight on Baron's left side announced, "They have a little over four hundred men my lord, but half looks to be untrained peasants, which likely had been dragged hurridly to boost their numbers", .

"I think the boy did a good job to at least assemble that rubble, what do you think sir Uren?", with a mocking tone, Baron commented with a smile.

"A useless struggle my lord", the older noble answered, also with a smirk on his face.

Two riders from the Valen's army broke away from the line of men and horses and slowly moved to the open field in the middle of two armies.

"Do you wanna meet them and exchange some words my lord?", the same bald knight asked.

Baron Jar did not respond, rather he leaned to his side and spat on the ground.

"Useless talk, they shouldn't have brought an army if they didn't plan to do battle at all."

....

"I don't think anyone's coming my lord", Drake stated the obvious.

"Oh well, what a waste of time. We could at least have a good look at that baron and that great uncle of mine", Eric responded.

"Worry not my lord, we will surely accomplish the task". Drake laid his eyes at his lord's back and thought, 'if I didn't know better, you would very likely want to end this here and now to save us trouble'.

"I know you will", Eric responded.

Both riders then turned back to their position in the army leisurely.

....

....

After a half an hour of a stand-off between the two armies, sixty riders broke off from the Viscount's army's center and rode north towards a section of the forest.

'What kind of useless trick are they up to?', Baron thought. The baron then looked at his chief knight with a face obviously saying "what are you gonna do about that?".

"Nelson, take a hundred cavalry with you and run those riders down the ground!", Sir Kenny called the bald, dark-skinned knight and loudly issue his orders.

Nelson cupped his right fist to his left chest, then turned his steed towards a section of the army, the knight started yelling orders and then rode away with a hundred cavalry to hunt the opposing riders.

"Let us also start, Sir. Benny. Bring the boy to me, alive, it doesn't matter if he has missing or broken limbs", Baron gave his chief knight his order, with a slight impatience in his tone.

"Aye, milord".

After a while, the war horned sounded repeatedly, whilst the remaining heavy cavalry is assembling into a two-man deep line at the front. Hanes Miller is at the center of the formation and will lead the charge, a gorgeous knight that has long blonde hair and can be mistaken for a woman, the youngest but is said to be the most promising among Baron's knights. The cavalry started their advance slowly until everyone on the unit is moving at their maximum speed, and are now halfway to their targets. The mercenaries, on the other hand, followed them and ran behind them as the second wave.

Baron Jar and his commanders are hoping to end the battle with this assault, thinking that they might still need to pursue the Viscount back to his keep and thoroughly pound the opposing subjects into submission. They believe that their army is stronger and better trained for this.

As the charging cavalry came closer, the pikemen and shield-bearer at the front of the Vallen's army quickly back-pedaled a couple of meters in an organized manner, giving their original spot to the hundred crossbowmen that came from the peasant unit at the back. These peasant-looking soldiers kneeled and aimed their crossbow, waiting for Gallahan's order. These men are villagers and townspeople who had received help from Sera Valen before and are part of her network, who did her bidding and followed her instructions. Eric instructed his cousin to asked these men to only learn how to use the crossbow to save time and practice by themselves. They are provided with the weapons and bolts, even though they are not fully trained soldiers and are currently not part of the regular army, they still follow instructions really well.

Miller noticed the movement at the front of Piran's army but believes that it won't be able to stop them, there is no way a mere hundred crossbowmen will ever deal enough damage to nullify their charge. Nieza's army has evidently didn't took their enemy seriously, thinking there is no way they will lose here.

However, when the heavy cavalry is only about forty meters away until they finally ram through and trample Viscount's Valen army, the riders at the front of the group suddenly stumble, almost at the same time. Miller saw his men and their steeds tripped by something and then sunk into the ground, and it only took a few seconds until he and his horse followed suit, sharing their fates.

More than half of the heavy cavalry has already fallen into the sea of soft mud, while the remaining riders followed them into the trap since it's difficult to abruptly stop the momentum of a full-on cavalry charge running at full speed. A few riders tried and had almost successfully stopped their mounts but were pushed by their allies when they collided with each other.

The muddy ground wasn't too deep, only about 3-4 feet, but is enough to stop a charging cavalry on their tracks. Furthermore, there seem to be spear-shaped wooden sticks stuck on this field pointing upwards. Miller groaned and opened his eyes, he tried to check the status of his body by moving his limbs, but he felt a stabbing pain in his leg. Checking, he saw that it is punctured by a wooden spike that looks like it emerges upon the ground, "Akkadea! a muddy pit with wooden spikes!". Miller was still dazed from the fall, he grimaced in pain and is now trying to recover his senses, he gripped a leather strap tied to his lying mount neighing in pain, and pulled himself closer to his steed. The knight removed his helmet and tried to stabilize his breathing, he then looks around though blurry, that is when he saw a volley of crossbow bolts already descending upon him and his men.

What follows are screams of pain and agony erupted on the battlefield.