Being a clever military commander, Ruguer would never pass up an opportunity to damage the enemy. The situation outside the gates now presented such an opportunity. With the ten huge war machines that lined the defense trough now blazing away, most of the stronghold was hidden by thick black smoke. When the gates dropped seventeen hundred mounted cavalry poured through the four exits and headed toward the bridges in front of the stronghold. Behind each group of cavalry were special infantry units made up of combinations of warrior skills to support our newly-devised tactics. They ran behind their mounted brethren as quickly as their legs would carry.
Up on the wall I ordered the crossbow machines to be elevated even more which was accomplished by a turn of a crank fitted to a graduated half circle on which the device rested. More shafts were lit and sent on their way. The greater elevation was designed to place the missiles out amongst the various groups of clustered beasts now that the main targets, the trebuchets, had been successfully attacked. The object of the exercise now was to foster as much confusion and chaos as we could. The enemy ground troops had already spent an entire day suffering through the heat while dressed in hot battle gear and having too little water to go around. Then they watched what were supposed to be the instruments of our destruction set afire in the space of a few minutes by weapons they didn’t even know we possessed. Now, the third volley of shafts rained down upon the unprotected fighters splashing their fiery grease all around them. Tents and wagons were set alight and fighters ran as burning gobs of flaming animal fat burned their skin and the thick black fur that lined their backs.
We only had enough missiles to give us four full volleys. As the last loading was ready I gave the command to let the crossbow machine crews choose their targets. Having already launched three previous shots, they were getting a feel for the way the weapons performed and could better judge how they could use windage and elevation to hit what they wanted.
When I gave the order to fire I watched eighty three additional flaming shafts shoot forward and down into the enemy camp. Some destroyed water wagons and large supply tents. Most struck at the groups of enemy fighters that were most densely packed together.
Fear is a funny thing. Like I said before, it is like an infection. Only a small portion of the huge group of sub-human invaders were actually affected by the crossbow missile attack. The vast majority of the Greys were deployed out of the range of the new weapons and were not even touched. They had simply looked on as some of their fellow invaders were burnt and consumed by the fires. A different reaction happened when the burning trebuchets began to collapse. The Greys who had been assigned to guard them had not yet been given permission to abandon their positions. As the huge machines collapsed they rained fire and burning timber down on the ones closest to them. Faced with the disapproval of their officers or a horrible death by fire they broke and ran. And as their brothers around them saw the stampede they joined in. Evidently greys had an evolutionary trait similar to humans that compelled them to join in when numbers of them panicked.
As the smaller groups of terrified Greys reached other blocks of fighters their brothers joined them in flight. Beasts that had suffered no harm caught the scent of fear in their peers and decided there was something to run from. So they did. The generalized confusion overwhelmed the officers, some of whom even gave up trying to calm them and joined in. Fleeing bodies smacked into stationary ones which added to the confusion.
About this time Ruguer and his cavalry burst through the curtain of smoke by the bridges and descended upon the disoriented invaders. With surprise once again working on our side the cavalry carved out a portion of the enemy positions separating them from their fellow invaders. They then sliced through the segregated enemy positions employing lance and mace to devastating effect. They whipped their horses around the still-burning tents and wagons dealing destruction from either side of their mounts.
Almost as quickly as they had struck, the cavalry turned their steeds back toward the city walls and clattered over the two smaller bridges to the safety of the far side of the defense trough.
At this point in time the larger center bridges were still being crossed by the new infantry components. From the walls I saw six large formations take shape on the other side of the trough. I knew each formation would contain eight thousand warriors meaning Ruguer had committed forty eight thousand warriors to this action. It was almost all that we had. The remaining twelve thousand were back in the city with me, manning the walls and other defenses.
The Grey King could be seen shouting and pointing, his armor shining in the waning sun. He appeared to be having some success at getting his troops under control using just his persona. I could see him running back and forth screaming and assembling several large groups of fighters for the purpose of mounting an attack. They still had a huge advantage in numbers if he could get some organization going.
The only mounted warriors now on the far side of the bridges were the signal-flag bearers, there to pass on orders via the display of different colored pennants. I lifted a telescope to my eyes to study the enemy king. He appeared frantic to seize upon the opportunity to close with our forces now that they were outside of the protection of our walls. He was slapping his officers and kicking others, desperate to get his forces under some kind of control and stop the localized panic that had spread after our missile attack. I saw him skewer one of his own underlings with his sword for some slight, probably for not moving fast enough.
But he was having some success. He now had about twenty five thousand fighters standing by and in formation awaiting orders. Thousands more were flooding into the valley behind them and forming up.
He should have waited for overwhelming numbers to arrive. He didn’t. With his inhuman mentality he had no regard for the safety of his men. His only impulse was to attack the human army that was finally exposing itself outside of the city walls. He wanted to attack and kill as many as possible before they could retreat to the safety of the gates. The number of soldiers he lost was inconsequential. He had more than enough fighters. He could sacrifice half of his army and still retain the ability to accomplish his plans.
With thirty thousand fighters now behind him he ordered an attack. The king did not lead the charge. Instead he climbed a tall wooden structure that featured a large flat deck about twenty feet off the ground. From this vantage point he could observe the progress of the counter-attack he had just ordered. His only instruction to his officers was to attack swiftly before the humans thought better of their plans and ran back inside their walls.
From my location on the walls I saw our circling mounted signalmen raise yellow pennants. The six Olvioni formations were deployed in elongated rectangles with the broad sides pointed toward the enemy. When they saw the yellow flags the front rows placed their large rectangular shield before them with the bottoms braced on the ground. By now the Grey’s were some three hundred yards away and trying to hold some kind of order and formation as they ran toward our ranks. I was happy to see them expending their energy on such a long sprint.
Though I couldn’t see him from my overhead perch, Ruguer was below me standing high in his stirrups. Using his battle telescope he made a quick estimate of the number of Greys that were included in the enemy counter-attack. He conferred quickly with two of his lieutenants who confirmed his count. It was now or never time. Ruguer had to decide whether it would be feasible to meet this attack or order his infantry to quickly withdraw. He took another look with his telescope. It would all depend on how quickly the enemy king could reinforce this first wave of fighters. With nothing but his genius and courage to draw upon he decided the risk was worth it. Ruguer snapped his telescope closed and set his jaw. He gave the signal which was relayed by the pennant bearers.
“Prepare for attack,” came the order from dozens of Olvion officers on the battlefield. The kingdom’s best and bravest steeled themselves to meet the enemy.
The enemy counter-attack wave was still approachin
g our lines as quickly as they could run. At two hundred yards their lines began to fray as the faster runners left the slower ones behind. Running with full battle dress and weapons was hard work and some were more up to it than others. A few of the raiders stumbled and fell. Others slowed to a fast walk, gulping air and ignoring the shouts and threats of the officers. I saw wooden shields and some of the heavier weapons being discarded and abandoned on the field. It appeared to me that the attackers were suffering the effects of too much time in the sun and too much distance to cover at a full-out run.
But behind this first wave of Grey attackers I saw another large group starting to form up. That was where the true danger existed. If the Grey King could organize a second wave with enough numbers to overwhelm us we would be in danger of losing most of our defensive forces.
Back over by our formations I saw red flags being hoisted. There were subtle movements within our warrior ranks. When the Greys were one hundred and fifty yards from our formations they had slowed considerably. I ached for more ammunition for our large crossbow machines. I could have visited great carnage upon them at that range and cursed my lack of foresight for spending our last volley so cheaply.
Our signal riders rode back and forth in front of our formations now showing black flags. There was a lot of shuffling of bodies in the last two rows of the formations. I held my breath. Thousands of lives depended on the decisions recently made by me and the others in the command team.
When only one hundred yards, the length of a football field, separated the running front lines of the Grey invaders from our formations all of our signal riders lifted purple flags. On the walls behind them a hundred warriors blew loud notes on hand trumpets to ensure all of our people got the signal and were prepared to act. The grey beasts continued forward, tiring but with every expectation of prevailing once they were within striking distance. The combat veterans among them anticipated the customary battle tactics from the humans. They expected the humans would engage shield-to-shield and give good accountings of themselves before inevitably falling before the superior physical strength and ferocity of the greys. The fact that the humans had numerical strength against the counter-attackers was irrelevant. The Greys only had to keep them engaged until reinforcements arrived. Then the slaughter would begin.
The first rank of our fighters, the ones closest to the approaching Greys, now swiftly took kneeling positions, lowering their shields at the same time. Behind them, in each formation, stood four rows of bowmen, standing tall and holding nocked arrows. Ten thousand archers drew back their bows and launched that many arrows into the air. The arrows arced out over the battlefield and bent toward the advancing horde.
Three thousand Grey invaders died or fell wounded in a fraction of a second as deadly steel-tipped arrows pierced their copper breastplates and thin helmets. They dropped and were stumbled and stampeded over by their brethren who had the same mindset as their king. Another four thousand died as the closer range improved the accuracy of our bowmen. Still they came. Another volley streaked forth. Ten thousand shafts pierced five thousand bodies. The surge of attackers slowed but did not stop.
At sixty-five yards distant, a fourth flight of arrows dropped another five thousand beasts. These arrows were launched straight at the attackers, not up into the air to drop down upon them. The result was shafts penetrating heads, chests, necks and legs. Arrows that were dodged by attackers in front found targets behind.
But now they were close. Before another volley could be nocked they had approached within fifty yards of our positions. Close enough for our warriors to smell them. A last flag signal was displayed and another volley of arrows launched. The first surviving several rows of attacking Greys caught the brunt of the speeding shafts and more thousands died.
Before the last volley even struck, the ranks of archers abandoned the battle formations and crossed over the bridges to the relative safety of the castle side of the trough.
But now it was ten thousand javelin bearers stepping up into place. They grimly chose easy targets among the now-near Grey beasts and launched their deadly missiles straight at the approaching beasts. Sleek and heavy, the sharp, pointed weapons carved a massive hole into the ranks of the attackers.
Karr, the Grey King, had been watching as every deadly volley of arrow and javelin decimated his troops. Of the original thirty five thousand raiders he had committed to the attack he estimated only about twelve thousand remained alive. He looked back over his shoulder as the group of reinforcements he had ordered continued to form up and get organized. There were some eighty thousand fighters there getting into position. If his remaining twelve thousand fighters in the advance force could just tie the humans up for another quarter hour or so then they could crawl off and die for all he cared. For by then the reinforcement group would be close enough to engage the humans and the slaughter would begin.
After launching their javelins, the ten thousand men that had hurled the weapons now bent to pick up the long spears that rested on the ground beside them. The front line of warriors, those who had been crouched down behind their shields, now stood and took the shields in their left arms and drew swords with the right. Had the approaching enemy scrutinized them more closely they would have noticed that these warriors were very heavily armored with breast plates, full limb protection and rounded helmets designed to let weapon strikes glance away rather than find purchase in any type of protrusion or decoration. They also had eye grates and mandibles protecting their faces.
The last two rows in the Olvioni formations, which numbered twenty thousand, now ran forward and took up position behind the shields of the front rank. Each man wielded a long spear, almost a pike, but short enough to be more easily maneuvered. They staggered their formation with the front rank of shield bearers and leveled their weapons with both hands at shoulder height and hidden behind the shields of the front rank.
The distance between the two groups dwindled then disappeared. When there was eight feet separating the Greys from the armored human front line the exhausted beasts drew back their weapons, mostly swords, axes and hammers, and prepared to strike. A half second before they were able to deploy their weapons, long spears with sword-like blades thrust forward over the right shoulders of the human front rank and into the bodies of the beasts. The tactic was unexpected and effective. The lethal line of spear points withdrew immediately dripping gore. But as the Grey’s behind their now-dead brothers advanced another row of duplicate spears jutted out over the left shoulders of the armored humans. The result was just as deadly.
The remaining Greys now had to defend against three directions of attack. If one shifted left there was a spear to dodge. The same on the right. And all the while the heavily armored front rank stabbed at them with long slim swords made specifically for thrusting, not slashing.
Advancing against the humans began to be more and more expensive as the bodies of butchered Grey fighters fell and themselves presented obstacles for their brothers to overcome. The unexpected tactics quickly took a toll. As the Greys in the rear ranks pushed to get into the fight they found themselves in the midst of a shower of arrows launched from the city side of the bridges. The arrows had been fired high and aimed to fall upon the rear ranks, far from the human defenders. The deluge became almost constant and the numbers of Greys shrank from both the front and the rear.
And unnoticed by the beasts in the midst of battle, the edges of the human formations were slowly bending around the Grey’s rapidly diminishing numbers.
Karr watched from his perch and screamed in fury. He was high enough that he could see the shifting of the human positions. He knew it would result in his advance attacking force being enveloped and slaughtered. He kicked one of his officers off of the observation platform in frustration and stomped his feet over and over. He grabbed his closest lieutenant and ordered him to get the reinforcements moving. Now!
At this point the Greys had been able to take out about some of our heavily armored front
rank of warriors even with the deadly thrusting spears to contend with. But our battle plan was holding and now we had molded our formations from a straight front line into a shallow “U’ shape with the Greys being allowed to push deeper into the bowl. By the time they realized that they were now flanked on both sides their attack had turned into a slaughter with death coming at them from three sides.
For less disciplined troops this would be the time that mass mayhem would have occurred and the Olvionis would have surrendered to bloodlust. But Ruguer had drilled into us over and over the value of a disciplined fighting force. Our people did advance on the enemy but we kept our lines tight and maintained our strategy. The thrusting spears and armored front ranks had stymied the enemy and robbed them of their confidence. The beasts were more worried now about escaping our fighters than killing them. They fought only when they had to and some would shove their comrades on our blades as they scrambled for the safety of the rear ranks. By the time I saw the large reinforcement group starting to advance there were fewer than two thousand of the enemy left.
The remaining Greys looked around to see they were destined for defeat and destruction. Immediately the age-old instinct for self-preservation kicked in. Some Greys threw away their weapons as they sprinted away from the field of battle. Instead of an undisciplined chase the human ranks parted in the middle and made room for our archers who had moved back over the bridges on a signal from Ruguer. The bowmen, protected by our infantry, set about coldly and methodically shooting down retreating Greys. Very few of the enemy were armored on the back and the few who had held onto their shields were now fighting with their own comrades over possession of them.
From the wall with my telescope I saw Syrann in the middle of the fight, her deadly accuracy on full display. With no more arrows left in her quiver she was running forward, yanking shafts from the bodies of fallen enemies and using them to deal more death upon our enemies.
The Olvion Reality (The Chronicles of Olvion Book 1) Page 37