by Logan Jacobs
They had carved deep holes into the soil, and they had thrown rocks of every shape and size, so that any elf who tried to advance on either side of my forces would find their path a hard one. The workers had covered everything with trampled-down grass, so it just looked like another section of the field that we had marched across, but the cavalry should stumble over the holes and rocks if they tried to flank us, and that should give us time to regroup.
Theoretically, anyway.
While the elven cavalry continued to stream forward toward us now, I centered myself in front of the pike-men, and the rest of my soldiers on horseback spread out in a line in front of them to help block them from view of the elves. At the last minute, we would ride out of the way, so the elves would have to face our pikes, while our human riders weaved in and out of the elven cavalry to hurt them as much as possible. If they ran into our pikes, they would be skewered, if they turned back, we would be able to hold the field.
The elven foot soldiers all raced forward after the cavalry, and even though they weren’t nearly as fast as the horses, they still covered ground pretty goddamn quickly. Even once we broke the elven cavalry, we would still have to face the thousands upon thousands of foot soldiers, so I just hoped that my troops were ready for the fight.
I knew that I sure as hell was.
The elven horses snarled and snapped at the morning air as they thundered toward us, and I could see that some of them had already started to foam at the mouth because they were so eager to taste human blood. I felt my own warhorse pawing at the ground beneath me in excitement, so I patted his neck to reassure him.
He would taste plenty of blood today.
It just wouldn’t be human.
Since the flag meant that the lance would be too unwieldy to fight with on horseback, I leaned over and slammed the sharp butt of the pole down into the ground right in front of my pike-men. The banner fluttered in the early morning sun beside me, and I knew that if nothing else, my troops might take courage from the visual reminder of the kind of kingdom that we were building here today.
As the elven cavalry continued to drum their horses’ hooves across the ground toward us in a full gallop, I pulled out my sword, raised it to catch the morning sun, and then smiled to myself at the fact that Tevian hadn’t been able to hold himself back anymore. He could have waited until I led my forces toward his, or we could have just entered a stand-off with each other. Hell, he could have sent a messenger to try to negotiate terms before he actually launched his cavalry toward me.
But instead, the elven general hadn’t been able to wait a moment longer, not even to see if we would surrender when we were faced with such an overwhelming elven force. Then again, Tevian probably knew what my answer would have been, so that wasn’t much of a surprise, but I was pleased to see that he was willing to tire his horses out just because he was so eager to strike at me.
And I was perfectly content to let the night elf come to me.
When the elven riders were close enough for us to see their faces, I knew that we would need to move ourselves in just a few seconds, but first, I wanted to see Tevian’s face. I scanned the faces of all the elves in the lead until I finally spotted Tevian where he was slightly behind of the rest of the elven cavalry.
The elven general was dressed in full battle armor, of course, but he didn’t actually look angry. He should have been pissed off or full of hate, or at least that was how I had imagined that he would look. Instead, his expression was determined, but he mostly just seemed… worried.
Maybe my odds today really were as good as I’d thought.
I had just enough time to see Tevian’s expression shift from worry to confusion, as the elven general spotted Golierian and Clodia right beside me, but he and his cavalry were so close to us now that he didn’t have time to do anything except for glance back and forth between them and me.
Beside me, Ava dropped her arm as a signal to all the commanders of the Elite archer units. As the elven cavalry thundered even closer, the air filled with a sound like rushing wind from the volley of black arrows that soared up overhead. I watched them fly above us, and then just as the arrows started to crash back down toward their targets in the cavalry below, I signaled my own riders that it was time to move.
The first wave of arrows buried themselves into elven horses and riders all up and down the line of cavalry, and at the same time, I wheeled my own horse off to the side, so that the elves would be forced to face the wall of pike-men behind me. Golierian and Clodia split off with half our riders to the right of our ground forces, while Ava split off with me and the other half of our riders to head to the left.
Just as we reached the point in our ranks where the line of pike-men started to curve back into a semi-circle, I heard the first wave of cavalry slam into the pikes. If they had seen them coming, it had been too late for them to stop, but there was just as much of a chance that they had plunged ahead anyway and trusted that eventually, their sheer numbers would overwhelm our pike-men, assuming the rear cavalry ranks pressed forward. I’d be fine if they had broken off their charge and their squadron formation had been disrupted, but if their frenzied horses wanted to run into a wall of steel, that worked for me, too.
I didn’t think that they had counted on how many fucking ranks deep of pike-men we had to stand against them. And as I whirled my horse around to throw myself into the fight, I saw that the elves also hadn’t planned for how many damn archers we had on our side.
One volley of black-tipped arrows after another soared up overhead and found new homes in the chests of elven riders and their bloodthirsty horses, but as I looked around for any signs of the elves’ own archers, I saw that there was only one small unit at the back of the cavalry.
As far as I could tell, those were all the archers that they had.
I let a streak of white fire leave my palm and enter my sword, until the blade itself looked like it was on fire. Then as I rode my warhorse toward the elven cavalry, I aimed my sword up overhead and let a burst of magic flames explode over the cavalry. I immediately froze it in place, and then as I swung my sword toward the first elven asshole that I came across, I shifted the ball of white fire so that when it dropped, it fell directly onto the elven archery unit.
A streak of blue fire quickly followed my own from the other side of the battlefield, so I knew that Clodia had seen my magic and imitated me, just to make sure that the elven archers were wiped off the face of the earth. I carved my sword through an elven rider’s neck, fired another blast of flame back toward their archers, and then sliced my blade through another elf’s arm.
The elf instantly lost control of his horse, so the creature reared back, threw his rider off, and then trampled over the elf until he was just a pile of pulpy flesh.
I immediately drove my own warhorse over the dead elf, so I could carve my blade through my next target. As Ava and I hurled ourselves against the flanks of the elven cavalry, I laid waste to elves left and right with my sword, slammed my shield into their bodies until they lost control of their horses, and froze every elf that I could for a second at a time, just to help give my troops a chance to recover every so often.
At my side, Ava switched back and forth between her long dagger and her sleek bow, so she ripped open one elven rider after another until she had enough empty space around her that she could pull out her bow instead. Then she launched as many arrows as she could into the mass of elven cavalry all around us.
Whenever one of Ava’s arrows didn’t immediately kill its target, one of our other human riders drove forward to finish the job, so everywhere Ava and I rode, we had our own personal clean-up crew right behind us. Every time Ava switched to her bow, I made sure to keep the path around us clear with my sword, and whenever I started to shoot white flames into the elven cavalry or over their heads into their archer unit, Ava switched to her long dagger to guard my back.
It only took a few more rounds of fire from Clodia and me before the elven archery u
nit was completely gone, but as much of a victory as that was, I couldn’t celebrate it for more than half a second. Even as the Elite archers unleashed a steady hail of arrows onto the enemy forces, the elven cavalry continued to drive forward against the pike-men until they threatened to overwhelm them.
I could see all my foot soldiers inside the half-ring of pikemen, and they all looked eager to join in on the fight themselves. It was hard for them to be stuck in the back when they didn’t have bows or pikes to help their friends, but I needed them to remain as protected as possible until we destroyed the elven cavalry. Archers and pike-men were our only real defense against the warhorses, since without them, my foot soldiers would have been crushed underfoot until the fields ran red with human blood.
As I swung my sword at every elven asshole that I passed, I felt my horse beneath me start to stir with excitement at the powerful smell of blood in the air. The next time I nicked an elven rider in the thigh, I pulled my sword back to strike him again, but before I could, my horse bared its teeth and took such a bite out of the elf’s flesh that blue blood spurted up like a geyser just before the elf plunged to the ground.
I grinned and pushed my horse forward again.
From the other side of the field, I saw blue fire hurl first in one direction and then the other, so I guessed that one caster must be Clodia and the other must be Tevian. I was surprised that there weren’t more casters among all the elves, but then again, I had already destroyed their secret magic stronghold, just like I had already destroyed every last one of their magic priests and priestesses.
That was probably why the elves didn’t have any real archers. They probably relied so heavily on their magic casters to do their distance fighting for them that the moment they didn’t have any casters to fall back on, they realized that they had let all their other distance units fall by the wayside.
But by then, of course, it was too late, especially when my own Elite archers were such a fearsome group to go up against. Plus, of course, there was the little fact that Clodia and I had just managed to destroy every last one of the archers that the elves still had, anyway.
So now, Tevian seemed to be the only one on the elven side with any real magic, but I couldn’t exactly relax yet. After all, the elven general had more fucking ground troops and cavalry than we had ever faced before, and it was still early on in the fight.
As Ava and I continued to carve our way through the elven cavalry, I watched the pike-men stand firm, as the elven dead clogged the battlefield and completely disrupted the impetus of their squadrons. Half the spears looked like they had now pierced through so many bodies that the poles started to sag to the ground, so I knew that my backup unit of pike-men needed a chance to push forward and replace the overworked poles before the elven riders forced a path through them.
I hurled one streak of white flames after another out the end of my sword, until the next wave of elven cavalry hesitated so they could look around for the source of the magic fire. But the moment they hesitated, I forced them all to freeze in place, but I left my own side of the field fully conscious.
“Second pike-men, to your stations!” I shouted as I galloped my horse forward into the middle of the fighting.
The elves all resumed their normal movements a second later, so I forced them all to freeze in place again as the first rank of pikemen orderly fell back to the rear of the formation, and the second rank of pike-men pushed themselves to the front lines. I had never tried to freeze so many people in place so quickly again before, but even though I could feel the strain of my effort, I knew that I couldn’t let it drop just yet.
Not until I was absolutely sure that the elven cavalry wouldn’t break through my defense line.
But as I struggled to hold the whole front wave of elven cavalry still, I noticed movement from the back of the elven forces. While we were so distracted by the cavalry, the elven foot soldiers had started to split off to either side of the main fighting, so two massive units of ground troops headed to try to flank my soldiers from the left, and the other two massive units headed toward my army’s right flank.
If we didn’t stop them or come up with a plan to counter them soon, then the elven foot soldiers might be able to sneak around to the back of my army. Then they could attack my unprotected ground troops, and we would be completely pinned in and surrounded by elves on all sides.
I wasn’t about to let that happen.
As soon as the next unit of pike-men were all in place to reinforce the first line, I let my hold over the elves collapse and felt myself sag in the saddle for just a moment. Ava was at my side immediately, and as soon as I saw her stab an elf straight through one eye-socket, followed right away by his other eye-socket, I felt a new surge of energy sweep over me, and I fired another blast of white flames into the middle of the elven cavalry.
I couldn’t see Golierian or Clodia, but since blue flames continued to zip overhead and hiss into their elven targets, I figured that at least the guildmaster was safe, so I hoped that Golierian was, too. I spotted Tevian just as he hurled a blast of blue fire at the wall of pikes, so I froze the fire in place, let it fall harmlessly to the ground, and then grinned as the elven general glanced in every direction to try to find me.
“Leif!” I shouted over the roar of the battle. “Leif!”
Instantly, the big gladiator waved his hands, so Ava and I galloped backward along the ranks of pike-men, so he would hear my shouts better.
“Guard the rear!” I called out when I was closer. “Foot soldiers are trying to outflank us!”
“Do we move yet?” Leif shouted back. “Do we fall back?”
“Not yet!” I said. “But be ready!”
I carved my sword through the necks of two elven riders back to back, and then as their heads toppled to the ground, I glanced back at all my soldiers. I caught sight of Osman somewhere behind the Elite archers, and I saw that every time he helped hand extra arrows to the archers, he lit the tips with a little burst of orange fire, so now the field started to fill with burning arrows on top of all the black ones.
I didn’t have enough time to look for the rest of my friends inside the half-ring of pike-men, but I trusted that they would be safe. I spared one quick glance up toward the sky, but since there were still no signs of Penny or Azure, I knew that we would have to rely on the other plans that I had made.
As I froze and carved my way back through the front line of elven cavalry, I looked back over the elven forces to see that the enemy foot soldiers had already made a lot of progress up the steep hill. They would still have to face the hole-filled earth and uneven soil that I had laid out for the cavalry, but it might be a little easier for them on foot.
Of course, then the elven riders decided to fall right into my trap, too.
I had just enough time to see two sections of elven cavalry split off to the side and start to lead the charge up either side of my pike-men, before Ava shouted a warning. Instantly, I ducked in my saddle just before I saw the elf right beside me as he lunged at me with his lance. As soon as he had overextended himself with the lance, I popped back up, slammed the hilt of my sword into the elven rider’s nose, and then followed it up with an elbow to his throat.
As the elf swayed in his saddle, Ava galloped forward to finish him off, so I could ram my shield into the next elf and then plunged my sword into his stomach. I let more fire burst forth from the end of my sword before I carved it into my next enemy, but no matter how many elven soldiers and their horses laid dead on the field all around us, there were still more of them that advanced on either side of the half-ring of pike-men.
I urged my horse back to the edge of the fighting so I could freeze some of the advancing cavalry and foot soldiers in place for just a moment. I knew that I would have to call a retreat before too long, if I didn’t want to sacrifice too many of my men’s lives, and then all of a sudden, I realized exactly what I could do to help slow the steady advance of the elves.
I could sound
the retreat early, and then all the elven cavalry and foot soldiers would trample forward into the hole-filled and uneven ground that I had prepared for them. It would slow down their charge just enough that Clodia and I could rain down even more magic against them, while my archers could continue to fire a hailstorm of arrows into the middle of the elven forces.
It might be a little desperate, but it also just might work.
“Fall back!” I shouted. “Fall back!”
As I heard all of my unit commanders begin to echo my orders, I sent a single blast of white fire up high into the air as a signal to Clodia. From somewhere in the middle of the elven cavalry on the other side of the battlefield, the night elf sent a stream of blue fire straight toward me, and as I saw it speed along in my direction, I sent my own streak of white fire out to meet it.
I knew that we couldn’t hold it long, but as my troops all began to retreat back up the steep hill, Clodia and I let our white and blue flames mingle into a single wall of flame to keep any elves from advancing through it just yet. While our foot soldiers fled up the hill, the Elite archers continued to fire arrows to help cover their retreat, and Ava unleashed arrow after arrow herself from her position right beside me.
When the elves found that they couldn’t push through our wall of blue-white fire, they started to spill out to the side, but that was exactly where I wanted them to go. By the time the first elven rider stumbled into a deep hole, it was too late for the rest of them to draw back, so one horse and rider after another plunged to the ground, only to then be crushed to death by the horses right behind them.
The cavalry continued to trip and fall over each other, but they kept trying to push forward, and the elven foot soldiers just spread out even wider to push forward on the far side of the cavalry. While I sent another burst of energy down my arm to feed the white flames in the wall of fire, I saw how quickly my soldiers were able to retreat up to the crest of the hill, while the half-circle of pike-men moved back a little slower to help cover their retreat with their long poles still pointed outward.