Only when there were barely a few hundred remaining, having run as far as the hills on the edge of the plains, was General Rainheart satisfied. They were too scattered at that point to have been worth the chase, and so he left them to their business, and showed him their backs, and he rode towards the next battlefield, stopping beside Oliver and his men as he did so.
"I do not believe we have had the pleasure, Captain Patrick. Or perhaps I ought to be calling you Colonel now?" General Rainheart said.
Oliver found him a more intense man that he'd supposed him to be from a distance. His white hair and long beard had given him a grandfatherly look, but up close in the flesh, the aura of overwhelming bloodlust – combined with the scent of actual blood splattered all over him – made him quite the intimidating man indeed.
"I do not have the honour of claiming such a title. And, as you can see, my numbers have returned to being merely that of a Captain," Oliver said.
