Subcommander Ulfrik Eilifsson
What a glorious day for a battle, there's nothing else to say really. The last 10 minutes I have been chopping heads and breaking shields with my massive ax as the Trucebreaker's forces broke themselves on our shield wall.
The wolf witch had experimented with several ways to use my brawlers and I thought this one was the best. When the battle had started an hour ago only three formations had been in position.
My own, the dark blue commander's Jon Alfgeirsson troops and the Russ's forces.
We were well aware of where the enemy was, our scouts had been keeping a tab on them and sending back information but Larlsson's forces had simply taken a wrong turn and ended up running into a large formation of enemy flanker units.
Exact number of the enemy unit was unknown but Tanya had elected to take her Wolf Cavalry to find out if it was a real problem or something that could be handled by the red and green of Commander Nikolas Larlsson.
But she had not left before giving direct orders on how we were to handle the enemy formation in front of us, which was relatively equal to ours. I think we even had a few more troops than them.
It was a simple plan, an easy plan, and that's why it was working. We had let the enemy move their shield wall directly into contact with ours at the shallow end of the valley with heavy forest on all sides, especially behind us. Thankfully our scouts had managed to keep the exact numbers of our men hidden and the enemy had assumed that there were only the two formations, shield walls and archers, to their flanks so they'd only stretched their shield wall out as far as necessary. At the last moment our shield wall had opened up, making room for my formation of heavy ax Men to take the center.
Granted my heavy Ax Men were not doing as much damage as I would prefer, they would need to get onto a flank to do that, but this particular method had allowed us to wedge into their center, which had generally led to their formation backing up as we pushed forward. We couldn't push too hard because their own archer formations were firing into anyone who exposed themselves too much but counterfire was evenly returned and we appeared to be winning.
Unless some other formation came out of the woods behind them to support I think we're not going to lose this fight. If anything I believe we're going to push them all the livelong day until they break.
Of course that would not be the fate of this formation as whatever aid they may have been calling for seemed to have not made it in time. I had taken a step back to let some of my men get a chance to get some hits and catch my breath for another spot in the front line when I saw the Wolf Witch herself appear on the hill behind the enemy. Waving her sword about, several other wolves of common variety appeared around her as well as some Blackmaned with Russ troops riding their backs.
I expected her to charge down and slaughter the enemy from behind but apparently that was not the plan as her wolves let out a howl. The surprise attack was replaced with a stunning amount of wolf howls echoing throughout the valley that we had chosen for our little fight.
This got several of the enemies facing us to turn to see what was going on and realize their new predicament. The enemy commander seemed to realize his predicament as well and started to holler for his men to turn their back ranks around to face this new threat, which would severely weaken their whole formation.
Their attempt to turtle up and protect themselves resulted in an opening for my man to fight their way through. After all, there was now only two ranks of men between them and the center of the newly formed square.
My ax man had seen the opportunity and immediately began chopping their way through the shield wall, battering it down and trying to force their way in. This resulted in the enemy formation giving more ground and I had to call my men back a bit as there was a risk for them to be encircled by accident if they got too far forward.
This brief break in the battle resulted in the lines falling away from each other as the now much smaller force tried to compact itself and help the archers, who were being pummeled by our own scouts, retreat into their formation.
I wondered what Tanya was doing since she was up there watching this. She could definitely see the opportunity, laid bare for everyone, of a chance to unleash her wolves and butcher the enemy formation but she seemed content to let them compact themselves.
after a bit though she got off her wolf and reached into a saddlebag before pulling out a white shield. She waved it over, most likely trying to get the enemy to see that she was holding up the standard signal for a ceasefire.
Curious, I called for our archers to stop firing. This had not been in the plan but I wanted to see what she was doing.
Their own archers soon stopped firing and a silence, besides the wails of the wounded, overtook the field. Carefully the Wolf Witch walked down from where her wolves were watching and headed towards the enemy formation.
Part of me was worried as, at the angle I was at, we couldn't exactly see what was going on but she was tall enough that I could see the banner of her blonde hair above them. If she was in danger we would know and I'd get us attacking right away. Actually the wolves would howl and start charging right away if she came under direct threat, which would be a better indication than just seeing if her head went down.
What happened there I wasn't sure. After all it was quite a distance away but, by the looks of it, she was parlaying with the enemy commander. And by the fact that the conversation went on for about half an hour I assumed it was a very lengthy parlay.
After a while Tanya came around the side of the formation and walked up to me. The other commanders had gathered to my side while we waited and I could see the green and red formation had taken up the hill behind the wolves so the enemy was truly encircled at this point, there was no way they were getting out of it.
In her hand she was holding a sword and looked rather pleased with herself.
"Good news! The enemy Commander has seen reason."
"When you say 'see reason', what do you mean?" Jon Alfgeirsson asked, curious.
"In exchange for letting him and his men go, he has promised to never take up swords against us for the rest of the campaign season."
"Sounds risky. How do we know he's going to stick to the deal?" my counterpart asked, pointing out the obvious.
"Greed! It's a wonderful thing when you know how to use it to your advantage. I simply said that we have no interest in occupying the Trucebreaker's territory after this conflict. Which means that, with severely depleted forces, whoever takes over after him will not be able to hold on to that territory. I simply brought up the fact that if he gets out now there's a better chance that he will secure himself a larger piece of the pie after the conflict. He was more than willing to hand over his sword after that."
"That's a bit underhanded." I brought up, not particularly enjoying the fact that I had been prevented from some glory in battle.
"Underhanded, yes. But better for everyone in the long run; wasting resources fighting the Trucebreaker's minions will just tire us out before we get the chance to break into his fortress. So if we can find ways to get them to either side with us or flip out of the conflict entirely I'm going to take it." Tanya said, tightening her newly captured sword to her belt.
There was some sort of wisdom in what she said and, though it pained me to admit it, she was probably right.
"Fine, then can you explain what happened with the other formation that Larlsson's men ran into? I thought the only other formation in the area was being handled by the scouts we sent out earlier to keep them busy."
"As far as I can tell? That is still happening. Our scouts are keeping that next army busy chasing its tail. This formation appears to have been an advanced force that was sent to link up with our recently defeated foes from the second formation. Apparently there have been rumors of giant wolves in our army and the enemy commander of the second formation had great axes designed for fighting wolves so he thought he'd send them along ahead. Was a bit of trouble dealing with them but, well, they were mainly pointing their great axes at the shield wall of Larlsson's red and green men which meant it was easier to flank them than it would have been."
Of course the axes they brought were for normal giant wolves, not Blackmaned. They would have been much less effective than they should have been.
"Must have been a slaughter,". Jon Alfgeirsson surmised.
"Unfortunately. I would have preferred to offer them a surrender but the situation did not allow the opportunity, so I had to deal with them the old-fashioned way."
"So, we've dealt with this advance formation of the enemy there. I assume our next move is to move on to the enemy you have currently chasing your scout Cavalry?"
"Better than that. Our Cavalry will be coming into an area to the north of here, great ground for a little bit of an ambush. We can rest up there and wait for them to show up then we'll destroy them or get them to capitulate. Either way leaves our goals accomplished for today."
"Take 20 minutes for our men to scavenge any resources from the dead or wounded. What they can't take will probably be taken by the enemy formation that has surrendered. We'll be moving out in 30'." She ordered casually, expecting us to obey without a question by her simple decree.
And frankly I saw no reason not to. Oh, the men would grouch up about not being able to fully divest the dead of their valuables. But 20 minutes was more than enough time to find anything of worth, and anything that you left behind was basically a bribe to the enemy formation to not change sides back on them.
And, well, she was right on about one thing. Greed has its ways and a bribe to stay out of the conflict was going to work a lot better than an offer to stay out of the conflict so you might get something afterwards.
Nodding my head I said "let's get to work. We've got another enemy formation to beat the hell out of and not a lot of time."
Tanya
Organizing men came rather easy to me. You would think that trying to get a formation of men to fight a battle the way you wanted to would be a complex and hard process for someone who'd never done it before. As far as I was aware the closest I'd ever come to this sort of situation would be organizing the firing of individuals who had failed so spectacularly that caution required several people to tell them to leave. A very rare and minimal occurrence.
But I was beginning to think I was familiar with giving orders. The headaches had been killer when I first started marching men around, they left over time but they were still there. Either whatever mental wall that kept my memories of whatever had come before locked away was weakening or I was deadening the nerves responsible for transmitting the pain about it. Both were supposedly an option so it was hard to say and I was no doctor or anyone with a degree in how the brain works.
And frankly I don't think even they would have any idea what was going on with a person who had memories from their previous life. Last time I had checked such discussions had always been about crackpot fools claiming they were Nefertiti in the last life or maybe Caesar. Yes, reincarnation was part of Buddhism but I was not a follower of that religion, wasn't a follower of most religions. Yes, Patton had claimed to be the reincarnation of several military figures throughout history, but I had always put that down to him being very eccentric and being more about soldiers and generals being of the same stuff throughout history.
That being said I was fairly certain at this point that my last life had been in the military. At first I had thought that maybe this was more of that other instinctive guide I felt when I first arrived on this planet, providing knowledge of how things could be created that I could not explain. But there was definitely something else going on; the way I gave orders felt comfortable not in an 'I know how to give orders' kind of way but more with the feeling that I had done this before.
And because I seemed to be able to exude confidence at a high enough level that the men who ultimately led the forces I controlled tended to believe my statements. After our battle with the first enemy force we had been able to quickly maneuver to the next position and ambush the second enemy force. That force had not been as large as the first one, thanks to our early crushing of their advanced units, but they did give a good little fight for a while.
They even refused to surrender when I offered it, which had been a stupid and foolhardy thing. With their rejection I had been left with no other efficient way to defeat them than unleashing the wolves.
Casualties from that fight had been minimal; catching an enemy unaware and then grinding them down from all sides till they broke tended to result in that way.
By my estimate about a third of the army I defeated was still in action, another third dead, and another my prisoners either as wounded or in better shape.
That was the position I did not want to be in, holding captives, so I had paroled them as quickly as I could after giving them basic medical care.
That's for the enemy army that had been still in the field but I did not believe it had maintained that number. It looked like half was under control of their commanding officers but the other half looked like they were just running, which meant it was probably more like a sixth of the army was still in functioning capability. And a sixth was small enough that my wolf scouts could pummel them with arrows till they were either nothing or broke completely, which is what they were currently doing. I hoped that, in the morning, I'd hear a report that they were completely wiped out or at least out of the fight, but I wouldn't know till though the wolf scouts returned.
As for myself I was preparing for the next day of combat. There was a third force moving towards us, this one was a combined elements of two of the forces we were already preparing to fight so it was on par with our own formation. I really did not want to have to fight them at parity, that would just grind both forces down to nothing. Which would mean the end of the whole campaign as there would be no way I'd be able to defeat the Trucebreaker's main army inside his castle.
Which meant I would need to think of some way of defeating this Force piecemeal. Maybe have them chase us and string them out? That was an option but not a good one, that would just tire out my own forces if done improperly and there was not a lot of room to maneuver in this area. The roads were few and a lot of the trail was tough, the scouts could get around with my wolves fine enough but moving the entire formation of the army? That would turn anything under our feet into mud and bog us down. Which is why I had taken to moving my men in three columns on separate roads, less mud buildup. Of course it opened me up to the possibility of also being defeated in detail but so far they didn't have the forces in the region to do that, or weren't employing the scouts which I assumed they had in an effective way.
Never assume your enemy is dumber than you, this is something all militaries must grapple with and I understood that well enough. Just because I was making great use of my scouts didn't mean they weren't. The only way they could possibly be screwing that up is some sort of humorous and as far as I'd seen they didn't have much hubris.
But that was a problem for morning Tanya! Right now I was tired, it had been a long day and I just wanted to get a little bit of a rest. Laying against Fierce's side so we could share warmth I closed my eyes and prepared to get some sleep.
Then a clattering of bangs and noises broke that attempt. Sitting up, confused, I quickly got up and stepped out of my tent, looking around and trying to figure out what was the racket about.
That racket turned out to be one of my wolf scouts who apparently rode his wolf into a rack of weapons that had been put aside for a cleaning crew to make sure they were in good condition for tomorrow.
"Lady Tanya!" The man in question said, jumping off the wolf and landing in the light layer of mud that spring had brought in before running in my general direction. If he had not called my name I might have gone back into the tent but I assumed that if he was calling for me there was some important reason for it. So I folded my hands across my chest and waited for him to arrive.
The scout in question was on the shorter side so I was forced to look down on him as he ran up to me, stopping as he did and leaning over to catch his breath.
"Good evening, Mr?" I fished for his name as I was not familiar with this particular scout.
"Trygve, of second wolf scout company. I bring news of grave importance." He apparently was dead tired from whatever spurred his charge to me so I let him catch his breath, even if I was fairly worried that I was about to hear news that the enemy had encircled my position and we were about to be besieged.
If that happened we weren't in the worst position we had taken ownership of one of the Hill forts my scouts had found in the days after arrival in this region.
"Go on." I said after he took just a moment too long.
"Yes, ma'am! Styr reports the enemy formation we fought today has surrendered 5 miles from here, the prisoners were paroled as advised and their Commander's sword was confiscated. Apparently he took an arrow earlier in the battle and was not in control of the formation this entire time, he finally passed after the battle and the force's subcommanders offered the sword as proof that they will stick to their word."
I blinked a couple times, a bit stunned by this. I had assumed toughness and gritty stubbornness had been the inspiration for their holding out as long as they did, finding out it was simply that their Commander was near death and no one knew what to do was a bit saddening really. If they had taken a moment to try and communicate with us instead of shooting at me when I raised the white shield a lot more of them would be alive right now.
"But that's not all, Lady Tanya. Third company reports making contact with the new enemy formation. They're coming down the road from the east."
"What happened? What are the losses like?" I asked, trying to determine how bad the situation was. Moving our formation at night was not something I had expected but then again night and day were relative this far up in the longitudes. So it was possible there were night fighters amongst this formation that could help their unit move when it got too dark.
"They requested a parlay with, I quote, the 'wolf priestess'."
I blinked again then took a calming breath and said "They want to have a parlay?". This was not what I had expected, this was in fact the opposite of what I expected. But then again I had defeated two enemy forces the day before, even with a larger force maybe the commanders of this formation had realized that it would be better to try diplomacy.
And that was something I was willing to give them, a chance to stop the waste of human resources over a trucebreaker was worth a little risk of them trying to assassinate me. Which, considering the superhuman abilities my body had displayed, I did not believe would be successful.
Looking down at the scout, noting that he was trying to figure out if I was asking him what a parlay was, I brushed that off and asked "When do they want to have this meeting?"
"Tomorrow, at midday. There's a river with an island in the middle of it, 3 miles from here, and they want to meet on the island."
Nodding my agreement I said "All right. Find a scout to send back to your formation to let them know we agreed to this, then find a place to sleep."
"Yes, ma'am!" The man replied, giving a variant on their local salute before wandering off. I shrugged and turned back towards the main command tent around the corner. I would need to track down the subcommanders and let them know the situation. Thank goodness I could operate on just a little sleep, I would probably only be getting a couple hours at this point.
Tanya
I had expected many possible things when I had heard they wanted to meet: a trap, perhaps demands for surrender. All of those things had been based on the preparatory idea that I would be facing Noble Lords wanting to suck up to their boss by handling a situation for him.
Well, one of them was a noble Lord and his forces were equipped as heavily as Russ's, their armors and weapons not too dissimilar from the housecarls that followed me besides having an orange tint to their clothing.
The other however was not a noble Lord. From the top down it was a priest of some kind and, judging by all the fur that looks suspiciously like it had come from a wolf, I was thinking it was some sort of wolf priest.
His men were no different, though with less wolf fur and claws strapped to them. They appeared to be more of a masonic order of light infantry.
Why were the wolf priests leading an army against me? I did not know, did I piss off some local deity? Was it a Tuesday? I really wish I understood more of the stuff I ended up getting myself involved in.
As for where we were meeting the island in the river was barely 10 yards wide. My enemies had arrived first and set up a table, with chairs for people to sit at.
At least, most people. I, being unfortunately of larger height than most, was afraid that the campaign chairs they had brought might snap under my weight so I was standing.
We had just gone through the pleasantries of good morning take a seat oh you can't because you're too tall no problem and were moving on to the meat of the conversation.
The noble started us off with a simple statement, "all right Russ dog witch! As Geir Bretakollrsson, Jarl under Lord Farthegn; I ask you quite clearly: what are your intentions in this attack on our lands."
Didn't even bother to ask my name? Not a lot of respect coming from these people, but then again I was the enemy so that was to be expected. "I, Tanya, champion of the king of Russ, have been given a simple mission: deal with Lord Farthegn who has attempted to destabilize the other side of the mountains by assassinating the king of the Russ. How I will go about doing this is up to me, though I would prefer minimal casualties to all sides and no dead children if I can help it."
"So you don't wish you put yourself as the new king of this territory?" Jarl Geir Bretakollrsson asked, as a servant of his handed him a goblet of mead. There were several servants running around and one was handing one to the priest. One was even heading towards me though I waved them off. I doubted that they would try and poison me but I wanted a clear and sharp mind for whatever this conversation provided and I had already been screwed once by drinking a little bit too much.
"I have no need for the land, I raise wolves and hunt monsters for sport. Lord Farthegn broke the truce with that assassination attempt, he is a monster that needs to be dealt with but no one else needs to die for his crimes."
The Jarl Geir Bretakollrsson nodded as he listened and then finally he just put the cup down on the table.
"And if I were to offer to join your little mission against Lord Farthegn in exchange for his castle? Would you be willing to accept this alliance?"
I blinked a couple times as I had not expected outright treason. It should have been something to consider, those were cruel times and I'd already proven that, given the right situation, the enemy"s smaller forces were willing to bow out of the fight.
Treason that was a bit more than I expected. "Why do you want his castle dearly enough that you'd be willing to commit treason?" I asked it outright, there was no reason to not dance around the central question.
"The castle is a family heirloom, Lord Farthegn took it when he rose the power 10 great years ago. I've been waiting for an opportunity to get it back for a long time and considering you've already defeated two of the enemy forces I would have had to fight… Siding with you seems like a good opportunity to accomplish my overarching goals of retrieving the castle."
Regional politics? Figures that an a****** willing to attempt politics by other means in the region next door would have quite a few enemies at home.
"I would be willing to accept this alliance though, let me make this clear if you were to break this alliance you would be no better than the trucebreaker to me. So unless you are willing to stick by this alliance and fight Lord Farthegn with me it would be better for you to just pull out of the war completely. I would rather you safe at home with your troops than at my back preparing to stab it."
The Jarl Geir Bretakollrsson nodded then said "There's a lot of bad blood between his family and mine. And no bad blood between you and me. I wish to see Lord Farthegn removed from power. If you will have my forces we will pay him back for the humiliation he put on my family 10 years ago."
He put his hand out and I took it, giving it a shake. Having a few hundred extra men to throw at an enemy force would be worthwhile. I would just have to be careful about how to use them and make sure that they didn't degrade the work ethic of my original forces.
Turning to the wolf priest I said "Are you also a victim of Farthegn wishing for a little bit of vengeance?"
"Oh goodness, no," the elderly man said as he sipped his Mead.
"No, no. I'm but a simple priest and follower of the Allfather, I simply came to see if the rumors were true that the enemy force was led by a warrior marked by wolves." He continued, looking directly at my right eye where the scars from the fight with the wolves still cut across my face.
"Well, the rumors are true," I answered, folding my arms in front of me. "I also lead packs wolves, what does it matter to your priesthood?"
"Oh, Legends. Nothing too serious, just that the chosen one will be marked by wolves and have them come at their Beck and call. The old stuff I've always believed was simply allegory."
"Chosen one?" I said, sounding a bit more dumbstruck than I wanted to. I was really hoping this was not going where it was looked like it was going.
"Ye,s yes, a wolf master who would unite the continent through deed and merit to bring honor and trade across the world of Fenris."
"Those are some very specific old Legends," I said, taking a moment to consider my options. 500 more light infantry would help in the coming campaign, there was still a good number of forces to hit and there was a chance they would reach a large enough number that my forces could not take them out piecemeal as we had done the first few. But on the other hand allowing the religious types to believe me some sort of Chosen One… Well, that could be bad in the long run. Not that I would abuse the power, more that the people would expect you to do things. Things such as uniting the continent and bringing trade and honor. I just wanted to raise wolves and have as good a retirement as I could get on a medieval world.
"Yes, very specific, the final proof in fact is foretold that they will call the thunder wolves to them in their moment of need. And in order to find this event someone needs to be there and witness it," He stood up and bowed. "The wolf priesthood offers our services to your campaign. Lord Farthegn has been demanding more taxes from us either way so an opportunity to remind him that he is not the chosen one is something we would greatly enjoy doing."
Ah, so that's the game. In order to prove someone was the chosen one they needed to call the thunder wolves which is something I could not do, but they also had problems with Lord Farthegn and simply wanted to piss him off. Well, enemy of my enemy is convenient
Holding out my hand, I said "I accept your services, wolf priest…" I said it in a way that I indicated I was fishing for his name
"Nafni of the Wolf order," he said with a smile, taking the hand and shaking it.
Tanya
I had feared the enemy would be able to piece together some sort of better operation, after all I had a large area of territory to cover before meeting the next enemies on my list.
Even with a stable pace of march we were only 1/3 of the distance to Lord Farthegn's Castle in 2 weeks. Those two weeks helped me integrate the new formations of troops into my own, not as well as I would have liked but having more manpower was better than having no manpower.
Over those two weeks though the land turned to mud as spring went into full effect and slowed us down to a pace that was insulting the very idea of speed. In that time the other three formations raised under the enemy Lord had managed to come together and had taken position between my Target and myself. The lowlands we traveled through were mostly trees and mud but the particular area they had chosen to set up camp was a river with only two possible points of crossing. With an amount of troops similar to my own there was no real way for me to just bully my way through either point. If I tried to they would simply pull the troops from one Target location to the other and I would be stuck at a chokepoint, sending my men into an unstable battleground whichever any Ford we tried to cross.
This was not a good position to be in, but at least we weren't starving. Our allies were able to convince local villages to supply us with food to feed my man in walls and thankfully the game around here was plentiful. And rivers, so our source of fresh water was covered.
Figuring out how we were going to get across was the big issue of the day. Part of me wished I could just fly over that River. If we could just get men on the other side and the situation maybe we could force a crossing. But trying to force our way across another Ford, even against a destabilized force, was not likely to succeed. Unless it was a big stabilization.
We needed some sort of distraction, some massive upheaval that could change the rules of the field.
What that would be I had no idea yet. Being mad at myself I decided I need to clear my head and I took Fierce out for a ride. I didn't fear an ambush so I didn't bring anyone along with me, better to leave the scouts in their place to make sure the enemy didn't hold some third secret forwarding location and attempted to hit us in our side when we weren't looking.
In other words, I just traveled alone upriver towards the North and the mountains. I had come across a few maps during the planning of this campaign so I had a better understanding of how this world, at least the main continent of Asaheim, locked; it was basically divided up into three or four zones with mountains making up the central area and lowlands being split up between mountain ranges that ran to the coast. Around the coast were icefields for the most part. Oh there were breaks in those, warm water currents that allowed natural harbors to be used during spring and summer, but even they were somewhat surrounded by icebergs till full-on summer hit and the ice was destroyed in the season of Fire.
Granted I wanted to see that from my residence, and not on this Coast. Because if that happened we were pretty much trapped in an area with people who probably would turn on us eventually. Which is why I needed to come up with some way to get us through that blockade and onto the other side. But how was I going to do it? Oh, if only i had some expl... That hurt. Pain, utter pain. I nearly fell off Fierce as a headache ripped through me but it was almost worth it as an answer to the question finally came to my mind. Though it raised about a dozen more. Explosive spell, how did I know that? Was I a wizard in my last life? what the hell…
Chapter 12, Building a legend 5
Tanya
Well at least my headaches were making some sense now, because obviously the last world I was in made no sense whatsoever. Magic had been real apparently, not only had it been real but apparently I was a practitioner of it. There are still massive holes in my memory but apparently a lot of my time had been spent in some kind of military institution for magicians.
I had flashes of… well, war. A lot of war, looking suspiciously like something from a World War One movie. Trenches, muck and grime, explosions mowing earth and men alike, the smell of death, all of that had come through as well as formulas. Magical formulas.
I had to assume that my life had revolved around those, which is why they had broken through easier or I just wore through whatever was holding them back quicker than everything else. Either way I was now aware of the fact that magic was real.
Or at least it had been real in that world. I actually had no evidence that it was the exact same thing in this world that I was now dealing with, which was why I was not screwing around with the enhancement spells I remembered.
But what I did remember was that I needed a specialized tool which I did not have, and a way to pull the power in an item. That, though… That was not an impossible thing for me.
This was all very conjecture and theory, not particularly my strong suit as I preferred to be more certain about what I was working with. But I knew a few things about the way this world's magic was after basically using the rune beads to summon a wind storm to save my life.
So it was real, it did work, and it required focus items in order to be practiced in safety. Not too dissimilar from how magic worked in the last world. Instead of safety though the magic needed a focus item for power control. Both of them used a form of math based on runes. The runes used here on Fenris were more simplistic than the ones used in the empire but they were similar enough that they could be read interchangeably. If anything I believed that the wider 'vocabulary' of the empire's runes made it possible to have finer control of the magic than what was possible with Fenris' runes.
That was theory and it would take time to test that out, time I really didn't have and testing that I really didn't want to do. Fighting monsters, making a little money? That was all good, I wanted to retire. Learning magic had been a pastime that would hopefully unlock my memories, which it did, but this was the extent I had intended. All it had done was give me more questions than answers, something that I thought was going to be a repeating mantra as I tried to unlock whatever memories I had of my second life.
Execution though of this theory was going to be where we learned if I was smart stupid or dead, with the manpower of one of the divisions I was able to get the men building a catapult. Catapults were apparently uncommon but happened often enough that a few commanders were familiar with how they were built, plus I appeared to have knowledge on them. This knowledge hadn't come with a headache so I think this may have been whatever was programmed into the body, and I was leaning more and more towards 'programmed 'as time went on.
Either way, as the men worked on getting me the wood rope and hides and assembling it into a rudimentary catapult with basic wheels, I went to work gathering up huge stones. A few men helped me but few had sufficient muscles to work together to pull these things around. Thankfully I was strong enough that I could do it by myself for the most part. Once I had a collection of 10 or 15 of these stones I told priest Nafni to please make contact with the local runecrafters and see if they could get me a set of tools.
It took an afternoon but Nafni was able to secure me a set of stone-carving tools. From there it was all about engraving the runes into the stones, trying to make them mean something. The first stone took too long though, trying to use the empire's runes meant it was too complex and too difficult. So I switched over to the more simplistic version that was Fenris' runes for the next dozen or so.
Before long I had 15 stones that were supposedly set to explode once enough power was inputed into them and they hit something. How well that would work out, I wasn't sure. I didn't know how I was going to be able to transfer the power into them or if my theories on how magic worked in this world would be anywhere close to my ideas of how they worked in my last.
Come morning of the fourth day of the stalemate at the river I felt I had all the resources I needed to pull something.
The night before I set up the catapult just out of sight and set up the target area on the position where any enemy formation would want to be to contest a river crossing.
Then all I had to do was wait for morning. Said morning I had the housecarls approach the beach and prepare for a crossing. They had the biggest and heaviest shield so any archery that was targeted at them would be relatively well dampened and not as damaging. My theory on that would be put to test as the enemy archers went straight to work from the safety of their forest. Arrows started to come in and the enemy didn't move their forces forward to the river until my men were nearly knee-deep.
Most of the enemies looked like they had been asleep in the last few moments, it was rather early to be trying this but the earlier it was the more chaotic it would be. So as the three lines of enemy soldiers formed up, creating a wall of shields just at the edge of the river that would make it difficult for my man to complete the crossing, I was busy attempting to put power into the stones.
Trying to draw on magic power that I couldn't exactly feel was strange. In my last life the power had been within me, something I became intimately familiar with using over time. At least that had been my sense of it. This power felt like it was ambient, being drawn towards me by some unknown means, Pushing it into what I wanted it to be was slower than I would have liked. I also probably shouldn't have started with the Empire Ball, which is what I was calling the one that used the empire's runes, which was now giving me a headache as wondered what the empire was, but I managed to get it to feel like it would explode when it hit something heavy. Like the ground.
Carefully I picked it up and carried it over to the catapult which had been prepared by my men, laying it down in the scoop that would toss it into the enemy formation.
Taking a step back I nodded my head to the person I assigned as the commander of this operation, the adventurers' guild leader Styr.
Nodding back he gave a simple order to his men, who took a step back, before he pulled the lever, causing the catapult to launch the boulder high.
I had done the math last night on the exact amount of power and distance it would need to reach its target so I was a bit worried that in the end something would show a flaw in my mathematics. But I was never terrible at mathematics. The boulder flew true and crashed just behind the enemy formation. Being slightly off was to be expected considering that it wasn't exact science and it was a rather small target. It wasn't like I was trying to hit a fortress wall.
The boulder landed just behind the enemy formation and at first nothing happened, then there was a snap-hiss followed by a bright flash of light. My attempt to make an explosive ordinance had backfired as it appeared to have come out more like a flashbang. The fire from the Archer stopped as they appeared to have been blinded by the bright flash of light that had lit up the ground we were fighting over. It didn't help that beyond being early in the morning the sun was naturally a blue color and that light had been quite white.
Knowing that magic worked, and that the empire's textbook was not really going to work for the situation, I moved over and grabbed the next ball. Channeling the energy from around me into it only took a minute but in that minute the archers started to fire again into the Housecarl's as they continued to cross the river. Apparently they had had their shields up, which blocked the light as they continued to move, and the enemy formation had been facing the wrong way for the most part so it didn't affect those two forces.
Hopefully though the same would not be true for the next boulder as they placed it on the catapult, which was already being wound back into place. The design was rather rapid-firing in my opinion as it was in position and ready to fire again after 2 minutes. I simply nodded to the man at the controls of the catapult and the next shot was let loose.
This shot actually landed in the midst of the enemy formation, making me wonder if luck was on our side or if Styr had adjusted the shot in some way when I wasn't looking. I would have to ask later and see that he was rewarded for his efforts if he did.
Either way the rock landed in the exact middle of the formation, killing at least one man. Then it exploded in a thunderous bang, sending shards of rocks in anything else in all directions.
There was a momentary pause from the enemy archers and my own men who were attempting to cross the river as the central line of the enemy formation buckled, folding on itself. From where I was standing I could see many of them looking down at their former comrades, now reduced to wailing injured or piles of meat, in absolute shock.
To be expected. Explosives were not exactly a norm in Fenrisian combat, the real question is what would they do now they knew that something like this existed. Part of me hoped that realizing the enemy had superior firepower would cause them to run, it would save their lives in the meantime. After all what hope did they have if I could kill large swaths of them without even leaving my side of the river?
Unfortunately they did not appear to be ready to run, as they simply started to reform their line. As much as I hoped that overwhelming firepower would cause some sort of panic I had to remember that they were used to magic in one way or another. They knew this sort of stuff existed so they might be surprised about its way of delivery but they most likely were prepared for some casualties through supernatural means
Which meant this was going to be a little bit longer. As I began to prepare the next Rock I ordered the Archer, who had stayed relatively silent till now and hiding in the woods around me, to begin counter fire on their archers. I could have started them earlier but I wanted to give the enemy the idea that our archers were elsewhere so that they would be more open about where they were shooting from, which would mean the first few shots from my archers were directed at their counterparts with foreknowledge of their placement. They quickly got to work, firing their bows to bring down as many archers as they could, while I loaded up the next shot. It flew a little bit higher and landed behind the enemy formation, but considering this one was the more simplistic Fenrisian type it blasted nonetheless and cut down a large swath of men from behind.
Over the next 4 minutes two more rounds landed near their target, ripping up the enemy's line. At this point though it came apparent that I had a stockpile up and the counter-battery fire from my archers was being successful as the enemy formation on the shore began to fall back towards the tree line.
And opposed crossing is only really successful if you can stop them from even getting up onto the shore. Without those men there to stop my HouseCarls were able to finish the crossing and began moving towards the treeline, securing the area around the crossing. This was the signal that Alfgeirsson, my commander of blue, and Larlsson, commander of red and greens, had been waiting for and they began to cross themselves. The enemy fire was dwidling as they seemed to be retreating further into the woods. Most likely they had already realized they couldn't hold the bridge and were pulling back to their next position. What that position would be I didn't know but a crossing was a crossing.
As soon as the next two infantry units were across I sent the Wolf riders and my wolves as well as my adventurer guild scouts. I needed information on where the enemy was going and sending my trained scouts as pursuer units was the best way to find out what was going on.
Leader of the Wolf riders Authgrim Bardisson
"You know, sir… I had doubts about lady Tanya." The commander of the wolf scouts, Styr, said.
"Is that so?" I said as I looked through my monocular, an ancient relica dating back to my family's past when they were sea explorers. At least that's how the Legends went. Most relic items like this had a legend about them, about where they came from and how they came to be. Personally I just was glad to have something that gave me an advantage on trips like this; being able to see a good distance away and keep track of a target was unbelievably useful.
"Yes, sir. I thought she was going to be overhyped and overcautious. I mean sure she's big and seems to be able to command these wolves fine enough. But that's not combat experience. Just because she's out fighting monsters does not mean she knows how to fight a war. I go out there and fight monsters all the time and I know I don't know how to command in a war."
Styr was a mercenary hired from the local guild of monster hunters on our coast of Asaheim. He and men like him had been brought in because they were skilled at hunting in the wilderness and they had voted him to be their leader as he was the oldest of their group and had the most experience. Well, not old enough to be unable to learn new tricks as he'd taken quite well to riding a wolf and figured out how to fire his bow from their back easily enough.
"True, she does seem to have some sort of innate knowledge on how to make stratagems work. Wish someone could get more history out of her than 'I came from the mountain'." The mystery of Tanya was not one of the ones he was interested in, he did his job and he did it well, that's all that mattered to him. And as far as he'd seen that's all that mattered to her as they got on well enough, though she seemed to be a very private individual.
"Yeah, that's something. I do have to wonder where that innate skill comes from, cuz I don't think it came from Fenris. Any Fenrisian Commander worth their salt would have attacked across that River in separate locations to try and force at least one of them while tying down the other forces." He said as he rubbed the wolf absent-mindedly. One of the tricks Tanya had been engraving into them was that the wolves enjoyed companionship, this was a quick and easy way to build a rapport between them and the Wolf.
"Oh no. No, she just prefers to surprise the enemy with magic, still surprised that was a thing, and brute force punch across the river at one location, decimating a third or half of the army of her enemy in one go." The wolf scout leader continued as he too rubbed his wolf's ears.
"That's a pretty good summarization of situation, but wolf priests and rune priests are things. Perhaps she is a daughter of both their orders, some hidden love child of a pair of young priests who had been cast out that learned the skills of both?" He doubted that actually, but it was an interesting take on the possibility. The woman was way too private about her origins and he wondered if she'd ever open up about it.
"Okay then… Well, that explains the control of the wolves and the control of runes. Does not explain her military prowess though." Discount said as if that was still a pressing issue.
"I don't know, I think it does fairly well. She used her skills as a wolf to determine how her prey was set up and used their expectation of what a Fenris soldier would do against them as you said. A normal Fenrisian commander would have broken his formation up and tried to cross at all points, hoping to successfully push one area more than the other."
"Maybe… I don't know but the more I spend time around her the more orders she seems to give," Styr said with a shrug.
"Of course she gives more orders, she's a commander,"I countered, giving him an odd look and not exactly sure of what he meant.
"Not what I mean. When she started this campaign she was giving orders but they seemed more like she was starting to learn how to get orders. Now she's giving them as easy as a King would."
"Well a king expects their soldiers to be able to do what they demand of them, cuz they trust that their soldiers have trained to their expectations. She probably just better understands how to use each unit now."
"I don't know, man. It feels more like she knows what she's doing because she's done it before," he said, shaking his head in disagreement.
"Probably just residuals from controlling these wolves that she generously lets us ride." I said, reaching forward to pat the Wolf on its head. Before looking over at him and saying "But that doesn't matter. What's the info on the enemy formation? Where are they, what's going on?"
Styr sighed before answering. "My scouts have been tracking them and came in contact with the rear of the enemy formation earlier today. They are pressing hard for the next river, which is a day's march before them."
"So they want to try and pull the same stunt they pulled at this River, I assume. Not going to hold all us too long now that we know how to build those catapults and Tanya could obviously use those runes again."
"That's what I think too, though the river they're heading for only has one good forwarding location so they can concentrate. We know that because my scouts have been talking to the locals and they've given us a couple of good maps of the area. There is a bridge much further to the north but apparently it is currently occupied by an Ice Troll who decided that it would make a great home so he's currently living under it. I think neither one of our forces want to deal with that, too much chance for that to spill into something worse."
"Good. They'll get wrecked like they just were. We have catapults that send exploding ammunition, there is no way for them to hold a situation like that without something to counter it."
"That's my concern. I don't want to find out if they have something to counter it, do you mind if I propose a plan?"
I gave him a nod to continue, wondering why he had not brought this up to Tanya herself since she was in overall command. Though she was also with the main army, which was half a day behind us, so letting us have a little initiative wouldn't be that big of an issue I assumed.
"Well, it's quite simple: the enemy army will be at the ford by the end of tomorrow while we can be there by the end of the day. It would not be impossible to get around them, their are scouts are shit. I don't know who they hired, what band of morons they decided were going to be experts, but they're not. They're just not. We can navigate around them, get in front of them, and take the Ford."
"Okay but that puts 200 men against nearly a thousand. Those are those aren't exactly great odds and it deprives Tanya of her scouts."
"That deprives Tanya of her long-range scouts; she still has a hundred of my ground scouts with her so they won't be caught by surprise. As for the one-on-five odds I admit that's not exactly great except it's not one on five when you really think about it. Tomorrow that formation will be crossing the river after a long hard day's March. They will be tired, they will be worn out, and they will not be expecting to be fired on by arrows and then charged by a bunch of wolves as they're coming out of the water. We could cause a panic and maybe kill a good number of men before they get themselves sorted out. When they do get themselves sorted out they'll have a choice: they can either camp by their side of the river and be attacked by the main army, which is at this point double their size after whatever losses we just inflicted. Or they can try and push us, right? Well if they push us, we just fall back. All of a sudden they've secured the other side of the river, sure, but now we are going to be shooting at them from the woods whenever they're not on guard duty, ensuring that they won't have a good night's rest. When Tanya arrives the next day they'll be worn out."
"If we can pull that off that would end the fight for the river days ahead of schedule. They might even be willing to lay down their arms once they realize the situation and we can get on our way to the castle straight away." I mused, thinking on what he had proposed.
As a Housecarl I knew what was expected from me: follow the orders directly given to me, which had been to scout and keep an eye on the enemy formation, figure out what was going on. This would certainly be a step beyond those orders.
However I could not disregard that, with the distance between us and Tanya's men, what mattered now was initiative, not orders.
Turning to face the leader of the wolf scouts I told "Find someone to send a message to Tanya and tell her the plan. We're moving out now, we're not going to wait for her response." He nodded and rode off with his wolf while I observed the horizon.
Tanya
I was fairly annoyed, happy but annoyed. I did not like having members of my command acting too independently. With their operation my wolf Calvary and wolf scouts had undertaken to create a situation where my enemy had a no-win situation and been very successful. By the time the army had caught up to the enemy force they had broken down. The losses they took crossing the river and the nightlong tactics to keep them from getting a good night's rest had resulted in a formation that was falling apart at its seams.
At least half of the enemy had fled in the night or had been killed attempting to flee, from what I could gather, meaning the formation did not have the manpower to stop my wolves if they were unleashed.
Which meant the battle was over before I even had to do anything. So making a big deal out of the fact they had gone against my orders was unlikely to win me any favors. But the most annoying part about all this, the part that really upset me, is that I would have ordered them to do the same. I would have ordered them to cross that River before the enemy and do exactly what they did. I would have just been concerned they would refuse because it looked like a death sentence. Cutting off your scouts from your supporting forces and expecting them to harass the enemy throughout the night was a way to get your scouts destroyed if you didn't make contact with them again within a reasonable amount of time, which she was sure she could.
So, while everyone around me was celebrating a successful victory, I was looking at the two sub-commanders with a faint bit of annoyance, biting my lip trying to figure out how I was going to handle this. The slight headache in the back of my head was not helping, like I had come across situations similar to this before.
Finally I decided the best tack was to congratulate them but be slightly disapproving.
"Well done, gentlemen," I said, looking them over. "You have managed to save us days on this campaign and for that you have my thanks. But, in the future, do try to keep in mind that you are the army's eyes and ears. Without you we are blind and deaf, the next time you attempt such a gamble please keep some of your men on this side of the river to at least keep us somewhat informed." I gave them a very concerned and thoughtful look, hoping they would see the mistake and try to not do it again in the future.
"Yes, lady Tanya!" the two responded with broad smiles, nodding their understanding. I really could only hope they actually did.
"Fools, you'll pay for this! When Lord Farthegn hears that you've destroyed our army he will call upon the monsters to kill you." One of the soldiers… no, wait, that was a commander by the looks of his coat called from where he'd been tied up. Officially the enemy army had not surrendered so I did not have a way to parole them just yet. I was thinking I would leave them tied up against the tree and then cut one of them free with a knife after taking all their weapons, assuming they'd figure it out from there. I was also considering doing that but spaced out over several miles, that way they could not just regroup quickly into another formation in my rear.
"Monsters, you say?" I queried, walking towards him. "What monsters will he call upon that you feel will come to his aid?"
"Shut up, Bob!" another Commander ordered from where he was sitting next to him.
"I will not! I am not afraid of this oversized shield maiden and I'm not afraid of you." He bit back, turning his head to look at the person who told him to shut up before looking back at me.
"The ice fiends will come to his call. He has dark magic that allows him to bring them to the battlefield. Any army that comes to oppose him at his castle will be swept under their relentless charge."
"Interesting." I said, looking him over and trying to figure out what this could mean. Ice Fiends were the yetis I had fought in the mountains. I knew they had some level of sentience but did not know if they had the ability to communicate with other species, at the time I had assumed they did not. This, however, seemed to imply that at least in one case they could communicate with humans and had struck some sort of bargain. I wondered what this bargain was… no, wait, I didn't: dark magic.
"Let me guess. The Ice Fiends raid the outer edges of his territory that do not submit to him on his terms."
"Yes, of course. Anyone not willing to submit to him is a traitor anyways."
Great. So either he was letting the Ice Fiends eat his potential troublemakers, or he was pushing out those troublemakers into areas where they were more likely to be eaten by the yetis.
Neither one of them were definite proof that he was controlling them with dark magic and had some sort of alliance with the yetis though.
"He's already moving his forces against you. This place was chosen specifically do end this whole charade."
I was going to ask what he meant when I heard a thump and a roar. Looking north where the sound came from I saw an Ice Troll slowly marching its way down the river towards us. In one hand appeared to be one of this man's soldiers, crushed, and the other held a massive log, meant for smashing people by my guess.
"You see! Here comes one of Lord Farthegn's servants now, to destroy you all."
"You daft idiot!" Ulfrik Eilifsson said, slapping the back of his head. "You sent one of your men to rile up an Ice Troll and now it's come downriver to find whoever sent the idiot.".
"Still that means you're going to have to fight it and that'll destroy your army." This man was getting on my nerves now. Reaching over to Freki I pulled my spear off its side-saddle. This spear had an antler tip, like my old Spears, but it had a few new additions. First it was more finely created, crafted with materials I could get from the somewhat more modern society of Fenris rather than what I could get while living in the woods. And, second, I had inscribed the spell for piercing on the side.
I wanted to see what would happen so, carefully channeling energy from the earth beneath me into the spear, I took aim and let loose.
A few moments after it left my hand it seemed to speed up and then there was a rather loud bang before it smashed into the chest of the ice roll, piercing through to the other side. Right, apparently I had been well on target. It fell forward face-first to the river the fist-sized hole pouring its acid blood everywhere.
"If your lord depends on beasts to fight me you'll find that a rather unpromising answer to the question of stopping me." I said, giving the man a smile before padding Freki on the head.
"All right, gentlemen. Pack everything up, we're moving out." I called. It was time to be on our way and see about ending this whole campaign.
Lord Farthegn
How have things come to this? I had simply wanted to assassinate one God damned King and push my power across the continent, finally uniting this world from the barbaric mess it had become. And now most of my subcommanders and Lords were dead, in hiding, or had betrayed me because they saw an opportunity to strike at their betters.
I had spent most of my life trying to unify the damned continent of Asaheim, ever since I realized that none of the people on this world mattered. The signs that this was some remnant of an ancient civilization, that we had fallen far from where we had once stood, were everywhere when you had the eyes to look for it. Most people just assumed it was the gods' work but for me it was obvious that humanity had had a higher position at one point.
And I thoroughly believe that if I could unify the continent under my rule I would be able to bring humanity back to that point. If the continent could be brought under my single rule there was a chance of finding out what was in the caves beneath the mountains, what secrets were there and what powers could be unlocked for the people.
In my youth I had traveled with a group of adventurers into one of those caves, seen the dark City that laid beneath the mountains. We had been too fearful to go too close. The legends of the monsters that lived in there were rare due to the simple fact that those who got too close usually ended up dead, so their stories were lost with them.
Small scouting parties like I had been part of would have been chewed up and killed if we had attempted to enter that city, as the creatures there would have made sure we never saw the light of day again. But I could tell that it was far more advanced than anything on the surface, the fact that there were flameless light sources on the streets were sign alone that there was a great power down there.
And now my dreams of someday uniting the continent and leading an army down there to take it for humanity were going up in smoke. All because some upstart giant bitch had decided to ruin my day.
Well, I would just have to ruin hers. There was no way I was going to let my dreams die because some lapdog of Russ got lucky and defeated my so-called loyal servants. I still had the item I retrieved from the outskirts of the dark city so many years ago. A small device powered by some unknown means that, with a few presses of a button, agitated every Ice Fiend within a radius of 50 miles and brought them towards my location. It would take time for them to arrive but they would come and they would eat this enemy army as they attempted to lay siege to my castle. It would be hilarious watching the screaming and murder from the safety of my own home.
"My Lord? There's something you may want to see," one of my servants said as he walked into my study where I had been going over the paperwork that came from running a large Kingdom. So much taxes to collect, so little time.
"What is it, Valgard?" I asked, not even looking up.
"The enemy army is doing something. I think they're building siege equipment, my Lord." He said, sounding more concerned than he should be.
"Of course they're building huge equipment. Won't do them any good, this place is impenetrable. There is no way for anything to break down the walls of this fortress. " I asserted. Nothing but the truth as this Castle had stood for longer than most kingdoms had existed, which was one of the reasons I had made a point of taking it in my conquest of his continent. An impregnable fortress was the key towards victory in any conflict, especially when you could call monsters to do your bidding. Just because you called them didn't mean you could control them, they would just as easily eat me if given the chance.
'My Lord, this is true but… They have a rune priest with them, by the looks of it."
I chuckled at that and said "What is he going to do? Call the thunder? Freeze the outer layer of the castle in the storm? This place has seen such conflicts before and survived, there is nothing-"
There was a thunderous bang, as if a clap of lightning hit outside the castle, and then my windowless study now had a window and the servant who had been standing in front of me was a red smear across the wall and floor.
"Well… That was unexpected." I muttered as I got up from my seat and walked over to the newly formed hole in my wall. I was two layers of rock in and yet there was a hole. Looking down through the hole I could see the enemy army was preparing a catapult, some blonde giant of a woman holding a massive stone in her hands before placing it on the scoop. I watched as the piece of rock was thrown from the catapult into the air. It got a certain distance away before all of a sudden accelerating with a thunderous boom, smashing into my castle with such speed that it left a rather large hole.
"There goes another plan," I muttered, knowing that this would require an actual fight on my part.