Kendall was astonished by the response Landyn had given, however reality had snapped back with his response.
Kendall: "Enough, we are here to fight Kotesh, not engage in talk why we were called to arms! We should be preparing for battle, not idling!"
Though brash, Landyn saw truth in Kendall's words, thus he'd taken it on himself to begin training as many of the conscripts as he could.
Landyn: "To begin, regardless of whatever the captain they assigned to us said, if you want to come out with the highest chance of survival in this conflict, you must follow my lead!"
Before him were about 50 or so conscripts, some were previous students, others were from villages Landyn had not travelled to, though many bore the same confused expression with his words. To disobey the captain could well mean death by their own countrymen's blades, as opposed to Kotesh's. In this world, mages were exceptionally rare, though powerful in combat, often residing in the higher classes of society, though being rather uncommon or rare in the lower castes of most nations. Salleria's mages, regardless of societal class, were often given privelages and offerred tutoring and a place in many lords' residences as court mages. For this world, mages were the greatest power a nation had, followed by cavalry, then archers, and at the bottom of the barrel were the infantry.
Landyn, like many of the conscripts was an infantryman, though a handful were archers thatvwere assigned as skirmishers, an in-between archers and infantry. Thus he'd taken it on himself to at the very least, begin training the infantry how to more efficiently use spears, the importance of formations, as well as furthering their basic physical training. The purpose was to almost evaporate the advantages that cavalry contained over infantry, teaching them the square formation to more efficienctly counter cavalry charges from their flanks. Skirmishes that partook were taught to stand within the center of the square, and practice their firing, so as to provide ranged support during a fight.
Some officers within the army had begun to take notice, ultimately chalking it up to conscripts doing extra training, albeit questionable, from their standpoint. After about 2 weeks of marching, both the spear-wall formation, and the square formation had been nearly perfected. Further training however, was not possible, as the by the next morning, combat with Kotesh would begin.
- Kotesh Army -
Mages - 50 (Backline)
Archers - 450 (Midline)
Cavalry - 250 (flanks)
infantry -1,000 (Frontline)
Conscripts - 500 (Frontline)
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- Sallerian Army -
Mages - 35 (Backline)
Archers - 750 (Midline)
Cavalry - 300 (Flanks + rearguard)
Infantry - 1,250 (Frontline)
Conscripts - 850 (Frontline)
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The armies had assembled, and now they prepared to march on each other.
Landyn and many other conscripts he'd trained were placed on the right flank, with their captain tasked with attacking Kotesh's infantry on their left and aiding the cavalry's flank attack. Landyn however intended on sepereating himself and other conscripts from the flank, and extending themselves out further in an attempt to bait out Kotesh's cavalry. It should go without saying that their captain was outraged and confused by this action, attempting to relay orders to the seperating unit.
News of this detatchment was not relayed to other flanks, to prevent further confusion, however, movement could be seen from the cavalry in the Kotesh ranks, the cavalry had taken the bait upon sighting the detatched conscripts. While blood and steel rained in the other flanks, Landyn's flank was calmy steeling themselves for the oncoming charge, waiting for Landyn's orders. Once the cavalry had reached the halfway point between the two armies, Landyn yelled out "Square!" which resulted in the conscripts rapidly forming a square shape, with their spear pointed outwards. Those without spears were ordered to stay in the backlines of the swuare and to provide support should the enemy attack breach, while the skirmishers were tasked with providing firing support.
The cavalrymen could see the square forming, but were too late to react, with many of them crashing straight into the conscripts' spears, killing horse and man alike. those that were dehorsed and not killed, were flung forward or to the side, only to be killed by the cheap swords and maces of the peasants. by the end, of the 250 cavalry that Kotesh had started with, more than a hundred had perished in mere moments, and by the hands of a bunch of peasants no less!
Though chaotic, the generals and captains from both armies who'd sat on the backlines could see the result, or were met with news of it from messengers.
Oswin: "What?"
Messenger: "It's as I'd stated my lord! a swath of conscripts had abandoned the right flank and had extended themselves out further, where they were met with a cavalry charge from Kotesh. The result being the annihilation of the cavalry charge, and the decimation of the Kotesh cavalry ranks."
Oswin: "... I heard you loud and clear, who gave them that order? was it captain Becket? Captain Aiken? who gave them the order to extend themselves? Moreso, how did they rout a cavalry charge? They were all conscripts were they not?"
Messenger: "Yes sir, it is unclear who gave them the order at this time, the way they did it, as described by right flank captain Aiken, was that they'd detatched themselves and had formed a square, with what appeared to be skirmishers in the middle. Additionally, they'd had a makeshift flag in the center along with the skirmishers, possibly as a means to let the rest of the army be aware of their location, sir!"
Oswin: "None in even the royal army are so organized... Find who led those conscripts after the battle, find who gave them those orders!"
Messenger: "Yes sir!"
The first battle was coming to a close, as the sun began to set, with Landyn's exposed conscripts taking the least casualties of all engaged forces.
Losses - Kotesh - Day 1
Mages - 2 (stray arrows)
Archers - 38
Cavalry - 102
Infantry - 348
Conscripts - 243
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Losses - Salleria - Day 1
Mages - 0
Arxhers - 42
Cavalry - 15
Infantry - 298
Conscripts - 178