The next order the General had issued was to march towards the capital. Without any communication from Hammerhold, he had to assume that it had fallen without sending aid for help. The recent communication with the Royal Court had informed him that the 7th Battalion was to replace him in guarding the Southern Linirea. After getting those orders confirmed, he had made his march north and his force wouldn't be marching alone before too long.
A company of the Order of the Twilight Hammer, or the Royal Knights as they are more commonly known, together with their commander, Sir Gerald Lightseeker, and a mage squad were in the area and, after hearing about the force's march, decided to join up at Twin Rivers Pass and march together back to the capital.
It took the force a day of march to reach the meeting spot only to find the knights already camped down and waiting for them. To their surprise, the very first person they met ended up being the knight commander himself as he made his way to the General. Out of respect, everyone made a step aside to let the commander through. Despite commander's requests to just treat him like a normal person, in the end he had to accept the treatment. Thankfully, General rode out to the commander as soon as he was spotted.
Once they met, Sir Gerald bowed down. "Well met, General. I see you had quite an experience." General smiled. "Ah, Sir Gerald. Good to see a familiar face after so long." Then he realized his made Gerald raise his eyebrow. "Sorry. It just has been few long weeks."
Gerald laughed. "Then you better start adjusting fast. Else, you will think your life passed by you." General slumped his shoulders. "I guess. Anyway, you were at the Argent Lake, correct?"
"That's right. We received about a large scale ogre gathering at the lake only to find nothing at all. I would assume they either successfully distracted us or they were just waiting for the rest to come. Whatever it is, we went there and back with nothing to show."
"At least, you should have something to do with us now."
"I sure hope so." He then spotted something. "Well, I guess we are about to find out."
General turned around and then spotted the scout riding towards them. Once he reached them, he immediately starting speaking. "Reporting! A large enemy party spotted southeast from here marching to this location, Milord! They should be here in several hours!"
After cursing under his breath, General issued his orders. "Right. Get this report to the other officers. We need an urgent meeting." After the scout left, General turned to Gerald. "You and your knights will finally have some action." With Gerald's big smile, the two men went to the temporary command tent.
While the battalion captain was arranging the temporary camp, the rest of the officers had assembled in the tent with the map of the area to discuss the strategy. To Gerald, it seemed easy and simple. "We place the troops behind the bridges, funnelling the enemies into kill zones." While others had agreed with his idea, nobody actually supported it for the current battle thanks to the terrain.
Normally, the bridge funnel idea would have been perfect. Placing the frontline just behind the bridge, turning the area around the bridge into a kill zone. If the battle had been happening practically anywhere else on the planet, this would have been the option to go. Trouble was, they were at the one place where it wouldn't work as well.
The Twin River Place was quite unique river crossing because of one thing. They had 2 bridges less than kilometre apart. The story about it went that the road workers and the architects couldn't agree on which would have been the best place to build the bridge. And so, two temporary bridges were built so close to each other.
A century later and the only change about them was that they were remade and improved. The people ended up using both of them and even a rudimentary traffic rule was implemented. The western bridge was used for northern-southern traffic and eastern one for the opposite direction. The crossing was quite popular for the travel from the central Linirea into the south and the other way around.
Unfortunately, that same benefit became a huge draw for the force for the battle. If they focused on defending one bridge, the enemy could easily slip by on the other one, as the officers pointed it out. Still, Sir Gerald refused to drop the matter. "How about our skirmish line? Don't we have enough of them to cover everything?"
General shook his head. "If we split them, then no, especially with ogres around. And that's before we account for siege warfare."
All eyes then turned to Agate, who was in the corner doing calculations. Unlike the rest of them, he was solely focused on calculating what would be the best position for his crew. After the last of them were done, he took a deep sigh. "Not good. The only position that would suit us as well would be in the river. Anywhere else and we risk being unable to support or worse, friendly fire."
Gerald raised his eyebrow. "I do think I saw mages among you. Can't you cast Protection spell to your troops?"
General answered. "No. The only mages we have are from Southport. Since originally we were supposed to just hunt down some bandits, I had left some stuff behind in the capital."
"That being?"
"The mage company and the artillery. Oh, and the buglers, because I wanted speed and silence."
Gerald shook his head in disbelief. "Damn it."
For a brief moment, all eyes were pointed at the eastern bridge because there was one more idea, but none dared to raise it. There was the option of blowing up one of the bridges to force the enemy to other one. The thing was that it was the worst possible option and no one wanted to be the one to suggest it.
Several years ago, Royal General Kelik Bluchal was tasked with intercepting a brigand raid northeast of the Twin Rivers Pass. His idea was to force the enemy to separate by blowing up the bridge. In the end it was proven that the brigand force was seriously overestimated and that the bridge replacement cost more than the raid repairs. After getting publicly embarrassed, Kelik was sacked from his position for power abuse. Royal Generals might have served as king's representative in the field, but it didn't mean that they had free reign to do whatever as the incident would prove.
After the moment of silence had passed, General had finally made his decision. "Right. I guess we have no other choice. A horseshoe formation. Captain Dowding, take the militia and a third of footman and place them in front of the western bridge."
To his surprise, Clancy spoke up. "I object, Milord. We should take the eastern side."
"Oh? Even if the eastern side is far more open?"
"That's exactly why. If you put them in front of the bridge and then order a retreat, there will be a massive chaos just trying to get through it."
Gerald raised the obvious question. "You really think that low of your men?"
Clancy shook his head. "It's not about trust. With ogres still around, they could punch through the weak spot which in this case is clearly the militia. If I do need to order a retreat, I would prefer to give them the highest chance to survive."
After seeing Gerald's nod of approval, General changed his plan. "Right then. Take the militia and 2 fifths of footmen and guard the eastern road. Sir Gerald, take the rest of the footmen and half of your knights and guard the western bridge. Place the remaining knights as the connection between the two lines."
"Understood."
"And as for you, Lieutenant. Would that spot near the fishery work?"
After taking a look at the map and then at his calculations, Agate nodded. "Yes, that should work well."
"In that case, gentlemen, you have your orders. Get to it."
After the meeting was dismissed, the officers left and disseminated the orders. After the force made their camp on the other side of the river and had lunch, they slowly made their way to the battle line. By the time the enemy had made their appearance, the kingdom troops were ready to intercept them.
Minutes before the enemy had made contact, Gerald startled everyone by loudly slamming his sword into his shield that was then followed with every knight doing the same. Although the surprise remained for the bit, the others soon followed suit. The loud clanking had a massive effect at the enemy. The first wave was solely made out of goblins and orcs, both normal and Shamans.
As a revenge to what happened at Pagras, the militia and the footmen tore apart the goblinoids. A group of Shamans tried to keep them alive, but a bottle of Frozotov and a shell from Big Bonne turned them into mush. The force was so effective at dispatching them, especially once Shamans were taken out, that there were only wounded after the first wave.
Unfortunately, they had no time to rest as the second wave came almost immediately and, among them, there was a worrisome sight. A dark green-black flag with dark green star on it was flown as the enemy approached, revealing unexpected sight. Humans had joined the goblinoids, bearing the flag of the rebels. In his anger, Gerald yelled so loud all kingdom soldiers turned to him. "Alright, you bastards! You wanna live forever?!"
As the cheers erupted and he started banging his shield again, a blue aura appeared around the troops surrounding him. Gerald, with his sword raised to the heavens, yelled out loud: "THEN FOLLOW ME!" The troops obeyed and everyone charged, catching both the General and the enemy off guard. The battlefield became chaotic as the 2 armies clashed in a bloody, but short brawl. The 2 ogres and their bodyguards never reached the frontline as they ended up being cooked alive with the Rain of Fire spell. Humans that tried to retreat ended up over the scorched earth, also cooking alive.
The battle might have been a short one but it wasn't as costly for the defenders as the scene would depict it. Only 9 dead overall. Meanwhile, it tool the rest of the day to gather the corpses of the fallen enemies. According to what they could find, there were 130 goblins, 58 armoured orcs, 24 orc shamans, 107 humans, 18 wulves and 2 ogres.
After seeing just how high the corpse pile was, General couldn't help but wonder on how in the world did he lose so little. It was Gerald who had explained it. "When given proper courage and morale, even a farmer could slay a dragon. All I did was amplify the effect to the rest of the army."
"So, is this why you were chosen to guard the king as the Paladin of the Holy Light? Well, that and the fact that chin of yours needs a shield of its own."
Gerald made a hearty laugh. "You just jealous of my looks. I got so many fan girls, got a fan club just for my fabulous golden hair."
General made a sarcastic comment. "Sure, believe that's not ridiculous at all."
"Don't worry. You might look like an average knight with that hairdo of yours, but I am sure there are those who don't mind."
"Wow, he comes with a big ego too. How do you even fit through doors?"
The two men wanted to joke around more, but the laughter overcame them. It took them a while before they regained their composure. It was General who spoke first after that. "Ah, needed that right about now. Thanks."
Gerald smiled. "My pleasure. I wagered that you needed to blow some steam off after that. That was truly unexpected."
General nodded. "Yes. Now we have rebels joining up with the greenskins too. It even seems they already have the plans for the kingdom, judging from the flag. Didn't expect that there would be any supporters at all, let alone to try and overthrow the kingdom."
"Now I can't help but wonder about the other battalions and their missions. Who knows what they are stumbling upon right as we speak."
General took a look at the corpse pile as it was being set on fire. "All we can do now is march to the capital and receive the news personally. Hopefully, we can find something on the way there."
The force ended up taking a day of rest at the Twin River Pass. After the chaotic battle, they had earned it. The officers, realizing the implications for the humans joining up with the enemy, quickly made an agreement and treated the dead humans as bandits and brigands. While it was quite was possible that they were merely that, the officers chose not to risk it.
And so the next day, as the men and the women assembled for their lessons, Clancy opened his lesson with the obvious point. "Unfortunately, it was always a possibility that the criminals would be paid into serving the enemy. As much as it may trouble us, killing our fellow humans, we must not forget that they won't abstain from doing the same. I take no pleasure in killing them, but I also won't hold back. We should focus on the task ahead."
After getting silent nods of approval, he continued by placing one drawing of human. "In order to distinguish the enemy, we will call the lightly armoured enemy bandits and more armoured ones brigands. For bandits, they are on level on militia in terms of training and equipment. Lightly armoured with whatever the weapons they could find."
He then removed the drawing and placed another one, this one more clearly armoured. "And these ones might be on the level of footmen with better armour and shields. Normally the armour would lead us to believe that the magic might be the most effective, however, as we probably all have experienced. A well placed blow could easily kill both them and us. So, let us keep our heads while we fight, alright?"
The lessons continued for several hours until it was the time to march. The next destination, Silveroak Forest.