The mercenary commander was not a kind-hearted man, and his attack on the infantry that had breached this shore could have been seen as an attempt to rescue the archers from annihilation. But he had no such intentions at all. Understanding that the enemy had a powerful mage, he hurried to bring his men as close to the enemy as possible and engage them in close combat; this was the only way to prevent the fate that had befallen his infantry right before his eyes.
Elur's heavy cavalry rushed to the bridge, sent by the Duke as reinforcements. Is hurried heavy cavalry not terrifying in battle? Oh! These lads will now demonstrate the folly of such misconceptions. The Orad's will regret coming north! According to all rules, the battle was transitioning into a hand-to-hand skirmish of infantry.
But this time, the orderly battle plan was disrupted. As the Orad's royal knights began to advance onto the bridge following their infantry, fireballs started bursting in their ranks, scattering bodies and body parts in all directions.
The mages of both sides ceased hurling spells at each other and stared at the field, not understanding what was happening, until one of the Elur's pointed to a distant hill. On the scorched earth stood a formation of crossbowmen unleashing deadly fire upon the pride and glory of the Orad's army gathered before the bridge.
"Leonid, are you sure we are standing far enough away?"
The commander nodded.
"And why do you think so?"
"Archmage Godius has been sent with the army. He gained fame suppressing rebellions. He even earned himself a beautiful nickname. The knight we captured fought alongside him. He's a skilled mage, but he suffers from one drawback — he has a fairly limited reservoir of power. Here, he'll naturally give us trouble, but he'll have to exert himself; a strike against us will greatly exhaust the old man, given the distance."
"But we must survive this blow."
"The main thing is for the automatons not to melt, and we will survive," Leonid joked.
"And if..."
"Enough chatter in formation! Don't distract."
Alexander fell silent. He remained silent even when just three salvos from them wiped out all the Orad's rangers. He clenched his teeth in silence as they were hit by fire, shielded by shields and personal magic. He remained silent, hiding behind the hill and hastily drinking blood from a flask. Defense against such an attack drained almost all his strength. But everyone was alive and well.
"Now the most interesting part begins," Leonid crawled up the hill like a soldier.
Alexander exhaled and followed him. It was from here that the two of them watched as the unit covering the bridge ceased to exist, as the archers perished under the swords of the frenzied infantry, as Duke Kas feverishly gave orders, gathering additional troops to the breach, as mages from both camps hurled deadly spells across the river.
"Form up! Salvo by fives. On my command. Target: knights."
Then Alexander tuned out and simply watched as bolts carrying magical bolts mowed down the ranks of the heavy cavalry, now acting as infantry. The losses among the knights were horrifying.
They were noticed. By both their own and the enemy. The mages of the Orad's tried to hit them, but almost immediately abandoned this pointless occupation, too far away.
The knights retreated, leaving more than half of their comrades in the field before the bridge. The "black axes" crowded around the river's breach of the enemy infantry, which was left without support. Additional forces of warriors and knights were already approaching the mercenaries' aid. The scales of battle swung back in favor of the Elur's, but their opponents had not yet brought all their forces into the field of battle.
A company of paladins rushed towards the hill where the crossbowmen were stationed. The river here was no more than five meters wide. For the paladins, this was not a distance; they could easily jump it, even in full armor. Apparently, this was what they planned to do now.
I've got more interesting stuff on patreon
patreon.com/Chill76