"Your majesty!"
Soldiers in full armor bowed down respectfully when Nirpendra's company of 200 men arrived at the battlefield. These were the four commanders second in rank to the commander in chief, Ivan.
"Ivan, what happened? Isn't it too early to attack?" Nirpendra said, kick starting this meeting amongst commanders.
"Yes sir, but they were the one who instigated the battle. I couldn't simply stay back and let them take out our men so I advanced forward."
"I see… Then there's no helping it. But we have terrible news and there's no time to waste."
"What is it, your highness?"
"The enemy reinforcements… they're approaching."
Nirpendra's words had a certain heaviness to it which crushed any kind of atmosphere between everyone. They were silent, solemn and contemplating the meaning behind Nirpendra's words.
"Does that mean we're going to have to face a force of 5000 men while we only have a 1000?"
Nirpendra nodded solemnly. The numbers would probably be somewhat lower considering they've already engaged in battle and had some losses.
"That's absurd!" A commander exclaimed out loud. "We have to retreat! There's no way we can face off with them!"
Ivan turned to look at this young man. He was the one who suggested retreating last time as well. Then he looked back at the king, who was severely contemplating something.
"Our reinforcements… they're not that far away."
This shocking revelation forced all of the commander's attention.
"How long will it take for them to reach us?"
"Twenty minutes approximately… but the enemy would appear ten minutes before that."
"It'll take less than ten minutes for a force of 5000 men to obliterate the smaller 1000. There's no way we can hold off that long of a time! Retreat, I tell you! We must retreat! Why are we even helping bhadgaon in the first place?"
This was the same commander who requested the retreat beforehand.
"But if we do win, according to our agreement with Bhadgaon, our country will occupy all of Patan. This means that Kathmandu valley will be ours for the taking.",
Another commander rebutted.
"It's too risky! What are the chances that everyone dies before our reinforcements arrive? Little to none!", the commander with retreat in his mind argued back.
"Do you really think that we will fall that easily? With Sir Ivan with us, holding out for a few minutes is easily doable!"
Everyone in this meeting seemed contemplating and had their own opinions about the matter. After a minute of thinking and arguing amongst each other, they all seemed to be in a stalemate. With no progress being made, they all turned towards the young king for an answer.
Nirpendra felt strange about this entire situation. In his previous life, he'd never been in such a situation that everyone around him would turn to him for guidance. His eyes swept across the five commanders, all formidable in their own rights. These five men were awaiting his guidance with desperate looks.
However, despite his previous life, in this life he was a king and in this exact position so he had to give that guidance. After contemplating a bit more, he finally said:
"The decision is made. We will stay here."
Two commanders seemed relieved about this decision and the latter two seemed in dismay. Meanwhile, Ivan had a face of indifference.
"Who is in charge of the ranged units?"
"It would be Suman Tamang, your highness." Ivan pointed towards the young commander who was keen about retreating and who kept suggesting it several times during the meeting.
"Lead me to your men, we need to snipe off as many men as possible of their men coming from the west direction. They will be the earliest to arrive. Then we will do the same to the eastern reinforcements. They will be the second to arrive."
The commander named Suman Tamang had a confused look on his face that turned condescending after a few moments.
"Your highness, it is impossible to hit targets from so far away to snipe them off without them noticing!"
"No, it will be possible."
"How, your highness?"
"Because I can use magic."
This seemed to convince the commander and he led Nirpendra to the archers, meanwhile the rest of the commanders dispersed, taking their own positions to command their men.
"Commander Suman!" An archer said once the two arrived, "And... your highness!?" She was a woman who was shocked at the appearance of the king.
Nirpendra nodded indifferently and the commander explained.
"Bring everyone! We will take shots at the western reinforcements of the enemy!"
"How will we do that, sir? They are too far away to hit."
"...Just bring them here! The king orders it!"
"Okay sir."
The commander still wore a face of doubt as if he didn't trust the king's ability to help them aim at the enemies so far away. And so did everyone else in the archer division. There were around 100 archers who all whispered amongst each other.
"What?! He's ordering us to snipe off the western reinforcements from such a long distance?"
"Impossible! Who does he think he is? That is impossible to do!"
"I know right. I guess the king is still inexperienced at these things. He is very young, after all."
Meanwhile, the commander was discussing something with the king.
"Your highness, I can see them in the distance! The enemy! They truly are too far away to hit. We shouldn't do this!"
In the western direction of the large wall, figures of several men could be seen emerging around the corner. They looked tiny from this distance and nobody believed that they would hit these people.
"Just trust me on this one."
"..." A bead of sweat formed in the commander's face as he had to agree despite having his protests. He couldn't do anything about the authority of the king. "Yes, your highness."
The commander turned around and yelled an order at the 5 lines of archers.
"Aim!"
Everyone in the archer group silently picked an arrow off the quiver on their backs and positioned it on their bows and pulled the string back.
"Should we fire now, your highness?"
However, when he looked at the king, the king's eyes had lost all color and he remained motionless.
"Your highness? Are you fine?"
The young commander was confused and asked the king what was going on. However, as he curiously tried taking a closer look at the king's situation, his eyes suddenly regained their color and he snapped back into motion.
"Aim up a bit."
The commander was dumbfounded, but there was no time to waste so he quickly relayed the information to the archers.
"Aim up!"
Everyone in the archer group aimed their bows up by a few degrees and the king returned to his state of being lifeless.
The commander could only stare in dumbness as the king came back to life as he said.
"Wait five seconds and fire."
"They can't possibly pull the bow like that for five more seconds." The Commander sighed internally and thought that this king truly was inexperienced. Pulling the string of a bow required immense strength and the archer group had it held for 10 seconds already. It would be very hard to hold it for 5 more seconds.
In this situation, a few arrows launched prematurely as a few female archers lacked the strength to hold the bow for long.
Nirpendra did not know this information so he simply said, "Then fire."
"Fire!" The commander relayed this information and all the remaining archers shot the arrow forward in unison. The volley of arrows had varied directions as some arrows fell down early while the others remained in the air for a longer period of time.
The latter type of arrows which stayed in the air for a longer period of time was the one that hit the enemies. However, there were only around 20 arrows which were of this type so only 20 enemies seemed to fall.
From this distance, they could see around 20 figures collapsing on the ground in the distance.
"No way! They hit?"
The commander gave a curious glance at the king as he wondered how he would have known to hold for five more seconds. If the archer group had truly held for 5 more seconds, the enemies would have been in position to be hit by those arrows which fell on the ground quickly so many more enemies would have been killed.
But despite his suspicions and curiosity, everyone's doubt had been cleared. And soon, they all raised their bows once again upon the commander's command.
The king gave various commands like aiming up and holding for a few seconds before giving the order to shoot. When the commander relayed this order, everyone shot at once and this time, since Nirpendra had accounted for the factor that archers could only hold for 10 seconds, almost all of the arrows hit the target.