Chapitre 29: Home Run!
The battlefield is no place for the faint of heart.
Each scream threatens to hurt it.
Each cry for help threatens to gain sympathy from it.
Each severed limb threatens to scar it.
All while the smell of blood threatens to make you vomit it.
Lyndon Gladorus, Vice General in the Chavarian army at the battle of Brunag.
…..
A tide of red blood-eyed iron-clad orcs charged towards the neatly formed Chavarians, roaring defiantly, waving their crude iron weapons in the air as they ran as wave after wave of arrows rained down on them, the cavalry on the left side entered into a Mexican standoff, neither moving as the orcish pikes move to the left side of the allied army to act as a bulwark against the cavalry if they tried to interfere into the infantry battle by charging in while some of them hold off the allied armies cavalry.
The orcs, who initially were just a rabble being cut down by the arrow rain coming from the top of the hill like wheat waiting to be harvested, quickly began to create shield walls forming formations similar to roman tortoises as they worked together to move forward while massively reducing the casualties that they were taking the arrows now hitting their shields instead of their armoured flesh which required multiple arrows to bring down one orc.
As the orcish heavy infantry were creating tight tortoises and slowly moving forward under the Chavarian's arrow rain, 10,000 orcish skirmishers split into two, each with 5000 men each began to move towards both the left and right flank of the Chavarian shield wall, trying to shield themselves with their small round shields as they moved to outflank the Chavarian position and use their javelins to attack them from behind and deal a large amount of damage.
"Archers focus on their skirmishers, for they are lightly armoured and don't have the armour or the large shields to defend themselves properly!"
Lyndon ordered in a loud commanding voice to the archers under his command as half fired on the skirmishers charging up the hill on the left and the other half focused on the skirmishers attacking from the right. At the same time, the orcish pikes and remaining spear-armed heavy infantry moved to protect the skirmishers attacking from the left side of the Chavarian formation from any potential cavalry attacks from the Chavarians.
"Send half of our heavy infantry to reinforce our right side! Let Lyndon decide their formations and position. He's better than I am at it, after all."
Higher on the hill just below the top, where Lucius looked over the entire battlefield like a vulture waiting to strike, Archtorius gave orders to some of his men when he saw the movements from the orcish army to help plug the glaring weakness that Lucius had left on the right for some reason.
The heavy infantry quickly ran down the hill creating a small dustball behind them as their heavy, finely crafted armour clinked and clanged while they went quickly making it to the front lines of the Chavarian force as there were only about 200 yards between them, allowing the crossbows to fire over their comrades when the enemy was about 50 yards away from them the front lines their range being enhanced further from firing down a hill.
The orc army made steady progress up the hill, the small shields wielded by the skirmishers doing less and less as more and more Chavarian archers accurately found the weaknesses in their defence, killing or incapacitating them; however, the skirmishers made quicker progress than the tightly slowly moving heavy infantry taking a dispersed formation to help take fewer casualties from the archers.
Leon finally made a move when the Skirmishers were 100 yards from the front of the Chavarian infantry.
"4000 cavalry made of 3000 horse archers and 1,000 knights are to attack the skirmishers heading towards the left of Lyndon's formation! The rest are to hold off the enemy cavalry with me."
"Remember, use the horse archers to kill off and hold the pikes in place while the knights cut down the skirmishers."
"Do you understand?"
Leon ordered his men.
"Yes, general!"
The men said as they rode furiously towards the orc skirmishers and pikes who protected them while Leon prepared to take on Bardornus, Alden, the Plurian cavalry and the orcish wolf riders and hold them off long enough for his cavalry to return or for him to get help from Lucius.
After the many battles fought over the previous day and night, the once 30,000-strong Chavarian cavalry made from 20,000 horse archers and 10,000 Chavarian knights had been reduced to just 17,000 with 11,000 horse archers and 6,000 knights surviving the previous day's onslaught.
However, the Allied army had also lost a large number of men as 2/3s of their entire mounted troops at the start of the battle came from the Plurain army, which combined for a total of 20,000 men made of 10,000 light cavalry, 5,000 horse archers, and 5,000 Plurian knights had been reduced to just 10,500 men in total with only 1,000 horse archers and 2,500 Plurian knights surviving with the rest being light cavalry.
When you take into account that just under half of the 10,000 orcish wolf riders died in the ambush set up by Lucius the previous day while the Chavarian cavalry had significantly been injured, nearly losing half of their men, their opponents had not faired any better in the cavalry department. It is for these reasons that Leon decided to split off some of his cavalry while having the confidence to hold and maybe even win against the combined cavalry of the allied army who, even with Leon sending nearly one-third of his cavalry away, still had half of the heavy cavalry the Chavarians had and due to the Plurians having one-eighth of the horse archers that the Chavarians have when they attack they would have to strike quickly and try to enter melee as soon as possible.
'The only issue is Bardornus and that talented vice general of his. As I don't know how long I can hold out against both of them, I can only hope that my lord sends an expert to help me.'
Leon thought, the hand holding his spear tightening as he readied himself for the life-and-death battle to come.
The cavalry and the infantry were not far from each other as such, by the time the skirmishers were barely 30 yards away from the Chavarians, the Chavarian horse archers fired on them as the few orcish heavy infantry struggled in vain to defend their pikemen as their were three pikemen for every heavy infantry as such many were forced to scatter as the deadly horse archers began to fill them with arrows as many muscled orcs fell to the ground as porcupines in droves the few who could be protected by the heavy infantry huddling together like penguins in an attempt to defend themselves from arrows.
Seeing this, Lyndon smiled slightly as he made a hand gesture behind him, which the keen-eyed Archtorius saw, and the crossbows on top of the hill, who until now had been silent, fired a cloud of crossbow bolts which combined with the small cloud of arrows fired from the Chavarian archers ripped into the dense orcish ranks made up of tightly packed pikemen and spearmen who huddled together to protect themselves from the accurate arrows of the Chavarian horse archers as with no shield to cover their backs which were now towards the horse archers and not the main Chavarian army led to devastating casualties as most of the arrows and crossbows hit nearly annihilating the polearm-armed orcish infantry who were meant to be blocking the Chavarian cavalry.
The Chavarian knights took advantage of this to change into the skirmishers who only got one volley off before descending into chaos as the black and red Chavarian knights reaped life after life harvesting their lives like a scythe harvesting wheat heads and severed limbs littering the ground where they stood.
This volley was effective, killing some of the archers and infantry on the right; however, the infantry was quickly replaced by the reinforcements, which Archtorius sent in advance when he first saw the movements of the allied army leading to them only doing thousand-odd casualties to the Chavarian side before descending into chaos.
However, one orc seemed to have direction still, wearing a nicer iron armour compared to the leather and crude iron of his compatriots and used a javelin to hit a knight who was leaning down to behead him in the neck, the man falling from his horse dead as blood flowed from his mouth and an open wound on his neck as he coughed a few times before going limp the horse returning to the freedom of the steppes.
After showing off his prowess and recognising their vice general by his armour, the orcs began to rally around him as more and more knights fell to the orc's javelins. But unbeknownst to him, a black raven of death had taken note of his efforts to rally his men. A bow was slowly pulled back before releasing with a sonic boom which echoed throughout the battlefield as an arrow, seemingly flying at the speed of light, pierced through the neck of the orc who was rallying his men, the green-pigmented body falling to the bloodied ground clutching at its throat before letting out his final gasp and entering into the underworld.
"Ow ow ow ow."
"Sorrell, correct my arm, would you? It hurts like hell! I think I dislocated it with the last shot!"
Archtorius shouted, crying out in pain as the bow fell from his hands, clattering onto the ground as he held his arm, which was now limp.
"Young master, I have said you should not use that shot, yet you can't keep injuring yourself like this. What would the old lord think of you hurting yourself so much? It is one thing to be injured on the battlefield, but another to injure yourself! Don't tell me you're a masochist now. My heart couldn't stomach the thought."
Sorrell replied while sighing as he relocated Archtorius's arm, which cracked back into position, relieving the young man from the pain which shot through his body from his right arm.
"You think I like hurting myself? It was necessary as without that orc rallying those skirmishers, we won't need to worry about being attacked by skirmishers on two sides, and those skirmishers and infantry on the left should be destroyed in a timely manner."
Archtorius said as he watched the Chavarian cavalry run rings around the orcs who were pancaking and initiating a slaughter as they began to rout as fear of the soulless Chavarain knights was etched deep in their hearts.
"Have the crossbow fire on the skirmishers to the right! We need to suppress them as much as possible if too many of those javelins go into the back of our formation, it will fall apart!"
Archtorius ordered as another cloud of javelins emerged from the right side, slamming into the backs of the infantry who were defending the left side of the Chavarian formation. Looking closer, Archtorius saw that they seemed to be led by a little orc who picked off a man every now and then with his bow.
"That's where the little shit is! Sorrell! Let's go down to the right. If I don't stick that ugly little gremlin's head on a pike, ill never die peacefully!"
Archtorius snarled angrily as he rushed towards the right side of the Chavarian lines with all the boldness of youth.
"Young master, it's not wise to go down-"
"Young master, please listen to me!"
"Young Master!
'Lucius always seems to get his way. It seems I'm fighting again! Why can't my young master learn from the general's patience.'
Sorrell thought, sighing again, seeing his attempts to persuade his young master to stop fail swiftly rushed to aid and protect his young master, who was racing down the hill, his eyes red and fixed on the tiny orc who seemed to be only a spec in the distance.
Further up the hill, Lucius smiled as he looked down at the battlefield, impressed by the strategical skills of the vice generals under him, the smile turning into a grin when he saw Archtorius race towards the front lines in anger.
But then his face fell and turned dark again when he noticed and felt a trembling in the ground as the cavalry battle on the left began, and a giant furred orc got closer and closer to his front line. Lucius turned to the knight captain, who was coldly staring at the battlefield in silence as if the carnage he saw happen on the hillside was an everyday occurrence sending a slight shiver down the usually calm man's back.
'These knights scare me more and more as I spend more time with them, but I suppose that is the point, as it helps to put any thoughts of rebelling out of a noble or general's head.'
'One can only admire the king who thought up such a way to control his generals and those with military power.'
'Here, have some royal knights to protect you he says. They are there to show my trust and appreciation, he says! Trust and appreciation, my ass! They are here to spy on and execute me if I have even one treasonous thought!'
Reginald, who was playing Lucius, complained internally as he looked at one of his character's memories.
'I should use a similar method if I ever have a kingdom one day. It truly is quite effective.'
Of course, Lucius himself was not above such methods himself and even admired the Chavarian king for it, but then another vibration in the ground put his attention back towards the battle that was happening on the hillside.
"Captain, take half the knights here, and once the cavalry on the left have dealt with the orc skirmishers and pikemen, lead them to help Leon."
"General, what about you? Won't you be vulnerable? We are assigned by his majesty to protect you from harm no matter what!"
"Bardornus and Alden are with the cavalry on the far left, the orcs are too busy trying to break through Lyndon and Archtorius' iron guard helping Leon is protecting me as it would deal with two major threats to my life do you want them to kill him then slaughter their way up the hill and through you to take my head like they nearly last night!"
Lucius said calmly to the captain, emphasising the last part of the sentence.
"Leon is the best fighter in our army. If you work with him, you should be able to deal with them also if he dies. I'll beat you black and blue! Do you understand? What happened to Lindorius will seem like childsplay compared to what I will do to you!
Lucius said seriously, shooing the knight captain away to carry out his orders while casually threatening the good captain.
"I understand now, general forgive me for my foolishness."
The captain said, understanding that his general was thinking many steps ahead as he rushed down the hill to take command of the cavalry who were mopping up the remnants of the skirmishers and pikemen. The horse archers shot the scattered pike and spearmen while the knights skewered and sliced the skirmishers with their lances and swords, the steel tips and blades running red with blood making them appear like bloodied killing machines.
The orcish short bows, which were with the main orc army, finally got into range and began firing on the Chavarian cavalry; however their iron arrows failed to pierce through the knight's steel armour while taking many arrows to fell one horse archers for while their armour is lighter it is still very effective against the simple bows and arrows of the orcs only the absent Plurian crossbows would pose a serious threat, but a few hundred still died from their erratic shooting.
…..
"Another humey down being small really does have its advantages at times."
Zugbu, the small orcish captain, said to himself quietly, happy as his performance until he suddenly felt cold, the anti-magic crystals activated by both sides preventing him from using magic which was his main ability and strength, forcing him to lurk amongst the skirmishers taking pot shots every now and then when a Chavarian archer revealed themselves and loosing an arrow into their throat.
'Why do I suddenly feel like a predator has locked onto me.'
Zugbu thought as a shiver went down his spine, and his well-attuned danger senses began to send alarms blaring through his body.
BOOM!
BOOM!
But he calmed down the moment he felt the booming footsteps approaching him.
Just as the orcish heavy infantry armed with cleavers, axes, and other one-handed weapons broke their protective tortoises to form a line and begin to attack the Chavarian formation, a series of thumps and booms resounded throughout the battlefield as Naguk, the giant orc, lumbered his way to the right side. Approaching the right side of the Chavarian formation, he swung his 6 feet long spiked club in a wide motion bashing the Chavarian shield wall on the right side into the air as they all spat out blood when they fell to the ground their internal organs ruptured from the strike as the heavy orcish infantry abandoned their formation to charge into the newly formed breach in the Chavarian lines.
"HOME RUN!"
Wurgoth shouted from the back of the allied army, ready to command the remaining 10,000 orcish light infantry to charge in if needed.
"General, what is a home run?"
One of the orcs next to wurgoth asked.
"It doesn't matter! I heard it's from a game in the northern continent. It's in one of those boring books I had to read."
The orc player said, brushing off the question with ease and coming up with an excuse which fit his character.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
LaziestDragon
LaziestDragon Here is the promised chapter sorry it's late it was longer than I thought it would be also was busy with other things on Saturday.
Thank you for reading and for your continued support of the novel
The next chapter is scheduled for next weekend.
Discord link below to talk to me and remind me to write.
https://discord.gg/kzT7hrnFYp
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
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