Rise of the Horde

331 Chapter 33It was a fine early morning, the nocturnal creatures of the desert began to retreat deep into the sand and to their hiding places while the diurnal ones emerge from their slumber and began their life for the day. The desert was rather peaceful with just the occasional howling of the wind and the sound of the sand being carried along by its gust but in the chosen battlefield of the two armies, it was far from being peaceful.

Shouts of command, the thundering roar of the war drums and the marching steps of both armies disturbed the supposed to be tranquil place. Perhaps because of they sense the danger of staying in the area, the critters of the desert began to flee the scene as fast as possible.

The army led by General Trakaros came to the battlefield in almost full strength with just his heavy cavalry missing as he hid them far from the eyes of their foes. He planned to use the heavy cavalry as his trump cards in crushing their foes.

“General, they have answered our call for battle.” His most trusted adjutant joined right beside their commander atop his own steed as they watched Adhalia’s army come out from their camp.

“Spear and shields… Nothing extraordinary there… Camel Cavalry…? And a few missile units?” the old general was puzzled on how did such a normal army beat the ass of Ounephes that he came running back to his father with just a few soldiers. And there numbers was on the low side too, if they had absolute numerical advantage then that could be possible but the number of enemy soldiers that he can see was nowhere near the amount that could give absolute advantage in a battle.

After observing their foes for a little bit, the old general then proceeded to arrange his soldiers in his favoured battle arrangement. They have twice the number of infantry and he trusted his own men to be able to fend them off and since it’s still just the first day, he opted to hold half of them in reserve while sending the other half forward for battle. He divided their cavalry equally on both flanks of their formation and their missile units closely following behind their infantry.

To the side of the Drakhars was a mirror image of the enemy army’s battle arrangement. Infantry up front with cavalry units protecting the flanks while the missile units were at the rear tailing behind the infantry. The two sides had the same battle arrangement but there was a slight difference in the number of soldiers.

The Drakhars only had four thousand infantry deployed against six thousands from their foe while the enemy cavalry had a one thousand more riders than them and the only thing that both side were equal in numbers was with their missile units. The army of General Trakaros held a slight advantage in numbers but battles were never won with numbers alone.

The two sides stopped approximately a kilometre apart and there missile units began moving forward, the classic missile battle before a full clash was the appetizer of the battle to get the men going. Arrows rained down from both sides to minimal effect especially with the passing wind interfering with their arrows as they landed too far from their intended targets. Five volley of arrows later, the direction of the wind suddenly changed in favour of the archers from General Trakaros’ side.

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Seeing that their archers were slowly being destroyed, the commander of Adhalia’s army commanded for two units of their cavalry from their right flank to go and help their archers and perhaps destroy the enemy missile units to take them out from future battles.

In response, the old general sent out two units of his own cavalry to go and engage the enemy cavalry that was supposed to go for their archers. The response of the enemy army maintained the current status of the fight; the archers belonging to the side of the Drakhars were being bullied by the enemy archers because of the influence of the wind that was heavily favouring their enemies.

Near the central part of the battlefield, the archers were engaging in their own missile battle while the two units of cavalry from both sides engaged in their own battle. Noticing that there was no improvement in the situation, the commander of the Drakhars gave the command to march forward to the infantry to try and make the enemy archers back off. The move quickly was responded by the enemy army as they also began marching their infantry forward.

The battle continued with both infantry units from both side coming closer and closer towards each other and by the looks of it, a head on clash was fast approaching. Since their archers were at a disadvantage, they were told to retreat behind their allied infantry and the enemy archers did the same after releasing a few volleys towards the enemy infantry that was heading for them.

The few volleys did take out some of the unlucky soldiers on the side of the Drakhars but the damage dealt by them could just be shrugged off by them.

General Trakaros watched the battle unfold with a smile as his army was slowly gaining an advantage against their foes. Whatever the enemy commander did, he countered it with his own which allowed them to maintain the current slight advantage that they had because of the favourable wind.

“Charge!”

The soldiers of the old general let out their battle cries as they sprinted forward to try and intimidate the enemy infantry, they were hoping that their foes would lose their nerves upon the sight of their charge and break formation which would allow them to dive deep into their lines. But the response they got from the Drakhars was total silence except for the sound of them marching forward.

Perceiving that his soldiers already began the charge while their foes still maintained their marching speed, General Trakaros’ smile grew wider thinking that their foes were too scared to employ a counter charge against his soldiers. ‘The day is ours.’ That’s what he thought.

When there was less than twenty meters between them and the charging enemy, the Drakhars came to a unified halt then their spears which were pointing towards the sky pointed forward presenting a forest of spear towards their foes. No one was foolish enough to charge at certain death and the Drakhars knew it but because of the momentum of their charge and the sudden action of their foes, the enemy infantry who were on a mad sprint regretted running too fast.

The forefront of the enemy infantry tried their best to halt themselves from charging forward by their allies who were behind them who were still to find out about the forest of spears shoved them forward, some were pushed forward within the range of the Drakhars who ruthlessly extended their weapons forward and stabbed them while the others were trampled over by their allies.

The enemy infantry slammed against the formation of the Drakhars and bodies were ruthlessly impaled.

General Trakaros’ smile disappeared from his face after seeing that his infantry didn’t manage to push back the enemy infantry. The thick cloud of dust which was kicked up by their charge obscured the battlefield and he had no idea what was actually going on with all the dust that had engulfed the thick of the battle.

After bracing the initial clash, the Drakhars then began to move as they march forward while skewering anyone who dared stand in their path. With the aid of the dust cloud, the soldiers who were at the rear can’t see what is actually happening at the very front but this didn’t stop the Drakhars from moving forward. As soon as the one in front of them moves forward, they followed just right behind them even without being able to see where they are going or what was going on at the very path that they are taking.

When the cloud of dust finally subsided, the old general was finally able to witness his soldiers getting massacred by the enemy infantry in the simplest fashion, “stab miss? Move forward stab… move forward stab” it was very simple but the very simple maneuver of the enemy infantry was destroying his soldiers.

It didn’t take long for the enemy infantry to break as they realized that they had to put themselves at the risk of getting stabbed by multiple spears just so that they could get a shot at striking at their foes. After losing a third of their companions, the enemy infantry began to distance themselves from the Drakhars and their outrageously long spears. Every single time that the Drakhars moved forward, the enemy infantry would take a step back until they finally can no longer take it then fled, running back towards their allies.

After some moments of silence, General Trakaros gave the command for the reserves to join in the battle, the remaining infantry units that he thought wouldn’t be needed in today’s battle had to be committed to the fight for them to recover and try to win the day.

“Nabeser, go and rally the fleeing troops.” He directed his attention towards one of his adjutants.

He finally had an idea on how did their foes despite their few numbers manage to beat the army led by Ounephes. The old general now regretted not bringing along his heavy cavalry which could have been use to smash open the lines of the enemy infantry. With the presence of one of the favoured adjutants of the old general and their allies, the fleeing infantry finally regained their composure then formed up their lines to make a return to the fight.