The Foolhardies - Chapter 204 Phalanx

A little less than nine-hundred Foolhardies against the remaining four-thousand soldiers of the center army’s reserves — we’d faced worse odds.

From my vantage point in the sky, I could see how it was all arrayed.

Our position in the back of the center army’s line was so far away from the central battlefield that I doubt Garm — who was currently leading his soldiers at the front — could know what was happening apart from reports sent to him by his subordinates in the reserves.

If nothing else, I would make him pay for looking down on us and not handling us himself. That would be his fatal mistake.

East of us, I saw activity on the hill fort covering Verania’s Oasis. The troops there were mobilizing as well, but since I knew they couldn’t leave that spot unattended, I doubt they’d send more than a hundred or three as reinforcements for our current enemies.

“Just how deep does your betrayal go, Garm,” I wondered aloud.

Directly below me, our right and left wings had successfully separated from our center, creating a much larger line that could theoretically hold back the enemy attack that would have encircled us and cut off our escape.

“Aura, can you get Jensen to send word to Luca… Use the flags to move his troops down and away from the enemy while maintaining his phalanx formation,” I ordered.

“That would put our line at an angle, wouldn’t it?” Aura asked.

“Yeah,” I answered. “That’ll make the enemy overextend on the left… which is what we need them to do.”

“And why do we need them to do that?” she pressed.

“Because whoever’s in charge is currently located on their east wing,” I explained. “You know what that means…”

“Another round of commander hunting,” Aura said, and I could just about feel her rolling her eyes at me.

“Best way to disperse this crowd,” I answered. “Let Xanthor’s guys know where to go too… I want them to harass the enemy right wing’s flank as soon as they overextend themselves.”

“Roger that, Commander,” Aura answered. “And what will you be doing?”

“I’m heading to the right wing with Varda’s warriors,” I said.

The right wing, which I could see now was just beginning to clash with the enemy’s left wing, was the key. If Edo could keep the enemy occupied long enough for me and Varda’s soldiers to assault their side, we might just win this battle.

That sounds a little too easy, I know. But the enemy, like us, had adopted a standard phalanx formation. Now, here’s the thing about the phalanx. It is extremely strong at the front where all the momentum is located, but the sides are a little less defensible on account of all the shields being aimed forward.

This made a crack troop of heavily-armored dwarven warriors who were experienced at breaking walls the ideal hammer for such a task.

“Roger, Commander,” Varda answered. “Happy hunting!”

“Send a runner to Ashley,” I added. “Tell her to switch to phalanx now.”

“We’ve got this, Commander,” Varda finished. “Go do what you do best already!”

With that vote of confidence, I zoomed out of tactical view and back to solid ground although I kept Fool’s Insight activated in combat mode as I was pretty sure I’d need it later.

“Aura, you and half your squad are with me. Leave the other half with Donar here in the center to support the center,” I commanded.

—

I and a hundred and fifty soldiers arrived at Edo’s right wing just in time as the battle intensified.

The enemy commander seemed hell-bent on obliterating our right wing with his left wing which had about one-thousand-and-one-hundred soldiers more than we did. To me, this just meant challenging but doable.

“How’s it going?” I asked Edo who was busy decapitating a few satyr heads with his glaive.

“Did you just come here to be annoying?” Edo asked

He’d just stabbed a heavily armored satyr in the stomach with his glaive with such strength that the shadowblade punched right into the enemy’s gut and out the back. It was the very definition of impalement.

“And here I thought you’d be happy with the reinforcements I brought along!” I swung my falchion into the side of the satyr who had just appeared in front of me. “They’re a very… sturdy group.”

My falchion’s shadowblade cut deep into the enemy, causing him to shriek in pain just long enough for Edo to decapitate him too.

“Nice assist,” I said.

“You’re not staying,” Edo guessed. “Hold on.”

The half-ogre slammed the butt of his glaive down on the hard sand, and the force it generated exploded outward in a half-circle in front of him. This had the comical effect of blowing away several of the enemies in front of us.

“I’ll hold them off for as long as I can, but you better hurry,” Edo said. “It’s still four thousand against us…”

“We’ve faced off against bigger odds,” I said patting him on his free arm. “I don’t suppose you know who we’re up against.”

“Barducius the Tri-Horn,” Edo answered quickly.

It was just like Edo to be treasure trove of information when it came to officers in the Pavilion. I suspected that he’d memorized every officer name from every army in the clan just to be helpful to Aura.

I was just about to say thank you when I stopped. “Wait… why’s he called the tri-horn?”

“He didn’t think two large horns was enough and so he had a third metal horn embedded onto his brow,” Edo chuckled.

“Dude’s committed,” I chuckled back.

We each dispatched another enemy soldier, but pixies this time, and the sight of them made me remember Qwipps’ task.

As if on cue, the sound of explosions rocked the ground nearby bringing with it the scent of burnt flesh and sulfur in the air.

“Bombardment’s started,” Edo noted.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Still not as cool as Ty’s icicles or Aura’s fireballs though.”

“If you two are done chatting in the most conspicuous spot of this battlefield, perhaps it’s time for us to move on?” Aura chided.

She twirled her staff once, then twice, and a third time, with each rotation spitting out a firebolt at the enemies charging at us.

“Aura, keep your mages with Edo’s unit and begin bombardment from here,” I said. “But I’m bringing Ty with me.”

A hundred and ten soldiers followed me to the right of Edo’s right wing and into open desert. From there, we turned north and hooked our way into the enemy’s right flank.

“Hey, Ty, do you remember that old movie, Snowpiercer?” I asked while I ran at the head of heavily armored dwarves.

“Um, is that the train movie where they couldn’t stop because the world had turned to ice?” he asked as he tried to catch up to me.

“Yeah,” I answered. “Think you can pull something like that off now?”

“That depends…” he huffed. “What do you want me to do?”

“An ice train ramming into the enemy would be nice,” I huffed back. “Maybe a ray of frost that can freeze them before they can mount a defense?”

At this point, the enemy soldiers had noticed us and started to shift some of their shields our way in an attempt to repel us.

I could have told them it wouldn’t work because I brought the chosen one with me, but I’d rather it was a surprise.

Above the heads of the enemy’s heavy infantry, I saw a satyr with a ridiculously looking metal horn attached to his forehead.

“Target sighted,” I yelled to the troops behind me, and then I spared a glance at Ty who’d sped up to run alongside me and said, “Well, can you do it?”

“I can’t do the train, but,” Ty stopped abruptly, and while I continued to run forward, he opted to raise both hands forward Hadouken-style, and said, “I can try that ray of frost thing!”

The thing about Ty’s magic that I’ve only just begun to notice was how it never seemed to follow the Fayne’s standards. No chants required, almost zero casting time, and above all, no fixed structure. It was almost like all he needed was his imagination and the magic, or rather, the spirits just listened. It was actually really awesome, and in cases like this one, really useful.

Now, if I could just get Ty to use an element other than water, perhaps then he’d be unstoppable. Unfortunately, other than the time he’d summoned the Lord of Darkness, Ty hasn’t shown a hint of inclination for spells other than his ice magic.

Oh, but the one thing Ty did need to cast his magic, believe it or not, was a name for his spells. The name helped to visualize what he wanted to be done, and in this case, Ty chose a rather appropriate name, “Snowpiercer!”

I didn’t see the spell come to life, but I did see the ray of white energy zoom past my left ear and explode onto the enemy’s hastily formed shield wall.

“Boom!” I yelled. “Now we’re talking!”