Portals of Infinity: Book Five: Demigods and Deities Page 19

  "So, is this all of the army?" I asked looking at the length of troops marching behind him, that I'd already tasked my personal staff to getting situated.

  "I brought most of it; I've got thirty thousand with me. What have you got here?"

  "We've got about eighty thousand infantry, and a little over three thousand of our cavalry left."

  "And estimates on the enemy?" Holse asked as we headed for the command tent.

  "Sixty to seventy thousand after our last battle," I filled him in then on what had happened with the different commands, and what my plans were, as we sat down at the table and I had the rest of my command staff summoned.

  Holse nodded, "I can't argue with your assessment of the situation, we know that Stivik needs to conquer Marland, and he's not going to allow his general to just sit there and occupy a few small towns. His only option is to attack us, or to withdraw, and I don't think he's going to be withdrawing."

  I nodded, "Thankfully the other commanders see it my way. Eklin took a little convincing, but he's already lost about two-thirds of his command, so he's not really in much of a position to argue."

  "How is King Ruusolf taking it?"

  "He wants me dead, and is actively pursuing my demise," I sighed.

  Holse laughed, "So, about what we expected."

  "Just about."

  Jane joined us while we were waiting for the others to show up.

  "General Holse, this is Fordessa's champion, Jane. She's my second in command. Jane, this is General Holse. Pay attention to him, he's a lot better at this than I am!"

  Holse laughed, "I don't know, Will, you have a rather impressive record so far." He then bowed to Jane and touched paws. "It is nice to meet you, Champion Jane."

  "Jane will do just fine, General." Jane said smiling.

  "Call me Holse, please."

  The other officers started to show up then, and I introduced Holse, who was the General in charge of the Hiland army, to General's Weiss, and Eklin. I then introduced those member's of Weiss's staff, and Elkin's staff that were also in the tent. I didn't bother to introduce the Hiland officers, as he already knew all of them.

  "So, General Holse, now that you are here, will you be taking command of the army?" General Eklin asked.

  "I will only be assuming command of the Hiland troops that have previously been reporting to William," Holse said, "I will follow his commands the same as the rest of you have been. This is not the first time William has led our army into battle, and I have the greatest confidence in his abilities."

  I smiled and tried to look as confident as Holse sounded. We'd had some great arguments over tactics and strategy over the years, and I'd be the first to admit that he was a better general than I would ever be. Of course, they didn't need to know that, and the simple fact that Holse didn't see fit to tell them, once again proved just how good he was.

  We both knew he'd end up calling the shots, even if it looked like I was.

  We spent the rest of the afternoon reviewing our strategy with Holse, and going over with him how to best deploy his troops, and how to redeploy our existing troops.

  We were just finishing up when two messengers arrived. One from the southernmost lookout point in Holden, which we'd left a small contingent at. I didn't like that it took a rider from there almost two days to get here, even with relays set up. But there really wasn't a better solution, long distance communications hadn't been invented here yet, and probably wouldn't be for a long time.

  The second messenger was from our scouts, his report was only a few hours old, and we read his first.

  "Well, it looks like Barassa is on the move," General Weiss said nodding at me, "you were right, William, they should arrive sometime tomorrow."

  I nodded and looked up from the second message, which I had been reading, and passed it over to Holse. "Our lookout reports that they've been reinforced. Twenty ships made at least two trips at the time of this message being sent, and that looked like maybe half of what they were sending over."

  "So we no longer have the size advantage we had before," General Eklin said.

  "Maybe, maybe not," Holse said. "They probably don't know yet that I'm here yet. But in either case, we still control the better position."

  "I'm a bit surprised they sent more troops over," I said, "I hadn't considered it, and I should have."

  "I don't know, you were right when you said they have to come to us, if we wouldn't go to them. So it makes sense to me," General Weiss said.

  "In for a penny, in for a pound," I sighed nodding, "I should have realized it, it's only logical."

  Weiss looked at me, "In for a what?"

  I laughed, "Old saying from the people who settled my homeland, I guess here it would be 'in for a copper, in for a gold.'"

  Weiss nodded, "Ah yes, that does make sense."

  "Well, unless anybody has anything else, I think we should all go prepare for tomorrow." I said and stood up.

  Everyone agreed and we all left to go to our respective posts. I followed Holse out, so we could continue to discuss things, he was particularly interested in hearing about how our cavalry had been doing.

  ""You should send them out to attack the enemy's supply lines, while we're fighting tomorrow," Holse said.

  "I don't know, they were pretty instrumental in our victory last time, their ability to move around the battlefield so quickly saved us."

  Holse nodded, "Well, keep a force of them here, and have First Carso take the rest of them out tonight, under cover of darkness. Let him decide how to divide them up."

  "Okay," I agreed. "Any other suggestions?"

  Holse shook his head, "You've done a good job here, William, with such a diversified group of soldiers, sitting tight and waiting for the enemy to come back was the best decision you could have made. Even if it you had a unified force, it probably still would have been the best decision."

  I smiled, "Thanks, the only one who's really hated it is Ruusolf, and I think at this point he knows better than to leave his castle."

  "You are going to have to figure out what to do about him, Will."

  I nodded, "I know. I'd kind of hoped he'd die in this war, even if I had to 'help' him along a bit. But he won't set foot out of his castle now. The man is quite the coward."

  "Well, he is surrounded by enemies," Holse pointed out.

  "Yes, but he made them all himself. I wonder if we offered him enough money, if he'd just abdicate?"

  "Do you really want to be giving him the queen's gold?" Holse laughed.

  I shook my head, "Rachel would be upset, to put it mildly."

  "Very mildly. I think she still hasn't quite forgiven you for buying all those wolats, and she actually believes that was a good idea."

  "Well, if you can think of any way to get rid of Ruusolf and put us in charge, let me know," I said. "Otherwise, I'm off to make my rounds, and cheer on the troops."

  Holse nodded, "Later then, William."

  The Barassan army arrived about four hours after sunrise, and then spent another hour getting organized before attacking.

  Which was when First Carso, acting on his own initiative, decided to attack their flank.

  It was a slaughter, apparently, the idea that we'd attack while they were still forming up hadn't occurred to them. To be honest, it hadn't occurred to any of us either. I could hear Holse swearing from where I was standing, but he adapted quickly and sent the thousand cavalry units that Carso had left with us out to harass their front lines when they tried to rally the first time and drive Carso's attack off.

  They did succeed eventually, but the end result was that they needed an additional two hours to reform their lines before they could attack.

  When they finally did attack, it went about as we had planned. Their heavy foot led the assault, with their champion in the lead.

  It took me a good thirty minutes to fight my way over to him; it seemed to me that he was trying to avoid a confrontation.

  "Hey! Tantrus! You afr
aid of me?" I called out after the third time I'd tried to move closer to engage, and he'd once again moved away.

  "I fear no man!" He yelled back.

  "Then why are you running away?" I yelled back, loud enough that all around me could hear.

  He tried to ignore me, but some of the troops on his side retreated slightly, making it easier for me to close with him. I was sure they wanted to see us fight, after all, they believed in his abilities as Tantrus's champion.

  And I could understand why he didn't want to fight me, we had three champions here today on our side, they only had one. He'd probably even been told to avoid me. But Fel had told me he was a homegrown type, so I hoped he had more ego than brains.

  "Afraid of me?" I yelled again and laughed, loudly.

  He swore and killed the male in front of him, and then turned to face me, "As if I would fear a low born piece of foreign trash that sleeps with whores and fat ugly sloths!"

  "You forgot your mom," I replied, and was rather shocked when he screamed rather loudly and attacked. Surprised enough that he managed to wound me before I got my own act together and started to fight him back.

  "I will kill you, foreigner scum!" He screamed, apparently quite enraged. I guess he didn't like mother jokes.

  I healed myself, and went to work; he was a sword and board fighter, where I still preferred a two-sword approach. I was impressed at how well he fought, as angry as he was. Made me wonder how well he fought when he wasn't so angry?

  I decided I didn't want to know.

  "Does your mother still charge five coppers a night?" I said and stabbed at him.

  "My mother is not a whore!" He screamed and took a wild swing.

  "Oh, so she's giving it away for free now!" I laughed and this time I got him under the arm as he took a second wild swing.

  He tried to bull into me, and I kept retreating, drawing him away from his own men, who were unable to press forward, as my men weren't retreating.

  "You filthy whoreson!"

  "Hurts not knowing who your father is, doesn't it?" I snickered and I smacked his arm wide and kicked him in the crotch. It didn't do much damage, but I could tell it pissed him off, and he struggled to heal the wound I'd given him.

  "I know who my farther is!" He snarled.

  "Did Tantrus tell you? Cause there was no way your mother could have known!"

  "My mother was not a common whore!" He screamed again

  "But she sure was common, wasn't she!" I laughed and dodged and he really went into a rage!

  By this time we were a good twenty feet past the line, inside our territory. The archers must have noticed, because suddenly he started to sprout arrows, the rest of my men had cleared away from him as he had screamed, because none of them knew what he was going to do.

  I waited until he had about ten shafts sticking out of his body, then I moved in for the kill, he was trying to pull the arrows out with his shield hand, which blocked his view of me, so I came in low under the shield and took his left leg off at the knee. He screamed even louder then, and as he topped forward I sidestepped and drove my other sword through his neck, severing his spine and causing his body to spasm and drop.

  Then I took his head off and punted it a good twenty feet, back into the enemy's lines.

  Their entire front line gasped and watched it fly overhead, and then all died as my soldiers took advantage of the situation and ran them through. I ran right into the midst of them screaming 'For Feliogustus! For Fordessa! For Roden!' and all along the line, everyone on our side picked it up and we started to push them back.

  Their horns started to blow the retreat once more, and they quickly started to pull back, I could see that they were demoralized and were more than happy to retreat. We continued to press and attack until finally our own horns blew the signal to pull back.

  I had to use my champion's aura and voice several times then to get my men to pull back, and I could hear Jane and Evean doing the same. Everyone was sure that we had them, and maybe going after them would have been the right thing to do, but I knew how quickly the fortunes of war could change. Their general's willingness to pull their troops back may have been to stop a slaughter, or it may mean that they had a trap laid for us, just like we had laid one for them a week ago.

  So we pulled back, and Holse sent our cavalry out to harass them, and make sure they continued to pull back.

  When they came galloping back rather quickly, we could see that there had indeed been a trap laid, and the enemy charged us once again.

  The fighting went quicker this time; they had lost their momentum, their spirit. They had been falling apart due to their champion's loss on the first attack, their second attack had not caught us off guard as they had intended, and our side's morale was still high after seeing them retreat the first time.

  When Evean led Eklin's troops in a charge that started to fold up their left flank, their commanders again sounded the retreat, but this time it was far less orderly, and some of the troops just turned and ran.

  We gave pursuit this time, and were not called back until we had sent them fleeing in a full rout.

  "That Evean is one scary girl," Jane said to me later as we were cleaning up our weapons and armor.

  I laughed, "Yeah, she's not the type you'd expect to lead a charge, is she?"

  "Did you see what she was wearing?" Jane said in disbelief.

  "Not really, I was too busy trying to stay in one piece."

  "She was naked!"

  I looked at Jane and then closed my mouth. "What?"

  "She was naked! Totally! Well, she was wearing a vambrace on her sword arm, but that was it!"

  I started laughing, I couldn't help it, the idea of Evean, leading a charge, stark naked, and probably cutting down the enemy left and right was just too much.

  "No wonder they broke and ran!" I said still laughing, "The hottest gal in the world is coming at you with a sword? It's every masturbatory fantasy gone wrong! Those guys won't be able to touch a woman for months!"

  Jane looked at me as if I'd lost all sense at first, but eventually she couldn't help but laugh herself. "But what would have happened if she'd gotten killed?"

  "It probably would have pissed off every male in eyesight, probably on both sides! No, the only sensible thing to do was to turn and run." I wiped my eyes and giggled some more. "I told you not to underestimate her."

  "She's insane," Jane sighed shaking her head.

  "And now you know why I won't sleep with her," I giggled.

  "Well, how about we find our generals and see what the outcome of today's battle was?"

  I nodded and grabbing my gear, I followed Jane to the command tent.

  "Oh, Jane?" I said and she stopped to look at me.

  "Yes?"

  "Think you might want to give it a go? I mean it worked for Evean after all," I said.

  She just growled at me, and I laughed some more.

  "You're sick," Jane grumbled.

  "It's the company I keep," I snickered.

  We made it to the command tent without further incident, and I guess Jane did see the humor in the situation, as she didn't growl at me again.

  "You know," Holse said coming up to me, "That Champion of Roden's is quite the imaginative young woman."

  "She's insane, is what she is," Jane grumbled.

  "I prefer 'scary,'" I said and grinned again.

  "I won't argue with what works," Holse said. "But someone should let her know that it probably won't work a second time," and he looked at me.

  I nodded, "I'll be sure to discuss it with her."

  "So how did we do?" Jane asked.

  "Rather well, to be honest, less than two thousand killed, and only a bit more than three thousand wounded."

  "Do we have a count on the enemy dead?" I asked.

  "It's well over five thousand." Holse said. "I suspect it will be at least eight when we finish clearing the bodies. First Carso's move was brilliant, and it's given me some new ideas as to how
to employ his forces next time we fight."

  I nodded, "I think you're going to have company in the general ranks by the time this is all over."

  Holse nodded, "He sure is earning it. Putting him in charge of the cavalry was the best decision I ever made."

  "And here I thought it was you letting me lead your army against the Mulanders," I said with a grin.

  "Oh no, I was ordered to do that," Holse said grinning at me. "That one is on Queen Rachel's head."

  "So now what?" Jane asked, finding a chair and dropping onto it to rest.

  "We wait for them to try again, that's what," Holse said.

  "Any idea how long that will be?" General Weiss asked, walking into the tent.

  "At least a week," I said and found a chair myself.

  "Why a week?"

  "It'll be three days before they have their champion back," I told him, "And a day or two for him to travel to where the army is."

  "Why would they wait?"

  "Because he does counterbalance the effects that me, Jane, and Evean have on their troops. So as long as they got one, they're going to use him."

  "That also gives them time to reinforce," Jane said.

  "I don't think they'll be reinforcing much," Holse said. "If King Stivik allows his forces to get too low, he'll either be facing a rebellion, or one of his northern neighbors might decide to relieve him of his crown."

  Weiss and I both nodded at that.

  "Well, might as well go check on the wounded, and see how the men are doing," I said and got up.

  Jane nodded and got up as well, "See you all after dinner I guess."

  Eighteen

  On the March, East of Marland

  It was early September, and I was looking over a rise at the Barassan encampment in Seawick, along with Jane, Evean, and Generals Holse, Weiss, and Eklin, as the Barassan army quickly boarded the boats docked there. The war had continued, as predicted, and each time the Barassan army tried to take us, they left with a few less members then they'd had before.

  Their champion had only seriously engaged one of the other two champions after his loss to me. He'd picked on Evean, figuring I guess, that she'd be the easiest of us to defeat. Evean however had distracted him by flashing her tits and ass at him while they fought, all the time making rather enticing sexual suggestions that would have made a whore blush.