13 Ch 10.1 Battlefield

MRE Ch 10.1

Jake and Kevin saw the dead valley up ahead. They sent troops ahead to survey the valley.

When scouts returned they reported that some other brigade had arrived earlier and had camped at dead valley. Jake and Kevin went there to look at the other camp.

They identified from banners that they were under count Alvaton. There were at least 3000 men .

They were tasked to secure the dead valley before main forces arrived. Failing to do so will lower their credibility. They decided to plan before attacking the enemy.

"We will attack tomorrow morning. Today we rest here. Be alert, always on guard" Announced Kevin and went to a tent with Jake to discuss battle plan

" Like taught during training we will be in the middle with a shield. You will divide your men in the left and right flank to circle them and finish off" planned Jake.

" Agreed, but send out some archers to block their exits. My cavalry will take them there," advised Kevin.

" Yes, mercenaries are not like us they flee whenever disadvantaged" they laughed. Thus the first encounter of two forces was fixed.

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In the morning in a large tent, count Alvaton got a messenger who had  Arcania's insignia. He was dumbfounded at the letter's contents ' Surrender to his highness Jason or be ready to face consequences' .

Alvaton did not know what he should do. He was waiting for Conley's forces. 'But Why did the Royal military come here? Did they get information from spies' he thought.

He got out of the tent and saw about 3000 soldiers of the Royal military set in formation, about 500 meters from his position, ready for battle.

He commanded his soldiers to get in battle formation and be ready. He then called a meeting with commanders under him, they advised him to go for battle as they have numbers advantage. So he returned the messenger stating his choice.

Kevin and Jake laughed at Count's foolish decision, Count did not even sent his scouts to assess their capability and came for battle.

Jake sent 700 archers with Kevin's cavalry brigade to block their path to flee by highway. They wanted to capture them as war prisoners.

Jake with his 1500 archers was sandwiched by Kevin's cavalry at ends.

They were waiting for Counts forces to attack.

Count Alvaton seeing so many archers was delighted. He got so many easy targets, he started praising his commanders intelligence. It will be an easy win , their only problem is cavalry at the ends of enemy formations .

Both sides thought it was an easy win, but is it really easy to win?

He ordered his heavy armor knights to get in front. Rest of the troops followed behind them. Count has five rank 5 as commanders in his brigade. On his opponents side he could only recognize Jake and Kevin as rank 6 knights.

Defeating them will be a major achievement for him. He might get more benefits from Conley.

Jake is a little nervous now, they had practiced with longbows in training grounds. This is the first time bows were going to be used in battle.

He collected himself , he can't show his nervousness to his men or he would be a great failure as a commander. Enemy was getting closer as they approached the 200 meters mark he got his men to load their bows.

Seeing the front row was of heavy armored knights he let them wait.

Alvaton was worried, something was wrong with their enemies, why their cavalry did not attack them.

"Why did they miss their best chance to attack? Or they had planned to let him think that everything was under their control. They wanted him to withdraw" he thought .

His questions were soon answered as his first row of knights got within 100 meters of the enemy and were ready to bolt into the enemy line.

Jake saw them entering their arrows range; he shouted 'loose' , a volley of arrows got to the enemy. Heavy armor knights don't fear arrows. They freely marched ahead amid incoming arrows.

But that was the last thing these knights saw before being pierced and pinned to ground.

As the first row of knights fell under their arrows they had released another two sets of arrows in enemy lines.

Alvaton was shocked by what happened before his eyes.

His much cherished knight brigade of which he is proud of, was decimated within seconds. He was transfixed on the spot, his mind went blank.

Looking at their knights falling in eternal sleep, Count's soldiers turned back to count for orders, who was standing still without movement or any expression.

Then they looked at each other's faced confusion and fear rose, formation broke dropping their weapon and they started running back towards the highway.

There another adversary was waiting for them.

Kevin had ordered his cavalry to only kill those who stray from the herd. As they herded them like sheep's to be culled.

Archers blocking the highway saw their target . They fired a barrage of arrows.

Remaining soldiers lost their will to flee and slumped there. They all surrendered.

Kevin binded them in ropes and took them back to the valley.

Jake had already binded soldiers remaining in the valley.  Now all that remained for them was to write the report of this battle.

Kevin sent his cavalry to get those soldiers who strayed from the pack and ran into the forest.

Count was still in shock, he could not believe that his one decision to not Surrender got him here tied and waiting for the inevitable. He knew at this point his life is over now, just a question remained when.

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