8 The Sincerest Sacrifice

After the battlefield settled down, Lieutenant En heard of the grave situation that their army was in, this made En even more fired up to bring down Baron tonight. Soon the darkness of the night came along, and Lieutenant En sent a messenger to both of the other two officers he had picked the previous night to lead this night incursion. With accuracy, and precise timing the three large body of cavalry struck at the weak points of the enemy camp and easily broke through the patrols and started to hunt down Baron. After they entered though, the place was filled with many noises. Some of which were soldiers shouting enemy attack, while others were cursing for being woken up in the middle of the night, most were people who were confused as to what was happening.

Messenger (M) "Sir, our camp has been breachedby multiple cavalry units"

(BM) "How many enemy troops in total?"

(M) "There appears to be about 1500-2000."

(BM) "How many losses have we taken so far?"

(M) "Not too many, only about a hundred."

(BM) "That little?" Baron was confused, the point of a night incursion was to use the element of surprise to deal a serious blow to the enemy.

(M) "They seem to be avoiding most of the troops sir."

(BM) "No wonder." Baron finally realized what they were planning to do in this night raid. They wanted to kill him while everyone was running around in confusion. "Tell me who is leading this raid"

(M) "Going by our reports, it seems to be the work of the enemy lieutenant and two enemy officers." The messenger quickly replied.

(BM) "Oh" Baron said thoughtfully. Thinking for awhile, he quickly thought of a perfect solution to this ordeal.Baron grabbed a piece of paper scribbled something on it, handed it over to the messenger and said "quickly send this message to Lieutenant Ben"

(M) "Yes, sir" he grabbed the piece of paper and immediately set out to deliver the message to the lieutenant.

When the messenger left, Baron grabbed the weapon closest to him, a spear, and set out to lead a counterattack against the marauders. However, against opponents who were resting the entire day Baron's army could not hold them back. The two sides went back and forth a couple of times until the detachment that Lieutenant En was leading happened to spot Baron battling it out with another detachment. Baron could barely hold on against one detachment, but against two even he was no match for them.

Just when his forces was about to seemingly crumple in front of the pressure, a ray of hope came out of the darkness. Officer Phillips, who had set out to light firecrackers with the 200 men, returned back to camp to rescue Baron. This surprising turn of events had upset what was imminent defeat for Baron. Phillips came up to Baron with an empty horse and handed over the reins to Baron.

(OP) "Boss, we have to get you out of here."

(BM) "No, we have to stay and fight for a little while longer." Baron said while thinking of his plan to deal with these enemy cavalry.

(OP) "Are you serious?" Phillips was in absolute shock, so much so that he got off his horse and gave Baron a satisfying backhand. "If we stay here any longer the only thing we'll accomplish is more deaths on our side. We have to lure them away"

(BM) "You're right" Baron said surprised by the actions of Phillips. He had originally wanted to keep the enemy stalled for a bit longer to give Ben enough time to act according to their newly devised plan.

(OP) "Good, now get on the horse and follow me. We've opened up a path to retreat when we came in to rescue you."

(BM) "Good man, lets set out now" Baron said with satisfaction.

As Baron retreated with the 200 soldiers Lieutenant En immediately ordered what was left of the 2,000 cavalry to immediately give chase and to bring down Baron Magellan. Baron led the 200 to the U shaped steep incline they had found on the first day of battle. This action confused En as he was sure that Baron would have gone to one of the places where he and Yue Fei scouted out on the day of preparation. It should be known that during this day of waiting En was not sitting idly waiting for night to fall, he had actually ordered the troops to do multiple exercises on the 7 points of interest that their side has found in order to better prepare to fight in them should they have to.

How could En know that there was another advantageous position that he was not aware of, two in fact. While Yue Fei had scouted out 7 points of interest, Baron had scouted 8 + the one they found while marching over to the walled city on the first day. Thus Lieutenant En believed Baron did not have a plan, but was just running away for the sake of running away. He felt evermore confident that he could bring down Baron tonight so he ordered the troops to increase their speed to take out Baron faster. The quickest of his men were soon almost upon the slowest of Baron's men. These men weren't slouches once the enemy was in range they immediately turned around in order to try and stall the enemy for as long as possible.

Baron ran around in circles in an attempt to give his lieutenant Ben more time to mobilize their troops into the optimal placement. This went on for a while before Baron's army consisted of less than 100 soldiers. Phillips was starting to get worried as the enemy seemed to be relentless in their pursuit.

(OP) "Boss, how long do we still have to go in order to reach our destination?" Phillips said with worry showing on his face.

(BM) "Still a ways to go, unfortunately."

(OP) "If we keep going on like this then we are unlikely to reach our destination before our enemies reach you, boss."

(BM) "Oh, your perception is quite sharp, what do you suggest?"

(OP) "Well, since you are the general here your safety should be prioritized. The rest of us are merely pawns and we should mount a suicide charge into the enemy ranks in order to stall them for a bit." This time Baron gave Phillips a good slap to the face, hard enough for Phillips to almost fall off his horse.

(BM) "Never say that" Baron had a visible scowl on his face. "Every life is precious, I will not let you guys think that lowly of yourselves."

(OP) "S-sir?" Phillips was stunned at how much Baron cared for the lives of the many troops under him, a feeling of respect rose in his heart. Thinking for a while Phillips spoke up again "even if that is your philosophy you are still the most important person here, boss. Whether you like it or not we will have to mount a suicidal charge into the enemy."

(BM) "So do you have a plan?" Baron asked with complex thoughts in his mind.

(OP) "I will split the men we have now into two groups, then branch off and create a wedge formation and strike the enemy on their sides. This should allow you the maximum amount of time to get to the destination."

(BM) "That is an admirable plan, but I want you to promise me one thing before you leave."

(OP) "What is it boss?"

(BM) "Promise me that you will meet me back at camp in the morning."

(OP) "You got it boss" Phillips said while ordering the troops to begin branching off and mounting a counter offensive.

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On Lieutenant En's side they were high on morale and adrenaline. After they wreaked havoc in their enemy's camp they are now chasing after the enemy general.

Officer Gordon (OG) "Sir it seems everyone but the enemy general has disappeared into the forests to the left and right where we can't see them. Should we give chase?" Gordon asked his superior, lieutenant En.

(LE) "No need, our main objective is to kill Baron. If those others are smart they would leave this area immediately. Which is what i've assumed they did just now. Increase our running speed, we only have one target in front of us now, this should be easy."

(OG) "Yes, sir" Gordon said while giving out the orders.

They continued to pursue Baron, but after awhile they heard sounds of fighting behind them.

(LE) "Status report!"

(OG) "It seems that the enemies that branched off earlier has returned and hit our weak spots towards the back of our army, where the tired soldiers are."

(LE) "How is this possible?" En stared in disbelief as the chaos unfolded behind him. "How has Baron managed to convince these soldiers to mount a charge into enemy ranks willingly?"

En suddenly remembered a warning that Yue Fei had given to him before he set off to lay the groundwork of tonight's night attack. Yue Fei had said to immediately run if he was facing any enemies who were fighting for the sake of bringing down as many lives as they could with them. These awakened soldiers, as Yue Fei called them, were capable of feats that staggered belief, and to kill these men would require a heavy price.

(OG) "Sir what do we do?"

(LE) "I don't believe this nonsense of awakened soldiers or whatever, split up half the army to deal with these less than one hundred soldiers and kill them off quickly. You and the other officer go take them down, I'll continue to pursue Baron."

(OG) "Yes sir." Giving out the proper orders the army split into two and immediately surrounded Officer Phillips and his men.

(OP) "What? You think a thousand men will be enough to stop us?" Phillips laughed into the heavens. "Everyone, heed my words, you are not allowed to die until you have personally slain 10 enemy soldiers, I'll personally kill 50 soldiers myself, so all of you don't have an excuse to be lazy!" Phillips orderedhis men.

Everyone (E) "Hoo-ah" everyone replied in absolute and resolute unison. This simple speech that Phillips gave off inside an enemy encirclement before the monstrosity that followed would bring a chill to everyone's spine.

In the end, Officer Phillips gave a great performance and slew 20 enemies plus an enemy officer before being stabbed in the back and falling off his horse as lifeless as a doll. This demonic last stand of unparalleled strength had terrified everyone present. The soldiers who fell to these less than 100 soldiers tallied up to over 400 cavalry. It was indeed as Yue Fei had said. In this instance it definitely would've been better to just run.

(OG) "The lieutenant will not be happy about this." He said grimly as he ordered the remaining surviving parts of the cavalry into an organized formation. Then quietly set off into the night to where Lieutenant En was, with the fear of Baron's men still present in their hearts.