Chapter 279 - The Only Time

After those two weeks, the scouts finally noticed some movements in the town captured by the enemies. Some carriages entered the place by using the western gate, and those were carrying a lot of stuff and being guarded by hundreds of soldiers. It was pretty obvious that they just received a part of the supplies that they lost the other day. One of the scouts left and hurried to warn Zaos and his lieutenants. After an hour, when the sun was rising, they saw a few hundred horsemen leaving the town and heading to the village. The scouts spread around the area in order not to be noticed by the enemies, and another one returned to the village after using a horse that was hidden nearby.

"They are coming, Captain," The scout said. "They should be here in two hours."

"Their numbers?" Zaos asked.

"Around 450, sir," The scout said.

"All right… everyone, assume your positions," Zaos declared.

Zaos wanted to make sure that he would put a lot of pressure on the enemies, so he would attack them by the front and make them hesitate as much as possible. So, he was hiding in one of the wood houses with his lieutenants. That battle wasn't only important to decrease the enemies' power, but it was also to boost the morale of the whole squad. If they succeed, they will feel more confident. If no one makes any mistake, even the soldiers, mercenaries, and mages will see each other as equals… at least a little more than previously. That was why Zaos, Cohnal, and Melisse made them train what each soldier would do during the ambushes dozens of times.

The wait started to make Zaos feel worried. He barely could remember when he felt so nervous before a battle… it was probably because the lives of his subordinates were at stake now… Regardless, eventually, Zaos felt the enemies' presence. They were three hundred meters away. So, he had to wait for a while longer. When they were one hundred meters away, Zaos kicked the door and then drew his sword.

The disguised soldiers noticed, but they didn't change their behavior immediately, only when the sound of the horse's gallops became more noticeable. The mercenaries frowned when they saw a man appearing out of a house fully armed and armored, but they didn't react in any way since he was alone. However, after he assumed his tail guard, they assumed that the task to take over the village wouldn't be a walk in the park.

The mercenaries equipped their spears, but before they could aim at Zaos, he swung his sword and sent a wind wave toward them. In the blink of an eye, thirty riders and their horses were split in half. The mercenaries opened their eyes widely, and so did the Bloody Knights. Still, Zaos's allies recovered faster and began to attack the enemies with arrows. 

The unit trained so many times that the first volley of arrows knocked down and killed at least fifty mercenaries and wounded the other fifty. After receiving so much damage in the blink of an eye, the mercenaries decided to retreat. Still, then they found one hundred soldiers moving toward them shouting like madmen. Zaos decided to help, but then Cohnal stopped him.

"Let's just wait and see, Captain," Cohnal said. "They practiced this a lot. We need to see them succeed by themselves. If someone gets hurt or they are put in a bind, you can help them."

Zaos nodded. Cohnal was right… The unit needed to win that battle by themselves to boost the unit's morale. Winning with Zaos would be good, but winning without him would be even better.

The riders prepared to fight, but the shock slowed them down too much. Besides, the enemies were coming from all directions, and the second volley of arrows had already killed many mercenaries. The third wave was about to fall on them. One or other tried to fight, but only to open a path to escape. The melee fighters of the unit tried to stop them, and some got stabbed and stepped by the horses and suffered some wounds, but those behind them made sure to attack the riders with their own spears. Surrounded by so many armed enemies, the horses got nervous thanks to their murderous intent. However, their advantage over foot soldiers still was something else. Thanks to that, around fifty riders, managed to escape the encirclement, but not for long, several Earth Spears and Earth Swords flew toward them and knocked down the horses. With each fall, another horse got hit was knocked down as well. Nyana and the group of mages didn't stop there. They kept firing and hitting the enemies from the sides, and somehow, they managed to knock down all the riders. Some of them died in the fall, but others were finished by the archers.

Zaos couldn't help but frown. That fight ended too fast, considering that his soldiers didn't use horses. It was an ambush, so they had some advantage, but not enough to end things that fast and without losing a single soldier.

"It is probably because they didn't try to fight, Captain," Cohnal said. "If they had fought to know that they would die anyway, we would lose a few dozen men."

"I guess so… Well, let's heal the wounds of the wounded and get rid of the corpses," Zaos said.

Those who were more experienced felt quite happy with the victory. However, they didn't celebrate all that much because many of Zaos hired soldiers were still pretty nervous because of their first real fight. It would take a while, but soon their heads would cool down, and they would feel excited enough to celebrate.

"That was an excellent job," Zaos said while he was helping some soldiers get up. "Good work, everyone. We can celebrate for some time tonight."

Zaos himself didn't want to celebrate anything when so many enemies were nearby. Still, his soldiers needed some time to relax and feel proud of their accomplishments.. Since that would be probably the only time, they won't lose a single soldier.