The Lives of Velnin chapter 32
The Battle of Ancient Ruins
Our forces encamped in the hills overlooking Mardus's encampment in the plains below, near the ancient ruins. Mardus's forces—the last of the Dark Empire's troops on our side of Mermaid's Strait—were heavy on horsemen, both horse archers and lancers, and the plains favored him. Ours largely consisted of spearmen and archers on foot, with some cavaliers in reserve. Day by day, our forces were bolstered by more men, coming from the further western kingdoms, spurred on by King Lore's iron-fisted diplomacy.
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31
Mardus was not idle. Daily, he would send horse archers towards our encampments to engage us at range. Our archers would fire back, but the enemy's horses would take them out of range quickly. No doubt he wished to draw a charge from our cavaliers, and draw our main forces into battle on the plains. We did not take the bait. Time was on our side—we were in home territory, well-supplied, and growing in number. Soraina, the Dark Empress, had left Mardus and his more than one hundred thousand men on their own without resupply—leaving him to either conquer for her, or die.
Those men who did take hits, our healers healed. We rotated our front line, and none died. The enemy lost the occasional horse to our archers at range. Our discipline held. That of Mardus's men looked increasingly fraught.
Each engagement they came closer, shot more arrows, took more risks in their bid to dislodge us. The day came when our archers managed an arrow through the flank of horse of their cavalry commander. The horse bucked, threw its master, as his fellow horsemen continued veering off after their firing pass. Now I rushed forward with my unit of spearmen. As their horses retreated, we rushed the commander and skewered him, finding the weak points in his golden armor. Now their cavalry wheeled about, realizing they had lost their leader, and gave a battle cry.
Now they charged us with a frenzy they had not had when led. A group charged lances drawn at the front; behind them came a mass of horse archers. We had no choice, out of position as we were, but to stand the charge, spears raised. Our line did not break, and the lancers veered off at the last second, while the horse archers behind them shot us as they passed. Firing from above, too many got through our shield wall, and many took hits. I doubt we could withstand another charge.
Now my unit of spearmen ran back to the hills. The frenzy of activity had drawn more troops from our side, and archers were firing over our heads at the veering enemy cavalry as more of our spearmen converged on our position and our own cavaliers moved into position. The enemy lancers wheeled around and once more charged back towards their commander's body, to retrieve him and trample our fallen, those who had not made it back into the hills. As they reached the body our cavaliers rushed them from the side, and they fell into disarray.
Battle raged back and forth. Enemy horse archers took firing passes at our cavaliers. Our spearmen charged down and tried to cut them off. More enemy lancers charged us, some breaking formation and being skewered trying to take spearmen in the hills, some trampling spearmen caught out of position. Our archers wildly fired arrows above the heads of men towards those enemy horsemen wheeling around on their charging and firing passes. Formations broke on both sides and it became a melee. Our own cavaliers wheeled around and cut up the enemy horsemen from the side as their groups broke up in the confusion.
Finally the enemy was on the run; all their horses had turned tail, and we had won the battle for their commander's dead body. Now we charged forward, spearing those enemies whose horses had been injured that could not keep up with their main body as we ran. As one, our troops ran down from the hills, and rushed onward in the direction of the enemy encampment.
Our initial rush reached the river. Their last horseman had crossed a time before. Now, their horse archers had regrouped across the river beyond the bridges. We dared not pass the bridges into their chokepoint, and at the river we waited as our remaining forces caught up. Now we were on the plains, but holding our side of the river; neither we nor the enemy could easily cross without losing too many to a hail of arrows. Mardus's reserve forces also marched up to the river. Both sides made ready to fight for their end of the bridges; neither dared cross.
We dug in and encamped. Mardus's forces did the same. The day passed.
The days came and went, both sides stalemated at the river. New forces joining us from the west reduced to a trickle; by now we had 110,000 men, standing against Mardus's greater numbers. The enemy horse archers continued to skirmish, riding by the river on their side and firing across at any of our forces that came too close, limiting our access to fresh water. Mardus played his cards well. He sent horsemen around our rear; intercepted our relief and supplies. One day, we lost 500 mules en-route from Talore, bringing us further food and supplies, and all the men guiding them. Mardus also built up his side of the river under cover of his horse archer harassment. He had not skimped on artificers in his forces, and after some days, fire arrows would shoot at us from magitech emplacements when we came too close to the riverbank in addition to the arrows from the horse archers. Soon, we knew, he would have windmakers set up, and be able to send our arrows back at us.
It was clear that this was no true stalemate: facing off across the river, we had the worst of it. We could not stay. We made our plans.
By the dark of the night we slunk away. As the light of dawn broke, Mardus beheld not a single man of our forces across the river from him. He gathered his horsemen, galloped across the bridges, and sallied forth to cut us down as we fled. His infantry followed behind.
This is the penultimate chapter of book 2—The Lives of Velnin: THE DARK EMPIRE. I am currently looking for feedback on the plot and ending of book 3. Send me a private message if you’d like a link to the preliminary first chapter and some feedback questions!
The Lives of Velnin chapter 33
Finding our positions by the river abandoned at the break of dawn, the forces of the Dark Empire had charged forth, horsemen galloping forward to cut us down as we fled, infantry rushing onward behind them. As they reached the hills, the horsemen came upon a square of our archers, facing away and beating a retreat.
Book 1 now out on Amazon! The Lives of Velnin: THE BLACK CITADEL collects Chapters 1-14 of the story so far.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZPF7QN2 (paperback)
https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0DZJ7R5VH (or if you want to give Royal Road some money and have them pick your region automatically. I did post the story there, after all.)
I would be extremely grateful for any Amazon reviews you could muster. Amazon review link: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B0DZJ7R5VH
I can't wait to read more!