Wolfkin warriors rummaged through an abandoned Human village searching for anything of value within. They weren’t expecting to find much due to the poverty of most of the peasants living within these small villages, but there was food left by the escaping Humans which was appropriated as it was the harvesting season.

Largear was leaning listlessly on his large battle axe which was planted into the ground while he oversaw this facade of a raid. He was aware of the importance of his role here but still found it to be somewhat inglorious.

Where was the honor of facing one’s foe on the battlefield? Instead he found himself chasing peasants out of their homes and pretending to ransack their settlements.

“Largear, isn’t it about time you stop moping around and begin to act like a commander?” Said another young Wolfkin who was standing nearby.

Largear stood up straight, lifting his axe and placing it over his left shoulder.

“Bah! Erikkar, do you have nothing better to do than nag me to death? I’m just bored of chasing fleeing peasants around! How much longer do we have to do this!? I want to face the Humans in battle!”

Erikkar could only sigh, “Haven’t I already explained this to you a thousand times? We do this until we can bait the soldiers. It shouldn’t be long now. We have already raided several villages.”

“How do we even know this is going to work?” Asked Largear.

“All of the most important military commanders are with the Jaspelian army besieging the La’gunian capital. The forces left behind are mostly newly recruited peasants and lower ranking commanders. The whole point of us raiding the villages is to cut off their food supply and overcrowd the capital city with refugees. This should force them to act, especially when the peasants report back to them on our small numbers. It should make them overconfident. Well, this was already explained to us by Accadeas so we just have to stick to the plan. It should be soon now anyway. Without the harvest they won’t have enough food to feed all the people in the city.”

Largear smirked disdainfully and swung his axe, “Stupid Humans. Isn’t it foolish to start a war before the harvest? I can’t understand why they chose to attack La’gun at this time instead of waiting until they were sufficiently supplied.”

“They were most likely confident they could end the war quickly and they certainly weren’t expecting us. I heard from Accadeas that it has something to do with the Empire. He too found their timing for this invasion strange. Either way, it’s to our advantage so let’s just complete our mission.”

Largear grunted, “I still don’t like this plan. I would rather face the enemy in fair combat.”

“That’s the exact reason we always lose to the Humans. We only have two hundred warriors and the Humans will definitely send a larger force. We can fool them because they look down on us Demihumans. Don’t mess up the plan, remember we draw them out and then whittle their numbers down with the heavy javelins. Only after that do we engage them in close combat. Fayde already explained that Wolfkin are natural skirmishers as well as shock troops because of our speed and strength. We had the Demonkin use a good chunk of our iron to make these heavy javelins so we need to make proper use of them. Once the main army arrives in a week or so then we will take the capital so don’t grow impatient.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Largear replied disgruntled.

“Commander!”

At that moment, one of the Wolfkin who had been sent out as a scout came running towards Largear.

“Commander, we have finally caught sight of a Human army. They are heading in our direction.”

“It’s about damn time. I was getting bored of waiting! How many soldiers?” Largear growled.

“There should be somewhere between several hundred to a thousand.”

“Any cavalry?”

“No, mostly light infantry and a small number of archers.”

Largear nodded thoughtfully while calling out to Erikkar, “Looks like Accadeas was right, they took all their horses with them south. If we defend that hill we saw earlier, their bows shouldn’t have more reach than our javelins from the higher position. What do you think Erikkar?.”

“It’s a good place to defend. These Humans aren’t familiar with our Wolfkin’s strength and speed. Our strength allows us a much greater reach with throwing weapons than they would expect and once they move their archers into range, we can definitely hit them which will catch them completely by surprise. They will be forced to charge the hill with their light infantry. Our heavy javelins will easily tear through their armor and shields. Those Humans will be walking into a death trap. Even if things don’t go as well as we hope, we can easily run away. The Humans won’t be able to catch up to us.”

“Good. Call everyone back, let’s move into position.”

Several hundred Human light infantry as well as a couple hundred archers marched swiftly past the remains of an abandoned village.

The commander of the force was surprised to see such little damage done to the town. Normally a town would be burned down when raided but the Demihumans had surprisingly left the village intact.

“Looks like the Demihumans fled in fear before they could burn the town down. Hah! What a bunch of cowards. I’ve heard that Demihuman warriors were fearless, but it looks like the rumors are greatly over exaggerated. Jerold, have our scouts reported back yet on their position?”

“Yes sir, they have taken a defensive position on a nearby hill not far from here.” Reported the commander’s subordinate.

“Well, at least they don’t completely lack intelligence. Do the Demihuman warriors have bows?” Asked the commander inquisitively.

“When we questioned the peasants, they informed us that the warriors were equipped with axes and throwing spears. Our scouts have reported the same so it is most likely that they don’t possess any bows.”

The commander laughed disdainfully and said, “Hah, I spoke too soon then. What a bunch of fools. What do they hope to accomplish without bows? Also, from my understanding, these Demihumans are of the Wolfkin tribe. Wolfkin are incapable of using magic. Even if they have the higher position, what do they hope to accomplish without magic casters or archers? Our archers will easily turn those beasts into pincushions. Looks like we won’t even need to charge the hill. This will be over in no time!”

His subordinate chuckled and said in a flattering tone, “You will surely be rewarded for this sir! You might even receive a promotion! If we shut those peasants up, we can even over exaggerate their numbers and gain even more recognition!”

“Hehehe, that’s right. That’s not a bad idea at all!”

As the two continued to chatter away while being overly pleased with themselves, they soon arrived at the small hill where the Demihuman warriors were waiting for them.

They were extremely pleased to confirm that the enemy warriors did not have bows and continued to mock their ignorance while moving their soldiers into position.

“Move the archers forward, have them fire when in range.”

“Yes sir!”

The archers moved forward slowly while the infantry remained in formation.

Despite being relatively new recruits, their movements were orderly and disciplined. Their equipment included leather armor, hide bucklers and iron tipped spears while the archers wore leather armor and carried war bows and bodkin arrows.

All of the Human soldiers were confident in their victory. Without bows, they felt the Demihumans would be nothing more than sitting ducks awaiting their deaths.

They couldn’t understand the actions of the Demihuman warriors and could only assume their ignorance in proper warfare. Of course, none of these Human soldiers had ever faced a Demihuman in battle previously.

There were occasional campaigns into the Plains of Sorrow in the past, but the last campaign had been more than ten years prior due to the cooling of relations between the nations of the North over the last decade.

This peace had only lasted because none wished to make any movements militarily. Each nation was carefully eyeing the other in order to exploit any weaknesses which resulted in a decade of relative peace and a focus on domestic policy.

Generally speaking, there were rumors of battles which had been fought between Humans and Demihumans on the Plains of Sorrow in the past and all the stories had mentioned how pitiful the Demihumans were at warfare.

The only exception to this being the Demonkin who had spent decades at war with the Empire, but those in the North had never experienced battle against the Demonkin or heard much of the battles taking place so far from their homeland.

As the archers neared the ideal range of their bows, the Wolfkin warriors at the summit prepared their heavy javelins.

Each Wolfkin warrior was equipped with 4 heavy javelins for a total of eight hundred. That was all that the blacksmiths of the Demonkin army were able to produce with the iron available. The Demihumans as a whole were woefully ill equipped and the amount of iron available to them was limited.

Due to raiding dungeons and gathering what resources they could while traveling through the Plains of Sorrow, they were able to equip the majority of their forces with sufficient weapons. However, there wasn’t enough iron for heavy armor or for a large number of disposable weapons like javelins. Even supplying enough arrows for their archers was difficult.

Nonetheless, eight hundred javelins were provided to Largear and his warriors in order to test their effectiveness and practicality. Fayde was hoping to create a more diverse military among the Demihumans by playing to their racial strengths.

“Archers, knock bows!” Shouted an officer.

In an orderly fashion, the archers knocked bows and prepared to fire. Before they could even raise their bows, they noticed a metallic glint approaching from the summit. A rain of sharp iron came pouring down tearing into their flesh.

A torrent of screams and gasps of shock mingled as the Jaspelian archers were decimated. The few that survived quickly ran for their lives in fear and the light infantry that witnessed the devastating scene before them began to murmur amongst themselves, completely unsettled.

There had only been one volley of heavy iron spears, but to the onlookers, it had been a frightening scene. The throwing weapons had easily pierced through the bodies of the archers and impaled them into the earth beneath their feet.

“Haha! Look at that!” Roared Largear atop the hill.

He leaned forward while surveying the scene below and a grizzly smile was plastered on his face.

“Looks like the heavy javelins were quite effective. It’s a good thing they were bunched together like that.” A more calm voice said beside him.

Still excited from the results of the attack Largear turned to Erikkar, “I wish I could see the shock on their faces! Hah! Let’s see what they do now!”

“They are making their move, the Human infantry is spreading out to surround the hill.”

“Hmm, what do you suggest Erikkar?” asked Largear.

“Spreading out might seem like a good tactic in their situation as it should make our javelins less effective, but this just shows how little they understand. Their enemy commander is there, behind the largest group of soldiers. We should focus our attack to the front and then use our speed to charge down the hill. It will be simple to push through and take out the commander in one fell sweep.” replied Erikkar thoughtfully.

“I agree, it’s a good plan! Warriors to the front! Focus fire on the soldiers there. When I give the order, we charge!!”

Largear held his large war axe over his left shoulder and shouted excitedly to the warriors behind him. His blood was pumping and he couldn’t wait to sink his axe into the Humans below.

The Human soldiers made their way up the hill haphazardly. They were no longer in formation and had spread out in order to minimize the effective accuracy of the Wolfkin’s ranged attack.

As they made their way up, those in the front were met with another rain of iron death. While the attack wasn’t as effective as it had been against the archers, hundreds of javelins fell upon them killing or injuring many.

Their shields and armor proved useless as the heavy javelins tore through their defenses. Fear gripped the Human soldiers and their morale would have collapsed if not for the fact that the rain of iron had finally come to an end.

With their newly gained confidence, they continued their ascent. A thunderous roar bellowed out towards the approaching soldiers from the summit and the Wolfkin came pouring down the hill clashing with the soldiers below.

Their charge smashed into the light infantry sending many of them to their deaths or rolling down the hill. The strength of the elite Wolfkin warriors overpowered the Human infantry and the wave of warriors continued to press down upon them.

Largear howled with glee as he swung his war axe, tearing through the bodies of his enemies with ease. He was the first down the hill with Erikkar close behind him. The tide of Wolfkin warriors came flowing after him and within a short period of time they slaughtered their way to the base of the hill.

It wasn’t long before the commander of the Jaspelian force was killed and the morale of the Human army completely collapsed with them in full retreat.

After the battle, Largear and Erikkar made sure they collected all the javelins. They continued to harry the Jaspelian forces that escaped in the coming week eventually wiping them out and preventing the Jaspelians from acquiring any additional food from the surrounding farming villages.