"Cavalry wins not with sables, but with whips and spurs."

-Prussian general Seydlitz from Earth

Descal

"Oh. Then enlighten me on your plan. I thought that you didn't want us to engage the pike divisions because you wanted us to save our numbers to cover a possible retreat." (Cornelia)

"No. I just didn't want to lose the left flank as well." (Descal)

"If you are insinuating that my cavalry division can't defeat pike infantry.." (Cornelia)

"Oh. no. I have full confidence you can do it. The only problem is that I don't think you can defeat the pike infantry if they have a mage division with them as well." (Descal)

"I haven't seen any mage divisions." (Cornelia)

"You don't need to see it. I know that they are out there somewhere. The number of mage divisions that I have seen so far doesn't add up to the scout reports." (Descal)

"The scout reports could be wrong like they always are." (Cornelia)

"I personally did the scouting after that ridiculous initial scouting report." (Descal)

"What? When did you... you know what. We don't have time. How are we going to win this then?" (Cornelia)

"Gather every single cavalry division you have heavy, light, lancers and form a double arrow formation. The royal guards will form the first arrow formation and everyone else will form the second right behind us. Then, once we break through, I want you to take half of the soldiers and swing around and hit the enemy units attacking Commander Finus. The other half will go straight for the enemy general." (Descal)

"But you just said that there is a mage division out there. Attacking a pike division when there is a mage division around is sheer suicide. Not only that the pike formation is completely formed up. Trying to bait them into moving isn't going to work if they have a mage division constantly pouring spells onto our faces while the pikemen just have to chill in their formation. If you are thinking of just mindlessly charging a pike wall, think again because the horses are too smart to mindlessly charge into one. They'll just stop in front of the wall making us easy prey for the damn mages." (Cecilia)

"Don't worry. Leave it to me. I will personally break the formation." (Descal)

"Uh huh. And how are you going to convince the entire cavalry to follow you with those words? We barely know you. All we know is that you are a foreign mercenary that protected her Highness on her escape to Uwile. We know nothing of your fighting skills. Much less your ability to actually pierce a fully formed pike wall." (Cornelia)

"Commander Cornelia. I believe the problem with convincing the cavalry to go with Descal's plan can be solved when they hear that I will be leading in the front with the Royal Guards." (Cecilia)

"Excuse me? Your Highness. Forgive me, but I do not believe I heard you properly." (Cornelia)

"You heard right. I will be in the front arrow formation with the Royal Guards." (Cecilia)

"If I may, that is a..." (Cornelia)

"Oh, I know it may seem stupid, but Descal knows what he is doing. If he says he can breach that pike wall, he can do it. Just go along with what he says. After all, you have been following his instructions quite well so far. Why not now?" (Cecilia)

I saw Cornelia give me a glare. I tried to portray my innocence to her by holding up my hands and mouthing I didn't say anything to her. I have been secretly giving orders... err.... "suggestions" to the commanders over the course of the battle. All of the commanders knew that our general was going senile or something so they readily went with my suggestions even if they bordered on directly contradicting the General's orders. Of course, this would be seen as insubordination to the General who was appointed by Cecilia herself so any insubordination to the General can be considered insubordination to Cecilia.

"Relax Commander. I understand that you only wanted what is best for your men. Besides Descal is quite the strategist is he not?" (Cecilia)

"Ye... Yes. He is quite good." (Cornelia)

"Then, gather the men. We will do as Descal says." (Cecilia)

"Yes, your highness." (Cornelia)

As I watched Cornelia ride out and rally the entire cavalry, I rode up to Cecilia.

"You have faith in my abilities apparently." (Descal)

"You are a thousand-year-old monster that almost destroyed this world. You have both brawn and brains. Of course, I know that you will succeed. It's not faith." (Cecilia)

"Did you have to be so blunt?" (Descal)

"You are one of the... scratch that...You are the only person I can be blunt with. Forgive me for using you like this." (Cecilia)

"Nice to know that you care about me so much." (Descal)

"So how are you planning on breaking through that pike wall? You're not going to use powerful magic because that will require using that limiter of yours, and I know that you would prefer to save that for the general. I hope that you are going to use some brilliant tactic or strategy instead of trying to brute force this with one of your inventions." (Cecilia)

"More of the brute force. Going to use something of mine." (Descal)

"F- Hmm. I was hoping for something more strategic or tactical." (Cecilia)

"I don't think anyone is within earshot. You can say the f-word if you want." (Descal)

"Yeah. No. Can't ever let my guard down. If word gets out that I cussed, well, it will be harder for me to get information about rumors and gossip since most of it will be about me cussing." (Cecilia)

"By the way, why did you want my plan to be more strategic or tactical? You know that I am not the best at it. I just have some experience." (Descal)

"How humble. You are seriously better at it than everyone in this army." (Cecilia)

"Well, that is because everyone on this battlefield is kinda muscle-headed or gets too focused on one thing. Not only that, this world got blasted into the stone age so of course, your people's idea of tactics and strategy would be behind by a lot. If this was a thousand years ago, I would be like worse than average in terms of tactical ability. No seriously. In the past, I just had my subordinates do all my tactics and strategy. My main job was harassing and killing anybody who was pivotal. If not that, then screwing around with the upper echelons and pitting races against each other. I was also a one-man army so I wasn't too absorbed in battlefield stuff. Don't distract me damn it. Answer the question." (Descal)

"... You'll find out soon enough." (Cecilia)

"I don't like that tone of yours." (Descal)

"Oh look. Cornelia's back." (Cecilia)

"I've got a bad feeling about this." (Descal)

----- 1 hour later ------

"Soldiers! You may have already heard of the rumors that our general has fallen in battle. I see in many of you that you think that I have only gathered you all so that we can cover her highness' retreat. No! Despite the seemingly hopeless situation of the battlefield, it is still possible to salvage this battle! Our queen will not run from battle but lead one instead. We will charge into the pike wall like bloodthirsty demons. Crush all who stand between us and our goal underneath these hooves. Follow! Follow your queen into the blood-red field. Place your faith in her majesty!" (Descal)

I quickly put on my helmet and yelled "charge" as loud as I could. As the trumpets began their declaration, the entire cavalry began to move out with the Royal Guard at the head of the formation. As planned, we adopted an arrow formation. I was at the tip while Cecilia was right behind me. The rest of the Royal Guards positioned themselves to look like a triangle as we began trotting toward the enemy pikemen.

The rest of the cavalry followed behind us in a similar formation. Due to the presence of the mage unit, we adopted the evasive arrow formation. Instead of one big triangle, the cavalry was divided up into squads of small triangles. Then, the squads would form up to create one big triangle with some distance between each squad. This way, the cavalry would have some room to dodge the spells while maintaining the arrow shape to better pierce infantry formations.

In order to conserve the horse's energy, we started off at a slow trot as we went up the hill. Once we got to the top of the hill, the enemy immediately saw us and shouts could be heard to get into formation. The pikemen quickly formed up and the dreaded pike was pointed toward us. As we started to go down the hill, we began to gradually pick up speed. Once we were halfway down the hill, from the back of the pike formation, lights could be seen as spells came, arcing over the pikes and into our cavalry.

The screams of men and horses rang out from behind me as some of the spells hit their mark. Some were electrocuted, some were blown into the air by explosive wind spells, others were fried from the fireballs as the relentless spell bombardment rained down on us. I saw Cecilia causing the spells to activate early by shooting at the ones that were about to land on us. Of course, she could not get all of them, and I had a few close calls myself that made me finger a black diamond that housed much of my essence and will. If I had to, I may have to release the seal a bit early. Sadly, the highest rank within eyesight is a silver rank so if I released my seal right now, the highest mana level I can exhibit would be gold rank.

"Courage, men! Do not falter!" (Cecilia)

With the Royal Guard echoing those words, the distance gradually shortened. Once we got within 100 meters of the pike wall, we were at full gallop. I could hear weapons being drawn behind me. I wish I could draw my own weapons as well, but I needed to do something first. I reach into my spatial inventory and took out a cluster of black powder grenades. I snapped my fingers to conjure a small flame and lit the fuse on fire. Once we were 50 meters out, I threw the grenades with all my might.

I ended up hitting a guy in the face with it and as he looked down in confusion at what I threw, it exploded sending the pikemen within the grenade's range flying and staggering with a small cloud of red. The pike wall shook as the men outside of the grenades' range tried to figure out what just happened.

Before the commanders and the men snap out of the confusion and refill the breach, I had to shove the Royal Guards into it. Without even drawing a weapon, I urged my horse to go as fast as possible. I could hear the Guards matching my speed.

"Full speed!" (Descal)

"For her majesty!" (Royal Guard)

And we were upon them.

A successful cavalry charge is quite an experience and difficult to describe. To best sum it up, the first thing to note would be the full force of the horse and armor bearing down on its victim, and people end up getting blown off the feet and then trampled on by the horse, leaving a broken body behind. The pikemen desperately tried to fend off the cavalry, but it was already too late. Once impact was made, the Royal Guards began the hacking and slashing to further open the breach for their brethren while we went in deeper into the shattered formation. The breach turned into a full-blown hole in the formation as the rest of the cavalry took advantage of the opening the Royal Guards made.

I may have ended up laughing a couple times in the battle as I had my horse trample as many men as possible. My men followed me, using their weapons to cause even more casualties. The three elites were already slaughtering many of the infantry with their swords while Cecilia was using her bayonetted rifle as a lance. The rest tried to copy what the leaders were doing and trying their best to distinguish themselves as the Royal Guard in valor and deadliness. The infantry formation began breaking apart as the full force of Cecilia's cavalry soon came upon them right after the initial shock of the Guards. There were a couple of pike commanders trying to issue orders to their men, but each one was quickly taken down by a sharp crack from Cecilia's rifle.

In a last act of desperation, the mages began to resume fire of spells on the cavalry while we were caught up in a melee with the infantry. However, this ended up being the last straw for the infantry since cavalry and spells were now upon them so they began a full retreat to the central flank. This meant that the mage division was now open for attack.

I noticed Commander Cornelia give orders to someone to take five squads of cavalry and run down the mages. It turned out that Cornelia gave the order to the girl that I rejected in her application for the Royal Guards. She quickly started screaming vengeance and blood, and many other cavalrymen took up the battle cry as they began charging at the mages.

Eager for revenge for their brethren that died in the spell bombardment, they began a mad dash for the mages. Cavalry and mages never had a good relationship to begin with. The cavalry viewed the mages as cowards with no respect to their fellow comrades (as evident from the fact that they opened fire on the cavalry even though it meant their fellow pikemen would be caught in the crossfire). On the other hand, mages tended to view themselves as superior to other divisions in the army and looked down on them. Mages are essentially the artillery of the fantasy world and rare. As a result, they do get treasured by the army.

As the enraged cavalry came bearing down on the mages, few of the enemy mages held their ground slinging spell after spell at the raging cavalry while many tried to flee. Not one got away unscathed as the cavalry showed no mercy and shoved every single one of those mages under the hooves or showed them the taste of cold steel.

Soon the smell of blood, steel, and sweat spread throughout the battlefield as the sounds of the wounded, trumpets, and screams became the dominant sound. The once beautiful luscious green hills were now dotted with corpses and red streams. Many of the cavalries began to get hot-blooded and began a mad dash after the fleeing infantrymen.

As for me, I yelled at Cornelia to let the cavalrymen go berserk and pursue the fleeing infantry to the central area and hammer the enemy on two flanks. With a nod, she began screaming at the squad leaders to run down the routed infantry. On the other hand, I took the Royal Guards and began making a beeline for the enemy general.

Although we could say that this battle was almost won physically, until we get the head of the enemy general, we would have lost the battle politically. Politically, the enemy has the advantage since they managed to kill our general. If used properly, Cecilia's uncle can convince other members of the nobility to support him, further bolstering his support. However, if we take the general's life as well, it would even the playing field.

RIght now is the best moment to attack the general since he would most likely not be expecting the cavalry to have broken through the pike infantrymen and the mage division. As a result, he should have poured the majority of his forces into the right and central flanks. This means that the general should have no one protecting him except his guards. The rest are either too far away or about to get pincered by Cornelia's cavalry.

It seems my gamble paid off because I could now see the enemy general's flag as he and his troops came charging at us to meet us in battle. He was probably thinking something similar. We have Cecilia right here. What better way for the General to skyrocket up the ladder by taking the head of the enemy and end the war in one battle. I could see that most of his guard was gold rank knights while he himself was platinum.

He probably thought that he could take us on. Unfortunately for him, I took out my diamond and broke the seal allowing for use of Mythril level power. I grinned as the magic began coursing through my body.