“Unless your side could directly overpower the other side and push the battle into their camps, in which case the battle was as good as won already, attacks towards an enemy’s encampment generally aimed for specific targets.

In the past, before the mass proliferation of storage artifacts, this used to be supply storages, where the food and spare equipment of an army was kept, the destruction of which was certain to drop morale severely. Other common targets were stables and things like siege engines when they were stored in camp.

In the modern day, while targets that were not storable in an artifact like the stables or siege engines remained common targets, the most common target was instead a decapitation strike that targeted officers or mage cadres, in an attempt to reduce the enemy’s prowess with minimal effort.” - Excerpt from “The Vagaries of Warfare” by Maxim Stavros Odenlos, Military Scholar from the Clangeddin Empire, circa 443 VA.

“Straight for the siege engines, Your Grace?” asked Reinhardt when the young Duchess stepped up next to him in full battle gear. Andrea Utghwes wore full plate mail like her knights, her own suit being of finer make and craftsmanship as befitted her station, and carried her kite shield and battle-axe with practiced familiarity. Reinhardt was not too surprised to see the young Duchess come to him near the front of their formation, as she had led the cavalry charges from the front as well.

“Exactly so, Captain Edelstein,” replied the young Duchess as she stepped into formation next to him, near the tip of their charge. She calmly blocked a Central soldier’s spear with her shield as she hacked off the man’s head with a vicious swing of her axe, while Reinhardt smashed another soldier next to the one she killed. “I was about to volunteer some of my knights to lead the way but I see you have that well in hand.”

The reason for the young Duchess’ comment was not just the headway the mercenaries already made, but also how Mischka was leading their charge further inward. The therian matron simply used her bulk and brute force to cleave her way through the defenders, with none of the soldiers that stood in her way spared from a horrible fate at the end of her massive blade.

Even though some soldiers from the battlefield had turned to reinforce their encampment, there were not that many of them and they were still a distance away, while the rest of the Central army was pinned in place by the assault from their east and south. For the moment, the only defenders of the encampment were those soldiers who had stayed to man and guard the siege engines.

Their charge reached the large clearing on the eastern edge of the encampment where the siege engines were stationed smoothly, as the mercenaries and knights carved a path through the defenders. Behind them, elite infantry from Dvergarder secured their retreat path and fought off the Central soldiers that tried to cut it off and strike the attackers from behind.

That was where they ran into some real opposition however, which Reinhardt noticed right away when Mischka, Yuri, and Niko, who were at the head of their formation, were not only halted by their opponents, but even forced to take a step back with some injuries on their bodies.

“We got some tough nuts up ahead, cap,” said Mischka as she licked the blood that dripped from a cut across her left arm. The cut would have struck bone if she had been a human, but with how large and thick her arms were, it had merely caused a flesh wound instead. More worrisome however was how the cut went through her brigandine armor, which was many layers of fabric and leather reinforced with metal plates within.

“Some fucking spellslingers too!” added Yuri as he braced against his pair of tower shields with Niko next to him doing the same with his own. A series of loud impacts and a burst of fire came from the other side of their shields as they blocked the assault of what was likely several mages working in tandem. Both of them were slightly singed by the fire, and their heavy armor had some dents from some earlier strikes, which spoke testament to the ferocity of the magical barrage.

Reinhardt and the young Duchess peeked past the shields to take a glance at their opposition, and found that the Centrals had arrayed themselves into a defensive formation around the siege engines, with likely a full cadre of mages protected in their midst. Most eye-catching however was the pair of warriors clad in full plate mail that stood ahead of the formation, likely the ones who had repelled Mischka’s charge and injured her.

One of the two warriors carried a massive tower shield well over two meters tall and half as wide, though with the blades and spikes built around the sides and edges of the shield it clearly served as a weapon of sorts as well. The other carried a long, slender single-edged greatsword with a slight curve that gleamed with the silvery shine that was telltale of mithril. Just from how they were equipped alone, Reinhardt pegged those two as nobles who probably devoted their lives to warfare.

“Dammit. That’s Randall and Vaughn Oleysun, the Sword and Shield of Gestis,” said the young Duchess who clearly recognized the two warriors, the title she mentioned including one of the Central duchies. If Reinhardt had not remembered wrong, the Oleysun family were the hereditary rulers of the Duchy of Gestis. “I had not expected to see them here in the camp.”

“Battle addict sorts I assume?” asked Reinhardt.

“Pretty much. They’re the fourth and fifth sons of the current Duchess, and went all-in on building their reputation as knights since they were nowhere near the line of succession with three elder siblings ahead of them,” said the young Duchess. “Don’t underestimate them. They’re actually good at fighting, unlike most who pursued such a path.”

“Well, we got answers for those types,” muttered Reinhardt as he thought quickly. Their advance had halted during the brief conversation as their shieldbearers tanked the magical barrage sent their way by the defenders. The defenders themselves seemed content at keeping them away for the time being.

“Friede, Grün, I’ll leave those two to you,” said Reinhardt as he quickly took command. “Mischka, we’re pushing straight for their mages, then the engines. Ylisera, take the rest of Friede’s group and take care of those mages one we get there.”

A quick series of affirmations came from the mercenaries, and they shifted a bit to the side as their frontline made a sudden push towards the enemy mages. The two warriors from before came to intercept, but before they managed to do so, Elfriede and Grünhildr came out from the formation and intercepted them instead.