《Free Lances》Chapter 303 - South of the Free City

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“Any commander who chose to not make use of geographical advantages is just a fool. All these nonsense about fighting ‘honorably’ in the open are just a pampered, sheltered, idiotic fool’s ramblings and no more. When has that ingrate of a ‘general’ ever seen a battlefield anyway?” - Alberto Densus Macragge, retired general from the Clangeddin Empire, circa 394 VA.

To the south of Levain were several minor domains – where many of the noble faction in the council hailed from – as well as a good chunk of uninhabited land. The southmost parts of the territory were places that neither Levain nor the Southern Coalition considered to belong to either side, since nobody lived there, and was mostly considered a neutral no-man’s land.

The main reason for that was because the eastern part of the region was covered by the Rodin mountain range, which stretched further east, while the western side was covered in rolling plains that teemed with wildlife. The presence of many predatory animals and even the occasional monsters made the plains unsafe for travel, so most merchants and other traffic went through a valley in the mountain range instead.

Because of the geography of the region, if a large army in the tens of thousands wished to cross into Levain territory from the south, they pretty much had to cross either the plains, or the valley. Neither choice were ideal. The plains were infested with wild beasts, though with a large army, their passage was likely to drive away most creatures just by their sheer numbers alone.

On the other hand, going through the valley would be an easier route, but it would also take a long time due to the limited size of the road there. It was difficult for more than ten men to march abreast of each other while walking through the broadest sections of the road, while the narrower ones might barely fit five men standing side by side.

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As such, it was understandable that when an army of over sixty-five thousand men from the Southern Coalition reached the aforementioned area, they decided to pass through the plains instead of the valley. If they had taken the valley route then it would probably take their entire army a week if not more to go through to the other side.

Compared to that loss of time, traveling through the prairie would only take them a day at most, while their numbers should be plenty to scare off any animals that lurked within the tall grass of the plains.

Since it was a hot summer, with the northern areas of the former empire’s land even affected by drought, the grass on the plains were dry and yellowish in color. They grew all the way to the chest of an average man, which made passage somewhat troublesome, but still easily doable with some effort. From time to time, the army shooed away what they thought were likely animals rustling in the grass around them.

They had no idea that while most of the time they were indeed just scaring off wild animals, from time to time, a sneaky goblin would keep watch over their progress, while others further away in the distance continued their work as they prepared a welcome for these invaders.

Egil and his platoon had reached the area two days ago, ahead of everyone else, and after some coordination with the aerial scout who kept track of the enemy army’s progress, went to work as they set up the trap they planned together with Reinhardt and Lars after the first survey of the Free City’s borders the year before.

In truth, regardless of whether the army from the Southern Coalition took the valley road or the plains, they would have found an unpleasant and decidedly ungentlemanly trap awaiting them. High on the mountains that flanked the valley road, there were many piles of stones, logs, and other debris that had been prepared there over the previous year, for the creation of a man-made avalanche that would have sealed the valley road and buried whoever was inside it at the time.

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What Egil and Reinhardt had prepared on the plains was something simpler, but arguably far crueller. From the past year, Egil and his platoon – as they were the most familiar with animal-infested regions like the plains – had sequestered many hidden deposits of a certain powder all over the plains. When they returned there to set up the trap, they brought those deposits out and started to spread them in clear lines.

There were two kinds of powders that the goblins were spreading, both of them being recipes from their homeland. One kind was what they typically used as kindling when on the go, as the fire affinity was rather rare amongst the northern goblins. The powder in question was quite inert under most circumstances, but upon contact with as little as a spark, it would quickly burst into open flames.

The second powder on the other hand would sublimate when exposed to a certain amount of heat, and the gasses released would then act as a fire retardant. Reinhardt and Egil had included it on Lars’ advice, as he had cautioned them that an uncontrolled wildfire might well do damage to the Free City as well. Over the past two days, Egil and his troops had been spreading those powders to surround a large area of the plains.

Which happened to be the area the Southern Coalition troops were passing through at the moment.

Those troops progressed unhindered through the plains, until around three-quarters of the way through when they were called to a halt. They halted because their forward scouts had reported the presence of enemy soldiers, arrayed atop a small hill shortly past the plains, roughly around half their numbers. As such, some leaders from the Southern Coalition army made their way forward, with a wind mage skilled in carrying voices along with them.

It was only polite to demand surrender first before condemning their foes to their doom, after all.

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