“While in more peaceful times war was often clad in some veneer of civility, in more troubled times, that thin layer of veneer would be washed away to reveal the ugly truth underneath. War was always full of ruthlessness and callous disregard for people’s lives. Those who forgot that fact would find themselves paying dearly for it.” - Labraz el Cavirse, Royal Tutor to the Imperial Family of Elmaiya, scholar and former general, circa 109 FP.

For a brief moment after Estelle blew the whistle in the code Reinhardt told her, nothing happened.

Then Reinhardt quietly mouthed an affirmation, which was transferred through the artifact eye piece he wore to an earring that was attached securely to the side of Hannah’s head – therians of her breed had no noticeable outer ear structure, after all – where it replayed the affirmation. Hannah knew what to do from there, and repeated the code, her shrill screech audible from many kilometers away.

Almost as soon as her signal was given, over a hundred – Egil’s platoon had easily replenished and increased their numbers with their own descendants, amongst other newcomers – goblins peeked out from their camouflaged hideouts in the prairie. They were arranged in a very loose and wide encirclement of the enemy army now advancing through the region.

Each of the goblins were well-suited to life in such regions, as they had been taught many ways to deter the local predators from mistaking them as prey and were nearly unnoticeable to most eyes. As they heard the signal, the goblins stealthily advanced towards the wide ring of kindling and fire retardant powder that they had spread over the past few days.

While they carefully tiptoed so as not to disturb the ring of fire retardant powder on the outside, the goblins soon reached the outermost part of the ring where they spread the kindling powder on, and brought out a simple firestarter tool: A piece of flint and steel. Pointing the steel rod towards the powder on the ground, they struck it with the flint, which caused a shower of sparks to fly out, straight towards where the kindling powder had been strewn.

Many of the sparks died out before they landed, but a few made it, and it was enough. Upon contact with the spark, the kindling powder instantly burst into flame, which in turn also ignited more of the powder in its vicinity. The chain reaction quickly spread out along the ring, the dry grass of the prairie catching fire bit by bit as the flames spread.

At first it was unnoticeable, as the flames were small and low to the ground, with what little smoke that emerged from the combustion mostly dispersed by the stalks of tall grass before it could become noticeable from afar. Once the sparks started from over a hundred various points met with each other, though, the flames had engulfed more of the tall grass and grew to a size that was visible even from afar.

It was the vanguard of the Southern Coalition’s army that first noticed the fire and smoke that suddenly appeared before them. Then when some of those people turned around and noticed more fire and smoke in the distance, they raised an alarm which was relayed towards the command staff in the center of their army.

By the time the Southern Coalition army started to react, the flames around them already reached the height of a human head, and the air started to smell of ashes. The realization that they were completely encircled by flames, set by an enemy unscrupulous enough to do so, was something that left the army’s commanders speechless.

All of them had been born and raised in the final decades of the Clangeddin Empire and its subsequent division. To them, warfare was little different than a large-scale expansion of an honor duel, an activity that was closely regulated by a series of rules the participants adhered to. It was a test of mettle, command, and maneuver, not a thing of unapologetic savagery.

They had completely taken it for granted that everyone would fight by the same rules, as that had been all they experienced. Their neighbors from Sevras-Galastine, who participated in conquering the former Holy Kingdom of Theodinaz, could have taught them the unpleasant truth, but since they were enemies, naturally they had no reason to do so.

The fact was, such rules only worked when both sides adhered to it.

At first, Estelle and the commanders of Levain’s militia had also balked at the idea of setting the prairie on fire, but then Reinhardt had asked them a simple question. A question of whether their so-called pride and honor were more important than their people’s lives and livelihoods. They had already proclaimed themselves unwilling to submit themselves to another power ever again, so why not show their determination to do so by casting off some of the last things that still tied them to the old Empire?

What was the point of being polite to the enemy when the intention was to fight them to the death anyway?

In the end, everyone agreed that Estelle would at least attempt to talk to their enemies first, before they commit one way or another, with the militia commanders entrusting the decision to her hands. The way the High Lord had so callously disregarded them was the last straw that broke the camel’s back and forced Estelle to a decision.

She found that when compared to the lives of thousands of people she cared about, the so-called “honor” and “pride” the nobility held so highly was worth shit. At first she was worried when she saw nothing after she blew the whistle, but when the ring of fire started to become visible, she gawked in surprise at just how widely Reinhardt had set the trap.

The Southern Coalition army was encircled by a growing conflagration that was still hours of marching away at its closest point, which meant that by the time the fire grew closer to them, the heat and smoke might have already reaped the lives of most of the army. It wasn’t a windy day, but given the plentiful tall grass in the prairie, it was wishful thinking if anyone hoped the fire wouldn’t spread further.