“Beating up each other and making friends thereafter is just how we do things, I guess. It’s a far more common occurrence that you’d expect when it comes to people in this profession.” - Gerrard of Aivir, former mercenary.

On the fourth day, a couple hours before noon, Astra and Scipius stood on the plains as they faced a force from the Free Lances. Their parents had arranged for the two of them to jointly lead the Caroman force in that exhibition match – Scipius in overall command, while Astra was in command of two centuries – where they faced off against mostly newer platoons from the Free Lances.

Scipius was easily in his element as he relayed orders to the subcommanders under him, which included Astra, who in turn relayed them to the one subcommander that functioned as her aide. The two-hundred man leader rank she held was a provisory rank, one meant to test the mettle of a young officer to see if they were suited for higher command or not. Those that succeed would be promoted to five-hundred man commander, with Scipius’ current rank as thousand-man commander another notch above that.

While Astra was usually in command of a cavalry force – being a good rider herself – the exhibition match was infantry only, but it was something she could work with. Her cavalrymen were also trained to fight on foot where needed, so the hundred-man force she directly led was composed of her own people. Astra herself held a spear and shield together with them in the battle line.

Across from them, the mercenary formation looked less uniform, as many of their members – save for one group – wore clothing in a riot of colors, as was commonplace for mercenaries like them. Astra could identify what seemed to be five separate units – platoons, as the mercenaries called them – from the way they grouped themselves up. Four of them were around or less than a hundred men strong, while the last one in the back was larger.

She recognized the mercenary captain’s younger daughter right in the frontlines, wielding a long polearm and accompanied by a unit that was mostly composed of youngsters like her. The captain’s older daughter had her own unit – similarly mostly composed of youngsters – positioned on the left flank of the formation, while a unit mostly composed of dark-skinned westerners who dressed far more uniformly held the right flank.

What caught her attention was the other unit at the frontline, which seemed to have chosen its members at least partly with physical size as a criteria. The unit had many people wielding massive tower shields as large as their bodies right at the frontlines, with a bear of a man seemingly in the lead. Astra warned her subcommander to be wary of that unit and to double up on their defense should they push hard against them.

Once the signal to begin the battle was given, the two forces clashed directly. Astra was surprised by how much they were pushed back by the mercenaries, especially the unit led by the big man, who simply pushed physically against her frontlines and forced them back step by step. They did not press their advantage too hard, however, which made her suspicious.

Unfortunately, Astra didn’t get to voice her suspicions as the mercenary platoon across her unit – Alycea’s – pushed hard against them at that moment, with Astra meeting face to face with the youthful girl who commanded the other side. Within moments Astra was on the backfoot as she had to exert all her fighting skills to defend herself against her opponent’s oddly flexible polearm.

It was around that time, when the two hundred men on the frontlines under Astra’s command were occupied by the mercenaries, that the two platoons on the mercenaries’ flanks fanned out and struck towards the rear of the Caroman formation. They were clearly aiming for Scipius as he was the Caroman commander.

The more uniform-looking platoon on the mercenaries right flank surprised Astra – who was already marked as “dead” by that time, as she failed to hold on against Alycea’s onslaught – as they held a tight formation while they clashed against the Caroman left flank. More than that, they also steadily pushed into the Caroman formation with surprising ease, and that was before several small teams moved out from within their formation to wreak havoc within Caroman lines.

On the opposite side, the other platoon looked more haphazard in formation, yet more than made up for it with brute force. They had a trio of large – each of them well over two meters tall, with the largest nearly three meters tall – bear-like therians at the point of their charge, who simply pushed aside whoever was in their way with their massive door-like tower shields.

Behind that charge, the rest of the platoon were no slouches either. Other mercenaries widened the gap opened by the pointmen, while another group covered their backs and sides as the platoon drove deep into the Caroman formation. It was only when their advance slowed down that the point of the wedge opened up and let loose another pack of mercenaries that had been hidden in the middle of their formation.

Astra noticed the mercenary captain’s older daughter personally leading that group as they fought their way through the rest of the Caroman formation. The Caroman soldiers who were in their way were taken down or shoved aside by the rampaging mercenaries, overwhelmed despite the relatively safe nature of the exhibition match.

She herself likely had some bruises on her from the fight with the mercenary girl, as they had not held back their blows by too much, other than keeping their weapons sheathed and padded. If the younger girl caused Astra some bruises, then her older sister likely did even more. Astra winced when she saw a Caroman soldier get bodily flung into the air when he stubbornly persisted in trying to block the mercenaries.

Before too long, the referee signaled a victory to the mercenaries as Astra watched her brother Scipius being taken down by the mercenary strikeforce. Mentally, she also considered the cause of their loss. In terms of strategy and tactics they had made no real mistake, however, their soldiers were just too far behind their opponent’s in terms of individual combat prowess.

Once the formation was messed up and the battle turned chaotic, they were already dancing to the mercenaries’ tune.