“The fate of those who were captured as prisoners in war often depended on their status. Important people would be treated well and often ransomed back by their nations, while the common footsoldier was more often left to languish in captivity and at times used for slave labor by the captors until the war ended.” - Excerpt from “The Evolution of Warfare” by Tomas Lancaster, military historian from Levain, circa 592 FP.

“On me!” Erycea yelled out over the din of the battle. A cacophony of weapons clashing, the screams of agony from men and melancholic whinnies of injured warhorses filled the atmosphere, and one could only make themselves heard through yelling. Almost immediately, her close-knit group of friends gathered around her, forming a smaller unit within the platoon.

Erycea typically used the smaller unit – which she led personally – to act in a similar way to her mother’s platoon, that was, to dive deep into the enemy formation and take out high-value targets. The rest of her platoon under the leadership of her own lieutenants would keep the enemy occupied and distracted while she did that.

This battle was no different, although this time they were to capture their target alive if possible instead of pulling a decapitation strike.

Vlad, Tasha, Vera, and Gustav angled their shields to form a solid wedge at the front. The four used their advantage in size and bulk to simply push their way into the enemy formation with ease. Behind them, Valeria and Beth secured the sides of their small formation, supported by Aurora and Ayrie behind them. The twins Llewelyn and Rhiannon guarded their rear, while Erycea herself directed the formation from the middle, all wound up like a beast preparing to pounce on its prey.

At least this time their quarry saved them the trouble of looking, though. Most of Erycea’s smaller group were familiar with Michel du Riffons since the two mercenary companies got along well back in Posuin. As such, Ayrie easily noticed the man’s well-made armor – which he hadn’t changed since the last time they saw him – from a distance and pointed it out to Erycea.

Their target was fortunate enough to be in the middle of his troops, so he was spared from being part of the tangled mess of human and horse bodies that resulted from the traps the Free Lances had set. Even as Ayrie pointed him out, the man was still trying to regain and instill a semblance of order for his surprised and panicked troops.

Which just made him a bigger target, all told.

In fact, Michel du Riffons failed to notice Erycea’s small group changing course to head straight for him until they had smashed their way through his bodyguards as he was occupied with trying to control his troops.

Even though his bodyguards included the few veterans who followed him, they proved to be ineffective at stopping Erycea’s charge. Even while on horseback, the riders had no real height advantage against the four that formed the group’s frontline and could only try to stab ineffectually at their sturdy metal shields. What few strikes managed to get past the shield just found the heavy armor worn by the four at the front, which were practically impervious to their weapons.

Erycea herself did not wait until the group as a whole reached their target, though, as instead she climbed up Vlad’s back and stood on top of his and Tasha’s shoulders before she leapt straight for Michel. Her target clearly had not expected such a move and Erycea easily tackled him off his saddle, causing him to fall onto the ground hard on his side, probably even dislocating his right shoulder in the process.

She herself landed lightly on top of him and directly stepped on his other hand to stop him from making a move to defend himself. Her truncheons whipped around and struck away the attacks from Michel’s guards who were close enough to try to do something about it, and she even struck one of them down from their horse before the rest of her group arrived.

Then Vlad simply collected Michel from the ground and carried him in an underarm hold, his burly arm pressing Michel’s arms to the man’s side and making him unable to move at all. The group then traced their path back out of the enemy formation even while the rest of their platoon and Elfriede’s took down the enemies around them.

Of course, Erycea did not forget to signal to her mother that they had already secured their target, so that she wouldn’t go off in a fruitless search. As such, once their enemies decided that they had enough and began to retreat, the Free Lances simply allowed them to do so.

People from Lars’s platoon took over after the fighting was done and rounded up the still-living captives and led the uninjured horses towards the forest. The dead enemies were rapidly stripped of their weapons and armors and any notable valuables, while many of the dead horses which were in better shape were also dragged towards the forest.

Similar scenes could be seen elsewhere as the mercenaries broke the cavalry force sent to chase after them. The whole battle ended up as a big loss to Podovniy. Out of the thousand or so cavalrymen they sent, less than half made it back. Over two hundred perished in the fighting, while another three hundred or so were taken captive.

By the time an infantry detachment reached the spot where the battle happened, all that was left were stripped corpses and some dead horses. The mercenaries had long withdrawn back into the forest with their captives and salvage, while the dead horses they took with them would likely end up being extra meat for their dinner that very night.

Out of the ten knight orders and three mercenary companies that comprised the cavalry force, only three of the knight orders managed to escape without many losses, as they had the fortune of being the slowest, and thus were in the back, able to escape immediately when they saw the fate of the others. Of the rest, some were so damaged they might as well be disbanded, while others dropped to as low as half strength.