“One thing every ruler who lacks knowledge in warfare needs to learn first and foremost is to not question their general’s decision in the midst of a battle.” - Saying attributed to Xaliburnus the Conqueror, First Emperor of the Elmaiya Empire, after the Victory at Lake Sabaya.

They were moving too slowly.

Elfriede might not be able to see where the company was going towards, but due to her blindness, she had developed a keen sense of direction from an early age. Even if she had no objects in her surroundings to use as a mark for comparison while sensing things through her wind-sense, she would have not failed to notice a change of direction regardless.

And she noticed that Reinhardt had been altering their direction more and more after they struck the enemy’s elite troops. There were several explanations as to why he did that, but given their current mission, the most likely one was also the most troublesome one.

Namely that their target was likely trying to get away and Reinhardt was trying to cut off his escape path before he could do so.

Even Reinhardt’s deployment of Nicole’s and Fatimah’s units – a surprise they kept until the last moment – failed to allow them to make fast enough progress to reach their target in time, it seemed, so Elfriede made a quick decision and took matters into her own hands instead.

“Ylis, take half the boys and help Nicole out, you know what to do,” said Elfriede to Ylisera, who was practically acting as her second in command of the platoon these days. The elven former prostitute nodded and quickly left to round up half the platoon at her order. “Nina, Olyvee, Katja, you three take the other half to the left. We’re not getting to our target fast enough and we need to change that.”

“What about after we get there, though?” asked Karenina back with some obvious concern in her voice. If they all went out to support the flank, that would leave Elfriede alone behind Mischka’s vanguard. She was naturally worried that Elfriede might choose to take on their target all on her own. “Don’t tell me you’re going to take on the target and his guards all alone?”

Sure enough, her worry was warranted.

“If I have to,” replied Elfriede nonchalantly. “I’m hoping that some of you would fight your way over as well by then, or at least distract some of the guards, but worst case, I’ll go out there and get him or die trying. If we don’t get our target soon we’re all going to be fucked anyway, so it’s either we take our chances or resign ourselves for worse.”

“All right, I guess we don’t have a choice in this situation,” noted Karenina. “I’ll see you there, Friede. Don’t you dare go dying on me, you hear?”

“Same to you, Nina, same to you.”

With Elfriede’s hundred troops split into two groups of fifty helping the push further, their pace notably accelerated. While Mischka’s troops were unparalleled when it came to breaking through a formation, their effectiveness was rather hampered in a melee like this because they would need to strike with care so as to avoid accidentally hitting their own allies.

Elfriede’s troops on the other hand were almost entirely composed of the worst of the people that joined the mercenary company. The killers and the maniacs, those who derived enjoyment from the act of killing and often had little care for their own well-being. She kept them reined partly by being little different to them herself, and partly because she made it very clear that she could and would skin them alive if they dared to mess up under her command.

Normally, that sort of people would be of little value in a fight between organized armies. Used at the right place at the right time, however, they more than proved their worth. The killers under Elfriede’s command were skilled, and their recklessness often proved to be the final straw that broke the back of their opponents’ proverbial camel. As with the current situation.

The Podovnian elites who held their own well against the rest of the Free Lances were caught by surprise by the sudden deluge of madmen who went at them with reckless abandon. In one case one of Elfriede’s men was stabbed through by two spears by just dragged himself forward towards the soldiers holding those spears and tore their throat out, before he jumped – spears still in his gut – at the shocked soldiers behind his victims and madly tore at them until he died.

If trained soldiers were met with such rampaging madmen and were informed to expect them, they would usually win handily against them, as coordination trumped personal prowess in most cases. The Podovnian soldiers were already engaged in a messy melee with the rest of the Free Lances, however, and the attack came unexpectedly, as Elfriede’s people slipped out between their allies like ghosts.

While the Podovnians might have been able to regain their cohesion after a while, the Free Lances gave them no chance to do so and pushed them harder. Soon Mischka’s vanguard pushed further away and turned the mercenary formation almost into a wedge, as she rushed to close the distance to their target, the Marquis of Podovniy.

Elfriede was the one who noted the shift in the ambient mana. She was extremely sensitive to such changes since her method of sensing her surroundings involved imbuing the wind around her with her own mana, so the shift, which invisible and unnoticeable to most people or even mages, were as glaring as a torch in the middle of the night to her senses.

“Magic!” she shouted in warning just as spikes of stone formed from the earth just ahead of Mischka and jutted out towards her rapidly. Mischka was far too large to avoid them, and even if she could, she wouldn’t as that would mean subjecting those behind her to the threat instead. Her decision proved fruitful as the spikes shattered against her heavy armor, none of them capable of defeating the protection she wore, but they still killed her forward momentum dead for the moment.

Invisible blades of wind followed closely behind the stone spikes and landed on her large form. Most of them broke harmlessly against her armor, but a few lacerated her flesh and left bleeding wounds behind.