“Some people would die for the sake of their liege lords. Whether those people are stupidly loyal or just stupid, that’s sometimes hard to tell.” - Arracin Naeva, Elmaiyan mercenary, circa 101 FP.

“Viktor! For Deities’ sake, please! Leave first!” Simeon Durant yelled to his oldest friend and liege lord as he watched the situation deteriorate around him.

The plan he had worked out with the other generals and officers of Podovniy the day before, which the Marquis also approved of, had gone to shambles. At first things went according to expectations, with the two sides fighting relatively evenly. He had also expected the enemy cavalry raid, and in fact had waited for it to happen.

Their enemies made it obvious early on that they were superior in terms of cavalry, so Simeon chose to make use of his remaining cavalry to delay the enemy’s and minimize their impact on the battle, while relying on his infantry force to overwhelm the enemy’s main force in the meantime. That part had mostly gone as planned, other than the enemy being tougher than expected.

What they failed to account for was the fire raging where their camp was situated.

It was not like they expected the camp to be left unbothered during the day’s fighting. They were well aware that the enemy’s mercenary force was highly skilled and fond of such sneak attacks, which was why those left to defend their base camp were given strict orders to defend only and not to be lured out by enemy provocations.

Instead, what they failed to expect was for the camp to be set aflame in such a way that was visible from the main battlefield itself, despite the distances involved. The flames distracted the Podovnian soldiers and led to panic in several parts of their formation, resulting in lowered cohesion which allowed for their enemies to break through their frontline and breach their formation.

And then the accursed mercenaries showed themselves as they struck the formation from behind and made a beeline for where Simeon and the Marquis were.

It was not obvious at first, but Simeon noticed that the Caroman main thrust and the mercenaries’ surprise attack were both angled so as to isolate the Marquis. By the time he noticed, however, there was quite a congestion of soldiers around them due to the enemy thrusts, and even if they ordered the soldiers to make way, it was slow progress.

Which was naturally when the enemy mercenaries fielded units they kept in reserve and redoubled their push, cutting their way far too rapidly for Simeon’s liking into the Marquis’ personal guard unit. It was worrisome that the elite unit failed to hold the mercenaries back and that was a concern that Simon would address with a vengeance if he got out of this mess alive, but for the time being he had bigger worries to deal with.

The mercenaries got to a hundred paces away before the two mages employed by the Marquis took action and stopped the massive bear-therian that led the charge in their tracks, even if only momentarily. The smile did not get to form on his lips before it turned into a frown once more as one of the mercenaries leapt off the shoulder of the large therian and literally ran on the heads and shoulders of the Podovnian soldiers between her and the Marquis’ group, however.

Somehow, the mercenary woman avoided everything thrown her way, be it spikes of stone, invisible blades of wind, or even the spears of the soldiers she stepped on. It was as if she had eyes behind her back, as even attacks from behind failed to leave any noteworthy mark on her as she rushed towards their group.

Even worse, the rest of the mercenaries seemed emboldened by the woman’s suicidal charge and pushed harder as they chased after her, rapidly closing the distance towards the Marquis. That was when Simeon yelled at his old friend to leave first, as clearly things were going south as it was.

It took a moment of wrangling – and yelling – before the Marquis finally acquiesced and turned his horse around. They had been delayed long enough by then that their original intention to skirt around the Caroman thrust was a failure, so the only option left was for the Marquis to turn around and attempt to skirt around the mercenary thrust instead.

The moment Simeon turned back towards the battle, however, he witnessed how two of the Marquis’ personal elite guards were cut down by the mercenary woman with contemptible ease, the woman somehow walking on their horses’ back without losing her balance even as she cut them down. The earth mage was already dead with his head only barely connected to the rest of his body, while the wind mage was panicking and seemed to have sent another barrage of wind blades at the mercenary woman.

That barrage proved to be of little use as the woman calmly beheaded a third guard while contorting her body around the invisible blades – or at least that was what Simeon guessed as he noticed how slight cuts formed on the woman’s gambeson – and slashing through the air with her weapons. Given the flustered look on the mage’s face, there was probably something in those oddly-shaped blades that interfered with magic as well.

Simeon was just about to order the half of the personal guards that stayed with him as a rear guard to help the mage when the woman suddenly lunged and skewered the mage right through the throat with an extended blade of hers. Somehow, despite the nearly horizontal lunge, the woman still managed to land on her feet safely as she turned to look towards the departing Marquis.

The look in her gray eyes was one that gave Simeon chills and cold sweat, with how she appeared to completely ignore everything set before her. Despite being outnumbered fifteen to one by Simeon himself and the guards, she strode forward confidently nonetheless, with the rest of the mercenaries only fifteen paces away behind her, being held by a few remaining elite soldiers who still held their ground.

Simeon could only draw the sword by his waist and prepare himself to lay down his life.