"You ain't gonna find many stuck-up idiots with grand delusions in the mercenary trade, kid. Most of us who tread this path know we're no warriors of justice or something so flowery, nor is our line of work anything pleasant.
Putting it in the bluntest way? We're all just murderers for hire, paid with coin for the lives we take and sometimes lost on the battlefield. You ain't gonna find many upstanding people with good morals around here, so you're totally barking up the wrong tree.
Try the adventurers over yonder instead. I bet if ya preached at them enough, some would flock to your so-called just cause. Who knows? Maybe you'd even get a few stupid enough to die for you for free.
Good luck either way, pal. Now shoo~ if you wanna hire us Busters, don't come without a pouch of gold or three." - Brendan Pead, Captain of Brendan's Busters, when approached by a revolutionary looking for support.
"Lances! To me!" Reinhardt yelled over the bustle of the ongoing battle. His loud voice caught the attention his troops, and he quickly signaled them to advance, as he pointed to a direction with his weapon.
Two squads of the enemy light cavalry had attempted to squeeze through a gap in the dwarven infantry formation, and were already halfway through. They probably planned to then wheel around to strike the dwarves from the rear, but Reinhardt spotted them first.
To be fair, it was not exactly hard to notice cavalrymen in the midst of a dwarven army, given the height difference.
The Free Lances were not far from where the cavalry would have emerged when they broke through the formation, so it was a chance for them to contribute to the battle, since all the other units were occupied and the Crown Prince's chariots were too far away to react fast enough.
With a couple hand gestures, he gave orders to his troops. They quickly assumed a wedge formation, with half of Mischka's unit and other elites forming the point, and others on the right flank.
His timing was on point, and they slammed into the right flank of the enemy cavalry shortly after they broke through the dwarven formation. Shieldbearer had led their charge, and those men and women - led by Yuri and Niko - bashed their massive shields against the sides of the horses before them, hard.
Normally an infantry unit charging a cavalry unit would have been the stuff of folly. The equation changed drastically, however, when a good dozen of the "infantry" in question were positively massive, bulky specimens of their respective race strong enough to lift a horse and its rider above their heads.
When the shields slammed violently against the side of the horses, bones were pulverized and organs were ruptured before the hapless steeds were thrown sideways by the impact. Many of the riders screamed as well, their leg haplessly sandwiched between a merciless slab of metal and their mounts and crushed in between.
Yuri and Niko swiftly led their shieldbearers to do an about face to their left, and formed a shield wall to prevent the rest of the cavalry still within the dwarven formation from escaping it. Out of the sixty or so that already escaped the formation, seven were crippled by the shieldbearer's charge.
Then the elites of the Free Lances charged from the position vacated by their shieldbearers, Reinhardt leading the charge personally. Some of the cavalrymen reined their steeds to face the oncoming threat, while the twenty or so at the front ran ahead, turned, and tried to hit the Lances on the right flank.
That was where the rest of the unit's shieldbearers awaited them with a wall of shields and spears however. If that was not bad enough, just as their commander tried to egg them on to charge, an oversized arrow pierced right through his forehead and killed him on the spot.
Salicia had gotten two of the sturdier members of the company to briefly throw her into the air and had sniped the commander on her way down. She landed safely as the same two men caught her as she fell.
Meanwhile, Reinhardt's team had engaged the rest of the cavalry. Some of them still reeled as they had their fellows thrown at them. These few never got a chance to fight back as they were slaughtered where they fell.
Others who were unaffected by the charge fought back. The distance was too close for them to build much momentum, so they ended up embroiled in a melee, which quickly went against their favor.
Reinhardt took on one of the few men who wore good, light chainmail instead of just leathers or gambesons - he assumed them to be a commander of sorts - and deftly parried the man's spear to the side with his polemace.
As the man was clearly skilled and used to fighting on horseback, with no openings even then, Reinhardt struck a different target instead. The head of his polemace struck the man's horse right on the knee of its right foreleg, snapping the limb backwards.
The horse whinnied in pain as it threw its rider down, and Reinhardt had not missed the opening. The shaft of his polemace - good, solid steel at that - caught the falling man across the chest hard and laid him down to the ground. Before he could react more than coughing in surprise, Reinhardt had whirled his polemace a half circle and bashed his head into a bloody mess with it.
A quick glance around showed him that the situation was under control. Mischka straight up cleaved a man and his horse into halves with her oversized cleaver of a blade. Grünhilde was near the therian matriarch, and had cleaved both forelegs off a horse with one axe, as she removed the head of the falling rider with the other.
Elfriede and Ylisera to his other side had leapt atop the horses as they passed, and quickly dispatched of the riders before they could react, then reined in the animals and turned them around. The cavalry detachment that tried their right wing fell under the spears of the shieldwall, aided by Salicia's arrows.
Meanwhile, the dwarven formation used the time they bought to close the gap, as they sandwiched the majority of the stuck cavalrymen between them and cut them down to the last man.
[Author] If you enjoy this story, please consider leaving a rating or review to help it gain more exposure, thank you! Or help support the author by leaving a tip!
Read ahead on my Patreon! For 5$ a month patrons will gain early access of up to 10 chapters ahead, or for 10$ a month, gain early access of up to 25 chapters ahead!
Or you can subscribe to all my stories and get a 10% discount on the price!
For every 15 cumulative new patrons in the Free Mage/Free Archmage/Magus/Archmagus tier I get in a month, from the next month onwards the respective patreon tiers will receive +5/+10 chapters permanently, until we reach my usual 25/55 chapters ahead!
Join the Discord for silly stuff and chat with us![/author]
"You ain't gonna find many stuck-up idiots with grand delusions in the mercenary trade, kid. Most of us who tread this path know we're no warriors of justice or something so flowery, nor is our line of work anything pleasant.
Putting it in the bluntest way? We're all just murderers for hire, paid with coin for the lives we take and sometimes lost on the battlefield. You ain't gonna find many upstanding people with good morals around here, so you're totally barking up the wrong tree.
Try the adventurers over yonder instead. I bet if ya preached at them enough, some would flock to your so-called just cause. Who knows? Maybe you'd even get a few stupid enough to die for you for free.
Good luck either way, pal. Now shoo~ if you wanna hire us Busters, don't come without a pouch of gold or three." - Brendan Pead, Captain of Brendan's Busters, when approached by a revolutionary looking for support.
"Lances! To me!" Reinhardt yelled over the bustle of the ongoing battle. His loud voice caught the attention his troops, and he quickly signaled them to advance, as he pointed to a direction with his weapon.
Two squads of the enemy light cavalry had attempted to squeeze through a gap in the dwarven infantry formation, and were already halfway through. They probably planned to then wheel around to strike the dwarves from the rear, but Reinhardt spotted them first.
To be fair, it was not exactly hard to notice cavalrymen in the midst of a dwarven army, given the height difference.
The Free Lances were not far from where the cavalry would have emerged when they broke through the formation, so it was a chance for them to contribute to the battle, since all the other units were occupied and the Crown Prince's chariots were too far away to react fast enough.
With a couple hand gestures, he gave orders to his troops. They quickly assumed a wedge formation, with half of Mischka's unit and other elites forming the point, and others on the right flank.
His timing was on point, and they slammed into the right flank of the enemy cavalry shortly after they broke through the dwarven formation. Shieldbearer had led their charge, and those men and women - led by Yuri and Niko - bashed their massive shields against the sides of the horses before them, hard.
Normally an infantry unit charging a cavalry unit would have been the stuff of folly. The equation changed drastically, however, when a good dozen of the "infantry" in question were positively massive, bulky specimens of their respective race strong enough to lift a horse and its rider above their heads.
When the shields slammed violently against the side of the horses, bones were pulverized and organs were ruptured before the hapless steeds were thrown sideways by the impact. Many of the riders screamed as well, their leg haplessly sandwiched between a merciless slab of metal and their mounts and crushed in between.
Yuri and Niko swiftly led their shieldbearers to do an about face to their left, and formed a shield wall to prevent the rest of the cavalry still within the dwarven formation from escaping it. Out of the sixty or so that already escaped the formation, seven were crippled by the shieldbearer's charge.
Then the elites of the Free Lances charged from the position vacated by their shieldbearers, Reinhardt leading the charge personally. Some of the cavalrymen reined their steeds to face the oncoming threat, while the twenty or so at the front ran ahead, turned, and tried to hit the Lances on the right flank.
That was where the rest of the unit's shieldbearers awaited them with a wall of shields and spears however. If that was not bad enough, just as their commander tried to egg them on to charge, an oversized arrow pierced right through his forehead and killed him on the spot.
Salicia had gotten two of the sturdier members of the company to briefly throw her into the air and had sniped the commander on her way down. She landed safely as the same two men caught her as she fell.
Meanwhile, Reinhardt's team had engaged the rest of the cavalry. Some of them still reeled as they had their fellows thrown at them. These few never got a chance to fight back as they were slaughtered where they fell.
Others who were unaffected by the charge fought back. The distance was too close for them to build much momentum, so they ended up embroiled in a melee, which quickly went against their favor.
Reinhardt took on one of the few men who wore good, light chainmail instead of just leathers or gambesons - he assumed them to be a commander of sorts - and deftly parried the man's spear to the side with his polemace.
As the man was clearly skilled and used to fighting on horseback, with no openings even then, Reinhardt struck a different target instead. The head of his polemace struck the man's horse right on the knee of its right foreleg, snapping the limb backwards.
The horse whinnied in pain as it threw its rider down, and Reinhardt had not missed the opening. The shaft of his polemace - good, solid steel at that - caught the falling man across the chest hard and laid him down to the ground. Before he could react more than coughing in surprise, Reinhardt had whirled his polemace a half circle and bashed his head into a bloody mess with it.
A quick glance around showed him that the situation was under control. Mischka straight up cleaved a man and his horse into halves with her oversized cleaver of a blade. Grünhilde was near the therian matriarch, and had cleaved both forelegs off a horse with one axe, as she removed the head of the falling rider with the other.
Elfriede and Ylisera to his other side had leapt atop the horses as they passed, and quickly dispatched of the riders before they could react, then reined in the animals and turned them around. The cavalry detachment that tried their right wing fell under the spears of the shieldwall, aided by Salicia's arrows.
Meanwhile, the dwarven formation used the time they bought to close the gap, as they sandwiched the majority of the stuck cavalrymen between them and cut them down to the last man.
[Author] If you enjoy this story, please consider leaving a rating or review to help it gain more exposure, thank you! Or help support the author by leaving a tip!
Read ahead on my Patreon! For 5$ a month patrons will gain early access of up to 10 chapters ahead, or for 10$ a month, gain early access of up to 25 chapters ahead!
Or you can subscribe to all my stories and get a 10% discount on the price!
For every 15 cumulative new patrons in the Free Mage/Free Archmage/Magus/Archmagus tier I get in a month, from the next month onwards the respective patreon tiers will receive +5/+10 chapters permanently, until we reach my usual 25/55 chapters ahead!
Join the Discord for silly stuff and chat with us![/author]
