Open Battle

"Take everything you can! Drive them out of the woods!"

Anya and I charged over the hill and towards the woods, towards the plumes of smoke that now emanated from the camp. I looked over at Anya. Red and white armor, with a blue and bronze colored coat over it. 

"I assume the mercs in the same colors as yours are on our side."

"Pretty much!" Anya twirled her glaive around.

Then we kill the ones in yellow and green armor. With the red and gold coats over them.

We both sprang forth, simultaneously pouncing on a foe as we skewered him from two directions. Blood spurted from the wound, and he fell over, dead.

"I'll take left side and try and relieve those in the center over there!" Anya said, pointing to a small cabin a bit lower down that was being circled by a few horseriders. "You, go join the main force!" She then pointed to a cluster of some sixty mercenaries that had managed to form somewhat of a shield wall, and was rapidly consolidating more members.

"Got it!" 

Some 20 meters, I could sprint that. Unfortunately, Anya and I had caught the attention of the enemy.

I hopped over the dead body of the man I had just taken down, and began to sprint for the safety of the mercenary defensive square. An arrow whizzed by my face, inches from striking me, and a second one almost struck my chest, but somehow, I managed to get to the shield wall. A burly man with a shield and spear pulled me into the second ranks behind him, and I stood alongside everyone, spears, halberds, axes, and billhooks pointing outwards in a giant defensive formation.

"You a friend of Anya, laddie?" One of the mercenaries, an older but no less tough looking man asked me. "You seemed to be coming along with her!" Arrows peppered the formation once more, and a few soldiers cried out in anguish as the arrows found their mark.

"I guess you could say so!" An arrow bounced off of my helmet, almost sending me tumbling backwards. That was close.

"You look smart enough to hold a shield wall! Welcome to the company!"

I scanned the enemy, trying to get a better look. I noticed that there were quite a few colors underneath the red and gold coats of the enemy. The infantry soldiers - presumably an enemy mercenary company - seemed to be sporting a green and yellow, but the archers and the cavalry had a different scheme underneath their coats. Combined with their nicer equipment...

"The ones in green and yellow are an enemy mercenary company, I think we should go for the regulars, the archers and the cavalry!"

"A sharp one, but lacking in wisdom! What good's that going to do?"

"We'll decapitate command and flank them, the mercs will flee when-"

"Ah, only if life were that simple!"

"Hold fast!" A bearded man with a large poleaxe, presumably the commander, yelled. "Hold fast!"

"Hang on!" I yelled out at the bearded officer, who looked out confused. "Anya's headed for the cabin over there, we have to go help her!"

And as a bonus, that would let the shield wall directly face the cavalry. At this rate, we'll just get whittled down!

"Anya? That little shit, she never listens to me. Nothing we can do!" The bearded officer said. "We can't do anything about that!"

I'm no infantry officer, but even I know that's bullshit.

"I'm not leaving her. We have to move the square!" I gestured down the hill, to which a few soldiers groaned, with a few sarcastic remarks and swears mixed in.

"God damn, Anya sure knows how to pick them!" The old mercenary said. "You might be even more suicidal than her, with you-hey!"

I rapidly grabbed a shield off of a corpse, and broke formation, charging for the cabin.

Crud, where's Anya? I lost sight of her after we split. I just hope she's okay.

"Watch out for the cavalry, kid!" The bearded officer yelled out at me as I sprinted down the hill, blocking arrow fire with my shield.

Polearms (for example, billhooks), are designed to repel cavalry, as well as being good anti-infantry weapons. I may not be making full use of my two handed weapon, but I know even using it as a regular spear is a good way to repel cavalry. Those horses don't look like heavy cavalry, so they wouldn't possibly dare charge at me-

A couple cavalrymen turned around and looked at me, before raising their lances up.

Wait, what? Oh, it's because I'm out of formation. A rookie mistake. I've always considered the prospect of leading a cavalry charge to be quite an exhilarating affair, but I've never quite envisioned I'd get to see this from the other side. T'was a good life, my time has come.

Yeah, no it fucking hasn't.

I dropped my shield and quickly broke for a tree, as the first horseman missed my head by inches. Trees, a cavalryman's nightmare. The only thing worse than trees were shield wall pike formations.

A second horseman thundered towards me, his sword raised to strike. I dodged the blow as his sword embedded itself into the tree, and took the opportunity to hook onto his neck, bringing him down to the ground. He fell from his horse with a sickening crunch, and a scream of anguish. Not missing a beat, I hopped onto the horse rather than finishing the man off, who seemed to be having a bit of a broken bone issue regardless. For a moment, the frightened horse bucked in terror as I grabbed the reins, but my academy training lets me deal with this situation. On the upside, the man who was trying to get up took a hoof to the gut.

I redirected the horse towards the stunned first rider, using my billhook as an impromptu lance. Somehow, I managed to catch him in the throat, and he fell from his horse in a bloody mess.

Haha, you fucking rookie!

"Jason!" A female voice yelled out from the cabin, and I looked over to see Anya, who was holding the line with a few others. The group, a sprinkle of what seemed to be soldiers and civilians alike, stood behind a barricade of boxes, holding polearms or even improvised weapons out to repel the horsemen.

"Get on, I've gotten an idea!" I yelled out to Anya as I rode straight for the barricade, ignoring the other horsemen. Despite the danger, Anya climbed onto the boxes that had been preventing the horsemen from charging the cabin down, and jumped towards me, acrobatically avoiding a sword swing from an enemy horseman. I turned my horse at the last moment, and she leapt onto the horse.

"Go, go!"

"Uh, hold out here everyone, we'll be back soon!"

We took off from the cabin, and I now charged over a crested ridge, where a line of archers stood, firing their bows at the shield wall. Using the billhook as a lance yet again, I charged at the now-scattering archers. Anya too, stuck out her glaive, hoping to catch a few of our foes.

"We got them on the run!" Anya shouted. "We got them we got them!"

I could hear a loud horn blare from the highest point of the hill where the infantry block was. Dozens of men rumbled down the hill, shields still interlocked, as they made way for the cabin.

Wow, I actually did something!

"Watch out!" Anya yelled out, while I had been distracted by the infantry charge.

A lone archer swung an axe at the horse, nearly decapitating it. I swung the horse back around, but Anya was faster. She leapt from the back of the horse and embedded her glaive into his chest.

"You go do what you do best!" Anya shouted, as she tossed me the fallen archer's sword and bow. "I'll be over here, so go!"

That's a big bow, I can't shoot this from horseback.

I took off, now charging the fleeing archers. As I did, I noticed that the horsemen were abandoning the cabin siege as the shield wall grew close, and rushing straight for me. I turned my horse again. There was no sign of the green and yellow infantrymen anymore, presumably having taken off. The best course of action here, would be to try and continue to chase down the enemy infantry archers...if not for the threat of being surrounded by the enemy cavalry.

And Anya was still left out in the open.

I charged at the enemy horses, my sword held high. Enemy light melee cavalry, lightly armored. Never understood the point of light melee cavalry, but that was good for me. There was one more heavily armored knight at the rear I was worried about, but I would get there when I got there.

The first horseman swung at my head, and I ducked, the blade passing right over my head. I took my sword and swung at the stunned second horseman, who presumably figured the first man would do the trick. He fell from his horse, dead. A third horseman was immediately on me, and I used my longer blade to stab him, before he could get a swing at me.

"Retreat, retreat!" The horsemen yelled. I grinned with pride as I looped sideways of the charge, and looked over at the four remaining horsemen, when the heavily armored knight spoke up.

"Jason?" 

I know that voice. A pair of eyes flashed behind the heavy greathelm that obscured the man's face.

"M-Marco."

The older brother of Viola, the last person who saw me before I was declared a criminal. He graduated a year before me. Was...was he present, that day?

"You shouldn't be here."

"...I know."

"Sir, sir!" One of the horse riders looked at Marco, terror in his eyes. "We have to escape now sir, the mercs aren't long behind us." He glanced at me. "Our own mercenaries have fled. We have to go."

Marco did not say anything, but the two men turned on their horses, and fled.

And then, the battlefield was silent.

Said silence was broken after what seemed like an eternity, by the cheers of Anya's mercenary company. Anya ran up to me, a look of awe on her face as she raised her glaive up into the air.

"We did it, partner! We did it!" As I lowered myself from the horse, she leapt into my arms, her tail wagging as she did. "We're alive!"

"Y-yeah." 

The other members of the company were now approaching us, but they never arrived. My eyelids grew droopy, and a sudden blast of pain hit my body as I realized, just how exhausted I was.

"Jason?"

As my body hit the ground, I just realized how much it hurt. My head hurt. My body hurt. And most of all-