《The Chains of Time》A Quest of the Past - Chapter 0: Blood on Hvaden Field.
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The loud noise of metal clanging sounded repeatedly in the silent night.
An alarm.
Rushing out from over two hundred tents were soldiers of the Firefly's 5th Infantry Battalion, wounded and tired soldiers after a long day. They lighted up the torchs in confusion, hurried to put their armor on, trying to figure out what was happening.
Loud voices calling out for each other, asking for command then shouting in desperation as they saw the line of red dots on top of the hill to the east, where the full moon shined its light upon the massive army and their banners.
4th Battalion of the Red Moon Cavalry.
3rd Regiment of the Royal Army.
7th Company of the Guinso Knight.
Big names, enough to scare off more than half of the soldiers of the Firefly's 5th Infantry Battalion.
"Form a line, ready your bows! What are you standing there for, form the line!" There was shouting from one of the commanding officers, hoping to get his troops together.
"It's no use, even the Guinso Knight are here, we are done for!" Responding to him were the sound of desperation of soldiers who were slowly losing their will.
Hope, command, ideal, those things don't mean much when you are facing a massive gap in power. Only a few of the soldiers picked up their weapons and formed a pathetic line of spears in front, even then their hands were shaking, their faces sweating in fear, their lips started saying meaningless prayers to all the gods and goddesses they could think of. But their actions seemed to have some effects on their comrades, slowly there were more taking up arms, starting to join the lines, preparing their bows, raising their banners.
Still, despite all those efforts, the red banner of the Firefly’s army and all those gathered around it seemed nothing more than a little nuisance to their enemy, who calmly stood on top of the hill, waiting for order from their commander.
Regulus lowered his binocular, the proud General of the 3rd Regiment of the Royal Army turned to his officer:
"Tell Colonel Raydric and his cavalry to ready the charge, as of Colonel Delphin, tell him to start moving to cut off the enemy’s retreat route to the forest."
After giving the orders to the officer, Regulus took a close look at his Regiment, men from different species throughout the Beastman Kingdom of Palomar, there are big men from the Bear tribe in their heavy armor, slimmer but more argile figures from the Jaguar tribe, the blood thirsty people from the Hyenna tribe, ... all of them gathered within this banner of the Royal Army, united for one purpose, to fight for their king and crush whoever opposes His Majesty's rule in Palomar.
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Regulus raised the binocular again, blessed with the superior night vision of the Tiger tribe, he could easily see that the rebels had started to form something that resembled a defense formation. A futile effort. He thought. Without waiting any longer, Regulus told the the officer next to him to signal the charge.
Then the drums started playing, the sharp howls echoing through the field and the ground were shaken from the charge of the wolf cavalries of the Red Moon, each raised their blade and howled as they rushed to battle.
Followed after that were volleys of arrows raining down on the formation of the Firefly rebels from the well-disciplined range unit of the 3rd Regiment. Soldiers stepped down, knocked their arrows, stepped up and fired following a perfect flow as if taken straight from the textbook, and slowly the screaming started to be heard from within the rebel’s formation. There were arrows shooting back from the rebel's camp as well, but the difference was like day and night, half of those few arrows didn't even land on anyone, the other half managed to take down a few men from the Red Moon's 4th battalion. But that was no more than a tickle to the wolf cavalries, and before the Firefly soldiers noticed, the rain of arrows had stopped and the wave of wolves and wolfmans came crashing down on them with the force of an avalanche, howling. The pathetic spear formation was torn down by the claws and fangs of the angry grey wolves, then their riders started waving the sharp blades around, striking down anyone who seemed to propose a threat. The sound of screaming, roaring, howling, of metal clashing to each other, of meat being torn apart together with the terrific sight of wolf's fangs, of their rider’s deadly blades, of blood and fire stroke a big blow to the rebel's spirit.
The danger of the Red Moon Cavalry not only comes from the warmongering riders of the Wolf tribe but also from their rides. The grey wolves as big as the size of a horse, as ferocious and deadly as a soldier. Even after the momentum of the charge was lost, they can still easily move around, slaying men after men of the Firefly army. It took at least four to five men to put down one of the cavalry, and that was if they still survive after the charge. Soon after the cavalry of the Red Moon charged in, most of the soldier from the Firefly army had already begun to fall back, and the situation just went from bad to worse as they started facing the one of the deadliest armies in the world of Damruel in close combat. At first they tried to retreat in formation, but after seeing their comrades got buried by the grey wolf's claws, hearing their painful screams, witnessing the blood and gore of being dismembered by the ferocious wolves, they straight out ran away in panic, ignoring everything else but their own lives. Some officers were still trying to give orders, but that didn't mean nothing now, especially after their voices were cut off by the angry howls of the grey wolves as well as their riders.
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Even before the infantry of the 3rd Regiment reached their camp, all of the soldiers from the Firefly rebels had already started fleeing from the battlefield, from the horrendous pile of carnage that they used to call Hvaden Field. But waiting for them in the forest behind was the 7th Company of the Guinso Knight, the best of the best, tasked with guarding the Royal Palace, selected and knighted by the King himself, the strongest combat force of Palomar Kingdom. Compared to seven hundred cavalries of the Red Moon's 4th Battalion and three thousand soldiers of the Royal Army's 3rd Regiment, two hundred members of the Guinso's 7th Company seemed much smaller in size. Even the rebel’s army had more people than them. But there they stood in front of the forest calmly without making any noise, weapons drawn, ready to destroy what was left of the rebel’s army.
"Charge!" While the soldiers of the Firefly army were panicking with their retreat route being cut off, the Guinso Knight had already sounded the charge, together with that was the proud roar from one of the Lion tribe which could be heard miles away, Colonel Delphin himself was leading the charge.
As the knights of Guinso charged in like a hurricane, there was nothing the soldiers of the Firefly's 5th Battalion could do but to run for their lives, but even that was a luxury as the Guinso Knights, the Red Moon cavalries and the Royal Army infantry came crashing on them from all side, the battle had turned into a massacre.
Seeing all of this through the binoculars, the assistant officer from the Dog tribe shouted in joy:
"General Regulus, we have won, the rebels have been crushed."
Opposite to the joy of his underling, Regulus didn't seem very happy.
"One Regiment of the Royal Army and one battalion of the Red Moon cavalry, adding to that is a company of the Guinso Knight against one thousand injured rebels, this is no victory to be proud of. We have been tricked, this is merely just a diversion, the Firefly main body army must be somewhere else."
"But sir, the Intelligence Agency said that ..."
"They have been deceived, what a bunch of useless bastards, can't even manage to track down the movement of a ragtag rebel’s army." Regulus cut off his officer's words in anger.
As he started lowering the binocular, Regulus caught some interesting movements from the rebel’s army. He immediately started zooming in at the forest side of the battle, where the rebel’s army was trying to flee to. Among the screaming rebels being butchered there was a small group still trying to break through the formation of the Guinso Knight. With no more than twenty men, they still managed to put up the good fight against the best knights of the King and slowly advanced to the forest. But before they could go far, Delphin noticed their existence and ordered his men to surround them layer by layer. Outnumbered and less equipped, it was only a matter of time before they were subdued.
"Those must be member of the Black Fang." Regulus talked to himself then to his officer, "Tell Colonel Delphin I want to take some as prisoners, quick!"
But before his officer could even move, the member of the Black Fang made their last effort to break through the Guinso Knight's circle. All of them were stopped except for one hooded figure, as soon as they came clashing to the Guinso knights his speed suddenly increased tremendously. Not giving anyone the time to react, he rushed to the forest swiftly as the wind, leaving behind the Guinso Knights still dealing with the remaining Black Fang's members.
"Ophelia's Blessing!" Regulus shouted out loud, then he grabbed the officer by his collar:
"Tell Delphin I want that guy alive, he must be someone high up in the Black Fang!" His voice almost sounded like a roar.
But despite that outburst, the general knew without preparation, it is near impossible to stop someone who has the blessing of the Wind Spirit itself.
"Damn useless Intelligence Agency!" Regulus threw his binoculars angrily on the ground as the hooded figure disappeared into the dark forest.
On the battlefield, the King's army had already begun cleaning up, tending to the wounded, killing anyone who was not completely dead yet and capturing the last few survivors who surrendered. What awaited them was the horror that is the King's prison. And when the Inquisitors and their Enforcers started asking questions, those who survived would wish that they had died on the Hvaden Field that night.
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