50 years before.

XXX

The magnificent Sun in its highest point in the sky. Not a single cloud in sight.

Lu Wei laughed ominously from his elevated position on a small hill as he waited for the armies to get into range and the battle to start. Everything is ready and accounted for. He wouldn't mind getting a little fighting for himself at all, even though it would mean that his soldiers were in a precarious situation. Something ridiculous, taking to account the disparity in the numerical deployment. Just as his aides told him, the enemy brought a very low quantity of men.

However, he already expected that. The city from where his enemies hail is small thus barely over a thousand men march today to meet his army in combat.

Breaking into a full-blown laugh Lu Wei remembers the events that triggered this situation right now. Almost not believing that he is invading the cause of dread to many and admiration to some at this moment. Even his when he was young. It's not his fault, though, it's theirs.

Mastan is a powerful nation, who Lu Wei rules. Mastan is not that prosperous, surviving for hundreds of years by warring against its neighbors. It shares borders with the Eternal Empire, a small dessert, and the conglomerate of small kingdoms of the plains. Facing economic problems and the petitions of some influential nobles, the country sought to improve its relations with its neighbors. It didn't go well. Years of enmity can be forgotten so easily.

It sounded so easy, though. To agree on trade routes and taxes, but it wasn't. Lu Wei put his eyes on the auto-isolated city of Erendal. Apart from rumors from lost travelers that got there by luck, no one knows anything about it. Except that it was known that the Empire traded with them. If they trade with the Empire then why not with Mastan? The realm is at the same distance from Erendal that the Empire. It wouldn't change much the realm's economy. It's a baby step, but it was a good first step as any.

Historical facts tell about Erendal being nothing more than a village founded by a handful of rogue mages running away from the Empire a long time ago. The only path to the city has always been a pass among the mountains positioned in the same desert that shares borders with both the Empire and Mastan. Of course, you can hike the mountains themselves or go through the Wilderness at their back but that is just suicide.

Without much thought, he sent messengers to the Pass but just as he expected their passage was negated. They don't leave anyone to visit their city, they barely tolerate lost wanderers or skilled warriors that managed to cross the mountains or the woods. His men left a message at the pass for the guards to tell to their superiors and soon enough a representative of Erendal and his escorts arrived at Mastan a few days later.

The representative didn't wear a typical politic or merchant fancy clothes even though he had the face of one. Arriving in full black leather armor and a black cloak with heavily armored guards shadowing his every step. The representative walked with the grace of a Martial Warrior as every one of his guards did. Without following the courtesy rules he introduced himself as Ferio, with no family name. Lu Wei was enraged, apart from the lack of manners and the nod that the representative gave instead of a bow they sent a commoner to meet with Him.

Lu Wei let those offenses pass and showed a kind attitude as his throne room is full of ears expecting him to do something shameful and drop his popularity with his people. Damned politics.

The negotiations with the representative went as bad as they could go. His demands were outrageous. A plain robbery and formation of a monopoly in the hands of these savages that played the village and sent a commoner to play the ambassador. Lu Wei controlled his temper, offered him to renegotiate and for his merchants to make the man enter on reason. He refused. His terms or nothing. The bastard! So arrogant!

He warned the representative, before so many indiscretions he would make them pay dearly. He sneered, turned around, and left as he replied: 'Then do it'. Lu Wei didn't want to make a scene like killing the representative; so he just told them to wait for him, because he would come.

Lu Wei is not a man who hesitates. He is not a man to cross lightly. He gathered most of his army, still leaving behind a formidable force just for if and marched to raze the savage city to the ground without delay, better not give them time to prepare for his arrival.

When his army stood ready to take the fortifications in the Pass he was pleased when these were taken with few causalities. The few enemies protecting the walls running away in horses from fortification on fortifications after shooting a couple of magic projectiles.

Admittedly, if the rumors were right and everyone in the city of mages were magicians then fighting them while they stood in a heavily defended position was unwise but after having taken the last of the fortress along the pass he couldn’t keep a wicked smile from blossoming in his lips. Now that the enemy retreated so far back then they only had three scenarios to fight on, in the plains, in their military camp, or in the city itself and Lu Wei doubted that they would dare to fight him in the streets, risking so much their non-combatants. Even those savages couldn't be so heartless, right?

He left behind a garrison in the fortifications, to cover his retreat should the necessity arise.

And he stood here now, in this small hill to overview the battle. At his left, his horse is resting and a little farther is his own son. Twelve years old and with a great talent in spiritual energy. He is here to witness the fall of the city of legends. Lu Wei wanted to siege the city and see for himself if that mythical shield surrounding it existed but when his scouts reported that the enemy was readying themselves to fight in the open field he marched without more than a pause to rest, leaving his artillery a couple of hours behind.

Even so, the shield probably does not exist if it does then why not the Erendalians just hide behind it and shot magic at him? It probably was just exaggerations of traumatized adventurers who traveled the wilderness. People that get out of there don't come back completely sane.

His advisors were confident that the enemy would meet him in the open after they yielded the Pass in the mountains, of course, that if they didn’t outright surrender after witnessing his military prowess.

"It seems that it's true, his Majesty," the voice of one of his advisors, the unharmed one, brought Lu Wei out of his thoughts. "Just over a thousand men, all with the same equipment and judging by the little amount of metal in them probably each is a mage."

Indeed. Lu Wei didn't reply to his subordinate anymore as he engrossed himself studying his enemies. With just a little bit of spiritual energy, Lu Wei is capable of looking at the army a thousand meters away as if they stood a mere ten meters from him. The enemy mages march unhindered to meet his army. Their ranks organized in a scattered formation divided into two units of 500 men, all on foot, one fifty meters behind the other. Lu Wei's army marches with the same formation, intending to reduce the damage made by magic projectiles.

If they are all mages then it would be tricky fighting against all of them, mages are more difficult to train than martial warriors. The battle will probably be a long-range battle between his mages and the enemies as his troops rush to charge on melee.

All in black leathers with metallic plates in vital spots. They wear black cloaks to cover their equipment but even so, Lu Wei could single it out. Each carrying two knives, a bag pack, and a main weapon like a sword or spear that doesn't seem to be standard. The differences between normal soldiers and officers difficult to see, they just have some lines of different colors in their cloaks.

But something about their equipment is bugging Lu Wei, something is off place. And then he realizes it. "They don't have staves," The Ruler of Mastan voices his observation. It took him long enough, he himself bought the staves to arm his mages, all of them of decent quality that assists in casting and the power of the spells.

"Not even a wand, unless they are hiding them in their sleeves." With a straight back and a firm voice, his other advisor, Han Bei, replied. His Warhammer's head resting on the floor and his hands in the top of the shaft, looking every bit like a tiger ready to strike. Itching for the battle to start. "The purpose of such action evades me though, we already know they are mages and their actions say just as much as if a thousand of such could stand against fourteen times as many soldiers."

"The rumors tell that each one of them is capable of chant-less casting, his Majesty," Long Tan says. "Maybe their technique impedes them from using a medium in their casting, after all, there are techniques documented where the use of a medium is strictly necessary."

"Both are good points, it can also be that they just simply don't have any. After all, if I were the Empire I wouldn't strengthen these mages by selling them weapons. They are the Empire's enemy." His son chimes in on the conversation, intelligent beyond his years, Lu Wei's pride. He also found himself agreeing with his son's statement, trading weapons with a potential enemy is never a good idea. Lu Wei wonders then, although true why does the Empire considers the savage town so? What is their hidden history?

It doesn't matter, the battle is about to begin. He cleared his mind from these thoughts.

He never liked to give speeches to his soldiers that he left to the General's duty. Lu Wei's left grip on his spear tightens and he finds himself smiling again, his patience spent. The enemy wears open-faced helmets and he can see their uncertainty all over their faces, there is no fear though and some are even eager to fight. Their way of fighting, throwing spells around is honor-less, not true combat in Lu Wei's eyes.

Plans never go as planned. The enemy suddenly stopped, two hundred meters away from his archers and mages range, and started to chant in the ancient language. So they have that large of a range, it is unfavorable but not unexpected. Just like he would have done, his General gave the signal of full charge, indicating all his army to charge or get into position. A single horn was heard and his soldiers exploded into motion.

The best strategy against mages is to attack them with everything without giving them time to zap away his numbers. Of course, the charge is a controlled one, every unit knowing its role beforehand. His cavalry, five hundred in each flank started moving in a wide arc towards the enemy. 3000 infantrymen started charging head one in three waves of a thousand men while the rest followed at a light pace from behind.

His archers, two units of five hundred each, hidden behind the wings of cavalry quickly sought to get into range while his own mages charged just behind the first wave of infantry. A thousand mages, they will engage in magical combat as soon as they get into range and stall for time for the infantry or the knights to reach the enemy lines. Lu Wei doesn't really expect them to win the magical exchange as they don't have much training in the army but his mages will not fall easily either.

Only the first five hundred enemy mages started to chant while the others stood quietly behind. A second after his forces started moving the mages finished their chant and hundreds of spells invaded the sky. Most of those were fireballs making their way through the air, those are fast but not enough as to not be able to avoid them. A weak starting movement.

Lu Wei smiled at his good fortune. His enemies don't live up to their fame after all. The world with know after this battle who conquered the famous and secretive city of mages, his name will be spoken in every corner of the world and stories, no, legends of this conquest will be told again and again.

Lu Wei's joy was short-lived, though. When the fireballs were starting to descend from the sky just about to fall upon his mages they sped up. In an instant they were ten times faster, falling in less than a second and catching his mages off-guard.

The explosions were deafening. The flames beyond vicious, spreading out dozens of meters with a hell-like heat and burning everything within reach. The other spells, cast from those mages that don't have a fire affinity, were just as vicious. Earth bombs exploding upon impact and sending shards flying everywhere, whirlwinds shooting blades of wind randomly in all directions. Those attacks aimed not to kill but to gravely injure and cripple his mages. Without the concentration necessary to cast even if they aren't dead they are just as useless.

And it was effective, less than a hundred came out unscathed. Most of his battalion out of combat in the first exchange. Cold sweat run down Lu Wei's back for a moment before a burning rage invaded him. He gathered these mages from all the nation just for this moment. Damned savages, he will enslave them all and put them to good use to redeem their sins.

A heartbeat after those attacks touched the ground the battlefield between them turned to a swamp, all in the transformation in the span of a second, distracting Lu Wei of his anger. His infantry's charge was completely stopped for a moment but quickly continued their advance, albeit slowly after lightening themselves with their spiritual energy to not get trapped in the mud.

Shocked by such a feat of magic Lu Wei wondered how they accomplished something like this, there is a spell to turn the ground to mud but on this grand scale? The enemy mages of the unit in the back didn't even chant, they just raised their hands and it happened.

"Chant-less casting, terrifying that all of them can use it and not only their most elite mages." One of his advisors shared his thoughts but Lu Wei didn't hear him as he was still engrossed in grasping all the battle in his understanding.

The cavalry moved unhindered by the mud thanks to their initial rounding approach in a wide arc towards the enemy. The cavalry's left-wing turned to charge the enemy flank as the other wing kept going, to distract the enemy and charge from behind.

At the same time, his archers in both flanks already in position, shot their first volley of arrows at the mages without delay just as the mages of the first half retaliated too, without chant, attacking the archers in both units just as the first arrows left their bows.

The arrows did nothing much

It was infuriating how the arrows were evaded so easily. Their causalities after exchanging shots with well-trained archers were of about a dozen, nimbly avoiding the projectiles or blocking them in a heartbeat with a spell while still retaliating to finish off the archers, who somehow fared better than his mages had but not by much. The enemy rate of fire outrageously high and their power doesn't seem to decline at all.

Mages capable of casting without chant can certainly reach this casting speed but the trade-off in power and speed is gigantic. Their attacks should struggle to take down his soldiers but instead, they fall like chickens to the butcher.

Infuriating but Lu Wei will make them pay.