“People always celebrated the generals, the commanders, as well as the strategists when battles were won. Far too many forgot about the humble footsoldiers, without whose spilled blood and sweat such victories would have proven improbable.” - Liang Si-Zhu, Famed Tactician of the Huan Confederacy, circa 92 VA.

On the Company’s left flank, Ylisera led the other half of Elfriede’s crew as they did their best to ward off the Warforged and their attempt to halt the mercenaries’ advance deeper into their formation. Nicole and her group did their best to aid them in that endeavor, the scouts used to hit-and-fade attacks and brief but violent ambushes, which made them suitable for that task.

Despite their best efforts however, the left flank faced more trouble than the right. While Nicole’s people were experienced in similar tactics, they were not a unified group of former assassins like Fatimah and her Nightstalkers. They could not kill off their skilled opponents as quickly and effortlessly as their compatriots on the opposite flank had.

Fortunately they had other help as well on their side of the battlefield.

Nicole struggled with one of the Warforged blademasters, who parried her Rhomphaia with his own glaive-like polearm and steadily pushed her back. The young woman had been in the lead of her own unit in the Company for a decade now, and had matured from the young girl who barely knew what she was doing back at Theodinaz, but her opponent had likely trained with his weapon longer than she had even been alive.

Despite the disadvantages in skill and experience, Nicole still held her own against the older Blademaster, and kept him occupied. She was stalling for time, because she knew that she was not fighting alone against the enemy. She had the rest of her unit – people who she had gone through thick and thin with – behind her back.

Certainly enough, before too long another of her scouts had finished off another of the Warforged that had followed behind the Blademaster and came to her aid. A spear thrust straight towards the side of the old Blademaster she was entangled with, drawing the Blademaster’s attention for a brief moment as he parried the attack and sent it swerving off to a harmless direction.

It was an opportunity Nicole had not wasted, as she swung her curved Rhomphaia with both hands in a vicious upwards swing aimed towards the relatively unarmored spot between her opponent’s legs.

The old Blademaster reacted fast enough to block her strike, even as the blade of her weapon cut nearly halfway through the wooden shaft of the man’s glaive. As a result, the weapons were stuck together for a brief moment, right when the scout that gave Nicole a hand earlier returned with another thrust from his spear.

Even then the old Blademaster still managed to divert the spear enough that it only grazed the side of his waist, just below the armor, rather than pierce into something vital. It proved to be a moment of distraction he could ill afford as Nicole’s blade came for his wrist before he could react much. The old man still managed to get his wrist out of danger and took the blow on the bracer that covered his forearm, but the blow still hit hard enough to crack bone regardless.

He failed to deflect a third stab which sunk into the side of his thigh, and as he fell to one knee, the point of Nicole’s blade struck him directly on his left eye as she thrust the blade forward like a short spear. Nicole gave the blade a quick twist to both sides before she placed her foot against the man’s chest for support and yanked the bloody blade out.

“Thanks for the save, Wes,” said Nicole to the scout that helped her take down the old Blademaster.

“Just doing my job, boss. Should we give Miss Sera a hand?” he returned as they both rushed back towards the mercenary formation, having been pulled out of position by the battle.

Slightly ahead of them, Ylisera and her group tackled another attempted assault by the Warforged. They clearly fared better than Nicole’s group, however, despite being outnumbered by their opponents. One of the reasons why was that the group under Ylisera were after all part of Elfriede’s group. The group that was regularly tasked with the riskiest missions yet returned mostly intact all the time. They were all veterans of many life and death battles.

Another reason was Ylisera herself. The elven former prostitute moved with such grace that she looked as if she was dancing on the battlefield. The saber she held in her right hand looked far too fragile and slender to be an actual weapon, yet it parted flesh and clothes as if there was nothing in its way. It was the same saber the noble from Lovia-Hosberg had used five years ago, which Elfriede then gave to Ylisera to use. The elven woman had put the mithril saber to good use in the years since.

The last reason was the large arrow as thick as one of Nicole’s fingers that protruded from the eye of the blademaster that had led that assault. Salicia had been closer to the left side of the formation, and she kept an eye on situations that she thought needed some help. When she had seen the assault headed Ylisera’s way while Nicole’s people were still occupied, the one-eyed archer sent an arrow to help without any hesitation.

Needless to say, the early death of the Blademaster leading them took the wind out of the sails of the Warforged’s attempted assault, which left Ylisera and her people to clean the rest of them up before they could bother the rest of the advancing mercenaries. Within minutes none of the Warforged who made the attempted assault were left. Most had fought to their deaths, while one that tried to turn back and run only found Kari’s blade in the back of his neck as a reward.

Throughout that time, the Free Lances kept moving forward as they cut through the Warforged formation, until they went through the lines that covered the flank, and found themselves next to the rear of the formation. They were in a position to pincer the Warforged fighting against the First and Second Legions from the rear, and Reinhardt immediately gave the command to do just that.