“Arrogance and overestimation of one’s own capabilities is the leading cause of death amongst nobles who went to the battlefield.” - General Publius Cornelius of Caeropa, circa 3 FP.

“What is it now?” asked Earl LeCroix when one of his senior knights, Sir Carns, rode back down the formation to report to him. The Earl considered the old knight a good warrior, but one who was perhaps a bit too cautious for his liking, as he often suggested taking unnecessary precautions in the past. Still, he was one of the best commanders in the Earl’s employ, so it was a flaw the Earl chose to tolerate.

“Reporting, my liege,” said the old knight – the man was old enough that his brown hair had partially turned gray, visible on his mustache and beard despite the helmet he wore – as he gave a salute and rode alongside the Earl’s horse. “There has been another harassment attack to our flank, seven dead, fifteen injured. The attackers fled before we could react yet again.”

“They are getting annoying,” noted the Earl. His army’s progress had been disturbed by random harassment attacks by assailants who kept fleeing after throwing a barrage of javelins or shooting off their crossbows since that morning. They were only a day away from Aldenstadt, and the Earl did not want to see any delays with conquering the city. “Any suggestions? We must not delay in assaulting the city, lest the upstart peasants bring in reinforcements from Levain itself.”

“If my liege would permit it, I would like to send out two small detachments to chase down and eradicate these harassers when they come next,” replied the old knight. “The detachments in question might be late in joining our assault, depending on how far away these nuisances had hidden themselves, but it should be an acceptable compromise over the continued harassment we have been receiving so far.”

“Make it so, then. Have Oersted and Baruz take the lead,” said the Earl as he nodded in agreement. While the harassment only did negligible damage to his army as a whole, they were annoying, and the sight of those who died or were wounded were not a good thing for morale either. “How many people would you think is needed for this job?”

“If my liege would be so kind as to part with ten knights and a hundred soldiers for each of them, that should be enough,” replied the old knight after a short moment of thought.

“Make it five knights and one hundred fifty of the peasants. We will need as many of our elites as we have on hand for the assault tomorrow. That should be sufficient for rounding up this rabble, don’t you agree?” replied the Earl, to which the old knight voiced his approval after some thinking. “Good, I’ll leave it to you to choose from the men on whom you’ll task to do this work. Dismissed.”

“Your will be done,” replied the old knight with another bow.

Carns was an efficient commander, and by the time the harassers came next, a separate detachment, led by one of the knights named by the Earl and consisting of one hundred and fifty-five men, quickly split off from the main body of the army to pursue their annoying tormentors. The same thing happened when harassers from the other side came a while after that.

The plan seemed to have been effective, as the army’s progress was unimpeded by further harassment until they stopped to rest at sundown. Neither of the detachments they sent out have yet to return, but that was expected. Even in a best case scenario where the harassers had hidden away not too far from the road, neither detachment was expected to return before they began the assault on Aldenstadt the next morning.

As it was, the army camped a short distance away from the road leading up the hill to Aldenstadt. From afar they could see how the city’s eastern gate had been covered in its entirety with large logs of wood, likely a makeshift barricade the locals erected when they heard of the army’s coming. Feeling confident about their impending success, the army ate their dinner then laid down to rest for the night.

That sleep was disturbed by a commotion right around three hours past midnight, when most people were sleeping the deepest sleep of the night.

Nobody was certain what happened for a while, and Earl LeCroix himself rushed out of his tent while still clad only in his nightclothes, completely flustered by the commotion. It was only minutes later that he managed to get a knight to report to him what happened and learned that the camp had suffered a night attack from unknown enemies.

The attack itself was not that devastating. Around fifty dead, maybe four times as many wounded. Some tents were burned down, and the fire was the main reason for the commotion as it freaked out the horses tethered nearby and threatened to spread wider into the camp. Like before however, the attackers faded away without pressing the attack, lending credence to the guess that they were small in numbers.

“Shameful!” scolded the Earl when he heard of the extent of the damages. The damage itself was relatively negligible, but the disturbance to their rest and the unanswered night assault would likely nag at the soldiers’ morale, which was an undesired thing. “Bring me the leader of those on watch duty this shift! They shall pay for this unpardonable negligence!”

“Uh… Most of the soldiers on watch duty were found dead, milord,” said the younger knight he got to act as his aide with a rather flustered voice. “That includes the one in charge of the team. We assumed that the attackers killed them first to prevent them from raising an alarm.”

“Damnation!” cursed the Earl vehemently as he had no target to direct his ire to. “Where is Carns!? Why isn’t he reporting already? I called for him more than half an hour ago!”

“Reporting, Sire,” said a young page, the one the Earl had sent to call for Carns back then, looking all pale and shocked as he knelt. “Sir Carns is dead. We only found his headless body in his tent, which had also been completely ransacked.”