“The cavalry has always played an important role in battles from the ancient era to the present day, be it as scouts, mobile skirmishers, or more recently, as heavy assault units. In many ways, the way that a force could make use of their own cavalry and counter the enemy’s helps to decide the course of a battle that involves them.” - Elson Horatius, Military historian from the Clangeddin Empire, circa 520 VA.

“I must say, their progress has been quite pleasing to witness, Captain, Commanding Instructor,” said councilwoman Estelle as she watched a demonstration by the cavalry team that Ze’phane and Soledad had been training hard since the arrival of the Free Lances on Levain.

It had been a couple weeks since the day Alycea had her little test and officially joined the Free Lances, and Estelle was accompanied by another couple dozen councilors who were similarly present to watch the fruits of the training that their city’s budding cavalry force had undergone. It was a demonstration that suitably impressed them, to say the least.

Whereas most of the Free Lances were busy training the majority of the city’s militia forces, Soledad and her platoon were singled out for a specific task, namely to train the city’s cavalry. Ze’phane was an excellent instructor when it came to horsemanship and taking care of the steeds, but she was less knowledgeable about cavalry warfare, so that task fell mostly to Soledad, Anatoli, and their subordinates.

They had come to an agreement early on that given the wide, rolling plains that most of the Free City’s territory comprised of, the cavalry force was likely going to have the best effect as light cavalry. Besides, the cost for equipment that heavy cavalrymen would need, much less in the numbers they would need in order to be effective, was probably a bit unpalatable for the city’s budget.

Instead, the riders of the cavalry they trained wore only light armor, mostly just gambeson with boiled leather lamellar on top of it. They were armed similarly lightly, with a short spear and a shield, as well as a quiver that held nine javelins slung over their backs. Holders for their spear were set on both sides of their saddle, so they could place the spear there when they were throwing javelins instead.

The javelins themselves were relatively small and short compared to some other examples. Each was only around a meter long, roughly as thick around as a thumb, with a long, pointed head not unlike a bodkin arrow. The design was clearly one intended to pierce through most lighter armor up to the ubiquitous chain mail, as plate armor would defeat such a projectile with ease.

Fortunately plate armor was still too demanding on craftsmanship and was thus too costly to be deployed in large numbers in most cases anyway, so it was deemed plenty to be able to pierce through the far more commonly seen chainmail.

Ze’phane’s training had already given the volunteers chosen to be part of the cavalry a very solid basis in horsemanship, so that had made things easier for Soledad and Anatoli, who found themselves only needing to teach the already skilled riders on how to abuse their horsemanship skills and incorporate it into battle tactics.

The demonstration their trainees put up for the councilors did just that.

A group of twenty-five riders rode across the training field in five rows of five riders each, their horses galloping at full speed as they charged towards a set of man-sized targets meant to simulate the enemy. The riders drew a javelin in unison once they reached fifty meters away, and hurled the javelins at the targets as one at thirty.

Then they continued riding towards the targets even as they pulled out another javelin from the quivers on their backs, before turning their horses around sharply only fifteen meters away from the enemy “line”. Each rider threw another javelin as they turned, while at the same time another set of javelins thrown by the second row behind them flew over their heads towards the “enemy”.

As the first row of riders sped back up they hurled a third javelin at the enemy as a parting shot, the space they took for the turn so narrow that they passed close enough to brush a rider from the next row behind them, yet the team performed the feat flawlessly as each row repeated the process. More impressively, every single one of their javelins landed on a target.

“Are all of the first batch at this level of skill, Commanding Instructor?” asked another councilor towards Ze’phane. The first batch referred to the two thousand riders that had been assigned for her to train in the past year or so, while the city was planning on doubling that number by the next year.

“They are, Councilor,” replied the twin-souled half-orc with confidence. Soledad who was next to her also gave a firm nod of agreement, as the two of them had worked together to train these riders to their current level of skill.

Reinhardt also nodded with some satisfaction at the results. He had been present partly to accompany the councilors as they were after all checking on the results of his company’s work. As the Captain it was only fitting for him to be present on such occasions. He was accompanied by Elfriede as usual, as she was always present beside him on such formal events, not because she was his wife, but as his guard.

Hard to argue against that when she was arguably the deadliest combatant amongst the company’s roster.

That he was in a formal occasion also meant that he had to groan with some annoyance when he spotted Rhiannon – Karenina’s daughter and one of Erycea’s friends who were part of her platoon – looking for him with a slightly troubled face just as the demonstration was ending.