“Sometimes, even the best option is still an unpleasant one.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

As Estelle watched the ongoing battle between the Levain Militia and forces led by the Southern Coalition’s First State of Olfas, she noticed an immediate difference between her people and the Caromans despite how they fought them to a draw in the exhibition merely weeks ago.

When it came to smaller scale battles, her people did well, extremely well, even. On the other hand, at a larger scale battle like the one they were currently embroiled in – the Southern Coalition’s forces had no choice but to fight back when the joint forces of Levain and Caroma assaulted them forcefully with all they got – they still lacked experience and cohesion compared to their Caroman counterparts.

Where Marshal Publius Cornelius handily fought off over twenty thousand enemies with only fifteen thousand of his own on their army’s right flank, Estelle’s militiamen couldn’t do better despite fielding their full force of twenty thousand against an enemy only slightly more numerous than themselves. Meanwhile, the strike force led by the Lady Marshal personally still waited in the middle of their formation.

They waited for an opening to exploit like a predator watching its prey.

On the left flank, the Levain Militia formed solid formations under Albrecht’s leadership, where they held a clear advantage over the conscripts their opponents used as cannon fodder. The problem was that they had to pay attention to the stronger force of men-at-arms that the First Lords fielded, the elites from their home territories.

Those troops often hid themselves amongst the conscripts to strike unexpectedly, which caused some trouble to the militia formation.

In contrast, the Caromans barely budged when the Coalition’s elites made surprise attacks, their formation as firm as a reef against a tidal wave. It was at times like those where the greater experience of the Caroman soldiers really showed their advantage. As well trained as Levain’s militia were, they mostly had no experience with real battles yet.

If there was one field where the joint force had a definite advantage over the coalition troops, it was with their archers. The coalition troops had few of them despite their larger numbers, and what archers they had were rather poorly trained. There was no comparison between them and the trained longbowmen from Oiloma who rained deadly arrows into the middle and back of the enemy formations, or even the archers from Levain who, while less skilled, were just as effective during the fighting.

Then Estelle noticed how a cavalry force from Cezar – over a thousand or so knights in heavy armor riding horses covered in barding – circled around the fighting to strike at the militia’s left flank. Her soldiers saw the incoming threat and swiftly set up a shield wall while bracing their spears against the ground, which discouraged the knights.

Had the knights forced the matter, their charge would have still dealt a lot of damage to the militia, but it would have cost the knight at least some of their numbers as well. As such they canceled the charge, turning their horses around to return to their army’s side in a smooth turn.

Before they managed to complete the turn, however, Levain’s own cavalry rode out from behind their infantry lines, all fifteen hundred riders on their nimble prairie steeds. They hurled javelins as they passed beside the enemy riders and harried them until some of the knights turned to chase them off. The light cavalry didn’t inflict much in terms of damage, other than a few unfortunate knights who took javelins to gaps in their armor or horse’s bardings, but they served their purpose to keep the enemy knights in check.

The Caromans had even less issue with the enemy knights, as even knights in heavy armor had to worry about being whittled to death by a light cavalry force nearly triple their size. The Caroman light cavalry even had the leeway to send some of their riders to harass the Cezar formation they faced from time to time, and Estelle was certain that she saw the Marshals’ daughters amongst the riders.

After a few hours of back and forth where nothing of consequence really took place, finally the fish bit the bait.

The troops from Levain and Caroma had made it look like they weren’t paying much attention to the relatively weak center of the enemy army, and in fact made it look as if they had some openings in that area. They were hoping to goad and bait the inexperienced leader of Sebaque to commit to an attack, where he would then likely cause some openings to form on his own lines instead.

So when he finally bit the bait, the troops in the region swiftly spread to the sides to give way to Anni’s strike force who had been eagerly awaiting that exact moment. Before the Sebaque forces managed to react, five thousand Caroman soldiers led by the female Marshal herself struck them with overwhelming force and broke through their loose formation within moments.

Sebaque’s forces had been greatly weakened after Levain burned most of their elites to death months ago, including most of their experienced generals. As it was, out of the seven thousand soldiers, only a thousand or so were elites, led by the remaining generals of Sebaque and the young High Lord himself. It was far from enough to stop the charge led by Anni, however, whereas the conscripts they had to make up the numbers were pretty much useless before her assault.

While it had taken the army most of the day to bait out the Sebaque forces, it only took Anni and her troops less than half an hour to break through the Sebaque formation, whereupon they immediately split into two halves and turned to strike at the surprised Coalition forces from the inside, where they least expected an attack.

As for the remaining Sebaque troops they left in their wake, the other Levainian and Caroman soldiers nearby took the opportunity to finish them off. The ones that hadn’t managed to run away, that was.