Chapter 191: Chapter 174 – Cutting the Head off a Snake

"In a battle, often the most efficient means to tilt the table to your favor is to simply kill the enemy general. Such a feat would simultaneously throw the enemy's strategic decisions into disarray, as well as severely impact their soldier's morale, doubly so when done publicly. This little tactic was how we had won so many battles during the civil war, since we were so well positioned to abuse it." - Mustafa Bey Leung, Chief of Staff of the Army for the Al-Shan Empire, circa 75 FP.

Normally, Cal could have just rushed through the two hundred soldiers - they do not even look that well trained - on her own, or given their quality even just stroll her way through them. However, she wanted to give her nieces and student some tempering, so instead she allowed them to make the first strike.

 

Instead of their usual charged javelins, Elaina and Sidonie took the time to merge their magics together while remaining as far away from the encampment as they could. The command tent itself was well beyond their range, but the nearest picket line of twenty five soldiers were within that range.

 

When they charged their magic together - something the sisters had practiced before - Elaina provided the power to the workings, while Sidonie controlled the result. The end result was far beyond what the sisters had managed individually so far, and on Cal's mark, they launched the combined magic in the form of a orb of lightning towards the line of soldiers.

 

The orb covered the distance between the sisters and the soldiers in the blink of an eye, and accurately struck the man that dressed like their officer. The resulting explosion sent blood and pieces of charred meat flying everywhere, but more worrisome were the ten bolts of lightning that struck out from the explosion and homed in on the nearest soldiers.

 

Those struck by the lightning bolts convulsed and collapsed to the ground. Two more robust men tried to stand back up with great difficulty, but the other eight remained still where they fell. As for the officer himself, all that was left of him was a pair of smoking leather boots where he had once stood.

 

Half of what remained of the soldiers panicked, though the other half noticed how the commotion - the first explosion had not been a quiet one - had caught the attention of the nearest units who headed their way to reinforce. These men had just started to rush towards the direction where the orb had come from before three of them suddenly fell dead on the spot, javelins and an arrow nearly as large accurately striking unprotected throats and faces.

 

Naturally, after their spell was done, Elaina and Sidonie had brought their atlatls out and used it on the first soldiers to respond, scaring the others behind them. Ying Xiao had joined them in the effort, her own bow was a truly massive specimen made out of tempered yew wood that dwarfed the girl herself. The arrows she used were only a little bit smaller than the javelins the sisters used, as she clearly took after some of her archery teacher's preferences. The bow itself was far too large for the girl to fully draw it with just her hands, and instead she propped the bow itself with one fully extended leg, while she leaned back and pulled on the string with one hand, her other hand keeping the arrow steadily aimed.

 

By now over half of the soldiers and mercenaries left behind to guard the command tent were forming a shield wall and cautiously advancing towards where the girls had hidden themselves. Cal herself had taken a detour to the side, with Kino and Dan staying by the girls to ensure they are safe and to watch after Leila's pet, respectively.

 

Cal waited until the right time before she struck out herself. Not too long after, she heard the commotion that was her signal, as dozens of soldiers screamed in terror when the ground beneath them crumbled and their legs plunged into a pool molten lava. Leila's handiwork, as she had been hard at work setting the trap since the moment the battle had started.

 

It was at that moment, when the other soldiers and mercenaries on guard were distracted by the shouts and screams, that Cal struck. She covered the distance to the line of guards in moments, blood magic reinforcing her body and allowing her to move at speeds few could rival.

 

Most of the mercenaries in her way didn't even have time to notice her before they were just swept aside by a swing of her halberd, those struck by the blade bisected in half, while the luckier ones struck by the shaft "only" sporting broken bones except for the poor fool who got struck first and had many of his internal organs straight up ruptured.

 

A second swing, then a third, and Cal had already gone through the surprised line of mercenaries, headed straight towards the command tent. Both the general and the archmage had come out when they noticed the commotion, though the archmage later ushered the general back into the tent when he noticed Cal headed their way.

 

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The archmage had a slight look of arrogance on his face as he noticed Cal approaching. He soon brought his magic to existence with well practiced motions, as dozens of lances made from smoldering ashes came into existence around him. Those lances then struck towards Cal in sequence, several at a time.

 

Cal wasn't flustered at the barrage. Amongst fire mages and its derivatives ash mages were only beaten by light mages when it comes to inability to handle a blood mage. They relied on their ash to incapacitate their enemy through debilitating pain, something generally less effective on a blood mage used to pain.

 

Some of the ash lances, Cal simply dodged. Others she allowed to hit her without much care. The lances of compacted smoldering ash unable to penetrate deep into her reinforced flesh and muscles, the searing, burning pain they emit merely an annoyance at most to her.

 

When she was closer, she noticed the ash archmage worry as he launched another set of lances at her, even while he drew a long curved sword. This time, Cal swatted at two closely positioned lances with the side of her halberd, hitting them with the anti-magic enchanted adamant covering, which resulted in the lances of packed ash losing all integrity and bursting into a cloud that covered her from sight instead.

 

Cal emerged from the cloud of ash with her weapon held behind her back, in preparation for a huge overhead swing. As he noticed her appearance at the last moment, the archmage hastily leapt back to secure himself some distance.

 

It did him little good, as when her halberd reached the apex of its arc, Cal let go with her left hand, and with one smooth motion, slid her right hand down the shaft until she was holding it by the end of the shaft. In the same motion, she twisted her body around, her right side going from the back to the front, even as the full length of her halberd struck down at the surprised archmage.

 

The man was wearing what looked like well made enchanted platemail, so Cal took no chances and her strike was with the halberd's beaked hammerhead instead of its blade. She caught the surprised man by his left shoulder, the man managing to shift aside and avoiding a strike to the head at the last moment.

 

It had done him little good. His platemail crumpled like paper beneath the forceful strike of Cal's halberd, the blow pulverizing first the mage's plate armor, then the chainmail he wore beneath it, then his flesh and bone, which gave way with next to no resistance.

 

By the time the blow finally stopped, Cal had pulverized the left half of the opposing archmage's torso all the way to the waist, and the man had toppled over, as dead as he could be. Cal had not bothered to remove his head and instead just stored his entire corpse into her storage instead.

 

For good measure, she went into the tent next. There she found the surprised, cowering general of the rebel faction, killed him and took his corpse with her as well, along with anything that remotely looked like it had military value in the tent. They were not things the bounties requested, but she figured why not?

 

Cal never liked leaving a job only done halfway after all.

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