Chapter 47: Volume 3 Chapter 15 – Massive Strike (Part 1/4)

"There they are!" Ariadne von Manteuffel heard the cry of her commanding officer, Colonel Erwin von Hammerstein, who insisted on riding at the very head of the air cavalry formation.

They had run across a party of Weichsel deep reconnaissance scouts last night, who'd told them that a Northmen supply convoy of sleds had departed from the port city of Nordkapp several days ago and was on its way south to join the main Skagen army. The supply convoy was guarded by over a thousand men, more than three times the number of soldiers in their detachment. However these were second-rate support troops, while Colonel Hammerstein's two companies were specially trained and equipped Phantom Grenadiers.

Needless to say, the possibility of knocking out an entire convoy had proved too alluring for the maverick Colonel to pass up. They had set out early to hunt down their target. But even with their scouting familiars and sight enhancement spells, the hard snow had made it difficult to spot a large convoy... until now.

"We'll gut their belly and take the bacon!" Hammerstein shouted in his rough voice from atop his hippogryph mount. "Form up by platoons! Wedge formation!"

"<Wedge formation by platoons! Wards up!>"

Ariadne issued her orders over the telepathic channel she shared with the other commanders before hearing them echoed by platoon leaders. Two companies -- three hundred cavalrymen in all -- fanned out into groups of forty to simultaneously hit multiple points along the long convoy train.

She watched as her comrades seemingly vanished into the snowy flurry. The weather made it difficult to see more than a hundred paces in any direction, while the Skagen column was drawn out over more than a kilopace. Colonel Hammerstein was spreading the attack dangerously thin. Should anything go wrong, the individual platoons would struggle to support one another.

Yet, it was also an excellent idea that used the weather to their favor.

He wants to maximize shock, Ariadne considered her orders. To make the enemy, who outnumber us, believe they are under attack by a much larger force.

The convoy's guards began to shout in Hyperborean as they spotted the Weichsel air cavalry flying in at low altitude. But the obscuring snow had delayed them for too long. Even with their skis, the Skagen infantry had no chance of forming lines in time.

A smattering of lone arrows and preloaded crossbow bolts shot out to meet the attackers. The majority of them struck the Phantoms' wards and harmlessly bounced off. Without the officers' Dispel arrows to lead an organized volley, commoner archers had no chance of repelling mage cavalry with their bows.

"Mana Seeker!" Ariadne heard Elise, her company's second-in-command and 1st platoon commander, cry out as both an order and a spell. Five glowing bolts of magic shot out from the petite girl's casting glove. They were soon joined by dozens of others which swarmed through the air towards the enemy.

Most of these magic missiles did nothing but fly harmlessly over the enemies' heads. However a few homed in on arrows or bolts that were tipped with runes. Mana Seeker was a simple, 'cast and forget' type of spell that relied on quantity. They were automatically drawn towards incoming sources of mana, so long as they weren't other Mana Seekers. These magic missiles disrupted en-route spells by interdicting them with unstable, foreign mana, often ruining an approaching spell before it could reach its target. Though their ability to 'find' targets was limited by proximity, which made it important for them to cross paths with hostile spells.

A Fireball exploded somewhere to her right as a runic arrow from the defenders managed to get through the seeker barrage. Glancing back, Ariadne saw Elise -- who led from the right wing of the cavalry wedge -- billowing smoke from her armor and uniform. Her anti-elemental Resistance ward had repelled most of the damage, leaving the petite girl only slightly cooked with singed hair and a sunburnt face.

"<Two voll... fly-by!>" Hammerstein's voice was becoming garbled on the telepathy channel. "--arge on third!"

The spells being exchanged were already starting to have an effect on basic telepathic communications. Soon, only Farspeak spells and their reduced-range variant -- which required concentration to maintain and therefore needed dedicated signal officers -- would be able to function.

"Two volleys fly-by! Grenades at the ready!" Ariadne bellowed.

Knights Phantom were elite cavalry with expensive, specialized equipment. And while the Phantom Grenadiers weren't proper knights, they still had gear matching their noble brethren that the late Marshal spent a fortune to subsidize for this experimental formation. Each cavalryman wore a heavily-warded, extra-dimensional belt pouch dedicated to grenades -- shrunken barrels filled with either pitch and tar or blast powder.

Two air cavalry companies formed seven triangular wedges that flew in at an altitude of twenty paces. As they soared close to the defenders, Ariadne and nearly three hundred cavalrymen threw out their grenades towards the disorganized enemy. The grenades were followed by area Dispels, ripping away shrinking spells to reveal full-sized kegs.

Then came the Ignition rays.

Almost three hundred crashing barrels of flaming pitch, burning tar, and exploding powder turned the Skagen convoy into a vision of hell. Men cried as they were set aflame or torn asunder. Sleds full of grain and feed either caught ablaze or burst into splinters.

Ariadne might not be able to see the other platoons or damage with her own eyes, but she could hear the explosions and panicked cries to recognize the mayhem unleashed.

"Bank right!" She shouted as she led her company's 1st platoon around in a wide loop for a second pass.

The triangular wedge formations made such maneuvers easy. Most mounts, including both pegasi and hippogryphs, inherited the herd mentality of horses, which naturally made them follow a commander's steed whom they've learned to recognize as the 'alpha'.

It was also why Ariadne's familiar summon was always a pegasus stallion.

The survivors of the first barrage soon found themselves under a second wave of expanding-barrel grenades. More fire and explosions tore into the Skagen convoy as sleds shattered and men were set ablaze.

Then, as the Phantom Grenadiers swerved about for the second time...

"Holy Father with us! Phantom Charge!"

The shadowy barding covering their beastly mounts tore away, forming a stampede of spectral horses that caught ablaze as they charged ahead of the cavalry wedge. These 'phantom steeds' rammed and trampled through the enemy troops, before detonating inside their formations in a blazing inferno.

By the time Ariadne and her comrades plunged into the Skagen convoy with cold steel, the Northmen's morale had already shattered. Soldiers threw away their weapons and began to either flee or surrender in droves. A few squads rallied around stalwart officers fought on, only to be cut down by Weichsel's riders with their lances and swordstaves.

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Sitting atop her pegasus familiar, Ariadne held two right fingers against her temple to concentrate on the Farspeak connection she had with a signal officer back in Nordkreuz. Her eyes meanwhile continued to keep watch on her surroundings, where the Phantom Grenadiers were cleaning up the now muddy battlefield.

"Sir!" Ariadne shouted as she ended the Farspeak call. She beckoned her pegasus familiar Edelweiss to trot closer to the homely Colonel Hammerstein, who stood roughly forty paces away among several other officers.

"Sir, have you been instructing our signal officer to reject calls from Nordkreuz?" The pink-haired captain challenged her superior.

"Yes," the Colonel declared openly, without even the slightest hesitation over how openly he flouted regulations. "I don't need those stinkin' scribes to tell me that I'm outside of operational boundaries."

Y-you... Ariadne's fist tightened as she struggled to figure out how to even insult him in her own head.

"Sir that's insubordination!"

"Funny to hear a subordinate tell me that," the Colonel scoffed. "Keep your panties on, will you? What High Command wants above all are results, not rule-abiding--"

My panties were never off, you crass oaf! Her thoughts screamed.

"SIR!" She cried over him. "Command messaged me that a Skagen skywhale fleet has been spotted inbound for Nordkreuz. General Neithard demand that we immediately return to rendezvous with the main force, west of the border town of Suokamo!"

For a brief second Colonel Hammerstein looked confused. Then, as Ariadne's words dawned on him, a trace of horror entered his countenance as his bulging eyes widened even further.

"Those bastards used their main force as a distraction!?" He snarled with crooked lips before turning towards the soldiers, who were still cleaning up the battlefield.

Ariadne immediately gestured for the platoon signaler to blow his bugle and call for the soldiers' attention.

"STOP WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING AND GATHER UP!" Colonel Hammerstein shouted. "WE RIDE SOUTH!"

"But Sir, we haven't finished disarming the captives!" Lieutenant Kayeten, vice-commander of the 2nd company, cried back.

"Forget them! Forget everything here! Drop a Fireball on any sleds that remain, because we must ride south! NOW!"

He really is a brilliant tactician, Ariadne couldn't help ponder. She didn't even have to explain the details, let alone pass along the General's threats, to make the Colonel recognize how critical their situation was. If only he wasn't such a glory-mongerer.

"We might end up late for the rendezvous," Hammerstein sighed as he looked at Ariadne with concern. "We're too far north."

Those operational boundaries exist for a reason. Ariadne thought. However she refrained from saying anything along the line of 'I told you so.'

Ariadne had voiced her objections this morning before all the platoon and company leaders. However she had been overruled by the Colonel who was her superior. This meant that whatever would transpire, she was not responsible for it. Instead it was Colonel Hammerstein whom all the accountability would fall upon, even if that meant the removal of his head as her uncle had threatened.

Yet... that would only serve to benefit our enemies, Ariadne scowled. She might not like Hammerstein personally, but there was no doubt that the man was an excellent field commander.

"Sir, I can give the group a boost." The young lady volunteered.

"How?"

"I'm a Stormcaller." Ariadne declared with a hand upon her chest. "Not certified yet, so you wouldn't see it on my file. It might leave me tired for the main battle, but I can definitely put the wind at our backs for our flight."

The Colonel's deep eyes stared at her for a moment before he nodded. "I owe you one."

Yes you do.

As Hammerstein turned away to shout more orders, Ariadne frowned and pressed a hand against the armor over her abdomen. Her magic might have mitigated most of her period cramps, but she was still queasy and lacking in appetite. Worse yet, her bleeding days always left her slightly anemic and easily fatigued... certainly not the best time to have an overnight ride.

Not that her biological clock mattered to the enemy. Her duties as an officer of Weichsel remained the same.

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