Chapter 249: Chapter 234 – A Lesson Paid for in Blood

“Common military treatise often made mention of armies retreating after they took casualties that amounted to ten, maybe twenty percent of their numbers, who fell into a rout and broke down altogether as the soldiers fled for their lives.

 

These cases were almost always ones that involved militias or conscripted armies. Professional soldiers and knights were typically made of sterner stuff, and took a lot more to break down, with some fighting all the way down to the last man on occasion.

 

In the end, the whole thing involved many complicated variables, from the morale and the motivation of the soldiers, to the commander’s popularity - or lack thereof - with their men, to the enemy they faced, even down to how their people were raised. People who oversimplify battles to numbers on a paper often failed to realize these, that their numbers were each composed of a living, breathing person.” - From a paper by Leigh Wainwrought, Sociology advanced student and assistant professor at the Levain Institute of Higher Learning, circa 697 FP.

“That’s her! That’s the bitch! Get her- Ack!”

 

One of the “bandits”, who wore a complete chain mail including a chain coif that covered his head and neck, recognized Aideen and shouted for his men to get her, only to be rewarded with her attention, and a moment later, the end of her weapon’s dagger-axe blade in his throat.

 

Despite the chain coif the man wore, her weapon pierced all the way to his spine. The force and momentum with which she swung the weapon, all concentrated to a single sharp point as the weapon struck the man’s throat blade-first, easily broke through the steel chains and went into flesh, and she withdrew the weapon as the man fell to his knees with his hands clutching his bleeding throat.

 

Aideen carried through the movement and the back-hook of the weapon struck another man behind her on the nose, breaking it and incapacitating the man for a brief moment. Long enough for her to whirl around, as she brought down the other end of her weapon on the back of the man’s throat, a blow strong enough to straight up snap his neck.

 

She weaved to the left as she avoided a mace strike intended for her head, and took the offending bandit down as her arm brought her weapon past his throat, its blade nearly decapitating the man entirely, with the same arm she blocked two other strikes while her other hand stabbed the spearhead on the other end of her weapon into a bandit’s gut, She took one strike with her own weapon, and another to her elbow. The blow hit hard enough to crack bone, yet she paid it no mind.

 

The pain was simply ignored, and a burst of healing magic repaired her elbow within a mere second of the injury happening, as she struck down at the surprised man, the blade of her weapon stabbed right between his eyes. The man looked at her with utter surprise and disbelief even as he dropped down dead.

 

Aideen weaved between the bandits, as she avoided what blows she could, and took others with her body, only for her magic to repair the injuries in a mere moment. Her hands never stopped their work, as she killed and incapacitated those within her reach throughout the battle.

 

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The knights behind her took advantage of her rampage and pushed against the “bandits” before them, their concerted effort taking down some of the bandits as the rest were distracted with Aideen herself. They then went and pushed to the left, as they saw Aideen head towards the right, each to reinforce a different side of the battle.

 

Before long, Aideen had moved from the front she fought on, towards Solenia’s side of the battle. The young noblewoman acquitted herself well with her wavy-bladed two-handed greatsword, as she kept three of the “bandits” occupied on her own, and Aideen’s arrival quickly turned the tables on that side as well, as she struck at the enemies from their side.

 

Solenia also took advantage of her arrival to command the offensive, and her knights pushed hard against the suddenly pincered “bandits”, as they took quite a few down and pushed them further to their right, to where Pedro was fighting another group.

 

The fighting raged a while more, before the “bandits” realized that they were outmatched, and beat a fighting retreat, their encirclement long turned on them as the knights from Dvergarder and Aideen pressed them from three sides.

 

Pedro called for a halt and prevented his people from chasing the escapees, as they still numbered nearly as much as his own knights, and the uninjured ones quickly went to work as they scoured the dead to look for survivors, while others moved the logs that blocked the road so they could proceed with the journey.

 

Aideen herself was already working, as she went to the injured knights and healed their injuries. Thanks partly to Pedro’s instructions for those wounded to pull back, none of the knights were fatally injured, even if five of them were injured so badly they lost consciousness. Normally their injuries would have killed them within the day, as they were quite fatal in nature, but not with Aideen around.

 

Instead those injuries faded away with nothing to show their existence other than the dented armor plates, while the now-healed knights regained consciousness after a while. By then Aideen was almost done with the rest of the injured ones, and soon after moved to the others to take care of the minor cuts and bruises they had.

 

Around forty or so of the “bandits” that attacked them lay dead, with nearly twenty more injured badly enough they could not escape with the rest. On Pedro’s request Aideen healed them enough to preserve their lives, while some of the Knights stripped the captives and the dead of their armor and weapon.

 

After some checking - they had not needed to interrogate the captives much, as some of their older knights recognized a few faces amongst the dead - the group moved on, none the worse for wear, while of their captives, twenty baffled, healed survivors stripped down to their underwear was left behind, tied to each other, amongst the field of corpses, with a message to deliver from Sandra to their liege lord the Duchess.

 

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