Chapter 142: Chapter 142: Commander’s Perspective

“Is he still marching towards us after seeing that we are prepared for him? Not a single pause for thought?” Braydon wondered to himself as he looked towards his opponent who had not stopped marching even after coming into view. He thought that Sharpe would still decide to attack anyway but he had not expected the man to be that decisive. Although Braydon was hesitant to call a man with such little wisdom decisive. There were a few other things that he would call Viscount Sharpe before saying that about him.

“Not that it bothers me.” Braydon was more than happy for Viscount Sharpe to welcome a battle. His whole purpose of being there was to fight the man after all. Sharpe making his job easier was always a welcome proposition.

“Alright, this should be far enough away. Form up!” Braydon looked behind him to gauge the distance between his own men and those under Cinar’s command. Upon seeing that they were far enough away, he ordered his men to halt and reform their lines. He wanted to let Viscount Sharpe be the one to initiate combat. One thing that he had learnt from Rhydian was that it was extremely hard to fight a better organised army. Better organisation could mean the difference between sure defeat and miraculous victory. And while he was confident that his men were better trained than Viscount Sharpe’s, it was easier for men to maintain their lines when stood still.

“No fancy speeches here, our opponent is not worth that. Just remember not to fuck up and we will win here boys!” Braydon had never been one for giving great speeches before battle. Not that he had seen many great examples either, Rhydian was definitely not much of a talker. He found it more obnoxious than anything else. Though Braydon’s view may have been tinted by the fact that his brother and his father were both fond of such speeches when they were given the occasion.

“Hah!” A shout came in response to his words, seemingly proving that it was not the length of the speech that inspired courage in soldiers. And after Braydon gave his words, they did not have to wait long for Viscount Sharpe’s men. The enemy deciding to forgo saying anything at all, or at least forgetting to, Sharpe’s men charged straight into battle.

Braydon stayed back from the front as the battle started. He knew that if he wanted to be a good commander, this was a vital opportunity to see how things worked from the commander’s perspective. He was all too familiar with the perspective of a person fighting in the thick of battle, but that was not what he needed. Even if it was what he wanted.

“Individual combat certainly looks a lot less important from this perspective.” Braydon muttered to himself as he observed the battlefield. Looking at hundreds of men fighting, it was hard to say that an individual fight was of great significance to the overall outcome. Though, as someone who preferred such individual fights, he was not going to be one to say that they had no importance at all. Numbers might matter, but the total still had individual parts. One individual loss might not matter, but several could sway the tide of battle.

“Well, I am probably not going to be learning any positive lessons from observing his commanding.” Braydon could not help but scoff when he looked to see how Viscount Sharpe was leading his men. That was if leading could be used to describe what he saw. 

Usually it was at least somewhat harder to pick out an enemy commander if they were not wearing something obviously identifying. But Viscount Sharpe did not even need that, the dozen or so enemy troops separated from the back line of the enemy formation was more than enough of an indicator of where he was. And it was clear that he was out of place.

“He really has never stepped foot on a battlefield before has he?” Braydon knew that he did not have the most experience leading troops but at least he knew where the safest and most dangerous parts of the field were. Viscount Sharpe evidently did not. And Braydon was going to punish him for it.

“You there! Take two dozen men, and go and capture their leader for me.” Braydon told one of the more senior of his men to make Viscount Sharpe realise his mistake the hard way. He did not need to lay out any specific instructions, just pointing out where Sharpe was would be enough. And Braydon would be able to achieve his goal of ending the battle early.

He may not have seen the point in making speeches before battle, but Braydon definitely saw the point in capturing the enemy leader if it was possible. There were few things that could happen in battle to demoralise an army more than their leader being captured or killed. At least Braydon could not name any.

“Well, as much as I am glad that it is turning out this way, it feels a little anticlimactic.” Braydon suddenly felt a lot less enthused to start fighting with his men if the battle was going to be over soon. He might like fighting for the sake of fighting but there was nothing fun about it when he knew that he was going to win. At that point it was just a means to an end.

And it played out almost exactly as Braydon expected, once the contingent of men that he had sent circled around the battle to attack the separated group of men, it did not take long for them to surround and capture the enemy. Though Braydon was very surprised that there was almost no fighting involved. Or more specifically it was not the enemy soldiers that put up the resistance. It was more as if they were inviting Braydon’s men to take the person that they were supposed to be protecting.

“What in God’s name happened?” As Braydon watched from the other side if the battle he could at least tell that how things went down were not exactly normal. Though even with that being the case, Braydon was certain that it was his victory. Now that his men surrounded Viscount Sharpe, the fastest way for him to win was just to get his men to shout that they had captured said Viscount Sharpe. Regardless of if it were true or not that would sew doubt among the enemy. Nor did it take much effort to verify.

“We have captured your lord!” Braydon was the first to shout. And it was soon followed by a number of his men. And that was all that was needed for the majority of the enemy to throw down their weapons.