Chapter 96: Chapter 96: Bonkers Battle Tactics

“Reform your lines!” Aled shouted, trying not to sound as frantic as he felt. He was glad that he did not have to join the battle in any real measure as King, it meant that he could get his scout’s report as soon as possible. And with Duke Ryder’s men fast approaching, every second mattered.

“Archers provide cover, ignore their archers!” Seeing that the infantry was having a hard time disentangling themselves from the enemy infantry, Aled ordered the archers to change their targets from the enemy archers and turn their focus to the infantry. It was a risky measure. There was a large chance that this would inflict as many casualties on his own forces as the enemy, but that did not matter much when staying meant almost certain annihilation. Not that it made him feel any better about literally shooting his own men in the back.

And it worked. The Casburlandian right flank had not expected that he would make such a suicidal order at all, giving his men enough time to reform their line. At the expense of a not insignificant portion of his men. And by the way it looked, Duke Oakley had noticed the self immolation of the left flank, having sent a knight to go around the back line to ask what he was doing. Though the knight soon stopped and immediately turned around when he saw an army appearing on the horizon, obviously having guessed why the King had made such a move.

“Be prepared to fall back at any moment!” Aled shouted, he did not want his men to start fighting Casburland’s left flank in any meaningful way at that moment. If that happened, his prior actions would have all gone to waste and he would likely have to flee the field with much fewer of his men than he would have otherwise.

As Aled looked across the battlefield, he saw the Casburland flanks move to assist the centre rather than reengage with their flanks. Apparently, Duke Burn had managed to disengage his men as well. Though Aled doubted that he had done it in quite the same way as himself. After all, the Duke had had longer to prepare than he had. The sound of marching was becoming clearer over the sound of the battle, as the Fiverian flanks had effectively disengaged and Duke Ryder’s men came ever closer.

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“Your Majesty, the Fiverian flanks are trying to disengage.” A knight exclaimed in shock, there was no reason why they should have started retreating yet. The battle was mostly even on both flanks and the Fiverians even held the advantage in the centre. By all means they should have been the ones most zealous to continue the battle.

“I can see that. Do not follow them, I do not want to be led into some kind of trap, this is obviously a planned retreat on both sides.” Marek was not about to fall for some cheap tricks, lest his name be eternally marred as a King who lost to Fiveria. That did not mean that he was just going to passively accept whatever the other side was planning though.

“If they want to run away then I will oblige them, have the flanks collapse onto the Fiverian centre. I want those infernal weapons in my hands or burnt.” King Marek had not been pleased by the ‘surprise’ that Duke Oakley had prepared for this battle. There was no way that the Fiverians would hold the advantage if it were not for them bringing out these new weapons. At least he would never admit to losing a fair fight. Nor would he take a fair fight if he could gain an advantage.

The battle started to unfold as he had expected, the Fiverian flanks did not rejoin the battle but had started moving away from it, leaving the centre to fend for itself. But it did not stay within expectations, the flanks did not take any further actions apart from moving to the east and west respectively.

“What on Ezaes are they doing? Should they not be trying to surround our infantry or attack our archers? Are they seriously just leaving the centre to die?” King Marek started asking many questions at once, none of which his subjects could answer. And this only made him more irritable, something was not right but he did not know what.

“Your majesty, look to the south!” The same knight who had stated the obvious earlier was the first to notice what was wrong. There was an army that was not much smaller than their own marching from the south.

“Our spies said that Duke Ryder should be several days away! What the fuck is he doing here and with so many men?! Replace every one of them!” King Marek did not really mean that they should replace all of their spies and nobody believed that he truly would. A spy network took many years to create and maintain. But they could understand his surprise. Not only was Duke Ryder not where he was reported to be but he had basically brought all of his men. He had been told that the Duke would only be bringing a nominal force like everyone else.

“What are they doing?” Armies appearing out of nowhere was not the only thing that was outside of King Marek’s expectations. As the army from the south drew nearer, the Fiverian flanks started retreating at full pace. That might be normal if they were moving to meet up with the reinforcing army from the south but that was not happening. 

“Are they actively avoiding him?” King Marek could not make heads nor tails of what was going on before him. The Fiverians before him had every component to make a sweeping victory but it looked to him like they were actively trying to throw away their advantages. ‘Have they all gone senile? What are these bonkers battle tactics? They make no sense.’ As he was watching the enemy flanks retreat to nowhere in particular, commotion from the Fiverian centre caught his attention.

“Are they routing?” King Marek stared almost slack jawed and his knight said what all of them were thinking. As they were receiving absolutely massive reinforcements, the previously tenacious Fiverian centre had entered a complete route as if they had met their worst enemy instead of their saviour. 

“Do not let them get away! Destroy them before the other army arrives!” The strange situation before him would not stop King Marek from commanding his army. He was also starting to get a few ideas to explain what was happening. ‘Is that not Duke Ryder then? Or it could be but something drastic has happened?’ He could not think of another explanation for the insanity that he had just witnessed. Neither of them were particularly good news for him. His men had just gone through a battle, sustained losses and were out of formation; and now he had to face an entirely new army. And he didn’t know if they were even hostile or not.

“Finish them quickly and form up to face the enemy!” Most of the Fiverian centre had either managed to flee in disarray or lay dead on the floor at this point. The problem for King Marek was that the day was far from over.