Another half chapter (give or take), the next half likely won't be up for a few days as I have an interview tomorrow and Thursday, and I want a job.
A red dawn rose on the day that the battle to push the Ashans to breaking point was to begin. For the last few days, Eva’s forces had harried the Ashan troops as they made their way towards the Aynstir wood, where Eva’s forces were reportedly based. The losses that Eva’s forces had inflicted were at least reasonably significant. By her estimations, for the loss of just under twenty men, she had cut down the Ashan’s numbers by ten times that.
There was a problem though, the infamous Ashan heavy skirmishers had been deployed ahead of the army and were pushing deep into the forest. If they survived, or more to the point if they discovered Eva’s army wasn’t exactly where they said they were they could put a serious dent in Eva’s plan. In one of the skirmishing raids against the main force it seemed as though the heavy skirmishers even had someone who could deflect arrows from their course.
That meant there would have to be an initial melee fight against some of the strongest opponents Asha could field. Her scouts had reported three different groups heading into the forest ahead of the army. Once again splitting her forces would be dangerous, especially if the Ashan army decided to double time it so they arrived not too far behind the Heavy Skirmishers.
A risky thought arose, instead of splitting into three parts to take out the groups in the forest, splitting into four. The idea being the fourth could foul the movement of the main army. Wait… the Singers of the Future did have someone who alone might be able to hold off, and maybe force a retreat from the Heavy Skirmishers. On the plus side it’d mean she’d get to fight without the eye patch for a bit, on the down side, it could go horribly wrong depending on what sort of injuries the Heavy Skirmishers inflicted on her.
But what if she made it so that she wasn’t leading the battle. Not quite a noble sacrifice, but making people aware that she was prepared for ‘death’. The plan also had the advantage that it should reduce the losses on her side, as she would take on the suffering and death of those who would have fallen in that fourth group.
Naturally, she expected resistance from her generals, but Eva set herself on the course of action. All things being well, which they likely wouldn’t be, Eva could then join with the main force as the large scale battle was begun in earnest. There were a lot of flaws with this plan, but it was the best Eva could come up with on short notice, and time was running out.
None of her generals had liked the idea, but had eventually acquiesced. Eva was still one of the most competent fighters. The general opinion seemed to be that Eva was likely only going to prove to be a distraction, but they would work with what they had. A number of her subordinates had asked her if she was sure, certain that this would be a suicide mission. Eva hated the fact that she was relying on Dess’ dubious ‘blessing,’ especially as it meant more pain for her.
Still, here she was, on the path to intercept the Eastern group. She had taken her bow with her in case the one who could deflect arrows had gone with a different group, and she might be able to pull off a sneak injury early into the combat. The eye patch gone for now, if she survived she would need to reattach it.
It amused Eva somewhat that she had once again defaulted back to the tactic of hiding up a tree. Still, you shouldn’t necessarily change something that works. Though the Ashans were getting wise to the fact after some of the raids the Singers of the Future had pulled.
Through the leaves Eva could just make out those she would be fighting soon enough. There were six of them. One was in robes and holding a stave, meaning he was likely the healer if there was one. There were two who looked like they were once soldiers in the main army with their large shields and spears. One had armour made of metal rings, and a sword larger than any Eva had seen before. The fifth had a couple of short swords and the last a thin blade that seemed like it’d be best for stabbing. At least they didn’t have anyone with projectile weapons.
Assuming she’d only get one shot, Eva knew that her first target would be the one in the robes. She’d been making sure to keep up with her archery practice, but it wasn’t exactly an easy shot, especially from branches. Worse, Eva mostly fought the melee side of things, so didn’t have much practical experience raining arrowy death on Ashans.
Breathe, most important thing. Next footing, given the placement of the branches Eva’s stance was wider than she would have liked, but it would have to do. Sight down the arrow, aim at your target. Draw with a deep breath. Adjust aim. Loose.
The arrow flew a bit to one side, Eva had never really gotten the hang of accounting for wind. At least it hit the man in the ribcage, and it looked like it went a decent way in. If Eva had to guess, she’d say she’d managed to puncture one of his lungs, unfortunately, not immediately fatal.
Scrambling down the tree to prevent risk of injuring herself before the fight began, Eva heard the calls amongst her foes to reassemble, and move towards her. The woman with the chainmail and massive sword led the charge against Eva. Realizing that such a large sword would be difficult to swing horizontally with this many trees, Eva prepared to sidestep either the thrust or the vertical swing.
Despite the woman’s seeming berserk rage she swung on the perfect diagonal to just miss the trees on either side of Eva. With her footwork and sword unprepared for the blow coming at her, Eva just about managed to block the strike, but it sent her reeling to the side. Not a good start.
The rest of the squad she faced started moving towards Eva, save for the healer who was trying to remove the arrow from his chest. If she didn’t do something soon, Eva would be surrounded, but she barely had time to think as a thrust from the swordswoman missed her by hairs breadth.
Quickly pulling back so that they couldn’t immediately surround her, Eva saw that the woman with the large sword wasn’t pursuing as aggressively as she might to try to draw Eva in. Ducking behind a tree, Eva did a sudden direction change and sprinted out in the same direction she had come from. The heavy skirmishers hadn’t anticipated that so she got a couple of sweet and precious seconds alone with one of the soldiers.
A gigantic man, he placed his shield directly in Eva’s path and readied his spear for a quick stab. Now for a trick that Eva didn’t like because it gave a moment when she couldn’t change her course, but she felt judging by the man’s actions it would work. Instead of a head long charge, Eva veered slightly to the side, jumped, and used her right leg to propel herself further off a tree. As planned her left leg put unexpected pressure and weight on the top of his shield, causing it to tilt into another surface. As he was trying to react, and stab at her from the sudden change in location, she bent her leg, sending her into a roll over the man. This let Eva stab her sword between his helmet and armour, then use the momentum to get her sword free.
This gave the others in the group the time to respond to the sudden shift in location, and already they were moving in on her position. As it currently stood, the most dangerous one was the great weapon user Eva had just avoided. Keen to prevent the chance of a backstab when she actually had to confront the swordswoman again, Eva went at the one with the twin swords. She hated fighting those who were skilled enough to be ambidextrous with their weapons.
The man certainly wasn’t Ashan, so was likely from one of the other lands that had been conquered by them. The blade in his left arm was reversed, so it was likely going to be used primarily for blocking. Eva went for an initial, probing attack to the centre to see which side he parried with, already prepared to pull back. Blocked with left, attack with right. Getting away with a long gash down her right arm, Eva winced, but she had grown well accustomed to pain these last few weeks. Then her arm began to sting, shortly it started to feel like it was burning from the inside out. The bastard was using a poison.
Gritting her teeth Eva knew that the poison ought to be expelled from her system even as the wound sealed. It wasn’t a particularly bad injury, but it might foul further strikes. A narrowly avoided stab from the right materialized as the second soldier began her attack. Perhaps she had bitten off more than she could chew.
Desperation lending her strength, Eva threw her sword at the man with the short swords. He parried it out of the way with his left sword, but in his shock, he wasn’t prepared for Eva stepping in and forcing the sword in his right hand directly between his ribs. She felt a flash of pain as she took a spear to the back as she pried the blocking sword from the dead man’s hand.
Thankfully the soldier pulled the spear out for a second blow. Turning, Eva used her left arm as a shield and falling onto her back, she felt the spear hit the bone in her arm. Letting out a cry, Eva kicked out at the soldiers legs beneath the shield. That sent her opponent stumbling. Using the opportunity to stand, Eva saw that the woman with the great sword was bearing down on her and that the man with the rapier was manoeuvring to her back. Not enough time to deal with him though.
