Spring, 1423

Mounted atop Mera, Jayna looked down at the enemy army from atop the hillside, the assembled Arcadian army behind her. A mile ahead, thousands of Imperial troops marched past in columns with banners fluttering and wagons and horses kicking up dust, aggressively pursuing after the rebels while oblivious to the fact that their target had finally turned to make a stand.

Jayna had chosen the strongest defensive position for miles: Mulden Hill was a tall, rocky knoll that dominated the surrounding landscape. As the Goldsboro Road wound its way over towards the Hinterlands, it made a sharp 90 degree turn around the rocky and wooded Southern face of the Mulden Hill before continuing North, where the promontory opened up into an imposing but gently sloping grassy ridgeline with a well-worn path dotted by a few houses.

Here, Jayna would fight. But she would not be defending.

Here, she would attack.

When the Imperial column had marched halfway across, Jayna silently raised her gonne in the air. The command flags were also raised aloft, and soon the entire army moved out without horns sounding out the attack.

Armed with spears and war scythes, the bulk of the Arcadian army advanced. Like great ships, flags and polearms bobbling like sails and masts, the rebel troops marched down Mulden Hill. Chagraff led the assault, marching with the foot, halbred on his back and gonne in hand, while Jayna observed the attack from the dragon a short distance behind.

“You know, your grandfather fought here in the Second Goblin War a century ago.” Mera suddenly stated.

Jayna looked at her companion. “He did?”

“It was before we met. Goblin Wars. He told me about it afterwards.”

The Arcadian leader smiled. “Perhaps Grandbaba’s luck will rub off on me.”

“I believe he said his side lost, and that he needed to flee for his life.”

“Oh.” Jayna bit her lip. “Well perhaps I’ll end up luckier than Grandbaba.”

***

In the valley below, the Imperial troops finally noticed with alarm the enemy force bearing down upon them, a cascade of calls and orders erupting as the troops scrambled to deploy into a battle line.

Chagraff rushed out with his gonners in front of the pikemen columns to take up enfilade positions.

“Fire!” The Ruthenian called as he lit the fuse of his weapon. Immediately a volley erupted, staggering the Imperial forces below.

“For Arcadia!” Chagraff continued as he holstered his gonne, picked up his halbred and lowered the visor to his helm, before rejoining the advancing polearm columns. The call was quickly picked up by the Arcadian forces, who began arcing into a crescent before colliding into the enemy forces. Surprised, disorganized, and hit from the front while the rebels overlapped both flanks, the Imperial force put up a sharp defense but after a short exchange of polearm thrusts began to crumble before the onslaught.

“It’s going!” Jayna exclaimed as the Imperial division faltered and units began to crack. She turned to her other offices. “Price, ready the cavalry. We will pursue the Imperials as soon as the line breaks.”

Mera however suddenly turned his head and looked towards the Southwest.

“There’s another enemy force approaching.” He uttered.

“What?” Jayna turned and looked down the road as well. For a minute she could see nothing, before a cloud of dust began to appear down from that direction. “Price said that-” The Arcadian leader turned back towards her outrider, who seemed as stunned as his commander.

“My scouts reported the distances just a day ago-”

“Nevermind.” Jayna shook her head. “Send out patrols and find where the other Imperial divisions are now. Throw the rest of the cavalry into slowing down the enemy reinforcements. I’ll go with Mera and see if we’re needed.”

At the bottom of the hill Chagraff was satisfied to see the enemy turn and flee after the sharp little clash.

“We got them on the run!” He called out, and the rebel army cheered and began pursuit, charging down the road and capturing prisoners and supplies. That elation lasted only briefly before it was interrupted by a horn blaring.

The Ruthenian stared in shock as fresh Imperial troops rounded the bend in the road and advanced upon the Arcadians.

“Shit! That is an entire division over there!” Chagraff exclaimed.

“We should fall back!” Danby replied.

“They're too close!” Ignlath responded. “They'll tear into us if we retreat!”

“We can’t stop now!” Murray's stentorian voice bellowed. “Only one way through this-keep fighting!”

“Reform and double ranks! This may be a red day!” Chagraff finally ordered, throwing his visor back down and reloading his gonne.

Ahead, the fresh troops of Sync’s army deployed into battle array, pikemen creating a solid wall of pikes while two onagers swung into action on the flanks, lobbing large stones that caused the rebels to hesitate. Then the Imperials continued advancing, slowly picking up speed for a charge, despite harassment from the Arcadian cavalry, punishing volleys from the gonnes and even attacks by Jayna and Mera, who dueled overhead with the screen of archers and crossbowmen below while attempting to neutralize the field engines.

The fight would have to be decided by the main body of infantry.

Chagraff’s forces reformed, slightly winded and bloodied but determined to face the enemy head on. As the enemy surged towards them and skirmishers, gonners and dragon broke off for fear of hitting allies, the Ruthenian dropped his smoking gonne and raised his halberd into the air before running to meet the Imperials.

“Charge! Show them the worth of your lives!”

With a cry of “Freedom!” The Arcadians surged forward again- absorbing huge stones tearing through their ranks-before charging into the meeting assault. The two opposing lines crashed violently into each other like the collision of two rams. Pikes and scythes lashed out like the heads of hydras, taking their victims in violent strokes. Arms, legs, heads flew into the air as the battle lines messily consumed human flesh.

A dozen heads rolled across the grass, tumbling past Chagraff. Wincing, the Arcadian commander defensively lowered head and blindly swung his halberd forward. The world rapidly descended into a tempest of blades, spearpoints, flashing steel, blood, sweat, yells and screams. Polearms clashed together, dealing deadly strokes, the weight of allies behind pushing and shoving against the weight of enemies doing the same in the opposite direction. From one flank Jayna cut her way into the maelstrom, jabbing at the odd figures that appeared out of the chaos. Mera guarded her from behind, afraid to use his flames in the close quarter combat but biting and clawing his way through dozens of enemies.

Like two titanic wrestlers the lines hugged each other, dead and wounded falling in heaps to the blood-stained grass below the action. The Arcadian line was suffering in the exchange, the front ranks melting away almost as quickly as the fallen were replaced.

But it stood firm against the Imperials.

“We’re holding! We’re holding! We’ve stopped them in their tracks!” The Ruthenian exclaimed in shock, as he parried a pikehead and thrust his weapon back at his assailant. He thought he heard a cry of pain in the chaos.

Jayna was suddenly beside him. “Let’s not rest at a draw Chagraff!”

An enemy commander in full plate armor suddenly appeared out of combat, striking down opponents left and right with his mace. He saw Jayna and swung, but the Arcadian leader dodged the blow while Chagraff tried to reply with a halberd stroke. The enemy parried that attempt and attacked again, cracking the shaft of Chagraff’s polearm, then dealing a glancing blow upon the Arcadian's spaulder. In response Chagraff tossed his cracked halberd at the enemy commander's head. The few moments it took for the Imperial to disentangle himself from the polearm head awkwardly wedged around his helm was sufficient: Jayna had loaded and lit her hand cannon and as the enemy commander came up again she stabbed him in the armpit with her awl, then lit the match and blew her opponent away.

Breathing heavily, the two Arcadian leaders nodded at each other, before Chagraff picked up a dropped pike and both rejoined the fight.

Slowly, the numbers and downhill position of the Arcadians began to tell. The Imperial lines staggered, then faltered as the pikemen in front lost ground or fell without being replaced fast enough.

And then the Imperial lines bent. And finally, it broke. Colonel Sync’s troops had fought well, but the Imperial general’s arrogance had caught up to him and superior training, experience and weapons and armor were of no match to poor positioning. Then Mera began pouncing on and shredding remaining pockets of resistance and the Imperial retreat turned into a rout.

Dropping their weapons, enemy troops began breaking into small groups, throwing off their armor and helmets to flee the carnage.

Jayna looked on in amazement.

“Those are regulars by the Heavens!”

The battered Arcadians cheered again.

“We’ve won! They’re all retreating!” Ignlath announced.

Jayna pointed her gonne down the road. “All units advance!”

The pursuit continued for three miles around Mulden Hill, capturing supplies and hundreds of prisoners.

The rebels however neglected to count on Mawhood yet again.

The colonel’s veteran legion, still bloodied from Farley’s Field, had been held in reserve at Burgess’ Crossroads. When the Arcadians chased after the two defeated Imperial divisions they were abruptly blindsided by an ambushing wave of pikes, tearing through the pursuers like threshed wheat and quickly shattering the advanced elements of the rebel forces. Soon the final Imperial force advanced again, brushing aside the scattered and tired opposition and collecting scattered allies. News quickly trickled back to the main Arcadian forces marching down the road.

“Good heavens will the Imperials stop popping out?” Chagraff exclaimed in exasperation at the renewed onslaught.

Jayna sighed at the second surprise report of the day.

“We need major work on our scouting arm.”

She then turned to the dragon. “But first we need to save the day. Is this time for you to lead the attack?”

Mera nodded and leaned down for Jayna to mount up. “I guess this is the moment I would most usefully serve the cause.”

The Arcadian leader climbed up on Mera’s back and put on her helm. “Let's do this.”

Quickly the great wyrm cantered down the road as Jayna raised her gonne overhead.

“We’re close!” She yelled at the scattered and bloodied Arcadian forces falling back before the Mawhood’s brigade. “We beat them here, or we retreat in disgrace again! Who’s with me?”

Eight hundred voices immediately around the Arcadian leader cheered back in response.

Jayna pointed her gonne with awlpike bayonet at the freshly approaching enemy.

“We charge!”

With a roar Mera bounded forward, carrying the Jayna and leading the ad–hoc demi brigade. With a cheer the rallied infantry followed, surging past the field, picking up stragglers and scattered groups of soldiers who turned and rejoined the fight. At the same time other retreating Arcadian formations reformed and reentered combat, so that soon 1600 rebels were surging towards the 900 troops of Mawhood’s brigade.

“Redeploy!” The enemy colonel called out. Within minutes the Imperial force stopped their pursuit and began to reform ranks to build a continuous line halfway up a nearby knoll.

As the Arcadian counterattack approached it gradually formed into a wedge with Jayna and the dragon in the apex. Bouncing atop her mount, the rebel leader was just wondering how Mawhood expected to face her assault when part of the Imperial line parted, revealing a wagon with a heavily strapped metallic cylinder and a crew lowering a lit linstock over a fuse.

“Bombard!” Jayna called out in alarm as she held on tightly to the wyrm's back.

Mera instinctively skirted to the left just as the Imperial weapons fired, wincing as a cannonball slammed to the ground right where he would have been without Jayna’s warning. For a moment both human and dragon watched as the projectile bounced by, tearing off clumps of dirt as it rolled, before it slammed into a pikeman charging behind them, tearing away the soldier’s entire upper torso in a shower of blood and sinew, his legs running a few more steps before toppling over. With a shaking their heads both figures turned back to face the enemy ahead of them. A second shot was more easily avoided, though it bowed over a dozen men behind them. A third fire at nearly point blank range was avoided by an evasive turn back right. With no further time to reload the enemy pikemen braced themselves for impact.

The dragon unleashed a ball of flame just as he was about to slam into the Imperial position, incinerating a score of enemy soldiers and disordering the Imperial line before tearing through the enemy ranks, knocking the bombard aside in the process. A few minutes later, the charging human rebels followed up and smashed into Mawhood’s command with a tremendous crash of blades and pikes.

The Imperial reserve staggered before the charge and was left with a hole torn through the center by an angry dragon but otherwise withstood the attack very well, absorbing the shock. For a few minutes the opposing sides roiled in violent, indecisive combat. Then again numbers and a death-dealing wyrm began to tell, and Mawhood’s brigade bent, then buckled.

The enemy colonel, his helm knocked off and covered in dirt and blood, knew when he was defeated. The mace quickly raised into the air again. “Retreat!”

Even defeated, the Imperials acted professionally, slowly giving ground with successive rearguard lines forming while the rest of the force ran through, preventing a pursuit and rout. Soon Mera tired of overrunning these stubborn positions and eventually stopped, satisfied with watching the last of Sync’s army flee the field and with dealing the indomitable enemy commander a stinging rebuke with half his brigade strewn across the hill.

Jayna dismounted and patted the dragon's neck.

“Finally. We did it. We won, Mera.” It was more a statement of disbelief than elation. The dragon nodded.

“Congratulations. You know, you remind me a lot of your grandfather: proud, unorthodox, and willing to charge headlong into the struggle like you were a bull.”

The Arcadian leader forced a laugh. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

---

The Stanfields - The Road to Guysborough

From  TheDinosaurMann!