A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 1138 The Next Patrol - Part 9
1138: The Next Patrol – Part 9
1138: The Next Patrol – Part 9
He had to turn his horse with a jerk of the reins, and he had to bellow his order before he could even be sure that his men would be ready for it.
“PATRICK FORCES, ATTACK!” He said.
It came as suddenly for his own men as it did for the enemy.
Oliver separated from Karstly’s retreating men, with Verdant and Blackthorn behind him, and he took to the front.
Hearing Oliver, the Verna men quite rightly supposed that it was just another ruse designed to get them to react.
However, the Patrick men had no such second guessing.
They knew their Captain well enough that with a shout like that, their only thoughts were to action.
The four hundred men came rumbling across the battlefield, closing that rather sizable distance between them and the enemy.
The Blackthorn men followed with them, included in the banner of the Patrick forces, even if they might not have wished to be called that by name.
Oliver might have preferred to go faster, and take over those heavy shields with cavalry alone, but he knew Yorick’s men not to be of the level where he could trust in them to do that – not yet.
Even with their training, they were still lacking in overwhelming might.
However, there was one thing to be said of the Patrick Forces now, and that was that they were far more unified.
When he moved to call an order to his men, asking for Jorah and his unit to come to the front, he found that they were already there, exactly where he needed them to be. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
“THE SHIELD WALL IS YOURS, JORAH!
TEAR IT OPEN!”
Oliver slowed his horse.
It would be the first time in a while that he had led a charge and not seen it through to the end himself.
It almost felt as if his hand was still injured, and he had to rely on strategy alone.
With Jorah, there came the other two long-time retainers of Oliver.
Karesh and Kaya barred their way to the front, and when Karesh realized that he was a shoulder ahead of Kaya, he slowed ever so slightly.
A hundred men took to the front, with all the spears of the Verna army pointing at them, and the solidness of the heavy shield walls in their way, and they met the enemy with all the might that they could muster.
Kaya went in first, attracting all those spear points towards himself.
More than three were pointed at his chest, and he had no shield to fend them off with, nor even a weapon, save for the bladed gauntlets that he wore.
Just before he was due to get impaled, he took the slightest step back, allowing Karesh to go before him.
And with a mighty slash of his sword, Karesh barrelled all those spear points out the way, severing one, and battering the others with a considerable amount of force.
Had it been any other unit, they would have seen Karesh’s strike, but they wouldn’t have layered it with praise.
After all, those spear points were due to be set back in position again with a good amount of ease.
It seemed to be wasted effort.
And indeed, it would have been, if not for the presence of Kaya.
Now that the spear points were out of the way, he rushed in.
Just bare hands as he was.
He looked a most unintimidating sight.
Those blades on his gauntlets were easy to miss.
He grabbed a heavy shield with those strong hands of his, and he pulled.
There was an instant of surprise.
All the way, they’d watched that seemingly unarmed run with doubt written on their faces, and then when he had grabbed ahold of their shields, that doubt had only intensified, as anger brewed along with it, and they fought to get their spears into position to throw him off.
“You fool—” the Verna man had been about to say, until surprise had overcome him, and he found himself hurtling forward, unable to resist the weight dragging him down.
Before he knew it, there was a short blade embedded into his neck, and he was being stepped over, as if he was nothing more than a fleshy stepping stone.
Kaya’s assault didn’t stop there either.
He was in close, and when he was in close like that, even Second Boundary men would have struggled to deal with him.
He grabbed the next men in the shield wall in his iron grip.
The man struggled, searching for a weapon on his belt, and abandoning his shield, but Kaya was faster.
He plunged his blade into the man’s chest, looking as if he was punching him.
Once, then twice.
Even his chainmail offered little resistance.
Then, he moved straight onto the next man.
He caught his hand as he tried to raise his short curved sword, and then Kaya was tearing him to pieces as well.
It was a brutal display.
He looked thoroughly overwhelming.
It was a weakness in the position of the heavy shield bearers that likely none could take advantage of save for him.
And now, Karesh was joining the attack too.
He stepped in through the gap, and his sword began to swing, tearing the shield wielders apart from the back and from the sides.
They were killed in droves, and chaos began to ensue with it.
That was where Jorah excelled.
Where the gaps appeared, Jorah gave orders to his men to take advantage of them.
Steadily, brick by brick, he tore them apart, until the shieldwall was reduced to nothing.
Oliver had to nod his head, impressed.
He’d been told of the improvement of his men in this manner of tactic in particular.
They’d learned their enemy’s weapons after all, there was no reason not to prepare against them, and he’d even pushed Kaya to develop himself in the sort of direction that he had… still, for it to be so overwhelming, even he could not have expected as much.
