A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 1196 Candles in the Wind - Part 4
1196: Candles in the Wind – Part 4
1196: Candles in the Wind – Part 4
But nothing beyond this battle mattered any more to Zilan.
If it be war against his lessers, then he would win that war.
“You,” he said pointing to one of his Rogue Commandants.
“You will command this army in my place.”
If there was a risk to be taken, then General Zilan was determined to take it.
He removed the fetters of politics that limited him.
Rogue Commandant Torn was a man to be trusted.
He was a man that General Zilan had seen brought up through the ranks himself.
He wasn’t a man merely at his side for the sake of someone else’s marriage.
There was true competence in the manner.
Leaving his army of thousands in the hands of a trusted subordinate, General Zilan put his heels to his horse, and he left through the ranks of men.
Just a single General, and the sword that he had brought with him.
That was the tool, the great gamble, that he was determined to use to upset the advantage that Oliver Patrick had managed to stake.
The great weight was none other than himself.
When he galloped across the plains, with no men to flank him, he was struck by the strangest sort of freedom.
Now he knew surprise was on Rainheart’s face, without even looking up at him.
And he knew that terror was on the eyes of those enemies as he approached.
A strategically poor position or not, with the presence of a General, those chariotmen would not fall so easily.
Nor could his main army be easily attacked, just from his lack.
A single man was far easier to reposition than thousands, after all.
…
…
Oliver knew something to be stirring.
Whenever there was a period of change on a battlefield, there was a degree of energy there that could be used by both sides of the battlefield to pursue further transformations.
It was after a successful attack that Professor Volguard had taught him to be most wary, for it was after a successful upsetting of the battle board that he would often be weakest.
Especially a chaotic upsetting of the sort that Oliver had managed.
One that was exclusively tactical in its nature.
When he saw General Zilan thrumming his way across the battlefield on that giant horse of his, he would have been lying if he said he was not surprised.
But it was not a surprise that shook him to his core, for his instincts by now had known to expect it.
Zilan would not stand by and give them a clear cut advantage.
He could not allow the murky waters to clear themselves.
He needed to act, whilst chaos was still afoot.
“Cunning,” Oliver had to acknowledge.
The pincer attack that Rainheart had inflicted on Zilan had been used against him, for Rainheart was still atop his castle walls.
Even if he were to muster all his men from the gates there and then, then the position of his troops would be no better or worse for it.
They wouldn’t be able to eke out any sort of true punishment, unless Rainheart was able to join the fray himself, in advance of Zilan.
And by the speed that Zilan was moving at, it seemed unlikely that Rainheart would have such a window.
“What shall we say, my Lord?” Verdant said.
Naturally, the regathering of their army had prompted a want for even faster movement.
They saw the state that their other half was in, given their encirclement by the chariots… But to move recklessly then would have been a poor decision to make.
As difficult as it was to do, the men were picking their way back across the battlefield at a measured pace, trying to regain the breath that they’d already spent in their fighting.
It was not an answer that Oliver could give readily.
The placement of a General of Zilan’s calibre was likely to upset the position’s balance more than slightly.
And yet, what other option did they really have than to go forward?
He weighed it in his head, knowing very well that he would be unlikely to stand against General Zilan in single combat, given how far above him Khan had stood… And yet, he knew of no other option.
Would they not simply have to attack fast once more, and hope that they can make use of their rear-attack, before the effect of General Zilan’s presence was truly felt?
Oliver did not rush towards a conclusion in thought there.
He was beginning to feel, rather strongly, that they had reached a game defining moment.
It was the same sense that Volguard had taught him to see on a Battle board. freeweɓnovel.cøm
There was a moment when victory, or defeat was irrevocably secured.
It was not until he heard the sounding of a war horn that Oliver understood just how significant a position it was that he stood in.
AWOOOOOOooooooooooo!
The long drawn-out groan, like the howling of a whole legion of wolves, thundered across the battlefield, before the Stormfront men began to thunder after it, chasing the wave of sound that sped southwards.
Rainheart had made his move, before Oliver could even think to make his.
All his men, as far as Oliver could see, were set to charging.
The man himself had disappeared from the top of the wall.
He’d sensed a moment of opportunity, and he’d thrown all that he had on it.
The opportunity to change the battle from a defensive one to an offensive one – that was likely the moment that all the Stormfront Generals had been waiting for.
All the foes that the Stormfront had battled over the centuries knew that to be a truth, that the Stormfront always fought better when they were the ones doing the attacking.
It was a mighty, horrifying thing.
So many thousands of men charging in a single engagement.
General Rainheart’s five thousand, against Zilan’s twenty thousand.
They were a river of shining steel on one side, and a rainbow of colours on the other, from the wide billowing and intricately dyed garments that the Verna men seemed fond of wearing.
