A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 1004 - The Counterattack - Part 3

1004: The Counterattack – Part 3

1004: The Counterattack – Part 3

“Besides, you secured yourself a worthwhile head, did you not?” Karstly said.

“I suppose with that sort of victory, I can forgive your little foray off into the unknown, at least for now.

Though I would give you a warning, Captain Patrick.”

“Yes, General?” Oliver said.

The General’s face took a more menacing tone.

“If you stray too far in the direction of my intentions, even I will not be able to avoid getting angry.

You were lucky on this occasion that your actions were salvageable.

That might not be the case in the future.

I am quite content to let an overexcited youth die for the good of the group.”

“…Very well,” Oliver replied slowly, recognizing the fact that the man was entirely serious about that declaration.

He almost gave voice to another thought on his mind, but he kept it silent.

‘If I knew what your intentions are, then wouldn’t I be less likely to impede them?’

“Now,” Karstly clapped his hands together.

“Do you suppose that your men are rested, Oliver Patrick?”

“…I do not think so,” Oliver replied, looking back on his troops.

They were haggard.

They’d been plunged into the heart of the fray for far too long.

It was not inaccurate to say that their position on the battlefield had been more intense than any other in their army.

“It would be surprising if that wasn’t the case,” Karstly said.

“Nevertheless!

They must journey forth again.

This is the burden that you have placed on them, and this is the path that will unfold.

You’ve left your mark on this battlefield, and I would be a fool not to use it.

I think it’s quite time that we put all our pieces together, don’t you?”

He gestured to the area around them with a grand flourish of his hand, encapsulating both the terrain, and the Blackthorn men doing battle ahead of them.

“Everyone is so eager to get what they want out of a battle,” Karstly said with a sigh.

“As compassionate a man as I am, I suppose I ought to give it to them.

What say you, Samuel?

Ought we move ahead?”

“…I think we’ve wished to move ahead for quite a while, General,” Samuel replied.

Karstly grinned at that.

“Ever the wet blanket.

Of course, we’ve wished to move – but before the opportunity did not present itself.

I wonder quite what our Verna friend atop that tower will think when he spies my intentions…?” He trailed off for a second, as if imagining his reaction.

“Well, we had best not keep him waiting.”

“ALL RESERVE UNITS!” General Karstly said.

“IN FORMATION!”

The men were already in formation, but General Karstly gave that command anyway, as if to ready them for something.

Even Oliver found that he’d gone tense.

He supposed it to be from the degree of Command that had leaked into the foppish General’s voice.

“My earlier command,” Karstly said, lowering his voice to speak to Lombard and Oliver.

“Do you think we can achieve it with two thousand men?

And, indeed, a devilishly handsome General at the front of them?”

He flashed a devilish smile to pair with his assertion, and then he raised both hands up into the air as if he were a conductor.

He knew very well that the Blackthorn Colonels were looking his way, trying to gauge his intentions, just as Karsty’s troops always did.

His show was just as much for them as it was for the enemy.

With his hand high above his head, he brought his arm together in an arrow, and lowered it down in line with General Khan’s tower.

“By the front,” Karstly said, his voice low.

“CHAARRGGEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

It was chaos from then.

It was left to Karstly’s officers to imbue battlefield order where he’d merely manifested ideas.

He’d decided, as suddenly as he often did, that the opportunity had come for him to take to the frontlines himself once more.

He’d simply screamed for his men to charge, and then he’d lurched forward on his horse by his lonesome, leaving Oliver and Lombard in his dust.

The two shared a look, before hastening to put a foot to their horses in order to follow after the man.

“Halt!” Samuel said.

He was both an attendant, and an interpreter.

From the weary look on his face, it was easy to tell that this was an occurrence he was used to dealing with. freewebnoveℓ.com

“You will need to wait for the men to get into formation.

The Patrick and Lombard forces will take the centre, behind General Karstly’s advance force.

The rest will take positions where they are able.”

Samuel was an interpreter, and then it was down to other officers amongst Karstly’s cabinet to transmit those orders to the rest of the men.

His shout for Oliver and Lombard to halt had come at the right time.

The two of them had been too caught up in General Karstly’s enthusiasm to recognize the disorganized state of their men.

For one, their army was facing in entirely the wrong direction.

They were oriented to the south, where the Blackthorn men were still charging forward, whilst General Karstly was charging with his fifty closest men towards the east, where General Khan lay in wait atop his tower.

Now both Lombard and Oliver had to shout orders of their own.

“We’re going back in!” Oliver said, in the way that he knew his men would understand best.

“Right the ranks, and follow after the General!”

“To the east!” Verdant shouted, relaying that same command.

He spoke both to the Blackthorn men, and the bulk of the Patrick soldiers, knowing full well that it would take Lasha a second before she transmitted the order herself.

“After the General…” Lasha said a moment later, a degree quieter.

She seemed almost unenthusiastic to the ones that did not know her well, though, on close inspection, they would have seen that there was a burning fire in her dark eyes.

There was still more that she wished to accomplish on this battlefield.