Rebirth of the Phoenix God

If someone derived their knowledge about the warfare from the great historical accords, then he or she would be utterly disappointed with how it really looked. Even though the relatively small scale of the local conflict prevented most of the normal issues from growing out of the scope that humans could handle, just by looking attentively enough one could already spot those problems.

Thankfully, Fen could observe this sorry situation form the position of the absolutely most elite unit that handled its own supplies and overall management. If their group were to rely on the logistics and planning that the rest of the small army of the local lord, then it would be doubtful whether as much as half of them would remain in line when the actual battle would start.

But just like the camp of the common soldiers on their sides was the amalgamation of the horrors that one could only experience in the military, the young man had no doubt that the other side used exactly the same methods to amass their forces and to keep them in line.

In other words, people here were fighting not because they wanted to do so or not even because they saw a profit in it. Most of them were simply serfs who heard the order to put down their farming tools and take up their arms… which in this particular case, meant picking up the farming tools they dropped a moment ago. 

"I guess I won the bet."

Standing atop a small hill, outside of the mainline of their friendly forces, Fen muttered to Victor beside him. Looking over the two lines of fake soldiers that eyed each other while the last attempted and pretend act of diplomacy was taking place in no-man's-land between them, the young arcanist couldn't help but smile. 

"Seems like that's the case. The next dinner is on me."

Spewing those words with an honest dose of disappointment strangely enough mixed with happiness, Victor turned around. His intentions were clear. Now that their disagreement proved to side in favour of his relatively new friend, there was nothing else that they could do on this hill. 

Any moment from now, either of the politicians that incited this conflicts would throw a fit, disagreeing to the obviously over oppressive terms that the other side would propose. After all, this fight would decide who would live like a king for the next few months, and who would live like just a high noble! 

As for the lines full of poor victims of their politics that would soon start to kill each other only because their lords wanted to rob the other… Absolutely no one paid them any mind!

At least, no one outside of Fen. 

Gazing at the lines of poor serfs that tightly pressed their fingers against their scythes, axes and whatever they could turn into a lethal weapon from their farming tools, he could see the same look of desperation and powerlessness that he felt back when he had to face not only the wild monsters in the forest beside his village but also a damned arcanist inquisitor chasing him down.

Straining his eyes a bit, Fen ignored the mute pleas in the eyes of the majority of people within both armies, focusing on what was actually important. In this battle, as cold-blooded as it could sound, it wasn't the number of poor serfs that counted. They were here only to make up for the mass, while the true forces of both sides would decide the fight between themselves.

"Here they are…"

After a few moments, just when a small commotion appeared in the area where the diplomatic missions of both sides pretended to strive to prevent the battle from happening, Fen noticed a slightly different group of soldiers within the enemy ranks.

Instead of standing as close as they could, hoping that just their mass would be enough to slaughter the opponent, a small group of people was standing in a relatively loose formation. Thanks to his elevated position and his vision improving by leaps and bounds ever since the young man went through the strange experience at the fire-flower garden, Fen could see that under the loose layer of rags, those people actually wore quality armour, indicating that this time the fight wouldn't be as easy as when some other enemies of Fen's current employer thought they could defeat veterans just by throwing enough serfs at them.

While that approach of defeating the skill with a mass could work, it required the other side to be devoid of its own mass and consist of a thin number of the veteran troops alone!

"Hey, Fen… I might be wrong here, but I think I recognise some of their armours. If my gut feeling is right… Then it might be quite risky for you to do what you proposed. They might have water and wind arcanists in there."

This was yet another thing that Fen had to face once he joined Victor's mercenary group. In this world, while fire arcanists belonged to a great majority of all the arcanists, they were by no means the only ones capable of wielding the elements!

"That would indeed make things harder… or who am I lying to. If you are right, then trying my plan would mean a certain death…"

Instead of raising with pride and claiming that he could defeat anyone he would face, Fen simply acknowledged how dangerous his mission suddenly turned out to be. For a moment, the young man even started to reconsider whether or not his way of doing things was correct, yet when faced with the option of partaking in a mass slaughter of innocent people just for the sake of it…

"Wait a minute…"

There were times when some stupid nobles threw masses of untrained serfs at the smaller forces of their employer, hoping that the numbers alone would be enough to overwhelm them. While it was proven that as long as the veterans like Victor's group had enough cover from their own mass of cannon fodder, then even doubling their numbers wouldn't be enough to tire the veterans down…

But what if two equal groups of veterans were to face against each other? In that scenario, the side with more serfs would obviously win just due to the sheer chance!

"Victor… I might have another idea. Tell me, do you still have some horses or did you sold them all?"

Turning to the leader of the group with a strange look of excitement on his face, Fen couldn't stop himself from smiling when he saw his leader nodding his head in response.

"Great. Can you organise ten… no, twenty of the most barbaric looking people from our army? They will suffice as long as they can ride the horses…"

Moving his eyes back towards the field of the incoming battle, Fen could see that their time was quickly running out. While the general advance has yet to start yet, the sight of both diplomatic missions returning to their own ranks meant that it was only a matter of a few whiles before it would happen.

"I could, but why the heck would I do that?"

Placing his hands on his sides, Victor looked at his young friend with a puzzled look on his face. Given how this wasn't the first time when Fen came up with an unorthodox method to solve the otherwise stalemate situations, he could bother to listen to his words instead of disregarding them before putting his young subordinate back in his place.

"What if I tell you that I can singlehandedly win this battle? Sadly, I won't be able to prevent the initial crash, but I wonder what will happen when their troops will see a group of devious looking bandits on horses, led by a flying arcanist, taking a detour around the front line and riding off to the villages and towns behind the back of the enemy line…"

Once again, the bulk of both armies consisted of serfs. Most of the people on the battlefield were simple men forced away from their fields and families with the order of their lord. For now, those several mercenaries, veterans and professional soldiers that were mixed in the ranks of both of armies were enough to keep everyone in line…

But in the heat of the battle, when officers would be busy controlling the situation at the front when those simple people would see a group easily capable of burning an entire village for breakfast ignoring the fight and racing towards their homes and families and crops… 

"This might work. I will organise them right away. Where do you want me to bring them?"

Sensing the opportunity, Victor couldn't stop a relatively rare smile from appearing on his face. While as a normal person he was quite open if not to say - extroverted, whenever he was in the shoes of the group's leader, it was a rare chance to see anything outside of his usual cold expression on his face.

"Just behind this hill. If they see the group in advance, they will most likely think that we are preparing a cavalry flanking strike."

While both of the armies consisted mostly of serfs and otherwise simple people, in this barren land of the north, warmongering was the one sport that most of the nobles could enjoy. As such, Fen had no doubt that if he gave the enemy any reason to expect a horse strike, they would quickly prepare some countermeasures for it. 

"Sure. Give me just two minutes…"

Not daring to waste any time, Victor ran off to the camp, while Fen remained at his position on top of the hill. Just like expected, both of the armies soon started moving. Step by step, the long lines of terrified people continued to get closer and closer… Only for a sudden sounding of the horn to completely destroy any semblance of order, with both of the armies suddenly dashing forward!

"Fen! They are here!"

Already on a horse on his own, Victor only pointed his hand at the small unit of about twenty mounted men behind him, before waving his hand and driving off towards the battlefield. No matter what his subordinate was trying to do, Victor's place was in the middle of the rest of his group!

"Men! Do you wish to stop this fight? Do you wish to return back home victorious?!"

Intentionally starting the speech with some stuff that those men couldn't care less about, Fen smiled when he noticed the absolute lack of reaction from them.

"How about getting rich and robbing their lands while those idiots are busy fighting?!"

For a certain reason, this was the tensest moment for the young man. Focusing all his attention, he looked at the now intense reaction of his new unit, noticing only a few who clearly hesitated to partake in such a raid.

"Then what the hell are you all waiting for?"

A sound of the two lines of men crashing into each other in the distance announced that the battle has now officially started. There was no more time to waste.

"FOLLOW ME!"