Leon could see his Thunderblast spell go off in the distance, and he immediately turned around and ran back into the forest, trusting in his invisibility ring and skills in the forest to keep him hidden. He could hear the thousands of people in the camp begin to scream, followed soon after by a series of explosions that he recognized as his own spells. They weren’t numerous, but he was sure they still did damage—they’d been fired by Valeria and Alix, after all, and even if he trusted nothing more about them, he knew that their archery skills were on point.

He didn’t hear what Lapis did, but he didn’t doubt the stone giant for a second. It was hundreds of years old, Leon was sure, and from the way it moved through the earth, he couldn’t imagine it would run into much difficulty with all the other more pressing distractions around the camp.

Thus, it was no surprise to him when, only minutes after he arrived at their fallback point, Anzu arrived with the ladies on his back, followed by Lapis a minute or two later, emerging from the ground as if it had been buried there for centuries and only now woke up.

“Well?” Leon asked, his smiling face hidden behind his helmet. The simple fact that no one was injured was enough for him to know that the mission went off without a hitch, but he wanted details.

“We hit the biggest tents,” Valeria swiftly and professionally reported. “We can’t say for certain what was in them, but whatever it was, it’s gone up in smoke.”

“We also used all of the spell arrows,” Alix added. “They didn’t see us, and if they tried shooting us down, they never came close. As a result, we used all of the remaining arrows.”

Leon nodded, his smile widening. His eyes then turned to Lapis.

“Numerous humans survived in the tent you destroyed, Leon,” the giant rumbled, its language sounding so much like an avalanche or grinding stone that the ladies had no hope of understanding what it was Lapis said. On top of that, stone giants had no facial features, and didn’t communicate much with their body, so Valeria and Alix were kept almost completely in the dark until Leon translated after the conversation was over. “I killed all those who remained and made an offering of their bodies to the gods—to your Ancestors.”

Leon felt something akin to appreciation welling up from within him, though he knew it wasn’t coming from him.

You watching right now? he asked anyone who might be listening in from his soul realm.

Of course, I am, came the smooth, melodic voice of the Thunderbird’s voice when in human form.

You say that as if I should’ve been expecting you to watch, Leon responded with a hint of accusation, though his mild amusement covered it well.

Mmm. You’d have noticed if you’d been paying attention, his Ancestor replied. You know, you ought to take a few cues from your pet rock, at least it knows how to show some proper courtesy.

I’m not going to sacrifice people to you, Leon said, his tone immediately growing dark and serious.

Not what I was implying you should do, but you should be grateful that I allow you to speak with such informality, boy, the Thunderbird retorted, and Leon felt her attention shift away. If he were in his soul realm, he guessed that he would probably be seeing her flying away into the Mists of Chaos right now.

Shaking his head a bit to return to his current circumstances, Leon rubbed Anzu’s feathered head and said to the rest, “Good work. Let’s get the hells out of here.”

—

“Look at that…” Grim murmured.

“Are they retreating…?” the fourth-tier knight beside him wondered aloud.

“Looks like they’re tucking and running,” Grim replied.

The two were on a hill with a fine, if imperfect, view of the valley. They were keeping an eye on Octavius’ forces, and though they couldn’t make out too many details, the movement of thousands of people wasn’t so easily concealed.

The two knights could see the army they’d been sent to delay turning around and moving back roughly west, but their specific route gave Grim some pause.

“They’re not taking the same route they took previously…” Grim observed.

“Regardless, they seem to be retreating,” the other knight said.

“Right, let’s go report in.”

—

“They’re not retreating,” Leon said as he stared at the map in front of him. On it was marked the location of Octavius’ army and the rough direction they had been heading in. What Leon stated, however, wasn’t that revelatory, he was simply stating what was on the mind of the knights that had gathered to plan another raid.

The army was moving in the direction of a nearby castle. The castle was small enough that it had been safely ignored up until this point, but with the army heading directly for it now, it seemed that something had changed.

It was a terrible situation for the Baron of the castle, but for Leon’s small force of two hundred, Prince August, and the thousands of affiliated knights holding the pass to Ironford, it was some of the best news they could ever receive, for Octavius’ force wasn’t just marching through their pain to reach Ironford.

“I agree,” Grim said. He and the other knight that had been sent scouting hadn’t been able to see the castle, but now that he was looking at a map, it was almost painfully obvious where the army was heading. “If I had to guess, I would say that the attacks last night severely disrupted their supplies, and they need to restock.”

“That would be the best-case scenario, I think,” Leon replied. “It’s possible that when Lapis and I killed Count Tarsus, another knight took his place who’s taking a more cautious and systematic approach. Hells, maybe they just think that the few rural fighters that Baron… whoever owns that castle was responsible for the attack. We can’t say for sure. No matter their intentions, I think we can chalk this up as an absolute win.”

The other knights around the table nodded their heads—the three fifth-tier knights were present, along with the fourth-tier squad leaders, Valeria, and Alix. They didn’t have the exact numbers, but it was clear they had inflicted heavy casualties upon their enemy while not taking so much as a single battlefield injury of their own—though one of their lower-tiered knights managed to slip and fall close to their camp in the hills and break his leg. This detour that Octavius’ fighters were taking would give them at least a day, maybe even more.

They just had to keep the army from reaching Ironford until the 7th Legion came up from the south. They only had one problem: they were out of explosion spells. Leon’s entire stash—and those humbler spell collections of the other knights—had been used up in their raid the previous night, and though he still had quite a few Thunderblast and white fire spells, it simply wasn’t enough to make that big of a difference when dealing with an enemy ten thousand strong unless used very judiciously.

“If we’re going to assume that they’re moving over to this castle to resupply, then that presents an opportunity,” Valeria stated quietly, though she drew the attention of everyone else. “They’ll send out scouting and foraging parties, and we can make some of those people disappear.”

Leon cocked an eyebrow in mild surprise at how matter-of-factly Valeria made this suggestion, but he agreed completely. In fact, this sort of fighting was what he was best at. He’d never seriously fought in a shield wall before so he didn’t know how good he’d be if he were stuck into one, but running around in the forest with his bow in hand shooting at isolated groups of enemy combatants… well that was something that he was more than comfortable doing.

“There’s not much else we can do,” the fifth-tier knight—whose name Leon still hadn’t learned yet—said in support of Valeria’s suggestion, “we’re outnumbered worse than whores on the day that the troops come home, and if we try to fight in the open, we’d get **ed even harder. Best not to fight in the open.”

A few frowns could be seen around the table from the crude comparison, but no one could disagree. Their tactical and strategic situation was terrible, and while Leon had sent word back to Minerva about how bad it was, he wasn’t expecting any assistance from her end given that her force was facing down an army of their own the size of two Legions.

“Let’s do it,” Leon said. “Let’s bleed them dry from a thousand cuts. If they can’t move or resupply without fear of attacks, then they won’t move quickly. All we need to do is hold until the 7th Legion arrives.”

Glancing around at the faces of the knights listening to him, Leon felt his heart flutter a bit in anxiety. He spoke with confidence, but he couldn’t banish the feeling of doubt that had settled into his chest. He was much younger than just about everyone else here, and effectively unproven in command, so even if he knew he was making the correct call in the situation, he simply couldn’t get rid of the idea in the back of his mind that he was leading everyone to their doom.

Fortunately for him, his natural stoicism helped to mask his anxiety, and not a single person questioned the strategy he’d settled on.

Leon continued, “We’re also going to pull up camp. We shouldn’t have a permanent place that can be attacked. Best to stay on the move. We’re smaller and can move much faster. Best not to give up that advantage even if it makes us a bit less comfortable.”

There was a bit of grumbling, but the practicality of Leon’s order outweighed anything else they may have wanted to say. Leon counted himself lucky that these were knights from Trajan’s retinue, and Trajan’s retainers were too disciplined and experienced to be picky about where they slept when on campaign.

The specific logistics of their move was quickly worked out, and then Leon’s group broke camp and vanished into the forest. They had an army to harass.

—

Gaius sighed as the gate of the castle came crashing down. It brought him no pleasure to seize this castle and kill its defenders, but it had to be done. Were it his choice, they wouldn’t have taken it, but his army needed the supplies within if they were to accomplish the mission that Octavius had given them.

Gaius had to admit, though, that he was more than a little conflicted as he walked through the gate and into the small, muddy bailey. He couldn’t imagine how it would feel if someone were to take his home, the palace in the Duchy of Lentia, and he had just done that to the Baron who had lived here.

Several times over the past day and a half since Tarsus had died, Gaius had played with the idea of simply letting the army fall apart and letting the mission fail, but in the end, he felt like he couldn’t. As much as he hated Octavius and those the Prince surrounded himself with, Gaius couldn’t defy the orders he had been given. This was a Royal mission to bring traitors to justice, not turning a blind eye to Earthshaker’s horrific hobbies.

Still, Gaius felt awful.

The Baron who owned the castle had fled almost two days ago, before even Tarsus’ death, leaving about twenty knights and forty men-at-arms to occupy the wooden, unenchanted structure. These people were remarkably loyal to their Baron, for even when Gaius’ army showed up on their doorstep and made a grand display of their power, the castle gate remained closed.

It wasn’t a large place, barely large enough to house a granary, a small two-story keep with only four rooms, cramped barracks that barely managed to house its garrison, and a shrine to the owner’s Ancestors. The walls were only twenty feet tall, and without enchantments to keep Gaius’ stronger knights out, they were easily able to leap right over them and reach the castle’s small bailey.

From there, it was easy to enough to open the wooden gates, though they had to kill most of the knights and men-at-arms defending the castle, for they did not surrender.

The castle itself had been built atop a steep hill, with the rocky terrain to its north rough enough that Gaius could only reasonably approach from the south, not that that stopped him. There were a few injuries on his side from projectile weapons, but the price for taking the castle was only five injuries and two deaths—not too bad for taking the strong point.

Unfortunately, this castle was also far too small to house even a small fraction of the army, but Gaius quickly set about fixing that. The castle was taken not long after midday, and by the time the sun set, enough of the surrounding forest had been cleared to build a workable camp with low walls.

The knights, men-at-arms, and all their squires didn’t work with the efficiency of Legion soldiers, but Gaius couldn’t help but be impressed with what they had accomplished after the thrashing they had recently taken. Even better, some of the more powerful knights had some limited enchanting skills, and the walls were reinforced with magic. Gaius knew that if whoever had attacked them came back, they would not find the camp nearly as vulnerable as they had two nights previous.

As the camp was being established, he also sent out small foraging parties to hunt down some food to replenish their depleted stores, as well as a few more parties to visit the villages in the area to procure some much needed supplies from them. There would be violence when they arrived at the villages, that much he knew, but his first priority was to keep the army he was in charge of from starving. He gave strict instructions not to sack the villages—not that he felt like there would be much there to sack—but still, people would die because he’d sent knights out to retrieve much-needed supplies. That responsibility weighed heavily on his mind, and he didn’t think he’d be getting a good night’s sleep despite the camp’s greatly increased safety standards.

As the sun was setting, Gaius was busy inspecting the hastily-constructed walls with Dame Victoria at his side. Sir Marius was busy keeping the knights and their men-at-arms organized—or so Gaius thought, for as he was nearing the end of his inspection, Marius and a handful of others, mostly higher-tiered knights, came running over to him.

“Sir Tullius!” Marius called out, all noble pride in his voice gone.

“What is it?” Gaius asked, a little startled at the group’s expressions; some panicked, others deadly serious.

“Almost a quarter of our foragers have been attacked in the forest!” Marius reported.