The Rawn Chronicles Book One: The Orrinn and the Blacksword: Unabridged (The Rawn Chronicles Series 1) by P.D. Ceanneir
Authors: P.D. Ceanneir
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will be an adequate substitute,” he shouted, and walked back to his lines, where he received applause from the soldiers.
Verbal communications on both sides broke down at that point.
Mad-daimen unleashed his archers first; a mass of black arrows filled the sky. The allies squatted behind their shields and flinched at the impact; some screams issued along the ranks as the bodkins found their targets and pierced flesh. Ness Ri watched as his king sat his horse calmly behind the rows of shielded men, the arrows fell like sharp rain around him; if any came close, he would beat them away with the wind element which he quickly summoned with a wave of his arms.
The problem that the allies had was the weather and the dim early evening light; the black arrows were hard to see against the dark clouds. Many men fell against this torrent of sharp hail due to that fact.
When the rebel bombardment stopped, the allied kings ordered their own longbow archers up, and another storm of arrows flew through the air, this time in the opposite direction. Mad-daimen’s host took the brunt of the allied volley gracefully, but the archers never stopped firing down upon the rebels. Soon, the enemy host would break.
After several minutes of constant battering, Mad-daimen gave the order to charge through the boggy field of white-feathered arrows. The Rogun front rank of spear and shield footmen braced for the impact of several thousand screaming warriors running over the wet ground. Hail had turned to sleet and the rainwater splashed out of puddles by thousands of booted feet as the Nithi host charged forward in an undulating surge.
The enemy slammed into the Rogun front rank of spearmen with such a force that the whole Rogun host fell back several paces before they dug into the slick ground and started to push back. Officers screamed out orders to hold the wall of overlapping shields and quickly fill gaps should any soldier fall.
Rebel soldiers screamed as spear points pierced their flesh due to the push from the rear and the attacks momentum. Nithi axmen tilted Rogun shields and hacked down, slicing through helmet and skull. The ground pummelled into a morass of mud, and footing was hard to find by soldiers on both sides. The Roguns began to slowly fall back under the weight of the Nithi.
Lord Rett rode into the enemy left flank with fifty horses in a V-shaped formation. It had the effect of splitting men off from one side of the enemy, but those men ran back to their second lines, where a row of spears greeted the Red Duke’s men on the outskirts of the marshes. The duke saw the danger of the softer ground just in time and gave a hand signal to his men, who wheeled their horse’s right, in a well-executed formation. The enemy was trying to bog them into the marsh, where they would be easy pickings.
Lord Ness could see the rebel tactics as well as Lord Rett. They had mainly attacked the Rogun right flank and had succeeded in pushing them around one hundred and eighty degrees. Mad-daimen’s archers fired at close range into the Sonoran ranks to keep them pinned. A gap had opened up in the middle of their lines as it began to disintegrate, and King Hagan rushed in with a handful of Carras Knights and infantry to close it.
Carras Knights on the Sonoran left braved the boggy terrain and dispersed the archers, cutting most down were they stood. However, they were slowed by the wet ground and caught by the rebel spears; there followed a short battle there as the knights eventually disengaged with half of their original number.
The rebel spears from the second formation ran straight towards the Sonoran Kings thinly organised formation that now filled the gap, which included a mix of allied soldiers’ only two lines deep. However, they bravely held as the rebels attacked. King Hagan and his knights aided the front ranks from behind, using their longer lances to spear the enemy.
Nithi axmen slipped through their own warriors, started to hack
Verbal communications on both sides broke down at that point.
Mad-daimen unleashed his archers first; a mass of black arrows filled the sky. The allies squatted behind their shields and flinched at the impact; some screams issued along the ranks as the bodkins found their targets and pierced flesh. Ness Ri watched as his king sat his horse calmly behind the rows of shielded men, the arrows fell like sharp rain around him; if any came close, he would beat them away with the wind element which he quickly summoned with a wave of his arms.
The problem that the allies had was the weather and the dim early evening light; the black arrows were hard to see against the dark clouds. Many men fell against this torrent of sharp hail due to that fact.
When the rebel bombardment stopped, the allied kings ordered their own longbow archers up, and another storm of arrows flew through the air, this time in the opposite direction. Mad-daimen’s host took the brunt of the allied volley gracefully, but the archers never stopped firing down upon the rebels. Soon, the enemy host would break.
After several minutes of constant battering, Mad-daimen gave the order to charge through the boggy field of white-feathered arrows. The Rogun front rank of spear and shield footmen braced for the impact of several thousand screaming warriors running over the wet ground. Hail had turned to sleet and the rainwater splashed out of puddles by thousands of booted feet as the Nithi host charged forward in an undulating surge.
The enemy slammed into the Rogun front rank of spearmen with such a force that the whole Rogun host fell back several paces before they dug into the slick ground and started to push back. Officers screamed out orders to hold the wall of overlapping shields and quickly fill gaps should any soldier fall.
Rebel soldiers screamed as spear points pierced their flesh due to the push from the rear and the attacks momentum. Nithi axmen tilted Rogun shields and hacked down, slicing through helmet and skull. The ground pummelled into a morass of mud, and footing was hard to find by soldiers on both sides. The Roguns began to slowly fall back under the weight of the Nithi.
Lord Rett rode into the enemy left flank with fifty horses in a V-shaped formation. It had the effect of splitting men off from one side of the enemy, but those men ran back to their second lines, where a row of spears greeted the Red Duke’s men on the outskirts of the marshes. The duke saw the danger of the softer ground just in time and gave a hand signal to his men, who wheeled their horse’s right, in a well-executed formation. The enemy was trying to bog them into the marsh, where they would be easy pickings.
Lord Ness could see the rebel tactics as well as Lord Rett. They had mainly attacked the Rogun right flank and had succeeded in pushing them around one hundred and eighty degrees. Mad-daimen’s archers fired at close range into the Sonoran ranks to keep them pinned. A gap had opened up in the middle of their lines as it began to disintegrate, and King Hagan rushed in with a handful of Carras Knights and infantry to close it.
Carras Knights on the Sonoran left braved the boggy terrain and dispersed the archers, cutting most down were they stood. However, they were slowed by the wet ground and caught by the rebel spears; there followed a short battle there as the knights eventually disengaged with half of their original number.
The rebel spears from the second formation ran straight towards the Sonoran Kings thinly organised formation that now filled the gap, which included a mix of allied soldiers’ only two lines deep. However, they bravely held as the rebels attacked. King Hagan and his knights aided the front ranks from behind, using their longer lances to spear the enemy.
Nithi axmen slipped through their own warriors, started to hack
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