The Foolhardies 206 Nothing But Trouble

"You traitorous sc.u.m no longer have a leader!" Blitzen added.

Although what they said was true, somehow, I didn't think the way they said it would demoralize the enemy. 

A few moments ago, my falchion pierced through Barducius' s.h.i.+eld and dove right into his chest behind the s.h.i.+eld. In fact, the force of my piercing strike was so strong that the shadowblade's tip broke through his back. 

That's when the dwarves began to shout my victory, and that's about when the enemy soldiers went berserk. Of the two things that could happen when a commander dies, the enemy chose the one where they would fight until their last breath so they might join their leader in death.

To be honest, the thought of fighting more than three thousand suicidal fairies was frightening. So it was a relief when Barducius used his dying breath to keep his soldiers from committing suicide. Ironically, this also kept us alive. 

"Soldiers of Barducius!" he yelled while he coughed up blood and while my falchion was still sticking out of him. "I command you to cease… all aggressive actions!" 

At the sound of his voice, his soldiers paused. 

"This death… is mine… alone," he roared. "You… will not… follow me…"

I could see his head over his s.h.i.+eld, and I saw the steely-eyed glare he sent me then. 

"Dean… Dapper… you have won… tonight," he rasped. "Run… run while you can… for tomorrow will bring more death…"

Those steely eyes turned mournful, almost as if he'd realized his time was spent. Now was the moment of his pa.s.sing.

"I die as I live... a warrior," he whispered. "My men—"

"—won't die tonight if they stop fighting," I answered his unspoken plea. "You have my word, Commander…" 

A slight nod of the head right before the eyes turned dull and gla.s.sy. The life 

I thought he was just a traitorous fool, nothing more than an errand boy for Garm. But an officer who can think of his men and their safety even in the face of his own mortality — that dude deserved respect. 

So I pulled falchion out of his chest, and this caused him to fall forward. So I caught him and lay him gingerly on the ground with all the respect he was due. 

"Commander, we should—"

"—Not another word, Floki," I said quietly. 

I moved my hand across Barducius' face and shut his still open eyelids to a close. And after I stood aside, several of his soldiers fell to his side and wept for their dead commander. 

"Huh, guess he wasn't so bad after all, right?" I wondered aloud. 

"Uh, he was pretty bad, Commander," Blitzen commented. 

"Yup, a real creep to the end… just look at that thing on his head," Floki added.

I sighed. Varda's soldiers seemed to have adopted their squad leader's lack of tact. 

"Edo!" I yelled, and although I was far away from his position southwest of me, I knew the half-ogre could hear me. "Cease fighting! This conflict is over!" 

Soon afterward, the fighting did stop, although it took a while for our left wing and the enemy's right wing to hear about it, meaning there was a lot more senseless death on that side of the battlefield. 

Garm's reserved army who had lost close to a thousand men in this conflict retreated to the west in an effort to hook up with their great general and report that they had failed in their attempt to destroy the Foolhardies. 

The Foolhardies lost quite a few soldiers ourselves. Edo's right wing lost seventy soldiers. Ashley's center unit lost another fifty men and combined with the forty-two that fell before I took command, which totaled to ninety-two soldiers for the center. Luca's west wing, where the battle was bloodiest, lost one-hundred-and-twenty-three souls. Add the fifty reinforcements from Redbull who betrayed us plus another hundred-and-sixty-five total dead from our battle against Amon, and our thousand-man unit was now down to an even five-hundred fairies and viseres. 

Our deaths had mostly come from those reinforcements we'd received before this war began, but as they'd shed their blood for us and fought at our side we counted them true Foolhardies. They're loss definitely stung. 

So we carried as many of them as we could with us while we marched south in the hope of escaping Garm's clutches once and for all. If only the b.a.s.t.a.r.d would accommodate us. Sadly, he was a b.a.s.t.a.r.d to the end. 

Dawn had not yet arrived by the time we crossed into the back of the southern battlefront where the Garm army's left wing and what remained of the Rah army's right wing continued to clash. 

"Do you think we should try and reach out to Redbull?" Aura asked as she rode Starlight on my right side. "He didn't seem to be part of Garm's plot… perhaps we can reason with him?" 

"Do you really want to risk it?" I asked. 

It took a moment, but Aura lowered her head and said, "No… we can't." 

"Yeah… Hopefully, we'll see him again under less dire circ.u.mstances," I said. 

"When are we ever not in a dire circ.u.mstance?" Luca asked. 

He was riding Jade Shadow on my left. 

I sighed. "Yeah… good question."

We'd made it all the way past Redbull's battlefield and were making steady progress southwest and toward the secret oasis when trouble reared its ugly head once again. 

Far to our rear a new threat loomed, one that stretched across the horizon. 

"Enemy contact!" Qwipps' voice echoed somewhere in the middle of our unit formation. 

"Luca, take Myth Chaser's reins and lead us forward… I've got to check this out," I instructed. 

"Dean… dawn's not far off," he said. "And not all our visere's have anchors…" 

"I know…" It was the last thing I said before I reactivated Fool's Insight and sent my vision upward. 

"Argh…" I grunted. 

"Dean?" Aura's voice sounded alarmed. "What's wrong?" 

"I'm alright," I answered. "I'm just at my limit… Tactical view takes a lot out of me when I use it too much..."

With my tactical view, I saw many things I wish I could unsee. At least then, my heart wouldn't be racing so much afterward. 

The army that chased after us was roughly the same size as the one we'd faced before with a few glaring differences. 

These guys had cavalry and the banners soaring above them had the red, upward-facing, double-bladed scimitar that was Garm's symbol.

"I don't believe it…" I whispered. 

"What don't you believe?" Aura asked. 

"I guess he understands our value now," I guessed. "Otherwise, he wouldn't be coming after us himself now…"

"Great General Garm's leading that army?" Luca asked. 

"Yup," I answered. 

"s.h.i.+t… how much dire can circ.u.mstances get?" Luca asked. 

"Best not to tempt fate, little brother," I scolded him. "On the bright side, I don't see more than four thousand…"

"Are they the same group from the reserve army?" Luca asked. 

The gleaming armor wrapped around the cavalry Garm led and the equally well-uniformed infantry— blue gambesons and centurion helmet — behind them told me that wasn't the case. These guys were elite, most likely the members of his personal guard. 

"Nope… he must've switched out the reserves with his personal unit and left the main army in the hands of his other lieutenants… he must really want to get at us," I reasoned. 

"Here's hoping Rah burns his a.s.s for leaving the fight," Luca commented. "I wouldn't mind our center army getting trounced tonight." 

"That probably won't happen… you're forgetting something," I countered. 

"What?" Luca asked, sounding confused. 

I wasn't entirely right the first time. Observing them longer made me realize perhaps only three thousand soldiers belonged to Garm's personal unit. The remaining thousand wore scarlet robes over their dark armor. Apart from Garm's banner, a second banner soared in the sky. It was a crescent moon surrounded by a purple field — the symbol of the Scarlet Moon clan.

Then I saw a third banner fluttering in the wind and immediately felt a chill rise up my spine. It was a black hand, like a handprint, over a field of scarlet. 

"Didn't the intel say that Ardeen Spellweaver and the Black Hand were at war with the Armitage?" I asked. 

"Yes," Aura answered. "Why?"

"Well, either that war ended early or they'd sent someone to bring the fight to us," I explained. 

"The Black Rider!" Luca and Aura said at the same time. 

I nodded as it was my guess too, and although I couldn't see individuals from so high up, I imagined she was riding alongside Garm and discussing their evil plan to take Aura, Luca, and me captive — if that was still their plan. In their shoes, I'd call myself too troublesome and just want to take me out. 

"Dean, it's an hour and a half, maybe less before dawn arrives," Luca warned. 

I fiddled with the bracelet I kept hidden in the pocket of my coat. 

"Looks like I'm staying here for the day…" I answered. "Tell Varda to distribute the dawn bracelets, and make sure Ty's got one too… We're going to need him."