The orc main army had been fighting for almost two hours, and yet despite outnumbering the human army, they were suffering more loss than their opponent. The dust wind and the sun had truly hindered their fighting prowess. Added to that, when they received the call for help from the reserve unit who guarded the supply carts, they became more agitated.
"What should we do? The reserve had sent a messenger requesting for reinforcements," a short orc who used claw weapon on both his hands said to the chieftain of the vanguard troops, Hubesi Loudroar, who had been the orc who gave the war declaration to Captain Salem the day before.
"A bunch of dolts! How could they let themselves get sneak attacked? The warlord only left them not long ago and they have messed things up!" Hubesi bellowed in his frustration. He made a few more huffs before he calmed himself and said, "Wangombe, sent my order to the left-wing, have them disengaged and go back to aid the reserve unit."
"But, won't that decrease our offensive power? At the rate we are doing now, it isn't looking good."
"Hmph, the human was just depending on petty tricks to buy them time. The sun is getting higher now, they will soon lose the advantage it provided. As for the sand, the fighting is getting more and more chaotic, sooner or later we will force through their formation. They won't be able to force us to continue facing the wind anymore. They will lose their advantage as time passes. Now, go and carry out my order!"
"As you wish, chieftain!" Wangombe went away and deliver the command to the left-wing troop.
They followed the order and disengaged. They lost more troops from the forced disengagement and were harassed as they retreated. The central vanguard tried to cover for them as best as possible.
When John saw the retreat of the left-wing, he gave a signal to Captain Salem, "it's time. Bring up the reserve!"
As the orc's left-wing retreated, the five-hundred human reserve troops came charging on top of their mounts. Same as the shock troops that went with the players, these reserve troops rode on the best mounts with the highest HP and fastest movement speed.
The human reserve troops charged at high speed in an arrow formation as they circled around the battlefield, and then punched through the orc army from its rear flank. The central vanguard and right-wing who were already in trouble, had their rear formation ravaged even more. Their rear was mostly composed of low-HP archers, mages, and healers. Being suddenly flanked had thrown their formation into chaos.
The reserve troops continued to force their way deeper into the enemy's rank as they sent attacks upon attacks from the top of their mounts to disrupt the enemy's formation. These reserve troops had been given two mount whistles. If one of them died, they would immediately summon the second one and continued their advance. The commander had completely used up their mount supply reserves for this operation. The healers were hard at work to heal the mounts to keep the casualties as low as possible.
Those that had the unfortunate fate of having their mounts killed twice could only accept their fate and used their lives to take down as many enemies as possible as their comrades continued onward leaving them behind.
This cavalry charge tactic despite resulting in many mount casualties, still proved effective to disrupt the enemy formations and caused their support on the front line to plummet. Hence the front-line soldiers managed to gain an even more huge advantage against the orc army.
The left-wing leader who had retreated halfway hesitated after seeing this new development. He was unsure whether to go back to help the main army or continued back to reinforce the reserve units. His indecision caused the left-wing movement to slow down, allowing Jack and the others to destroy more supply carts.
Running together inside the cavalry troops wreaking havoc within the enemy's formation, was Prince Alonzo and his personal guards. The Duke had asked him to stay back with Captain Salem and John at the command post, but he had adamantly refused. He demanded to join the charging reserve troops to gather experience on the field of battle.
The duke finally relented, having the prince too sheltered was also not a good thing. The prince's willingness to learn and struggle with the common soldiers was one of his qualities that the duke deemed favorable. That was also the reason why he had been training as if he was a common squire when he first met Jack.
The duke, however, demanded him to stay within the heart of the troops and not to engage any enemy. His level was still too low, after all. The Duke also made him promise to always listen to Bailey's command and to not do things out of impulse.
Everything had been going well as the cavalry troops caused havoc amongst the enemy's formation, until a loud yell sounded out, "prince Alonzo! Look out!"
Prince Alonzo and Lieutenant Bailey turned to the source of the voice and saw Ronnie who was riding at the side.
"I'm sorry, I thought I saw an arrow coming," he said with an apologetic expression.
It might have been an honest mistake, but the harm was still done regardless. When the surrounding orcs heard that the human prince was inside the troops that had perforated deep into their ranks, their focus shifted. All of them started to chase after the cavalry troops. Even the ones supporting the front line left their comrades who were still fighting and joined to capture the cavalry troops.
"Not good! We have to get out of here!" Bailey exclaimed.
The leader of the cavalry troops gave the instruction to turn around as they tried to evade getting encircled. If they got blocked and lost their mobility, they would be done for. The cavalry punched through one blockage after another, losing soldiers with each collision.
Captain Salem who saw the shift, immediately requested the three wings of the main army to push forward to apply pressure on the orc army. However, the orcs seemed to ignore them despite suffering more casualties when they reduced the soldiers that faced the main human army. Their main target was the prince, after all. The captain could only continue having the main army pushed forward in hope of breaking through and went to the prince's rescue.
"Shit is bound to happen sooner or later," John commented when he glanced from his binoculars at the chaos that followed the cavalry troops. He had no time to deal with it as he was still concentrating on giving orders to Jack's teams. It was not an easy task to give commands to twenty-four different teams at the same time under a situation that was constantly changing.
So the cavalry troops were left to fend for themselves. As many more orcs came to their blockage, the leader of the cavalry troops made a radical decision. He gave the command for them to split. They promptly split into eight smaller groups as they weaved through the gaps among the orc army.
"Prince, this way!" Another shout again, which immediately attracted the nearby orcs.
Bailey turned and found that it was Ronnie again, "you!" Anyone could see by now that the guy was doing it on purpose. Bailey thrust out her spear at him without any warning, but Ronnie must have expected it as he steered his mount to break away from the group.
At this time an orc party on mounts suddenly came upon their side. The lead orc swung his large two-handed hammer and struck one of the human soldiers off his mount. Some of the other orcs in the party crashed into the other human soldiers and caused both to collapse to the ground.
"Do not let the prince flee!" the lead orc bellowed as he and his party chased after the prince's team.
They have broken out of the encirclement, but lots of the orc army was still chasing after them. Bailey turned and had a grim expression. The orcs had chased while having another portion of their team go in the direction between the human main army and the fleeing prince's team. If they were to turn and headed towards the main human camp, they would get blocked. Bailey had no choice but to go further away from the main camp.
She was dismayed. This morning before they departed, Jack had spared the time to find her and asked her to be on the lookout for this Ronnie guy. When she asked if he had proof or a reason for his suspicion, he could not provide one. After all, Jack himself was not sure. The lying detection of his Investigator skill was not exactly in detail. So all of it could be considered as a simple hunch.
Since Jack could not provide a good reason nor evidence, she dismissed his suspicion. She could not afford to be suspicious of his comrades. Trust was a very important thing in the army. Almost a code. If you could not trust the person fighting beside you, then you couldn't fight properly.
After running for a while, Bailey finally decided. They would get surrounded sooner or later in this condition. He said to the prince, "prince, I will stop their chase. You have to find an opportunity by yourself to get back to the main army."
"No, Bailey! I cannot allow you to sacrifice yourself!" Prince Alonzo exclaimed.
"Do not worry about me. I will flee once I stop them long enough. This is not the time to be indecisive. You have to promise me that you will prioritize your safety!"
"I… I will follow your instruction!" The prince said with determination.
"Good!"
