Empire of the Moon. Emerald City.
Two days flew by fast. In almost the blink of an eye, the full might of the Empire of the Moon was ready to descend on the enemy of the Emperor. In this case, it was the other great faction of mankind.
Men were packing up their belongings and taking down their tents. Runed weapons and armors were distributed to everyone. Cavalry made sure their horses were well and fed. Provision were distributed. 80,000 men were marching to war, and it wasn’t quite an orderly sight.
Jean walked across lines and lines of men in blue. Finally, she reached the armory, where hundreds of Rune Crafters were getting ready to depart as well.
She stopped in front of a young man in his twenties. He was just an apprentice. Two days ago, when Jean was given the opportunity to have a set of weapon and armor runed, she came to this apprentice. Despite the doubts from the more experienced, Jean insisted on having the inexperienced apprentice do the work.
The apprentice messed up completely, but instead of just storming off, Jean reassured the apprentice and comforted him. The young man quickly grew a crush on Jean. The two spent quite some time together as their relationship got closer and closer.
An older, more experienced man would find things to be going too quickly and too easily to be true, but the young apprentice was too naive to see it. When a few older Rune Crafters rose questions, the apprentice dismissed them in anger.
“Carl.” Jean smiled sweetly as the young man walked up to meet her. “How’re you doing?”
“Pretty good.”
“There’s something I need to tell you. I have to go soon, and I’ll be marching with the Vanguard.”
“Please be careful.” Carl seemed a little shy. “The Emperor has ordered us to march in the rear guard.”
Normally, Rune Crafters, as expensive technical personnel, would be kept in the safety behind castle walls and Matrixes. It took both talent and experience to be a good Rune Crafter. There were over two thousand Rune Crafters in Emerald City, almost all the Empire had to offer. But the Emperor was blinded by the desire for vengeance. Instead of keeping them back, he ordered them to march with the invasion forces to provide technical support as soon as possible.
The rear guard of the invasion forces should be the safest place possible in the army, but nothing was for sure on the field of battle. If the rear guard is attacked and destroyed, then for the next twenty years the Empire of the Moon would have to rely on runes that were already forged.
Jean tilted her head. “I should be going now, but I want to give you something.” She took out a carefully decorated object and put it over the apprentice’s neck with a piece of string. “From where I came from, it’s a symbol of good luck.”
Carl smiled, and the two exchanged a brief kiss before Jean returned to the other Voyagers. As she came back, Violet gave her a strange look, but she quickly turned back.
Finally, the female guard captain that was standing guard in front of the Emperor’s tent two days ago moved to the front of the vanguard. For this mission, she was designated as the commander of the vanguard.
“Mount!” She ordered.
The Vanguard was made up of 8,000 cavalries. They were the best riders in the Empire of the Moon. Their job was to silence any source of information on their way for the enemies so the main forces could get as close to the Empire of the Sun Border Army as possible unnoticed.
Following the order, all 8,000 men flipped onto their horses. The 35 Voyagers did a similar thing. Not all of them have had experience with horse riding before, but their superior strength and reflex were more than enough to allow them to master their rides.
As Jean departed with the vanguards, she gave one last glance at the direction of the Rune Crafters.
What she gave the apprentice wasn’t a symbol for love and affection.
It was a tracking device.
Border Army.
Adam sat in the middle of a command tent. A dozen generals in the Border Army were awaiting his command.
Three days ago, Adam reached the Border Army with a written order from the Empress that gave the command of the entire Border Army to Adam. The Empress could tell Adam was really hell bent on stopping the Voyagers and therefore could be trusted. Plus, he was the one with the most knowledge about the Voyagers. The other generals in the Border Army were not inexperienced, but they would be no match for the countless tricks the Voyagers have up their sleeves. They would be good fighters, but none of them would make a good commander in this case.
Of course, there were doubts of why a random person was made the commander of 50,000 of the Empire’s best, but Adam quickly quieted down those doubts by working tirelessly to get all the pieces into place. Seeing his devotion and efficiency, the other generals quickly complied.
“Are all the civilians in safety?” The rogue Voyager asked as he turned to the generals he appointed this task to. Neither Voyagers nor armies of the Empire of the Moon would spare those in their way. As soon as he took command, he tried to evacuate the civilians.
A few generals exchanged looks.
“We did our best, but there are tens of thousands of people along the border. We can’t get to all of them in time.”
“How many have we gotten to?”
“Less than half, but we have sent riders to the rest. Give them a little more time and…”
“We don’t have a little more time. Anytime now, the Empire of the Moon will ride across the border, and they will be a force of vengeance. They will slaughter anyone in their way, whether they are armed or not.” Adam shut them down, but he also knew being frustrated couldn’t really accomplish anything. “And our forces?”
“All 50,000 men of the Border Army are armed and ready for action. We can march out at a single command.”
“Good.” Adam nodded. Finally, some good news. The Border Army has been fending off the Empire of the Moon for decades. Battle-hardened and dedicated, they were not remotely on the same level as fort guards inside the Empire of the Sun. “Are the scouts in place?”
“We have spread out over 1,000 horsemen across the Border. They are the best riders in the world. If any of them see a thing, they will report back immediately.”
Adam nodded slowly.
The meeting continued as one of the generals started talking about supplies. All of a sudden, Adam frowned. He raised his hand and stopped the speaker.
“Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
Adam’s expression changed as he charged out of the tent. The generals in red armors followed tightly as the Voyager made his way toward the source of the sound.
Eventually, as he got to the side of the camp and heard the sound louder and clearer, Adam realized what it was.
What he heard was thousands of horses running toward them at the same time.
It was a full army of cavalry, and it didn't belong to the Empire of the Sun.
“To arms!” He turned to the generals and screamed. “To arms!”
The entire camp sprung into action. Thanks to Adam’s orders, all the men had their weapons and armors on them 24/7, even when they were sleeping or eating. As riders in red rushed through the entire camp, delivering Adam’s orders to every corner, men grabbed onto their weapons and rallied to their officers.
The officers gradually pieced the army into position.
“Form wall!”
“2nd squad, over here!”
“Ready crossbows!”
“Shields in front! Pikes in back! Swords in the middle!”
“Hold!”
“Go to your assigned positions.” Adam turned to the Border Army generals. “We need to hold this attack at all cost.”
“Understood.” The generals dispersed with their guards.
Taking a deep breathe, Adam mounted onto his horse. Before he left Crown’s City, the Empress allowed him to choose a stallion as a mean of travel. Adam considered saying no because he could move faster than a stallion on foot, but the Empress suggested that he would save his energy for combat rather than waste them on running.
A group of horsemen were just behind him.
Adam rode down the lines of shields. The Border Army has formed a hollow square around their camp. Two lines of one man tall shields were on the outside. The runes on the shields made them nearly impossible to break. The men carrying the shields had runed swords with them that were brilliant in hand to hand combat.
Behind the two walls of shields were three walls of pikemen. The pikes were so long that they reached out from beside the shields. Anyone that tried to overrun the phalanx would find themselves blocked by the shields and then stabbed to death by the pikes. They had blades as well, but they hoped they wouldn’t need them.
Five lines of swordsmen were behind the shields and pikes. They were there to add to the fortitude of the formation. Of course, they would come in handy if things get really messy.
The last two lines were made up of archers and crossbowmen. Inside this world, ranged units were shockingly expensive. Each arrow fired needed to be runed individually, and in most cases the arrow would be wasted. Even among the giant Border Army, there were only 3,000 archers and crossbowmen.
But their fighting abilities were well worth their price.
Finally, the invading forces showed themselves. A sea of blue approached from a distance away. Elite cavalries made sure to stay a short distance away from each other from all sides so that when some horses and men inevitably fall, they wouldn’t trip their comrades.
“Go go go! Vengeance for the Crown Prince! Death to these Sun scum!”
The female general from the Empire of the Moon screamed as she led the charge. Hearing her words, the cavalry around her made a loud war cry.
Behind her, 35 Voyagers weren’t as thrilled.
The Vanguards were originally ordered to silence the witnesses on the way and keep the whole operation as quiet as possible. Fair enough. Taking down a couple scouts and civilians shouldn’t be that bad. It turned out to be fine as well. The Vanguard came across at least one hundred enemy scouts, but they were discovered by the Voyagers’ variety of supernatural abilities before they could even see the Moon Vanguards. After that, some shots from the Voyager Rifles sealed the deal.
But as a route was cleared and the Voyagers expected to wait until reinforcement could arrive, the Emperor decided to order the Vanguard to charge the Sun Border Army and take them by surprise.
John, who stayed with the Emperor, explained to the Voyagers in the front what happened. Apparently, the Emperor was under the impression that the Border Army was still unprepared. In that case, a surprising charge could decimate the defenses and make them defenseless against the full brunt of the Moon forces. If the Vanguards waited, the lack of scouts reporting back might warn the Border Army.
Again, fair enough. The Voyagers had to keep going, unless they wanted to be hunted by both Empires in this world. Plus, the Emperor was probably right in that the Border Army is unprepared. After all, just months ago the two empires have signed a truce, and the Emperor was an advocate for peace. After the Emperor changed his mind, he made sure anyone that knew about it would be kept quite and anyone that might leak the news to be silenced. The movement of the Moon forces could be suspicious, but it shouldn’t be nearly enough to place the Border Army on maximum alert.
But when the Voyagers saw the lines of the Border Army, they wanted to curse the Emperor.
Ten lines of men across the field, all fully armed, fully armored, and ready for war. A giant defensive Formation was in place.
More importantly, the Border Army outnumbered the Vanguard cavalry more than 6 to 1.
But it was too late to turn back now, with a final scream, the entire cavalry army activated their runes and focused the energy on the female general in the front. With the help of the additional power, the general literally charged into the Border Army defensive Formation.
