A low rumbling filled the forests, the sound of tens of thousands of plated boots marching through the verdant lands. An entire legion marched south having breached the northern line of the Perenti confederation, their target the Karingi tribe’s capital, and the largest settlement standing between them and the heartland of the Perenti confederation south of the Tarki mountains. A single column four men wide stretched for six miles along the lone unpaved forest road, with many of the supply wagons being strung out on the way. Little by little the gaps between the line grew, cavalry on the wings, light infantry at the front, heavy in the center, and supply wagons bringing up the rear.
The Ociri legionnaires with their blue armor and green cloaks appeared as if a river in the distance, their wide scutum shields depicting the third eye of the goddess Almeira. Their equipment gleaming in the midday sun, swords still stained with the blood of their enemies. After the battle of Penraic plains the northern member tribes of the confederation’s power had been broken. This first consular army consisting of the first and second legions had smashed the tribal force, running down the survivors and opening the way to the Karingi capital.
At the Penraic plains, an allied tribal force of nearly twenty thousand warriors and three hundred Perenti heavy shock cavalry were deployed to check the Ociri advance south. With the Ociri having deployed the first consular army spearheading the invasion force. Ten thousand heavily armed, and expertly trained professional legionnaires came to meet them. A blue and green sea surged over the hills and settled to meet the tribal host with sword and shield in hand.
What would be later known to the Perenti as the fields of blood opened with a volley of arrows and stones, the Ociri archers easily overcoming the Perenti force. Where the tribal slingers possessed range, their projectiles failed to cause much damage, unable to harm the legionnaires behind their overlapping scutum shields. This fish scale formation ensured protection from the front and from above, resulting in the tribal warriors receiving the brunt of the damage in the early stages of battle.
Forced to engage the legionnaires head on, the warriors slammed their weapons into their long wooden shields, roaring in unison. This coordinated show of strength was a calculated move, an attempt to demoralize the opposing lines, a tried-and-true method for the confederation tribes in wars with outsiders. Yet they did not face an army of conscripted farmers, levies whose only advantage were their numbers. They faced the best that the Ociri republic had to offer, a professional fighting force that did not bend in the face of the towering warriors.
Instead of cowering behind their shields, the Ociri struck first. Velites, the poorest citizens of the republic who made up the light skirmishing force within the legion rushed forward through the gaps in the Legionary lines. Dawning their iconic wolfs head headdresses, the poor youths of the republic charged forward hurling their javelins as the enemy lines closed in. The three-foot-long projectiles soared through the air, disabling shields, grievously wounding others, and causing massive disruptions in the Perenti charge.
At this moment the archers opened fire again targeting the disruptions in the enemy lines, volleys of concentrated death cut down hundreds of men who were unable to defend. Those who did get their shield up would often find their front exposed, followed soon after by a velites javelin. However, even with so many deaths, the charge did not and had not stopped. Seeing the oncoming danger, many of the velites retreated into the gaps in the legionary line, gaps which quickly closed, the battle-hardened veterans preparing their short steel swords for battle. Those velites who remained outside the line and had not pulled back in time were cut down by the charging warriors, offering little resistance one on one.
Then came the clash, shield against shield, man against man, at least that was the method by which the Perenti fought for centuries. A method which was not an army, but instead a mob of powerful individuals, however that power was halted. The weight of the stalwart Ociri legionnaires pressing in unison, easily breaking the opponent’s wall, and using the advantage of their shorter blades, striking down the enemy in front of them or their comrades. Like a pack of wolves each man would assist the brother to their left or right, together they would shove their weight forward, hitting away the enemy and striking down the fazed opponent.
Theirs was a methodical cooperative approach to war and battle, the legionnaires quickly grinding down the enemy lines, trampling over their corpses and leaving a trail of blood in their wake. It was however not so one sided, the tribal alliance possessing strong, hardy warriors, as well as numerical superiority. Thus, resulting in a fierce melee, where men on both sides died in droves. The Ociri tempered in constant training and drilling held the line and pushed the enemy back, but the Perenti were driven by the desire to protect their homes, fighting tooth and nail to guard against the slaughter and subjugation of their people.
As the day dragged on both sides became exhausted, the Perenti even gaining a slight advantage as the legionnaire reserves ran dry. Yet the men at the front forgot that the battle was not among the infantry alone, that elsewhere on the same battlefield either side had deployed what they would be their hammer to smash the enemy lines flat. For the Perenti this was their three hundred vaunted heavy horsemen, the Skull Smashers. Their powerful Karingi warhorses, could match any steed in speed and exceeded them in stamina, this alongside the massive warriors and their two-handed Warhammers gave them their well-deserved reputation. Their opponents were none other than the Ociri cavalry wings, six hundred horsemen, double the opponents. Lacking in speed and considerably less armed, the Ociri cavalry made up for their disadvantages with maneuverability, battlefield control, and sheer numbers.
Around the same time the two sides clashed in the center, the wings also came to blows out of sight of the main forces, obscured by clouds of dirt kicked up by hundreds of galloping horses. One hundred fifty Skull Smashers on either flank faced a force of three hundred Ociri horsemen. The Ociri wheeling around, striking at their enemies exposed flanks, engaging in probing strikes before pulling back. They sought to drag out the fight exhausting the much more terrifying foe, the Skull Smashers did not waste time or thoughts with such strategy, simply barreling into any concentrated groupings of Ociri horsemen and crushing man and horse under the sheer power of each swing of their hammer.
Sadly, the clansmen had a tradition of fighting amongst the men, commanders would fight at the front, limiting their ability to respond to a changing battlefield. The Ociri had no such weakness, the cavalry commanders noticing the discrepancy in the fighting strength of their men pulled away the left wing, slowly drawing the Perenti horsemen further behind their lines. Once there was enough of a gap, the main bulk of the Ociri right wing broke off and joined the left wing, striking the Skull Smashers in the rear. The ambush was successful and succeeded in decimating half the Perenti horsemen, leaving the entirety of the cavalry to wheel around and rout the remaining heavy cavalry before turning their attention to the center.
The chieftains of the tribes led their men from the front, currently engaged in the melee, pressing into the faltering Ociri lines. Through the spilling of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of lives, the allied force was on the verge of cracking the invader’s center and ending their threat. Unfortunately, because they fought in the front, they failed to receive any warning about the rout on the wings. That was until hundreds of Ociri horsemen crashed into their rear, an unholy cacophony of screams, cries, and squelching of flesh being smashed under thundering hooves.
Seeing the opportunity presented to them the Ociri front line solidified as the Perenti line faltered and broke. However, there was nowhere to run, seeing the coming rout the Ociri light infantry and skirmishers swept around the sides of the heavy infantry, while the remaining three hundred cavalry encircled the rear. The tribesmen were trapped with nowhere to go, and as day turned to night the Ociri continued to cut down those who resisted and enslaving those who did not.
Penraic plains had contained the entirety of the tribal confederation’s northern forces, with the northern tribes losing almost all their male fighting age population. Only a fraction of the allied force had managed to escape, with the chieftains and their heirs killed in either the melee or the ensuing massacre. Even if the tribal soldiers managed to reorganize their scattered forces, and find a capable leader, they would now be fighting a force almost four times their number, who were better trained and equipped. What hope could they possibly have?
Yet in times of strife nations fall and are consumed, but there are also instances of heroes, individuals possessing exceptional capabilities rising to lead. For the Perenti confederation still had two to three thousand troops remaining, those few who managed to flee the destruction and meet again on the road to the Karingi capital. Within the ranks of these were the remaining elite Skull Smashers, and some members of the tribal aristocracy, one among them the second son of the chieftain of the Ceno tribe.
The Ceno lived south of the Tarki mountains, one of the few tribes who managed to arrive and assist in the battle against the Ociri. Their domain was small, heavily forested and filled with marshes, their tribe had a low population and weak compared to the others. Such a young man, who had neither prestige nor power would normally never be considered for leadership of a host even half this size. Yet no others wished to lead, determined to fight, but fearful of the outcome, none would step up and instead hoped for another to do so. Aesarius, second son of Covirius, chieftain of the Ceno tribe did.
Days later, the Ociri first army, numbering eight thousand strong plus a contingent of four hundred cavalries marched from their camp upon the blood-soaked plains. This great force moved confidently and rapidly through the Sarnesse forest which stretched out before the Karingi capital, believing their path unobstructed. The men imagining the spoils, tasting the fruits of their victory and the great plunder awaiting them. Oblivious to the creeping shadows closing in around them, their foes were not yet finished.
