A Drink Before Battle [MxM] ✅

22: I Don't Like This

22: I Don't Like This

Near the point where the open Brinnish countryside met the foot of the Khasavin Mountains along the riverbank, Sevei and Yanek sat astride two powerful chargers in an uphill position, looking over what would momentarily become a battlefield.

Below them, half the troops of both Valeskan units, along with a few Brinnish companies, waited in formation, ready for the signal. The rest had been left in the camps, preparing to switch out as casualties demanded.

Sevei raised a spyglass to peer at the narrow riverbank where it wound around the mountains, finding all still quiet. He swept the glass up the cliffside, where Urskatha and most of the Alchemists had transported a number of archers. There wasn't a sign to be seen of them. They were well hidden among the caves and the cover of tenacious foliage.

He sighed, wishing with all his soul that he could be by Urskatha's side, just in case. But personal matters must come second to the campaign, he knew. He sighed again and lowered the glass.

"He'll be fine," Yanek said. "Sergeant Kahan is with him, isn't she?"

"Nnn..." Sevei bit his tongue. "Yes, she's with him."

He had almost let slip that Meira was among the Sekkha right below them, disguised in their uniform, preparing to flee at the first opportunity.

He cast a wary glance at Lieutenant Thelan, who'd been left to liaise between those on the ground and those on the cliff. The Alchemist was busy staring with an unfocused gaze across the river, muttering some esoteric nonsense to himself, probably too preoccupied to notice anything amiss with Sevei's answer.

Sevei covertly observed him for a moment. Slight of frame, with unsettlingly large but heavy-lidded eyes set in soft facial features, softened further by a wavy cloud of mousy hair, Sevei thought he'd look more at home in the comfort of the royal court than roughing it in a military camp. Adding that to the unnerving aura and tendency to distracted oblivion, Sevei couldn't imagine what could have brought such a person to the army, or how he'd managed to become the unit's second in command. His assignment today was likely meant to keep him out of the way.

"What's taking them so long?" Yanek complained.

Sevei chuckled. "Itching to get into it?" he asked.

Yanek groaned. As General and Second, their job would be to oversee the field, signaling direction, not getting into it themselves.

Sevei's fist clenched around the hilt of his sheathed sword. He had to admit that when it started, he'd be itching as well. Not that he enjoyed violence for its own sake, but the thrill of a battle couldn't be denied. Only being pushed onto a table by a certain colleague had ever gotten his blood up like that again. His unruly eyes strayed back up the cliff.

A hail of arrows showered down the cliffside as the first of the Loranarians came through.

Bodies dropped and shields went up. Ethereal energy streaked up and down as the Alchemists of both sides engaged, but... far less of it from the Loranarian side than expected.

"Where are all their weirdos?" Yanek mused.

Sevei raised the spyglass. "There are only two there," he reported.

"Weren't they supposed to have a whole elite pack of them?"

The Loranarian soldiers who escaped the arrows began to stream out of the riverbank towards them. Sevei gave the signal for engagement. A horn sounded and several companies advanced. As the Loranarians emerged from their bottleneck, they would certainly be overwhelmed by the troops awaiting them. Sevei narrowed his eyes.