Homesteading in a fantasy world

The eastern army general did not like what he was hearing. Everything had gone to plan at first: they were pushing the cavalry back without having to engage, and they should have been able to retreat back to their defensible position if the Bravenhold main army turned back.

So, early this morning, when he found out that their path was cut off by the Bravenhold main army—who wasn’t supposed to be this close—he got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was still weird to him that their enemy wanted an actual battle because the winner would probably not be decided in the first engagement. That would hold the enemy forces down even further, so it just didn’t make sense.

He wasn’t an experienced general; all of those were with the main army, but there wasn't a need to be a genius-level strategist to know the best course of action. He ordered the long spearmen to position towards the south and the ones with the shields to face towards the northwest to face the Bravenhold main army.

The battle lines were quite long and were in a shallow V shape. They didn’t have a lot of archers, but everyone who had a little bit of experience with a bow became archers at the centre of the V, able to shoot at the cavalry or the infantry of the Bravenhold main army whenever needed.

He also prepared holy relics to be used to boost their army. He was confident in this strategy, and with the holy relics, he was certain that he could hold this position and possibly launch a counter-offensive after this day of fighting.

Then, however, he learned that Rich might be headed towards them. Immediately, cold sweat started to run down his back, and the images that had been passed on of this person—no, the unholy being—flashed through his head. He had planned on using the holy relics at a more crucial moment, but now he didn't know how long he had, so he was going to use all three as soon as the first clash happened.

He had his advisors move out of the command tent and distributed the holy relics between them. Using one was exhausting, except for the one that the general held in his hand; this one would hopefully boost him enough that he could face down the unholy being for at least a little while.

The sight of the approaching army that they saw was quite horrifying, as none of this should be happening and was something their minds didn’t comprehend properly. While the general never had true doubt in his heart, just around him for a brief moment, some questioned if their religion and beliefs were correct, but then they were reminded that the unholy being would be responsible for this unforeseen situation.

After that, their resolve hardened. They were already giving defensive boosts as much as their meager abilities allowed them; they just weren't meant for so many soldiers. The main army of the Bravenhold walked purposely, towards the main battle line to keep their cohesion, and in a minute or two, spears would be close enough to start their deadly dance. The horses and riders towards the south were gathering up speed to try to break through the spear line.

The eastern army leaders were confident that the spears could hold, but just before one of the holy relics was used, for some reason, the cavalry, which was in a V shape started to split down the middle, stopping their commitment to the charge.

This puzzled the eastern army general and his advisers, who looked at each other in confusion, but all of them realized at the same time that Rich must’ve made it here and taken command. Then a sound was heard up above, making everyone look towards the sky.

Only a blink later, a giant eagle was seen quite close to the ground, his wings wide open and visible air currents circulating around him. Goose was pushing himself to his limits to slow down enough so Rich could safely jump off him. When he did, Goose was still going well over 100 miles an hour and immediately after Rich had jumped, Goose sped up once again. At this moment, a lot of things happened at once.

The Bravenhold main army collided with the Eastern army, but they were heavily boosted by Rich's mass combat abilities. This made it possible for the Bravenhold main army to immediately start pushing back the lines of the eastern army. The horses, who were circled around, were once again gathering speed for another breakthrough attempt.

Rich was still going too fast and headed straight for the enemy leadership. He started to push out his energy at an alarming rate but controlled it so that when he reached closer to the ground, the energy columns would start to slow him down as he started to roll.

This had a devastating effect on the land around him. As for the eastern army general and his advisers, they were ready to activate their holy relics, yet before any of them could, they were crushed or sliced by Rich's energy.

When Rich stood up, he was surrounded by the dead enemy leaders. There was a straight line to the archers who were constantly firing at his allies. From his tattoo storage, he pulled out his sword and charged towards the archers, and as soon as he got there, he left a wide swath of dead bodies behind.

Just before the cavalry was about to hit, Goose had circled back and used his wind manipulation to cut through the long spears, allowing the cavalry to almost effortlessly break through the line and advance towards the center where Rich was massacring everyone, and then to the other side of the V-shape to hit the backside of the eastern army line fighting the Bravenhold main army.

With the leadership gone and the eastern army lines broken through or being attacked from behind, no amount of belief in a divine being could keep a person from trying to save their own life. The battle turned into a massacre, and wherever there was heavy resistance from the survivors, it didn't take long for Rich to make it there.

Whatever resistance those people had quickly crumbled when they saw the image of their version of the devil covered completely in blood. Fortunately for them, they didn't have to be scared for long as they were soon bisected by an enormous two-handed sword.

Even then, the fighting took half a day; there were simply so many enemies. Only about 25% were able to escape while the allied armies lost about 10% of their fighters. The aftermath of the battle was gruesome. There were still a few pockets of fighting going on, but those were far from the original battlefield and were mostly smaller units of cavalry chasing down escaped Eastern Army soldiers.

It was at this moment that Rich walked into the Bravenhold army's command tent, still completely covered in blood. There was silence as they all focused on the person who had just entered the tent. They had all felt the boost the army got when he arrived, and how in less than 10 minutes, he had secured victory for them. As soon as the cavalry punched through the line, the end result of the battle was known, even though they all knew it was going to take a while to achieve final victory.

Rich didn't greet them; he just walked towards the map. Pressed his bloody finger to their current location and drew a line with blood towards the town of Aldermarch.

"100 cavalry and 2000 soldiers will stay behind to deal with the battlefield cleanup and stay in defense if the remnants of the eastern army ever recombine. I want everyone else moving towards Aldermarch in two days," that was all he said before he turned around and walked back out. The Bravenhold army's general quickly followed behind him, and while he didn’t disagree, he had questions.

When he made it outside the tent, he stopped as he saw a giant eagle. He reflexively moved his hand towards his sword, but then his mind caught up, and he knew that that was Goose, the high general's bonded animal. Before he could speak up, however, Rich had already mounted Goose and the next moment they were once again airborne and headed back towards the United Freeholds army.

There was a moment, as they were still climbing, when Rich wanted to head towards the Western army and kill the enemy country's leader, but whenever he thought about that, the hair at the back of his neck stood up, and he could feel his trouble sense ability flaring up. They had to have some safeguards that, unfortunately, seemed to make a head-on attack a bad idea.