The Exalted

From the small hill on which her troops were stationed, Ursula saw thousands of enemies move disorderly through the forest with ruthless speed and efficiency. Her company was to act as skirmishers and lead the enemy"s main forces to the plains south of the mansion, where the heavy cavalry was to finish them off. One way to do that was to surround them, sporadically reduce their numbers while avoiding being identified and retreating towards the plain. As the Lohenstein forest could be disorienting, especially in the heat of battle, it was possible to pull this difficult feat with seasoned Jaeger forces.

"Our mission is to lure them out of the forest!", she briefed the Jaegers. "That means we must attack them from all directions and slowly retreat so they can follow us. Don"t die out there!"

Ideally, Ursula would have liked to have more time to plan and position her troops but the enemy has the initiative this time, so she needed to act quickly before she gets spotted.

"So this is the real deal, huh," she thought angrily while directing her troops to their positions in the trees. "Why does this have to be my first battle..."

Estelle and Alexa signaled that they were ready for interception at any time.

And they came. Along with a barbaric roar, the enemy swarmed the forest swinging their swords and bayonets. Thousands of men poured through the sea of treas defended by Ursula"s 100-men company. Victory was all but uncertain.

Once again, the cadets recognized the Steinsbach "23 the ruffians were carrying on their backs and braced for the inevitable.

...

As his companions advanced through the forest, Ordos, their leader, was immensely optimistic. In fact, he was briefed that the path was clear for invasion and that the Lacrimosians had no defense whatsoever, the Army of Azuria conducting a wide-scale military exercise on the Prestleann plains, more than 14 hours march away from Neuchâtel. Judging from the size of the mansion, the number of guards could not exceed 500 men at best, which could do nothing but surrender after being surrounded by his forces 10 times stronger.

The next threat would be the Generaloberst Leiden"s 1st Western Army, located in the city of Schwanenberg, which was many hours of march from here. Not only could that army not move out in big numbers given the city"s strategic importance, it would still take many hours to mobilize thousands of men even if the permission was granted. By then, Ordos" men would have already accomplished their objective.

The bandits" mission was simple: they had to launch a surprise attack on the Montpensier estate and the town of Neuchâtel after which they would occupy the premises. Next, they would kill the mistress of the mansion, her son and the Lacrimosian princess and present their heads to his employer. They would be free to do whatever they wanted in the town beyond that.

To Ordos and his companions, that would mean looting the wealthy territory of its gold, crops and women, as well as the estate"s a.r.s.enal. This operation was an immense gamble that could potentially unite an entire nation against him, but his calculations indicate that by the time the news reached the capital, they would be long gone. To further ensure his success, Ordos gathered a host of more than 5000 men from all the dark alleys of Laurelia to plunder the territory. Accordingly, his employer also provided them with the adequate equipment to fight professional soldiers head-on.

For Ordos, victory was all but a.s.sured and he was excited to have its way with Lady Montpensier who was rumored to be an exquisite beauty.

...

What Ordos has not predicted is that this exquisite beauty also possessed an exquisite amount of military skills and a personal guard corps rivaling the Royal Lacrimosian Life Guard.

As the bandits were confidently advancing through the forest, Laura, Bonny and Yules scanned the battlefield from the roof of the mansion. From there, they were able to have a clear view of the enemy"s movement in the forest and it looked as if their trajectory leaned slightly south-west, exactly where Laura wanted them to be headed.

"They took the bait," she laughed and said to Bonny. "Your little cadets are not that bad after all~"

"It"s not decided yet," the latter shrugged and said in a neutral voice. "I just hope they don"t end up among the casualties."

As they said such words, Yules was shocked. How could they be so calm in a situation like this? War is not a game and battles are unpredictable up to the last second! What if her sister"s unit was routed in the process? What if she were captured by the ruffians before reaching her objective? What if she died?
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Yules was against the idea of sending her baby sister to the front line in the first place, and justifiably so. Why would a commander ever send such a small unit - led by rookies no less - to the front lines for the most crucial task??? They were sending her sister to the butchery! These people were insane!

Yet she could not do anything about it. Bonny has warned her that her next complaint would result in her demotion, a systematic failure of her sister"s final examination as well as eternal shame upon the House of Chambéry.

"A dirty threat," she thought while glancing at Laura, who avoided her sight, signaling that while it was her strategy, she was not responsible for a.s.signing the cadets for its execution.

At long last, noticing Yules" immense stress, Laura winked and said in a softer tone. "Have faith, will you?"

...

Estelle sneezed and quickly covered her nose. As an aristocrat, she could not possibly show the soldiers under her command such an unsightly occurrence.

Beside her, perched on her tree branch, Alexa whispered ominously. "They are here."

The company was stationed in a wide U on top of trees along the enemy"s estimated trajectory. Since the forest path was narrow, it was still possible for such as small number of men to surround them if the line was extended enough. However, if their exact locations were spotted, they would be inevitably broken through without the time to retreat. But Ursula and Laura have both foreseen this scenario and prepared in advance.

The first enemies came into sight through the narrow 12-feet path. Hidden in the lush vegetation, the Jaegers were nowhere to be found except by their own companions. With their custom Steinsbach "28 bayonets, they waited quietly for the enemy to arrive in large numbers.

"Steadyyyy...steadyyyy," Ursula whispered as she waited for the perfect moment to shoot. "NOW!!!"

Suddenly, she nudged her adjutant and he quickly raised a yellow flag. It meant "first shot, all out."

Rapidly, she discharged the 12 bullets of the bayonet on the enemy, killing exactly 12 of them with a shot on the forehead.

The enemy commander turned his attention to his surroundings, trying to catch sight of the mysterious attackers. But it was already too late, hundreds of men laid died along the path.

With nowhere else to go other than the narrow path, more ruffians poured toward the Jaegers. At the same time, Ursula, Estelle and Alexa raised a blue flag. "Retreat and recharge."

Like a single body, all the Jaegers retreated to a further predetermined position on another row of trees, ready to fire again.

Another yellow flag. Another loud barrage of bullets rang through the forest. Then another, and then another again. Other than their targets, the Jaegers saw alternating flags of yellow and blue. Some enemies retreated to where they came from, but were trampled by their overconfident compatriots. Stragglers were rapidly shot by Estelle"s custom-modified Steinbach "28, her one-in-kind sniper rifle.

Those enemies behind, including Chief Ordos, still had no knowledge of the amplitude of the threat, as the estimates still placed the defenders at 200 at most. They will be out of the forest and in flat lands in half an hour and they won"t be able to hide from them. This much casualties were still acceptable for Ordos. After all, the less they are, the bigger his share of loots will be.

Soon, when Ursula determined that the enemy"s main force was headed head-first in their direction and was beyond the point of backing off, she waved another flag, the red one this time. "Install m.u.f.fler and peel at the enemy forces"

She herself took out a small foldable bow from her bag and started shooting dart-like arrows to save some bullets. The darts ensured that she would not be found no matter what, as their size was small and the shooting, absolutely silent.

In the following minutes, enemies started to fall randomly here and there, having no idea how they were hit as there heard nothing to begin with.

...

At that moment, Ordos felt something was off. He had to replace his entire vanguard more than 3 times already.

At first, only small numbers of them were shot and killed. Most were merely wounded and could still go on. Ordos thought that the defenders hired peasants who were lousy shots. His men with holes on their forehead must have been slain by a small number of officers commanding those peasants. It was only a matter of time before these rookies would surrender or be broken through. To minimize the wounded, Ordos sent bigger and bigger numbers of men to the vanguard so they could scare away the peasants and make them rout on their own.

As he got closer and closer to the estimated end of the woods, the bodies started piling up, forcing him to send even more men to the front line. More and more of his men were shot through the forehead. When he was minutes from the forest"s end, the shots stopped, but bodies kept piling up as if they were still under attack.

"The enemy is hidden," Ordos thought. "They"ll have nowhere to hide once we reach the mansion"s garden!"

Hence, he told his men to accelerate and to perform a scrambled up version of the "marche rapide" to break through as fast as possible to avoid further casualties.

"GO GO GO!!!" He yelled. "The treasures from our dreams lie beyond the forest! We"re almost there!"

Inspired by his words, his men roared and ran forward to meet their fates.

...

Just as Ordos had predicted, only a small force waited for them at the exit of the forest. Around 100 men at best, led by 3 young women. One of them bore a lance, a ridiculous weapon against their shiny new Steinbach "23 3rd gen. bayonet rifles.

With a confident roar, Ordos" forces charged toward the small defender forces.

Victory was a.s.sured for Ordos. He was already thinking about how he"ll have his way with the marchioness before beheading her in front of her son. He licked his mustache and charged with his men.