Chapter 25: Conscience (1/2)

As he ran, Leonel squeezed his still wet flexible armor on. Its black fabric flexed, clinging tightly to his body. Luckily, he hadn't been foolish enough to leave his weapons behind. No matter how uneventful the last month had been, Leonel would never forget that he was in the middle of a Sub-Dimensional Zone.

The idea of time dilation sounded great. Thanks to Zones, Leonel would be able to experience more life than his lifespan dictated, and even train faster than he should. But Zones were not a joke. If the main quest couldn't be accomplished, they'd be stuck here to their deaths. Only then would the Zone open once more to allow another to try.

A Zone wasn't a place that could be taken casually. If there was anything Leonel had learned in the Mayan temple, it was that.

The two, Leonel and Aina, hadn't traveled more than a kilometer from the campsite. It took them less than two minutes to return, finding the group of thousand men quickly organizing.

Leonel got a read on the situation quickly. It seemed that a scout had caught wind of an approaching English army, bearing down on Orleans.

From what Leonel knew, Orleans was one of the first if not the very first battle Joan of Arc had fought in and won. It was an important city on the edge of what remained of French territory and what was once French territory but now English territory. Back then, or what was considered right now, it was unprecedented and skyrocketed her fame upward.

However, with such a critical loss, and to a woman no less, it wasn't a surprise that the English would try and take it back as soon as possible. It was just bad luck that this encampment happened to be in their way.

The smart decision was to retreat and send a messenger ahead to warn Joan and Orleans. The encampment had likely already done the latter, but for some reason they weren't doing the first.

”If we retreat now, the common people are finished. We must hold out for as long as we can.”

Leonel's gaze flickered. Ultimately, knights were still nobles. Though France had run into a problem of lacking enough land to consecrate these knights properly during this era, this fact still remained. How rare was it for a noble to care about the common people in this time?

'I've never heard of this General Franck before, likely because his name had been washed out of history maybe due to this very act here. But his actions are commendable…'

Leonel looked toward Aina. ”I'm going to help them. You're a front line fighter so you'll be at too much risk if you jump into such a lopsided fight, just stay next to me.”

Leonel was well aware that both he and Aina had surpassed the limit of humans, but they weren't gods. They still got tired, they could still get injured, and they were more than susceptible to overwhelming numbers.

Aina looked toward Leonel blankly for a moment before shaking her head.

”If you don't want me to die, then you'll just have to put a bit of extra effort into covering for me.”

Her voice still carried the same gentleness, but it had an unyielding command to it. Leonel felt that her will was far stronger than his own.

Leonel closed his eyes. If they were open, it would be possible to see a deep flicker within them.

”General Franck. Do you have any siege engineers with you? Or any who have experience working with them?”

”Well… yes. We need a few to properly fortify our encampment.”

”Good. Give them to me and a few men to chop down some wood. You build your defenses.”

Quite frankly, the general was much too scared of Leonel to refuse.

When the engineers heard of Leonel's asks, they looked at him weirdly. The request wasn't difficult at all. In fact, it was ridiculously easy. They could easily complete the three of them Leonel asked for by the time the Englishmen were in range.

”After you finish chopping down the trees the engineers need, continue and build at least 50 Cheval de Frise afterward…”

”Cheval de frise?”

Leonel patted his forehead, had such a thing not been invented yet? Without the proper experience, finishing 50 like he hoped would be impossible. Unless…

'Simplify the design…' Leonel's mind churned. In a flash, he had an idea that could work.

Walking to the sparse forest of trees that surrounded a part of the river he had bathed in, he borrowed an ax and cut down a thin tree with a diameter no larger than about eight inches.

He worked swiftly, leading by example.

He separated the length of the tree into portions about a meter and a half long. Then, cut those portions widthwise into fourths. In the end, from a single tree, he managed to get eight total meter and a half length pieces.

Brandishing the ax, his began to chip away at both ends of these pieces. Eventually, they ended up looking like double headed spears, albeit much thicker than a spear should be.

”A Cheval de Frise is a device capable of nullifying calvary. It stops the charging of horses by placing deadly barriers in their path. Even if the calvary men are aware of their danger and avoid them, it will slow down their charge and disrupt their formation. If they aren't aware of them, the result will be even more devastating.

”I want you to do exactly as I did after you've prepared what the engineers need. Then…”

Leonel slammed three of the double ended spears he created into the soil at an angle, just about a foot or so apart.

”Press them into the ground just like this in sets of three. Work in lines that cover the battle in a systematic way. Between every set of three, leave about two meters of space. And lay out a single line to extend about 100 meters.

”When you finish laying a line of 100 meters, move back about five meters and begin a new line, but don't place them in the same positions as the first line, or else the enemy can just charge straight through the gaps. Make it so that even if an enemy makes it past, they must swerve and slow themselves down continuously.

”Do you understand?”

The warriors nodded fervently, jetting off to their work. They were a bit skeptical of how just laying down spikes could stop a calvary, but much like their general, they were too scared to refute.

Against Leonel's expectations, General Franck actually committed a hundred men to Leonel's cause. Leonel hadn't thought he'd receive such support, so he had asked for very little. But he had underestimated their religious fanaticism. If they weren't like this, why else would they trust a small village girl like Joan with their lives?

By the time Leonel's sharp gaze could see the Englishmen over the horizon, marching under the high sunlight in perfect rectangular formations, the battlefield was already set.

'It's as perfect as it can be.' Leonel thought to himself. 'The river to our back only has one shallow enough point to cross within tens of miles, they have no choice but to come through here… The encampment itself was already chosen to be on a small hill to act as a temporary fortress… And everything is in my line of sight…'

Leonel climbed to the top of a set of a wooden staircases.

This was the device he had asked the siege engineers to build. It was nothing but a simple elevated platform. From afar it looked like a staircase that led nowhere.