Chapter 38: Patay (1) (1/2)
”Jean!” Joan's delicate cry reached her knight's ears.
Without needing more words, one of the ten knights by Joan's side charged out from the group, taking with him a group of at least fifty calvary.
Leonel's gaze shifted to the flagpole in Joan's hands but his face remained expressionless. He was certain that it was invisible to others, but he had very clearly seen a line of Force leave Joan and enter Jean's body. In that instant, though it was difficult to get a read on Jean's stats since he was riding his horse, at the very least, his steed itself had a 10% increase in all of its physical stats.
The army was riding through plains currently, but there was a forest up ahead. Seemingly realizing that something was wrong, Joan sent a squad of fifty as the vanguard.
'So that's Jean Poton…' Leonel thought to himself, running alongside the horses with Aina by his side. Quite frankly, he wanted to ride a horse as well. But, he simply didn't think he had the time to learn, so he hadn't even tried.
According to history, Jean's action routed the English's sneak attack attempt and put them on their back foot. Because most of the hidden English forces were long bowman, the losses were devastating and completely tilted the battle in their favor. This battle ended completely without a siege.
'But that… Is definitely not like history…'
Leonel's sharp senses caught wind of something odd hidden within the shadows of the vanguard calvary. He had never seen something like it before, but it was more than enough to raise his alertness. As for Joan, she either hadn't noticed, or pretended not to. Leonel found it too difficult to read her.
In stride, Leonel pulled his atlatl from his hip fixing a dart to it and sending a line of silver piercing through the air.
He was quite aware of the kind of discipline an army needed, and was even more aware of how frowned upon it was to act without the words of your commander. But, Leonel was playing his role as a commoner. How would a commoner be aware of such things?
His dart zipped through the air, causing a sharp intake of breath by the men still charging with him. The reason was that his throw was not only far too fast, but it went straight through the squadron of 50 as though without a care for their lives.
Leonel wasn't focused on the reactions of fellow soldiers, though. His eyes were entirely focused on the white feathered dart.
It soared through the air, narrowly missing several vanguard knights. Just before it left the group, it just passed over a slowly appearing shadow.
As though startled, the shadow quickly ducked back into the ground, appearing as though nothing had changed. But, Leonel's dart continued to fly, entering the forest of trees and leading to the pained cry of a hidden archer.
As the leather armored Englishman fell from the tree, several incredulous gazes made their way toward Leonel before a morale infused roar washed over the Frenchmen.
Joan swept a glance toward Leonel from her white horse, but she received an innocent grin and a thumbs up in return. He looked no different from a kid happy to be of help for the first time. With that, any thought of reprimanding him she held vanished.
The vanguard unit swept into the forest. It went without say that not every archer could hide away at the top of a tree. If this forest was so thick, it would never be on the route of their destination. Most of them tried to hide off the side of the path, waiting to rain down arrows after they passed through, but what they hadn't expected was such a prepared response.