102 The Great Escape Part 1 (2/2)

While Vardoom's forces were struggling desperately, our right army seemed to have an advantage over the Magesong's left army. The duo of Three-Thousand Man Commander Unna Ra Lara and Three-Thousand Man Commander Tyrox Xor was doing an amazing job leading their diminished eighteen thousand right army against a smaller Magesong force.

Seeing their success sent a spark of an idea into my brain, the makings of a plan that might save us from the mess we were in.

”In the middle of chaos lies opportunity,” I whispered the words of the great Bruce Lee.

”Indeed,” Darah answered. ”What opportunity have you found?”

”There's a slim chance, but I think if we can gather south to where the right army is, we might be able to secure an escape path,” I explained.

”There's nothing south of the Calmlands, Dean… no place to keep our enemies from pursuing us,” Darah argued. 'Unless you plan to veer southwest and make our way to Clowntown.”

I shook my head. ”No ma'am. We need to go all the way south first. That should bring us near enough to—”

”—Broken Sellsword's Canyon!” Aura finished. ”But, Dean, that's Lover's Embrace territory.”

”Exactly,” I said, feeling myself grin. ”A neutral clan would respond to the arrival of our Darah army by sending out their own forces.”

”How does that help us?” Aura asked confused.

”As long as we don't actually enter into their territory, they probably won't attack us,” I reasoned. ”But having the Lover's Embrace forces just come out would be enough to make some parties reconsider pursuing us. The thing about neutral clans, you never know who they're allied with.”

”A ruse…” Darah noted.

I nodded. ”Reforming our army in this battlefield under these circumstances is only asking our soldiers to die a useless struggle. But like you said—”

”—It would be a senseless waste of life and talent…” Darah finished.

”Yes, ma'am,” I agreed.

I felt Darah shift in her seat. ”Very well, Hundred-Man Commander Dapper… lead our forces out of this mess and I'll take care of the rest.”

That was way easier said than done, but I did my best even while the pain kept shooting up my eyes like a heartbeat that was only increasing in its pace. Still, I managed to switch from the overview mode of Fool's Insight to the zoom-in function that was better for close encounters. Now, instead of a bird soaring alongside the clouds, I was a bird of prey gliding above the heads of our column, leading us through the sea of enemies.

For each battalion of Darah soldiers we met in the center army, Darah gave the orders of a slow retreat south while keeping our backs protected from the enemy. her orders were mostly followed, although there were way too many groups out of our reach or surrounded by enemy forces they couldn't break through.

I averted my eyes against these as I knew there was no way I could help them short of sending more people to their deaths. Darah was relying on me to lead us out of this mess and that was the only thing I needed to focus on.

Often, I would find myself yelling, ”Turn right here!” or ”We're heading to the left!” so our main column could avoid a patch of dense gray soldiers who would have held us up if we engaged them.

Sometimes I would call on either Aura or Luca to lead their vanguard left or right and engage the enemy so the rest of the column could move forward without slowing down. Always I would remind them to break off from the fighting once they'd ensured our soldiers had passed the enemy.

Every time either of them left to follow this order, I felt my heart tighten out of worry, and not until they were riding alongside us again did that tightness lessen.

It helped that Darah ordered her personal guard to join up with Luca's or Aura's squads. Although the Foolhardies were well trained for hit-and-run tactics, the strength of Darah's main unit was like sending a Tomahawk missile as reinforcements to our swords and bows.

In fact, things were going very smoothly for a time, and we'd nearly reached the right flank of our center army when I noticed trouble coming our way.

There was no mistaking the silver mask covering half his face or the heavily armored soldiers following him. Ardeen Spellweaver had popped out of the shadows and was leading those soldiers I noticed with him earlier in a charge that would intercept us before we reached the right army. The bastard had read my plan once again.

”Muddamit!” I hissed. ”We've got company!”