Beyond?

“One shall fight an unknown foe to determine if he is a worthy opponent to be respected, or cattle to be hunted.”

-Old Nomad.

***Eastern Plains***

***Azir***

After our short conversation about the nuclear material we continued the inspection of the fortress until a new development forced me and Stella to hurry back to the others. Upon reaching them I take a fast look over the parapet of the tower.

The situation looks strange to me since the nomads are advancing on Quinn's forces, but the vehicles don't attempt to use their mobility. Instead they created a tight ring around their command centre. “Why aren't they moving?”

Chuck gives me his conclusion. “It seems like their command centre isn't mobile enough while it is deployed. If they move without it, they give up their protection from magic. So their only chance is to stand their ground and rely on the nomads losing their magic as they enter the command centre's area of interference.

"I am not entirely sure if it's really to Quinn's disadvantage. The nomads don't have guns. When they lose their magic they will be just a bunch sword swinging fellows, running into the concentrated fire of several hundred weapons. Numbers don't mean much if your comrades start falling left and right from you. It's very likely that the nomads' forces break before they reach their foe.”

I start chewing on my lower lip. Chuck's interpretation could be right or wrong. It all depends on Quinn's rate of fire. But to me it didn't look like their weapons are automatic. Not even Dwem's weapons are fully automatic and they are surely the better models.

Helen drums with her fingers onto the parapet in front of her. “It's bugging me that it seems like they decided that they can ignore us for now. It's like they have no respect for Nict!”

Lucas pats her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down. “After all we simply took their attacks without returning fire. From their point of view it looks like we only intend to watch. It would be stupid of them to force us into action. At least until they are done with Quinn.”

We watch as the nomads' onslaught enters the maximum range of Quinn's interrupt field. Quinn kept firing the entire time with a single cannon to test the nomads' shield. As the first shell gets through, Quinn's formation suddenly disappears behind a cloud of smoke. All units fired at once and the effect on the advancing nomads is devastating. Riders fall left and right while I watch the camera feed from one of our drones.

But the nomads don't break and spread out their formation. On the backs of their nightmares they only need about five minutes to bridge the distance between them and their target. But five minutes are still an eternity in battle. They pay a hefty price in lives until they reach Quinn's line of defence while trampling over the bodies of their fallen comrades.

But when they do, Quinn starts paying for their tactic. The nomads use incendiary devices while they hurl themselves at the line of defenders and the first vehicles go up in flames. Some of Quinn's soldiers deploy flame throwers and cause horrible damage to their foes. The battle turns into a chaotic mess until the nomads finally break the defenders' formation. There is space between Quinn's vehicles and the nomads use the invitation to ride right through them.

Riders start swarming into the circle of vehicles and towards the command centre. When the command centre gets its share of incendiary devices it decides to start moving. The circle of vehicles around it breaks up and follows the command centre at maximum speed, leaving the nomads and a few burning comrades behind.

I notice that the spinning coils of the command centre are turning slower when it is moving.

Quinn's forces continue shooting, but only a minute later the shells start impacting on a newly erected barrier. The distant roars of the guns finally grow weaker and stop after the last gunner realized that the barrier was raised once more.

I nod in realization. “So that's the reason. Their area of interference is reduced while they are on the move. I guess that they can't guarantee protection from stronger attacks like that.”

The nomads seem to have realized the same thing and a new orb of light forms above the main body of their troops.

The orb arches away, but the command centre slows and comes to a creeping halt to block the attack. I watch the coils increasing their speed and after the orb of light vanished in mid air Quinn starts moving once again, circling counter-clockwise around our fortress while keeping a respectful distance to us.

In the meanwhile the nomads don't give chase and seem to be happy with mopping up the forces which couldn't keep up with Quinn's retreat. A few vehicles, which got damaged during the exchange, were left behind.

Chuck shakes his totem at Quinn's forces. “Ha! They got their asses kicked! Too bad that the nomads' artillery seems to be very limited. If they could shoot faster, they could hold Quinn down while they are giving chase.”

The casualty estimation by my drone tells me otherwise. “Quinn's troops still sold themselves very well. They lost about two hundred of their smaller vehicles, which accounts to a thousand soldiers. Their heavy equipment is mostly untouched. If my drone is right, then the nomads paid with ten thousand of their riders to achieve that.”

Lucas points at the nomad forces. “You shouldn't trust the initial numbers of your drone too much. The nomads are capable of potent healing magic. If they are given enough time, they can heal their wounded and return them to full efficiency.”

I order the net to recalculate the numbers. “Depending on how fast their healers are, they can restore between seven to nine thousand of their soldiers. A thousand are dead for sure.”

He is right that we have to take healing magic into account. The problem with a gun is that it only wounds the enemy in most cases, meaning that the immediate mortality rate for a gunfight is very low. Normally the wounded of a fight suffer for hours until they finally succumb to their wounds. Only very few people are actually lucky, or unfortunate enough to be killed outright.

Helen nods slowly. “If you are looking at it like that then both parties came out equally in the encounter, though the nomads have greater numbers. They can repeat this type of encounter until Quinn is done for. The nomads even have reinforcements and supplies. Is there any way to know how much of their ammunition Quinn used to achieve this? From what I heard that's a limiting factor to their weapons?”

The Great Shaman shrugs his shoulders. “That's really hard to tell. It depends on how many of their vehicles are carrying supplies, but judging from their behaviour they have to be careful.

They didn't waste any shots on the nomads' barrier and used only one cannon to test if it's still active. When they confirmed that it's down, they fired. You don't act like that if you have shells to waste. Our enemies in the north know how to cast a similar barrier, but we simply keep shooting until it breaks.”

Helen growls as the nomads orient their formation with a new target in mind. “Now they want to try us. I wonder what swayed their minds?”

Lucas answers with an unhappy expression. “Probably they decided that they can take Quinn with enough time. Now they want to know how much of a threat we are.” He gestures for one one of the soldiers who are waiting for instructions. “Deploy our forces.”

Stella turns at my side to look anxiously at her father. “Are you really sure? We could use long range attacks. There is no need to put our people at risk.”

Lucas looks at us and smiles. “I know that, but there are many good people living on the border to the eastern plains. I want the nomads to know that the Free City States aren't only good at hiding behind walls. And I want to show Quinn that our swords and armour aren't as bad as they think. After all there is magic involved.”

Our fortress spits out its troops while the nomads start advancing towards us. Of course they try to use their white orb once again, but it gets interrupted by a set of small blue sparks. The sparks originated from our army and caused the white orb to detonate early. A bombastic explosion lights the sky, but doesn't cause any harm.

Our troops form ten squares with a thousand men each. All of them are foot soldiers. On the outside of the formation are two rows of people with big man-sized shields and swords, while the third, fourth and fifth line is held by spear men. Behind them are several rows of bowmen with robed figures in the centre. Those are the magicians who form the centre of Nict's battle tactic.

The nomads close in on our slowly advancing troops, but our soldiers march forward unperturbed. I realize that I never saw our soldiers fight until now. Growing up in a time of peace is a blessing. Though I heard that my grandmother and my parents fought in several encounters with the southern nations.

Fireballs start rising from the charging nomad forces. Since they aren't inside Quinn's interrupt field, both sides can use magic.

The fireballs hit barriers right in front of our formations and cause explosions without doing harm. When the charging wave of riders enters a distance of one hundred metres our formations stop their advance.

The shield bearers plant their tower shields firmly into the ground, even folding out an assisting stake of metal to help holding the shield in a firm position.

The archers start firing their bows, but instead of shooting salvoes of arrows like I expected, they take careful aim at certain targets. Upon closer inspection I notice that one of the magicians is pointing the targets out.

Then the nomads' onslaught rams into our formation, but our strengthened soldiers hold the line with ease. When someone gets wounded he is immediately replaced by a comrade and retreats to the centre of the formation to get healed.

I notice that the archers seem to be directed to focus their attacks onto the enemy magicians, who are hiding within the ocean of riders. The fight turns into close combat between our shield bearers and the dismounted nomad troops who were flung from their nightmares. Other nomads also get off of their nightmares to assist their comrades.

The biggest problem for our troops seem to be the nightmares which lost their riders and simply throw themselves into our formation by jumping over the first line of defence.

Suddenly an entire wing of nomad troops simply collapses. A few of them wail on the ground, but it takes only seconds until they lie still. Five hundred warriors who seemed fine a moment ago dropped to the ground.

The Great Shaman nods in admiration. “The nomads lost the last magician who protected that area. Was it a mind spell?”

Lucas shakes his head. “The Tinn like to use that spell when they can work together with others. It requires a little preparation and the assistance of five other magicians. It's a group spell which decreases the air pressure within an area drastically. They force the air out of the target's lungs, it's a neat trick to bypass someone's natural defence.”

Chuck scratches his cheek with the totem. “So they suffocated? That's a nasty death. And attacking the air within someone's lungs is also a neat trick. I like the Tinn, they are sneaky bastards.”

As he ends his comment a second wing of riders explodes into a single huge bonfire. Probably that was the work of an Anja.

The process repeats itself a third and a fourth time. Our troops take their share of damage when the nomads start using their incinerate devices, but the flames are quickly put out by magic.

This time I get a better view on what they are using. Each Nightmare is carrying a big jar on a wick. When the rider pulls the jar free, he ignites the wick and can hurl it with both hands at his enemies. The jar breaks upon impact and spills a highly flammable liquid.

The fight continues and our outermost left formation gets into serious trouble when one of the fireball spells penetrates the barrier and explodes within the centre of the formation. The explosion takes out several wizards, but luckily the crucial ones who are defending the soldiers against enemy magic manage to keep doing their jobs. The magicians from the neighbouring formation drop a part of their defence and start casting long range attack spells on the nomads to assist their comrades.

After a few seemingly endless minutes the nomads decide that they have seen enough, they turn and run as one.

I straighten myself to get rid of the tension. “That looked like a well trained performance.”

Helen smiles and explains the circumstances. “While they may be the capital's reserve forces, they are still one of our best trained units. I guess you sent them out there to give them battle experience, Lucas?”

Her husband nods. “They may be well trained, but the last time we needed them was long ago. There is nothing better than gaining real experience. Though they could've done better. I'll tell their general that the next time they can deploy their shields earlier. Southern, speed enhanced troops could have used their late deployment to charge into them before they are ready.”

Our troops turn around like a well oiled machine and march back to our fortress. They leave behind ten almost perfectly clean squares, surrounded by dead bodies. I check the estimation of my drone. “Between one hundred and two hundred casualties on our side. The nomads lost somewhere between three and four thousand warriors.”

Lucas nods. “Calling them warriors fits. They obviously aren't trained soldiers.”

“Though I don't understand why they decided to retreat? For a moment it looked like they'll manage to break our left flank when their spell got through.” Stella asks warily at my side.

The Great Shaman tries to explain the situation. “The nomads seem to rely only on using their nightmares to charge into their enemies. Mounted troops have an advantage when it comes to impact damage. If they manage to break the enemy formation, they have it easy and can give chase to fleeing enemies, riding them down.

But nightmares aren't dumb animals. You can force them to ride into an enemy formation, but once the charge is broken it's hard to get them to advance properly. If your charge is broken you can only try to retreat and try to charge a second time.

When your troops stopped the enemy charge successfully they had the upper hand. All they had to do was to defend since the nomads had to dismount in order to continue their attack. Only a few crazed nightmares still decided to attack.

Since your troops are optimized foot soldiers, the nomads were just a rampaging mob to them once they dismounted.”

We watch the nomad forces retreating to their previous position, many of them throwing angry glares in our direction.

I notice that Quinn's force decided to come a little closer to watch the exchange. “Do you think that our little show impressed Quinn?”

Helen snorts and gestures at the ten clean squares with dead bodies around them. “I hope so?”

Our conversation stops when a group of riders separates from the nomad troops and rides to a spot which is roughly between their army, Quinn's forces and our fortress.

“I wonder what's going on in their minds now? Are they going to attack with twenty people?” Xander frowns while he asks the question which is on everyone's mind.

I blink and order the drone to zoom in the camera. “I think they are building something like a fireplace and a protection against the sun?”

Lucas pulls an old fashioned telescope from his pocket and deploys it by pulling on both ends. Then he takes a look at the situation. Seriously, he could've simply linked into the mana net and accessed my drone.

Helen shrugs her shoulders. “An invitation for tea?”

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