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halt and tried to catch his breath.
    “What’s the word?” Piper asked.
    “Commander, we ran into a small column of Goblins marching this way. Must be a few hundred of the bastards. Looked like they were dragging fresh kills. We saw smoke coming from the direction they’re marching out of.”
    Piper frowned. The Goblins were still strong enough to be raiding villages successfully. He glanced back at his fifty men. They were light cavalry, not meant for heavy charges. Piper’s force was specifically designed to engage the enemy fleetingly and keep them distracted until the heavy infantry arrived. They were never meant to fight a pitched battle against large numbers of infantry. Pikes and horses didn’t mix well.
    “How well armed are they?” he asked, the words coming out rushed.
    The scout used a sleeve to wipe the sweat dripping down his face. “Enough to give us trouble. They got pikes and spears. Bevin saw a few axes, too. All of ‘em carried swords and were heading this way.
    “We have enough to keep them busy, but not destroy them, Commander,” the sergeant offered thoughtfully.
    Piper struggled with the urge to strike something. “We don’t have a choice. A force that size can cause mayhem across the countryside. If what this man says is true they’re fresh off of a kill. We have a chance to strike now and catch them with their guard down.”
    “We’re going to need help.”
    “Dispatch three men back to General Vajna. He’s to bring five hundred men as quickly as possible,” Piper ordered.
    An eyebrow rose. “You mean to attack them at night?”
    “Is there a choice?” Piper didn’t want to. Night attacks were hazardous for all parties. Goblins were creatures that lived without the sun. Darkness was their element. Fighting a numerically superior force at night and on unfamiliar ground was tantamount to suicide. A thought sprang to life, quickly growing from spark to flame. “Have the rest of the men gather as much kindling and torchwood as possible in the next few minutes. We’ll have a nasty surprise waiting for those Goblin scum when they arrive.”
    * * * * *
    Rolnir came upon the battlefield shortly after dawn, having ridden through the night to reach the vanguard. A regiment of heavy infantrymen panted behind him. They’d come expecting to dig their scouts out of a mess but were almost stopped in their tracks when the sun showed the full extent of the fight. Bodies littered the area for hundreds of meters. Most were the dark, grey bodies of Goblins but more than enough were Wolfsreik. Rolnir lamented the losses but saw them as manageable enough to call it a victory. Piper and Vajna were standing in the center of the field pouring over maps and captured documents.
    Haggard, much as he normally looked these days, Piper looked up to his friend and commanding officer with exhaustion in his eyes. He was tired of fighting and it was beginning to show. Every soldier endured their own private struggle with how far they could go before the breaking point crept upon them and dragged them down. Piper was almost there. He threw up a hasty salute and waited while the red-haired general slid to the ground.
    “Piper, Vajna. I wasn’t expecting you to engage without heavy support,” he said, keenly eyeing the battlefield. Delighted as he was to see so many Goblin bodies, he subconsciously counted his own losses.
    Piper barely mustered a shrug. “They left us little choice.”
    “What happened?”
    Watching from the side, Vajna saw Piper’s reluctance to answer and decided to jump in. “The out riders spotted a small raiding party heading towards us. We only had a short amount of time to react. Commander Joach dispatched riders back to warn the main body while we prepared an ambush. The men strung wire across all likely avenues of approach and set traps. They weren’t much but I’ve seen more than a few killed by them. We had a limited number of archers but used them to harry the Goblins into