Equestria's Ray of Hope

by The_Darker_Fonts

It Falls Like Rain

The hour of marching that brought the Fallen within a mile of their foe was the quickest hour of Ray’s life. One moment, he was directing the movements of soldiers with Yarem, carefully readying the soldiers for their sudden sweep across the enemy’s face, and the next the word was being passed along that they were now less than a mile from the minotaur lines, marching parallel to them. Coincidentally, that also meant that the entire army was waiting for Ray’s mark to set off and lay the bait for today’s battle. In the distance, over the steady drum of hooves on dirt, he could hear the rumbling of the minotaurs. Without a moment's hesitation, he raised his kharamh in the direction of the noises, letting out a shout before breaking into a run and veering out of formation.

Behind him, Yarem’s infantry also tore away from the main body of the army and began frantically climbing up the hillside. Several dozen Fallen already had zipped past him, and if he had to guess, at least half of the infantry would engage the enemy before he could. The attack was designed to be unorganized in execution, however they had taken care to not cause any blunders for Skalos or Pelios’ infantry. However, aside from that, there was no plan except to hit the enemy hard and fast, enraging them into a daring chase.

Feet pounding, it took him only a couple minutes of hard running to crest the hill, which thanks to the hundreds of Fallen who were now storming past, was shrouded in dust. Huffing, the other small hill came into sight, a thousand or so minotaurs crowning it. They stood about unorganized, but now with a swarm of Fallen suddenly charging them, they were scrambling into a defensive formation. A cloud of dust behind them on a taller hill about a mile and a half away indicated the much larger part of the minotaur army. The Fallen’s own cloud of dust had probably alerted them to the sudden attack and they were now desperately attempting to protect their outlying forces.

Focusing on the downhill charge now, Ray watched as soldier after soldier passed him, weaving around slower soldiers and sprinting towards the enemy. He could pick out Yarem not far from the front, though he seemed to be slowing slightly as more and more Fallen took the front. In spite of how scattered the center of the charge was, the front was doing an excellent job of keeping together to form a wall of spears in front of the hundreds of scattered, charging Fallen. The front line continued to extend outwards until it was about a hundred soldiers wide and several hundred thick.

The sun beat down on the barren, golden landscape, creating little ripples of heat in the air that seemed to dance around the hooves pounding into the ground. Ray watched carefully as the front line slowed slightly as they reached the incline at a sideways angle. The minotaurs had expected a head-on attack, but thanks to the arching sweep the Fallen were executing, they were struggling to form up on the slant of the hill. Their own frontline was broad but thinned towards the back. Even before the first spears pierced the minotaur’s Ray knew the front wave would split the line in half, leaving the rest of the minotaurs to fend for themselves against the onslaught of Fallen.

As the Fallen began running along the slope of the hill, parallel to the ground, the front began to sharpen as the center began sticking out, the rush of battle causing the Fallen to lose their focus in the final moments before the clash. Ray didn’t slow down as he tensely watched the Fallen close the distance between them and the minotaurs. In the last moments before the Fallen’s spears came into contact with the minotaurs, the minotaurs began to break, some stumbling back or turning around entirely as they realized they were watching their death approach.

There was a piercing crunch that momentarily drowned out all other noises as several hundred spears pierced through the hundreds of minotaurs. The front of the Fallen charge cut the line in two soundly, though on the edges of the front, the minotaurs attacked those who were alone or too far out of formation. The swing of an axe sent a Fallen into the air while another Fallen was beheaded entirely, their body sending up a puff of dust as its speed carried it into the ground. It was only after the brutal crunch that the screams of minotaurs sounded, at least a third of the minotaurs felled by the front line alone.

They scattered quickly, either running up or down the hill, anything to get out of the path of the charging Fallen. In a matter of moments, more and more of the unorganized middle arrived in small groups or alone, beginning to mop up the minotaurs. The battlefield became a swirling dust cloud as Fallen entered and exited the fray, and Ray lost sight of Yarem and the few soldiers he was running with as they entered the brown haze. He had to disregard his concern instantly, however, as he realized his feet had swiftly carried him to the edge of the cloud as well. Taking a deep, dry breath without slowing, he charged in.

He moved uphill, towards the right of the battlefield, as he leapt over slain minotaurs and fallen weaponry. There were already so many minotaurs killed that he was hesitant at whether or not he would fight any during this part of the battle. Skepticism aside, he kept his kharamh held high for fears that, in the dust, his silhouette would be mistaken for a minotaur;s and he would be accidentally attacked. The crescent hook of his spearhead had become somewhat iconic, so hopefully through the frenzy of battle they would recognize it and his hornless head.

As he did so, however, he came across his first minotaur, who was desperately stumbling away with a severely bleeding leg. Without slowing, he swiped his kharamh at the minotaur, his hook cutting through the left side of the creature and sending it to the ground with finality. Running past, he saw four more shadows through the dust, though right as he noticed, a trio of glowing forms rushed by, cutting down two of them. Rushing the remaining two, he cleared the distance in a matter of seconds. They turned to face him just in time for him to slip his kharamh past the first one’s axe, stabbing it through the center of its chest.

Yanking his weapon from out of its ribs, he side-stepped a quick slash from the second minotaur before it was suddenly jerked away as another Fallen rammed their lifted spear into its face. Cursing at the sudden killing of the minotaur but grateful his soldiers weren’t confusing him for the enemy, Ray continued on. The dust was getting thicker as the last of the Fallen were passing through, and picking up his pace, Ray was forced to ignore the few minotaurs he saw that remained in order not to be left behind. Still, even if not all of the frontal appendage of the minotaurs had been killed, they were a completely inoperable group of survivors now.

As he sprinted his way out of the dust cloud, he glanced backwards and saw the last of the Fallen also emerging from the din, trampling down a few more of the scattered minotaurs. Satisfied, he turned and focused on returning to the main body of the army. Now that his ears were no longer so clogged with the sounds of battle, he could hear the rapid approach of the minotaur army. Panting hard from his almost nonstop sprint, he veered towards the small hill the Fallen army was marching behind. Almost the entirety of Yarem’s infantry were ahead of him by this point, though they had taken into account Ray’s speed in the next step of their plan.

Climbing the hill quickly, the human finally took a brief rest on the top of it, looking back and forth between his army and the skirmish grounds. Pelios was preemptively taking his division of infantry and about a half mile towards the looming hills that flanked the Big Face. There awaited the Matriarch and her spiderlings, with whom Pelios would then box the minotaurs in once Ray, Skalos, and Yarem had brought the minotaurs under the Fallen’s bows. Skalos had turned his divisions to face the Big Face with Yarem directing his soldiers back into formation behind them. The last of the raiding infantry rushed past Ray as he stood there, assessing the enemy.

Surprisingly, some minotaurs had survived the sudden attack, albeit only about fifty or so by how scattered and few there were. The battleground was far more broad than even their last battle had been, with minotaur bodies scattered across what must have been about a mile of territory. While Ray couldn’t quite pick out how many Fallen had been slain in the skirmish, having seen a few die in front of him, he knew they had taken their share of light losses. Hopefully that wouldn’t translate to harshly later when they were needed to engage the enemy.

Suddenly, the clambering of the minotaur army became much louder as they suddenly rushed over the opposite hill, an unorganized blob of hundreds of snarling monsters. Shouting another curse, he turned on his hill and practically flew downhill, shouting to whoever could hear him, “Minotaurs coming in hard and fast!”

A myriad of responses melded together, but thankfully the Fallen seemed to catch his message thanks to their general’s sudden sprint downhill. By the time he had gotten to the back of Yarem’s block of infantry, Skalos had his infantry well on the move. Pausing once again to pant hard, the human watched as Yarem came around to him, smiling brightly.

“Seems we’ve got their attention pretty well,” the general noted, his eyes flitting to the new dust cloud that rose over their quaint hill.

“Yeah,” was all Ray managed before gulping in more air. “Don’t think I’ll manage another sprint like that for a few minutes. My lungs’re dry.”

“Best to get a drink now then,” Yarem replied, sobering up as his eyes narrowed on the rapidly approaching dust cloud. The sound of the minotaurs trampling the ground was uproarious, the very ground vibrating from their swift and violent approach. “If we stay here much longer, our back end will be caught.”

“Good thing we’re back on the move then,” Ray pointed out, gesturing to the Fallen that had begun a paced run in front of them. Wordlessly, the human and general began jogging along as well.

Within just a few seconds of them beginning to run from the shadow of the hill, the minotaurs were cresting the top, roaring and shrieking as they came into sight of the smaller army. In spite of the minotaurs being about a quarter of a mile from him, Ray was more worried that they had caught sight of Pelios’ army and would pull off. Quickly glancing behind his shoulder, he watched as the minotaurs began pouring downhill, some so rapidly that they tripped and rolled down the coarse dirt or being trampled by their allies. Thankfully, but terrifyingly, the minotaurs seemed to only be focused on catching the Fallen and paying back their losses tenfold.

Some of the Fallen who had also seen the minotaurs’ rapid approach began shouting for the army to speed up and keep strong, and whether they were officers or not, it seemed to work. Even though the minotaurs were in a rage, the Fallen remained calm, and when Ray glanced back once again, there was a little more distance between themselves and the minotaurs. However, as he stared, a singular arrow soared over the ranks of charging minotaurs. Ray watched in shock as he watched it arch through the air over his head and strike a Fallen soldier only a few feet in front of him straight in the back. The unfortunate stallion let out a cry of pain as he collapsed to the ground in a puff of dust, the soldier behind him tripping over their fallen comrade.

Ray leapt over the two Fallen and was briefly tempted to turn back to assist the uninjured soldier, but looking back at them, he saw the tripped stallion’s broken leg, he knew it was hopeless. Heart heavy, he kept running and kept his eyes forward even as the stallion’s pleas for help suddenly became a short scream of pain. Grimacing, he kept moving, training his sight on the strange formation not too far from his soldiers now. He had never seen the Big Face from a front-facing angle, but now that they were circling towards it, he could see the broad granite features of the drop-off.

Glancing back over his shoulder, he cursed loudly as he saw several dozen arrows fly over the charging minotaurs and towards the Fallen. Almost all of them fell short by a few dozen feet, save for one that disappeared into the back ranks of the Fallen without hitting any soldiers and another that struck a soldier only a few feet to his right. The stallion fell silently, his body pinned to the ground by the force of the arrow. Ray didn’t even have time to process the soldier’s death before he suddenly heard the wind whistle past his left ear.

Yelping, he turned and looked over his other shoulder in time to see a small volley of arrows that seemed to be coming for him alone. Stepping to the side, hurdling over one of his soldiers, he swung his kharamh through the air, managing to hit one of the arrows away as it fell towards him. The others landed on or behind where he would’ve been, though by dodging Ray had slowed down significantly. Growling, he knew that he was now easily within range of whatever the minotaurs were using to fire those arrows at the Fallen. He had figured they had archery of some sort as a fundamental piece of warfare, but they hadn’t demonstrated it until. Luckily, even though the minotaurs were gaining on him, the Fallen were increasing their distance to a range much too far to suffer any more casualties from loosed arrows.

Pressing on, Ray forced himself into the sprint of a lifetime, barely able to do anything but pant for air and pound his feet into the ground. Breath puffing his chest up, he glanced back one last time as he realized the minotaurs were beginning to lose some of their steam. Even though Ray had picked up his pace a little, it wasn’t enough to account for the sudden distance between him and the minotaurs, nor the growing of that distance. The minotaurs still ran after the Fallen, but it was obvious they hadn’t expected such a long distance run.

They had put almost a mile from that little hill now, and with the Big Face now looming over the front of the Fallen, it wouldn’t be long until the minotaurs fell into the trap. Thankfully, the minotaurs were no longer in range of harming the army but still following it into the flat plain in front of the Big Face. In spite of himself, Ray took a look at the upper rim as he and the rest of the back fell into the shadow of the massive cliff, scanning it for telltale signs of his archers. Thankfully, they were hidden away well enough that he didn’t even know if they were in position where he was looking or further down along the edge.

“Sir,” Yarem suddenly shouted as Ray found himself catching up with the infantry, “only a mile left to go. Army still following?”

“Yeah,” he replied simply, panting twice as hard as his Fallen companion. In spite of the ridiculous situation, the human found himself wheezing out a chuckle. He thought he had been doing pretty great with his exercise, becoming a much stronger, more agile man than when he had first come to Equestria. While that was of course true, for all his gained strength and agility, he still couldn’t match the pace of the elite Fallen he commanded.

“Tired,” the general pressed, amusement in his voice.

“Yeah,” he once again answered shortly.

“Just wait till we turn to fight them,” Yarem pointed out.

“Damn you,” was all Ray could shout back, though he couldn’t help but grin at the stallion. The general began laughing regardless, a few other Fallen around them joining in as they had overheard the exchange. However, the distraction was nearly enough for Ray to forget the enemy in hot pursuit of them.

The clattering and bleating of the minotaurs had faded somewhat, allowing for Ray to focus on his own army for the briefest of moments. They were quickly approaching a slight uphill incline, not quite a hill but certainly a change in elevation, that would be where the Fallen would halt and turn to face down the minotaurs. The back lines of the army would be there in only a few minutes, and dismissing the tiredness he was feeling and the distractions all around him, Ray focused on what would have to happen next.

Unfortunately, Yarem was very right about turning to fight the minotaurs. They needed to keep them pinned down long enough for Pelios and the Matriarch to collapse their combined forces from behind and not let any of the enemy escape. As much damage as the archers could do, there was no possible way the four thousand of them would be able to kill all seventeen or eighteen thousand minotaurs. With the goal of total annihilation, crippling volleys would help approach, but not achieve, the objective. Once again, that would be the grizzly work of the infantry.

By the time he had made those assessments, he was climbing the incline, only now realizing that he was just moments away from the army halting and turning towards their foe. Slowing down slightly as he came near to the top of where the incline flattened out, he saw Skalos leading his infantry as they turned in place, the stallion running alongside the entirety of the division to signal each column to turn. Coming to a complete stop as Yarem’s infantry slowed down, the human let a small space grow between him and the stopping Fallen to assess the enemy better.

Seeing the Fallen coming to a stop, the minotaurs were beginning to do the same, a distance of a little less than half a mile between their frontlines and Ray. Behind them and to the south a little, the tall hills hid Pelios’ infantry and the Matriarch’s spiderlings. Above them, Ray caught sight of movement along the cliff’s edge, and a sudden excitement filled him as he struggled for steady breath. The minotaur’s had, once again, positioned themselves right where Ray wanted them.

“Alright Matriarch,” he said to the wind, “close the gate on ‘em.”

Without warning, there was a sudden shrill whistling sound that filled the air as a shadow suddenly shot from the top of the cliff’s edge. Head jerking up to watch the arrows arch through the air, Ray’s jaw dropped slightly as the cloud of thousands of arrows temporarily blotted out the late afternoon sun before descending towards the minotaurs hundreds of feet below. The deadly missiles shrieked in such an uncanny way that he took a few steps backwards, even knowing he was in no danger of being hit. Squinting his eyes slightly to better see the minotaurs, he watched as the cloud suddenly broke on the minotaurs.

Hundreds upon hundreds of arrows fell straight into their ranks, peppering all areas of the minotaur’s army. The minotaurs shrieked as the unseen archers felled thousands of them with one lethal volley as another launched just seconds after the first had landed. Ray and the infantry watched in awe as more arrows began cumbling the enemy’s formation, dead minotaurs with a half a dozen arrows in them stacking one on top of the other. By the time the second volley was finished, the minotaurs were scrambling over their dead, desperate to form a line against an attack Ray didn’t think would come.

Yet another volley, this one now accompanied by ballista bolts, fell from on high, littering the ground and dead bodies with even more arrows. The entire landscape became almost hellish, with thousands of dead or dying minotaurs stuck with arrows. The ground itself was covered in blood and had arrows embedded in it, and with giant ballista bolts also lodged into the ground, there was almost no safe way to traverse it. Signaling his army to hold, Ray continued to watch on as now the arrows no longer came in organized volleys, but rather fired at will.

“I didn’t know it rained here,” a soldier not too far to Ray’s left muttered in disbelief as they watched the archers pummel the minotaurs into oblivion. There were still a couple thousand alive, though they were now scrambling over and around their dead to try and escape. Very few successfully dodged the suppressive onslaught the Fallen archers were releasing, minotaurs all across the battlefield crumpling to the ground as several arrows would strike them in the back or head.

Behind them, the Matriarch suddenly emerged from the valley between the looming hills, Pelios’s division leading a mixed charge of spiderlings and Fallen in what was supposed to be a clever and decisive flank. Instead, they would have nothing to come across but a few hundred minotaurs who had somehow escaped the seemingly endless rain of arrows from above. There were still maybe a thousand minotaurs trapped with their dead and dying, the landscape turned impassible by the archer’s work. They were quickly being whittled down by the archers, who seemed perfectly keen to keep the infantry from fighting.

The original plan had been to let the archers do their damage in two volleys, but apparently Kraven had taken great disinterest with following order this time and had successfully directed his soldiers into stealing the battle from the infantry. Smiling to himself, Ray raised his kharamh and simply began a slow walk towards the devastated ground. He and his soldiers would clean up any surviving or wounded minotaurs and rejoin the rest of the army at camp before sundown, considering clean up wouldn’t take long. He’d be surprised if even a hundred minotaurs remained to be cleaned up.

In the distance, the few hundred minotaurs were overrun by the combined forces of Pelios and the Matriarch with ease. Some of the spiderlings stopped to feast on their kills while most pressed on slowly towards the main killing fields for more food. The last minotaurs who were stranded among the corpses of their comrades would be easily dispatched by ravenous spiderlings, so, with a quick gesture to Yarem and some of the captains who had come up with him, Ray ordered the army to side-step clean up operations this time. Still, curious, the human kept walking towards the thousands of dead minotaurs as the last arrow fell, sticking into an already fallen minotaur.

It was awe-inspiring in a terrifying way how many arrows had just been expended on the minotaurs, visible in each corpse having at least four or five arrows lodged into them. The entire ground was soaked with minotaur blood, the ground too hard and dry to take in the minotaur’s viscous moisture. However, in spite of the many, many dead, the battleground was less gory than Ray had anticipated. The other battles had left far more of a mess than this one had thanks to spears beheading, gutting, impaling, or otherwise slicing open minotaurs. Strangely, this battleground was very… clean. Sort of.

Keeping his kharamh ready just in case of any minotaurs that may still have a little fight in them, Ray continued to survey the tarnished battleground. For some reason, Yarem had followed him and was now verbally cursing at the sight, smell, and feel of the battlefield. Even though he tried to ignore it, the human felt minotaur blood soaking into his thick sandals and wetting his feet. He had to watch his step lest he trip on a corpse, arrow, or fallen weapon.

“Admiring their work,” a curious voice questioned from above. Looking up with a smile, Ray found himself grateful to be staring at the Matriarch, Pelios standing on her head. “It was indeed a most spectacular work done.”

“Yes, albeit it left the rest of us a little bored,” Yarem replied. “Given, it means way less dead, so I guess we should be thanking Harbor and Kraven for taking the lead on this one.”

“We got a little action,” Pelios commented as the Matriarch set him down near the other generals. “Given, it was mostly the spiderlings who took on the remaining minotaurs. If I had to guess, I lost less than ten of my soldiers in total.”

“We lost a good few in the raid and retreat,” Ray soberly noted, watching as the first spiderlings begin picking at the corpses around them. Looking back up at the Matriarch with a smile, he asked, “Mind giving us a lift back to camp? It seems we have a bit more free time than anticipated today, and I’d like to spend it congratulating the genius of my counterparts and the incredible work of their soldiers.”

Author's Note:

Another battle easily won, and a little bit brighter vision of the future. As always, questions, comments, and concerns welcome and wanted.

Comments

[TheVirtuousOne]

I've read a few accounts of real battles where there were so many arrows loosed at once, that it blotted out the sun momentarily. I couldn't imagine the noise they must make when they start their downward arc either, a humbling spectacle to be sure!