A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1750 - 1750: A Long Slumber - Part 7

If Tavar was able to find out where Hod was, and how it was that he was seeing his commands given, through his chain of messengers, then perhaps Tavar would have been able to attack him directly. But the old General simply smiled, knowing very well that Hod had already taken extensive measures in that regard.

To control that battlefield the way Hod did, in his very first time touching it, it was a mark of genius that went beyond terrifying. Into realms that ought not be. There existed yet no names for the counter-strategy that Hod had pulled off, and the strange formation that he had seen set up.

The current of the men, even just from the very offset, as Hod saw the positioning of Ernest's army changed, caused problems for Germanicus. He was not a man of strategy. He had attempted to govern his army from atop the southern wall – but that was the governance of a creature that was already mighty in one realm, and was simply using that might to push into another.

The genuine article in the likes of Hod washed away all that he had tried to do. Those landing points that had been established – a good three of them, along the length of the wall – just from the sheer movement of men being repositioned, saw themselves squashed. They were boulders, and what Hod had created was a mighty river. He swept them all off their feet. He saw the northern wall cleaned, by this grand moving of men. He packed the wall so tightly with people that they could hardly move, and still he was adding more to it.

It was a restriction of the highest sort. A mad move that should have sent all his other walls crumbling for the lacking that they now found themselves with. But it was quite the opposite. It was the northern wall that he drew from, continually, and continually. Half its number was sent elsewhere, and the movement from the north down towards the south kept both the eastern and western walls at bay.

It was the sort of strategy that men of a theoretical bent would spend awhile trying to dissect after it had already occurred, but to Hod it was as natural as the results that it served to effect. The packing of men, the defeating of those landing points – and too the quelling of Germanicus' blade. He'd achieved it all at once. Germanicus hurled himself at the men in front of him, slaying man after man, but his efforts only served to drag him away from an exhausted – yet still fierce in his glare – General Blackthorn.

He was swept back towards the edge of the wall that he'd been pushed off days ago, and now, this time, it was mere mortal men that seemed ready to do that for him. He looked a Hobgoblin that had found itself in the middle of a river, only to discover that it couldn't swim. Hopelessly outmatched he was, and his sword could find nothing to do about it.

"Ah, and now we have another Minister of mine," Tavar said, seeing the Minister of Blades join with General Blackthorn. The current of men buoyed them both. They closed in on Germanicus' position, the two of them together, and attacked him whenever there was a break in the wall of men.

Very quickly, Germanicus found himself entirely isolated, with none of his bodyguards, and certainly none of the footsoldiers that he had arrived with. The southern wall had become entirely the territory of Ernest's allies. That the King stood at all was a mark of his remarkable endurance, but quickly was he losing the perspective that he'd managed to build up since his first defeat.

He was lulled into a battle fury, and a pointless one at that. Blood continued to spatter his face, as he slew man after man, but it was to no avail. He was tricked into thinking that he was moving somewhere, but the most casual of outside observers could see that it was a hopeless endeavour.

And so, before matters could become any worse for him, Tavar saw the order given for him to be dragged back down towards the ground.

The General turned his neck to the side to see it stretched, and he heaved a sigh. "Well, I suppose we had better give this day to Hod. Half-done though it may be, it does seem rather pointless trying to fight through this now."

…

…

King Germanicus managed to execute his retreat when finally men arrived up the ladders to drag him back. But it was not entirely a willingly done thing. It had taken a call from Tavar himself before the King was willing to move.

By the time he was descending down his ladder, the Minister of Logic was climbing a set of stairs from just beside General Blackthorn's position. There was a sheen of sweat on his head, from the exertion he'd had to put himself through, but he didn't exactly seem less dignified for it.

General Blackthorn glanced at him. "I thought it was you."

Hod nodded. "Forgive the intrusion, General. There wasn't much time to see myself announced."

"How long have you been here for?" General Blackthorn said. "Did it not occur to you to assist earlier?"

"I have only just arrived," Hod said plainly.

"Nonsense. How did you see yourself inside?" Blackthorn said.

"I'll have to speak to you about that. You've weakness in your defence that you've left unattended," Hod said. "Mm. Well, I suppose I ought to be thankful that you didn't manage to lose the city already. Though you've been enjoying coming close."

"Pah. We would have been fine," Blackthorn said.

"Yes, you looked rather fine," Hod said. "What was the plan that you had in mind then? Take King Germanicus' head yourself?"

"As fine a plan as any," General Blackthorn said.

"Perhaps. If it was only him alone. But General Tavar's strategy held him aloft. Which is why, indeed, you found yourself in such a perilous position," Hod said. "With your General Patrick on the very opposite side of the city to you."