A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1812 - 1812: A Scramble for Victory - Part 7

Hod could tell, merely in seeing the way Tavar had his troops arranged then, what the course he was likely to take was. He held up his hand, and forced his cavalry forward no longer. Instead, he saw them drawn back, in line with the infantry, and had them march straight through the gates of Ernest, allowing them to amass an army of over twenty thousand strong, right inside their gates.

It was a proposition that Hod had made Tavar, one without words. One that was brought about by the opportunity that Oliver Patrick had created. After nearly two weeks of siege, Hod proposed that finally, they did bring it all to an end, in a single field battle. It was a proposition that Tavar was made to accept. It was likely to be the best opportunity that he had left, after losing such a key piece.

"I do have to wonder," Tavar said to himself, as he made the necessary arrangements for what would likely be the last major battle of their engagement. "If I could have used him better. A creature like him, whom, a decade ago, in the Academy, seemed like the greatest warrior this nation would ever see… a decade ago, he was so blinding in his light, that we had to see him cast out away from public attention…"

Those that had known Germanicus back then had known for a certainty that he would be who he was now – the King of the Treeants. And they knew he would make a mighty ruler indeed. A decade away from the world he had spent, in the rolling waves of a grand destiny that had been set about from his birth. Rightly, as soon as he put on his crown, that ought to have been it all unfolded, that which all had predicted long ago – that certain influence of overwhelming strength that he was sure to have on the realm.

But here they were now, and the world was already so different. A decade, Tavar reflected, was an awfully long time. The standards of the battlefield since then had shifted. Since then, they'd seen a man ascend to the Sixth Boundary, and since then, the world had been introduced to that man's son, in Oliver Patrick. They'd seen a greatness amongst the youth that seemed to defy comprehension.

That was one of the qualities that Hod always said would signify the coming Time of Tigers – when man was no longer sufficient to predict what it was happening around them. When all that had once been mighty would be turned on its head. And indeed, that was the case here and now. Germanicus Tavar had seen brought with him, and he'd been confident that he could match the creature that was Oliver Patrick with him, but in the end, it did seem, that he had merely tossed a fine meal to the likes of a dragon, and through that challenge, as with his battle with the Emersons, did Oliver Patrick arise as an even more terrifying creature.

"I will not retreat without slaying this fool first," King Germanicus said, putting more strength in his hand – even though he had already put all the strength he could in there – to see the job of slaying Oliver done all the faster. In turning his back on Tavar as he had, Tavar had known immediately to embark on a different future, along a different plan.

Squeeze as Germanicus did, he did not find Oliver growing limp quite as quickly as he had hoped he would. All he could point to, as far as that fact, was the hand that Oliver had managed to worm in underneath Germanicus' own, just before Germanicus had grasped in. Quickly done, impressively done, almost as if he had predicted it, it was a thing worthy of compliment, but it was unlikely to save him from his fate.

And yet, Germanicus did feel resistance. From underneath his mighty hairy palm, that much smaller hand of Oliver Patrick held him off from complete victory, in the worst of possible positions. King Germanicus frowned, and pushed against it, squeezing as much as he could, but still that resistance endured, and with a lacking blood flow to his head, Oliver still managed to hold on.

Germanicus felt the tuggings of something that was close to alarm. He'd been certain his position was better than it currently seemed. Of all the places that he was sure he could best Oliver Patrick in, strength was certainly one of them… But for there to be this level of resistance regardless, it made him shiver, as if he'd missed something. Still, he did not understand the man. Every direction he pushed him in, Oliver Patrick seemed to come back stronger, as if by sheer disagreeableness. Germanicus' sense of danger grew higher, and he started to think that, maybe he ought to have listened to Tavar after all – this was taking far too long.

When the arrow came, tearing through the flesh that held Oliver's sword in place, with such perfect accuracy, that feeling turned to an absolute certainty. He'd forgotten about the girl with the red hair. Or more like, he had assumed that she wouldn't be a fool enough to fire upon her General when the two of them were in such close proximity. Apparently, however, that not was a mistake Oliver had made, for as soon as Germanicus' hand allow him free, Oliver had his sword pulled out in an instant, and with a swift strike, he severed the other hand that held him in place at the wrist, and he landed lightly on the floor.

With a shake of his head, he freed himself from his dizziness, and then went charging straight back in, without stopping to admire the work that had been done. Germanicus was bleeding profusely from three separate wounds, but the man was nothing if not resilient. He ignored his severed hand, and grasped his warhammer regardless, and it was a testament to his monstrous strength that he could still wield it with such speed one-handed.

Oliver flashed past him, ducking under the strike. There had been too much built up for him to get caught a second time. He left another slash on Germanicus' stomach as he went bent, buckling the King for a second time, and then rounding at him from the back.