Military formations were a wondrous invention. They could allow a normal soldier to fight with the power of a knight or allow a military unit to cross a large territory in days instead of weeks. It accomplished these minor miracles by fusing the strength and power of everyone in the formation into a single form instead of being separate individuals.
However, anything that looks too good to be true, usually is.
All formations had a flaw that prevented their widespread use. It shared the fatigue experienced between everyone in the formation as well. If the formation was overused the weaker individuals would collapse for days. There were some medical records that indicated deaths after overusing formations as well.
As powerful as a formation might be, its commander must always handle it with care.
Chronos wasn't worried this time. Using a war column formation to increase speed and offensive power for an hour wouldn't cause serious harm. At best, they'd get some rest after the battle; the worst part would be if the shadows lingered until morning.
On the way the column encountered three small groups of dark beasts. They were crushed by the paladins in front before the sides even saw them. Like getting run over by a stampede. The war column only slowed down when the nagas main village came into view.
Approaching the village from the west Chronos looked around and was impressed that the naga had held off this many enemies all day. There were two thousand or more dark beasts that could be seen just on this side of the village, he could hear more on the other sides of the village.
Naga and lizardfolk warriors were on what looked like a mud and tree barricade wall. Several spots looked like they were new growth that had been shaped into a wall. The ground was covered in hawthorn plants, but the thorns were 10cm long. The wall had multiple towers erected just inside of it, each tower had 4-8 shamans on them from both the lizardfolk and the nagas.
Spells to reinforce the walls were constantly being cast but it wouldn't hold for more than a couple hours under such a fierce assault.
"Prepare to charge." Commander Stan shouted but was interrupted by the naga matriarch.
"Hold on Commander. My tribe is about to launch a counterattack, please assist them."
"Hold the charge." Commander Stan shouted.
Everyone drew their weapons and the dragon paladin's had energy build up around them.
Chronos wondered what the matriarch had seen that caused them to halt, until he saw one of the shamans cast a flame spell at a dried patch of hawthorn.
"Hmm, that hawthorn wasn't dry a few minutes ago." Chronos thought.
Whoosh.
Like oil catching a spark the hawthorn carried a flame from one end to the other, surrounding and separating the beasts into several sections. It then moved inward, swiftly burning anything inside to death.
There were only a couple hundred beasts on the west side now but beasts from the north and south started moving in only to be ambushed by lizardfolk in the trees and standing pools of water.
"Now charge in and cut a path through them!"
The column charged, spreading out slightly to form an arrow formation in an attempt to cover the area outside the western walls. Commander Stan took the point as the strongest individual here.
The dragon paladins were the first to make contact, but they didn't stop as they slashed at the first few beasts before charging deeper into enemy lines. The second order was behind the first but were slowed down by the beasts until they were brought to a halt.
Chronos was with Captains' mercenaries who pushed right past the second order and swiftly pushed the beasts back several meters. The priests and mages began casting in an attempt to shatter the beasts' lines for good but many of their spells just fizzled out.
"Shamans in the woods, they're canceling our spells!" One of the priests yelled.
Looking back Chronos saw several dark naga casting counter spells at any magic they could sense.
"Greg cover me, priest bless my arrows." He called as he drew his aura bow.
With a blessing in place, he took aim at the largest naga shadow and released his shot. It flew straight into her throat; she just looked at him with a smirk before shock crossed her face as the blessing spread to her head and destroyed it.
Seeing this the other dark naga hid behind other beasts or trees in an attempt to avoid his sight.
Chronos ran through the troops looking for a good shot as he went. Two dark naga slithered out to blast him with lightning only to writhe in pain and collapse. Chronos shot both of them as he listened to Sariah who was nearby.
"Good, mixing curses and blessings went well even if it didn't kill them immediately." She said with a smile as a priest channeled divine magic into a purple spell circle.
"How come they didn't counter it?" Chronos asked.
"To counter a spell, you need to follow a specific process. Most spells have similar starting methods making it easy to counter as long as you can cast fast enough but curses use a completely different process. Without in-depth knowledge of curses, they won't be able to counter my magic." She said proudly.
Looking back to the front lines Chronos saw that the dragon paladins had pushed so far forward that they were separated from the rest of the army by a line of beasts, especially on the sides of their formation where beasts on the north and south were pushing in.
Captain saw Chronos on the north side of the lines and called out, "Chronos take the north and hold them off. I'll handle the south."
Nodding Chronos left the nagas to Sariah and rushed to the northern section while pulling out and charging echoforge.
It took nearly 15 seconds to reach a point where the beasts were dense. Five echoes of [Impact] were now held by echofoege, which he released into a large crocodile that was about to chomp down on a paladin.
Bang.
With the first [Impact] the crocodile was thrown into the beasts behind it.
Bang.
With the second [Impact] its body exploded turning its bones into shrapnel before they could dissipate back into the shadows.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
Each subsequent explosion drove deeper into the horde of beasts. Each beast that was struck exploded or was thrown about like a ragdoll.
Suddenly there was a hole in the beasts' lines that Chronos pushed into.
"Widen the hole! If you can't kill in one blow then injure it and leave it for those behind you." Chronos said while wondering how his [Impact] had flown through the air.
"OOHH." The men shouted as they pushed forward.
Chronos used echoforge to knock aside any beast that came near him, letting those behind him finish them off. Unfortunately, his rampage attracted the attention of several dark lizardfolk warriors who halted his advance.
Confronting him as a group of five they were able to interrupt his aura skills and kept him busy while the knights came up behind the paladins to give support. However none of them supported Chronos, glancing back he saw one of the nobles he had beaten up earlier that day sneering at him.
Chronos laughed, relishing the fight with growing excitement. The more excited he became the more he looked like a werewolf until he was in a full werewolf form. Like this his speed and recovery ability were greatly increased allowing him to outmaneuver the lizardfolk. Getting behind them he flipped echoforge around and used the spike to drive an [Impact] inside his opponent's body instead of it remaining on the surface.
With a dull boom the lizardfolk coughed up dark blood and dissipated. Now with only four warriors left they wouldn't be able to hold him back for long.
Whoosh.
A fireball flew overhead igniting flames that rapidly spread through the hawthorn along the northern wall, which was now behind Chronos.
Roar. Squeal. Shaa.
Roars of pain spread from the northern wall as all of the dark beasts pulled back. Shortly after a similar scene happened to the southern wall.
Seeing the dark beasts retreat the dark lizardfolk also retreated. Chronos approached the man who had ordered the knights not to assist him while grinning a wide toothy grin. The man shrank back, cowering under his gaze.
"Thanks. If others had interfered, I wouldn't have had as much fun fighting that group."
Looking very small in front of Chronos' 8-foot form he nodded slowly while feeling like Chronos might eat him alive.
"Chronos, Commander Stan wants us with him when he speaks with the village's Elder Matriarch. He thinks they will show more respect if a werewolf is with him." Gregory said as he appeared from the shadows behind him.
"Alright." As they left Chronos turned to Gregory and said, "There's a really weird scent coming from the village, like stale air from a sealed room but deeper. I've never smelled anything like it before."
Gregory gave him a strange look, "I'm surprised you can smell anything on a burning battlefield."
"I shouldn't be able to, but this scent is overpowering everything else. I can't tell where it's coming from either. It's mixed with another scent I can't explain." With a contemplative look on his face he continued, "It almost smells ancient but not at the same time."
"How does something smell ancient? Does that even have a smell?"
"I don't know, I'm just saying what I smell."
Bickering like this they made their way over to Commander Stan who was just entering the village.