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Far away from the great conflict bursting within Saxany, at the onset of the new day, a second invasion commenced with unmitigated fury.
With no warning other than the outbreak of horns, blasting all across the adjacent forest, teeming masses of armed Gallean warriors strode forth, from where they had drawn up early that morning into well-ordered ranks. In an extensive, unified line, the Galleans approached the forest across the open grassland, striding boldly alongside small groups of Atagar and Gigan allies.
The first ones to penetrate the line of trees marking the edge of the forest were the Atagar. Though few in number, in comparison to the main force, the nearly two hundred Atagar located at the invasion’s spearhead were more than enough to execute their appointed tasks; serving as both a vanguard and scouting force.
With their lengthy arms, sharp claws, and light, elongated bodies, the deft creatures could scurry up the trunks of trees and move along high branches, or nimbly navigate the varying contours of the forest floor. Their darker fur blended extremely well with their immediate surroundings, as they skillfully kept to the shadows, avoiding sunbeams and larger pools of direct light within the forest’s sun-dappled interior. Fast and dexterous, they were soon well ahead of the main attack force.
After piercing the outermost reaches of the forest, the Atagar invaders barely had time to sense the presence of the land’s defenders before they were attacked themselves. A few Atagar frantically blared upon signal horns, as arrows streaked in amongst them, sending their resonant warnings back towards the commanders within the forces coming up right behind them. Bounding and diving for cover, most sought protection behind trees, or in the beds of a couple of streams in their path. A few concealed themselves behind lower brush.
The Atagar carried small, simply fashioned crossbows, or straight bows, using missiles sized somewhere between a dart and a bolt for a human counterpart. They also carried long, curved daggers for hand to hand combat, with the blades sharply honed on both edges.
A few of the Atagar were felled quickly during the first outbreaks of resistance, but most managed to reach places of relative safety. Swiftly, if not fully accurately, they loosed a flurry of missiles back towards those that had ambushed them.
There were a few that hastened up the trunks of high trees to gain a better line of sight, as the tribal defenders were well concealed within the trees ahead of them.
After the first wave of Atagar had encountered the enemy, at a signal, a mass of regular Gallean soldiers, joined by a few Gigans, trodded forth. The Galleans marched forward with shields up and lances angled forward, combing over the surface of the forest as they neared the area where the Atagar advance had stalled.
More archers and crossbowmen behind them peered upward, into the branches of the trees surrounding them. The dense formation promised to ferret out any Five Realms warriors that tried to maneuver around them, or endeavored to conceal themselves in the foliated upper boughs of a tree.
The early resistance was sporadic in some parts, and fiercer in others. With limited numbers of warriors at their disposal, the Five Realms war sachems had planned their defenses strategically, and cautiously. The bulk of the tribal defenses centered around protecting access to the Shimmering River, the great water channel by which the open seas to the east could be reached.
In the best of circumstances, it provided a route for any potential help to arrive. At worst, if it could be held, it allowed the tribes a way of escape.
Swiftly moving squads of tribal warriors traversed the woodlands, all along the front of the invaders, harassing their enemy with arrows and adroitly fading away, before any concentrated response could be mustered. The tribesmen wended through the forest growth as if they were an extension of it, giving no warning to the probing enemy fighters that fell victim to their ambushes.
A heavier blow would not be delivered, as there were no efforts to engage the enemy in a massed force. The tribesmen also avoided recklessness in contesting the lithe Atagar.
The tribal warriors quickly recognized the capable nature of the unfamiliar beings. Looking to the warriors like huge rodents, the peculiar creatures ran equally well over the ground on two legs or four, and their ability to flow between the trees using the overhead maze of branches was stunning to behold. They could even make use of branches that would not hold the weight of a lighter human, giving them an even further advantage.
If the Atagar had come in great numbers, the tribal warriors knew that they would have presented a tremendous challenge, but their overall threat was negated to a marginal level as they began to suffer losses to their already small numbers. Knowing the Atagar’s value to the invaders, the leaders of the Five Realms defenders began to station more sharp-eyed archers in the trees themselves, wherever they believed the Atagar would try to move.
Whether surprised from above while moving along the ground, or jumping into view on a branch level with an archer waiting in a nearby tree, several of the Atagar toppled lifelessly to the forest floor, with an arrow protruding from their bodies.
The tribal war sachems did not dare to blunder into the main strengths of the oncoming force. The war bands of tribal fighters gave way wherever the primary line of invaders moved forward, after claiming a few of the attackers with skillfully loosed arrows.
Flexible and fast striking, the defenders were able to instill some caution in the invaders, and effectively slow their advances. Using the quick, bursting attacks, they threw several segments of the invading lines into momentary panic and disarray.
The brief stabs into the enemy lines revealed some further areas for the defender’s exploitation. The men coming up just behind the foremost contingents were nowhere near as resolved as their companions.
While fairly well-armed, with an assortment of short-hafted axes, longer guisarmes, spears, and hand bows, they were more lightly armored, in quilted jerkins and iron caps. On the few occasions when Five Realms warriors broke through far enough to engage some of the men in the second rank, the invaders exhibited a swift tendency to break and pull back. Like the porcupines that the tribesmen were so familiar with, it became apparent that the enemy had a softer underbelly. The challenge lay in how to expose it.
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