Stratego Dono wheeled up to Arch-Stratego Zarphu and saluted. He paused to remove his silver facemask. "Arch-Stratego, I believe we have now crippled enough firetubes to call for a general advance."
Zarphu turned as a firetube exploded in a burst of light, rocking the front lines. It was useful to know the Hostigi would blow their own tubes if they could take enough enemies with them. Zarphu appreciated such acts of heroic folly. This battle would already be over were the Hostigi as worthless as much of this so-called Grand Host. The insults his soldiers had been subjected to ever since they'd entered this cold land had almost been beyond endurance, even from barbarians. Were it not for duty…
The Hostigi firetubes had inflicted heavy casualties, far more than the fire-tubes they had encountered at the Iron City. King Kalvan had several times the firetubes of the Grand Host. Truly, Kalvan was a great Stratego-even though he was a barbarian.
The firetubes were deadly, as this army had learned on the Iron Trail. Still his iron-hearted soldiers had proven that the firetubes could be silenced if the men who fed them their fireseed were killed. It was easier to silence the firetubes since Stratego Phidestros had taught his soldiers to destroy their wheels and burn their wooden frames, which kept the enemy from recapturing them and turning them back on his troops.
Less than a dozen of the Hostigi firetubes were still firing upon his men. Even so, a direct charge into the Hostigi front would result in thousands of casualties. To wait would also be a disaster. The Hostigi were bringing up more and more of their firesticks to replace the lost firetubes. While the firesticks were not as deadly as the bigger tubes, en masse they were as dangerous as arrow flights. The time had come to take the fight to the enemy.
"It is time to move, Dono. Sound the horns!" The great battle horns sounded and the entire army began beating spears and lances against shields and body armor. The noise was deafening to him and even more terrifying to those hearing it for the first time. He would not have been surprised if the entire Hostigi flank had collapsed. That it did not, showed that his men's steel was being whetted on worthy foes.