And the last advantage to their preliminary attack was that, when Gallienus was king, the landed gentry were given the option of whether or not to send their militias if the king called them to service.

Some did.

Most did not.

Those who did not used their militias to keep the peace in their fiefdoms, this mostly taking the form of intimidating and bullying recalcitrant vassals, mutinous peasants or upstart merchants and freemen.

As such, the soldiers they were fighting were not well trained and had little to no experience.

Very different from the Airenzian and Nadirii warriors who they now faced.

But this was not all there was to that particular advantage, for some of these men weren’t militia at all.

Just dissenters to Cassius’s vision of the future of Airen.

So, they had no experience and very little training, if any.

And they realized, quickly, and for some it was the last thing on this earth they learned, how important it was to be trained to face battle.

The disadvantages, Cass noted immediately, started with the fact that the militias had trolls.

Trolls had skin tough as leather, bones strong as steel, and the worst, they felt very little pain.

They were not impossible to kill.

They were just difficult to kill and even more difficult to maim, for if a troll sustained an injury, even a mortal one, he would just keep fighting until he dropped.

The other disadvantage to Cass and Elena’s troops was that there were just so fucking bloody many of them.

The trolls had been activated, and he knew some of his people were being pulled from their horses, when Cassius’s next planned advantage was put to use.

As previously decided, when Nadirii and Airenzian began to get unhorsed, the Zees appeared as they were very good at doing—from what seemed to be thin air.

They attacked at the left flank.

And by “the Zees,” it was not only the Patras.

Silvanus had talked six tribes into joining him and Fern’s army with the intent to cause havoc in Airen. More land for them to roam, if it was made safe for them to do so.

In other words, more people for them to divest of their belongings in a charming way that was still thievery.

The tribes didn’t need much talking to agree, Silvanus had shared.

They enjoyed causing havoc.

And thievery.

Which meant a good two hundred and fifty men were entering the fray to the left.

And it had long since been agreed by all realms that magic could not be used in battle.

This meant there had been much discussion the previous eve if this agreement amongst realms held true in a civil unrest.

In other words, would he and Elena allow the Nadirii to use battle magic.

In the end, Cassius and Elena had agreed to uphold the accord that banned magic in battle.