Age of Heroes

'Faster' Harald ordered his army. 

He is anxious and worried sick. He is hastening his march all the more because he had heard that the lands near the Dragon camp were being laid to waste. 

Dantes is said to suffer the most with almost all the villagers exterminated, corpse littered the Old Empire road, and river of blood has been shed around that area.

And Harald is also worried about his newborn son, Herod Alan and his wife Emilia safety. However, that is not all that make Harald to march faster to Arleans.

Al­though the devastation of many of his territory may have played a part in his decision, he has a tactical reason, too, to advance swiftly and pin Arial before he reached Arleans, where the isolated invaders would eventually run out of supplies. 

And Harald knows that such an army that Arial had brought will be met by resistance by those armies he left in the area near Borveaux.

'At least that will delay him for a while' Harald mused. Arial the Dragon has come to conquer his land. 

How could he underestimate that stubborn lord? He could not have predicted that Arial is this stubborn to march in winter.

His army, though victorious in the recent battle, is weakened by the fatigues of the march, and by the losses suffered in the battle. 

Even though the losses are not that much, to march in the winter cold is not a wise decision.

Harald himself had been wounded, though not so severely as to prevent his continuing to exercise the command. 

Of course his wound resulted from some stray axes and arrow but not one would say severe injury but still he requires some rest, but hearing about the dragon how could he rest?

This is not supposed to happen Harald thought to himself.

He has undoubtedly won a great battle. 

It was his finest hour, and on the morrow of victory he could sit back and congratulate himself on the first eight months of his reign. 

He thought he had seen off the danger from Arrandy. 

He had decisively defended his country against aggression, and in the process he had defeated and killed King Barael, the most famous and formidable of warriors of the sea known for his brutality and merciless punishment. 

1023 After Fall, it seemed, is going to be a good year for Harald Alan. 

Thankfully, he retreated far away from Venicia and is near the southern Cori border when he heard of the news, if not maybe Arial could have already come to Arleans and sacked the capital city.

If Harald's heart sank, as it must have, he soon steeled himself to face the new challenge with formidable, almost inhuman energy. 

They marched like lightning, their horse is fast like the storm wind caring about nothing else. 

Cori is a small country compared to Vangua but still the journey is not what one would call without dangers.

Harald hope, is that the army he left behind could delay Arial as long as possible. 

Even Arial had to wait for his other armies he sent to the surrounding area in Borveaux to come back.

From the mercenary company it is revealed that they were sent by Arial to aid Diego. And this strengthen Harald believes that Arial planned all this.

From Diego audacity to try to take the southern point of Vangua, to Arial deliberate delay in marching. It is all connected. 

Lord Arial mixture of high talent as a warrior and serpentine deviousness as a politician is a hard one for any opponent to deal with, as he is about to learn.

Harald reached Lorraine in a week, with little more than the core of his men, and stayed there a week in order to wait for rein­forcements. 

He then marched swiftly into Bayern asking the lord there to join him and then in another five days he finally reaches Arleans to confront the invaders with an army that could match them. 

All the while Harald got the news that Arial had arrived at Arleans but Arleans is wide and huge after it is combined with Darc so it will be long before Arial would move to the capital city.

Harald even have time to meet his mother in Prodence as his mother begged him to wait and at least take some rest after all that he had been through. 

Then after the tearful reunion with his mother and receiving his mother prayers, Harald marched again with renewed determination.

He pressed on toward the north with great energy, sending messages on every side, into the surrounding county, on his line of march, calling upon the chieftains to arm themselves and their followers, and to come on with all possible dispatch, and join him. 

He hoped to advance so rapidly to the northern region as to surprise Arial before he should have fully entrenched himself in his camp, and without him being aware of his enemy's approach. 

But Arial, in order to guard effectually against any surprise, had sent out small reconnoitering parties of horsemen on all the roads leading southward, that they might bring him in intelligence of the first approach of the enemy. 

Harald's advanced guard met these parties, and saw them as they drove rapidly back to the camp to give the alarm. 

Thus the hope of surprising Arial was disappointed. Harald found, too, by his spies, as he drew near, to his utter dismay, that Arial's forces were two times as numerous as his own.

This is all because of the disbanded forces during the upcoming winter. Harald had not thought that the Duke did not yet abandon his invasion plan. 

In all logic, Vangua army is more numerous than the Duke army but many of them have returned home to attend to their farms and fields. 

It would, of course, be madness for him to think of attacking an enemy in his entrenchments with such an inferior force. 

The only alternative left to him was either to retreat, or else to take some strong position and fortify himself there, in the hope of being able to resist the invaders and arrest their advance, though he was not strong enough to attack them.

But Arial is fast approaching. He is still at the border of Arleans waiting for his detachment to come back.

Harald cousin in law, Earl Girth even offered to lead the Vanguan against Duke Arial himself, but when Lady Edith clung to Harald in an attempt to prevent her son leaving, the king almost faltered but his stubbornness is almost the same like the Duke. 

Harald understand his mother worries but he could not hide when his Kingdom is in mortal peril. What King hides when there is a threat of such importance?

By the even­ing of 77 Whitemonth Harold's army had assembled only a few miles from the point at Arleans Hill where Arial forces is encamped.

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