Bypassing the enemy from the flanks and rear came as a surprise to the mages. The lack of wide-range security spells played against the Valerians. A dozen standard signaling spells left along the way allowed only to detect the enemy in time, but no one expected that the non-humans would surround them. The resulting chaos turned into panic.
The reorganization of battle orders began at the sight of the vampires running at them. In an attempt to somehow stop their attacking rush, powerful spells created by both artifacts and mages struck different parts of the field. A "tornado" that appeared right in the center of one of the squads scattered the fleeing figures like fluff.
The ghouls flew dozens of meters around. Only it played a cruel joke on the mages, because the creatures flying in all directions were not human and such a flight was not fatal for them. And as it is not hard to guess, some of them flew right into the center of the Valerian army's defensive orders.
The fighter who landed on his feet was right in the path of the mage running to the rear and immediately took his chance. The guy, who had no time to form a shield, was stabbed right through with the hand that remained in his body. Having impaled the man like a puppet, the ghoul did not calm down and before the surrounding opponents had time to orient themselves, blew off the head of a simple soldier.
No matter how horrified the defenders were at the quick death of one and the agonizing death of the other, they were professionals and so soon the ghoul was surrounded and fought off the six men who had attacked him, using the dead mage as a shield. As soon as he realized that the blood from the human body was no longer flowing, he threw the body at the nearest soldier and knocked him down.
He jumped in the opposite direction and found himself exactly behind the back of the man who had attacked him from behind. A second later, another human body was clothed on the ghoul's left arm, which was still alive and screaming. It was the Valerian Magister, who happened to be nearby, who stopped this beating of infants. The "Pillar of Air" lifted two bodies at once and acting like a catapult hurled them away from the fight.
The attack of the ghouls in the center was expectedly choked. The defenders had experience with such dangerous non-humans and used it. Shields kept the attackers away, and spells drained their defenses and killed them. Those ghouls who tried to jump the line were met by paladins.
Slowly and surely the Valerian army grinded down the attackers without loss of life. The only thing that added uncertainty was the unclear situation on the flanks and in the rear. The commanders suspected that things were clearly not going well there, but the junior officers did not manage the battles.
They did not even see what was happening, the night cut off from them the picture of the overall battle, so they just did their job on that tiny section that the senior officers allocated to them. And there was plenty to see.
If on the flanks the defenders had held off the ghouls' first strike, the attack from the rear was very effective. If Askold had waited a little longer and let all his units reach the place and finish encircling the army, there would have been a massacre. But the inexperienced commander rushed.
Not having time to take the right positions hundreds, attacked as they had to and when they had to. This disorganization allowed the mages to somehow cover their backs. But even such a gift from the ghouls did not allow the Valerians to completely eliminate the threat. Now the rear was held only thanks to Archmage Georg and his powerful spells.
The situation in the rear was quickly reported to Askold and he and his personal hundred rushed there. Break through the defense, and then the power of the ghoul will decide the outcome of any battle and only paladins can stop them, which are not as many as ghouls. So it was necessary to help his troops attacking the rear.
In just twenty minutes of battle, the field around the Valerian army turned into a fantastic picture generated by the delirium of a sick man. Somewhere a man-made fire was blazing. Somewhere lightning flashed. Somewhere there were ice hummocks and needles. Because of the confusion of the first minutes of the battle, some spells of different schools were used in the same area.
And then there were quite bizarre accumulations created by spontaneous magic. For example, a lake of boiling plasma, created in the place of simultaneous application of "thunder front" and "rain of fire".
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