An ambush is a tactic that pays off handsomely as long as the target never sees it coming, but it has one blind spot: once the target knows where you are, the ambushers find it extremely difficult to adapt.
Swinging a halberd in the woods is a bad idea, so for the first time in a while I drew my cavalry sword, light as a feather by comparison. I swept through the startled enemy like a raging storm, and the ambush force collapsed in moments.
When you move from battlefield to battlefield and face countless enemies, sometimes their faces lodge in your mind as clearly as photographs. Young soldiers, old soldiers, middle-aged soldiers. And children.
Mid-swing, I realized that the face of the soldier who had collapsed in front of me was startlingly young, and I stopped. The boy soldier looking up at me had eyes full of terror. His trousers were soaked through.
"...Go."
"Eeek!"
