This is the same chapter as is on the Snippets Thread but will be posting Chapter 2 and creating a separate Collection in a moment. Note - this will be one 1 of 2 stories Patreon will be able to vote on!
Chapter 1"Steady," he whispered to the cannon crews. The three cannons had been imported from Kul Tiras and they were perfectly positioned around the dense foliage found in the valley."She isn't going to make it," one of the crossbowmen said worriedly."She will," Karl replied confidently, "she wants them to think she's in reach."Captain Karl Huber could understand why his men would be doubtful. The knights of Stromgarde were on tall warhorses of the best breeding. The princess was fleeing on foot and they were on horseback, surely there was no way she could stay ahead in time to reach the designated point.Her blond hair blew behind her as she raced faster than a normal human could. He wasn't sure what spell she was using, but it was propelling her forward and ahead of scores of knights."Just a little further… NOW!"His raised voice was all the signal needed. The trio of cannons roared, unleashing enfilading fire into the massed knights. Two of the iron balls smashed straight through a dozen men and horses apiece, the black powder's fury driving them onward. One shot struck the ground, bounced viciously, and tore through four more knights before losing momentum.The third cannon struck one of the royal knights and bounced off the stalwart warrior's shield. But his company was not yet done. His forty crossbowmen fired their quarrels aiming at the horses as much as the men, as though they were only partially barded; they were not as fully protected as the knights. The volley cost them dearly and enraged them further.The princess turned and laughed."Why have you transgressed upon our lands? Only death awaits you!"Her voice was far louder than normal vocal cords could carry and some knights continued their pursuit, avoiding the broken bodies of their fellows, while others turned to charge at Karl's company. One of his men cried out in fear of the princess, but as one of the knights' blades struck to take her head, it passed right through.As for the knights that charged upon his company, the first ones who drew near fell into the lengthy hidden trench twenty feet in front of his men. Already they had exchanged their spent crossbows for loaded spares and fired another volley of bolts into the enemy. The cannon crews were hastily reloading the powder and the cannonball for another volley as the enemy sought means to go around. The royal knight let out a roaring challenge and his horse leapt the chasm and Karl grimly took up his blade to meet him.The man's shield had seen better days, and Karl drove forward his poison-tipped spear into the flesh of the horse. It neighed and tried to trample him but he rolled to the side as two of his men tried to slash at the knight with their blades. The horse collapsed, but the fearsome warrior of Stromgarde dismounted cleanly and struck down one of Karl's men and then fended off another strike from the other.Karl saw an opening and jammed his spear into the back of the man's leg, where the armor was weakest. He let out a roar, and without faltering turned and slashed at him. The blade moved unnaturally fast, and he barely avoided it, drawing on every ounce of his training to escape the devastating strike.The deadly poison only slowed the knight, but it was enough. Three more of his men came forward. One with a deadly maul designed to smash the heavy plate armor of a knight. The valiant foe's death was messy, but when it was done, the enemy was already on the verge of breaking. Around the ditch they had come, but now scattered, wounded, and confused. When bolts of arcane power struck them and the cannons unleashed another volley, the survivors turned and fled.The princess panted, a rare sight for the normally composed daughter of their king."We butchered at least eighty of them and have a dozen prisoners," she said wearily. "I doubt they'll try us again this season." She smiled viciously. "And if they come next year, we will be more than ready for them."Karl nodded. "Aye, Highness, I doubt even Trollbane himself has stomach for more of this."She cast a spell and rose into the air. Her azure eyes glowed fiercely, and her radiant blond hair shimmered even more brightly."Men of the Mountain Home! Today you have driven the invader back again. You have shown them ingenuity, bravery, and strength. Be proud! Glory to King Aiden! Glory to Alterac!!"The raucous cheers and celebrations filled his heart with pride. For years it had been one desperate battle after another to keep the land that was rightfully theirs. Now, in the last year since Beve Perenolde had made her presence known, they had finally secured several forward positions that had been lost before. The higher valleys were now secure, and that meant the lower valleys could afford to live in peace and plenty.Alterac was on the rise and with him being chosen by the princess to lead her personal artillery and ambush squad, he knew his own fortunes would rise as well!
***
In an age of war, my father was a man of peace. He wore a sword at his hip, though he had never found cause to draw it. I respected him for that. War is a criminal waste of human resources. If only everyone would settle their differences properly and realize that the battlefield was an unproductive hell, the world would be a better place. Of course, given the nature of humanity, I feared that no matter what world I was reincarnated into, I would always face a battlefield.My third life was quite different than my prior two. Like my second life, this was a world where magic existed, only it was far more alien in nature than in the Empire. This world not only had magic, it felt like it was straight out of a fantasy Manga or novel. Humanity was not the only species. There were also elves, trolls, gnomes, dwarves, and more. I was a human again and unlike my second life, where I had no family and was raised in an orphanage, I was reared in high society. I was the daughter of a king and had been given all the rights and privileges that came with it.So why was I on the frontlines? Because I knew Being X would never let me live a life in peace, and holding these mountain passes was the best way to secure my future. Once fully secured we could build fortifications and force the enemy into ruinous battle if they dared try to push into our land again. Technically, this area was probably truly Stromgarde lands, but the elevated area was too critical to take to let old remembered map lines decide the fate of our nation. I wasn't overly concerned about it, as Stromgarde had certainly attacked and at times historically occupied Alterac regions when I was younger. And only an idiot thought that lines on a map were forever fixed. If you were stupid enough to launch a war against me, I'd damn well ensure territorial losses would be permanent.Not having something as foolish and absurd as UN Article 2 to deal with is nice. While I am all for the dignified and appropriate international treaties that ensure reasonable rules of warfare and proper management of prisoners, the notion that an aggressive nation shouldn't lose part of its territory when it loses a conflict it started is laughable.The point was moot, of course. The nations that had sprung up after the dissolution of the Empire of Arathor had no such agreements in place. My own nation was amongst the smallest. Alterac sat wedged in the frozen heart of the Alterac Mountains. It was a jagged snow-choked range of steep peaks and narrow valleys. It was hard living for many of the citizens, as even the lower valleys weren't particularly fertile.To the southeast was our quarrelsome neighbor, Stromgarde. Ruled by the loud and militant King Thoras Trollbane. Even in his father's time we were harassed by our neighbor, who claimed that their territory extended deep into our own lands. Thoras was far more vigorous about enforcing his claim compared to his father.To the south lay the Hillsbrad Foothills, a rich province belonging to Lordaeron – by far the largest and most powerful of the human nations. In truth, Lordaeron had us almost completely surrounded on three sides, but they were not belligerent like Stromgarde. They didn't treat us with respect, and tolled the goods we wished to import from the sea, but by comparison they were wonderful neighbors. Lordaeron in fact had more territory than Dalaran, Gilneas, and Stromgarde combined!We had one other neighbor, the city-state nation of Dalaran that was more formally known as the Magocracy of Dalaran. It was home to the Kirin Tor, the Wizard Council of Dalaran. I hoped to visit one day and perhaps enter a defensive alliance with the Council of Six against predation from Stromgarde, but they were quite insular. I believe they were also a bit miffed with my father for not sending his daughter, me, to study with them. My younger brother was the heir, but I don't think he trusted them even though I was more of a spare.I may have only been fifteen, but from an early age I knew that this world teemed with magic and I would learn as much of it as I could. While Dalaran was the heart of magical scholarship, it was far from the only nation that had mages.In this world, magic was so much more accessible than it had been in my second life. I could use the mathematical formulas, well, at least the simple ones, but there was hardly a need to. The mana in the air begged to be used. You could be a savage troll with almost no ability to speak proper languages or understand the science of sorcery and still you could make use of mana. Warriors who trained all their lives to hit each other with swords subconsciously channeled the rich mana-filled air to strengthen their blows and harden their bodies. I had seen a flintlock pistol strike a helmless knight in the face and the bullet had only left a bruise!I used the same power that warriors, rogues, knights, and footmen used in battle, but with conscious effort. It was easier to use the paths that magic seemed to want to travel than force it through the more rigid mathematical magic of my second life. Not that there weren't some neat tricks I could use… but for the most part I focused on the more standard practices mages used in the human kingdoms.They call me a natural prodigy, which may have been the case even if I had not had the experience of my second life. Magical spells, the use of the ambient energy combined with your own internal mana, or as I still thought about it, my circuitry was what created the effect. Internal energy, external energy, knowledge, and will were the four components. In the future I planned to experiment to see what could be done just via external energy without the needed internal component. I wanted this because one drawback of using magic is that mages became exhausted after using too much of it.It wasn't quite a one-to-one analogy, but each person had a mana reservoir they drew upon, and it only refilled slowly. Meditation could help refill it, as could rest, but it was painfully inefficient. Mana potions existed, but they were no panacea and had their own problems. Nonetheless, I had learned quite a bit of the basic spells for most of the eight schools of magic.My tutors had insisted I be more focused and I had finally relented and spent time focusing on two areas. The school of Evocation had been a natural draw. The ability to summon a bolt of fire, a frostbolt, and waves of arcane blasts was the most immediate way to help in a fight. And since I also liked living, I selected an Illusion tutor as my second one. Both older wizards were part of the small magical community in our nation. It was not the Kirin Tor in Dalaran, but they were competent, if not exceptional.Both of my tutors, Garrick the Illusion specialist and Mirael the Evocation specialist, would probably be aghast at me using magic to fight on the frontline and using myself as bait. They had gone on about my potential and it was probably more than just baseless flattery. Still, my talent in the magical arts and my knowledge and experience with warfare made my chosen tactic too good not to use. I could kill a few people and then make a run for it, using a bastardized version of my flight spells to just push myself on a horizontal vector away from the enemy. It looked like I was running incredibly fast, but in truth I was more like gliding at the speed of a racehorse. To top it off, illusions were quite the battlefield hack, though I did have to be careful. Some warriors innately channeled magic and could even pierce my illusions and invisibility spells unconsciously.It still seems odd, but that's true for a lot of things.With this latest victory it was time to return to the capital. My father would be pleased that this short campaign had inflicted significantly more casualties on our enemy than what we had suffered. The next step would be fortification and hopefully making the trade deal with the dwarves of Khaz Modan. Alterac did not have any industry that produced black powder weaponry. No muskets, flintlock pistols, cannons, or anything of the sort. But I aimed to change that. Even in a world where the rare puissant warrior could deflect cannonballs, artillery would no doubt soon become the god of the battlefield and I could not afford Alterac to fall behind that arms race. With the aid of the dwarves, we could begin establishing that sort of industry in the capital.A lot of ifs, and they will no doubt want something for their knowledge, but the important part is the knowhow. Once we have learned that, we will be golden.While I knew the general principles, and we could probably simply copy some of the simple designs, I didn't just want the odd cannon or rifle. I wanted mortars. I wanted artillery. I wanted to hold the high places of the Alterac Mountains with artillery that would make sure we could never have to face invasion again. Then, I could relax. Then, I could enjoy the life of luxury, intellectual pursuits, and relaxation.