"My lord, it is dangerous here, you should take shelter within your tent and wait for the result of the battle."
Ira said as he bowed his head towards Abeo, who was watching the battle that was happening from a safe distance and although he couldn't see everything that is happening, he could see enough to know who was winning and who was losing at any given moment.
"Know your place, Ira. I am getting tired of you questioning my every decision. I want to see the armies of our enemies decimated with my own eyes, and that will satisfy some of my burning rage against them"
If Abeo was looking at Ira while speaking , he would have noticed a huge frown on his face as soon as he told him to know his place, but immediately after his face returned back to normal, and he said, "I understand my lord. I was foolish to step out of my station. This humble servant is only here to serve you."
'Not long now, not long, and your head shall be mine. I will make sure to torture you first as payment for your humiliation against me and then kill you quickly. You are still my sister's son after all. I will allow you the mercy of a quick execution once i am ruler of this empire.' Thinking about his bright future made Ira happy and benevolently decided to ignore his nephew's remarks.
"What are they doing?"
Abeo's question suddenly snapped Ira out of his thoughts, and he immediately focused on the battlefield as well, and just like Abeo who stood beside him, a look of confusion also appeared on Ira's face, the tactic that was employed by the Bashoruns was one that was confusing to any onlooker.
"Maybe they decided to give up after noticing how superiors our numbers are." Ira said to Abeo.
Of course the words he spoke were just to stoke Abeo's ego, his family has been the biggest rival of the Bashorun family since the founding of the Oyo empire and if there was something he knew about the Bashoruns, they did not seem to understand the concept of giving up. so, however strange or foolhardy their tactics might appear, he had to pay attention to the Bashorun's movement in case they did something that affected his plans.
The reason for Ira and Abeo's confusion was the way Mobo and Adebowale had positioned the army. Normally, the infantry of the would line up with shields in front and spears ready to deal with the first wave of attackers that were coming in and then as the battle dragged on, more soldiers would join the battle turning the fight into an all out bloodbath. The archers meanwhile would stay at the back of the army, providing support to the infantry from a distance and when a weakness appears in the enemy's ranks, that was the moment the calvary would swoop in to deliver a devastating blow to the enemy's numbers and vastly reduce the enemy's chances for a victory and all of this would be commanded from a commander's tent that was a distance away from the actual battle itself. This was to ensure the safety of the commander of the battle as well as to ensure a path of retreat should the need ever call for it. This was the basic way war was supposed to be fought.
Of course, there are some generals who would always come up with their own strategies and ways of fighting that allowed them to dominate the enemy, but this was the basic method of war in the Yorubalands.
But what the Bashoruns were doing now made them seem like idiots. Firstly, their armies were positioned weirdly, instead of the infantry to be in a single unified line. The infantry was actually positioned as an outward bulge in the shape of an arrow with only a few hundred soldiers in front of them to resist the enemy. This was a strange tactic as this meant those who were at the forefront of this fight would bear the might of the entire first wave of the enemy on their own unless of course, they retreated and joined hands with others in the army to resist the full force of the opposing army.
What made this look even more stupid was the fact that Adebowale was mounted his horse with his elite units right at the forefront of the army. It cannot be understated how dangerous and crazy this plan looked in the eye of anyone looking at the formation of the Bashorun family.
This meant Abeo and his units will be the first ones to clash with the enemy, which meant that Abeo and his men would be fighting at the very start of the battle all the way until the end of the battle or until however long they can hold out.
Based on traditional thinking, the elite units of the Bashorun family shouldn't have made their way to the forefront so easily, the weakest infantry units should be the ones to fight first in order to chip away at the enemy's numbers before the elites took the stage. This is done both to conserve the strength and stamina of the elite units for truly important battles while also preserving their lives, but now, the Bashorun family seemed to have thrown all common sense out of the window with this formation of theirs.
"Did Mobo and Adebowale go mad from the pressure of fighting an unwinnable battle?" Delumo said as he stared at the opposing army formation from his war horse at the rear end of Mobo's army.
Although the formation looked stupid, Delumo was not a fool either, he knew that underestimating the enemy was a very stupid decision, especially when said enemy was the Bashoruns, a clan that practically thrived in conflict and war so he was currently trying his best to see what the Bashoruns were thinking with such a "unique" placement of their army.
"This is why you are growing white hairs faster than anyone of us. You tend to overthink everything. If Adebowale is offering his head to us in surrender, who are we to deny such a precious gift. This might be his last act as a warrior, a way to go to the land of the ancestors in glory. I say we honor that." Soji, chief of the Ojo family spoke up after noticing Delumo's hesitation.
"Advance!" Soji shouted to the infantry without consulting the other chiefs that were also mounted on their horses beside him.
Delumo and the two other chiefs, Laja and Boye immediately had a huge frown on their face as Soji had made a major battle decision without even consulting them.
But Soji immediately said, "We would be waiting all day for the war to start if we overanalyzed everything our enemy was doing. Remember, His majesty is also watching this battle, we cannot show any sign of weakness in front of him no matter what, we may be allies now but we all know as soon as the Bashoruns are dead, he will be coming after our heads next so we need an overwhelming victory to make him reconsider our combined might. Beside it doesn't matter what the Bashoruns are up to, in the face of overwhelming strength, all tricks will be destroyed."
Laja sighed as he listened to the words of Soji. "Sometimes i forget how much of a musclehead you can be. We all know you are just looking for an excuse to fight with Adebowale one on one. But at the same time, you are also correct. That pompous fool will certainly be watching this, any sign of hesitation or weakness will be to our detriment. Sometimes i wish we had chosen to side with the second prince instead of him, at least we wouldn't be dealing with a snake that could bite us back at anytime."
"That is most unwise, the second prince hated us as much as Abeo does. Besides, the second prince has too much of the peasants' love. That could have been a problem should he ever take the throne. But we are getting off topic, the first wave is about to collide with Abeo's men."
While the chiefs were still talking, the peasants in the army had been forced to start running towards the opposing army with the threat of whips and death to anyone who did not dare advance.
"Hold men! Let them come close! Adebowale shouted as he watched the opposing infantry advance towards him. There was a cold glint in his eyes as he saw all the men and women running towards him, and although he knew that some of this men and women in the opposing army were just peasants that had been forced to fight, his blades would not show any mercy. This was the battlefield, mercy towards one's enemies would be cruelty to your allies.
Adebowale slowly breath out and got down from the horse that he was riding on.
"My lord..." One of the soldiers was about to speak to Adebowale to get back on the horse so he could get away quickly should the need arise but Adebowale simply raised his hands, signaling the soldier to be quiet.
"You know what our role is on this battlefield today, we are meant to serve as bait to lure the enemy in and bait is not effective if it is taken away before the prey can be caught so do not ask me to flee for safety, it would be an insult to me as a warrior." Adebowale said in a somber voice as he slapped the rear end of the horse, forcing it to gallop off.
Next Adebowale towards the opposing infantry that was getting closer and closer and unsheathed the two longswords that was on his waist.
Taking a deep breathe, Adebowale yelled out, "Shield wall!" Immediately the few hundred soldiers that were with him unsheath their swords and lifted the large iron shields that had been forged and tempered in Wefari.
The shields were placed in front of them almost covering the entirety of their body with only a few places still visible, each warrior had their swords in hand and a glint in their eyes ready to massacre anyone who came close to them.
Meanwhile Adebowale watched as the enemy got closer and closer, his swords held on both hands, he was a firm believer in the phrase, "Offense is the best defense." So he never used a shield whenever he fought and mainly dual wielded swords or axes focusing on killing as many enemies as possible as efficiently as possible.
As soon as the first enemy stepped within his range, Adebowale immediately moved forward at full speed and swung down one of his swords down at the enemy and before they even had the chance to think about dodging or blocking the strike, the head of the first individual to die in this battle was already rolling on the ground.
"Slaughter them!" Adebowale screamed at his men who also followed his lead and lunged at the enemy.
What happened next could only be described as a bloodbath.