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REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 56
It’s easy to dream up a battle plan, but knowing what the cost in lives could be….. would be, well it was the worst self awareness moment that I had ever encountered.The cold, calculated precision of the plan bore evidence of the hardness of my own soul. My plan could be my people’s saving grace in their gravest hour of need, but did that justify its methods?*****One Month and three days laterIt was raining softly. The pitter-patter of the rain drops splintering off the armor of the men standing silently in rank behind and around me made its own pleasant music as we waited. Then, like the obtrusive sound of a crow shattering the melody of a songbird in full trill, came the sounds of heavy drums from further down the pass.The drums announced the menacing presence of the enemy close at hand. The drums grew louder and louder until they reached a fever pitch of intensity. It was a performance of sound meant to instill fear in the hearts of my warriors. I saw the enemy for the first t
REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 57
I narrowly side stepped a sudden sword swipe at my ankles from beneath my shield even as the warrior beside me was pulled out into the mob. We wouldn’t hold up to much more of this kind of pressure. I had no idea if the other formations had even reached position yet, but I hoped they had because I had caught a glimpse of the white paint on the ground just up ahead of us.The command to fire would be given when our formation reached its target goal, regardless of whether or not the other groups had reached theirs yet.“Twenty more feet men! Twenty more feet and we have it!” I screamed out in encouragement as I struggled to hold onto my shield and maintain a forward circular motion.There was the huff of renewed struggle as warriors all around me also saw the white arcing lines of paint on the bloodstained ground. It seemed like an hour went by, instead of probably just the few minutes it took us to center overtop the scuffed white paint circle on the ground. We slammed our shields down
REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 58
None could stand before the intensity of their onrushing force. The troops before them broke and fled down the pass in a vain effort to escape the crushing hooves and brutal ax strikes that followed close behind. Seeing the army flee from before the heavy cavalry, and with it their only chance of a managed retreat, the morale of the men within the diamond formation of our forces broke as well and they turned to run.We charged after them, cutting them down mercilessly the length of the pass, that had turned into a gory landscape that reflected the true horrors of war. Near the bend of the pass, the cavalry gave up their pursuit of the enemy and circled back toward the wall. They cut down those they had missed on the first charge and then smashed into the larger body of fleeing soldiers that my warriors were busy slicing down from behind.It was full on blood bath melee as the retreating soldiers’ escape was cut off by the milling heavy cavalry in their way. They had no choice but to f
REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 59
“Brothers and sisters, hear me please. You have not only pledged your swords and arrows to me, but now I see that you have pledged your hearts also. I am unworthy of the honor you bestow upon me. I am but a man as you are with the same weaknesses that you struggle with, the same problems. But I am also a man that has faith! I believe in the Valley Lander way of life. The right to serve our Creator as we please! The right to protect our families and our lands from those who would take them from us! The right to live free and accountable to no man, other than those we appoint over us and the sovereignty of our Creator, who reigns over all creation! The enemy beyond those walls wants to take all of that away from us! As I have been elected as your leader in war, I swear that as breath and the strength remains within me to lift my sword, I will fight to preserve all that we hold sacred. I will fight to preserve our freedom and not only ours, but our children’s children as well. This is my
REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 60
Some technology of the past was clearly at play here, I was sure of it. Tadias, from what I had heard, had no place for enchantments or dark magic, which relaxed me as to the source of the sword’s uniqueness, but it still didn’t answer the questions that it posed. Was it right for me to have such a sword as this?Could it do more to win a fight than just parry a blow or deliver a killing strike? Was it just a pretty sword or did it have a bigger purpose? So many questions and no one to answer them.“Perhaps I can be of some help?” came a voice from a short distance away in a section of darker shadows near the wall ramparts.I leaped to my feet, the sword gripped in my hand, startled at hearing a voice so near to me, as I had heard no one approach. A robed figure separated out from the shadows.“Peace Jasper , I mean you no harm.”Still holding the blade of the sword outward, ready to strike, I asked, somewhat belligerently, “Who are you and where did you come from?” I asked my questio
REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 61
Several projectiles slammed into the lower base of the central tower and rocks and men went flying everywhere. Slowly, as if resisting the inevitable, the central tower started to sink and crumble downward, as most of its base had been shot away leaving it with very little support to remain standing. The upper stonework of the tower cracked hard and went in a fast slide over the city side of the wall in a stone waterfall that rained down on the pavement far below and anybody unlucky enough to have been standing there.Hoarsely, I called out around me, “Get off the wall! Now! Take the wounded and get down!”I ran to where the central tower had once been and started helping those still living get out of the rubble. I saw General Sanjo picking himself out of the rubble several feet away and I rushed to him.He clutched onto my shirt front and I pulled him up the rest of the way, “You were right! Our wall is no match for these new weapons. The wall will fall and so will our cities and cas
REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 62
The regimented enemy formation fell apart as they broke line to chase after our warriors, screaming derisively. They forsook an orderly occupation of the city in favor of a tumultuous onrush of jubilation at being the first foreign force to successfully step foot on sacred Valley Lander soil in over five hundred years. This is what I had been counting on and had needed to happen.Thousands of the enemy poured up and over the gaps in the walls, uncontested in their eagerness to claim the city, believing our will to fight was broken. The enemy troops rushed heedlessly down the streets in hot pursuit of our warriors. Suddenly ranks upon ranks of the onrushing enemy were cut down in a vicious crossfire of arrows that came from archers in concealed hiding within buildings or perched on rooftops along the streets.The enemy’s advance into the city temporarily halted in the face of the renewed resistance. The decimated enemy ranks swelled full again, fed by the endless streaming line of sold
REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 63
Everyone was gone on our side except for the retinue of warriors from Thunder Ridge and my own friends from the arena. We sat astride our mounts on the higher ground at the head of the pass. The flood waters would pass to either side of us into the city beyond. The enemy’s advancement into the city had stopped as the field commanders had finally realized that something was amiss with their bulrush-and-pick-up-the-pieces-later strategy.The many thousands of troops still on our side of the wall that hadn’t been consumed in the fire of the city were pressed into the deeper channeled sides of the pass to either side of the city. There was no fire there and it was still possible to breathe as they were on a lower level than the rest of the city. They could not retreat back over the wall because the heat from the fire was too intense for them to pass by, so they remained huddled in the corners of the city, desperately emptying the gate tunnels of the debris that had been stacked tight into