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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
REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 64
The Zoarinian Camp on the highland outskirts of Kingdom Pass the next morning.General Tessan stood looking out over the multitude of tents of the army, he alone had been tasked to lead. It was the largest military force ever congregated together under one banner, even after they had lost so many in the fires and subtle chicanery of taking Kingdom Pass. They really hadn’t taken the city behind the great wall. It had been given to them and they had paid for it in blood. Over two hundred thousand men missing from the sea of tents before him bore testament to the price that they had paid to set foot on Valley Lander soil the night before. That wouldn’t have been so bad if the enemy’s losses had been high too, but they hadn’t. The assault last night had been a colossal error and now the whole army’s morale was in question. Their spirit of optimism as to an easy campaign was shattered. The Valley Lander army was gone and still intact and able to continue the fight, while they should have
REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 65
By his calculations, he was already several hours behind that schedule. He had lost time, having to divert and travel out of the way of the Attorgron forces coming down from the north. The hastily put together misfit caravan groaned and creaked its way out of the valley in a flurry of its own dust as it was escorted by the cavalry northward towards the Shrine of Remembrance. Two days later, the Shrine of Remembrance on the shores of the northern sea.I watched the banners grow closer over the plain of rich green grass. They had done just as Sebastian had theorized that they would, if first met with a significant reduction in force. They had bypassed our cities, towns and castles to come straight here to the Shrine.Thank God! Little did the approaching army know that every city and castle would have fallen easily before them, because every available warrior capable of fighting had been gathered upon this plain for the engagement to come. If General Nadero had been successful in his a