The Ancient King

Act 7

The sound of hooves squelching the mud. The sound of men and women alike crying and running for safety.
"Get those halberds ready!"
Soldiers shouted to each other.
Fifty-six fully armoured men all surrounded Merek in a formation that seemed impenetrable, within seconds they had made a shield wall, within seconds their spears and halberds were ready, within seconds long pikes had been forced into the ground just outside the shield wall, and within seconds the armed men were ready.

Tranos came charging down the road, behind him at least sixty men of the newly formed Silver Stones. Their rugged uniforms of mixed armours and weapons seemed barbaric compared to Merek's highly trained and well-equipped soldiers.

"Merek!" Pauliver kept shouting his name but to no avail. Merek just sat there, the dead girl resting in his hands.

"I did this..."
A small sound escaped Merek's mouth.

"What?"
Pauliver drew closer.

"I did this"
Merek's tear-stained eyes met with Pauliver's.

"Tranos!"
Pauliver turned from Merek, he had no time to try and collect his broken leader and friend on the floor.
Tranos galloped forth and quickly dismounted.

"How many archers do you have?"
Tranos turned his head.

"I am not sure most of them are out scouting, maybe twenty"
Pauliver made a quick decision then and there, his mind worked like an odd contraption thinking of all the best strategies.

"Which direction is the hoard coming from?"

Tranos pointed directly down the main road, facing North.

"How far away is it?"

"They will be here in two minutes!"

"Fuck! Okay, leave your archers with us! Take your men round the back of the huts make sure they aren't visible from the road! Our men will take the full force of the cavalry then when we blow a horn your men come charging out! We will ambush them on the road! Now make haste! Quickly go go!"
A small mob of archers charged into the embrace of the shield war. Tranos lead his men further up the road pointing out where they should go. They were motivated and that was clear. Brave warriors all of them.

The horn.

Silence crept through the village. The odd cough came from a soldiers helm, or the scuffle of movement from an uncomfortable leg but apart from that silence.
SHHHHIIING!
A sword was unsheathed. Pauliver turned to see Merek, sword in hand.

"I'm not sitting this one out!"
Pauliver nodded to Merek.

The horn, ever closer.
The sound grew closer, a sound that would send shivers down anyone's spine. The gallop of horses.
Pauliver moved to the archers.

"Don't aim high! Aim at the wee fuckers at the front! Hopefully, you'll make a pile of bodies and maybe the horses'll trip over the fucks!"

The horses came charging around the road.
Twenty, fifty, seventy.
Seventy.
All heading their way.

"HOLD!" Men started to shake, weapons clanged around uncontrollably, the cavalry seemed so close yet it was taking forever to reach them. "HOLD!"
The archers all readied their bows. A single arrow resting on each and every string on each and every bow.
"Archers!"
"Loose!"

The arrows flew. The sounded of metal on metal, metal on skin, body on ground all made a devastating orchestra of violence. Screams from soldiers who had been hit, only to be muffled out by the trampling of horses, and like that, even on the narrow road, they had wiped out at least fifteen men.
The archers let loose again, this time to a better effect. Some horses flipped creating a miniature wall in the middle of the road causing the whole cavalry to stop. Some of the horsemen were smart enough to lung over the wall.

Pauliver grabbed the horn that hung at his side and blew.
Men from huts, alleys and small streets all charged into the road. They hacked at the unskilled horsemen as did the horsemen hack at them.
So much chaos happened all at once, over a hundred people all fought in such a small village. There was not an empty space in sight. The odd horsemen that reached the wall were hacked down by the skilled soldiers and their spears.

It was a massacre, the cavalry was surrounded. The enemy had truly underestimated their enemies.

Another horn.
Another set of cavalry.
This was a bad sign.

All of the Silver Stones were in the open.

Another one-hundred men on horseback came charging down the road. They massacred the Silver Stones who were too unfortunately left in the open.

"We have to mobilise our troops! Pauliver! We need to get to them!"
Pauliver turned to see Merek in a frenzy of panic.

"We can't! If we move and open up this wall, it could be the end. We don't know how many men they have"

Another horn.
Another one-hundred.
Tranos came riding down the road with great speed.
"Open the wall! Open the fucking wall!"
The soldiers quickly moved aside creating a narrow strip, Tranos had gathered up as many Silver Stones as possible who charged into the open gap and filled the cramp space in the centre.

"We need to make the wall bigger! We need more room!"
Tranos turned to Pauliver.

"We can't risk it!"
Another horn.
The horsemen finished off any stray soldier and began riding down the road.
They had weak horses which were good to a certain extent. They were slow. But there was now three hundred of them.

Another horn. But this time it wasn't the same, horses came riding from the back of the shield wall. The riders were, for the most part, in full plate armour and even the horses were geared with armour.
They came at such haste, that in order to save the men Pauliver had no choice but to break the wall.
He instantly commanded the men to split the wall in two and rush to either side of the road.
They watched as their doom grew closer and closer.

But no, it never came.

The soldiers rode past and rode straight and true toward the enemy cavalry. They impacted each other. Then another horn, another set of soldiers came riding in from the North, both sets sandwiched The Ancient King's troops. Their force was unstoppable and too greater than the enemies that within a matter of minutes there was no more enemy Cavalry. This new force had eaten away at it. Bodies upon bodies lay on the road.

A figure in full plate armour rode up the road towards the mesmerised Merek and removed the helm that covered their face.

"Aella?"
She smiled, that was a rare sight.

"Looks like I came at the right moment"
Her familiar voice was a sound Merek had missed greatly.

"How many men did you bring? This isn't your one-hundred"

"No it isn't, it's four-hundred"