"You never did tell us how you got out of there alive." Holden commented as he stirred the coals of the fire. The smoke from our camp rose into the morning sky, the embers floating around the air like bugs on a hot summer day. But now was spring, and it was undoubtedly Ashfeld's most pristine time of year. The trees swayed lightly in the cool breeze as birds chirped happy songs of the morning. It wasn't too hot that I was practically cooked alive inside of it, and yet not cold enough to chill me to the bone. The camp around us was bustling with activity, the group of knights on their way to the border Ashfeld had with the Myre, home of the Samurai.
"I always leave it out for a reason." I spoke, lifting my eyes up from the flames to stare at Cross in his gleaming Blackstone armor. He proudly wore the colors of his regiment, as did all Blackstone's, but Holden was practically the right hand man of Apollyon, the undisputed warlord. He was her most trusted servant, with Mercy being a close second. I could understand why she picked him, though. I've never seen Holden lose a fight in his life. The look of his menacing armor and giant halberd was terrifying on their own in battle.
"Because it's made up?" Mercy put in with a small chuckle. She sat to the left of me, turning her head in my direction. "I've heard you say the same story over and over again, and you always change it. This time it was a warlord, last time it was a berserker. Hell, you even changed the faction of the enemy team once."
"Everyone gets fuzzy on the details after a couple of years." I replied with a hint of bitterness.
"Don't let him fool you Cross, he was safe at home reading a good book when this all went down." To this, Holden Cross shrugged his enormous shoulders and continued to fumble with the logs. Mercy, a Peacekeeper with extraordinary skills, had fought by my side many times. Granted, she usually worked alone, and I being a mercenary meant I didn't see the same faces twice too often, somehow managed to run into the twin-bladed assassin time and time again. I had befriended Cross after a few run-ins with the law, and now, they saw me fit to join their organization as a sell sword, since, after all, I am a mercenary. Apollyon must've believed this raid to be important, or she wouldn't have hired me.
"Think those damned samurai will flee from battle as quickly as they did the last fight?" I overheard one of the grunts behind me ask.
"Of course, it'll be an easy win." Another replied. I chuckled lightly under my helmet. These soldiers obviously hadn't gone up against a true hero. Fights with them were never easy. I could mow through a hundred men easily, but once I faced an Orochi, or Raider, that's when things get complicated. I looked down at my palms, covered in gold plated armor. My blue and white robes shone in the sunlight, swaying gently in the breeze. I wore a gilded helm with winged fans on either side, almost an iconic staple among mercenaries at this point. Many soldiers knew, when I stepped onto the battlefield, a real fight was about to begin.
"Time to get moving." Holden finally spoke up as he stood and doused the flame. The black smoke soon turned white as we began to get our gear ready for the long hike ahead of us.
"Who are we capturing this time, anyway?" I asked, leaning in to speak to Mercy as we walked alongside the hundreds of knights marching in a chaotic mess of clanking and shouting.
"Today, we storm Omigi castle, on the waterfront. We're trying to get rid of a highly valued asset for the samurai, who is suspected to be there. You'll be storming the outside gate with Holden while I sneak inside and find him."
"And what if you get caught?" I questioned, wondering if she had thought this through.
"I won't." She replied simply, walking ahead of me to make sure I knew the conversation was done. I sighed softly, knowing something wasn't going to end right with this siege. But, a paycheck is a paycheck. As long as I made it through this campaign without dying, I'd get a hefty reward for my service with the Blackstone Legion. We marched on for days to get to the castle everyone was so eager to get to. And, when we finally arrived, it wasn't nearly what I thought it would be.
If I could describe Omigi castle in one word just from the look of it, I'd say impenetrable. From the distance I was at, it appeared to have thick, tall walls to prevent us from using siege engines to escalate them. Archer towers set up every hundred feet proved that even if we did get close, we'd lose a lot of men from arrows. It was nearly the size of a city itself, poking out of the canopy like a dragon peeking through the clouds. The walls of this fortress were riveted to allow archers to shoot anyone trying to scale the walls. It didn't help the entire thing was build into the side of a mountain, in a valley, with a river at the bottom. If these soldiers thought they could win, they were surely mistaken.
"We're not meant to take over this fort." Holden Cross came up behind me, placing a hand on my shoulder. His face was concealed behind his helmet, a menacing figure standing at my side. "We're just meant to distract the place until Mercy can sneak in and get the general. We'll lose some men, but it'll be worth it." I sighed at the sound of that. I was alright with not having to take the castle. But even trying to sustain ourselves long enough, it'd be an uncertain outcome at best.
"Will you be leading the charge?" I asked, looking back at him as he began to join in with the ranks of soldiers as they marched towards their doom.
"As always, Hervis." He said. It wasn't often people called me by my first name. I was known as Daubeny by anyone outside of my family. I suppose it was just Holden's way of showing our friendship. "Oh and, Daubeny, I expect to see you fight like you did in your tale." I could feel his grin under his helmet as he marched on, leaving me to look over the castle for a moment. I chuckled lightly at his final remark.
"Oh, this'll rival any story ever told."
I opened my eyes slowly as ash and embers floated around in the sky. I couldn't see much through the slits in my helmet, but what I could see, was chaos. Slowly, I managed to ascend to my hands and knees, looking around. Bodies on fire, siege engines broken, and the sound of metal on metal filling the air. The smell of death and fire filled my senses as I rose to my feet and looked around, disoriented. After a moment, I felt stable enough to grab my sword from the mud and wield it in my hands. I looked behind me and saw the charging troops of the Blackstone Legion, while in front of me, was practically a wall of bodies, a no-mans land from where I was to the castle walls. All we needed was to get a siege engine up to that wall, or maybe a battering ram. As long as we created a true front they needed to hold, Mercy could slip in and get this job done with.
"Daubeny!" Holden called out to my left. I turned to face him, and we both hid behind separate trees to take cover from an incoming volley of arrows. "We need you to find a way in. Release the gate and allow our troops to pass."
"Why me?" I asked back, concerned for my own well being.
"I'm sure you're one of the only people here who can handle it." He replied, short of breath. "Just get it done Hervis!" He made a break for a desolated siege tower, flipped onto its side. I groaned out and tried getting a peek at the castle. It was being pelted from catapults left and right. At least they were doing their jobs. Watching the towers begin to crumble from the attack, I began to conjure an idea. Looking over, I grabbed a grunt and pulled him behind the tree with me.
"Soldier." I said blankly. "Send a message to the siege master. Tell him to ready a volley of catapults when he sees that brazier lit." I pointed off into the distance, an array of large pans for holding the coals of fires during nights. They were currently unlit, which would be a great way to signal for an attack. "Tell him to aim all of them towards the front gate." I pushed the soldier back, and he stumbled through the mud towards the direction we came from. Hopefully he'd get the message in time. I scoured the battlefield for a way in. And then I found it.
I began to sprint towards a grouped of holed up men, all afraid of the storm of arrows. "Daubeny?" One of them asked in question as I began to mount of their spare horses. "What on God's Earth are you doing?"
"Commandeering." I replied hopefully. When I saw the poor ignorant idiot hadn't been properly educated, I explained. "I'm borrowing your steed." But before he had a chance to protest, a volley of arrows sent all of the men hiding once more. This was my chance. I charged the horse through the treeline and into the open field in front of me, where hundreds of my fallen brethren lay. No-mans land was a desolate place where no one survived... No one except me.
I could see the archers were finished loading their arrows, the commander telling them to make their aim at me, the only moving thing in sight. I smirked under my helmet as I got closer and closer. Twenty meters, ten, five... I forced my horse to stay on its current path - right into a decapitated siege tower. The only one to make it close enough to the walls was burnt to a crisp, but could have the possibility to let me scale it. I planted my feet on the top of the horse and launched myself up, grabbing onto a wooden pole. I managed to climb up and inside of the tower just as the archers released their volley, missing me by only a mere inches as I hid behind the singed walls of the siege tower. I didn't look down in fear they had gotten the horse.
I made my way up the corroded staircase, ascending towards the top. Finally, when I reached the top of the tower, I ran into a group of soldiers, obviously here to stop me. I cut through three no problem when I first made my way into the crowd. I pushed another man off of the side, and chopped through another in an instant. I parried a few swords as I began to get more defensive. When I got more confident in my skills, I began to strike my way through the enemy lines, only occasionally running into a troublesome foe. I finally managed to fight my way to the actual wall of the tower - I had done it. All that was left was to light the brazier. I ran on towards the unlit pots of coals, grabbing a torch from its sconce on my way. And, before any other soldiers could stop me from my goal, I dropped the fire into the brazier and watched as it lit up the walls with a crackling glow. The color of the fire matched the sky as dawn began to set, the sun just over the mountains in the distance. I looked around at the countless soldiers prepared to kill me, and their faces lit up with horror.
The enemies began to run away, dropping their swords and shields in the process as they stumbled over one another to get away from me. But, that's when I learned they weren't running from me. I turned around, and watched as the entire sky was blocked out by flaming balls of fire, headed straight for me. I was glad to see that the siege master had gotten my message, but at the same time I was wishing I had thought of a way out of its line of fire.
I did the only thing I could do in that moment - I hid behind a wall protruding from the castle's defenses, and prepared myself for the oncoming volley of destruction aimed straight for me.